Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Band 66/2016

Refrains were vital to the hymnic genres which emerged in Late Antiquity: the Hebrew piyyut, the Syriac madrasha, and the Greek kontakion. This article studies the complexities of congregational participation by exploring the narrative dynamics of refrains in relation to the hymn-performance in Constantinopolitan churches. The most outstanding and influential refrain composer seems to have been Romanos the Melodist. Through a close reading of his kontakion On the Ten Virgins I (LI), this article shows how thoroughly Romanos enhances the involvement of the assembly, on both a vocal and an emotional level. At the same time, the identification of the singer with the narrator in the hymn is carefully blurred. Although many scholars have interpreted kontakia as “verse homilies”, the dynamics of the refrains contributes to a destabilization of the roles (teacher–pupils) typical in homilies.

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This paper deals with the collection of twelve Byzantine riddles contained in Pal. gr. 356 (f. 168), a manuscript written between the thirteenth and the fourteenth century. All the riddles have been translated and endowed with a full commentary, with particular regard to the similar riddles present in other manuscripts; when possible (in most cases), a solution has been provided.

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In classical law and Justinianic law, the contract of ἐντολή (mandatum, mandate) had to be gratuitous. Any remuneration in this case was not agreed upon, but given out of a feeling of moral obligation as a token of gratitude. The so-called honorarium was used in classical law mainly for the remuneration of a lawyer or teacher in the liberal arts in recompense for their services. In early Byzantine law the sixth-century legal scholar Stephanos regularly spoke in this respect of an ἀντίδωρον (a gift in return). In addition to an honorarium or ἀντίδωρον, a salarium or σαλάριον could also be paid. This payment had to be appropriate to the efforts made by the mandatory to that effect and could only be claimed extra ordinem. A shift apparently took place here from a pure, (moral) natural obligation (honorarium or ἀντίδωρον) to a semi-natural obligation (salarium or σαλάριον) that was indeed enforceable by law. This distinction between the two kinds of remuneration can clearly be derived from a new reading of a scholion by Stephanos. It appears that in later Byzantine law the ‘new’ terms ὀψώνιον, σιτηρέσιον and δόμα were used for salarium or σαλάριον. These terms came from the military.

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Three eleventh-century Byzantine lead seals of an otherwise unknown Eudokimos tourmarch and merarch have been published previously. In two of the seals the title of his office is followed by the letters Ο ΕΠΙΓΚΛ, and in the third by Ο ΕΠΙΓΙΓΓΛ, neither of which have yet been convincingly interpreted. They should in fact be read as ὁ Ἐπιγιγκλης and ὁ Ἐπιγίγγλης, a surname attested in Byzantium during the 10th century.

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Codex Vindobonensis theologicus graecus 276 contains a small corpus of three documents dealing with the union of the Western („Epirotic”) and Eastern („Nicaean”) Greek churches. One document, a letter from the Despotes Manuel (Comnenus) Ducas to the Ecumenical Patriarch Germanus II, has recently been published in a critical edition, the two others (the response of Patriarch Germanus II and a synod decision about the mission of a patriarchal exarch executing the union on behalf of the latter) lacked a critical edition or were even partially unpublished. A critical edition (with translation) of these two documents supplements the study which analyzes diplomatic, rhetoric and text pragmatic (historical sociolinguistic) aspects. It is emphasized that these outstanding rhetoric products have to be understood set against a scholastic-rhetorical competition of urbanity (Constantinople or Nicaea, respectively) and provincialism (of the Epirote Empire). After the defeat of the former Epirote Emperor Theodorus Angelus at Klokotnica 1230), his successor Manuel appears to have been forced to change his policy by accepting his degradation – at least for a short time when he had to be content with the title of a despotes. However, his ultimate approval and support of the union of the Greek churches seems to have contributed to an even higher rank than a usual despotes. This can be seen from a letter written by the patriarchal exarch. The synod decision starts with a protocol that lists the participating archpriests. It is one of the rare documents from the Nicaean period which allows reconstruction of the composition of its synodos endemusa. Such initial lists of participants in synod sessions reveal which archpriests took part (were invited, were present, were sent) in Nicaea and supported the patriarch. Three appendices to this study point out the local restriction of participants (with a focus on the period of Patriarch Germanus II) and a quite Asian dominated composition. The archpriests of the Eastern European sees are virtually missing.

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The topic of this article is a change in attitudes towards private almsgiving in Byzantine monasteries of the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. Originally individual members of monastic communities were permitted or even encouraged to give some of their food and clothing to the poor. However, with the rise of the coenobitic reform movement this practice increasingly came to be regarded as problematic. Now it was demanded that monks leave the distribution of alms to the monastery as an institution. This change appears to have caused great anxiety since private acts of almsgiving were traditionally regarded as an indispensable precondition for salvation.

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This article discusses Aristophanic influence present in two important passages from Niketas Choniates’ Χρονικὴ διήγησις, which are related to gluttonous tax officials from the retinue of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (John of Poutza and John Kamateros). The first part of the article examines the place of Aristophanes’ comedies within Byzantine learned culture in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and investigates possible reasons for the sudden boom in their popularity within the period. The second part analyses in details the passages in question, situating them within the comic tradition, demonstrating numerous intertextual allusions to Old Comedy (as represented by Aristophanes), and showing how consious appropriation of Aristophanic material added additional, chiefly political, meanings to Choniates’ narrative.

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The illustrations of the two oldest, lavishly illustrated Byzantine collections of materia medica (the Vienna Dioscorides, cod. med. gr. 1, ÖNB, Wien, and cod. M.652, The Morgan Library and Museum, New York) were reproduced in several manuscripts between the last quarter of the fourteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth. This paper analyses a later manuscript (Cod. Banks Coll. Dio. 1, NHM, London) with copies of illustrations of the former, known by specialists but not yet studied in detail, and suggests to place its production in Constantinople shortly before the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Moreover, it highlights its relationship with two manuscripts produced in the following years (codd. Ee. V. 7, UL, Cambridge and C 102 sup., Bibl. Ambrosiana, Milano), and investigates the transmission of the dioscoridean iconographies during the late palaeologan period and their potential users.

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This paper aims to identify the baptiser of the patriarch Photios: Iakobos, the hegoumenos of the monastery of Maximina, who is only recorded in the chronicle of the Pseudo-Symeon (10th century). The analysis of the relationship between the outstanding iconophile leaders mentioned by this historian (namely Michael of Synada, Hilarion of Dalmatos and Ioannikios) leads us to the conclusion that Iakobos of Maximina (PmbZ # 2635) and the confessor Iakobos Stoudites (PmbZ # 2632) are one and the same person. However, Iakobos of Anchialos (PmbZ # 2630), the iconophile saint recorded in the Synaxarion of Constantinople, should be considered a different individual.

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The article demonstrates the dependence, limited though it is, of the Chronicle of 1570 on the Παλαιά τε καὶ Νέα Δια- θήκη of Ioannikios Kartanos. This is of relevance to the Chronicle of 1570 in helping to define the problem of the origins of its biblical sections. For Kartanos, who still lacks a meaningful place in the history of Greek literature, it underlines its importance as a historically oriented text of the period.

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