Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/965

SYMEON. ^?iKoov6(a, OJicium, composed by the same author for the day (28th Nov.) on which Symeon is com- memorated as a saint in the Greek Church ; to which we may add some incidental notices from the writings of Symeon himself. Symeon was a native of Constantinople, belonged to an illustrious family, possessed great wealth, and was remarkable even from childhood for " the flowers of the understanding," to quote the words of Psellus, which " blossomed in him." He studied rhetoric, and especially philosophy, and became eminent in both. The reputation he acquired re- commended him to the notice of the government, and he was employed under the emperors Leo VI. tiie Philosoplier, and Constantine VII. Porphyro- genitus, in public affairs. We should gather from the bombastic expressions of Psellus, that his first office was that of Proto-a-secretis, or chief secretary ; but it is unlikely that so important an office should be the first entrusted to him : and the statement of Cedrenus, noticed below, seems more probable. His versatile talents were adapted both to counsel and to action ; and he appears to have been engaged in repressing, both by arms and negotiations, the assaults of some enemies on the frontier of the empire, and in reducing others to subjection. He was characterised by magnificence in dress and stateliness of gait, yet tempered by a captivating address and easiness of access. He possessed also a liberal disposition, which his wealth afforded him ample opportunity of indulging. The decla- mation of Psellus contains neither particulars nor dates. A passage, however, in Symeon's account cf St. Theoctista (apud AUat. De Symeon. Saiptis, p. 49), informs us that he was engaged in the ex- pedition, under Himerius, against the Saracens of Crete, with whom he was commissioned to nego- tiate. This expedition, on Symeon's own authority in another place {Chronog. s. Annates. De Leone Bas'dii Fil. c. 21. Comp. Theophan. Continuat. lib. vi. Dc Leone Basiiii Fil. c. 26 ), we may fix in the twenty- third year of the reign of Leo VI., A. d. 908. Allatius fixes the date, we believe erroneously, in a.d. 902. This, however, was not the first occasion in which Symeon appears as a prominent person : he was apparently the Symeon, Proto-a-secretis, who negotiated an exchange of prisoners with Leo the renegade, who commanded the Saracen fleet, which in A. D. 904 took Thessalonica (Theoph. Con- tinuat. c. 21; Symeon. c. 14 ; Cameniata de Ex- scidio Thessalonicensi., c. 62, 63 ; Zonaras, Annul. lib. xvi. c. ] 4 ; Cedren. Compend. p. 600, ed. Paris, vol. ii. p. 263, ed. Bonn.) According to Cedrenus, Symeon received the dignity of Proto-a-secretis as a reward for his service in this business, having previously held a subordinate office. It was when serving under Himerius, in a. d. 908, that Symeon first engaged in composing the lives of the Saints ; and he pleaded as an excuse, when urged to under- take this task, the multitude of his engagements, and the cares of his wife and family. (Symeon, Vitae S. Tkeoctislae apud Allatium, p. 55.) The life of St. Theoctista, the first of his religious biographies, was not, however, written till after the death of the emperor Leo. Symeon is mentioned by Liutprand, ambassador from the western emperor Otho to the Byzantine emperor Nicephorus Phocas, as still Proto-a-secretis in A. D. 968. (Baronii A Tincd. ad ann. 968, c. xxix. ; comp. Pagi, Critice in Baron, ad ann, eundem, c. xii. ; Liuiprandi Ix'CfntiOy apud Muratori, Rerum SYMEON. 9.53 Italicarum Scripiores, vol. ii. p. 482.) Symeon is mentioned by Leo Diaconus (Ilistoria, x. 7, p. 169, ed. Bonn) as still living when the comet ap- peared which shortly preceded the death of the emperor Joannes Tzimisces (comp. Cedrenus, p. 683, ed. Paris, vol. ii. p. 414, ed. Bonn), and which may be fixed in the year 975, so that he must have lived very nearly a century, and perhaps more. His death is described by Psellus as joyful and triumphant. (Comp. Allatius, Vossius, Cave, Oudin, Cellier, Saxius, ubi in/ra, and Pagi, Critice in Baronii Annates, ad ann. 902, i — xi, ; ad ann. 975, c. ix. x. ; Bollandus, Praefat. ad Acta Sanctor. cap. i. § 3, Januar. vol. i.) The works of Metaphrastes are numerous and of varied character. They may be thus classified : — 1. 'PiT/iuiV Bioi s. Meracppaa-eis, Sa7ictorum Vitae s. Metaphrases. These constitute the largest and most important class of his writings. A few of them were probably original, but by far the greater part were paraphrases (^ixiracppdaiLs) or recastings of more ancient legends, of which the language was too rude, or the narrative too meagre, to suit the vicious taste and boundless credulity of the age in which Symeon lived, and which he seems to have altered ad libitum. As many, if not most, of the saints whom he commemorated lived before the rupture between the Eastern and Western Churches, some of the more zealous Roman Catholics, as Aloysius Lipomannus, Gretser, and especially Al- latius, contend earnestly for the credit of Meta- phrastes. Protestant writers have generally set him down as an author unworthy of credit, with the exception, perhaps, of Cave, who seems to think that he only corrected the arrangement and style of those of the ancient legends which needed such revision, and left those which were better written altogether intact. The more critical Roman Ca- tholics unite with the Protestants in depreciating the authority of Symeon. The number of the lives ascribed to Symeon in the MSS. amounts to be- tween six and seven hundred. Lists of these and other Sanctorum Vitae are given by Allatius, ubi infra, and Fabricius {Bibl. Grace, vol. x. p. 186, seq.). Cave gives a list of a hundred and twenty- two which, after Allatius, he supposes to be cor- rectly ascribed to Metaphrastes. Of those inaccu- rately assigned to him, Allatius ascribes four hun- dred and forty- four to other authors ; of ninety-five others the authors are unknown. A great number of the Fifoe, genuine or spurious, are published in a Latin version by Lipomannus, Surius, and others, in their collections, De Sanctorum Vitis : of these Allatius has given a list (p. 76) : a few which Allatius also enumerates (p. 78) have been pub- lished in va,rious works in the original Greek, with or without a Latin version. Another list of the published lives is given by Hamberger, Zuverl'dssige Nachrichten^ vol. iv. p. 1 43, foil. (On these Sancto- rum Vitae, the great work of Metaphrastes, see Fabric. Bibl. Grace, vol. x. p. 180, &c., besides various incidental notices ; and the authors cited at the close of this account.) 2. 'Svixfuu fiayiarpov Koi KoyoQiTov xpo^oyp°'^^°"> Symeonis Magistri et Logotlielae Annates. These extend from the begin- ning of the reign of Leo V. the Armenian, a. d. 813, where Theophanes concludes, to the reign of Romanus II. the younger, in the midst of which (a. d. 960 or 961) they somewhat abruptly break off. The work was prepared for the press by Com- bflSs, and is given among Ol /xerct ©eo^awji', Scrip'