A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

21. Of MESOPOTAMIA. A discourse of which a Latin version under the title of Sermo de morte semper meditando, or Sermo de mente semper complectendo suum cuique discessum, is given in the Bibliotheca Patrum (Appendix ad edit. primam, Paris, 1579; vol. ii. ed. secunda, Paris, 1589; vol. v. pt. ii. ed. Cologne, 1618; vol. ii. col. 73-76, ed. Paris, 1654; vol. vii. p. 1227, ed. Lyon. 1677), where it is ascribed to the elder Symeon the Stylite [No. 31], is in a MS. of the original, in the Imperial Library at Vienna, ascribed to a Symeon of Mesopotamia. Τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ ὁσίου Ευμεῶνος Μεσοποταμίας περὶ τοῦ ἀεὶ ἐν νψ͂ ἔχειν τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς ἐξόδου τοῦ βίου. Sancti Symeonis Mesopotamitae sermo de so quod semper in animo habere debeamus diem exitus vitae. Lambecius shows, by quotations from the Vitae Patrum of Rosweydus, and the Menaea of the Greeks, that there was a particular monastery, in some locality not defined, apparently in the Syrian or Roman part of Mesopotamia, which was usually described by the name of the country, not of any particular adjacent spot : --" monasterium quod est in Mesopotamia Syriae," μονὴ τοῦ ἁγίου Ἀσκληπιοῦ τοῦ ἐν τῇ Μεσοποταμίἁ τῆς Συρίας; and thinks it likely that Symeon, the author of the discourse, was abbot of this monastery. The Greek text, from which Lambecius cites some passages, differs materially in parts from the Latin version in the Bibliotheca Patrum. (Allat. De Symeon. Scriptis, p. 24; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. p. 298; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. Dissertat. prima, p. 18; Lambec. Comment. de Biblioth. Caesaraea, vol. s. lib. v. col. 198, &c. ed. Kollar.)