[902] Thus M. Capella states that Mercury and Venus revolve round the sun; and Isidore of Seville says the crystalline sphere runs so fast that did not the stars retard it by running the opposite way the universe would fall to pieces; Etymolog., iii, 35.
[903] See Themistius, Or., xxvi (p. 327 Dind.); cf. Boethius (?), De Discipl. Scholar., iii.
[904] Graduated from about A below treble stave to E in fourth space (A to E″ = La2 to Mi4), but there seems to have been great variety in pitch.
[905] Cassiodorus often alludes to the organ of his time, especially in Exposit. Psal. CL, where he describes many instruments. See Daremberg and Saglio, sb. voc.
[906] See M. Capella, ix; Boethius on Music, etc., and Hadow’s Oxford History of Music, 1901.
[907] See Plato, Protagoras, 43, etc. Even in the time of Homer the Greek warriors were practical musicians, but the Romans were not so originally. I can make no definite statement as to how far the Byzantine upper classes were performers on instruments at this date, but see Jerome, Ep., 107. Further remarks on Greek education, with references to an earlier stratum of authors, will be found in Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, 1888, ii, et seq. There is a great compilation by Conringius (De Antiq. Academ., Helmstadt, 1651), which I have found extremely useful. From the observations of Chrysostom (see [p. 118]), it appears that little advantage was taken of educational facilities in his day, but it may be assumed that the foundation of the Auditorium caused mental culture to be fashionable, at least for a time.
[908] Themistius, Or., xxvi, loc. cit. Theodosius II was the first Christian emperor who systematically fostered philosophy by creating a faculty at CP. and extending clearly to philosophers the immunities granted to other professors; Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 16; XIV, ix, 3; Cod., X, lii, 14, etc. We are continually reminded that Socrates brought down the sophists of his time from star-gazing and speculation as to the origin of things to the ethics of common life. Thence arose a succession of dialogues in which Utopian republics were discussed, where wives should be in common so that everybody might be the supposititious brother, etc., of every one else. A more harmonious community could not be engendered by such a device; cf. Herodotus, iv, 104.
[909] See the elogium of Berytus in Nonnus, Dionysiacs, xli. From 389, etc., Hasacus (op. cit.) thinks that the school was founded by Augustus after the battle of Actium, but it is first distinctly noted as flourishing c. 231; Gregory Thaum., Panegyric. in Origen, 1, 5 (in Migne, S. G., 1051).
[910] Pand. praef., 2 [7]; Totius Orb. Descript.; Gotlefroy ad Cod. Theod., XI, i, 19, etc.
[911] Nowhere definitely expressed, but inferred from Pand. praef., 2 (superscription), with confirmative evidence; see Hasaeus, op. cit., viii, 2, et seq.