T rHE first twenty-two2 of the epigrams of Theocritus in Wilamowitz' edition appear in four of the principal manuscripts of Theocritus (K C B D), and they also appeared in a fifth, the lost manuscript of Capodivacca (Cod. Pat.). In C they are introduced by the title OEoKplrov 2vpaKovtOV f'rrypa6Apara, for in C they stand first in the manuscript. In K B D they bear only the word f7rxypa,uAcara. The epigrams are arranged (1) according to meter and (2) according to subject; the manuscript order is the one preserved in Wilamowitz' edition. The first sixteen epigrams are in elegiacs, of which the first six are of bucolic content and the next ten are epitaphs and dedicatory pieces. Epigrams xvii-xxii are in various meters; five of them are written ostensibly for the statues or graves of famous poets, one for an humble nurse. Wilamowitz, following Ahrens and Hiller, has attempted to classify the manuscripts which contain the epigrams under the captions K II, where II represents the tradition of C D Cod. Pat. B he disregards. This arrangement I am forced to regard as not only misleading but as untrue for the text of the epigrams, whatever may be its value in other portions of the text of Theocritus.3 The text, as I shall attempt to prove, rests upon three main sources of truth: (1) the r tradition, of