A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. Of Trapezus, the nephew of the preceding, was a monk at Constantinople, and made an abridgement of Dio Cassius from the thirty-sixth to the eightieth hook at the command of the emperor Michael VII. Ducas, who reigned from A. D. 1071 to 1078. Xiphilinus did not preserve the original arrangement of Dio Cassius, who divided his work into books, but he distributed it into sections (τμήματα), each of which contained the life of an emperor. He omitted the names of the consuls, which Dio Cassius always inserted, and sometimes he took the liberty to alter and amend the original. The work is executed with the usual carelessness which characterizes most epitomes, and is only of value as preserving the main facts of the original, the greater part of which is lost. As an example of the carelessness of Xiphilinus, we may mention a passage (71.32) in which lie refers the reader to a previous statement, which is, however, omitted in the Epitome. That he omitted many statements of considerable importance, and which certainly ought to have been preserved even in an abridgment, is evident from Zonaras, who has preserved many passages of Dio Cassius which are omitted by Xiphilinus. [ZONARAS.] For editions and further particulars see DION CASSIUS.