his lifetime as a poet, all his verses have perished. The work cited
in our Fragments,--"Concerning the Offices of the Roman Republic, in
Three Books,"--had a curious history. For centuries it was regarded as
lost, but about 1785 nine tenths of it was discovered by De Villoison
in a MS. in the suburbs of Constantinople. It was published in Paris,
1811.--Laurentius in the course of his career held important political
posts and received two important literary appointments from the
Emperor Justinian I.

Suidas.--A lexicographer of the tenth century, composer of the most
comprehensive Greek dictionary of early times. It is a manual at once
of language and of antiquities. Inestimable as its value is, the
workmanship is careless and uneven. The arrangement is alphabetical.

John Tzetzes.--A Greek grammarian of the twelfth century. His learning
was great but scarcely equaled his self-conceit, as repeatedly
displayed in passages of his works. Many of his writings are still
extant. One of these is called _Chiliades_ (or _Thousands_), a name
bestowed by its first editor, who divided the work into sections of
one thousand lines each. The subject-matter consists of the most
miscellaneous historical or mythological narratives or anecdotes,
absolutely without connection. Tzetzes copied these accounts from
upward of four hundred writers,--one of them being Cassius Dio. The
_Chiliades_ is written in the so-called _Versus politicus_, or
"political verse," which is really not verse at all, but a kind of
decadent doggerel.--A minor treatise by the same author is the
_Exegesis of the Iliad of Homer_, published by Hermann (Leipzig,
1812).

Isaac Tzetzes, who has attracted less attention than his brother John,