History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
4. The Paris edition was imperfectly executed by Claude Maltret,
a Jesuit of Toulouse, (in 1663,) far distant from the Louvre
press and the Vatican Ms., from which, however, he obtained some
supplements. His promised commentaries, &c., have never appeared.
The Agathias of Leyden (1594) has been wisely reprinted by the
Paris editor, with the Latin version of Bonaventura Vulcanius, a
learned interpreter, (Huet, p. 176.)
* Note: Procopius forms a part of the new Byzantine collection
under the superintendence of Dindorf.—M.]
15 (return) [ Agathias in Praefat. p. 7, 8, l. iv. p. 137.
Evagrius, l. iv. c. 12. See likewise Photius, cod. lxiii. p. 65.]
16 (return) [ Says, he, Praefat. ad l. de Edificiis is no more
than a pun! In these five books, Procopius affects a Christian as
well as a courtly style.]
17 (return) [ Procopius discloses himself, (Praefat. ad Anecdot.
c. 1, 2, 5,) and the anecdotes are reckoned as the ninth book by
Suidas, (tom. iii. p. 186, edit. Kuster.) The silence of Evagrius
is a poor objection. Baronius (A.D. 548, No. 24) regrets the loss
of this secret history: it was then in the Vatican library, in
his own custody, and was first published sixteen years after his
death, with the learned, but partial notes of Nicholas Alemannus,
(Lugd. 1623.)]
18 (return) [ Justinian an ass—the perfect likeness of
Domitian—Anecdot. c. 8.—Theodora’s lovers driven from her bed by
rival daemons—her marriage foretold with a great daemon—a monk
saw the prince of the daemons, instead of Justinian, on the
throne—the servants who watched beheld a face without features, a
body walking without a head, &c., &c. Procopius declares his own
and his friends’ belief in these diabolical stories, (c. 12.)]
19 (return) [ Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et la
Decadence des Romains, c. xx.) gives credit to these anecdotes,
as connected, 1. with the weakness of the empire, and, 2. with
the instability of Justinian’s laws.]
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