WILHELM ROETHER’S

PREFACE.

While the tireless zeal with which learned men of our time handle all the finest and most elegant Greek writers—for the true benefit of literature—is worthy of the highest praise and should be received with gratitude, almost no one of learning would criticize or disapprove of the effort as being poorly spent if the writers of "Later Greek" original: Graecitatis (who cannot be numbered among the very best) were either brought to light from the libraries where they still hide, or if those already published were edited with greater care and correction.

Among these writers, those who seem especially worthy of more diligent critical attention are the ones whom some call "compilers" original: compilatores—a term Roether notes is not strictly classical Latin. These figures either drew directly from original sources that have since been destroyed by the "injury of time" A common scholarly phrase referring to the loss of ancient texts due to neglect, war, or decay., or they composed their Excerpts Selected passages or summaries from larger works. with the help of manuscripts original: codicum that were superior to the ones preserved in our libraries today. And among these compilers, [the author] certainly holds not the least place—