In the year 1581 a work issued from the press of Plantin at Antwerp, edited by Michael Ruiz, a Spaniard, and bearing the title

The two first mentioned works, of which the first is imperfect, are extremely short, and in reality are merely the preface and epistle dedicatory of the third, which extends to nearly 1600 hexameter lines, and is a formal panegyric, conceived in all the hyperbolical extravagance of the Byzantine school, in honour of the younger Justin, who swayed the empire of the East from A. D. 565 to 578. Ruiz asserts, that these pieces were faithfully copied from a MS. more than 700 years old; but of this document he gives no description; he does not state how it had come into his possession, nor where it was deposited ; it has never been found; and no other being known to exist, the text depends upon the editio princeps alone.

Corippus, in the preface above mentioned, refers to a poem which he had previously composed upon the African wars. Quid Libycas gentes, quid Syrtica proelia dicamJam libris completa meis ?

Now, Johannes Cuspianus " De Caesaribus et Imperatoribus" declares, that he saw in the royal library at Buda a poem in eight books entitled by Flavius Cresconius Corippus, the subject of which was the war carried on against the Africans by Johannes Patricius, and he quotes the first five lines beginning: Signa, duces gentesque feras, Martisque ruinas.

Moreover, we can prove from history that Cuspianus was at Buda between the years 1510 and 1515. Secondly, it is known that as late as 1532 a MS. "De Bellis Libycis" was preserved in the monastery of the Monte Casino, bearing the name of Cresconius, the first word being " Victoris." This does not correspond, it will be observed, with the commencement given by Cuspianus; but the difference, as we shall soon see, is only apparent. Both of the above MSS. have disappeared and left no trace behind them. Lastly, in the Vallicellan library at Rome is a MS. of the tenth century, containing a collection of ancient canons, to which the transcriber has prefixed the following note : " Concordia Canonum a Cresconio Africano episcopo digesta sub capitulis trecentis: iste nimirum Cresconius bella et victorias, quas Johannes Patricius apud Africam de Saracenis gessit, hexametris versibus descripsit," &c. From this it was inferred by many scholars, that Cresconius must have flourished towards the end of the seventh century, since we learn from Cedrenus that, in 697, the Arabians overran Africa, and were expelled by a certain Johannes Patricius despatched thither by the emperor Leontius; hence also Corippus and Cresconius were generally distinguished from each other, the former being supposed to be the author of the panegyric upon Justin, the latter of the Concordia Canonum and the poem " de Bellis Libycis." Various other conjectures were formed and combinations imagined which are now not worth discussing, since a great portion of the doubt and difficulty was removed by Mazuchelli in 1814, who discovered the long-lost Johannis in the library of the Marquis of Trivulzi at Milan, where it had been overlooked in consequence of having been inserted in the catalogue as the production of a Johannes de Aretio, who lived towards the close of the 14th century, and who appears to have transcribed it into the same volume with his own barbarous effusions. The Praefatio to this Johannis begins: Victoris, proceres, praesumsi dicere lauros,

while the first lines of the poem itself are the same with those quoted by Cuspianus, thus establishing the identity of the piece with that contained in the MSS. of Buda and Monte Casino, and enabling us to determine the full name of the author as given at the head of this article. The theme is a war carried on in Africa against the Moors and Vandals during the reign of Justinian, about the year 550, by a proconsul or magister militiae named Johannes, who is the hero of the lay. The campaign in question is noticed by Procopius (B. V. 2.28, B. G. 4.17) and Paulus Diaconus. (De Gestis Longobard. 1.25.) Of Johannes we know nothing except what we are told by Procopius and by the poet himself. He was the brother of Pappus; had served along with him on two previous occasions in Africa, under Belisarius in 533, and under Germanus in 537; his father was named Evantus; his wife was the daughter of a king; his son was called Peter; he had been employed in the East against the Persians, and had been recalled from thence to head an expedition against the rebellious Moors. (Procop. Il. cc. and B. G. 4.34; Johan. 1.197, 380, 7.576.)