Robinson Ellis
Published: 2016-06-15
Total Pages: 242
Get eBook
Excerpt from The Fables of Avianus: Edited, With Prolegomena, Critical Apparatus, Commentary Excursus, and Index The publication in 1883 of Mr. Rutherford's Babrius determined the present edition of Avianus. The Elegiac version, if not equal to its Greek original, is sufficiently good as a specimen of Latin in the fourth and fifth centuries a. d. to deserve a revived study. For me the work had a special attraction. Not only is it contained in good and early MSS, but in many of these MSS it follows or precedes the Elegies of Maximianus, which had engaged my attention as far back as 1878 (when I collated the Eton MS of Maximianus), and on which I have since written two articles printed in the American Journal of Philology (vol. v. 1 - 15, 145 - 163). As is there observed, the two works, the Fables of Avianus and the Elegies of Maximianus, seem to have been studied together in the Middle Age. To both of them I feel grateful for leading me for a time away from the beaten paths of philology to the comparatively neglected literature of the Decline, to the History of Ammianus Marcellinus, the Epistles of Apollinaris Sidonius, the poems of Ausonius, Claudian, Rutilius Namatianus, as well as of Frudentius and Orientius: in a word to that cyde of writers to whom Prof. E. A. Freeman has recently called (and not, I trust, vainly) our attention. It is indeed impossible to believe that an Age of Research like ours will content itself with the amount of illustration which these authors have received from the editors of the past. No adequate edition of Ammianus exists; Savaron's edition of Sidonius, published in 1599, is still the only one which can be recommended. New commentaries on Symmachus, Ausonius, Claudian, Rutilius, are loudly called for, all the more that the Germans, while exhausting their energies in publishing new texts, are almost indifferent to the equally important task of comment and elucidation. On Avianus the only existing Commentary is that of Cannegieter, published in 1731. Judged by modern standards, Cannegieter performed his task only tolerably well. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.