THE TEXT
The text of Velleius depends upon a single manuscript found by Beatus Rhenanus in the Benedictine monastery of Murbach, in Alsace, in the year 1515. This manuscript has long since disappeared. Rhenanus in describing it testifies to the almost hopeless state of corruption of the text: “so monstrously corrupt that no human ingenuity could restore all of it”; “I am ready to swear that the scribe who copied it did not understand a word”; “there is no portion of it that is not corrupt.” Not satisfied with a copy hastily made by a friend, he resolved to delay publication until he should have a chance to consult a better manuscript said to have been found in Milan by Georgius Merula. Disappointed in this hope, he brought out the ed. princeps at Basle in 1520. The edition while still in proof was compared with the Murbach manuscript by Burer, one of the secretaries of Rhenanus, who also noted many of its variant readings in an appendix to the edition. The editio princeps, with Burer’s readings appended, was the sole source of our knowledge of the text until 1834 when Orelli brought to light in the library of the Academy at Basle an independent copy of the Murbach MS. made in 1516 by Bonifacius Amberbach. From this copy is missing the first fragment of Bk. I beginning at tempestate distractus ch. 1 and ending with raptus virginum Sabinarum ch. 8. The absence of this fragment would seem to indicate either that in 1516 it had not yet been found or at any rate that it had not yet been recognized as part of the text of Velleius. Amberbach’s copy is of great importance, in conjunction with the readings of Burer, in enabling the critic to restore the original readings of the Murbach MS. But while modern scholarship has made progress in solving the enigmas, the text of Velleius, unless some long-hidden manuscript shall unexpectedly come to light, will always continue to be one of the most corrupt among the surviving texts of classical authors.
The text of the present volume is a composite. While chiefly indebted to the editions of Halm and Ellis, I have frequently followed older editors, particularly in the most corrupt passages, where the interpretations of these scholars seem to be nearer to the tradition of the Murbach manuscript or to the sense demanded by the context. The critical nomenclature given in the sigla is that of Ellis. I have occasionally altered the punctuation, and, for the convenience of the reader, have made more frequent use of the paragraph.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Among the older editions after the ed. princeps (see chapter on text) the following are most frequently mentioned in the notes on the text: J. N. Schegkius, Frankfort, 1589; Acidalius, Padua, 1590; J. Lipsius, Leyden, 1591, Antwerp, 1627; Gruter, Frankfort, 1607 (first systematic division into chapters); Riguez, Paris, 1675 (Delphin ed. with word index); N. Heinsius, Amsterdam, 1678; P. Burman, Leyden, 1719 and 1744. More modern editions are D. Ruhnken, 2 vols., Leyden, 1779; reprinted by Frotscher, Leipzig, 1830‑9; J. C. H. Krause, Leipzig, 1800; N. E. Lemaire, Paris, 1822; J. C. Orelli, Leipzig, 1835; Halm, Leipzig, 1863 and 1875; Ellis, Oxford, 1898. An annotated edition in English by Frank E. Rockwood, Boston, 1893, will be found useful for the period of Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius. There is an English translation by J. S. Watson in Bohn’s Classical Library. For a complete bibliography, especially of monographs and periodical literature concerning the numerous special problems which arise in Velleius, see lists in Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur.
SIGLA
A = Amberbach’s copy of the lost Codex Murbachensis completed in August 1516, now in the library of the Academy at Basle, A.N. ii.8.
P = Editio Princeps, printed in 1520.
B = Burer’s readings from the Murbach Codex, which are printed at the end of the Ed. Princeps. Halm indicates these readings by the letter M.
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