periocha

(περίοχη). Literally, “the contents,” from περιέχω. A name given to any short summary or digest of the contents of a book, or of the plot of a play. An example of the first is found in the Periochae T. Livii Omnium Librorum, which is a short summary of Livy 's history, including the books now lost, in their original form (except bks. cxxxvi. and cxxxvii., which have been accidentally lost). This was made in the fourth century A.D. from an earlier and fuller digest now lost. Of these there is an edition by Jahn (Leipzig, 1853). See also Wöfflin's paper in the Commentationes in Honorem Th. Mommsenii (Berlin, 1886). Of the dramatic periochae, a familiar example is the short metrical summary of the plot prefixed to the several plays of Terence, and written by Sidonius Apollinaris in the fifth century A.D.