Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/35

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The Manuscripts

teenth ceutury, noticing; this transposition, attempted a re-arrangement which appears in some of the later codices and editions.

The archetype had many lacunae, glosses and duplicates. It seems to have contained, besides the Strategemata, a breviarium of Eutropius, since these two works are found combined in most of the oldest codices of both classes. After the thirteenth century, copyists put Vegetius and Frontinus in one codex.

The codex Harleianus, a parchment of the ninth or tenth century, is now in the British Museum. It contains many errors and omissions. Some of these were corrected by the copyist himself, others by another hand of the same period. The latter (designated by h) became the model for the second class of manuscripts, the readings coinciding in many instances with those of P. As the corrector frequently used the eraser, for readings lacking in G and C we have only the testimony of the second class. The readings of h are sometimes happy amendments, sometimes atrocious corruptions. The writer omitted, copied incorrectly, amended and changed the spelling, assimilating most prepositions.

The codex Gothanus, a parchment of the ninth century, contains a breviarium of Eutropius, a breviarium of Festus and excerpts from Frontinus.[1] It was written by two hands. The copyist of Frontinus frequently separated the words wrongly, and misunderstood signs of abbreviation.

  1. i.e. all of Book IV., followed by II. ix. 7–11. xii. 2 (from quarum metu illi through secundum consuetudinem); pref. to Book I.; I. i. 1–2; pref. to Book II.; II. i. l–3; pref. to Book III.: III. i. 1–3; III. iii. 1–7; III. vii. 1–6.
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