Historical fragments

1.5 A reading of Eunapius' *Chronological History after Dexippus*, new edition, in fourteen books. He begins his history from the reign of Claudius, where the history of Dexippus ends, and he concludes it in the reign of Honorius and Arcadius, the sons of Theodosius, making the end of his history that time when Arsacius, elevated to the archiepiscopal throne after John Chrysostom ("golden-mouthed") of the church was driven out, was presiding, and the wife of the reigning Arcadius, being pregnant and having miscarried, departed this life. This Eunapius is a Sardian by birth; for he had Sardis in Lydia as his fatherland; but being impious in religion, for he honored the ways of the Hellenes, he abuses and disparages in every way and unrestrainedly those who adorned the empire with piety, and especially Constantine the Great, but he extols the impious, and more than the others Julian the Apostate, and it seems his history was almost entirely composed and labored as a panegyric to him. He is elegant in his phrasing, if one were to remove from his words the rooster-like and rather deer-like and swine-like, and indeed also 1.6 the hawk-like and raven-like and ape-like and the river of tears and similar things; for with these he mars and adulterates the other nobility of his nouns. And he uses tropes hazardously, which the law of history does not permit, but for the most part the emphasis and refinement of his diction removes what is offensive. But in composition and clarity for history and in his periods he is measured and appropriate; except in some places he fills and clothes his speech more like a pleader than a historian. He also innovates not a little in matters of syntax, yet not to the point of being ungraceful nor to give a handle to the methodical. He composed two treatises containing the same history, a first and a second. And in the first, he sows much blasphemy against our pure faith of the Christians and glorifies the Hellenic superstition, attacking many of the pious emperors; but in the second, which he also entitles *New Edition*, he cuts back much of the hubris and licentiousness which he had scattered against piety, and having strung together the remaining body of the work, he entitles it *New Edition*, as we said, though it still reveals much of that madness. We have encountered both editions in old books, each one separately arranged in a different volume and a different composition; from which we have collected and recognized the difference. It happens therefore in the new edition that many of the passages are set out obscurely because of the excisions of words that have been made, although he is a cultivator of clarity; but in what way I cannot say, by not fitting the words well according to the excisions in the second 1.7 edition he spoils the sense of what is read. in which also is the end.

[Photius Bibl. cod. 77. One might say that he did not write a history, but transcribed that of Eunapius, differing only in its conciseness, and that he does not, as that one did, disparage Stilicho. But in other respects, concerning the history, he is almost the same, and especially in his slanders of the pious emperors. It seems to me that this one also has made two editions, just as that one did; but I have not seen his first one; but from the fact that the one we read was entitled *Of the New Edition*, one could infer that another had been published by him, just as by Eunapius. But this one is clearer and more concise than Eunapius, as we said; and does not use tropes, except rarely.[Idem cod. 98, de Zosimo.

Fragmenta historica

1.5 Ἀνεγνώσθη Εὐναπίου Χρονικῆς ἱστορίας τῆς μετὰ ∆έξιππον νέας ἐκδόσεως ἐν βιβλίοις τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα. ἄρχεται μὲν τῆς ἱστορίας ἀπὸ τῆς Κλαυδίου βασιλείας, ἐς ὃν ∆εξίππῳ ἡ ἱστορία καταλήγει, ἀποτελευτᾷ δὲ εἰς τὴν Ὁνωρίου καὶ Ἀρκαδίου τῶν Θεοδοσίου παίδων βασιλείαν, ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον τέλος τῆς ἱστορίας ποιησάμενος, ὃν Ἀρσάκιος μὲν τοῦ χρυσοῦ τῆς ἐκκλησίας στόματος Ἰωάννου ἀπελαθέντος εἰς τὸν ἀρχιερατικὸν θρόνον ἀνηγμένος ἱεράτευεν, ἡ δὲ τοῦ βασιλεύοντος Ἀρκαδίου γυνὴ κατὰ γαστρὸς ἔχουσα καὶ ἀμβλώσασα τὸν βίον ἀπέλιπεν. οὗτος ὁ Εὐνάπιος Σαρδιανὸς μὲν γένος ἐστί· τὰς γὰρ ἐν Λυδίᾳ Σάρδεις ἔσχε πατρίδα· δυσσεβὴς δὲ τὴν θρησκείαν ὤν, τὰ Ἑλλήνων γὰρ ἐτίμα, τοὺς μὲν εὐσεβείᾳ τὴν βασιλείαν κοσμήσαντας παντὶ τρόπῳ καὶ ἀνέδην κακίζων διασύρει, καὶ μάλιστά γε τὸν μέγαν Κωνσταντῖνον, ἐξαίρει δὲ τοὺς δυσσεβεῖς, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων πλέον Ἰουλιανὸν τὸν παραβάτην, καὶ σχεδόν τι τὸ τῆς ἱστορίας αὐτῷ εἰς τὸ ἐκείνου ἐγκώμιον συντεθὲν ἐξεπονήθη. ἔστι δὲ καλλιεπὴς τὴν φράσιν, εἰ περιέλοι τις αὐτῷ τῶν λόγων τὸ ἀλεκτρυονῶδες καὶ ἐλαφωδέστερον καὶ συωδέστερον, καὶ δὴ καὶ 1.6 τοὺς ἱερακώδεις καὶ κορακώδεις καὶ πιθηκώδεις καὶ τὸ ποταμῶδες δάκρυον καὶ τὰ ὅμοια· τούτοις γὰρ καὶ τὴν ἄλλην τῶν ὀνομάτων περιλυμαίνεται καὶ διανοθεύει εὐγένειαν. καὶ τροπαῖς μὲν κέχρηται παραβόλως, ὅπερ ὁ τῆς ἱστορίας οὐκ ἐθέλει νόμος, ἀφαιρεῖται δὲ τὸ λυποῦν ἡ τῆς λέξεως ἔμφασις τὰ πολλὰ καὶ ἀστειότης. τῇ συνθήκῃ δὲ καὶ τῷ σαφεῖ πρὸς ἱστορίαν καὶ ταῖς περιόδοις συμμέτρως καὶ οἰκείως ἔχει· πλὴν ἐνιαχοῦ δικανικώτερον μᾶλλον ἢ ἱστορικώτερον μεστοῖ καὶ περιβάλλει τὸν λόγον. νεωτερίζει δ' οὐκ ὀλίγα καὶ περὶ τὰς συντάξεις, πλὴν οὐκ εἰς τὸ ἄχαρι οὐδ' εἰς τὸ ταῖς μεθόδοις λαβὴν ἐπιδοῦναι. ∆ύο δὲ πραγματείας τὴν αὐτὴν περιεχούσας ἱστορίαν συνεγράψατο, πρώτην καὶ δευτέραν. καὶ ἐν μὲν τῇ πρώτῃ πολλὴν κατὰ τῆς καθαρᾶς ἡμῶν τῶν Χριστιανῶν πίστεως κατασπείρει βλασφημίαν καὶ τὴν Ἑλληνικὴν ἀποσεμνύνει δεισιδαιμονίαν, πολλὰ τῶν εὐσεβῶν βασιλέων καθαπτόμενος· ἐν δὲ τῇ δευτέρᾳ, ἣν καὶ νέαν ἔκδοσιν ἐπιγράφει, τὴν μὲν πολλὴν ὕβριν καὶ ἀσέλγειαν, ἣν κατὰ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἐσκέδαζεν, ὑποτέμνεται, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν τῆς συγγραφῆς σῶμα συνείρας νέαν ἔκδοσιν, ὡς ἔφημεν, ἐπιγράφει, ἔτι πολλὰ τῆς ἐκεῖσε λύσσης ὑποφαίνουσαν. ἀμφοῖν δὲ ταῖς ἐκδόσεσιν ἐν παλαιοῖς ἐνετύχομεν βιβλίοις, ἰδίως ἑκατέρᾳ ἐν ἑτέρῳ τεύχει καὶ ἑτέρῳ συντεταγμένῃ· ἐξ ὧν αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν διαφορὰν ἀναλεξάμενοι ἔγνωμεν. συμβαίνει οὖν ἐν τῇ νέᾳ ἐκδόσει πολλὰ τῶν χωρίων διὰ τὰς γεγενημένας τῶν ῥητῶν περικοπὰς ἀσαφῶς ἐκκεῖσθαι, καίτοι φροντιστής ἐστι τοῦ σαφοῦς· ἀλλ' ὅτῳ τρόπῳ λέγειν οὐκ ἔχω, μὴ καλῶς κατὰ τὰς περικοπὰς ἁρμόσας τοὺς λόγους ἐν τῇ δευ 1.7 τέρᾳ ἐκδόσει τὸν νοῦν λυμαίνεται τῶν ἀναγινωσκομένων. ἐν οἷς καὶ τὸ τέλος.

[Photius Bibl. cod. 77. Εἴποι δ' ἄν τις οὐ γράψαι αὐτὸν ἱστορίαν, ἀλλὰ μεταγράψαι τὴν Εὐναπίου, τῷ συντόμῳ μόνον διαφέρουσαν, καὶ ὅτι οὐχ, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος, οὕτω καὶ οὗτος Στελίχωνα διασύρει. τὰ δ' ἄλλα κατὰ τὴν ἱστορίαν σχεδόν τι ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ μάλιστα ἐν ταῖς τῶν εὐσεβῶν βασιλέων διαβολαῖς. δοκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ οὗτος δύο ἐκδόσεις, ὥσπερ κἀκεῖνος, πεποιηκέναι· ἀλλὰ τούτου μὲν τὴν προτέραν οὐκ εἶδον· ἐξ ὧν δὲ ἣν ἀνέγνωμεν ἐπέγραψε Νέας ἐκδόσεως συμβαλεῖν ἦν καὶ ἑτέραν αὐτῷ, ὥσπερ καὶ τῷ Εὐναπίῳ, ἐκδεδόσθαι. σαφὴς δὲ μᾶλλον οὗτος καὶ συντομώτερος, ὥσπερ ἔφημεν, Εὐναπίου· καὶ ταῖς τροπαῖς, εἰ μὴ σπάνιον, οὐ κεχρημένος.[Idem cod. 98, de Zosimo.