On the Magistrates of the Roman Republic

...of the Middle and Late Ages, edited by Mansi Giovanni Domenico Mansi (1692–1769) was an Italian scholar famous for his massive collection of Church Council records. This reference is to his edition of the Bibliotheca Latina., Volume I, Padua, 1754, in-quarto, page 186. I recognized this myself after conducting a comparison: I likewise noticed that the short works immediately following—Prognostics of the Seasons original: "Pronostica temporum" and On the Foreknowledge of Future Abundance or Poverty original: "De præcognitione copiæ aut paupertatis futuræ", found in the Works of Bede, Volume I, columns 390–391—originate from the same source. This is true except for a few passages which Bede The Venerable Bede, an 8th-century English monk and scholar. either misunderstood or hastily gathered from other sources. But I shall say more on these matters elsewhere; for now, let us see further what fate befell Lydus during the Middle Ages.

VII. Why most of Lydus’s manuscripts perished in the 7th and 8th centuries.

VII. The Age of Turmoil

For after the death of Heraclius Augustus Emperor Heraclius (reigned 610–641 AD), whose death coincided with the rapid expansion of the Arab Caliphate., those turbulent and lamented centuries followed, when the suddenly risen Arabs seized Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Sicily by force of arms, and drained the remaining provinces of the Roman people The "Roman people" here refers to the Byzantine Empire, which still called itself the Roman Republic or Empire. through constant raids. This most serious catastrophe, which was nearly fatal to our classical literature, has been judged by great and most learned men—such as J. J. Reiske, J. Th. Buhle, and others—to have been somewhat mitigated by the liberality and kindness of the Caliphs and Sultans. They have explained this view in their published writings: On Muhammadan Princes who were Famous either for Erudition or for the Love of Literature and Learned Men, Leipzig, 1747, in-quarto; and On the Beginnings and Methods of the Study of Greek Literature among the Arabs. Com-