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Priscus of Panium, Fragment I b

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

E. A. Thompson
E. A. Thompson
Affiliation:
University College, Swansea
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Extract

Although students of the fifth century A.D. have not been slow to recognize the merits of the ͉στορ⋯α Βυζαντιακ⋯ of Priscus, few efforts seem to have been made to under-stand this historian's methods of composition. The purpose of the present note is to indicate that the literary fashions of his time have exercised an unfortunate influence on at least one part of Priscus' work.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 39 , Issue 3-4 , July 1945 , pp. 92 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1945

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References

page 92 note 1 Griechische Literatwgeschichte, 1924, ii. 2.1036Google Scholar.

page 92 note 2 ‘Zur Geschichte der Onoguren’, Ungarische Jakrbücher, x, 1930, pp. 53–90Google Scholar, ad init. Moravcsik refers to another article of his (in Hungarian, ), ‘Attila és Buda’, Egyetemes Philologiai Közlöny, I, 1926, pp. 195–202Google Scholar, which I cannot consult.

page 92 note 3 Thuc. 2. 75. 5; Priscus, , p. 279. 9, Dindorf, , Hist. Gr. Min., vol. iGoogle Scholar. The fragment was first printed by Wescher, C., Poliorcétique des Grecs, Paris, 1867, pp. 305Google Scholar ff., and will be found also in Müller, , F.H.G. v. 25 fGoogle Scholar.

page 92 note 4 Thuc. 2. 75. 5; Priscus, p. 279. 10.

page 92 note 5 Thuc. 2. 76. 4; Priscus, p. 278. 32.

page 92 note 6 Thuc. 2. 76. 4; Priscus, p. 279. I.

page 92 note 7 p. 279. 15.

page 92 note 8 Thuc. 2. 76. 4; Priscus, p. 279. 21.

page 93 note 1 Cf. Photius, , Bibl. 82, p. 64 aGoogle Scholar, ἔστι δ⋯ τ⋯ν φρ⋯σιν ⋯π⋯ριττ⋯ς τε κα⋯ ⋯ξιὡματι χα⋯ρων κα⋯, ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι, ἄλλος μετ⋯ τινος σαφηνε⋯ας Θουκυδ⋯δης, μ⋯λιστ⋯ γε ⋯ν ταῖς Σκυθικαῖς ‘Ιστορ⋯αις.

page 93 note 2 Dexippus, frag. 27, Jacoby, F. Gr. H. ii A, pp. 470–2. I take the date from Alföldi, CAH. xii. 161, n. 4.

page 93 note 3 Frag. 27, § 8.

page 93 note 4 Priscus, p. 279. 22–6. He also had Dexippus, frag. 29, in mind when writing our fragment; e.g. he took (p. 279. 7) from it the words θυρ⋯δε‘embrasures’ (LS9) and ⋯φεδτρ⋯δες, cilicia, a meaning not noticed by LS9, who also omit ⋯πιτειχ⋯ζειν (p. 279. 12) in the sense of ‘to bring close to a wall’.

page 93 note 5 CAH. xii. 161, cf. Schmidt, L., Geschichle der deutschen Stämme: die Ostgermanen, Munich, 1934, p. 219Google Scholar. Zosimus, 1. 43, cited by the latter, has no independent value.

page 93 note 6 Marcellinus Comes, s.a. 441, Mommsen, , Chron. Min. ii. 80Google Scholar; cf. Theophanes, a.m. 5924 (p. 102. 21, de Boor); Priscus, frag. 8, p. 291. 10, Dindorf.

page 93 note 7 Ammianus, 31. 2. 9: the ferro mentioned in the same sentence was acquired by barter from the settled populations with whom the nomadic Huns came in contact. On the conditions of metal-working among the steppe nomads see Lattimore, Owen, Inner Asian Frontiers of China (American Geographical Society: Research Series, No. 21), New York, 1940, pp. 69 fGoogle Scholar. Those who would understand the Huns will find Lattimore's work invaluable.

page 94 note 1 History of the Later Roman Empire, London, 1923, vol. i, p. 274Google Scholar.

page 94 note 2 Geschichte des oströmischen Reiches unter den Kaisern Arcadius und Theodosius II, Halle, 1885, p. 343Google Scholar. For the campaign in question see Güldenpenning, pp. 340–6, and note his transposition of Priscus, frag. I b, 2, 3, op. cit., p. 341, n. 66a .

page 94 note 3 Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 418.

page 94 note 4 Evagrius, , HE. i. 17Google Scholar; Suidas, s.v. ΙΙρ⋯σκος. The latter adds that he composed inter alia μελ⋯ται ῥητορικα⋯.

page 94 note 5 On his career see Ensslin, W., ‘Maximinus und sein Begleiter, der Historiker Priskos’, Byzantinisch-neugriechische Jahrbücher, v, 1926–1927, pp. 1–9Google Scholar.