1. Ἁγίων Βίοι

Ἁγίων Βίοιs.Μεταφράσεις, These constitute the largest and most important class of his writings. A few of them were probably original, but by far the greater part were paraphrases (μεταφράσεις) or recastings of more ancient legends, of which the language was too rude, or the narrative too meagre, to suit the vicious taste and boundless credulity of the age in which Symeon lived, and which he seems to have altered ad libitum. As many, if not most, of the saints whom he commemorated lived before the rupture between the Eastern and Western Churches, some of the more zealous Roman Catholics, as Aloysius Lipomannus, Gretser, and especially Allatius, contend earnestly for the credit of Metaphrastes. Protestant writers have generally set him down as an author unworthy of credit, with the exception, perhaps, of Cave, who seems to think that he only corrected the arrangement and style of those of the ancient legends which needed such revision, and left those which were better written altogether intact. The more critical Roman Catholics unite with the Protestants in depreciating the authority of Symeon. The number of the lives ascribed to Symeon in the MSS. amounts to between six and seven hundred. Lists of these and other are given by Allatius, ubi infra, and Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 186, seq.). Cave gives a list of a hundred and twenty-two which, after Allatius, he supposes to be correctly ascribed to Metaphrastes. Of those inaccurately assigned to him, Allatius ascribes four hundred and forty-four to other authors; of ninety-five others the authors are unknown. A great number of the genuine or spurious, are published in a Latin version by Lipomannus, Surius, and others, in their collections, of these Allatius has given a list (p. 76) : a few which Allatius also enumerates (p. 78) have been published in various works in the original Greek, with or without a Latin version. Another list of the published lives is given by Hamberger, Zuverlässige Nachrichten, vol. iv. p. 143, foll. (On these the great work of Metaphrastes, see Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 180, &c., besides various incidental notices; and the authors cited at the close of this account.)

2. Σημεὼν μαγίστρου καὶ λογοθέτου χρονογραφία

Σνμεὼν μαγίστρου καὶ λογοθέτου χρονογραφία, These extend from the beginning of the reign of Leo V. the Armenian, A. D. 813, where Theophanes concludes, to the reign of Romanus II. the younger, in the midst of which (A. D. 960 or 961) they somewhat abruptly break off. The work was prepared for the press by Combéfis, and is given among Οἱ μετά Θεοφάνην, in the Paris (fol. 1685), Venice (fol. 1729), and Bonn (8vo. 1838) editions of the The Paris edition, from which the others are taken, was published after the death of Combéfis, and from that circumstance is without notes. In these which closely, often verbatim, agree with the anonymous continuator of Theophanes [LEONTIUS, literary, No. 6], and with George the Monk [GEORGIUS, literary and ecclesiastical, No. 33.], Symeon, in the incidental notices of himself already cited, speaks in the third person.

3.

s. This has never been published, and seems to be different from the more important work just cited : it was a mere compilation, and was apparently less laboriously prepared than the preceding work; and in many parts agrees with Theophanes. Kollar, however ( p. 737), speaks of the mentioned above, as a portion of the Different copies of the and there are many MSS. which contain it, terminate at different periods : some end with the accession of Leo the Armenian at the point at which the commence : others terminate with Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and have prefixed the following iambic couplet. A comparison of these last copies would show whether the are an extract from the as Kollar supposes, or not. ἀρχὴν μὲν Ἀδὰμ ἔσχεν βίβλος, καὶ τέλος,τὸ Πορφυρογέννητον εὐσεβὲς κράτος.

One MS. at Venice comes down to the reign of Constantine XI. Ducas, who reigned from A. D. 1059 to 1067, a circumstance which shows either that the received some additions from a later hand, or that it is incorrectly ascribed to our Symeon, and must have been composed by a later writer. Oudin observes that the agrees in several places to the letter with the work of Leo Grammaticus; he says it is borrowed from it, and, as he assigns Leo's work to A. D. 1013. he urges this as one argument for the later date assigned by him to Metaphrastes. But we have elsewhere stated that the date assigned by him to Leo's work is inaccurate; the argument built upon it therefore falls. [LEO, Greek writers, No. 15.] Combéfis suspects that Psellus [PSELLUS, No. 3] was the continuator of the (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. pp. 471, &c., p. 684, &c.)

4. Συμεὼν μαγίστρου καὶ λογοθέτου τοῦ δρόμου ἐπιστολαί

Συμεὼν μαγίστρου καὶ λογοθέτου τοῦ δρόμου ἐπιστολαί,

5. Λόγοι

Λόγοι,

6.

Some short poems of Symeon have been printed. Τοῦ Μεταφραστοῦ στίχοι εἰς τὴν ἔνσαρκον οἰκονομίαν. κατ̓ ἐρώτησιν δήθεν καὶ ἀπόκρισιν,

7. Ἐπιτομὴ κανόνων

Ἐπιτομὴ κανόνων, already noticed in speaking of the imaginary Symeon Logotheta Junior. [No. 14.]

8. Κεφάλαια τοῦ ἁγίου Μακαριον ηεταφρασθέντα παρὰ Συμεὼν τοῦ Λογοθέτου

Κεφάλαια τοῦ ἁγίου Μακαριον ηεταφρασθέντα παρὰ Συμεὼν τοῦ Λογοθέτου, [MACARIUS, No. 1] Either this work or an of it is inserted in the of Possin. (Comp. the obscure notices in Lambecius, De Biblioth. Caesaraea, vol. v. pp. 151, &c., 214, &c., ed. Kollar.) Besides these Κεφάλαια, selected from the works of Macarius and paraphrased, Symeon wrote some original Κεφάλαια γνωμικὰ ρλά, extant in manuscript. (Allatius, p. 132.)

9.

also by Symeon Metaphrastes, were in the time of Allatius, and perhaps are still, in use in the Greek Church (Allatius, p. 131), and are extant in various MSS.

10.

11. Ἐκ τῶν τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Βασιλείου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Καισαρείας τῆς Καππαδοκίας ἠθικοὶ λόγοι κδ́ διὰ Συμεὼν τοῦ Μαγίστρου καὶ Λογοθέτου

Ἐκ τῶν τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Βασιλείου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Καισαρείας τῆς Καππαδοκίας ἠθικοὶ λόγοι κδ́ διὰ Συμεὼν τοῦ Μαγίστρου καὶ Λογοθέτου,

12. An account of the church of St. Sophia

Extant in two MSS. at Vienna (Kollar. comp. pp. 748, 760), is ascribed in one of the MSS. to Symeon Metaphrastes, but with what accuracy is uncertain. The citations from Metaphrastes in the of Nicetas, and the mention by Theophanes Cerameus of his , do not show that he wrote commentaries on Luke. The work intended is probably his account of Luke in his The citations in the of Macarius Chrysocephalus are possibly from his account of Matthew. A single manuscript ascribes to Symeon Metaphrastes, but with very doubtful correctness, a work called whether the work of Philip the Solitary [PHILIPPUS, literary and ecclesiastical, No. 27], or a different work, is not ascertained. (Allatius, p. 136; Fabric. vol. x. p. 62, note oo.)

The works of Symeon Metaphrastes are still valued by the Greeks. Three small quarto volumes containing selections from the translated into the modern Greek tongue by Agapius, a Cretan monk, printed at Venice in the years 1797, 1805, and 1806, and entitled respectively, Παράδεισος, Paradisus, Ἐκλόγιον, Eclogium, and Νέος Παράδεισος, are now before us.