Journal of Byzantine Studies, Vol. 73/2023 / Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Band 73/2023

The article presents a critical edition, with a translation and an introduction, of the “refutation” of chapters 14–16 of Book III of Ptolemy’s Harmonica, which were not handed down in the manuscript tradition. Chapters 14 and 15 were added in Byzantine times, the origin of chapter 16 is uncertain. The “refutation” was authored by the 14th-century scholar and polemicist Barlaam of Seminara, one of the two leading characters in the Palamite and hesychast controversies. In this way, the last item of Barlaam’s scientific writings can now be read in a critical edition. The present edition explains in detail the background of Barlaam’s work, describes all of its manuscript witnesses, and reconstructs a stemma codicum.

Keywords: Barlaam of Seminara, Ptolemy’s "Harmonica", Refutation, Byzantine Reception of Ancient Greek Harmonic Theory

Imperial silks were highly symbolic in the Byzantine world and were important conveyors of the imperial image. Despite this fact, the factories and workers that produced them have been little studied. This article attempts to remedy this gap in the academic literature by examining the sources of labour in the imperial textile factories from their inception in the fourth century. It proposes that forced labour was a key factor of these factories, and that this created an environment in which the workers enabled the development of a collective identity which gave them agency in the power politics of the state. It further suggests that the mode of production was implied by the material, embedding the imperial textile factories into the social fabric of Byzantine society.

Keywords: Labour, Silk, Imperial Factories, Textile production, identity, slavery

In this article I examine an epigram by Theodore Prodromos, which was recently found inscribed on an early fourteenth-century fresco of the Deposition in the private church of Agios Georgios at Kato Potamia, Naxos. The epigram is composed in iambic dodecasyllables and has been identified with the first poem in his well-known collection of epigrams on the Old and New Testaments, the Tetrasticha, where it is entitled Eis tēn apokathēlōsin (On the Deposition) (Tetr. 262a). I discuss the intimate relationship between the imagery of the epigram and Byzantine scenes of the Deposition, something that most probably shows that Prodromos was familiar with the contemporary iconography of the scene. The analysis of its reproduction on the fourteenth-century fresco at Potamia—a composition largely based on the middle-Byzantine iconographic tradition for this scene—shows that Tetr. 262a was in this case most probably treated as a purely prose inscription, closely associated with its protagonist Nicodemus and his actions in the event. Its focus on a secondary character, who is depicted performing a practical task in the scenes of Deposition, probably explains its unparalleled appearance in this small church on Naxos. Finally, I discuss the possible routes that could have brought the Tetr. 262a to the island and I conclude that this epigram is likely to have reached Naxos together with the specific variant of the scene from a model book, which was largely based on middle Byzantine imagery and texts.

Keywords: Theodore Prodromos, Epigram, Tetrasticha, Monumental Painting, deposition, Nicodemus, Secondary Characters, Transmission of Epigrams, Naxos

This article seeks to cast light on a debate in eleventh- and twelfth-century Byzantium. At that time it was discussed whether the fasts of the Apostles, the Dormition and Christmas were obligatory or a matter of personal choice. The champions of the latter view argued that there was no canon requiring their observance. Others accused them of laxity but found it difficult to argue their case. Since proof texts were few and far between and not as informative as they would have wished the defenders of the fasts came to quite different conclusions.

Keywords: Fast of Christmas, Fast of the Dormition, Fast of the Apostles, Nicholas III Grammatikos, Michael Glykas

This paper concerns the content, character and transmission of Menander Protector’s History, a fragmentary work of classicizing historiography written in the later sixth century. Investigation of a previously unexamined scholion to Strabo’s Geography, which recommends Menander’s History as an especially accurate source on “Persian customs”, establishes the provenance, context and significance of this rare testimonium and questions why the ninth-century scholiast directed readers of Strabo to this late antique text in preference to well-established classical authorities on ancient Persia. As the scholion responds to Strabo’s uniquely detailed treatment of Persian religion, particularly magi and Zoroastrian sacrificial rituals, it becomes necessary to reconsider evidence for this subject in Menander’s extant writings, notably those fragments of his History, together with a separately transmitted epigram (Palatine Anthology I 101), that concern the martyrdom of Isbozetes (Yazdbōzēd), a Persian magus who converted to Christianity (AD 553). Widening the inquiry to include largely overlooked martyrial acta, particularly an Armenian Passio S. Isbozetae, reveals an early textual tradition characterized by accurate and precise information about magian practices and paraphernalia, which closely and exclusively corresponds to Strabo’s account of Zoroastrian fire-cult. Menander’s interest in this story of an apostate magus both explains the scholiast’s recommendation and casts new light on Menander’s aims and sources, including East Syriac hagiographical tradition. In line with recent scholarship, a more variegated picture of Menander’s historical writing emerges beyond the focus on diplomacy imposed by the thematically determined transmission of surviving fragments in the Constantinian Excerpta.

Keywords: Greek Classicizing Historiography, Textual Transmission, Byzantine Scholia and Excerpta, Hagiography, Armenian Literature

The article focuses on the similarities in the genesis of Photius’ Library and Mystagogia: after recalling the results of the most recent studies on the first and proposing some new hypotheses on the nature and origin of its chapters, it analyses the structure of the Mystagogia, showing that this work derives from the transcription of a composite dossier-prototype prepared by Photius from very heterogeneous sources. Some similarities in the contents of the two works suggest using the same set of materials to compose some sections of both, at different times in the scholar’s life. This reconstruction seems to confirm the late dating of the Library (proposed in previous works) and implies a radically new dating for some parts of the Mystagogia, which will be the subject of a further contribution.

Keywords: Textual Genetics, Codicology, Philology, Manuscriptology, Archetype/Prototype, Schedaria

This article deals with a long unresolved question regarding two Lives of the Virgin Mary written in the second half of the tenth century by John Geometres and Symeon Metaphrastes (and his team). It is evident that one of the two authors copied the other, but scholars have been unable to conclude with certainty who depends on the other. This article reviews the problem in detail and presents new textual evidence which suggests that Symeon Metaphrastes used John Geometres as one of his sources. In considering the corresponding passages between Geometres and Metaphrastes, another question arises regarding Michael Psellos’ controversial description of Symeon Metaphrastes at work. On the basis of new textual evidence, this article offers a fresh perspective on Psellos’ passage and its debated meaning.

Keywords: Photius, Iconoclasm, Glorious Body, Origenism, Relics

Photius’s Library contains numerous references to issues that had sparked theological debates in earlier centuries, starting with Origenism and the problem of the resurrected body. They are not due to mere scholarly curiosity, for this topic repeatedly challenged the sensibilities of Photius and many of his associates. The question arises whether Photius, in his role as patriarch, tried to draw doctrinal boundaries to counter hidden but somehow still active social groups that wanted to resume the fight against icons.

Keywords: Symeon Metaphrastes, John Geometres, Michael Psellos, George of Nicomedia, Euthymios the Athonite, Virgin Mary, Menologion, Metaphrasis, Rewriting, Hagiography

The present article contains the first edition of a hitherto unpublished papyrus fragment belonging to the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library (P.Vindob. G 19923). This fragment, which once belonged to a papyrus codex, offers the first papyrological testimony to Isidore of Pelusium’s oeuvre. The new Viennese fragment dates from the late fifth or the sixth century CE and preserves parts of letters 1970 and 1971 of Isidore’s extensive epistolary corpus.

Keywords: Isidore of Pelusium, letters, Papyrus Codex, manuscript tradition

The article includes the editio princeps, an English translation and a commentary of an unpublished Byzantine lament in elegiac distichs. The poem is preserved in a philosophical manuscript that belonged to the cardinal Bessarion (cod. Marc. gr. Z 197) and is dedicated to a learned man called Trikanas Kantzas, who is not known from other sources. It is distinguished by its secular style, its adaptation of Homeric language and its emotional expression of feelings of grief.

Keywords: Lament, Trikanas Kantzas, Editio Princeps, Elegiac Distichs, Late Byzantine Poetry

This paper conjecturally identifies Greek summaries of the lost Books I–XIII of Ammianus Marcellinus’ Res Gestae in the works of over a dozen Byzantine historians, primarily John Malalas, John of Antioch, John Zonaras, and Theodore Scutariotes. These summaries were evidently transmitted by means of a lost world history compiled in Greek by Eustathius of Epiphania, which summarized Ammianus’ Books I–XXV along with other sources. Although the original text of Eustathius’ history is lost, it was paraphrased in a distorted form by John Malalas, most of whose history survives, and was copied almost verbatim by John of Antioch, much of whose history survives in the Historical Excerpts of Constantine VII and in paraphrases by Zonaras, Scutariotes, and other Byzantine historians. In all, the Greek summaries that can be identified seem to be about a tenth as long as the full text of Ammianus’ lost books.

Keywords: Ammianus Marcellinus, John Zonaras, Eustathius of Epiphania, John of Antioch, John Malalas

The hypothesis about George Synkellos’ Syro-Palestinian origins relates in a confused way to that of the lost Eastern source of Theophanes, to the hypothesis that the chronicle attributed to Theophanes was in fact written by Synkellos, and to the hypothesis about Syriac mediation in the transmission of the Greek chronicle tradition throughout the so-called Dark Ages. The current state of research calls for a new look at this situation and invites us to reexamine from a different perspective the history of the Greek chronicle tradition in Byzantium.

Keywords: George Synkellos, Theophanes Confessor, Byzantine Chronography, Byzantine Chronicle