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Stephanus of Byzantium
Byzantium

Byzantium was an Ancient Greece city, which was founded by Greeks colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas ....
, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: ; fl. 6th century) was the author of an important geographical dictionary
Gazetteer

A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or Directory , an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas....
 entitled Ethnica . Of the dictionary itself only meagre fragments survive, but we possess an epitome
Epitome

An epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment.Many documents from the Ancient Greek and Ancient Rome worlds survive now only "in epitome," referring to the practice of some later authors who wrote distilled versions of larger works now lost....
 compiled by one Hermolaus.

The work is of enormous value for geographical, mythological, and religious information about ancient Greece
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
. The last complete standard edition was that of Augustus Meineke (1849), and by convention, references to the text use Meineke's page numbers.






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Stephanus of Byzantium
Byzantium

Byzantium was an Ancient Greece city, which was founded by Greeks colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas ....
, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: ; fl. 6th century) was the author of an important geographical dictionary
Gazetteer

A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or Directory , an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas....
 entitled Ethnica . Of the dictionary itself only meagre fragments survive, but we possess an epitome
Epitome

An epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment.Many documents from the Ancient Greek and Ancient Rome worlds survive now only "in epitome," referring to the practice of some later authors who wrote distilled versions of larger works now lost....
 compiled by one Hermolaus.

The work is of enormous value for geographical, mythological, and religious information about ancient Greece
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
. The last complete standard edition was that of Augustus Meineke (1849), and by convention, references to the text use Meineke's page numbers. The first modern edition of the work was that published by the Aldine Press
Aldine Press

Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics of the time....
 in 1502. A new completely revised edition in German is in preparation by Margarethe Billerbek.

Hermolaus dedicates his epitome to Justinian; whether the first or second
Justinian II

Justinian II , known as Rinotmetos or Rhinotmetus , was the last Byzantine emperor of the :Category:Heraclian Dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711....
 emperor of that name is meant is disputed, but it seems probable that Stephanus flourished in the earlier part of the 6th century, under Justinian I
Justinian I

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus , AD 482 or 483 ? 13 or 14 November 565, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and List of Roman Emperors from 527 until his death....
.

The chief fragments remaining of the original work (which certainly contained lengthy quotations from classical authors and many interesting topographical and historical details) are preserved by Constantine Porphyrogennetos, De administrando imperio
De Administrando Imperio

De Administrando Imperio is the commonly used Latin title of a scholarly work written in Greek language, by the 10th-century Byzantine emperor Constantine VII....
, ch. 23 (the article ?ß???a? d??) and De thematibus, ii. 10 (an account of Sicily); the latter includes a passage from the comic poet Alexis
Alexis

Alexis was a Greece comedian poet of the Middle Comedy, born at Thurii and taken early to Athens, where he became a citizen, of the deme Oion , and the tribe Leontides....
 on the Seven Largest Islands. Another respectable fragment, from the article ??µ? to the end of ?, exists in a manuscript of the Seguerian library.

Editions

  • Aldus Manutius
    Aldus Manutius

    Aldus Pius Manutius , the Latinized name of Teobaldo Mannucci, sometimes called Aldus Manutius, the Elder to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius the Younger) was an Italian Renaissance humanism who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice....
     (pr.), 1502, (Peri poleon) = Stephanus. De urbibus ("On cities") (Venice).
  • Guilielmus Xylander
    Guilielmus Xylander

    Guilielmus Xylander was a Germany classical scholar.Born at Augsburg, he studied at university of T?bingen, and in 1558, when very short of money, he was appointed to succeed Micyllus in the professorship of Greek language at the University of Heidelberg; he exchanged it for a chair of logic in 1562....
    , 1568, = Stephanus. De urbibus (Basel).
  • Thomas de Pinedo, 1678, = Stephanus. De urbibus (Amsterdam).
  • Claudius Salmasius
    Claudius Salmasius

    Claudius Salmasius is the Latin name of Claude Saumaise , a France classical scholar....
     (Claude Saumaise) and Abraham van Berkel 1688, = Stephani Byzantini Gentilia per epitomen, antehac De urbibus inscripta (Leiden)
  • Karl Wilhelm Dindorf
    Karl Wilhelm Dindorf

    Karl Wilhelm Dindorf , Germany classical scholar, was born at Leipzig.From his earliest years he showed a strong taste for classical studies, and after completing F Invernizi's edition of Aristophanes at an early age, and editing several grammarians and rhetoricians, was in 1828 appointed extraordinary professor of literary history in his n...
    , 1825, Stephanus Byzantinus. Opera, 4 vols. (Leipzig), incorporating notes by L. Holsteinius, A. Berkelius, and T. de Pinedo.
  • Augustus Meineke, 1849, Stephani Byzantii ethnicorum quae supersunt (Berlin).
  • Margarethe Billerbeck (ed.), Stephani Byzantii Ethnica. Volumen I: A-G. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2006 (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 43/1), Pp. x, 64*-441, ISBN
978-3-11-017449-6. - reviewed by C. Neri in http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-07-64.html.

Further reading

  • Smith, W.
    William Smith (lexicographer)

    Sir William Smith , was a distinguished English lexicographer....
    , Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
    Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology

    The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary.Edited by William Smith , the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 pages....
    , vol. 3, s.v. "Stephanus" (2) of Byzantium.
  • Diller, Aubrey 1938, "The tradition of Stephanus Byzantius", Transactions of the American Philological Association 69: 333-48.
  • E.H. Bunbury, 1883, History of Ancient Geography (London), vol. i. 102, 135, 169; ii. 669-71.
  • Holstenius, L.
    Lucas Holstenius

    Lucas Holstenius was the Latinized name of Lukas Holste , German people Catholic Humanism, geographer and historian....
    , 1684 (posth.), Lucae Holstenii Notae et castigationes postumae in Stephani Byzantii Ethnika, quae vulgo Peri poleon inscribuntur (Leiden).
  • Niese, B., 1873, De Stephani Byzantii auctoribus (Kiel)
  • Geffcken, J., 1886, De Stephano Byzantio (Göttingen)
  • Whitehead, D. (ed.), 1994, From political architecture to Stephanus Byzantius : sources for the ancient Greek polis (Stuttgart).


Sources

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