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572 APPENDIX 15. ORACLES IN PROCOPIUS— (P. 328) Two Latin oracles, quoted and translated by Procopius in Bell. Got. Bk. i. cc. 7 and 24, have perplexed interpreters. The Latin words, copied by Greek scribes ignorant of Latin, underwent corruption. One general principle of the corruption is clear. Those Latin letters which have a different form from the corresponding Greek were assimilated to Greek letters of similar form but different sound. Thus P was taken for R6, C for Sigma, F Was assimilated to E. Thus expedita would appear as ixpeSira (as we actually find it in the Oxford Ms. of John Malalas, p. 427, ed. Bonn). Africa capta would be set down in the form cUpiera aapra. (1) The oracle concerning Mundus, to which Gibbon refers as obscure, appears thus in the best Ms. (ed. Comparetti, i. p. 47, ed. Haury, p. 33) : — aepiCaCapra mudus cum natu pepttrroA. (the Laurentian Ms. gives aeplaas &pra and r^epiaTaai). The interpretation of the first five words is clear : — Africa capta Mundus cum nato . . . but the last seven (eight ?) characters can hardly represent peribii (Braun) or peribunt (Comparetti). It has usually been assumed that Africa capta is ablative, but we must take the oracle to have been metrical, since Procopius speaks of it as dhS^evov (ed. Haury, 33 17 ). Hence I concluded (Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 15, 46, 1906) that Africa capta is nominative, and formed the end of a hexameter. I also suggested that pepurr represents periet (for this future form compare Corippus, Johannis, 6, 44 ; 8, 27) ; so that the oracle might have run : <fuerit simur> Africa capta, Mundus cum nato periet — which Procopius translates yviKa av 'A<pptKii ex^jrai, 6 k6<t/j.os |w t$ y6vtp oXen-ai. (H. Jackson, Journal of Philology, 30, 225 sqa., 1906, proposed : Africa capta sedet ; Mundus natusque peribit.) (2) The Sibylline prophecy with which the besieged Romans consoled them- selves in the spring of a.d. 537, that in the month of July a king would arise for the Romans and deliver them from fear of the Goths, is recorded in bk. i. c. 24 (Com- paretti, p. 177, Haury, p. 121), and is more difficult. The Vatican Ms. gives the Latin in peculiar characters which cannot be here reproduced ; the Laurentian gives a Greek transliteration : — %v ti rjotfiev £e Kai < fievvco. Hal /care vt <ri yp' ffo eviiririv ?TI crv itiaintTa. The interpretation of Procopius is : xp^vai yap r6re /3a<nAe'a 'Pw/xaiois KaTaariival riva 4£ ov 8)7 reTUchv ovSev 'Pco/iT] rb Xoiirhv Setcrete. Comparetti gives as the original : — Quintili mense 6ub novo Romanus rege nihil Geticum iam metuet. But the words sub novo Romanus rege are not there, and there can I think be no doubt that this oracle also was metrical. I have discussed the question of restoring it in Byz. Ztsch., loc. cit., 45-6, and arrived at the reconstruction : Quintili mense si rex < ~ - > at in arce - --^w <- ^ nihil geticum ia <rn Ro> ma t < i > meto. 16. UNOGUNDURS, KUTRIGURS, UTIGURS ; TETRAXITE GOTHS— (P. 369, 454) Gibbon designates the people of Zabergan who invaded the Illyric peninsula in a.d. 559 as Bulgarians. Victor Tonnennensis ad ann. 560 has the notice ; Bulgares Thraciam pervadunt et usque ad Sycas Constantinopohn veniunt ; and it is clear that he refers to the same invasion which is described in detail by Agathias. Malalas, in his record of the event (p. 490 ; March a.d. 559), describes the invaders as ol Olwoi