PREFACE

To have transcribed them in such a way, or to have pulled them apart or argued against them, would have been altogether too untimely, superfluous, and ambitious. Indeed, we are well aware that among those authors we mentioned above, there are some who—occasionally opposing us openly—reject our opinion and strive to establish their own in its place. But I am equally indifferent whether others here agree or disagree with me. I do not wish for hours to be lost in these matters through a stubborn back-and-forth of contention. If what we have brought forward is not sufficient (though we certainly think it suffices), the matter will by no means become firmer by clashing swords original: "digladiando," literally "fighting with swords," a common metaphor for sharp academic debate. and, as often happens, repeating the very same things we have already written. Contentious disputes should be reserved for more serious matters, just as they should be for those less accessible.

What we have said regarding those recent writers named above must also truly be said of the most learned Pierre du Faur Latinized as Petrus Faber (1540–1600), a French jurist and scholar., who discusses Astarte A major Northwest Semitic goddess, often associated with fertility and war. at greater length at the beginning of the third book of his Semestria, and weaves in several other things concerning our subject matter; even though it is true that Faber's third book was published many years before our first edition. But I call the most Holy Divinity to witness that even that Sacred Aristarchus, written by that most eminent author original: "τοῦ πάνυ" (tou pany), a Greek idiom meaning 'the great' or 'the famous,' referring here to Daniel Heinsius. and first printed last year, came into my hands before this third book of Faber’s. Far be it from the truth that we used it when we were first writing, or that we stealthily borrowed these Commentaries of ours, or any significant part of them, from it. Nevertheless, there was someone who, in a Diatribe concerning Ti-