On the tombs of the emperors in the Church of the Holy Apostles

Posted on by Roger Pearse

One of the various antiquarian compositions of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959) was De cerimoniis aulae Byzantinae.  The work was revised in the following reign.

In the Book of Ceremonies ii, 42, the following list of tombs in the church may be found.  Other excerpts from this work translated by Paul Stephenson can be found here.  Glanville Downey gave the following translation 1 from the CSHB edition  2.

CONCERNING THE TOMBS OF THE EMPERORS WHICH ARE IN THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY APOSTLES

Heroon of the Holy and Great Constantine.

1 In the principal place, to the east, lies the sarcophagus of St. Constantine, [of] porphyry, or rather ‘Roman’ [stone], in which he himself lies with the blessed Helen his mother.
2 Another sarcophagus, [of] porphyry Roman [stone], in which lies Constantius the son of Constantine the Great.
3 Another sarcophagus, porphyry Roman, in which lies Theodosius the Great.
4 Another sarcophagus, green hieracites, in which lies Leo the Great.
5 Another sarcophagus, porphyry Roman, in which lies Marcianus with his wife Pulcheria.
6 Another sarcophagus, green Thessalian, in which lies the Emperor Zeno.
7 Another sarcophagus, Aquitanian, in which lies Anastasios Dikoros with Ariadne his wife.
8 Another sarcophagus, of green Thessalian stone, in which lies the Emperor Michael, the son of Theophilos. Note that this sarcophagus of Michael is that of the Emperor
Justin the Great. It lay in the monastery of the Augusta, below the Apostle St. Thomas, in which the robes of the apostles were found. And Lord Leo the Emperor took it and placed it here for the burial of the body of this Michael.
9 Another sarcophagus, green Thessalian, in which lies Basil with Eudokia and Alexander his son.
10 Another sarcophagus, Sagarian or pneumonousiani, in which lies the renowned Leo with his son Constantine, who died later, the Porphyrogennetos.
11 Another sarcophagus, [of] white, so-called imperial, [stone], in which lies Constantine the son of Basil.
12 Another sarcophagus, green Thessalian, in which lies St. Theophano, the first wife of the blessed Leo, with Eudokia her daughter.
13 Another sarcophagus, Bithynian, in which lies Zoe the second wife of the same Leo.
14 Another sarcophagus, green Thessalian, in which lies Eudokia the third wife of the same Lord Leo, she who was surnamed Baine.
15 Another sarcophagus, Proconesian, in which lie Anna and Anna the daughters of the blessed Leo and Zoe.
16 Another small sarcophagus, Sagarian or pneumonousian, in which lies Basil the brother of Constantine Porphyrogennetos, and Bardas the son of Basil his grandfather.
17 Another small sarcophagus, of Sagarian stone, in which lies . . .

Heroon of the Great Justinian

18 At the apse itself, to the east, is the first sarcophagus, in which lies the body of Justinian, of unusual foreign stone, in colour between Bithynian and Chalcedonian, something like stone of Ostrite.
19 Another sarcophagus, of Hierapolitan stone, in which lies Theodora the wife of Justinian the Great.
20 Another sarcophagus lying to the west, on the right hand, of stone of Dokimion, of variegated rose colour, in which lies Eudokia the wife of Justinian the Younger.
21 Another sarcophagus, of white Proconesian stone, in which lies Justin the Younger.
22 Another sarcophagus, of Proconesian stone, in which lies Sophia the wife of Justin.
23 Another sarcophagus, of white stone of Dokimion, onyx, in which lies Heraklios the Great.
24 Another sarcophagus, green Thessalian, in which lies Fabia the wife of Heraklios.
25 Another sarcophagus, Proconesian, of Constantine Pogonatos.
26 Another sarcophagus, of green Thessalian stone, in which lies Fausta the wife of Constantine Pogonatos.
27 Another sarcophagus, Sagarian, in which lies Constantine, the descendant of Heraklios, the son of Constantine Pogonatos.
28 Another sarcophagus, of variegated Sagarian stone, in which lies Anastasios also called Artemios.
29 Another sarcophagus, of Hierapolitan stone, in which lies the wife of Anastasios also called Artemios.
30 Another sarcophagus, of Proconesian stone, in which lies Leo the Isaurian.
31 Another sarcophagus, of green Thessalian stone, in which lay Constantine, the son of the Isaurian, who was surnamed Kaballinos; but he was cast out by Michael and Theodora, and his cursed body was burned. Likewise his sarcophagus was cast out and broken up, and served for the foundations of the Pharos. And the great blocks which are in the Pharos belonged to this sarcophagus.
32 Another sarcophagus, of Proconesian stone, in which lies Eirene the wife of Constantine Kaballinos.
33 Another sarcophagus, green Thessalian, in which lies the wife of Kaballinos.
34 A small coffin of Proconesian stones, in which lie Kosmo and Eirene, sisters of Kaballinos.
35 Another sarcophagus, Proconesian, in which lies Leo the Chazar, son of Constantine Kaballinos.
36 Another sarcophagus, of Proconesian stone, in which lies Eirene the wife of Leo the Chazar.
37 Another sarcophagus, green Thessalian, in which lies Michael Travlos.
38 Another sarcophagus, of Sagarian stone, in which lies Thekla the wife of Michael Travlos.
39 Another sarcophagus, of green stone, in which lies Theophilos the Emperor.
40 Another small sarcophagus, green, in which lies Constantine the son of Theophilos.
41 Another small sarcophagus, of Sagarian stone, in which lies Maria the daughter of Theophilos.

The Stoa to the South of the Same Church
42 In this lie the sarcophagi of Arkadios, Theodosios, his son, and Eudoxia his mother. The tomb of Arkadios is to the south, that of Theodosios to the north, that of Eudoxia to the east, each of the two porphyry or Roman.

The Stoa to the North of the Same Church
43 In this stoa, which is to the north, lies a cylindrically-shaped sarcophagus, in which lies the cursed and wretched body of the apostate Julian, porphyry or Roman in colour.
44 Another sarcophagus, porphyry, or Roman, in which lies the body of Jovian, who ruled after Julian.

1. Glanville Downey, The Tombs of the Byzantine Emperors at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, Journal of Hellenic Studies 79 (1959), p.27-51.
2. Constantini Porphyrogeniti De Ceremoniis Aulae Byzantinae, 2 vols ed. J. Reiske, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. Bonn 1829

Share

Eusebius update

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Bob Buller, who is heroically typesetting the manuscript of the Gospel Problems and Solutions of Eusebius, has sent over another chapter.  This time it’s the Arabic text and translation.  It looks very good, and the manuscript is probably now 70% done. 

The chapter containing Coptic fragments has been sent to the Coptic team for inspection and insertion of a couple of quotations.

I had not observed that the Scheherazade font used by the translator was not actually installed on my PC.  Since I don’t know Arabic, it looked fine to me!  But Bob has found some other font.  We’ll see if the author of that chapter is happy with it. 

At some point I need to send a copy of the manuscript to the Sources Chretiennes.  This was a condition of using their Greek text for the Abbreviated Selection / ecloge.   I also need to get a website up, with eCommerce facilities, and to get some fliers together.  And I know that the translator of the Greek and Latin wants to do a proof-read of the whole thing.  So … it’s all delays.

I had hoped to have the book out by now.  But I’ve not done the job before, and everything is new and unfamiliar.  I shall try not to let the job run on.

Share

Cyril of Alexandria buys the government

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The collection of letters of Cyril of Alexandria that has come down to us is really a dossier of materials surrounding the Nestorian controversy.  That unedifying story has many low points.

One that sticks in my mind is letter 96.  This consists of a list of bribes of courtiers in Constantinople.  I found a copy online today, and I thought I would share it.  The translation must be that of the Fathers of the Church series, and if so must be copyright to them. So don’t treat this as public domain: it isn’t mine to give you.  But I imagine a quotation of one letter should be within fair usage.

It is possible that the court was so corrupt that no-one could be heard unless “presents” were given.  The phrase “customary gifts” noted in the footnotes tends to suggest this.  All the same, it’s not nice reading.  Bribes to one official, to act as mediator with another official, all of it simply to do whatever business a major dignitary of the empire thought right to do.  Um.

LETTER 96

A catalogue of things dispatched from here to the following who are there, by my lord, your most holy brother Cyril. 1

To Paul the Prefect: four larger wool rugs, two moderate wool rugs, four place covers, four table cloths, six larger bila (rugs or curtains), six medium sized bila, six stool covers, twelve for doors, two larger caldrons, four ivory chairs, two ivory stools, four persoina (= pews?), two larger tables, two ostriches (= pieces of furniture?); and in order that he would help us in the cause about those matters which were written to him: fifty pounds of gold. 2

(2) And to his domestic, one wool rug, two rugs, four bila, two stool covers, and one hundred gold coins.

(3) To Marcella, the chambermaid, the same as was dispatched to him, and that she would persuade Augusta 3 by asking her: fifty pounds of gold.

(4) To Droseria, the chambermaid, the same as was dispatched to Marcella, and that she would help her as was written to her: fifty pounds of gold.

(5) To the prefect Chryseros, that he would cease to oppose us, we were forced to dispatch double amounts: six larger wool rugs, four moderate rugs, four larger rugs, eight place covers, six table cloths, six large bila rugs, six medium sized bila, six stool covers, twelve for chairs, four larger caldrons, four ivory chairs, four ivory stools, six persoina, four larger tables, six ostriches; and if he shall have acted in accordance with what were written to him by the most magnificent Aristolaus with the lord Claudianus intervening as mediator: two hundred pounds of gold.

(6) And to Solomon, his domestic, two larger wool rugs, four place covers, four table cloths, four bila, four stool covers, six covers for chairs, six caldrons, two ivory chairs, two ostriches; and just as was written to lord Claudianus, so he may use persuasion to forward the proposal: fifty pounds of gold.

(7) To lady Heleniana, who is [the wife] of the prefect of the praetorian guard, the same in all things which were dispatched to Chryseros, so also to her; and in order that the prefect, persuaded by her, would help us: one hundred pounds of gold. As to her assessor, Florentinus, just as the things sent to Solomon, equally the same also to him and fifty pounds of gold.

(8) And to the other chamberlains customary suppliant gifts 4 have been dispatched.

To Romanus the chamberlain: four larger wool rugs, four place covers, four bila, four stool covers, six covers for chairs, two caldrons, two ivory chairs; and so that he would aid in our cause: thirty pounds of gold.

(9) To Domninus the chamberlain: four larger wool rugs, four larger rugs, four medium sized bila, four table covers, four medium sized bila, six stool covers, six covers for chairs, two larger caldrons, two ivory chairs, two ivory stools, four ostriches; and so that he may help us according to those things which were written to lord Claudianus: fifty pounds of gold.

(10) To Scholasticius, the chamberlain, the same in all things as those which were dispatched to Chryseros: and one hundred pounds of gold. And to Theodore, his domestic according to the promises of lord Claudianus, if he should persuade Scholasticius that he desist from friendships with our adversaries: fifty pounds of gold. We have directed also gifts4 to him which ought to persuade him that he should think in our favor: two wool rugs, two place covers, four table cloths, four rugs, four stools, six stool covers for chairs, two caldrons, two ostriches.

(11) To the most magnificent Artaba the same in all things as those which were dispatched to Scholasticius both in kinds: and that he would help us as was written to him: one hundred pounds of gold.

(12) To Magister, the same in all things as were dispatched to Artaba, in the same kinds: and one hundred pounds of gold. And to his domestic equally in all things as those dispatched to Rufinus.

(13) And to the quaestor, the same as those things which were destined for Magister: and one hundred pounds of gold. And to his domestic Ablalius equally in all things as Eustathius.

(14) A letter was written by your brother to the most reverend clerics so that all these things be dispatched, if anything was done out of devotion to my holy lord and should happen to be accomplished, and that is what is necessary, with the good will and advice of the lord Philip and the lord Claudianus.

1  For the critical text of this letter see Schwartz, ACO 1.4 pp. 224-225. Geerard numbers this letter 5396 in CPG.
2  The libra was the Roman pound of 12 ounces.
3  Pulcheria, elder sister of Theodosius II. She received the title Augusta when she became regent in 414.
4  The word eulogiae, here translated “gifts,” appears to be a diplomatic phrase actually meaning. “bribes.” It is difficult to pass judgment on this matter. The court at Constantinople evidently was corrupt. One very revealing item is found on p. 224, line 28: eulogiae consuetudinariae supplices, “customary suppliant gifts.” If this was customary, the action of Cyril was not so unusual. How this treasure was transported to the capital is an unanswered problem. The date of this catalogue was during the time of the council or soon after it. Wickham, Select Letters, 66, note 8, translates persoina as possibly “pews” or “benches,” and suggests that the ostriches must be pieces of furniture or of upholstery. See P. Batiffol, “Les présents de Saint Cyrille à la cour de Constantinople,” Bulletin d’ancienne littérature et d’archéologie chrétienne, 1 ( 1911), 247-264 (= Etudes de Liturgie et d’Archéologie Chrétienne, Paris, 1919).

Share

Julian the Apostate on Constantius

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I imagine that most of us have read Ammianus Marcellinus.  The gloomy pall of the reign of Constantius, which opens the remaining books of that work, is almost palpable.  The atmosphere of suspicion and oppression, the constant denunciations, the fear of ordinary decent people confronted by people like Paul “the chain” … all this is horrifying.

It is interesting, therefore, to see how Julian refuses to attack Constantius in letter 13, which I scanned and placed online yesterday:

13. To Hermogenes, formerly Prefect of Egypt [361, Dec.? Constantinople]

Suffer me to say, in the language of the poetical rhetoricians, Ο how little hope had I of safety! Ο how little hope had I of hearing that you had escaped the three-headed hydra! Zeus be my witness that I do not mean my brother Constantius — nay, he was what he was—but the wild beasts who surrounded him and cast their baleful eyes on all men; for they made him even harsher than he was by nature, though on his own account he was by no means of a mild disposition, although he seemed so to many. But since he is now one of the blessed dead, may the earth lie lightly on him, as the saying is! Nor should I wish, Zeus be my witness, that these others should be punished unjustly; but since many accusers are rising up against them, I have appointed a court to judge them. Do you, my friend, come hither, and hasten, even if it task your strength. For, by the gods, I have long desired to see you, and, now that I have learned to my great joy that you are safe and sound, I bid you come.

The context of the letter is that Julian had been unexpectedly successful as general in Gaul.  This had roused the suspicions of Constantius, who had demanded that Julian send the best of his army to Constantius for service in the east.  Julian was promptly proclaimed emperor by the Gallic army. 

Constantius then had Julian proclaimed a public enemy, and made preparations to attack him.  This was a serious matter, for Constantius, although unlucky in foreign wars, had proven very capable at civil war.  But it came to nothing; as Julian marched east, Constantius died. 

Julian as the sole remaining member of the house of Constantine was accepted as emperor by everyone.  He set up a commission to enquire into the misdeeds of Constantius’ associates, and included several members of Constantius’ circle.  The hated Paul the Chain was burned alive, to universal rejoicing.

The verdict of Julian is interesting, thus.

… he was what he was.

Share

Nicolaitans in patristic literature

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve had an email from Daniel R. Jennings who has compiled a list of references to the Nicolaitans in the available patristic literature.  It is here.

Such collections of sources are always valuable, and Daniel is doing a useful job in making this.

Share

Gnomologia on the web

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Everyone knows that the Arabs had collections of the “sayings of the poets and philosophers” with which they bored each other at those lengthy dinner parties during the middle ages while they were waiting for the crusades to begin.  Few perhaps realise that collections of this kind actually start with the Greeks, and are extant in substantial chunks from the 3rd century on.

The sayings are mostly bogus, but some creep into editions of fragments, probably by mistake.  The sayings change shape, as the various editors “improved” them for wit and delivery.  They change author too!  And they exist in Greek, in Syriac, and in Arabic, and probably in other languages also.   In fact they constitute “pop literature” — a literary form used for enjoyment by people who should have been cleaning toilets or enrolling at the academy.  They’re a pig to work on, and getting a critical text is a nightmare.

In the past, scholars have recognised that the world needs to be protected from these things, and have cunningly named the subject “gnomologia”.  Literally it means “wisdom sayings” — but hey, that would make too much sense and might attract unwanted attention.  The term “gnomologia” is just the thing to make most people go cross-eyed and move quickly on.

Another ploy has been to have only German scholars work on it, and get them to do it a century ago in obscure publications, usually without translation.  After all, if you provide a translation, who knows who might start looking at this stuff?  It doesn’t bear thinking about.

In this way this material has remained largely unexplored except by specialists.  And thank goodness, for it combines tedium with inauthenticity in a manner not normally found outside the speechs of Episcopalian bishops.

Charlotte Roueché of Kings College London has unfortunately broken through all this and started the SAW project — Sharing Ancient Wisdoms.  She’s linked up with Denis Searby, who published a massive Greek collection, the Corpus Parisinum, and who broke with tradition and actually provided a translation.  (Shocking!)  She’s also roped in some experts in Arabic to get stuck into that area as well.  The idea is to use web-based technology to explore the lot and publish them online:

With the support of a team at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, and the Cente for e-Research at King’s, Charlotte Roueché will be working with experts on such collections in Greek (Denis Searby, of Uppsala) and in Arabic (Stephan Prochazka and Elvira Wakelnig, of Vienna). The aim is to publish several collections online, using technology to express and display their relationships – with the ancient texts on which they drew, with later texts which drew on them, and also with one another, since collections were frequently translated.

It all looks very bad for the old way of doing things.  Soon people will actually be able to learn about this form of literature, and start to relate it, as a source, to the classical and patristic tradition.  Whatever will become of us?

But enough joking.  Dr Roueché and her team are doing something that has needed doing for a century at least.  Everything they touch will be of value.  I hope the results will be freely accessible online.  Few enough people are interested in these curious texts anyway.

I myself commissioned translations of some Arabic Christian collections of these things; enough to realise their nature.  I shall offer these to the project.

(via: David Meadows)

UPDATE (6/5/14): Updated link to website of SAW.

Share

Sarcophagi of the Eastern Roman emperors still around?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I wonder how many people know that the sarcophagi of the Roman emperors buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles are still around?  The following picture from Wikimedia Commons and this one show some of them stood outside the Istanbul archaeological museum.  The one without a cross on is said to be that of Julian the Apostate.

Share

The letters of Julian the Apostate

Posted on by Roger Pearse

For some reason today I found myself looking at the Wikipedia page on Julian the Apostate, the last of the family of the emperor Constantine who tried to turn the empire pagan again.  Indeed I ended up adding a little known snippet on the end of his time in Antioch.  Julian found that Antioch was thoroughly Christian and resisted his policies at every turn.  So as he left, he appointed a thug named Alexander of Heliopolis as governor, to teach them a lesson and whip them into paganism.  Ammianus Marcellinus tells the story.  Even Libanius thought this was dishonourable conduct.  What happened afterwards I do not know.

But this led me to look at the list of works linked to.  The three volumes of the Loeb on Archive.org were linked, as were the HTML versions of a couple of works done by myself longer ago.

The article didn’t seem that good, and I looked at the Discussion page to see what sort of comments it was attracting.  Depressingly it consisted almost entirely of a headbanger demanding that the article be renamed from “Julian the Apostate” and seeing whatever evidence he could find or manufacture to show that this, standard, name for the man was somehow not standard.  Considering that few of Julian’s works were online in searchable form, such a desire could only arise from hatred of the Christians, rather than enthusiasm for Julian.

But all this caused me to go back to the Finereader projects of the three volumes of Julian that I have on disk.  They were done years ago, when Finereader 5 was the current version (it’s FR10 now).  I decided to scan the letters of Julian.  I loaded the thing into FR10, re-OCR’d it, and started proofing.

The accuracy was very good indeed.  But the blessed thing fought me hard when the time came to save it out.   It crashed, and refused, in various formats.  When I did manage to save something as HTML, it decided arbitarily to create HTML footnotes from some of the footnotes and stick them at the end.  Whereas I wanted to have them inline.  All in all it has been a pain.

Tomorrow I will format it all properly, and upload it to the additional fathers.

Share

What they will not allow you to see online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Jona Lendering writes about censorship in the Netherlands.

The Dutch Royal Library is currently making available online all newspapers from the Second World War, which includes Nazi propaganda. Now the Dutch department of Justice has advised the library not to make digital versions of these publications, because it is possible that the Public Prosecutor might accuse the Royal Library of distributing publications that incite hatred.

Jona rightly excoriates this nonsense.   What need to  fear “Nazis” if you adopt Nazi policies, supposedly to prevent them?  

UPDATE: All of which nonsense led me to muse on black shirts and the like, and thence to P. G. Wodehouse, “The code of the Woosters”, p.54 of the Vintage paperback (1990) where Gussie Fink-Nottle explains to Bertie Wooster about a fellow guest at the house party.

‘Don’t you ever read the papers?  Roderick Spode is the founder and head of the Saviours of Britain, a Fascist organisation better known as the Black Shorts.  His general idea, if he doesn’t get knocked on the head with a bottle in one of the frequent brawls in which he and his followers indulge, is to make  himself a Dictator.’

‘Well I’m blowed!’

I was astounded at my keenness of perception.  The moment I had set eyes on Spode, if you remember, I had said to myself, ‘What ho! A Dictator!’ and a Dictator he had proved to be.  I couldn’t have made a better shot, if I had been one of those detectives who see a chap walking along the street and deduce that he is a retired manufacturer of poppet valves named Robinson with rheumatism in one arm, living at Clapham.

‘Well I’m dashed!  I thought he was something of that sort.  That chin … Those eyes … And, for the matter of that, that moustache.  By the way, when you say “shorts” you mean “shirts”, of course.’

‘No.  By the time Spode formed his association there were no shirts left.  He and his adherents wear black shorts.’

‘Footer bags, you mean?’

‘Yes.’

‘How perfectly foul.’

‘Yes.’

‘Bare knees?’

‘Bare knees.’

‘Golly!’

‘Yes.’

Share

The morning after the night before

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Time to tidy the blog.  I thought I’d go through all the linked blogs and check they still exist and are still active.  Not all of them were!  A reduced list appears to the right of this post.  I do read quite a few of these, although more are reference sources than anything else.

I also removed one or two that seemed to have drifted off the subject for which I added them.  Of course I have political views, like everyone else, but I try to keep them out of this place.   I don’t link to the political blogs that I read.   This is because I tend to evaluate a blog by what it links to.  If I go to some blog, I try to work out whether the author is someone I want adding stuff to my mind.  A glance around the posts is one clue; the blogroll is another.

Now I don’t really want people closing their eyes to what I say because I happen to link to some blog that is a banner-waver for some political position.  This is not a political blog, after all, and people of every political persuasion should be able to find material to read here and without insult to their politics.

Share