INTRODUCTION 



I. The Life of Colluthus 



For the life of Gilluthus we have the following 

 authorities : 



1. Suidas s.v. KoAoi-^os "of Lycopolis in the 

 Thebais [in Eg\-pt : Ptolemy iv. 5.62, Strabo 812], 

 epic poetj who lived [or ' flourished,' yeyovm] in 

 the times of the emperor Anastasius [i.e. Anastasius 

 I., emperor 491-518], wrote Calydoniaca in six books, 

 and Encomia in epic verse, and Persica." So Eudocia 

 (Villoisin, Anecd. Gr. i. p. 271). 



2. A Life of Q)lluthus in cod. Ambrosianus Q 5 sup. : 

 '' Coluthus of Lycopolis in the Thebais, epic poet, 



lived, according to Suidas, in the time of Anastasius, 

 sumamed Brachinus, who succeeded Zeno as emperor 

 in Constantinople, and after whom reigned Justinus 

 the Thracian, after whom again the emperor was 

 divus (o ^etos) Justinianus, who delivered Italy from 

 the servitude of the Goths through Belisarius — 

 Justinian being the nephew of Justinus — a little 

 over a thousand years ago. He wrote Calydoniaca 

 in epic verse in six books and Encomia and Persica. 

 To him is ascribed also the present jx>em, the Rape 

 of Helen, a poem familiar and well known in Apulia, 

 where also the poetry of the Homeric Quintus [the 

 Post-Homerica — twv /ic^' 'Ofi^jpov Xoyot of Q. Smyr- 

 naeus or Calaber] was first discovered in the temple 



535 



