(), a celebrated Byzantine writer,
lived in the ninth and tenth centuries. He was descended from a noble family of great
distinction in Constantinople, and, owing to his birth, his talents, and his great learning,
he was raised to the highest dignities in the state; and we find that he successively held the
offices of proto-secretarius, logotheta dromi, and perhaps magnus logotheta, and at least that
of magister, whose office resembled much that of our president of the privy council. The title
of Patricius was likewise conferred upon him. The circumstance of his having held the post of
magister caused him to be frequently called Symeon Magister, especially when he is referred to
as the author of the
Annales quoted below, but his most common appellation is
Symeon Metaphrastes, or simply Metaphrastes, a surname which was given to him on account of
his having composed a celebrated paraphrase of the lives of the saints. There are many
conflicting hypotheses as to the time when he lived, which the reader will find in the sources
below. We shall only mention, that it appears from different passages in works of which the
authorship of this Symeon (Metaphrastes) is pretty well established, that he lived in the time
of the emperor Leo VI. Philosophus; that in 902 he was sent as ambassador to the Arabs in
Crete, and in 904 to those Arabs who had conquered Thessalonica, whom he persuaded to desist
from their plan of destroying that opulent city; and that he was still alive in the time of
the emperor Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus. Michael Psellus wrote an Encomium of Metaphrastes, which is given by Leo Allatius, quoted below.
Works
The principal works of Metaphrastes are :--
1. Vitae Sanctorum.
Metaphrastes, it is said, undertook this work at the suggestion of the emperor Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, but this is not very probable, unless the emperor requested him to do so
while still a youth. The work, however, is ho original composition, but only a paraphrase or
metaphrase of the lives of a great number of saints which existed previously in writing;
Metaphrastes has the merit of having re-written them in a very elegant style for his time,
omitted many things which appeared irrelevant to him, and added others which he thought
worth admitting. The biographers of Metaphrastes were in their turn remodelled by later
writers, and in many places completely mutilated; but whatever was left untouched is easily
to be distinguished from the additions. Fabricius gives a list of 539 lives which are
commonly attributed to Metaphrastes: out of these, 122 are decidedly genuine; but, according
to Cave, the greater part of the remaining 417, which are extant in MSS. in different
libraries, can be traced to Metaphrastes.
Editions
The principal lives are published, Greek and Latin, in Bollandii Acta Sanctorum.Agapius, a monk, made an extract of them, which was published under the title Liber dictus Paraclitus sen illustrium Sanctorum Vitae, desumptae ex
Simeone Metaphraste, Venice, 1541, 4to.
2. AnnalesAnnales, beginning with the emperor Leo Armenus (A. D. 813-820), and finishing with Romanus, the
son of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who reigned from 959-963. It is evident that the
Metaphrastes who was ambassador in 902 cannot possibly be the author of a work that treats
on matters which took place 60 years afterwards: thence some believe that the latter part of
the Annales was written by another Metaphrastes, while Baronius
thinks that the author of the whole of that work lived in the 12th century.
Editions
The Annales were published with a Latin version by
Combéfis in Hist. Byzant. Script. post
Theophanem, of which the edition by Immanuel Bekker, Bonn, 1838,
8vo., is a revised reprint.The Annales are a valuable source of Byzantine
history.
3. Annales ab Orbe Condito,
said to be extant in MS.
4. Epistolae IX.,
Greek and Latin, apud Allatium, quoted below.
5. Carmina Pia duo Politica,
apud Allatium, and in
Poetae Graeci Veteres, ed. Lectius,
Geneva, 1614, fol.
6. Serino in Diem Sabbati Sancti,
Editions
Latin, in the 3d vol. of Combéfis, Biblioth.
Concionator.
7. Εἰς τὸν Δρῆνον τῆς ὑπεραγίας Θεοτόκον,
&c., In Lamentationem Sanctae Deipcarae, &c.
Editions
Greek and Latin, apud Allatium.
8. Several Hymns or Canones
still used in the Greek church.
9. Ἠθικοὶ λόγοι, Sermones
XXIV. de Moribus,
extracted from the works of S. Basil
Editions
ed. Greek and Latin by Morellus, Paris, 1556, 8vo.; also Latin, by
Stanislas Ilovius, in Opera Basilii Magni ;the same separate, Frankfort, 8vo. (when ?)
Further Information
Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 683, 10.180, &c.; Cave,
Hist. Lit. p. 492, &c. ed. Geneva; Hankius, Script. Byzant. 100.24; Oudin, Dissertatio de
Aetate et Scriptis Simeonis Metaphrastis, in his Commentarii; Baronius, Annales ad ann. 859; Leo
Allatius, Diatriba de Simeonibus.