Abstract

We know of several Greek translators of works originally written in Latin. Of non-Christian, purely literary material, we know of six. First, there is Claudius' powerful freedman, Polybius, who turned Homer into Latin prose and Vergil into Greek prose. Then, under Hadrian we have Zenobius ‘the sophist’, who translates Sallust'sHistoriesand “so-called Wars’. The translation into Greek of Hyginus' Fabulae can be dated precisely, for its unknown author tells us that he copied it up on 11th September 207. Similarly, the extant translation of Eutropius'Breviariumby Paianios, probably a pupil of Libanius, can be dated securely to about 380. The translation of the same by Capito, which survives in excerpts, is placed with some confidence at the beginning of the sixth century. The date and identity of the last of our translators, ‘Arrian the epic poet’, who rendered theGeorgicsof Vergil, is unclear.