1 The MS. from which this is taken is Cod. Add. 17,158, fol. 30 vers. Mar Jacob, bishop of Sarug, or Batnae, was one of the most learned and celebrated among all the Syriac writers. He was born a.d. 452, made bishop of Sarug a.d. 519, and died a.d. 521. He was the author of several liturgical works, epistles, and sermons, and, amongst these, of numerous metrical homilies, of which two are given here. Assemani enumerates no less than 231. Ephraem Syrus also wrote a similar homily on Habib, Shamuna, and Guria. The metre of the original in this and the following homily consists of twelve sylables, and six dissyllabic feet: but whether they were read as tambs ortroches, or as both, appears to depend on the nature of the Syriac accentuation, which is still an unsettled question. Hoffmann, in his slight notice of the subject (Gram. Syr., 13), merely says: "Scimus, poesin Syriacam non quantitatis sed accentus tantum rationem habere, versusque suos syllabarum numero metiri. Qua tamen poeseos Syriacae conditione varietas morarum in pronuntiandis vocalibus observandarum non tollitur."-TR.
3 Cureton has "prosperous," which Dr. Payne Smith condemns, remarking: " I find generally used for the Gk. a!ristoj, and one or twice for kra/tistoj. It answers more frequently to strenuus = courageousm heroic."-TR.
4 Lit. "the party" or "side."-TR.