SIYIDAS  ,

Greek lexicographer . Nothing is known of him, except that he must have lived before Eustathius (12th—13th century), who frequently quotes him . Under the heading " Adam " the author of the lexicon (which a prefatory note states to be " by Suidas ") gives a brief chronology of the world, ending with the death of the emperor John Zimisces (975), and under "Constantinople " his successors Basil and Constantine are mentioned . It would thus appear that Suidas lived in the latter part of the xoth century . The passages in which Michael Psellus (end of the x Ith century) is referred to are considered later interpolations . The lexicon of Suidas is arranged alphabetically with some slight deviations, letters and combinations of letters having the same sound being placed together; thus, at and e follow 8, and et, n, 1 follow . It partakes of the nature of a dictionary and encyclopaedia . It includes numerous quotations from ancient writers; the scholiasts on Aristophanes, Homer, Sophocles and Thucydides are also much used . The biographical notices, the author tells us, are condensed from the Onomatologion or Pinax of Hesychius of Miletus; other sources were the excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the chronicle of Georgius Monachus, the biographies of Diogenes Laertius and the works of Athenaeus and Philostratus . The work deals with scriptural as well as pagan subjects, from which it is inferred that the writer was a Christian . A prefatory note gives a list of dictionaries from which the lexical portion was compiled, together with the names of their authors . Although the work is uncritical and probably much interpolated, and the value of the articles is very unequal, it contains much information on ancient history and life .

Editio princeps, by

Demetrius Chalcondyles (1499) ; later editions by L . Mister (1705), T . Gaisford (1834), G . Bernhardy (1834—1853) and I . Bekker (1854); see A . Daub, De S . Biographicorum origin et fide (188o) and Studien zu den Biographika des S . (1882); and J . E . Sandys, Hist. of Cassical Scholarship (1906), p . 407 .