ABOUT BOOK

"A critical edition, with English translation and notes, of chapters 27–60 of the Semeioseis gnomikai (“Sententious notes”), a collection of 120 essays by the Byzantine statesman and scholar Theodore Metochites (1270–1332). The edition is based on three manuscripts, which are briefly presented in the introduction. P (Par. gr. 2003, Paris) and M (Marc. gr. 532, Venice) were both written in the early fourteenth century; E (Scor. gr. 248, Escorial) is a sixteenth-century copy of M. ~After the edition, with accompanying English translation and notes, the book is concluded with a bibliography and three indexes: of quoted passages, Greek words, and Greek names. ~Several of the essays in this volume contain laments on the reduced state of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), and on the vicissitudes of human life and fortune. A group of short essays describe the pleasure of beholding Creation and one of the longest discusses the pros and cons of having been born, i.e. of life."