TheEpistola ad Joannem Milliumwas called forth by one of those unhappy productions which, mediocre themselves, have had the ill luck to attract the inspection of genius. Mediocrity has strong claims upon the forgetfulness of posterity, and Joannes Malelas of Antioch suffers beyond his deserts in being immortalized by the greatest of scholars. Living during the eighth or ninth century of our era, he was one of several Greek writers to attempt a chronological record of mankind, beginning with Adam and ending with the reigning emperor. Malelas’s work narrowly missed an uneventful passage into the land of oblivion, for...

Memini equidem, Milli doctissime, cum abhinc dies complusculos deambularemus una, strenueque de literulis nostris sermones cæderemus ; ibi forte fortuna de Joanne Antiochensi mentionem fuisse injectam: cumque me desiderium cepisset librum adhuc musteum videndi, priusquam in lucem publicam, te curante, exiret ; ea me lege id abs te impetravisse, ut siqua in tam depravato scriptore emendationem nostram accipere possent, ea in schedulas conjecta ad te mitterem. Duram profecto conditionem, quamque adeo multis de causis nollem acceptam. Nam ut omittam, quod ex illo fere tempore a meliori librorum et chartularum mearum parte, et (quod acerbius mihi accidit) a jucundissima tua consuetudine...