ABSTRACT
A compilation of passages taken from a number of profane and religious texts and transmitted under the name of Maximus Planudes is known under the conventional title Excerpta Planudea. This chapter surveys the manuscript transmission, examines the content and structure of the collection, and undertakes a close analysis of the excerpts on Roman history. There is a number of manuscripts identified as copies from Planudes’ scriptorium copied under his supervision. The section on Roman history comprises passages from the Epitome of Cassius Dio by John Xiphilinus, excerpted by employing a method similar to the one applied to the chronicle by John of Antioch. The compiler keeps to the narrative sequence within each passage. The content and structure of the passages survive unaltered. The text was copied, in the main verbatim, from the original. Changes on the part of Planudes consist in omissions and simplifications.
