Suda Lexicon

…as the 10th- or 11th-century Suidas, forms a convenient bridge between the dictionary and the encyclopaedia, in that it combines the essential features of both, embellishing them where necessary with pictures or diagrams, at the same time that it reduces most entries to a few lines that can provide a…

…dictionary known as Suda, or Suidas, broke with tradition by adopting alphabetical order for its contents. This had no effect on the plan of later encyclopaedias, but its contents included so much useful information that it has retained its importance as a source throughout the succeeding centuries.

The Suda, a Byzantine lexicon (late 10th century ad), describes Alcman as a man “of an extremely amorous disposition and the inventor of love poems.” His learned verse is full of geographic detail. One fragment, telling of the sleeping world at the end of the day,…

According to the Suda lexicon (a Greek dictionary dating from about 1000 ce), Trajan bestowed the high honour of ornamenta consularia upon him. Although that may be true, a report of a 4th-century church historian, Eusebius, that Hadrian made Plutarch governor of Greece is probably apocryphal. A Delphic…