The Dissertations of Maximus Tyrius

that existed in the copies available in the time of the Empress Eudocia*, who lived upwards of eight hundred years ago. As this order is obviously of the highest antiquity, the authority of a more recent manuscript, in which a different arrangement is adopted without any reason whatever, is certainly of no weight and is consequently not to be regarded. Had this circumstance been known to Davies, Markland, and Reiske, they would, without a doubt, have followed the order in which these Dissertations were first published, and in which they are now, for the first time, presented to the reader in an English dress.

• This is evident from the following account of Maximus, given by this empress in her Historical and Mythological Dictionary, published by Villoison at Venice, 1781:
  "Maximus Tyrius the philosopher dwelt at Rome under the emperor Commodus. He wrote many philosophic dissertations, the first of which is, What God is according to Plato; concerning Homer, and what the ancient philosophy is contained in his poems; if Socrates did well in not defending himself; and many other philosophical enquiries." Original: "Μάξιμος Τύριος Φιλόσοφος· διέτριψεν ἐν Ῥώμῃ ἐπὶ Κομμόδου. ἔγραψε πολλοὺς Φιλοσοφικοὺς λόγους, ὧν πρῶτος, τίς ὁ θεὸς κατὰ Πλάτωνα· περὶ Ὁμήρου, καὶ τίς ὁ παρ᾽ αὐτῷ ἀρχαία Φιλοσοφία· εἰ καλῶς Σωκράτης οὐκ ἀπολογήσατο, καὶ ἄλλα τινά Φιλοσοφὰ ζητήματα." The first dissertation, however, in Reiske's edition, is concerning Pleasure, &c.