Another translator from Greek was Paul, Monophysite bishop of Callinicus or ar-Rakkah, who, being expelled from his diocese in 559, retired to Edessa and there occupied himself in translating into Syriac the works of Severus, the Monophysite champion who was patriarch of Antioch from 512 to 519. This version appears to be quite distinct from that used by the compiler of the chronicle of Zacharias, and also from the version of "the 6th book of the select letters of Severus" which was made by Athanasius "pres byter of Nisibis" in 669, edited by E. W. Brooks (1902-04) That important legal work, The Laws of the Emperors Con stantine, Theodosius and Leo, which was composed in Greek about 475, and "which lies at the root of all subsequent Christian oriental legislation in ecclesiastical, judicial and private matters" (Wright), must have been repeatedly translated into Syriac. The oldest form is contained in a British Museum ms. which dates from the earlier part of the 6th century, and this was edited by Land (Anecd. syr. i. 3o-64). A later (probably Nestorian) re cension is contained in a Paris ms., which was used along with the other by Bruns and Sachau in their exhaustive edition (Syrisch romisches Rechtsbuch, Leipzig, 188o). In Notulae syriacae (pri vately printed 1887) Wright edited the surviving fragment of a 3rd recension which is preserved in a 13th-century ms. at Cam bridge. Finally Sachau has published three new redactions of the treatise from a ms. found at Rome in 1894 (Syrische Rechts bucker, vol. i., Leipzig, 1907).
Anonymous Works.—We may here take note of three im portant anonymous works, of which the first probably and the other two certainly belong to the 6th century.
The Meearrath gazze or Cave of Treasures, translated and edited by C. Bezold (Leipzig, 1883-88), is akin (as Duval re marks) to the Book of Jubilees. It is an imaginary history of the patriarchs and their descendants.
The tripartite narrative which is known as the Romance of Julian (the Apostate) has no claim to be regarded as an historical document. Its hero is Jovian, one of the feeblest of Roman emperors, and Julian is everywhere exhibited in flaming colours as the villain of the story.
A valuable historical source, though of small dimensions, is the Chronicle of Edessa, which gives a record of events from 132-131 B.C. to A.D. 540—at first exceedingly brief, but becoming some what fuller for the later years. It appears to be thoroughly re liable wherever it can be tested. It has-been three times edited— first by Assemani in the Bibliotheca orientalis (i. 388-417), sec ondly by L. Hallier (Leipzig, 1892) with a translation, introduc tion and abundant notes, and thirdly by Guidi with a Latin version (in Chronica minora, Paris, 1903).
On John of Asia or Ephesus, the eminent Monophysite bishop and earliest Syriac church historian, see the separate article.
An historical work of somewhat similar character to John's is the compilation in 12 books which is generally known by the name of Zacharias Rhetor, because the anonymous Syriac com piler has incorporated the Syriac version or epitome of a lost Greek history written by that author. The Syriac work exists (not quite complete) in a British Museum ms. of about the begin ning of the 7th century: this can be in part supplemented by an 8th-century ms. at the Vatican. From the latter Guidi published the interesting chapter (X. 16) which contains the description of Rome. The entire text of the London ms. was published by Land in the third volume of his Anecdota syriaca; and there is now an English translation by Hamilton and Brooks (1899), and a German one by Ahrens and Kruger (Leipzig, 1899).
Of the other 6th-century Jacobite writers we need mention only Moses of Aggel (fl. c. 550-570) who translated into Syriac some of the writings of Cyril, and Peter of Callinicus, Jacobite patriarch of Antioch 578-591, who wrote a huge controversial treatise in 4 books, each of 25 chapters, against Damian, patriarch of Alexan dria, as well as other less important works.
The Nestorian writers of the 6th century were numerous, but as yet we know little of their works, beyond what `Abhdisho' tells us in his Catalogue. It will be sufficient to mention one or two. Joseph Hazay5, (i.e., of al-Ahwaz or Khazistan), who came third in succession to Narsai as head of the school of Nisibis, was the first Syriac grammarian and invented various signs of interpunc tion. Maratha, who was Nestorian catholicus of Seleucia from about 540 to 552 (see Labourt, op. cit., pp. 163-191), and a man of exceptional energy, made the only known attempt, which was, however, unsuccessful, to provide the Nestorians with a Bible version of their own. He was the author of many commentaries, homilies, epistles, canons and hymns. Paul the Persian, a courtier of Khosrau Anasharwan, dedicated to the king a treatise on logic which has been published from a London ms. by Land in the 4th volume of his Anecdota. Bodh the periodeutes is credited with a philosophical work which has perished, but is best known as the author of the old Syriac version of the collection of Indian tales called Kalilah and Dimnah. He made it doubtless from a Pahlavi version. His translation, which was edited by Bickell with an in troduction by Benfey, must be distinguished from the much later Syriac translation made from the secondary Arabic version and edited by Wright in 1884, of this there is an English transla tion by Keith Falconer (1884). 11annana. of Hedhaiyabh, who nearly produced a disruption of the Nestorian Church by his attempt to bridge over the interval which separated the Nestorians from Catholic orthodoxy, was the author of commentaries.