HEPHAESTION

A Greek soldier, a native of Alexandria, who flourished about the middle of the 2nd Century A.D., and was tutor to the emperor Verus before his accession. He wrote a work on prosody, in forty-eight books, which he first abridged into eleven books, then into three, and finally into one. The final abridgment, called a manual (Encheiridion) has come down to us. It gives no more than a bare sketch of prosody, without any attempt at theoretical explanation of the facts; but it is, nevertheless, of immense value. It is the only complete treatise on Greek prosody which has survived from antiquity, and it quotes verses from the lost poets. Attached to it is a treatise on the different forms of poetry and composition, in two incomplete versions. The manual has a preface (Prolegomena) by Longinus, and two collections of scholia.