HEGESIPPUS

hegesippus, the supposed author of a free latin adaptation of the _jewish war_ of josephus under the title _de bello judaico et excidio urbis hierosolymitanae_. the seven books of josephus are compressed into five, but much has been added from the antiquities and from the works of roman historians, while several entirely new speeches are introduced to suit the occasion. internal evidence shows that the work could not have been written before the 4th century a.d. the author, who is undoubtedly a christian, describes it in his preface as a kind of revised edition of josephus. some authorities attribute it to ambrose, bishop of milan (340-397), but there is nothing to settle the authorship definitely. the name hegesippus itself appears to be a corruption of josephus, through the stages [greek: iosepos], iosippus, egesippus, hegesippus, unless it was purposely adopted as reminiscent of hegesippus, the father of ecclesiastical history (2nd century). best edition by c. f. weber and j. caesar (1864); authorities in e. schurer, _history of the jewish people_ (eng. trans.), i. 99 seq.; f. vogel, _de hegesippo, qui dicitur, josephi interprete_ (erlangen, 1881). hegius [von heek], alexander (c. 1433-1498), german humanist, so called from his birthplace heek in westphalia. in his youth he was a pupil of thomas a kempis, at that time canon of the convent of st agnes at zwolle. in 1474 he settled down at deventer in holland, where he either founded or succeeded to the headship of a school, which became famous for the number of its distinguished alumni. first and foremost of these was erasmus; others were hermann von dem busche, the missionary of humanism, conrad goclenius (gockelen), conrad mutianus (muth von mudt) and pope adrian vi. hegius died at deventer on the 7th of december 1498. his writings, consisting of short poems, philosophical essays, grammatical notes and letters, were published after his death by his pupil jacob faber. they display considerable knowledge of latin, but less of greek, on the value of which he strongly insisted. hegius's chief claim to be remembered rests not upon his published works, but upon his services in the cause of humanism. he succeeded in abolishing the old-fashioned medieval textbooks and methods of instruction, and led his pupils to the study of the classical authors themselves. his generosity in assisting poor students exhausted a considerable fortune, and at his death he left nothing but his books and clothes. see d. reichling, "beitrage zur charakteristik des alex. hegius," in the _monatsschrift fur westdeutschland_ (1877); h. hamelmann, _opera genealogico-historica_ (1711); h. a. erhard, _geschichte des wiederaufbluhens wissenschaftlicher bildung_ (1826); c. krafft and w. crecelius, "alexander hegius und seine schuler," from the works of johannes butzbach, one of hegius's pupils, in _zeitschrift des bergischen geschichtsvereins_, vii. (bonn, 1871).