This bibliography brings together modern editions and translations of three works:

  • the Ephemeridos belli Troiani attributed to Dictys of Crete,
  • the De excidio Troiae historia attributed to Dares of Phrygia,
  • and the anonymous Excidium Troie.

The publications are listed in chronological order. This bibliography is a work in progress; if you know of any other sources, please get in touch. 

Late Antique Accounts of the Trojan War: An Annotated Bibliography of Modern Editions and Translations
by N. Kıvılcım Yavuz

Dictys cretensis et Dares Phrygius. De bello et excidio Trojae. [Edited by Pierre Huet and others.] Amsterdam: George Gallet, 1702.
[open access] This edition is part of the “original” Delphin series which produced 25 volumes of Greek and Latin classics in the 1670s for Louis, “le Grand Dauphin,” heir of Louis XIV. It includes several essays on the works including those from Gerardus Johannes Vossius and Jacob Perizonius.

Histoire de la guerre de TroieTranslated by Nicolas Louis Achaintre and Antoine Caillot. 2 vols. Paris: Brunot-Labbe, 1813.
[open access vol. 1 and 2] These two volumes include translations into French with facing Latin text. The first volume contains the first four books of the Ephemeridos belli Troiani and the second volume contains the last two books of the Ephemeridos belli Troiani as well as the De excidio Troiae historia.

Dictys Cretensis et Dares Phrygius de bello Trojano. Edited by Samuel Dresemius. 2 vols. Delphin Classical Editions. London: A. J. Valpy, 1825.
[open access vol. 1] [open access vol. 2] This edition is part of the Delphin Classical Editions, in which 143 volumes were published from 1819. The first volume includes an edition of the Ephemeridos belli Troianiand the De excidio Troiae historia. The second volume includes an edition of the De bello Troiano by Joseph of Exeter. The two volumes also include several essays on the works as well as lists of known manuscripts in certain repositories.

Dictys Cretensis sive Lucii Septimi. Ephemeridos belli Troiani. Libri sex. Edited by Andreas Dederich. Bonn: Weber, 1833.
[open access] This edition also includes a reprint of Jacob Perizonius’ “dissertatio” on the Ephemeridos belli Troiani dated to 1702.

Daretis Phrygii de excidio Troiae historia. Edited by Andreas Dederich. Bonn: Weber, 1835.
[open access] This edition is based on five manuscripts and includes detailed notes on each chapter.

Dictys Cretensis. Ephemeridos belli Troiani. Libri sex. Edited by Ferdinand Meister. Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1872.
[open access] This edition is based on a selection of six manuscripts, only one of which dates to the early medieval period.

Daretis Phrygii. De excidio Troiae historia. Edited by Ferdinand Meister. Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1873.
[open access] This edition is based on a selection of eleven manuscripts and is still the most recent edition for the work. Since then around two hundred witnesses to the De excidio Troiae historia have been identified.

“The History of the Fall of Troy by Dares the Phrygian.” In Medieval Narrative: A Book of Translations, translated by Margaret Schlauch, 245–79. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1928.
[open access] This translation is part of a book that includes translations of medieval works that have not been translated into English before. The author heavily criticizes the work in her brief introduction, indicating that the De excidio Troiae historia has not been chosen for its literary merit but because of necessity. The text used for the translation is the 1825 Valpy edition.

Watts, Winifred F. “Dares: A Hitherto Unpublished Manuscript.” Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1937.
[open access] This dissertation includes a diplomatic edition of the De excidio Troiae historia as it is found in UK, London, Lambeth Palace, 401 accompanied with a translation into English. It is also the first study that attempts at a full list of manuscripts of the text and lists ninety-one witnesses.

Hutton, Thomas C. “Index Verborum of ‘Dictys Cretensis.’” Doctoral dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 1938.
This dissertation comprises a critical index for the Ephemeridos belli Troiani based on the 1872 Teubner edition.

Excidium Troiae. Edited by E. Bagby Atwood and Virgil K. Whitaker. Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1944.
[open access] This edition is based on three manuscripts and is preceded by a long introduction about the work. It is most valuable for the introduction.

The Trojan War: The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian. Translated by Richard M. Frazer, Jr. Indiana University Greek and Latin Classics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966.
This book includes translations of the Ephemeridos belli Troiani and the De excidio Troiae historia based on their Teubner editions under the titles of “A Journal of the Trojan War by Dictys of Crete” and “The Fall of Troy: A History by Dares the Phrygian” respectively.

Johnson-Moser, Isabella. Index criticus verborum Daretis Phrygii. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1968.
This book comprises a critical index for the De excidio Troiae historia based on the 1873 Teubner edition.

Beschorner, Andreas. Untersuchungen zu Dares Phrygius”. Classica Monacensia 4. Tübingen: Narr, 1992.
This book includes a translation of theDe excidio Troiae historia into German with facing Latin text of the 1873 Teubner edition, along with a detailed commentary on the text.

Dictys Cretensis. Ephemeridos belli Troiani Libri a Lucio Septimio ex Graeco in Latinum Sermonem Translati. Accedunt papyri Dictys Graeci in Aegypto inventae. Edited by Werner Eisenhut. 2nd edn. Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1973; 1994.
Two editions of the Ephemeridos belli Troiani were prepared by Eisenhut in 1958 and 1973 respectively, following the discovery of two papyri fragments in 1899 and 1966 respectively. This second edition, which also includes the editions of the two fragments in Greek, is based on a selection of fifteen manuscripts and is the most recent edition of the work.

Excidium Troie. Edited by Alan Keith Bate. Lateinische Sprache und Literatur des Mittelalters 23. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1986.
This edition is based on fourteen manuscripts and is preceded by a short introduction which also includes descriptions of manuscripts. It is considered a better reconstruction of the text compared to the earlier Medieval Academy of America edition yet more witnesses to the Excidium Troie have been found since Bate’s edition.

Dictys Cretense. Ephemeris belli Troiani. Diario de la Guerra de TroyaEdited and translated by Manuel Antonio Marcos Casquero. Ediciones Griegas y Latinas 3. León: Universidad de León, 2003.
This book includes a translation of the Ephemeridos belli Troiani into Spanish with facing Latin text.

Kretschmer, Marek Thue. “Aeneas Without the Gods: A 10th-Century Abbreviation and Paraphrase of the Excidium Troie.” Studi Medievali, 3rd Series, 51, no. 1 (2010): 307–27.
This article provides an edition of the summary version of the Excidium Troie based on Germany, Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Hist. 3, in which variants from two other witnesses are signaled. There are four manuscripts of this short summary identified by the author.

Cornil, Jonathan. “Dares Phrygius’ De Excidio Trojae Historia: Philological Commentary and Translation.” Master’s thesis, Ghent University, 2012.
[open access] This thesis includes two different translations into English, one of which aims at a word-by-word rendering, of the 1873 edition of the De excidio Troiae historia as well as a short critique of Frazer, Jr.’s previous translation.

La Versión de “Excidium Troie” de un Códice Toledano (Madrid, BN MS 10046). Edited and translated by Helena de Carlos Villamarín. Papers of the Medieval Hispanic Research Seminar 70. London: Department of Iberian and Latin American Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, 2012.
This book includes an edition of the Excidium Troie as it is found in Spain, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 10046 accompanied with a translation into Spanish.

Ditti di Creta. L’altra “Iliade”: Il diario di guerra di un soldato Greco con la “Storia della distribuzione di Troia” di Darete Frigio e i testi bizantini sulla guerra Troiana. Edited by Emanuele Lelli. Translated by Lorenzo Bergerard, Nicoletta Canzio, Enrico Cerroni, Lorenzo M. Ciolfi, Daniele Mazza, Shanna Rossi, Valentina Zanusso. Il Pensiero Occidentale. Milan: Bompiani, 2015.
This book includes a translation of both the Ephemeridos belli Troiani and the De excidio Troiae historia into Italian with facing Latin text. Its main focus is the Ephemeridos belli Troiani, which is preceded by a long introduction and annotated with extensive notes. The book also includes translations of selected passages from the works of Malalas, Constantine Manasses and George Kedrenos as well as the summary of the Ephemeridos belli Troiani which was written by Cyriacus of Ancona.

“Excidium Troiae” (or Destruction of Troy) by an Anonymous Author. Translated by Muhammad Syarif Fadhlurrahman. Self-published, 2015.
[open access] This is a privately sponsored translation into English based on the 1944 Medieval Academy of America edition.

 

Last Updated on August 10, 2018