COLLUTHUS 



of St. Nicolas of Cassuli [Casoli] outside Hydrumtum 

 [Otranto] and which its recoverer, the sainted 

 Bessarion^ archbishop of Nicaea, cardinal -bishop of 

 Tusculum [Frascati], communicated to all concerned. 

 And this also which was hidden, shall now be public 

 property." 



Notes: — (1) Zeno was emperor of the East at Con- 

 stantinople from A.D. 474 to 491. He was succeeded by 

 Anastasius I. who reigned 491 -518. He in turn was 

 succeeded by Justinus I. who reigned 518-527. He is 

 called " the Thraciau " because he was a native of Thrace. 

 He again was succeeded by his nephew Justinian who 

 reigned 527-565. For Belisarius see Gibbon, chap. xli. 



(2) Bessarion (1395 .^-1472), a native of Trapezus 

 (Trebizond), was a pupil of-Plethou in the Peloponnese, 

 became Cardinal and Patriarch of Constantinople, died in 

 1472 at Ravenna. In 1446 tlie Pope committed to him 

 the oversight of the Greek monasteries of the Basilian 

 Order to which, before leaving the East, Bessarion 

 belonged^ The Italian monasteries of this Order were 

 in the South of Italy. 'ITiis circumstance led in 1450 to 

 the discovery by Bessarion in the monastery of St. Nicola 

 di Casoli (close to Otranto in Calabria), destroyed by 

 the Turks in 1480, of vanous MSS. including Quintus 

 Smyrnaeus (hence called Calaber) and CoUuthus. He 

 bequeathed his MSS. to Venice, where they now form 

 part of the library of St. Mark, founded bv Bessarion 

 in 1468. 



(3) The Hypothesis preserved in Parisinus 2764 adds 

 nothing to (2). 



^ Cf. Ecthesis Chronica ed. Lambros, London 1902, p. 6 

 ■^X^ov diravTei ip KuivaTauTivovn-dXei ... 6 NiKat'as Brjffcrapiup 

 ... 6 (piXdffo^os Tefuarbs Kal &\\oi iK tGiv apxi-^pi'^v ovk 

 6\lyoi. Ibid. p. 7 6 yhp BricTcraplwv fjv 7roXi>5 ivl tQ X^yeiv Kal 

 &Kpos (pi\6(T0<i>oi' yiyove yap Kal yap5ivd\ios, ix'^" T^t'-V'' ^^^ 

 56faJ' ov TTjv Tvxovffai'' Tf^ainiae yap t^v d6^av tQv ivOpwirwy 

 1j Tov OeoD. 



536 



