PATRICIUS. evidence. The Homero-Centra^ as they appear in the printed editions, are still further enlarged by the addition of prefixed narratives of the creation and the fall of man, and by the insertions of various episodes and descriptions. These Homero-Centra were first published with the Latin version of Pe- trus Candidus, 4to. Venice, 1502, in the second volume of the Collection of the ancient Christian Poets, printed by Aldus. It was reprinted 8vo. Frankfort, 1541 and 1554, by Henry Stephens, 12mo. Paris, 1578, and by Claudius Chapelet, 8vo. Paris, 16'09, with various other pieces. In all these editions they were given anonymously. They were afterwards inserted in the Appendix to the Bihliotheca Patrum, ed. fol. Paris, 1624, and in vol. xi. of the edition of the Biblioiheca Patrum, fol. Paris, 1644, and vol. xiv. of the edition of 1654. The Latin version had appeared in the BiUiotheca as compiled by De la Eigne, A. D. 1575. In all the editions of the BiUiotheca the Homero-Centra are ascribed to Eudocia or to Patricius Pelagius and Eudocia conjointly. They were reprinted, 12mo. Leipsic, 1793, by L. H. Teucher, who professed to have revised the text. In this edition the poem consists of two thousand three hundred and forty- three lines. (Fabric. Biblioth. Grace, vol. i. p. 552, &c., vol. xi. p. 706 ; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. i. p. 403, ed. Oxford, 1740 — 43 ; Olearius, De Poetriis Graeds^ c. 32, apud Wolfium, Poetriarum Goto Fragmentay 4to. Hamb. 1734, with Wolfius' notes.) 6. Of Prusa. In the Acta Sanctorum of the BoUandists [Apr His, vol. iii. Appendix, -p. Ixv.) is given from a MS. in the Medicean Library at Florence, a narrative entitled yiapripiov rov dyiov Upofidprvpos UarpiKLov Upoixnfs. A Latin version is given in the body of the volume (ad diem xxviii. p. 576). Patricius was arraigned before Julius, proconsul, it may be supposed of Bithynia, who, having experienced great benefit from certain warm springs sacred to Asclepias and Hygeia, sent for him to urge upon him the proof which this circumstance afforded of the power of the gods. Patricius replied to the proconsul's cXgument by an exposition of the cause of warm springs, which he ascribed to sub- terranean fires destined to be hereafter the place of torment to the souls of the wicked ; and ap- pealed to the flames of Aetna as evidence of the existence of this fire. Patricius was beheaded by the proconsul's order, on the 19th of May, but in what year or reign the record does not state. All that can be conjectured is that it was in one of the persecutions of the heathen emperors of Rome, and apparently before Diocletian fixed the seat of government at Nicomedeia, The defence of Pa- tricius of Prusa is cited by Glycas {Annal. pars i. p. 17, ed. Paris, p. 1 3, ed. Venice, p. 34, ed. Bonn), and at greater length by Cedrenus {Compend. p. 242, ed. Paris, vol. i. p. 425, ed. Bonn) ; but there are many discrepancies between the citation of Cedrenus and the text (c. 4, 5) given in the Acta Sanctorum. The Latin version from the Acta Sanctoi-um is given in Ruinart's Acta Prim. Martyr, p. 554, &c. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 305 ; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad Ann. 858 (sub nom. Patricius Ararsius), vol. ii. p. 51.) 7. Petrus, the Patrician. [Petrus.] 8. Of St. Saba. In the imperial library at Vienna is a Greek version of the works or part of the works of Isaac the Syrian, bishop of Nine- veh, who lived, according to Assemani {Biblioth. Orient, vol. iii. pars i. p. 104, note 3), about the PATRICIUS. 137 close of the sixth century, but according to Nice- phorus the editor of Isaac's Ascetica (Praef. p. vi.) in the first half of that century. The Vienna MS. bears this title : Tov Iv dylois irarpds rifju&v *A§§a 'laaaK 'S.vpov koI dj'axwprjTou tov •yivo^iivov hri- GKOTTov rijs (piQXpi(TTov TToAews Hiuevl Xoyoi daKT]- TiKol, evpedevres vnd rwv oaiwv irarepcov tj/mi/ tov 'A€§a narpiKiov Kal tov 'A§§3. ^A§pafxiov tuv <pio- a6(j)(iov Kat TjcuxatTTWi/ ev rp Kavpa tov 4v dyiois iraTpbs i^yLwv 2d§§a, Sancti Patris nostri Abbatis Isaaci Syri ct Anachoretae, quifuit Episcopus urbis Christi-amantis Nineve, Sermones ascetici, reperti a Sanctis patribus nostris Abbate Patricio et Abbate Abramio sapientiae Christianae et quieti monasticae deditis in Laura (sive Monasterio) Sancti Patris nostri Sabbae. (Lambec. Commentar. de Bibliotlu Caesar, vol. v. col. 158, ed. Kollar.) The MS. contains eighty-seven Sermones Ascetici, apparently translated from the Syriac text of Isaac by Patri- cius and Abramius ; though the title of the MS. only ascribes to them the finding of the work. In other MSS. however (e. g. in several Vatican, Assemani, Bibl. Orient, vol. i. p. 446, and one, perhaps two, Bodleian, Nos. 256 and 295, vid. Catalog. MStorum Angliae et Hiberniae, pp. 35, 44, fol. Oxford, 1697), they are described as trans- lators. Assemani, however, observes that they translated not the whole works of Isaac, which, according to Ebed-jesu (apud Assemani, I. c), who has perhaps ascribed to Isaac of Nineveh the works of other Isaacs, extended to seven tomi or vo- lumes, and treated De Regimine Spiritus, de Divinis Mysteriis (comp. Gennad. De Viris Illustr. c. 26), de Judiciis et de Politia, but only ninety-eight of his Sermones. This is the number in the Vatican MSS.; in one of the Bodleian (No. 295, Catal. MStor. Angliae, p. 44) there are ninety-nine, but it is to be observed that the division, as well as the number of these Sermones, which are also termed Xoyoi, Orationes, differs in different MSS (Ni- cephorus, I. c). The first fifty-three, according to the arrangement of the Vienna MS., are extant in a Latin version, as one work, under the title of Isaaci Syri de Contempiu Mundi Liber ; and this work, which appears in several collections of the works of the fathers, has been improperly ascribed by the respective editors of the Bibliotlieca Patrum, except Galland, to Isaac of Antioch [Isaacus, No. 5], instead of their true author Isaac of Nineveh [Isaacus, No. 6J. It is to be observed, that Isaac of Nineveh was not the Isaac men- tioned by Pope Gregory the Great as visiting Italy and dying near Spoletum [Isaacus, No. 6]. The" Greek version of Isaac's ascetic works by Patricius and Abramius, as far as it is extant, was published by Nicephorus Theotocius, a Greek monk, by direction of Ephraim, patriarch of Jeru- salem, 4to., Leipzig, 1770. The edition contains eighty-six Aoyoi, Orationes, and four 'ETTjoroAoi, Epistolae, which, in the two MSS. employed by Nicephorus, were reckoned as yoi, making ninety altogether. These were differently diyided and arranged in his MSS. He followed the division (with one exception) and the text of one MS., giving the different readings of the other, but formed an arrangement of his own, differing from both the MSS. What portion of the seven tomi mentioned by Ebed-jesu is contained in this work cannot, from the various divisions and titles of the divisions in the MSS., be ascertained. Of the time when Patricius and
