NEWIIALL. — PISISTRATUS AND HOMER. 495 



passage does not bring to the "source hunter" the despair which is usu- 

 ally attendant on such expressions, because, in this case, it is possible 

 with some degree of accuracy to determine the sources of the Townley 

 scholia. Let us briefly consider this point. The codex Venetus A 

 of the Iliad has the following subscription : TrapuKeirat ra 'Apta-ToviKov 



OTifiela Koi TO Ai8vp,ov Trepi r^? Api(rTap)(eLOV diopdacrecos, riva 8e koi Ik. ttjs 

 'iXiaK^y 7r/Jocra)8t'as 'HpaiStavoi) (cat e'/c twv fiiKavopos nepi (TTiyfiijs. "he dates 



of these four men are as follows : Aristonicus, 66 b. C.-19 a. d., Didy- 

 mus in the time of Augustus, Herodian under Marcus Aurelius, and 

 Nicanor probably under Hadrian. Of their connection with the Town- 

 ley scholia W. Christ^ says that to "extracts from the works of these 

 men the scholia of our manuscripts go back. Such are best preserved 

 to us in Venetus, 454 (A) ; next in worth stand the Townley scholia. 

 ... To the works of these men there were added in later times also 

 scholia from other grammarians, and especially from the z^nj/xara of 

 Porphyrins." Without doubt, therefore, our Townley scholia rest on 

 really ancient authorities and have the same source as the scholia of 

 Venetus A. Jebb ^^ also agrees with Christ in deeming Aristonicus, 

 Didymus, Herodian, and Nicanor, together with Porphyrins, the sources 

 of our scholia. ^^ 



A clear and valuable reference to the collection of the Homeric 

 poems by Pisistratus or his associates is to be found in Pausanias 

 (VH, 26, 6). When speaking of a certain city in Greece named 



Aovovaira, he makes the remark : p.vrjp.ov€V{iv 8e koi "O/xTjpov eV KaraKoyco 

 tS)u (tvu 'Ayapffivovi (f>aaiv avTrj: TTOi-qcravTa enos, 



Ol 9' 'Tireprjairjy re Kal alireiv^v AovSeffirav, 



TletcritTTpaTov Se, r^vina '4nrj to. 'Ofirjpov StfcrTrncr/xei/a re Koi oKKa aWa-xpv fxvq- 

 fiovevopeua rjdpo'i^ero, tj aiiTov YlficrlcrTpnTOV, fj t6)V riva eTaipcoif p-eraiToiricraL to 



ovofia vTTo dyvoias. The word '^ r]6poi(eTo" in this passage must clearly 

 refer to a writing down of the poems or to the collection of such por- 

 tions as may have existed in writing before the time of Pisistratus. It 

 is furthermore interesting to note that Pausanias is the earliest extant 

 writer to mention anything like a school of revisors and collectors as- 

 sociated with Pisistratus. Later we shall have other and more detailed 

 references to such a body of coworkers. 



9 Griesch. Lit. Gesch., ed. iv, Munich, 1905, p. 71. 



" Homer, Glasgow, 1887, p. 100. 



" It is obviously dangerous as well as unnecessary for our present purposes 

 to make any one -of these four or five authorities the ultimate source of this 

 scholion. That is a point which cannot be definitely settled. Sufficient it is if 

 I have merely hinted at the real antiquity and trustworthiness of our Townley 

 scholia. 



