A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

956 SYMEON. SYMEON.
bable that he is the Symeon Protovestiarius (:Svebv to Bidpai's work, and had been also trans7rpw'rofeacr'rtplor) mentioned by Cedrenus (Corn- lated by Seth but omitted by Starkius, were pubpend. p. 737, ed. Paris, vol. ii. p. 511, ed. Bonn) lished under the title of Prolegomnena ad Librum,
as having been banished in A.D. 1034, by the repave17fr aicl'IXYai-rnse, by Floderus, Upsala,
Emperor Michael the Paphlagonian [MICHAEL 1780. From a more prolix title or introduction
IV. PAPHLAGO] on account of his sympathy with prefixed to the work we learn that it was brought
the Patrician Dalassenus. Symeon had been one from India by IIepCI, Perzoe, or Barzouyeh, phyof the personal attendants of the Emperor Con- sician to Chosroes or Khosru I. Nushirwan [SAS
stantine IX. (or VIII. as some reckon, brother and SANIDAE, No. 21], King of Persia, who reigned
colleague of Basil II.), whose death occurred A. D. from A. D. 531 to 579, and that it was presented
1028. Symeon, on his banishment, retired to a to that King. It is probable that what Barzouyeh
monastery founded by himself near mount Olym- presented to Khosru was a Pehlvi or old Persian
pus; and appears to have spent the rest of his life version, not the Sanscrit original. It was, accordin literary pursuits and monastic duties (Cedren. ing to the title just cited, translated into Arabic,
1. c.). As one of his works is dedicated to the and this Arabic version Symeon Seth translated
Emperor Michael Ducas, he must have survived into Greek. A succinct account of this ancient and
the accession of that prince in A. D. 1071. No- curious work is given in the Penny Cyclopaedia,
thing beyond this appears to be known of his s. v. BIDPAI, where are given numerous references
personal history. to the authorities used. See also Fabric. Bibl.
The principal works of Symeon Seth are as fol- Graec. vol. vii. pp. 777-781.
lows: - 1.,e'yTaya Kar'a cirotxesov' irepl TpOoPV A history of Alexander the Great, replete with
avdf',wv, Syntagma per litteraruzs ordinem de fabulous incidents, and falsely bearing the name of
cibariorumnftcultate. This is the work dedicated Callisthenes [CALLISTHENES, No. 1 ],which is found
to Michael Ducas. It is a descriptive catalogue, in some libraries (comp. Catal. ilISlorunz Biblioltt.
alphabetically arranged, of the chief articles of hu- Regiae, vol. ii. p. 388, Cod. mdclxxxv. fol. Paris,
man food: the materials are for the most part taken 1740), is said by Fabricius (Biblioth. Graec. vol.
from Symeon's contemporary, Michael Psellus iii. p. 36) and Wharton (Hist. of Eng. Poetry,
[PSELLUS, No. 3.]. It was published, with a vol. i. p. 129) to have been translated from the
Latin version, by Lilius Gregorius Gyraldus of Persian by Symeon Seth, but on what authority
Ferrara, 12mo. Basel, 1538. The arrangement of this assertion rests they do not state: nor does the
the text differs from that of the version: the al- work seem to bear any internal marks of belongphabetical order in the one being of the Greek ing to Seth. The opening portion of a history cf
titles to each article, in the other of their Latin Alexander which some identify with this work, is
equivalents; but in an edition of the version re- given by Berckel (in a note to Stephanus Byzant.
vised by Dominicus Monthesaurus of Verona, De Urbibus, advoc. BovKeVpciXeta)and by Fabricius
12mo. Basel, 1561, the Greek titles are prefixed (Bibliotih. Graec. vol. xiv. p. 148, ed. vet.): it bears
to each article, and the original order is restored. the title of Blos'AAhed'vpov rov MaKfOovos Kal
An improved edition of the Greek text, with a new 7rpcdieis, Vita et Gesta Alexandri Macedoniae Regis.
version byMartinusBogdanus, was published 12mo. A Latin history of Alexander closely resenmbling
Paris, 1658. 2. ZSvo~bs Kal &rdvOeoila apvotK&iv this Greek work, and considered by some as a verTre Kal (pXolAdpeoW 80oY1ds'rwv, Compendium et flores sion though it varies much from the original, was
naturalitum et philosoplhorumn placitorum. Of this printed in black letter, fol. Argentin. 1489 and
work, which is also in great part pillaged from Psel- 1494. These works bear, both of them, considerlus, Allatius (ubi infra) has given a short extract, able resemblance to the work said to have been
with a Latin version. The first two of the five written in Greek by Aesopus [AEsoPus, p. 48],
books of which the work consistsare extant in some and translated into Latin by Julius Valerius,
MSS. under the name of Psellus. They bear the whose translation was first published from an
title of'ElreMhiAes vVTs'lroL C)PVUoKeC r77r]7'TWrC, imperfect MS. by Angelo Mai, at Milan, 1817,
Solutiones comnpendiosae naturalium quaestionu2z. and again more complete in vol. vii. of his
3. De Medicina (s. De Medicarentis) ex Animnali- Classici A uctores e Vaticanis Codd. editi, 8vo. Rom.
bus. A Latin version of two fragments of this ap- 1835. It is also given from Mai's first edition as
pears at the end of Monthesaurus's revised edition an appendix to the edition of Quintus Curtius
of Gyraldus's version of the Syntagma de cibariorum in the Bibliotheca Classica Latina of Lemaire,
facaultate. 4. lIepI d6op7a'Oews, De Odoratu, and 5. 8vo. Paris, 1824. Considerable information reIfpl yeVIOfEs Kal odpirs, De Gustatione et Tactu, specting these works of the Pseudo Callisthenes,
published by Ideler, in his Physici et Medici Aesopus or Julius Valerius and others, which have
Graeci Minores, vol. ii. p. 283, 8vo. Berlin, 1842. much in common with each other and appear to
But the work which has given Symeon Seth the have had a common origin, may be found in the
greatest claim to remembrance, is his Greek version preface of Mai (reprinted by Lemaire); in the
of the Indian apologues, now known as the Fables Journal des Savans for 1818, pp. 401, &c., 609,
of Bidpai or Pilpay. This version is briefly en- &c.; and in the Bibliothleque Univzerselle for the
titled eqpTEavT'rls ical'IXYhXdr7sr, Stephoanites et same year, pp. 218, &c., 322, &c. But of these
Ichnelates, s. Coronarins et Vestigator, and a Latin works neither by Mai nor in the periodicals is any
version of a considerable part of it was subjoined one ascribed to Symeon Seth. Some other works of
by Possin to his edition of Georgius Pachymeres, Symneon are extant in MS. (Fabric. Biblioth. Graec.
fol. Rome, 1666; but it is omitted in the Bonn II. cc. vol. vii. p. 472, vol. xi. p. 320; Allat. De
reprint of that version. The Greek text, not how- Syneon. Scriptis, p. 181, &c.; Vossius, De Hisever in a complete form, was published under the toricis Graec. lib. iv. c. 21.)
title of Specinzen Sapientite Indorum veternum, by 28. STUDITA. [Nos. 16 and 24.]
Seb. Godof. Starkius, 12mo. Berlin, 1697. The 29. STuDvTA. SomeTpordacpa, Cantica, orhyvnns,
introductory chapters, which had been prefixed by Symeon, a monk of the Convent of Studium