The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-12-06
A FAMOUS FRAUD
Simonides, the Forger of
Ancient Writings.
Successfully Duped Many Libra
ries - Discovered at Royal
Berlin Academy.

In the October number of CosmopOlis.
Prof. Max Muller tells in a most in
teresting way, of some of the frauds of
the famous forger of Greek
At one time or another
many Of the great libraries of Cont
mental Europe have been duped by this
clever man who manufactured ancient
writings" so successfully that even ex-
perts were often unable to detect flaws
in them
When Simonides put in his appear
ance at Oxford, Rev. Rev. H. o. Coke,
librarian of the Bodleian Library, had
already been warned of the character
OF his treasures. Professor Muller
tells of his failure at Oxford as fol-
lows:
'Simonides-so called, not because he
was descendant of the poet Simonides
but with a long il beca dse his ances-
tor was one Simon, Jew-addressed
the librarian half in ancient Greek, half
in modern English. He knew both
equally well. His manners were most
engaging The librarian was equally
polite, and began to examine some of
the Greek MSS. These are of small
value Simonides said, they are mo-
dern. What century would you assign
to them?' The librarian assigned the
thirteenth century to them, and Simon
ides fully agreed. He then went on
producing MS. after MS, but claiming
for none of them more than the tenth
or ninth century. All went on most
amicably, until he produced some frag-
ments of an uncial Greek MS. The
librarian opened his eyes wide, and, ex-
aiming them very carefully, put some
of them aside for further consideration.
Simonides at last produced real treas
ure. This he said, ought to repose
nowhere but in the Bodleian Library.
And what century would you assign to
lit, Mr.. Librarian Simonides said
with smile and respectful bow. Mr.
Coke turned over few pages, and,
looking very grave, tho never quite
without his usual twinkle, The second
half of the nineteenth century, SIR he
said, and now pack up your MSS, and
Apage (Begone).'
"Simondies did as he was told, and,
with an injured expression. walked
away. Next day he wrote Greek let
ter to the librarian, bitterly complain
ing about the Apage, and offering some
more MSS. for his inspection. But all
was in vain; too much had been dis
covered about him in the meantime.
"He was certainly most extraord-
mary mana scholar who, if he had ap-
piled his ingenuity to editing instead of
forging Greek MSS. might have held a
very high position. His greatest ac-
Movement was, of course, the newly
discovered Greek text Of the history Of
ancient Egypt by Uranios. The man
possessed large quantity Of later
Greek MSS. 1t seems that in the East
ern monasteries, where he sold, he also
acquired some Greek MSS, by what
means we must not ask. He tried sew
eral of these MSS. with chemicals to
see whether, as was the fashion during
the Middle Ages, the parchment on
which they were written had been used
before, and the old writing scraped OF
in order to get writing material for
some legends Of Christian saints or
other modern compositions. When that
has been the case, chemical appliances
bring out the old writing very clearly,
and he knew that in this way some
very old and valuable Greek texts had
been recovered. In that case the old
writing comes out generally in a dark
blue, and becomes quite legible as un-
DERIVING the modern Greek text AS
Simonides was not lucky enough to dis
cover or recover an ancient Greek text,
or what is called palimpsest MS, the
thought struck him that he might man
ufacture such treasure, which would
have sold at a very high price. But
even this did not satisfy his ambition.
He might have taken the text of the
Gospels and written it between the
lines of one of his modern Greek MSS,
adding some startling readings. In that
case detection would have seemed
much more difficult. But he scared
higher He knew that a man Of the
name OF Uranios had written a history
OF Egypt, which was lost. Simonides
made up his mind to write himself In
ancient Greek a history of Egypt such
as he thought Uranios might have writ
ten. And, deep and clever as he was,
he chose Bunsen's Egypt and Lepsiu's
Chronology as the authorities which
he faithfully followed After he had
finished his Greek text, he wrote it in
dark blue ink and in ancient uncial
Greek letters between the letters of a
Greek MS. of about 1900 A D. Any
body who knows the smallness of the
letters in such MS. can appreciate
the enormous labor it must have been
| to insert, as it were, beneath and be-