Moschus

• A rhetorician of Pergamus, accused of poisoning, Hor. Ep. 1, 5, 9.—
• II A Roman surname, Inscr. Mur. 477, 5.

(Μόσχος).

1. A grammarian and bucolic poet, a native of Syracuse. He lived about the close of the third century B. C., and, according to Suidas (s. v. Μόσχος), was acquainted with Aristarchus. He calls himself a pupil of Bion, in the Idyl in which he bewails the death of the latter [Bion]. But it is difficult to say whether he means more than that he imitated Bion. Of his personal history we know nothing further. Works Surviving Idylls

Of his compositions we have extant four idyls: 1. Ἔρως δραπέτης. 2. Εὐρωπή. 3. Ἐπιτάφιος Βίωνος. 4. Μεγάρα. The last of these is written in the Ionic dialect, with but few Dorisms. Other remains

Besides these larger pieces, there are three small fragments and an epigram extant. The idyls of Moschus were at first intermixed with those of Theocritus, and one or two of those ascribed to Theocritus have been, though without sufficient reason, supposed to be the productions of Moschus, as, for example, the 20th and 28th. Eudocia (p. 408) ascribes to Theocritus the third of the Idyls of Moschus. But they have since been carefully separated, on the authority of MSS. and quotations in Stobaeus. Assessment

To judge from the pieces which are extant, Moschus was capable of writing with elegance and liveliness; but he is inferior to Bion, and comes still farther behind Theocritus. His style labours under an excess of polish and ornament. Editions

The idyls of Moschus have been usually edited with those of Bion. The editions are too many to be enumerated; for the best the reader is referred to BION. Editions

The poems of Moschus have been frequently translated and imitated in English, German, French, Italian, Hungarian, and Russian. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 805, &c.

2. See MOCHUs.

3. A writer on mechanics, mentioned by Athenaeus (xiv. p. 634b).

4. A grammarian, apparently, the author of a work entitled Ἐξήγησις Ῥοδιακῶν λέζεων,, mentioned by Athenaeus (xi. p. 485e). [C.P.M]]

or, as Photius calls him, Joannes the son of Moschus, surnamed Εὐκρατᾶς, or, what appears to be a corruption of that, Eviratus, was first a monk in the monastery of St. Theodosius at Jerusalem, afterwards lived among the anchorites in the desert on the banks of the Jordan, and subsequently filled the police of canonarchus in the convent of St. Saba. Bellandus gives A. D. 620 as the date of his death. Works Account of the lives of monks of his age

After visiting a large number of the monasteries in Syria, Egypt, and the West, he applied himself to the composition of a work giving an account of the lives of the monks of that age, down to the time of Heraclius. It was addressed to Sophronius or Sophronas, his friend and pupil, who accompanied him on his travels, and became subsequently patriarch of Jerusalem. The work was entitled Λειμών or Λειμωνάριον, or Νέος παράδεισος. In the editions it is divided into 219 chapters; Photius speaks of it as consisting of 304 διηγήματα, but mentions that in other manuscripts it was divided into a larger number of chapters. In compiling it Moschus did not confine himself to giving the results of his own observations, but availed himself of the labours of predecessors in the same field. His narratives contain a plentiful sprinkling of the marvellous. He every where attacks the heresy of Soerus Acephalus. The style of the work, as Photius says, is mean and unpolished. But Joannes Damascenus and Nicephorus assigned Sophronius himself as the author of the work, from which it has been supposed that it was in reality mainly his work, though the name of Joannes Moschus was allowed to stand as that of the writer. Editions

The work was first published in an Italian translation, and incorporated in several collections of lives of the saints. The Latin translation of Ambrosius Camaldulensis is in the seventh volume of Aloysius Lipomannus, Venice, 1558. It appeared in Greek and Latin in the second volume of the Auctarium Bibl. Patrum Ducaeanum, Paris, 1624, and in the Bibliotheca Patrum, Paris, 1644, 1654. Further Information

Phot. Bibl. 199; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 124; Voss. de Hist. Graec. p. 334, Westermann. [C.P.M]

was banished from Rome, and admitted as a citizen of Massilia, to which town he left his property. (Tac. Ann. 4.43.)

(Μόσχος). A Greek bucolic poet, who lived in Syracuse about B.C. 150. Four longer and four shorter poems have been handed down as his; they show the greatest elegance of expression without the truth to nature and the dramatic power of his model, Theocritus. His lament for Bion is marked by melody and genuine pathos. Edited with Bion (q.v.) by Jacobs (1795); Wakefield (1795); Hartung (1858); and Ahrens (1875).