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| Preface.
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II. Jerome.
Lives of Illustrious
Men.
————————————
Preface.
You have urged me, Dexter,2320
| 2320 Dexter. Compare chapters 132 and
106. | to follow the
example of Tranquillus2321
| 2321 Tranquillus. C. Suetonius Tranquillus
(about a.d. 100). De illustribus
grammaticis; De claris rhetoribus. | in giving a
systematic account of ecclesiastical writers, and to do for our writers
what he did for the illustrious men of letters among the Gentiles,
namely, to briefly set before you all those who have published2322
| 2322 Published or handed down
“Prodiderunt.” Some mss.
read “tradiderunt,” and Jerome usually employs
“Edo” for publish. | any memorable writing on the Holy
Scriptures, from the time of our Lord’s passion until the
fourteenth year of the Emperor Theodosius.2323
| 2323 Fourteenth year of the Emperor Theodosius. a.d. 492. | A similar work has been done by
Hermippus2324
| 2324 Hermippus of Smyrna. (3rd century
b.c.) Lives of distinguished
men. | the peripatetic, Antigonus
Carystius,2325
| 2325 Antigonus. Antigonus of Carystus
(Reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus?). | the learned Satyrus,2326
| 2326 Satyrus. A Peripatetic (Reign of
Ptolemy Philopator) “wrote a collection of
biographies.” | and most learned of all, Aristoxenus
the Musician,2327
| 2327 Aristoxenus the musician. A
Peripatetic, pupil of Aristotle, wrote lives of various
Philosophers. | among the
Greeks, and among the Latins by Varro,2328
| 2328 Varro. M. Terentius Varro the
“most learned of the Romans” (died b.c. 28) published among other things a series of
“portraits of seven hundred remarkable personages” (Ramsay
in Smith’s Dictionary). | Santra,2329
| 2329 Santra. Santra the
Grammarian? | Nepos,2330
| 2330 Nepos. Cornelius Nepos friend of
Cicero wrote Lives of Illustrious men. | Hyginus,2331
| 2331 Hyginus. Caius Julius Hyginus,
freedman of Augustus and friend of Ovid. | and by him through whose example you
seek to stimulate2332
| 2332 Seek to stimulate 30 31 a [H e 21] and
the mass of mss. also Fabricius;
stimulate. A.T. Migne. Her. |
us,—Tranquillus.
But their situation and mine is
not the same, for they, opening the old histories and chronicles could
as if gathering from some great meadow, weave some2333
| 2333 SomeA H 25 31 e 21. Fabricius;
No T a? Migne Her. | small crown at least for their work.
As for me, what shall I do, who, having no predecessor, have, as the
saying is, the worst possible master, namely myself, and yet I must
acknowledge that Eusebius Pamphilus in the ten books of his Church
History has been of the utmost assistance, and the works of various
among those of whom we are to write, often testify to the dates of
their authors. And so I pray the Lord Jesus,2334
that what your Cicero, who stood at
the summit of Roman eloquence, did not scorn to do, compiling in his
Brutus, a catalogue of Latin orators, this I too may accomplish
in the enumeration of ecclesiastical writers, and accomplish in a
fashion worthy of the exhortation which you made. But if, perchance any
of those who are yet writing have been overlooked by me in this volume,
they ought to ascribe it to themselves, rather than to me, for among
those whom I have not read, I could not, in the first place, know those
who concealed their own writings, and, in the second place, what is
perhaps well known to others, would be quite unknown to me in this out
of the way corner of the earth.2335
| 2335 Out of the way corner of the earth i.e., Bethlehem. | But
surely when they are distinguished by their writings, they will not
very greatly grieve over any loss in our non-mention of them. Let
Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian learn, rabid as they are against Christ,
let their followers, they who think the church has had no philosophers
or orators or men of learning, learn how many and what sort of men
founded, built and adorned it, and cease to accuse our faith of such
rustic simplicity, and recognize rather their own ignorance.
In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, farewell.2336
| 2336 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ farewell T 25 31 a 21; do. omitting Christ A; omit all H
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