A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

A Greek Lexicon is extant under the name of Suidas, but nothing is known of the compiler. A Suidas is mentioned by Strabo (p. 329, ed. Casaub.) as the author of a history of Thessaly, and this work is also cited by the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, and by Stephanus of Byzantium (s. vv. Ἄμυρος, Δωδώνη, Frag. Steph.). It is not likely that this Suidas is the author of the Lexicon; but no certain conclusion as to the age of the compiler can be derived from passages in the work, which undoubtedly were written long after the time of Stephanus of Byzantium, for the work may have received numerous interpolations and additions. Eustathius, who lived about the end of the twelfth century A. D., quotes the Lexicon of Suidas. The article Adam (Ἀδάμ) contains a chronological epitome, which ends with the emperor Joannes Zimisces, who died A. D. 974; and in the article Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις) are mentioned Basisilius the second, and Constantius, who succeeded Joannes Zimisces. A remark under the article Polyeuctus (Πολύευκτος) shows that the writer of that remark was contemporaneous with the Patriarch Polyeuctus (ἐγένετο καὶ καθʼ ἡμᾶς Πολύευκτος, &c.) who succeeded Theophylactus, A. D. 956 (note of Reinesius); but the date 936 is given by other authorities. This passage which Reinesius assumes to prove the period of the author of the Lexicon, merely proves the period of the writer who made the remark; and he may be either the author of the Lexicon or an interpolator. But there are passages in the Lexicon which refer even to a later date (s. vv. Ἰηώρος; Δέρτρου; Ἡγήτορες), for Michael Psellus is quoted, and Psellus lived at the close of the eleventh century A. D. (See the notes on these words in Gaisford's edition.)

[G.L]