Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the

epitome An epitome (; , from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "to the degree of." A ...

is extant, compiled by one Hermolaus, not otherwise identified.

Life

Nothing is known about the life of Stephanus, except that he was a Greek grammarian who was active in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, and lived after the time of Arcadius and Honorius, and before that of Justinian II. Later writers provide no information about him, but they do note that the work was later reduced to an

by a certain Hermolaus, who dedicated his epitome to Justinian; whether the first or second emperor of that name is meant is disputed, but it seems probable that Stephanus flourished in

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a n ...

in the earlier part of the sixth century AD, under

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

The ''Ethnica''

Stephanos' work, originally written in Greek, takes the form of an alphabetical

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

of geographical toponymns, ethnonymns etc. It is a vast work, with sometimes hundreds of list entries under each letter of the greek alphabet: Α– Ω. Even as an epitome, the ''Ethnica'' is of enormous value for geographical, mythological, and

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

information about

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

. Nearly every article in the epitome contains a reference to some ancient writer, as an authority for the name of the place. From the surviving fragments, we see that the original contained considerable quotations from ancient authors, besides many interesting particulars, topographical, historical, mythological, and others. Stephanus cites Artemidorus,

Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...

, Aelius Herodianus,

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

and other writers. He is the only writer to cite a lost work attributed to Sophaenetus.H. D. Westlake, "Diodorus and the Expedition of Cyrus", ''Phoenix'' 41.3 (1987), pp. 241–254, at 251–252. The chief fragments remaining of the original work are preserved by Constantine Porphyrogennetos in '' De Administrando Imperio'', ch. 23 (the article ') and ''De thematibus'', ii. 10 (an account of

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

); the latter includes a passage from the comic poet Alexis on the ''Seven Largest Islands''. Another respectable fragment, from the article ''Δύμη'' to the end of ''Δ'', exists in a manuscript of the Fonds Coislin, the library formed by Pierre Séguier. The first modern printed edition of the work was published by the

Aldine Press The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was d ...

in Venice in 1502. The complete standard edition is still that of August Meineke (1849, reprinted at Graz, 1958), and by convention, references to the text use Meineke's page numbers. A new completely revised edition in German, edited by B. Wyss, C. Zubler, M. Billerbeck, J.F. Gaertner, was published between 2006 and 2017, with a total of 5 volumes.

Editions

Aldus Manutius Aldus Pius Manutius (; ; 6 February 1515) was an Italian printer and Renaissance humanism, humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preser ...

(pr.), 1502, (''Peri poleōn'') = ''Stephanus. De urbibus'' ("On cities") (Venice)
Google Books
* Guilielmus Xylander, 1568, = ''Stephanus. De urbibus'' (Basel). * Thomas de Pinedo, 1678, = ''Stephanus. De urbibus'' (Amsterdam). Contains parallel Latin translation
Google Books
* Claudius Salmasius (Claude Saumaise) and Abraham van Berkel, 1688, = ''Stephani Byzantini Gentilia per epitomen, antehac De urbibus inscripta'' (Leiden). Contains parallel Latin translation
Google Books
* Lucas Holstenius, 1692, ''Notae & castigationes in Stephanum Byzantium De urbibus'' (Leiden)
Google Books
* Thomas de Pinedo, 1725, ''Stephanus de urbibus'' (Amsterdam)
Google Books
* Karl Wilhelm Dindorf, 1825, ''Stephanus Byzantinus. Opera'', 4 vols, (Leipzig). Incorporating notes by L. Holsteinius, A. Berkelius, and T. de Pinedo
Google Books
* Anton Westermann, 1839, ''Stephani Byzantii ethnikon quae supersunt'' (Leipzig)
Google Books
* Augustus Meineke, 1849, ''Stephani Byzantii ethnicorum quae supersunt'' (Berlin)
Google Books
* Margarethe Billerbeck ''et al.'' (edd), ''Stephani Byzantii Ethnica''. 5 volumes: 2006–2017. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 43/1)
/ref> *
Volume 1: α–β
** Volume 2: δ–ι ** Volume 3: κ–ο ** Volume 4: π–υ ** Volume 5: φ–ω

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Smith, W., '' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. 3, s.v. "Stephanus" (2) of Byzantium. * Diller, Aubrey 1938, "The tradition of Stephanus Byzantius", ''Transactions of the American Philological Association'' 69: 333–48. * E.H. Bunbury, 1883, ''History of Ancient Geography'' (London), vol. i. 102, 135, 169; ii. 669–71. * Holstenius, L., 1684 (posth.), ''Lucae Holstenii Notae et castigationes postumae in Stephani Byzantii Ethnika, quae vulgo Peri poleōn inscribuntur'' (Leiden). * Niese, B., 1873, ''De Stephani Byzantii auctoribus'' (Kiel) * Johannes Geffcken, 1886, ''De Stephano Byzantio'' (Göttingen) * Whitehead, D. (ed.), 1994, ''From political architecture to Stephanus Byzantius : sources for the ancient Greek polis'' (Stuttgart). * {{Authority control 6th-century Byzantine writers Ancient Greek anthologists Ancient Greek lexicographers Byzantine geographers 6th-century Byzantine scientists 6th-century geographers