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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
The earliest extant manuscript of Polybius, Books 1–5 is A (Vaticanus Graecus 124). It was copied by a monk called Ephraim in the tenth century in a fine early minuscule hand; quite probably A should be dated to A.D. 947, though this cannot be certain, since Ephraim gave the day of the month and the indic-tion in the subscription, but not the year. A is written in two columns to the page, the average line length is 19–21 letters, and the almost invariable extreme lengths are 18 and 22 letters. There are two lacunae in A on successive pages, the first affecting the bottom six lines of the second column of f. 1v and the top line of the first column of f. 2r, and the second affecting 11. 3–9 of the second column of f. 2r. These lacunae also appear in all other manuscripts covering the same section of text, with no significant variation of the content; however, the scribe of A has clearly taken a good deal of trouble to reproduce as accurately as possible the text in front of him, while all other manuscripts reproduce the text across the page with gaps of varying length. In addition to this, it can be shown that the line length of A is the same as that of the hyparchetype of all the extant manuscripts of Books 1–5.
page 243 note 1 I am grateful to Mr. R. M. Ogilvie for valuable suggestions in the course of work on these passages, and to Professor F. W. Walbank for reading the paper in manuscript.
The sigla used are those of Büttner-Wobst; his B is useless, since it is derived from A.
page 243 note 2 Cf. Diller, A., ‘Notes on Greek Codices of the Tenth Century’, T.A.P.A. lxxviii (1947), 184 ff.Google Scholar
page 243 note 3 Wielandt, R., De Polybii Archetypo, Constance, 1887,Google Scholar and Hultsch, F., Quaestiones Polybianae II, Programm des Gymnasiums zum Heil. Kreuz, Dresden, 1869.Google Scholar Their suggestion that the line length of A also represents the line length of the archetype of all extant manuscripts of Polybius may conceivably be correct, but cannot be proved.
page 244 note 1 Lorenz, K., Untersuchungen zum Geschichtswerk des Polybios (Stuttgart, 1931), pp. 82–83.Google Scholar
page 245 note 1 Cf. Moore, , The Manuscript Tradition of Polybius (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 132 f., 166 f.Google Scholar
page 246 note 1 Hultsch, , Quaestiones Polybianae I (Programm des Gymnasiums zu Zwickau, 1859), p. 16.Google Scholar