No More Learning

In this they appear to have erred. Plutarch, indeed,
tells us, in his life of Fabius, that the dictator was at-
tended by twenty-four lictors; but, as Justus Lipsius
observes, this statement is contradicted by higher au-
thority; for we are told in the epitome of the 89th
book of Livy, that Sylla, in assuming to himself twen-
ty-four lictors, had done a thing entirely unprecedent-
ed: "Sylla, dictator factus, quod nemo quidem un-
quam fecerat, cum fascibus tiginti quatuor proccssit. "
--At first the dictator was taken only from the patri-
cian order, but afterward (B. C. 356) from the plebeians
also. After his appointment he nominated the mas-
ter of the horse (Magister Equitum), who commanded
under him. Sometimes, however, a master of the
? ? horse was pitched upon for the dictator by the senate,
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? DID
ntn
ry ol that contest. Tnis work, according to the ac-
count that has come down to us, was discovered in the
reign of Nero, in a tomb new Cnossus, which was laid
open by an earthquake. It was written in Phoenician,
and translated into Greek by one Eupraxides or Praxis.
The Greek translation has not reached our times, but
we have remaining the Latin version of Q. Septimius,
who lived in the time of the Emperor Dioclesian, and
not in that of Constantine. Scioppius {Paradox. Lit.
? <<. , 5) makes him to have been a contemporary of
Cornelias Nepos, an assumption which the style of
Septimius most clearly disproves. The work of Sep-
timius contains the first five books, with an abridgment
of the remainder. --The Phoenician part of this story
has been very ably refuted by Perizonius, in his "Dis-
sertatio de Hisloria Belli Trojani, qua Dictyos Cre-
tensis nomen profert, Grata. " The real author was
Eupraxides or Praxis, and the whole affair was got up
to impose upon Nero, who was at that time on a visit
to Achaia. What added to the deception was, that
an earthquake did actually take place in Crete at this
same period. (Perizon. , Diss. , i) 6. ) Although this
work does not merit the confidence which its fabri-
cator wished to produce, it is still not without inter-
est for those who pursue the study of antiquity, since
it contains many things derived from books which no
longer exist. The best edition is that of Smids,
AnuL, 1702, in 4to and 8vo, with the preliminary dis-
sertation of Perizonius. {Fabric. , Bibl. Lat. , 1, 6, p.
111. --Bakr, Gesch. Rom. Lit. , vol. 1, p. 465, seq. )
--II. A brother of Poiydectes, king of Seriphus, made
monarch of the island, in place of the latter, by Pers-
eus. {Via". Daniie. )
Didia Lkx, de Sumptibus, by Didius, A U. C. 610.
It limited the expense of entertainments, and the num-
ber of guests, and ordained that tho sumptuary laws
should be extended to all the Italians, and that not
only the master of the feast, but also the guests, should
incur a penalty for their offence. (Macrob. , Sat. ,
J, 13. )
DiDica, Julianus, of a family originally from Me-
C! oianuin(ilfi/<<n), and grandson of Salvius Julianus, a
celebrated jurist, was bom about A. D. 133. He was
educated by Domitia Lucilla, the mother of Marcus
Aurelius. Didius soon rose to important offices, was
successively quaestor, praetor, and governor of Bclgic
Gaul, and, having defeated the Chauci, obtained the
consulship. He was afterward sent as governor to
Dalmatia, and next to Germania Inferior. Under
Commodus he. was governor of Bithynia: on his return
to Koine he lived in luxury and debauchery, being
enormously rich. After the murder of Pertinax, A. D.
193, the praetorians having put up the empire at auc-
tion, Didius proceeded to their camp, and bid against
Sulpicianus, the father-in-law of Pertinax, who was
to make his own bargain with the soldiers. Didius
having bid highest, and having been proclaimed, was
taken by the soldiers into Rome. The senate, with
its usual servility, acknowledged him emperor, but the
people openly showed their dissatisfaction, and loaded
him with abuse and imprecations in the circus, when
he assisted at the solemn games which were customary
on the occasion of a new reign. He is said to have
borne these insults with patience, and to have behaved
altogether with great moderation during his short
r<<i$n. Three generals, at the head of their respective
legions, refused to acknowledge the nomination of the
? ? praetorians; Pescennius Niger, who commanded in the
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? DID
DIN
considers to have arisen from the word Cacalc (one of
the names of Carthage), signifying also, in Punic,
"thfl head of a horse. " (Geog. Sacr. , col. 471, 58ft,
743. ) But the point on which theAlanluan poet and
the historians most essentially differ, is the manner of
Dido's death. Virgil attributes this to grief on her be-
ing abandoned by . /Eneas, whom she had hospitably re-
ceived when wrecked on her coast. Opinions vary
also relative to the time of Dido's death; but it is gen-
erally agreed, that she lived some centuries later than
the Trojan hero. Her subjects, after her death, paid
her divine honours --The whole question relative to
T)ido is discussed by Heyne in the first Excursus to
the fourth <Eneid. He divides the earlier history of
Carthage into three epochs: the first commences fifty
years before the taking of Troy; the second, 173 years
after ihe former; ana the third, 190 years still later.
At the commencement of this third epoch he makes
Dido to have flourished, and to have improved, not,
however, to have founded, the city, which, in fact, ex-
isted long before. --On the episode of Dido, as intro-
duced by Virgil into his iEneid, Dunlop (History
Rom. Lit. , vol. 3, p. 167) has the following remarks:
"Our poet has just so far availed himself of ancient
traditions as to give probability to his narration, and
to support it by the prisea fides facto. He wrote,
however, at such a distance of time from the events
which formed the groundwork of his poem, and '. he
events themselves were so obscure, that he could de-
part from history without violating probability. Thus,
it appears from chronology, that Dido lived many hun-
dred years after the Trojan war; but the point was one
of obscure antiquity, known perhaps to few readers,
md not very precisely ascertained. Hence, so far was
the violence offered to chronology from revolting his
countrymen, that Ovid, who was so knowing in an-
cient histories and fables, wrote an heroic epistle as
addressed by Dido to jEneas. "--In giving the narra-
tive of Dido, we have given also the etymology*of the
name, as assigned by sonic of the ancient writers.
Thi- derivation, however, appears to be an erroneous
oiii- Dido neither denotes " the heroine," as Servins
maintains (ad . En. , 4, 3ft), and as we have already
given it; nor " the man-slayer" (uvtpoQovoc), as Eu-
stathius pretends (compare Bochart, col. 746); nor
"the wanderer" (rj nXavT/Tic), as we find it stated in
the Etymologicon Magnum. The name Dido means
nothing more than " the belcved," whether the refer-
ence be to Baal or to her husband: "amor, dclicia
ems, sive Baalis, sive mariti. " (Gesenius, Phcen.
Man. , p. 400. ) The other appellation, Elissa (more
coircctly, perhaps, Elisa), means "the exulting" or
"joyous one" (Gesen. , I. c), and not, as Bochart
makes it, "the divine maiden. " (Bochart, Geogr.
Saa , col. 472. )
Didtmaon, an artist, mentioned in Virgil. (Mn. ,
? 1, 359. ) The name, of course, is imaginary.
Diof mos, a famous grammarian, the son of a seller
of fish at Alexandrea, was born in the consulship of
Antonius and Cicero, B. C. 63, and flourished in the
reign of Augustus. Macrobius calls him the greatest
grammarian of his own or any other time. (Sat. , 6,
82. ) According to Athensus (4, p. 139, c), he pub-
iislied 3500 volumes, and had written so much that he
was caHed "the forgetter of books" (fiifkioludac), for
he often forgot what he had written himself; and also
"'he man with brazen bowels" (xafaevTepoc), from his
? ? nnwearird industry. To judge from the specii tens of
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? 1>>1 o
e>>ia>>J Ttindymine. (Mannert, Ane. Giog-. , vol. 6,
^63 ---II- A mountain in the island of Cyzicus, and
overhanging the city. It had on its summit a temple,
? aid tc have been, erected by the Argonauts in honour
of Cybele. (Stralo, 675. )
DiNii, ? 'own of Gallia Narbonensis, and the cap-
ital of the Bcdiontici. Its name is said to be of Cel-
tic origin, being derived from din, wale-, and ta, hoi,
so called from tho thermal waters at the distance of a
quarter of a league from it. It is now Digne. (Com-
p*i<< Mannert, Geogr. , vol. 2, p. 106. )
Disocrates, a #very celebrated Macedonian archi-
tect, who offered to cut Mount Athos into a statue of
Alexander. (Vid. Athos, at the close of the article. )
The monarch took him to Egypt, and employed him in
several works of art. Ptolemy Philadelphus directed
him to constru:: a temple for his queen Arsinoe, after
her death; and the intention was to have the ceiling of
loadstone, and tbs statue of iron, in order thai the lat-
ter might appear to be suspended in the air. The
death of the artist himself frustrated the undertaking.
Pliny, 34, 14. )
Dinustkates, a famous mathematician of the Pla-
tonic school, the brother of Menechares, and disciple
of Plato. Pursuing the steps of his brother, who am-
plified the theory of the conic sections, Dinoatrates is
said to have made many mathematical discoveries;
but he is particularly distinguished as the inventor of
the quairatrix. Montucla, however, observes, that
there is some reason for ascribing the original inven-
tion of this curve to Hippias of Elca, an ingenious phi-
losopher and geometer contemporary with Socrates.
(Proc/ut, Comment, in EucL, 2, 4. --Papptu, Coll.
Math. , 4, prop. 25. )
Dioclka, a town of Dalmatia, the birthplace, ac-
cording to some, of the Emperor Dioclesian. Its ruins
are near the modem Narcnza.
Diocletianopolis, a city of Macedonia, called so
in honour of Dioclesian, and supposed by Mannert
[Gcogr. , vol. 7, p. 479) to have been identical with
Fella.
Diocletiaxus, Caius Valerius Jovius, a cele-
brated Roman emperor, born of an obscure family in
Dalmatia, at the town of Dioclea or Doclea, from
which town he derived his first name, which was
probably Docles, afterward lengthened to the more
harmonious Greek form of Diodes, and at length,
after his accession to the empire, to the Roman form
of Diocletianus. He likewise, on this occasion, as-
sumed the patrician name of Valerius. Some, how-
ever, make him to have been bom at Salona. His
birth year also is differently given. The common
account says 245 A. D. , but other statements make
him ten years older. He was first a common soldier,
and by merit and success gradually rose to rank At
the commencement of bis career, and whilt he occu-
pied some inferior post, it is said that a Druidess,
in whose house he lodged, upbraided him with covet-
ousness, to whom he jocosely replied, "I shall be
more generous when I am emperor. " "You are jo-
ling," replied the Druidess; "but I tell you, in good
earnest, that you will attain to fte empire after yon
save killed a boar. " This circumstance is said to
ana occurred in the city of Tongres, and present bish-
aprie of Liege. --Dioclesian served in Gaul, in Mcesia,
under Probus, and was present at the campaign against
-he Persians, when Carus perished in so mysterious a
manner. He commanded the household or imperial
? ? wdy-guard when young Numenanus, the son of Ca-
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? DIOCLK^IANUS.
DIO
tea *i ed for peace, which w* granted by Dioclesian,
on condition of the Persians giving up all the territory
on the right or western bank of the Tigria. This
pence was concluded in 297, and lasted forty years.
At the same time, Dioclesian marched into Egypt
against Achillaeus, whom he besieged in Alexandrea,
which he took after a siege of eight months, when the
usurper and bis chief adherents were put to death.
Dioclesian is said to have behaved on this occasion
? villi unusue. 1 sternness, several towns of Egypt, among
others Busiris and Coptos, being destroyed. For
several years after this the empire enjoyed repose, and
Dioclesian and his colleagues were chiefly employed
in framing laws and administrative regulations, and in
constructing forts on the frontiers.
Dioclesian kept
a splendid court at Nicomedia, which town he em-
bellished with numerous structures. He, or rather
Maximian by his order, caused the magnificent Ther-
ms at Rome to be built, the remains of which still
biiar Dioclesian's name, and which contained, besides
(lie baths, a library, a museum, and other establish-
ments. --In February, 303, Dioclesian issued an edict
i. gainst the Christians, ordering their churches to be
pulled down, their sacred books to be burned, and all
Christians to be dismissed from offices civil or military;
with other penalties, exclusive, however, of death.
Various causes have been assigned for this measure.
It. is known that Galerius had always been hostile to
the Christians, while Dioclesian had openly favoured
them, and had employed them in his armies and about
his person, and Euscbius speaks of the prosperity, se-
curity, and protection which they enjoyed under his
reign. They had churches in most towns, and one
at Nicomedia, in particular, under the eye of the em-
peror. Just before the edict was issued, Galerius had
repaired to Nicomedia to induce Dioclesian to pro
cr. ribe the Christians. He filled the emperor's mind
with reports of conspiracies and seditions, and, aided
by the artifices of the heathen priesthood, was at last
t it too successful. The barbarities that followed
opon the issuing of the edict above referred to are
utterly inconceivable. Malicious ingenuity was racked
to the utmost to devise tortures for the persecuted fol-
lowers of Jesus. For the space of ten years did this
persecution rage with scarcely mitigated horrors; and
such multitudes were massacred in all parts of the
empire, that at last the imperial murderers ventured
to erect a triumphal column, bearing the barbarously
boastful, yet false inscription, that they had extin-
guished the Christian name and superstition, and re-
stored the worship of the gods to its former purity and
splendour. This was the last persecution under the
Roman empire, and it has been called by the name of
Dioclesian. But, as the persecution raged with most
fury in the provinces subject to the rule of Galerius,
and as he continued it for several years after Dio-
clesian's abdication, it might with more propriety be
called the Galerian persecution. --In November, 303,
Dioclesian repaired to Rome, where he and Maximian
enjoyed the honour of a triumph, followed by festive
games. This was the last triumph that Rome saw.
The populace of that city complained of the economy
of Dioclesian on that occasion, and so offended him by
their jibes and sarcasms, that he left Rome abruptly,
in the month of December, in very cold weather. A
long illness ensued, which confined him at Nicomedia;
? nd, soon after his recovery, he ww visited by Galerius,
? ? who persuaded and almost forced him to abdicate.
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? DIODORUS.
Home, and at a period when the dominion of this
uly extended over the greatest part of the civilized
sorid, arranges his narrative in accordance with the
Hainan calendar and consular fasti: he frequently
idds the names of the Athenian archons that were
lutitemporaneo*-^*. Now, at the time when he wrote,
tue consuls entered on their office on the first of Jan-
uary, whereas, after the adoption of the cycle of Me-
:ou, B. C. 402, the Athenian archons commenced their
? trms about the middle of the year. Diodorus, how-
f ver, limits himself to the mention of those archons
that entered upon their duties in the course of the con-
suls; year, which forms the basis of his chronology:
thus, the events which look place during the first six
months of a year, ought to be referred to the archon
mentioned by him in the preceding year. Nor is this
ai'i; the duration of the consulship was that of the Ro-
man year, which, from a very early period, was made
to consist of 365 days; while the duration of the ar-
chonship remained for a long time subject to the ir-
regularity of the Athenian calendar and years, the lat-
ter being sometimes 354 days, at other times 384.
Thus, to cite only a single instance, Diodorus places
the death of Alexander the Great in the 4th year of the
113th Olympiad, a period with which the names of the
consuls also indicated by him fully agree; whereas, by
the name of the archon, ho makes it to be the follow-
ing year, the 1st of the 114th Olympiad. (Compare
Died. Stc , 17, 113. --Annates des Lagides, par M.
ChampoUion Figeac, vol. 1, p. 264. ) We must care-
fully attend to this point in remodelling the chronology
-f Diodorus. --With regard to the historical value of
ice work itself, and the merits of the author, the most
discrepant opinions have been entertained by modern
writers. The Spanish scholar Vives called him a
mere trifler; and Jean Bodin accused him, id no
sparing terms, of ignorance and carelessness; while,
so the other hand, he has been defended and extolled
by many eminent critics as an accurate and able wri-
ter. The principal fault of Diodorus seems to have
ieen the too great extent of his work. It was not
possible for any man living in the time of Augustus to
write an unexceptionable universal history, it is not,
then, a matter of surprise, that Diodorus, who does not
appear to have been a man of superior abilities, should
have fallen into a number of particular errors, and
should have placed too much reliance on authorities
sometimes far from trustworthy. Wherever he speaks
from his own observations, he may, perhaps, generally
J^e relied upon; but when he is compiling from the
writings of others, he has shown little judgment in the
selection, and has, in many cases, proved himself in-
capable of discriminating between the fabulous and
the true. We must not blame him for having given
a Greek colouring to the manners of other nations
which he describes, for it was the common practice of
Greek writers to do so, and he has not erred so much
in this respect as Dionysius of Halicarnassus. We
are indebted to him, moreover, for many particulars
which, but for him, we should never have known; and
we must regret that we have lost the last, and proba-
sly the most valuable, portion of his works, as even
by the fragments of them which remain we are enabled,
In many places, to correct the errors of ttvy. The
style of Diodorus, though not very pure or elegant, is
sufficiently perspicuous, and presents but few difficul-
ies, except where the MSS. are defective, as is fre-
nxntly the case. (SchbU, Hist. Lit. Gr. , vol. 4, p.
? ? 77, stqq. --Nicbuhr, Rom. Gesch. , vol. 3, p. 190, note
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? DIOGENES
saeiscs tales which have been invented U> expose the
sect of the Cynics to ridicule. It cannot be doubted,
however, that Diogenes prac. ised the most hardy self-
control and the most rigid abstinence; exposing him-
self to the utmost extremes of heat and cold, and liv-
ing upon the simplest diet, casually supplied by the
hand of charity. In his old age, sailing to ^Egina,
he wis taken by pirates and carried to Crete, where
he was exposed to sale in the public market. When
. he auctioneer asked him what he could do, he said,
/ can gjecrn men; therefore tell me to one who wants
a master. Xeniades, a wealthy Corinthian, happen-
ing at that instant to pass by, was struck with the
singularity of his reply, and purchased him. On
their arrival at Corinth, Xeniades gave hint his free-
dom, and committed to him the education of his
children and the direction of his domestic concerns.
Diogenes executed this trust with so much judgment
und fidelity, that Xeniades used to Bay that the gods
had sent a good genius to his house. During his resi-
dence at Corinth, the interview between him and Al-
exander is said to have taken place. Plutarch relates,
that Alexander, when al Corinth, receiving the con-
gratulations of all ranks on being appointed to com-
mand the army of the Greeks against the Persians,
missed Diogenes among the number, with whose char-
acter he was not acquainted. Curious to sec one who
had given so signal an instance of his haughty inde-
pendence of spirit, Alexander went in search of him,
and found him sitting in his tub in the sun. "I am
Alexander th. : Great" said the monarch; "and I am
Diogenes the Cynic" replied the philosopher. Alex-
ander thef) requested that ho would inform him what
service he cc uld render him. "Stand from between
me and the sun," said the Cynic. Alexander, struck
with the reply, said to his friends who were ridiculing
the whimsical singularity of the philosopher, " If I
were not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes. "
This story is too good to be omitted, but there are sev-
eral circumstances which in some degree diminish its
credibility. It supposes Diogenes to have lived in his
tub at Corinth, whereas it appears that he lived there
in the house of Xeniades, and that, if he ever dwelt in
a tub, he left it behind him at Athens. . Alexander,
moreover, was at this time scarcely 20 years old, and
could not call himself Alexander the Great, fur he did
not receive this title till his Persian and Indian expe-
dition, after which he never returned to Greece; yet
the whole transaction supposes him elated with the
pnde of conquest. Diogenes, probably, was visited
by Alexander, when the latter held the general assem-
bly of the Greeks at Corinth, and was received by him
with rudeness and incivility, which may have given
rise to the whole story. The philosopher at this time
would be about 7Q years of age. --Various accounts
are given concerning the manner and time of his death.
It seems most probable that he died at Corinth, of
mere decay, in the 90th year of his age, and in the
114th Olympiad. His friends contended for the honour
of defraying the expenses of his funeral; but the ma-
gistrates settled the dispute by ordering him an inter-
ment at the public expense. A column of Parian
marble, terminated by the figure of a dog, was raised
over his tomb. His fellow townsmen of Sinope also
erected braxen statues in memory of the philosopher.
Diogenes left behind him no system of philosophy.
After the exsmple of his master, he was more atten-
tive to practical than theoretical wisdom. The follow-
? ? ing are a few of the particular opinions ascribed to
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? DIO
010
? pos himself, and Jia. << shown very little judgment and
discrimination in the execution of it, yet the book is
extremely useful as a collection of facts, which we
could not have learned from any other quarter, and is
entertaining as a sort of omniana on the subject. The
article on Epicurus is valuable, as containing some
original letters of that philosopher, which comprise a
pretty satisfactory epitome of the Epicurean doctrines,
and are very useful to the readers of Lucretius. The
best editions of Diogenes are, that of Meibomius, Amst,
1692, 2 vols. 4to, and that of Hubncr, Lips. , 1828, 2
vols. 8vo.
Diomf. pe. e Insula Vid. Diomedis Insula;.
Diomedis, son of Tydeus and Deiphyle, was king
? tl -Etolia. and one of the bravest of the Grecian
chiefs in the Trojan war, ranking next to Achilles and
A'ax. Homer represents him as one of the favourites
of Minerva, and ascribes his many acts of valour to
her protecting influence. Among his exploits, it is
recorded of liim that he engaged in single combat
with Hector and -Eneas; that he wounded Mars,
-? Eneas, and Venus; and that, in concert with Ulysses,
he carried off the horses of Rhesus, and the palladi-
um; and procured the arrows of Philoctetes. (Soph-
ocles, however, makes Ulysses to have been aided
in this last-mentioned affair by Pyrrhus, son of Achil-
les. ) Diomede was deprived of the affection of his
wife iEgiale, through the wrath and vengeance of Ve-
nus, by whose influence, during his absence at the war,
she had become attached to Cyllabarus, the son of
Sthenelus. (But consult Heme, ad Apollod. , 1. 8, 6,
U ad Horn. , 11. , 5, 412. ) Diomede was so afflicted at
the enstrangement of -Egiale, that he abandoned
Greece, and settled at the head of a colony, in Magna
Grscia, where he founded a city, to which he gave the
nine of Argyripa; and married a daughter of Dau-
aus, prince of the country. In the progress of his
royag* to Italy, Diomede was shipwrecked on that part
:f toe Libyan coast which was under the sway of Ly-
me, who, as was his usage towards all strangers, seized
ind confined him. He was, however, liberated by
Oallirhoe, the tyrant's daughter, who became so en-
irnoured of him, that, upon his quitting the African
shores, she put herself to death. Diomede, according
to one account, died in Italy at a very advanced age;
while another legend makes him to have been slain by
his father-in-lawDaunus. (Tzetz. , ad Lyc. ophr. , 603,
*eqq) His companions were so much afflicted by his
death that they were changed into birds. Virgil, how-
ever, makes this transformation earlier in date, and
to have taken place during the lifetime of Diomede.
(-En. , 11,272. ) He seems to have followed the tra-
dition recorded by Ovid (Mel. , 14, 457), that Agnon,
one of Diomcde's companions in his voysge from
Troy, insulted Venus with contemptuous language,
and that the goddess, in revenge, transformed not only
Agnon, but many others of Diomede's followers into
birds. These birds, according to Ovid, resembled
swans; they chiefly frequented some neighbouring
islands in the Adriatic, and were noted for their fond-
ness lor Greeks, arid their aversion towards the natives
of any other country. (Vid. Diomedis Insula;--Con-
sult Heyne, Excurs-, \,ad &n. , 11, and Lord Bacon's
FabUs of the Ancients, fab. xviii. )--II. A king of the
Bittones, in Thrace, Bon of Mars and Cyrene. His
mares fed on human flesh. Hercules sailed to this
quarter, having been ordered, as his eighth labour, to
? ? ? ring these marcs to Mycenae. The hero overcame
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? DION.
uio
i Roman senator, was born AD. 155, in Bilhynia.
His true name was Cassius, but he assumed the other
two names, as being descended on the mother's side
from Dion Chrysostom. Thus, though he was on his
mother's side of Greek descent, and though, in his
writings, he adopted the then prevailing language of
his native province, namely, the Greek, he must nev-
ertheless be considered as a Roman. Dio Cassius
passed the greater part of his life in public employ-
ment*. He was a senator under Commodua ;. governor
of Smyrna after the death of Septimius Severus; for he
hsd displeased this monarch, and held no office, con-
sequently, during the life of the latter; and afterward
consul, aa also proconsul in Africa and Pannonia. Al-
exander Severus entertained the highest esteem for
him, and made him consul for the second time, with
himself, though the praetorian guards, irritated against
him on account of his severity, had demanded his life.
When advanced in years, he returned to his native
country. Dion published a Roman history, in eighty
books, the fruit of his researches and labours for the
space of twenty-two years It embraced a period of
983 years, extending from the arrival of . 'Eneas in
Italy, and the subsequent founding of Rome, to A. D.
229. Down to the time of Julius Cesar, he only
gives a summary of events; after this, he enters some-
what more into details; and from the time of Corn-
modus he is very circumstantial in relating what passed
under his own eyes. Wo have fragments remaining of
the first 36 books: but there is a considerable portion
of the 35th book, on the war of Lucullus against Mith-
radates, and of the 36th, on the war with the pirates, and
the expedition of Poinpey against the King of Pontus.
The books that follow, to the 54 th inclusive, are nearly
all entire: they comprehend a period from B. C. 65 to
B. C. 10, or from the eastern campaign of Pompey, and
the death of Mithradates, to the death of Agrippa. The
55th book has a considerable gap in it. The 5lith to the
60th, both included, which comprehend the period from
A. D. 9 to A. D. 54, are complete, and contain tho events
from the defeat of Varus in Germany to the reign of
Claudius. Of the following 20 books we have only
fragments, and the meager abridgment of Xiphilinus.
The 80th or last book comprehends the period from
A. D. 222 to A. D. 229, in the reign of Alexander
Severus. The abridgment of Xiphilinus, as now ex-
tant, commences with the 35lh, and continues to the
end of the 80th book. It is a very indifferent per-
formance, and was made by order of the Emperor
Michael Ducas: the abbrcviator, Xiphilinus, was a
monk of the eleventh century.