Andreas Rhoby The Poetry of Theodore Balsamon Form and Function* Introduction Theodore Balsamon, born in Constantinople between 1130 and 1140 and died after 1195, is mainly known for his canonical work, the commentary on the so-called nomokanon of fourteen titles. His life span corresponds almost exactly to the reigns of the Komnenian emperors Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180) and Isaac II (1185–1195), stemming from the house of the Angeloi. 1 Balsamon occupied high positions in the church hierarchy: he was deacon of the Great Church, and was later promoted to the positions of nomophylax and chartophylax (first secretary of the patriarch). 2 He reached the climax of his career between c. 1185 and 1190, when he served as the titular patriarch of Antioch. 3 The emperor Isaac II Angelos even considered the possibility of Balsamon’s election as patriarch of Constantinople, but eventually another candidate, namely Dositheos, former patriarch of Jerusalem from 1187 to 1189, was preferred; the latter served from 1189 to 1191. Balsamon also acted as the abbot of monasteries in Constantinople, he was the * This article was written within the framework of the project “Byzantine Poetry in the ‘Long’ Twelfth Century (1081–1204): Texts and Contexts,” funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (P28959-G25). An earlier version was presented at the VII Convegno Internazionale “Poesia Greca e Latina in Età Tardoantica e Medievale – L’Epigramma” at the University of Macerata (Italy) on 30 November, 2016. I sincerely thank Nikos Zagklas for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 1 On this period one may consult the classical study by Charles Brand, Byzantium confronts the West, 1180–1204 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968) and the recent collective volume by Alicia Simpson (ed.), Byzantium, 1180–1204: ‘The Sad Quarter of a Century’? (Athens: The National Hellenic Research Foundation, 2015). 2 On his seal the office of chartophylax is attested: Σφράγισμα ταῦτα καὶ γραφῶν καὶ πρακτέων / χαρτοφύλακος Βαλσαμὼν Θεοδώρου, ed. George Zacos and Alexander Veglery, Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. I, Part III: Nos. 2672–3231. Imperial and Allied Seals: Vth to XIVth Centuries. Non-Imperial Seals: VIth to IXth Centuries (Basel: 1972), p. 1535. 3 There are various opinions regarding the dating of Balsamon’s patriarchate, see Konstantinos Pitsakes, Το κώλυμα γάμου λόγω συγγενείας εβδόμου βαθμού εξ αίματος στο βυζαντινό δίκαιο (Athens and Komotene: Sakkulas, 1985), p. 346, n. 84. Middle and Late Byzantine Poetry: Texts and Contexts, ed. by Andreas Rhoby and Nikos Zagklas, Studies in Byzantine History and Civilization, 14 (Turnhout, 2018), pp. 111-145 © FHG 10.1484/M.SBHC-EB.5.115586 Gold Open Access - Creative Commons CC 4.0: BY-NC license. ANDREAS RHOBy “first” (πρῶτος) of the Blachernai monastery, and later he served as the abbot of the monastery ton Zipon, to which two of his epigrams also refer (nos. 9 and 36, perhaps also 37, see below p. 117). 4 Balsamon’s major literary output is the aforementioned commentary on the nomokanon of fourteen titles, a collection of canon law, whose first version dates back to the reign of Herakleios in the seventh century. 5 In the course of the centuries more material was added as well as prologues. Probably in 1177, 6 Balsamon – as ordered by the emperor Manuel I – produced a first version of an additional prologue for the work and a commentary on the basis of previous sources. However, he did not cease adding to the commentary in the following years: as one can learn from the prologue book epigram on the commentary, the work is dedicated to the George II Xiphilinos, who served as patriarch of Constantinople from 1191 to 1198. Balsamon’s epilogue poem on the nomokanon is also preserved. Both will be discussed later in this paper (p. 115-117). Balsamon’s preserved œuvre also encompasses further canonical treatises 7 and letters 8 which he exchanged with some contemporaries, among them Eumathios Makrembolites, a high judge, perhaps also the author of one of the four Komnenian novels, 9 if Balsamon’s Eumathios 4 The best overview about Balsamon’s life and work is currently provided by the concise lemma of Spyros Troianos, ‘Byzantine Canon Law from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Centuries’, in Wilfried Hartmann and Kenneth Pennington (eds), The History of Byzantine and Eastern Canon Law to 1500 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2012), pp. 170–214: here pp. 180–83. See also Gerardus P. Stevens, De Theodoro Balsamone. Analysis operum ac mentis iuridicae (Rome: Libr. Ed. della Pont. Univ. Lateranense, 1969); Horna, Epigramme (see n. 10), pp. 165–71; Alex Rodriguez Suarez, ‘Interacción entre Latinos y Bizantinos en vísperas de la Cuarta Cruzada (1204): el testimonio de Teodoro Balsamón’, Estudios bizantinos, 4 (2016), pp. 95–105. An extensive list of Balsamon’s work and secondary literature is to be found in the unpublished PhD thesis by Elias Ch. Nesseres, Η Παιδεία στην Κωνσταντινούπολη κατά τον 12ο αιώνα (Ioannina 2014), pp. 99–106. 5 Georgios Rhalles and Michael Potles, Σύνταγμα τῶν θείων καὶ ἱερῶν κανόνων […], vol. I (Athens: Chartophylax, 1852), pp. 5–335 = Patrologia Graeca, vol. 104, pp. 975A–1217B. 6 Troianos, Byzantine Canon Law, p. 181. 7 See, e.g., the list in Andreas Schminck and Dorotei Getov, Repertorium der Handschriften des byzantinischen Rechts, Teil II: Die Handschriften des kirchlichen Rechts I (Nr. 328–427) (Frankfurt/Main: Photios-Verlag, 2010), pp. 252–53. 8 Horna, Epigramme (see n. 10), pp. 212–15. 9 Elizabeth Jeffreys, Four Byzantine Novels. Theodore Prodromos, Rhodanthe and Dosikles. Eumathios Makrembolites, Hysmine and Hysminias. Constantine Manasses, Aristandros and Kallithea. Niketas Eugenianos, Drosilla and Charikles. Translated with Introductions and Notes (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012), pp. 159–65.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON Makrembolites is indeed identical with the novel’s author of the same name. Macrembolites’ tomb epigram was also composed by Balsamon (see below pp. 120-121). Balsamon’s poetry has already been mentioned a few times: more than 40 poems are transmitted under his name. They were edited by Konstantin Horna, a Viennese schoolteacher of Greek and Latin, in 1903. 10 This solid study is also equipped with a thorough written introduction as well as with comments on language and meter, the dodecasyllable verse. 11 The epigrams’ content makes it clear that Balsamon was more than a canonist and a high clergy man: the wide range of his poetic output reveals that every now and then he also served as an author on commission, a profession which he shared with other authors, especially those of the middle of the twelfth century, e.g. Theodore Prodromos, John Tzetzes, Constantine Manasses and others, many of whom belong to the so-called “circle” of the famous sebastokratorissa Eirene, the emperor Manuel I’s sister-in-law. 12 Theodore Balsamon’s Poetry Balsamon’s poetry is mainly transmitted in the Cod. Marc. Gr. 524, one of the most famous Byzantine manuscripts. The miscellaneous codex was put together by a scribe towards the end of the thirteenth century. Its content is very broad: it includes prose works, such as the Geoponica, a compilation of the tenth century; works by Michael Psellos, the famous Byzantine author of the eleventh century; and speeches by Arethas of Kaisareia, the bishop and scholar of the late ninth / early tenth century. 13 10 Konstantin Horna, ‘Die Epigramme des Theodoros Balsamon’, Wiener Studien, 25 (1903), pp. 165–217. 11 Ibidem, pp. 171–76. 12 Elizabeth Jeffreys, ‘The Sebastokratorissa Irene as Patron’, in Lioba Theis, Margaret Mullett and Michael Grünbart (eds), Female Founders in Byzantium & Beyond (Vienna: Böhlau-Verlag, 2014) (= Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 60/61 [2011/2012]), pp. 177−194. As to poetry, mention also has to be made of Euthymios Tornikes, attested as patriarchal deacon in 1191, who devoted a multimetric encomiastic cycle to Isaac II Angelos: Athanasios I. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Noctes Petropolitanae. Sbornik vizantijskich tekstov XII–XIII věkov (Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1976 [reprint of the edition Sankt-Petersburg 1913), pp. 188–98; see the article of Nikos Zagklas in this volume. 13 A full description of the manuscript is provided by Elpidio Mioni, Bibliothecae Divi Marci Venetiarum Codices Graeci Manuscripti. Thesaurus Antiquus, vol. II (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato 1981), pp. 399–407.  ANDREAS RHOBy In addition, the codex’ scribe also compiled an anthology of poetry from both known and anonymous authors of the eleventh and the twelfth centuries. 14 It is with Theodore Balsamon’s collection of poems that this anthology begins (following a collection of gnomes). 39 poems are preserved on folios 89r–94r; 15 the collection is introduced by a long title which provides information about Balsamon’s career steps (χαρτοφύλαξ, νομοφύλαξ, πρῶτος τῶν Βλαχερνῶν, πρωτοσύγκελλος and πατριάρχης Ἀντιοχείας). 16 Interestingly enough, the scribe copied three more poems from Balsamon’s collection on fol. 9r. 17 This is probably due to the fact that after fol. 94r no further space was available to copy the three missing poems, because on fol. 94v Constantine Manasses’ socalled Hodoiporikon, an account of a journey to the Holy Land in the middle of the twelfth century, begins. 18 On fol. 9r, however, there was apparently still space available, because a long anonymous (still unedited) poem on toothache, consisting of 168 verses, only starts in the middle of the page. 19 The three epigrams copied on fol. 9r (nos. 40–42 in Horna’s edition) have nothing in common, apart from the fact that they form the end of the collection copied on folios 89r–94r: the first one (no. 40) of the three poems, consisting of only three verses, refers to Moses; the second one (no. 41) tells about a young (or little) eunuch who wants 14 Foteini Spingou, Words and Artworks in the Twelfth Century and Beyond: The Thirteenth-Century Manuscript Marcianus Gr. 524 and the Twelfth-Century Dedicatory Epigrams on Works of Art (DPhil thesis, University of Oxford 2013). A first transcription of many poems in the codex was published by Spyridon P. Lampros, ‘Ὁ Μαρκιανὸς κῶδιξ 524’, Neos Hellenomnemon, 8 (1911), pp. 3–59, 123–92. 15 Lampros, ‘Ὁ Μαρκιανὸς κῶδιξ’, pp. 131–37; Spingou, Words and Artworks, pp. 312–14. 16 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 178. The title of the first epigram (no. 1) is added to the main title without break. 17 These are not poems which were already copied on folios 89r–94r as stated by Foteini Spingou, ‘The Anonymous Poets of the Anthologia Marciana: Questions of Collection and Authorship’, in: Aglae Pizzone (ed.), The Author in Middle Byzantine Literature. Modes, Functions, and Identities (Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), pp. 139–53: here p. 140. A further epigram which is perhaps to be attributed to Balsamon is preserved on fol. 18v, ed. Lampros, ‘Ὁ Μαρκιανὸς κῶδιξ’, p. 17 (no. 42), cf. Andreas Rhoby, ‘Zur Identifizierung von bekannten Autoren im Codex Marcianus Graecus 524’, Medioevo Greco, 10 (2010), pp. 167–204: here 197–98. 18 Konstantin Horna, ‘Das Hodoiporikon des Konstantin Manasses’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 13 (1904) 313–55; a new edition of the text is by Konstantinos Chryssogelos: Κωνσταντίνου Μανασσή Οδοιπορικόν. Κριτική έκδοση – μετάφραση – σχόλια (Athens: Ekdoseis Sokole, 2017). 19 Only the first two and the last two verses have been edited so far: Lampros, ‘Ὁ Μαρκιανὸς κῶδιξ’, p. 12 (no. 37).  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON to begin schedography, 20 and the third, the longest one (no. 42), consisting of 9 verses, is written for a basin in the public bath of the monastery ton Hodegon in Constantinople. 21 It is very likely that the last poem was meant to be inscribed on the object, as is the case with so many verses in the Marciana collection. 22 In addition to the cod. Marc. Gr. 524, some of Balsamon’s poems are (also) preserved in other codices: 23 this applies, of course, especially to the aforementioned epigrams on his nomokanon commentary, which has a broad transmission history in its own right. 24 While the epigram mentioning the dedication of the commentary to the patriarch George Xiphilinos in its title (no. 39) was copied into the Marcianus (fol. 94r: Εἰς τὸ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ συντεθὲν νομοκάνονον πρὸς τὸν ἁγιώτατον πατριάρχην κῦριν Γεώργιον τὸν Ξιφιλῖνον – “On the nomokanon compiled by him for the most holy patriarch George Xiphilinos”), the epilogue epigram (no. 44) is missing from this manuscript. Another poem, not preserved in the Marcianus codex either, is published as no. 45 in Horna’s edition. It differs from the rest insofar as it is not written in dodecasyllables, but in 72 hexameters. Thus, Horna was tempted to deny Balsamon’s authorship of these verses. 25 In my view, however, there is plenty of evidence to prove Balsamon’s paternity of the poem: 1) it serves as a book epigram of Balsamon’s nomokanon commentary because they are transmitted together, 2) in most of the manuscripts the poem is transmitted under the name of Balsamon, 26 3) Balsamon is mentioned in the last six verses, namely within the typical structure of On schedography and this poem, see below pp. 139-140. See below pp. 134-135. 22 Spingou, Words and Artworks, passim. On Balsamon’s epigrams used as inscriptions see below pp. 126-138. 23 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, pp. 177–78. Horna does not mention that no. 41 is also transmitted in cod. Par. gr. 2511, 76v (see below p. 139 n. 152). 24 See the list of manuscripts collected at http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/ oeuvre/1395/. 25 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, pp. 177–78: “Ganz unmöglich aber scheint es mir, für Nr. 45 Balsamon verantwortlich zu machen”. 26 Not only in the younger codices Vat. Ottob. Gr. 96 (fols 2r–v) (sixteenth century) and 339 (fols 157r–v) (sixteenth/seventeenth century) (and, very likely, also Escor. X II 18 [Andrés 378] [252v–253v] [sixteenth century]), as stated by Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 178, but also in the codices Laur. Plut. 5, 2 (fol. 5r) (fourteenth century) and Sin. Gr. 1609 (fols 12r–13r) (fifteenth century). 20 21  ANDREAS RHOBy such (book) epigrams: salvation of the soul is requested as a reward for his work. 27 These last six verses of the epigram run as follows: 70 Τῷ δ᾿ αὖ Αντιοχείης ταπεινῷ πατριάρχῃ Βαλσαμὼν Θεοδώρῳ, ὃς τῶνδ᾿ οὐρανίων σωμάτων τολύπευσεν ἀπειρεσίους δυνάμεις πλανήτων τε νόμων ὑποχθονίην κατάδυσιν, πρὶν λάχε θρόνον Ἀντιοχείης πάρος κυδρῆς, σωτηρίαν ψυχῆς· ταύτης γὰρ πέρι θρηνεῖ. 70 For the humble patriarch of Antioch, Theodore Balsamon – who achieved (to describe) the boundless powers of these heavenly bodies and earthly setting of wandering laws, before he reached the throne of formerly glorious Antioch 28 – salvation of the soul because he mourns for it. There is a further (fourth) argument to stress Balsamon’s authorship of the hexameter epigram on the nomokanon: in Byzantium it was not uncommon to equip publications with prologue and epilogue book epigrams, regardless of whether the work itself was in verse or in prose. There is evidence that these book epigrams are sometimes written in a meter differing from the meter of the work they introduce as a prologue or close as an epilogue. 29 One such case is the dedicatory book epigram of Theodore Prodromos’ novel: while the novel is composed in dodecasyllables the prologue epigram consists of hexameters. 30 A good example to compare is the verse chronicle of Constantine Manasses, composed 27 On this topos Andreas Rhoby, ‘The Structure of Inscriptional Dedicatory Epigrams in Byzantium’, in Clara Burini De Lorenzi and Miryam De Gaetano (eds), La poesia tardoantica e medievale. IV Convegno internazionale di studi, Perugia, 15–17 novembre 2007. Atti in onore di Antonino Isola per il suo 70° genetliaco (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2010), pp. 309–32. 28 From this penultimate verse we also learn that Balsamon had apparently finished most of his work on the commentary on the nomokanon commentary before he was promoted to the bishopric of Antioch (in c. 1185, see above p. 111). The verses 69–70 are difficult to understand but they very likely refer to his canonical work. 29 Wolfram Hörandner, ‘Zur Topik byzantinischer Widmungs- und Einleitungsgedichte’, in: Victoria Panagl (ed.), Dulce melos: la poesia tardoantica e medievale; atti del III Convegno internazionale di studi, Vienna, 15–18 novembre 2004 (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2007), pp. 319–35. 30 Panagiotis A. Agapitos, ‘Poets and Painters. Theodoros Prodromos’ Dedicatory Verses of his Novel to an Anonymous Caesar’, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 50 (2000), pp. 173–85. On this issue, see the article by Nikos Zagklas in this volume (pp. 43-70).  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON in the middle of the twelfth century: 31 the chronicle is introduced by a prologue poem in dodecasyllables and closes with a hexameter poem with acts as an epilogue. 32 As already pointed out, Balsamon’s verses served various purposes. However, it seems the collection of Balsamon’s poetry as it was copied into the Marcianus Gr. 524 does not represent the author’s entire collection, but rather the scribe’s or his commissioner’s taste. Not even all his poems from the nomokanon commentary are preserved in this manuscript, as shown above. Within the Marciana collection of Balsamon’s poetry there are only a few epigrams which belong together: The epigrams 1–6 in Horna’s edition refer to Old Testament subjects; they were perhaps used as paratexts in illuminated manuscripts. 33 Nos. 7 and 8 were probably meant to be inscribed on an altar or on an altar cloth, as can be told from the label Εἰς τράπεζαν ἔχουσαν ἱστορημένον τὸν δεῖπνον (“On an altar which has depicted the Last Supper”) of no. 7. 34 No. 9 is of completely different content: the title tells us that it was written on Balsamon’s cell in the so-called monastery τῶν Ζιπῶν, presumably next to the entrance or directly on the door. The monastery, which, either located in Constantinople or nearby, 35 has not been identified so far – we only assume that it was the monastery to which Balsamon retired after his time as titular patriarch of Antioch 36 –, is also mentioned in epigram no. 36. 31 Odysseas Lampsidis, Constantini Manassis breviarium chronicum (= Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, vol. 35/1–2) (Athens: Academia Atheniensis, 1996). 32 In the recent edition by Lampsidis it was wrongly printed at the beginning of the chronicle: cf. Hörandner, ‘Topik’, pp. 332–33. 33 On this issue Andreas Rhoby (nach Vorarbeiten von Rudolf Stefec), Ausgewählte byzantinische Epigramme in illuminierten Handschriften. Verse und ihre „inschriftliche“Verwendung in Codices des 9. bis 15. Jahrhunderts (= Byzantinische Epigramme in inschriftlicher Überlieferung, vol. 4) (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2018). 34 For still preserved Byzantine epigrams on altar cloths, cf. Andreas Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Ikonen und Objekten der Kleinkunst (= Byzantinische Epigramme in inschriftlicher Überlieferung, vol. 2) (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2010), pp. 369–90. 35 If the monastery was not situated in Constantinople, there could be a connection with the toponym Zipoition which is attested as a city located on the Bythinian peninsula in Antiquity (but not in Byzantium): cf. Christian Habicht, ‘Zipoition’, in Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaften, II 10a (1972), p. 460. On the monastery, see also Konstantinos Pitsakes, ‘Ἡ ἔκταση τῆς ἐξουσίας ἑνὸς ὑπερορίου πατριάρχη: ὁ πατριάρχης Ἀντιοχείας στὴν Κωνσταντινούπολη τὸν 12ο αἰώνα’, in: Nicholas Oikonomides (ed.), Το Βυζάντιο κατά τον 12ο αιώνα. Κανονικό Δίκαιο, κράτος και κοινωνία (Athens: 1991), pp. 91–139: here 133–39. 36 Cf. Horna, ‘Epigramme’, pp. 168–69.  ANDREAS RHOBy While epigram no. 9, attached to his cell, 37 can be interpreted as a critique on the luxurious life of the patriarch – perhaps written due to his frustration at not having been installed as patriarch of Constantinople himself –, 38 no. 36 with the title Εἰς τὴν μονὴν τῶν Ζιπῶν was probably not inscribed. 39 It is addressed to the emperor Isaac II, but it is mainly a lament about the destructive power of time – χρόνος, a not uncommon symbol in Byzantium –, 40 which would attack the monastery’s beauty. No. 37 also refers to Balsamon’s cell, perhaps located in the monastery ton Zipon, 41 but it can also refer to another monastery to which Balsamon had to withdraw, perhaps in the time before the ascension of Isaac II. 42 Further epigrams can be classified as follows: Tomb Epigrams Within Balsamon’s collection there are four tomb epigrams, namely the nos. 11, 12, 13 and 19 in Horna’s edition. They are of different length, ranging from 16 to 37 verses, but still not too long to have perhaps served as tomb inscriptions. 43 No. 11 is of specific interest insofar as it refers to the family grave which Balsamon had donated for himself and his family in 37 Either on the door or next to the door: as a similar example, a prose anti-unionist pamphlet (with a lot of vernacular elements), which was taped at Georgios (Gennadios) Scholarios’ cell door in the fifteenth century, can be chosen: cf. Andreas Rhoby, Sprache und Wortschatz des Gennadios Scholarios, in: Erich Trapp and Sonja Schönauer (eds), Lexicologica Byzantina. Beiträge zum Kolloquium zur byzantinischen Lexikographie (Bonn, 13.–15. Juli 2007) (Bonn: Bonn University Press, 2008), pp. 227–41: here pp. 233–34. In Theodore Stoudites’ collection of epigrams on objects no. 2 tells that the verses were inscribed on his cell: Paul Speck, Theodoros Studites. Jamben auf verschiedene Gegenstände. Einleitung, kritischer Text, Übersetzung und Kommentar (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1968), pp. 111–13. 38 Cf. Victor Tiftixoglu, ‘Zur Genese der Kommentare des Theodoros Balsamon. Mit einem Exkurs über die unbekannten Kommentare des Sinaiticus gr. 1117’, in Oikonomides, Το Βυζάντιο κατὰ τον 12ο αιώνα, pp. 483–532: 491–92. 39 On this epigram, see also Pitsakes, ‘Ἡ ἔκταση τῆς ἐξουσίας’, pp. 135–36. 40 E.g. Andreas Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Stein (= Byzantinische Epigramme in inschriftlicher Überlieferung, vol. 3) (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014), pp. 322–23, n. 1179. 41 Tiftixoglu, ‘Zur Genese der Kommentare des Theodoros Balsamon’, pp. 491–93. See also Pitsakes, ‘Ἡ ἔκταση τῆς ἐξουσίας’, pp. 134–35. 42 Tiftixoglu, ‘Zur Genese der Kommentare des Theodoros Balsamon’, pp. 491–93. 43 On the evidence of long inscribed tomb epigrams, see Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Stein, p. 64.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON the famous Hodegon monastery. 44 It is very likely that the title of the epigram Εἰς τὸν τάφον ἐντὸς ὄντα τοῦ ναοῦ τῆς ἁγίας Ἄννης τιμωμένης ἐν τῇ μονῇ τῶν Ὁδηγῶν (“On the tomb which is situated inside the church of St Anna who is worshipped in the Hodegon monastery”) was coined by Balsamon himself, 45 or by someone who knew the circumstances – e.g., a later compiler of his poetry –, because within the verses neither the Hodegon monastery nor the church of St Anna are mentioned. The Hodegon monastery played an important role in Balsamon’s life, because it was the place where he resided as titular patriarch of Antioch from 1185 to 1190. 46 In the vv. 24 ff. Balsamon insistently asks the future rulers and patriarchs of Antioch to keep the grave safe from violence until the day of the Last Judgement. 47 Tomb epigram no. 12 refers to a certain Stephen Komnenos who was also buried in the complex of the Hodegon monastery, as the title reveals (Εἰς τὸν τάφον τοῦ σεβαστοῦ κυροῦ Στεφάνου τοῦ Κομνηνοῦ ἐντὸς ὄντα τῆς αὐτῆς μονῆς – “On the tomb of the sebastos Stephanos Komnenos which is situated inside the monastery”). In this case too, one can argue with some plausibility that the title was coined by Balsamon himself because the name of the buried person is only revealed in the title and not in the poem itself. It was written to be inscribed on the tomb, because – as with many other inscriptional tomb epigrams – it starts with a typical direct address to the beholder: Βλέπων, θεατά (“look, beholder”). 48 He is asked to look at κιβωτοτετράπλευρον ἐκ λίθου δόμον / καὶ θρηνοκατάκλυστον ἐκ λύπης τάφον (vv. 1–2), which suggests that the Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 205. On the subject of titles of Byzantine poems Andreas Rhoby, ‘Labeling Poetry in the Middle and Late Byzantine Period’, Byzantion, 85 (2015), pp. 259–83. 46 Already from the tenth century onwards, the Hodegon complex was the residence of the patriarchs of Antioch when they came to Constantinople, see Pitsakes, ‘Ἡ ἔκταση τῆς ἐξουσίας’, pp. 119–20; Christine Angelidi and Titos Papamastorakis, ‘The Veneration of the Virgin Hodegetria and the Hodegon Monastery’, in Maria Vassilaki (ed.), Mother of God. Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art (Milan and Athens: Skira, 2000), pp. 373–87: 376. On the Hodegon monastery in general, see the overview by Raymond Janin, La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantine. Première partie: le siège de Constantinople et le patriarcat œcuménique. Tome III: les églises et les monastères (Paris: Institut Français d’Études Byzantines, 21969), pp. 199–207. 47 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 181 (no. 11), vv. 24–29: καὶ παρακαλῶ τοὺς ἐφεξῆς δεσπότας / καὶ συναδελφοὺς πατριαρχοποιμένας / Ἀντιόχου γῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάσης ἕω, / τηρεῖν ἀσυλότατον αὐτὸν τῷ βίῳ, / μέχρι θεοῦ πρόσταξις ἢ θεία κρίσις / καὶ τοῦτον ὡς ἅπαντα πρὸς φῶς ἀγάγῃ… 48 On this formula Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Stein, pp. 101–02. See also idem, ‘Inscriptional Poetry. Ekphrasis in Byzantine Tomb Epigrams’, Byzantinoslavica, 69/3, supplementum (2011), pp. 193–204. 44 45  ANDREAS RHOBy author distinguishes between the stone coffin (ἐκ λίθου δόμος) built in the form of a quadrangular box 49 and the gravestone (τάφος) 50 “flooded by laments,” which was perhaps also equipped with a depiction of the deceased. As convincingly argued by Horna, 51 Stephen Komnenos is in all likelihood identical with the individual of the same name mentioned in Balsamon’s nomokanon (II 120). In addition, it is also argued that Stephen, a high official at the court (σεβαστός), was the emperor John II’s (grand)nephew, who perhaps lived from 1127/31 to 1156/57 and for whom Nicetas Eugeneianos wrote a prose monody. 52 It seems that the epigram was produced long after Stephen’s and his wife’s (v. 5: διττοὺς σεβαστούς, εὐγενεῖς ὁμοζύγους) deaths, because their children are also mentioned (v. 6: καὶ παῖδας αὐτῶν) as being buried in the grave. The children are said to be Κομνηνοφυεῖς παππομαμμοπατρόθεν (“Komnenian born from the grandfather, the grandmother and the father”). 53 If παππομαμμοπατρόθεν is to be understood verbatim, it is inaccurate, since Stephen’s grandmother Eirene (from the side of his father) was not a Komnenian-born, but from Alania. 54 Thus, the term is rather to be understood in the sense of “Komnenian ancestry of several generations.” Tomb epigram no. 13, perhaps to be dated around 1185, 55 on the aforementioned Eumathios Macrembolites is also equipped with a direct address to the beholder (v. 9: θεατά); moreover, it is composed in The hapax legomenon κιβωτοτετράπλευτος is difficult to translate. In Erich Trapp et al., Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.–12. Jahrhunderts (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1994–2017), s. v. the translation “einer vierseitigen Kiste” is offered but I think it is more accurate to translate the verse as “a stone house (= coffin) looking like a quadrangular box.” In addition, one must not forget that the adjective also alludes to the original κιβωτός, i.e. Noah’s ark. 50 The meaning “gravestone” is attested for the similar term ταφία, see Henry G. Liddell, Robert Scott, Henry S. Jones and Roderick McKenzie, Greek English Lexicon. Revised Supplement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), s. v. and Trapp, Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität, s. v. (ταφιά). 51 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, pp. 205–06. 52 Konstantinos Barzos, Ἡ γενεαλογία τῶν Κομνηνῶν (Thessalonica: Kentron Byzantinon Ereunon, 1984), vol. I, pp. 288–91 (no. 57); Alexander Sideras, Die byzantinischen Grabreden. Prosopographie, Datierung, Überlieferung. 142 Epitaphien und Monodien aus dem byzantinischen Jahrtausend (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1994), pp. 168–71. 53 παππομαμμοπατρόθεν is a hapax legomenon but similar coined forms (e.g. μητροπαπποπατρόθεν, παπποπατρόθεν) are attested in other sources, see Trapp, Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität, s. v. 54 Barzos, Ἡ γενεαλογία τῶν Κομνηνῶν, vol. I, p. 157. 55 Jeffreys, Four Byzantine Novels, p. 161. 49  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON the first person. It is the deceased, the speaker’s “I”, who leads the readers and listeners through the poem. 56 In this epigram, too, ancestry plays a crucial role: the speaker’s “I” traces back his origin to Constantine X Ducas and to his wife Eudocia Macrembolitissa; his paternal grandfather was their nephew (vv. 9–12). 57 This passage, as well as the following verses, which are devoted to his career development, are introduced in vv. 7–8, in which the deceased presents himself as a painter who is going to σκιαφραφεῖν and στηλογραφεῖν – both verbs which describe the action of (verbatim) “depicting” – his ancestry and his fate on earth. 58 In addition, in v. 6 the deceased Eumathios Macrembolites compares himself to a discus thrower who throws the τόμος out of his hole (τρυμαλιά), i.e. his tomb. 59 The term τόμος might refer to the tomb epigram itself, i.e. the piece of paper on which the verses were written. Alternatively, it might allude to Macrembolites’ literary activity (his novel?); a connection is perhaps also given to the meaning of τόμος as “(synodal) decision”, e.g. used in epigram no. 32, v. 28 with reference to the synodal decree of 1166. 60 No. 19 is also to be identified as a tomb epigram. In Horna’s edition the title runs as follows: Εἰς τάφον τοῦ σκευοφύλακος κυροῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ ἁγίου Φλωρίτου. Only recently, the label Φλωρίτης has been included as hapax legomenon in the Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität (LBG) with the translation “Mönch im Kloster des Hl. Phloros” (“monk in the monastery of St Phloros”). 61 However, both Horna’s edition and LBG’s entry have to be corrected: 62 the manuscript (Marc. gr. 524, fol. 90v) reads On the three types of epitaphs (in the first, the second, or the third person), see Marc D. Lauxtermann, Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres. Texts and Contexts, vol. I (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2003), pp. 215–40. 57 Cf. Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 207. On this passage, see Herbert Hunger, ‘Die Makremboliten auf byzantinischen Bleisiegeln und in sonstigen Belegen’, Studies in Byzantine Sigillography, 5 (1998), pp. 1–28: here p. 5. 58 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, no. 13, vv. 7–8: καὶ σκιαγραφῶ τὰ πατρικά μου γένη / καὶ στηλογραφῶ τὰς ἐπὶ γῆς μου τύχας. This is reminiscent—to a certain extant—of Theodore Prodromos’ dedicatory verses to his novel Rhodanthe and Dosikles, in which the author presents himself as a painter who “has depicted the image of Dosikles and Rhodanthe”: Agapitos, ‘Poets and Painters’, p. 175, I, vv. 6–7: χρώματα <ποικίλα> ταῦτα ἑαῖς ὑπὸ χείρεσι μάρψας, / εἰκόνα τὴν Δοσικλῆος ἐγράψατο καί τε Ῥοδάνθης. On the dedicatory verses of Prodromos’ novels, see also Jeffreys, Four Byzantine Novels, pp. 7–10. 59 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, no. 13, v. 6: ἐκ τρυμαλιᾶς ἀποδισκεύω τόμον. 60 On this epigram, see below pp. 136-138. 61 Trapp, Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität, s. v. 62 Cf. Herbert Hunger, ‘Kanonistenrhetorik im Bereich des Patriarchats am Beispiel des Theodoros Balsamon’, in Oikonomides, Το Βυζάντιο κατὰ τον 12ο αιώνα, 56  ANDREAS RHOBy Ἁγι(ο)φλωρίτου. In English translation, the title therefore reads: On the tomb of the skeuphylax John Hagiophlorites. This John Hagiophlorites is also known from other sources: in 1166 he is attested as chartophylax of the Patriarchate, and in 1170 he was promoted to megas skeuophylax; the latter duty is also mentioned in Balsamon’s title of the epigram and in v. 5. A seal, to be dated between 1166 and 1170, calls him chartophylax Megales Ekklesias. 63 Since Balsamon himself held the post of chartophylax, he wrote the epitaph about one of his predecessors. 64 John Hagiophlorites also seems to have been the author of the so-called Ekthesis, 65 the official record of the synod in 1166, which dealt with Christ’s statement “The Father is greater than I” ( John 14:28). 66 The synodal record’s text was also inscribed on plates, which were displayed in the Hagia Sophia. Balsamon’s epigram no. 32 deals with the inscriptions’ fate in the late twelfth century (see below p. 136). Hagiophlorites is not a proper surname but indicates that John had a specific relationship to the monastery of St Phloros; 67 this “specific” relationship to the monastery seems to have been the fact that he spent the end of his life there as a monk with the name Dorotheos, as the end of the epigram reveals. 68 The location of the monastery is unknown; 69 there is a church of Sts Phloros and Lauros west of Constantinople, but pp. 37–59: here p. 52, n. 65; Nesseres, Η Παιδεία στην Κωνσταντινούπολη, p. 100 (no. 19). 63 Valentina S. Šandrovskaja and Werner Seibt, Byzantinische Bleisiegel der Staatlichen Eremitage mit Familiennamen. 1. Teil: Sammlung Lichačev – Namen von A bis I (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2005), no. 95. See also Janin, La géographie ecclésiastique, pp. 495–96 (with references). 64 Hunger, ‘Kanonistenrhetorik’, pp. 52–53. 65 His authorship is also attested for another synodal decree, see ibidem, pp. 53–59. 66 Paul Magdalino, The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143–1180 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1993), p. 288. The relevant literature on the edict’s text is collected by Franz Dölger, Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des Oströmischen Reiches von 565–1453. 2. Teil: Regesten von 1025–1204. Zweite, erweiterte und verbesserte Auflage bearbeitet von Peter Wirth mit Nachträgen zu Regesten Faszikel 3 (Munich: Verlag C.H. Beck, 1995), no. 1469. 67 Šandrovskaja and Seibt, Byzantinische Bleisiegel der Staatlichen Eremitage, p. 111; Hunger, ‘Kanonistenrhetorik’, p. 52, n. 65. 68 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 186, no. 19, vv. 23–25: κλῆσιν διπλῆν ἔσχηκας ἐκ τῶν πρακτέων, / Ἰωάννου μὲν τοῖς διακόνοις πρέπων, / Δωροθέου δὲ τοῖς μονασταῖς συμπρέπων. Horna (p. 210) rightly states that the first word in v. 24 appears as ἰουου ´ (Horna ἰούου) which seems to be a mistake by the scribe, since Ἰωάννου perfectly fits the epigram’s content. Horna’s interpretation “das könnte Abkürzung für Ἰουνίου oder Ἰουλίου sein” is hardly probable. 69 Janin, La géographie ecclésiastique, pp. 495–96.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON it is less probable that Hagiophlorites refers to this. 70 As is typical for the tomb epigram genre, the deceased is highly praised. 71 In the case of Hagiophlorites the praise may also have been influenced by Balsamon’s personal respect for his predecessor in the ecclesiastic administration of Constantinople. Employing Old Testament imagery, he calls John ἡ τῶν γραφῶν γέφυρα (v. 9) and ἡ τοῦ λόγου πετροσφενδόνη (v. 13), which also refers to the deceased’s rhetorical skills. 72 V. 20 alludes to John’s activity as a teacher at the Patriarchal School: σὺ ταῦτα, διδάσκαλε τῆς ἐκκλησίας. An interesting passage is represented by vv. 10–12: “Who will (now, i.e. after John’s death) divide the Red Sea of salty doctrines with his teaching cane and save the people who flee the tyranny?” 73 As at the beginning of the epigram, Old Testament imagery is employed insofar as John’s authorship of decrees and his teaching activities are compared to Moses who guided the Israelites through the Red Sea. The passage about the people who flee the tyranny might refer to the “terror regime” of Andronikos I (1183–1185) – which would offer us a safe date for John’s death and the composition of the epigram –, but perhaps it rather refers to the opponents of the synodal decree of 1166 because the problems of this council continued to be discussed in the year afterwards. 74 The vv. 14–16 seem to refer to theological discussions as well: the epigram’s author asks in a rhetorical question who should now – after John’s death – chase away the bunch of heretic conspirators (v. 15 τὰς αἱρετικὰς ἐκδιώξει φατρίας). Ibidem, pp. 496–97. Cf. Richmond Lattimore, Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1942 = Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, 28); especially for Manuel Philes Nikolaos Papadogiannakis, Studien zu den Epitaphien des Manuel Philes. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie des Fachbereichs Altertumswissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin (Heraklion: 1984). 72 Hunger, ‘Kanonistenrhetorik’, p. 53 translates as “rhetorisches Geschütz;” literally it means “slingshot of word(s).” 73 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 186, no. 19, vv. 10–12: τίς τὴν ἐρυθρὰν τῶν ἁλυκῶν δογμάτων / διδασκαλικῇ συντεμὼν βακτηρίᾳ / σώσει λαὸν φεύγοντα τὴν τυραννίδα; 74 Stergios N. Sakkos, Ὁ Πατήρ μείζων μού εστιν, vols I–II (Thessalonica: 1968). 70 71  ANDREAS RHOBy Book Epigrams V. 26 (Ἀντιόχου γῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάσης ἕω) of Balsamon’s aforementioned tomb epigram no. 11, which refers to his Antioch bishopric, also occurs in epigram no. 10 which can be identified as a book epigram. It serves as the metrical prologue to a work by Balsamon which is lost. From the epigram’s title which reads Εἰς βίβλον τακτικὸν καὶ μηχανικὸν δοθὲν παρὰ τούτου τῷ βασιλεῖ κυρῷ Ἰσαακίῳ (“On a book of tactics and strategies given by him to the emperor Isaac”), we learn that the work was dedicated to the emperor Isaac II, who was perhaps also the commissioner. In vv. 11–12 Balsamon asks the emperor to accept his book using the words δέξαι τολοιπὸν εὐμενῶς τοὺς ἰχθύας / τῆς ταγματικῆς ὁπλοδιδασκαλίας (“take well then kindly the fishes of the tactic warfare instruction”). The sea and fish imagery refers to the preceding verses in which this symbolic language is used as well: “Not into the deep well of uncertainty but into the red (sea) 75 of a gentle heart an old man (i.e. Balsamon himself ) loosened the nets of his mind, when as archbishop he obtained the most deplorable throne of the land of Antioch but also of the entire east, and he sucked up the book of his writings, just like a fish dying out of the drought.” 76 There has been some discussion regarding whether the βίβλον τακτικὸν καὶ μηχανικὸν was indeed a book on warfare or if it was composed as a theological compilation with arguments against heresies and non-orthodoxies; the titles of the early twelfth-century dogmatic compilation Panoplia dogmatike by Euthymios Zigabenos and the Hiera hoplotheke by the mid-twelfth century author Andronikos Kamateros, which have similar war-like titles, make this assumption more probable. 77 Within Balsamon’s collection there are some more book epigrams, among them the already mentioned ones on the nomokanon. Nos. 28 and 34 were used as prologue epigrams for two typika, i.e. foundation charters of monasteries, 78 one for the so-called Chrysokamariotissa monasCf. no. 19, v. 10. Horna, ‘Epigramme’, no. 10, vv. 1–7: Οὐκ εἰς τὸ βαθὺ τῆς ἀδηλίας φρέαρ, / ἀλλ᾿ εἰς ἐρυθρὰν εὐνοϊκῆς καρδίας / τὰ τοῦ νοὸς δίκτυα χαλάσας γέρων, / ἀρχιερεὺς οἴκτιστον ἀνύων θρόνον / Ἀντιόχου γῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάσης ἕω, / εἵλκυσε ταύτης τῆς γραφῆς τὸ πυξίον, / ὡς ἰχθύας θνῄσκοντας ἐξ ἀνυδρίας. 77 See Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 170. 78 See Giuseppe De Gregorio, ‘Epigrammi e documenti. Poesia come fonte per la storia di chiese e monasteri bizantini’, in Christian Gastgeber and Otto Kresten (eds), Sylloge Diplomatico-paleographica I. Studien zur byzantinischen Diplomatik und Paläographie (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2010), pp. 9–134: here pp. 48–57 (with a new edition of the two epigrams). 75 76  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON tery (no. 28), and the other for a female monastery as the title tells us: Εἰς τυπικὸν γυναικείας μονῆς (no. 34). Also v. 6 of this epigram reveals that the text refers to nuns: Ἐδὲμ πύλας ἤνοιξε ταῖς μονοτρόποις (“It [i.e. the τόμος δὲ βραχὺς τυπικογράφου νόμου = v. 4] opened the gates of Eden for the nuns”). Unfortunately, the original typika are not preserved any more. From the book epigram on the typikon of the Theotokos Chrysokamariotissa monastery, whose position is unknown (either in Constantinople or in its hinterland), 79 we learn that the renewer of the monastery, Andronikos, a high official under the Angeloi, who is also known from a preserved seal, 80 stemmed from the house of the Rogerioi who were of Norman origin (vv. 5–6 … οὗ γένος / ἔστι περιβόητον ἐκ Ρογερίων). Balsamon’s epigram no. 31 was also composed for a monastery. It is of very specific content as it refers – as the title tells us – to a bitter orange tree which was killed by winter frost (Εἰς νέραντζαν 81 τῆς μόνης τῶν Ἀργυρῶν 82 καυθεῖσαν ὑπὸ χειμῶνος). The monastery ton Argyron, otherwise unknown, was also either located in Constantinople or in its hinterland. 83 Interestingly enough, in the poem the bitter orange tree is not mentioned at all. The verses are addressed to the winter, which is attacked as being pitiless with the garden’s charm. The very well-known and widespread motive of φθόνος (“envy”) is employed as well: 84 it forms an unholy alliance with the cold ice and the winter frost (vv. 23–24: ἀλλά, 79 Janin, La géographie ecclésiastique, p. 242. The Mother of God’s epithet may refer to an area where the Chrysokamaron (a specific arch or vault in Constantinople) was located: see John Nesbitt, ‘Some Observations about the Roger Family’, Nea Rhome, 1 (2004), pp. 209–17: here p. 216. 80 Alexandra-Kyriaki Wassiliou-Seibt, Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden. Teil 2: Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2016), no. 2118. 81 The codex (Marc. gr. 524 fol. 92v) transmits νέραντζ(αν). Lampros, ‘Ὁ Μαρκιανὸς κῶδιξ’, p. 135 wrote νερατζέαν (sic! Erroneously he seems to have omitted the ny), which he also defended in Neos Hellenomnemon, 15 (1921) p. 428. Trapp, Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität, s. v. accentuated νεράντζα, however, the moving of the accent is not necessary. In the online Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/index. php, with site licence) the word is accentuated for some inexplicable reason νεραντζάν (which is the common modern Greek accentuation). 82 Horna edited Ἀργυροπώλου (?) because he claimed to have read “ἀργυρω´ suprascr. Ν vel π” in the manuscript. Lampros, ‘Ὁ Μαρκιανὸς κῶδιξ’, p. 135 (see also Neos Hellenomnemon, 15 [1921], p. 428) rightly corrected it into Ἀργυρῶν. 83 Janin, La géographie ecclésiastique, p. 51. 84 In this epigram of 29 verses three times: vv. 9 (φθόνος ξίφος), 23 (γέρον φθόνε), 26 (τοῦ φθόνου τὰς νιφάδας).  ANDREAS RHOBy ψυχρὲ κρύσταλε καὶ γέρον φθόνε / καὶ χειμερινὴ παγετοξυμμαχία 85). However, the poem has a positive ending: the light of spring will extinguish the envious snowflakes and hide the army of vengefulness, and nature’s charm may shine again! 86 Also, in this case one can easily assume that the title was coined by Balsamon himself. He could have been asked – perhaps by the monks – to compose a poem during a very hard winter period which destroyed the monastery garden’s beauty, 87 among the victims a very beautiful bitter orange tree, perhaps the highlight of the garden. It is a matter of fact that in the twelfth century bitter lemons were still very exclusive fruits. They are not attested before the eleventh century, and it is not clear if they were then imported to or harvested in Byzantium. 88 A second epigram which deals with fruits is no. 30. It refers to a vine with grapes at the cell of the patriarch (Εἰς ἀναδενδράδα πατριαρχικοῦ κελλίου ἔχουσαν σταφυλάς). It seems to have been composed when Balsamon served as a high official in the patriarch’s entourage. The content of the verses, however, does not show any connection with the patriarch; it rather warns against excessive enjoyment of the grapes. Inscriptional Epigrams – Epigrams Referring to Depictions The biggest group within Balsamon’s poetical œuvre is formed by epigrams referring to fresco depictions, icons and objects of minor arts. They all had the potential to serve as inscriptions, and some of them may indeed have been inscribed. It is possible that they were not all used as inscriptions because Balsamon was also an author who produced several epigram versions on the same subject. This practice is, for example, attested by the codex Athon. Meg. Laur. Ω 126, which at the end contains eight short dedicatory epigrams devoted to a silver bowl (Εἰς κρατῆρα ἀργυροῦν στίχοι) that 85 Verbatim “chilly war alliance”, see Trapp, Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität, s. v. (“frostiges Kriegsbündnis”). 86 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, no. 31, vv. 26–29: ὅσον γὰρ ἤδη τοῦ φθόνου τὰς νιφάδας / ἐαριναὶ σβέσουσι λαμπαδουχίαι / καὶ στρατιὰν κρύψουσιν αὖ μνησικάκων, / καὶ τοῦ φυτοῦ λάμψειεν ἡ χάρις πάλιν. 87 On Byzantine monastic garden culture, see Alice-Mary Talbot, ‘Byzantine Monastic Horticulture: The Textual Evidence’, Antony Littlewood (ed.), Byzantine Garden Culture. Papers Presented at a Colloquium in November 1996 at Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2002), pp. 37–67. 88 Grigori Simeonov, Obst in Byzanz. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Ernährung im östlichen Mittelmeerraum (Saarbrücken: AV Akademikerverlag GmbH & Co. KG, 2013), pp. 83–84.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON was commissioned by Constantine Dalassenos, the governor of Antioch, 89 after 1025. 90 As demonstrated by Henry Maguire, the epigrams were written by at least two authors, one of them being a eunuch (no. IV, tit. Ἄλλα· εὐνούχου). Maguire also rightly stated that the epigrams were most likely trial pieces, from which the commissioner was supposed to choose one. 91 Theodore Stoudites’ collection of inscriptional iambs is also full of verses which were created to serve as inscriptions. His fourteen epigrams for crosses (nos. 47–60) may indeed all have been inscribed, but Stoudites may also have written them as “supply” for later inscriptional use. 92 In Balsamon’s œuvre this is true for epigram no. 18 which is available in three variants, each of them consisting of six verses: it presents verses to be inscribed on a golden cup with the depiction of the famous scene of the judgement of Paris who offered the golden apple to Aphrodite, while Hera and Athena had to come away empty-handed (tit. Εἰς χρυσοῦν κωθώνιον ἔχον ἱστορημένας τρείς θεάς, τὴν Ἀφροδίτην, τὴν Ἥραν, τὴν Ἀθήνην, καὶ τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον διδοῦντα μῆλον). 93 The commissioner of the verses is Andronikos Kontostephanos whose name is mentioned in only one of the three versions of the epigram, but very prominently (no. B, vv. 4–5: καὶ κλάδος ἐσφαίρωσε Κοντοστεφάνων / κλεινὸς μέγας δούξ, Ἀνδρόνικος τοὔνομα – “and it (the apple) was made globelike by the branch of Kontostephanos, the famous Megas Dux, named Andronikos”). 94 It was perhaps this version which Kontostephanos picked in the end, if we assume that he was looking for the version which best served his ambitions of self-fashioning. 95 The Kontostephanoi were 89 Cf. Jean-Claude Cheynet, La société byzantine. L’apport des sceaux (Paris: Assoc. des amis du Centre d’histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 2008), pp. 417–19. 90 Silvio G. Mercati, Collectanea Byzantina (Bari: Dedali libri, 1970), vol. II, pp. 460–61. 91 Henry Maguire, Image and Imagination: the Byzantine Epigram as Evidence for Viewer Response (Toronto: Canadian Institute of Balkan Studies, 1996), pp. 8–9. 92 Speck, Theodoros Studites. Jamben auf verschiedene Gegenstände, pp. 199–211. 93 Cf. Lauxtermann, Byzantine Poetry, p. 43; Irene G. Galli Calderini, ‘Orientamenti tematici negli epigrammi di Teodoro Balsamone’, in Fabrizio Conca (ed.), Byzantina Mediolanensia. V Congresso Nazionale di Studi Bizantini, Milano, 19–22 ottobre 1994 (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino,1996), pp. 177–85: here p. 183; Andreas Rhoby, ‘Theodore Balsamon. Epigrams on a Golden Cup and a Letter about These Verses’, in: Foteini Spingou and Charles Barber (eds), Texts on Byzantine Art and Aesthetics, vol. 3: Visual Arts, Material Culture, and Literature in Later Byzantium (1081 – c. 1330) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). 94 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, no. 18B. 95 On this topic generally Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning. From More to Shakespeare. With a new preface (Chicago and London: The University of Chi-  ANDREAS RHOBy a famous aristocratic family, also represented as addressees in Theodore Prodromos’ poetry of the mid-twelfth century. 96 It is highly likely that the present Andronikos Kontostephanos is Andronikos Kontostephanos, son of Anna Komnene (daughter of John II) and Stephanos Kontostephanos, who is, for example, mentioned in Prodromos poem no. 50 (v. 20). 97 Interestingly enough, Andronikos Kontostephanos’ cup and its verses (στιχίδια) are also mentioned in a letter from Balsamon which was sent to the aristocratic commissioner. 98 Apart from the other examples of epigrams mentioned above, which were probably produced in order to serve as a pool from which donors could chose, there is another striking example which is the closest to Balsamon’s cup series: four anonymous epigrams, preserved in the same cod. Marc. gr. 524 (fol. 109v–110r), refer to a cup as well. 99 The title – with very similar wording – states that the epigrams were to be inscribed on a cup on which the Virtues were depicted (Εἰς κωθώνιον ἔχον εἰκονισμένας τὰς ἀρετάς); from version no. 3 we learn that it was a golden bowl (χρυσοῦς κρατήρ). The names of the donors, Eirene Komnene and her mother Sophia, are mentioned in versions nos. 1, 3 and 4, while in no. 2 there is only a reference to Sophia. In comparison with Balsamon’s series, there is a difference in length: whereas versions no. 1 and 2 consist of three verses, nos. 3 and 4 encompass four verses. The commissioner of the epigrams could have been Eirene Dokeiane Komnene (c. 1110 – after 1143), 100 daughter of Sophia Komnene, who died c. 1130. 101 She is also attested as the commissioner of other epigrams preserved in the Marcianus. 102 An example of an epigram composed to be inscribed on a cup is also given by the verses which are preserved on a still existing golden beaker kept in a museum in Skopje. It consists of four verses, is to be cago Press, 2005). 96 Wolfram Hörandner, Theodoros Prodromos. Historische Gedichte (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1974), pp. 435–48. 97 Cf. Barzos, Ἡ γενεαλογία τῶν Κομνηνῶν, vol. II, pp. 249–94 (no. 135). 98 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 214 (no. 7), see also p. 210. 99 Lampros, ‘Ὁ Μαρκιανὸς κῶδιξ’, p. 153 (nos. 236–39). Cf. Spingou, Words and Artworks, pp. 133–34. 100 Barzos, Ἡ γενεαλογία τῶν Κομνηνῶν, vol. I, pp. 301–03 (no. 61). 101 Ibidem 169–72 (no. 29). 102 See the references ibidem 302.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON dated to the twelfth century and mentions the donor, a certain Adrianos Palteas. 103 Two versions of one epigram are also provided by the numbers 20A+B of Balsamon’s epigrams, referring to a depiction of the archangel Michael with fifteen verses each, and 24A+B, referring to an icon of Theodore Stratelates with 17 verses each. The title of no. 20A suggests the assumption that the verses were painted next to the archangel’s depiction. The latter’s placement is of specific interest: the title reveals that the archangel was depicted in the perfume shops of the Great Church (Εἰς τὸν ἀρχάγγελον Μιχαὴλ μετὰ ξίφους ἱστάμενον εἰς τὰ μυρεψικὰ ἐργαστήρια τῆς μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας ἄνωθεν τῆς …– “On the archangel Michael with sword standing upright in the perfume shops of the Great Church above …”). 104 Depictions of the archangel Michael with drawn sword are very common in Byzantine churches – in many cases next to the entrance 105 – but such depictions in secular buildings are otherwise not attested. Perfume shops are attested in Constantinople in the middle – e.g., in the Book of Eparch of the city 106 – and late Byzantine period; 107 the μυρεψικὰ ἐργαστήρια in the title of Balsamon’s epigram seem to have specialized in the production of perfume for the Hagia Sophia which Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Ikonen und Objekten der Kleinkunst, no. Me11 and fig. 27. 104 The end of the title fol. 91r of the Marc. gr. 524 is completely illegible. 105 Very often with epigrams on scrolls held by them: e.g., Andreas Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Fresken und Mosaiken (= Byzantinische Epigramme in inschriftlicher Überlieferung, vol. 1) (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2009), no. 91; generally Piotr Ł. Grotowski (transl. by Richard Brzezinski), Arms and Armour of the Warrior Saints. Tradition and Innovation in Byzantine Iconography (843–1261) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010). One should mention that the emperor Isaac II chose the church of the Archangel Michael at Sosthention on the European side of the Bosporus as his resting place. The dedication of the monastery to the “first” of the angels (arch-angelos) provided a pun for Isaac’s family name Angelos: see Kallirroe Linardou, “A Resting Place for ‘the First of the Angels’: The Michaelion at Sosthenion”, in Simpson, Byzantium, 1180–1204: ‘The Sad Quarter of a Century’?, pp. 245–59. 106 Johannes Koder, Das Eparchenbuch Leons des Weisen. Einführung, Edition, Übersetzung und Indices (= Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, vol. 33) (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1991), pp. 110–13. 107 Ewald Kislinger, ‘Gewerbe im späten Byzanz’, in Handwerk und Sachkultur im Spätmittelalter. Internationaler Kongress, Krems an der Donau, 7. bis 10. Oktober 1986 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988), pp. 103– 26: here pp. 116–17; Vassilios Kidonopoulos, Bauten in Konstantinopel 1204–1328. Verfall und Zerstörung, Restaurierung, Umbau und Neubau von Profan- und Sakralbauten (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1994), pp. 206–08. 103  ANDREAS RHOBy was there used for the oil burning in the lamps. 108 There might be a discrepancy in the description of the position of the archangel’s depiction: while in the mutilated title it is stated that the archangel is positioned above something (ἄνωθεν …), v. 6 of version A states ἔστης πρὸ θυρῶν ἐνθάδε ξιφηφόρος. 109 Epigram no. 29 refers less to a depiction of a saint in a private house but rather to a portable icon kept there: according to Balsamon’s title (Εἰς ἅγιον Δημήτριον εὑρεθέντα παρὰ τοῦ βασιλέως εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ ἀποστάτου Σθλαβοπέτρου), the depiction of St Demetrios was found in the “house” of the apostate Peter the Slav, who unambiguously is Peter of Bulgaria, who together with his brother Asen rose up against the Byzantine Empire in the late twelfth century. 110 It seems to be the icon which was rescued by Peter and Asen or their associates from Thessalonica, which was plundered by the Normans in 1185; the epigram refers to the Byzantines’ military successes of 1186 when the icon was found in the Bulgarian capital of Tărnovo and from there brought back to either Thessalonica or Constantinople. 111 The concluding vv. 38–40 reveal that the epigram was commissioned by the emperor Isaac II, probably after his successful return from Bulgaria (αὐτοκράτωρ γέγραφε πιστός σοι [i.e. St Demetrios] τάδε, / ἄναξ Ἰσαάκιος Αὐσονοκράτωρ, / ἐξ Ἀγγελικῆς ὀσφύος κατηγμένος – “the pious emperor commissioned to write this for you, lord Isaac, ruler of the Ausones, who derives from the loin of the Angels”). 108 Cf. Beatrice Caseau, ‘Incense and Fragrances: from House to Church. A Study of the Introduction of Incense in the Early Byzantine Christian Churches’, in Michael Grünbart, Ewald Kislinger, Anna Muthesius and Dionysios Ch. Stathakopoulos (eds), Material Culture and Well-Being in Byzantium (400–1453). Proceedings of the International Conference (Cambridge, 8–10 September 2001) (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007), pp. 75–92. 109 Alternatively, ἄνωθεν … might also refer to the position of the verses and not of Michael’s depiction. However, as a still existing inscriptional epigram reveals, ἄνωθεν and πρό are not necessarily mutually exclusive: in the church of Sts Theodoroi (a. 1263/64) near Kaphiona on the Mani a (not fully preserved) epigram starts with the verse Πρὸ τῆ[ς] πύλης γρά[φ]ω σε τὴν Θ(εο)ῦ [π]ύλη<ν>. It refers to depictions of the Hypapante and the Eisodia above the door: Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Fresken und Mosaiken, pp. 233–34 (no. 137). 110 Brand, Byzantium Confronts the West, pp. 11, 89–91; Phaidon Malingoudis, ‘Die Nachrichten des Niketas Choniates über die Entstehung des zweiten bulgarischen Staates’, Byzantina, 10 (1980), pp. 73–88. 111 Anastasia Dobyčina, ‘A “Divine Sanction” on the Revolt: the Cult of St Demetrius of Thessalonica and the Uprising of Peter and Asen (1185–1186)’, Studia Ceranea. Journal of the Waldemar Ceran Research Centre for the History and Culture of the Mediterranean Area and South-East Europe, 2 (2012), pp. 111–24: especially pp. 119–20.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON Epigram no. 14 refers to a depiction of the Mother of God in the Hodegon monastery, most likely the famous icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria, which was carried each Tuesday through the streets of Constantinople and placed at the altar of a different church for the celebration of Mass. 112 From the content it is not entirely clear if the verses were positioned directly next to the depiction of the Mother of God or were inscribed next to the monastery’s entrance telling the entrants what they could expect to see in the katholikon. Alternatively, the verses might simply have been a reflection on the Hodegetria icon and someone who was tempted to see it. The verses 1–5 run as follows: 5 Ἂν τῶν Ὁδηγῶν τὴν μονὴν ἰδεῖν θέλεις καὶ τὴν ἐν αὐτῇ παντοπροσκυνουμένην τῆς κοσμολαμποῦς Ὁδηγητρίας χάριν, ἄνοιξον ὡδὶ τὰς νοητάς σου κόρας καὶ τῆς πρὸς <αὐτ>ὰς ἀξιωθήσῃ θέας. 5 If you want to see the Hodegon Monastery αnd the grace therein worshipped by all of the Hodegetria who shines the world, open here your mental eyes, and you will be honored with the sight reflected in them. The crucial passage is v. 4 in which the addressee is invited to open his νοηταὶ κόραι. The same expression is also employed by a contemporary source, namely an oration by George Tornikes on the patriarch George Xiphilinos (1191–1198) delivered on 20 March, 1193. 113 In the socalled Dialexis of (Pseudo-)Gregentios of Taphar, to be dated to the tenth century, the expression is combined with ὄμματα. 114 From the parallels cited it is conceivable that the term “mental eyes” encompasses 112 Bissera V. Pentcheva, Icons and Power. The Mother of God in Byzantium (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 2006), pp. 109–43; see also Angelidi and Titos Papamastorakis, ‘The Veneration of the Virgin Hodegetria and the Hodegon Monastery’, pp. 373–87. 113 Marina Loukaki, Discours annuels en l’honneur du patriarche Georges Xiphilin. Textes édités et commentés (Paris: De Boccard, 2005), p. 133 (ll. 484–85): … ὑψιβάτης πτερρύσῃ (i.e. George Xiphilinos) καὶ ἐναέριος διὰ τὸ τῶν ἀρετῶν ὑπερύψηλον καὶ γεωργεῖς ἡμῖν καρπὸν τὰς νοητὰς κόρας φωτίζοντα καὶ τὸν αἰσθητὸν γλυκαίνοντα λάρυγγα … On the date pp. 95 and 191. 114 Albrecht Berger, Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar. Introduction, Critical Edition and Translation. With a contribution by G. Fiaccadori (Berlin and New york: De Gruyter, 2006), p. 664 (ll. 68–70): πῶς γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο πεποίηκας τυφλώττων ἅπαξ καὶ μὴ ἔχων τὰς θείας ἀκτῖνας τῆς χάριτος φωταγωγούσης τὰς νοητὰς κόρας τῶν ὀμμάτων; On the date pp. 100–09.  ANDREAS RHOBy more than mere “gazing” at the monastery, its church and its depictions. It involves the use of the “spirit,” i.e. the application of all senses. As a reward “you will be honored (ἀξιωθήσῃ) with the sight reflected in the ‘mental eyes’.” 115 By doing so, as is told by the vv. 6–9, the monastery’s visitor and beholder of the depiction of the Mother of Gold respectively would see the Mother of God herself, who, like the δεσπότης (the Lord?), is accustomed to cultivate the rustic ears of corn and reveal the rewards which bring salvation from diseases. 116 The verses hint at the healing properties of the holy water 117 in the monastery and the gratitude that was addressed to the icon of the Hodegetria. 118 The epigram ends with the author’s metrical signature Θεόδωρός σοι Βαλσαμὼν ταῦτα γράφει (v. 10). The form of this verse is a topos, which is sometimes employed in other poems on commission, especially those attributed to Manuel Philes. 119 If the epigram was indeed once inscribed the inscriptional version possibly consisted only of the vv. 1–9, while v. 10 was only part of the written epigram as it was sent to his addressee. Balsamon may have composed the epigram when he resided in the Hodegon complex in his capacity as titular patriarch of Antioch (see above, p. 111); the addressee of the verses might have been the monastery’s abbot. The epigram’s title deserves some remarks as well: in Horna’s edition it reads Εἰς τὴν ὑπεραγίαν εἰκονισμένην Ὁδηγήτριαν …… παντέχιον. In the apparatus Horna states: post ὁδηγήτριαν aliquot verba, quae legere not potui. 120 This is indeed true: the letters in the lacuna on fol. 90r are not decipherable. 121 However, by taking a closer look at the manuscript 115 On the multisensory perception of sacred space in Byzantium, see, e.g., Bissera V. Pentcheva, The Sensual Icon. Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 2010); eadem, ‘Hagia Sophia and Multisensory Aesthetics’, Gesta, 50/2 (2011), pp. 93–111. 116 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, no. 14, vv. 6–9: ἴδῃς γὰρ αὐτὴν τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν μητέρα / κἀνταῦθα θαμίζουσαν ὥσπερ δεσπότην / τοὺς χωριτικοὺς καλλιεργοῦσαν στάχυς / καὶ σῶστρα μηνύουσαν ἀρρωστημάτων. In v. 7 the ms. (cod. Marc. gr. 524, fol. 90r) transmits δεσπότιν with something written above the iota (perhaps added by a later hand?) which might be identified as an eta. 117 See below p. 134. 118 Angelidi and Papamastorakis, ‘The Veneration of the Virgin Hodegetria’, p. 380. 119 E.g., Man. Phil. carm. E23, v. 23 (I, p. 203 Miller): Φιλῆς Μανουὴλ ταῦτα θαῤῥούντως γράφει; E223, v. 22 (I, p. 118 Miller = Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Stein, no. TR76): ἡ σύζυγος πρὶν ταῦτά σοι Μάρθα γράφει; F128, v. 8 (I, p. 319 Miller): Φιλανθρωπηνὴ ταῦτα σὴ λάτρις γράφει; Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Ikonen und Objekten der Kleinkunst, no. Ik26, v. 6: Φιλανθρωπηνὴ Ἄννα ταῦτα σοι κράζει. 120 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 183. 121 I sincerely thank Foteini Spingou who provided good images of the folio.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON the last word seems to read …αντείχιὸν (sic), not παντέχιον. 122 In a short note Angelidi and Papamastorakis refer to Balsamon’s epigram with the words “On an Icon of the Hodegetria which was at Panteichion, outside Constantinople.” 123 It is indeed tempting to link the word with this toponym which designates a location on the coast of the Propontis, c. 20 km southeast of Chalkedon. 124 But how can a connection between this location, the Hodegon monastery and the icon of the Hodegetria be explained? No source is preserved, which can testify to a possible temporal stay of the icon at Panteichion, except for the fact that in modern times a church of the Theotokos Hodegetria is attested at this location. The word might also be explained differently: παντείχ - might also stem from an otherwise not attested adjective παντείχιος, coined in a manner similar to ἐντείχιος, ἐπιτείχιος and προτείχιος, 125 and refer to the walls (of Constantinople). Thus, the epigram’s title might be seen in connection with an event which took place in 1187: when the army of the rebelling general Alexios Branas was approaching Constantinople 126 “he (i.e. the emperor Isaac II) carried up to the top of the walls, as an impregnable fortress and unassailable palisade, the icon of the Mother of God taken from the monastery of the Hodegoi where it had been assigned, and therefore called Hodegetria,” as Nicetas Choniates tells in his history. 127 It is the passage “up to the top of the walls” (ἄνω τῶν τειχέων) to which παντείχιος might refer, perhaps meaning that the “all (i.e. the entire city) was equipped with walls.” 122 Interestingly enough, when Horna’s edition was integrated into the database of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/index.php, with site licence) the word was changed to πάντεχνον, which, however, does not solve the passage either. 123 Angelidi and Papamastorakis, ‘The Veneration of the Virgin Hodegetria’, p. 380. 124 Cf. Friedrich K. Dörner, Pantichion, in Paulys Realencycloädie der classischen Altertumswissen-schaften, 18/3 (1949), pp. 779–80. I sincerely thank my colleague Klaus Belke for providing me with a printout of the lemma “Panteichion” to be published in his forthcoming volume Bithynien und Hellespont (= Tabula Imperii Byzantini 13). 125 On these words Trapp, Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität, s. v. 126 On Alexios Branas and his rebellion, see Brand, Byzantium confronts the West, pp. 80–82 and passim. Mention of Alexios Branas is also made in Alicia Simpson, Niketas Choniates. A Historiographical Study (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), passim. 127 Nic. Chon. hist 382, 55–58 (van Dieten); English translation after Harry J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1984), pp. 209–10. See also Angelidi and Papamastorakis, ‘The Veneration of the Virgin Hodegetria’, p. 382.  ANDREAS RHOBy Also the epigram which follows in the manuscript (no. 15) is devoted to the healing capacity of the κοσμοπροσκύνητος 128 (“worshipped by the world”) Hodegetria (icon). It is addressed to the church’s visitor who need not be scared of the ancestral curse (v. 4 προπατορικὴν μὴ πτοηθῇς κατάραν), i.e. original sin, when looking at the pure virgin Hodegetria who lets flow tears of orthodoxy (v. 3 καὶ σταγόνας βλύζουσαν ὀρθοδοξίας). He or she may rather scoop from her the dew of life which cures diseases and redeems the sins. This epigram, too, could have been inscribed next to the Hodegetria icon or somewhere else in the monastery. But the verses may also have been a mere reflection about the healing power of the Hodegetria, again perhaps addressed to the monastery’s abbot. Within the series of epigrams with the potential to be inscribed, no. 27 is of interest insofar as the title informs about secular painting, of which, unfortunately, only a few examples are preserved from Byzantium. The epigram’s heading runs as follows: Εἰς τὸν ἱστορηθέντα βασιλέα κῦριν Ἰσαάκιον ἐντὸς τοῦ ἁγίου λούματος τῆς ἁγίας θεοτόκου τῆς Ὁδηγητρίας (“On the emperor Isaac depicted inside the holy bath of the saint Theotokos Hodegetria”). These verses, 129 too, were perhaps composed while Balsamon was residing as titular patriarch of Antioch in the Hodegon complex. In the text we read that the emperor’s achievement was primarily his order to have the bath and its heating renewed, after “all destructing” (v. 3 ἁπαντοφθόρος) χρόνος had caused damage. 130 The bath called ἅγιον λοῦμα in the title was a vaulted structure as v. 1 reveals: Τὸ σφαιροειδὲς τοῦτο θερμοκεντρίον (“This heating in the form of a globule”). There has been some speculation as to whether this bath and the public bath (δημοσιακὸν λουτρόν) mentioned in the title of epigram no. 42 may have incorporated parts of the old Baths of 128 This compound is also attested in the epigram inscribed on the cross of the famous staurotheke of Bessarion, ed. Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Fresken und Mosaiken, no. Me79; see also idem, ‘The Textual Programme of the Cross of Bessarion’s Staurotheke and its Place within the Byzantine Tradition’, in Holger A. Klein, Valeria Poletto and Peter Schreiner (eds), La stauroteca di Bessarione fra Costantinopoli e Venezia (Venice: Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 2017), pp. 113–131. Despite the fact that the word is only attested in these two texts, however, there seems to be no connection between them. 129 A full English translation of the epigram is provided by Robert Nelson and Paul Magdalino, ‘The Emperor in Byzantine Art of the Twelfth Century’, Byzantinische Forschungen, 8 (1982), pp. 123–83: here p. 153. 130 Blaming the χρόνος (often paired with φθόνος “envy”) for destruction is a very widespread topos in Byzantium: see Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Stein, pp. 322– 23, n. 1179.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON Arcadius (Arcadianae), which seem to have been located in the area of the Hodegon monastery. 131 The epigram, despite its length of 27 verses, seems to have been inscribed either in the bath itself or at the entrance, highlighting the emperor’s achievement: interestingly enough, in the epigram Isaac II is not mentioned directly by his name but he is circumscribed as πιστὸς βασιλεύς, Ἀγγέλων προστάτης (“pious emperor, leader of the Angeloi”) 132 (v. 19). The epigram’s end is also devoted to the ruling family of the Angeloi: the bathers are addressed with “Bath ye, then, become clean, and putting off all evil-doing, pray that the imperial angel-protection (Ἀγγελοπροστασία) may enjoy long life.” 133 This devotion to Isaac reinforces the assumption that the verses were placed next to the depiction of the emperor mentioned in the epigram’s title. However, in the verses themselves a depicted image of the emperor is not mentioned at all. This indicates that the title seems to be original, i.e. Balsamon’s work, because it contains information which is not given by the verses. Epigram no. 43, only transmitted in cod. Vat. gr. 165, fol. 282r, refers to a depiction of Isaac II as well: he is depicted sitting on a horse, wearing a crown and holding his unsheathed sword, as the title tells: Εἰς τὸν βασιλέα κῦριν Ἰσαάκιον ἀνεστηλωνένον 134 εἰς εἰκόνα ἔφιππον μετὰ στέμματος καὶ γυμνῆς σπάθης. 135 Unfortunately, neither the title nor the verses reveal where this depiction existed. It could have been in the Hodegon monastery as well, but since it is explicit praise of Isaac and his The Baths of Arcadius were most likely in use until the breakdown of Constantinople’s supply of water in 626: see Albrecht Berger, Das Bad in der byzantinischen Zeit (Munich: Institut für Byzantinistik, Neugriechische Philologie und Byzantinische Kunstgeschichte der Universität München, 1982) pp. 84, 129; idem, Konstantinopel. Geschichte, Topographie, Religion (Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 2011), p. 122 and n. 80 and Nelson and Magdalino, ‘The Emperor in Byzantine Art’, p. 154. 132 Or – verbatim – “the angels”. Cf. Horna, ‘Epigramme’, no. 17, v. 3: τὰς βασιλικὰς Ἀγγελοπροστασίας. 133 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, no.27, vv. 24–27: λούσασθε τοίνυν, καθαροὶ γίνεσθέ μοι / καὶ πᾶσαν ἐκδυθέντες αἰσχροπραξίαν / ζωὴν πολυχρόνιον αἰτήσασθέ μοι / τῆς βασιλικῆς Ἀγγελοπροστασίας. English translation after Nelson and Magdalino, ‘The Emperor in Byzantine Art’, p. 153. 134 ἀνεστηλωνένον means here just “depicted,” cf. Trapp, Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität, s. v. ἀναστηλόω. Thus, the interpretation of Herbert Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner (Munich: C.H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1978), vol. II, p. 171 “ein Epigramm auf eine Reiterstatue Kaiser Isaaks II. Angelos” is not correct. 135 An English translation of the verses is provided by Nelson and Magdalino, ‘The Emperor in Byzantine Art’, p. 154. On this epigram, see also Roberto Romano, ‘Note filologiche I’, Diptycha, 3 (1982/83), pp. 124–29: here p. 128 (no. 6). 131  ANDREAS RHOBy ascension to power in 1185 136 it might have been inscribed next to the enormous depiction of the equestrian emperor in the palace. No. 26, which is the third epigram in Balsamon’s collection referring to a bath, is either used as an inscription or composed in order to serve as mere reflection. 137 Both the title (Εἰς τὸν θεῖον ναὸν τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ λογοθέτου τόν ποτε ὄντα λουτρόν) and the verses reveal that a former bathhouse in the house of a logothetes, whose name is not mentioned, was transformed into a church (vv. 3–4 εἰς ψυχοσωτήριον ἀμείβει πόλον / τὸν θερμολουτήριον ἀνθρώπων δόμον). Churches in private houses were not uncommon in Byzantium: the church in the house of the sebastokratorissa Eirene, the emperor’s Manuel I Komnenos, sister-in-law, where her salon of literati met, may serve as an example from the twelfth century. 138 The content of epigram no. 32 is different: it consists of fifty verses which refer to the aforementioned (p. 122) inscribed edict of the emperor Manuel I Komnenos. 139 The edict inscribed was issued in the course of the Council of 1166 which dealt with a passage in the New Testament ( John 14:28 “My Father is greater than I”); it was copied on marble slabs which were on display in St Sophia of Constantinople. 140 For ecclesiopolitical reasons the inscribed plates twice found themselves at risk of removal after Manuel’s reign: first under Andronikos I, and later during the reign of Isaac II, because it was argued that the misfortunes of the empire were due to the recognition of Manuel’s “heretic” dogma. 141 Isaac, however, remained steadfast and preserved the inscribed plates. Balsamon’s encomiastic epigram highlights Isaac’s fortitude by using warfare imagery, insofar as he calls the inscribed edict a rocky elo136 Nelson and Magdalino, ‘The Emperor in Byzantine Art’, pp. 184–85. A detailed analysis on the origin of the image of the equestrian emperor is provided on pp. 155–60. 137 Berger, Das Bad in der byzantinischen Zeit, p. 128. 138 Jeffreys, ‘The Sebastokratorissa Irene as Patron’. 139 The edict’s text is not only preserved as an inscription but also in manuscripts: an edition of the text was provided by Cyril Mango, ‘The Conciliar Edict of 1166’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 17 (1963), pp. 315–30; see also Mercati, Collectanea Byzantina, vol. II, pp. 320–26 and Otto Kresten, ‘Zur Rekonstruktion der Protokolle kaiserlich-byzantinischer Auslandsschreiben des 12. Jahrhunderts aus lateinischen Quellen’, in Cordula Scholz and Georgios Makris (eds), Πολύπλευρος νοῦς. Miscellanea für Peter Schreiner zu seinem 60. Geburtstag (Munich and Leipzig: Saur, 2000), pp. 125–63: p. 154. 140 What one sees there today are casts, because the originals were removed from St Sophia church in 1567 in order to serve as the ceiling of the porch of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s tomb (türbe): see M. Restle, Istanbul, Bursa, Edrine, Iznik. Baudenkmäler und Museen (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1976), p. 271. 141 Mango, ‘The Conciliar Edict of 1166’, p. 321.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON quent sword (v. 5 πέτρινον εὔστομον ξίφος) and a double-edged dagger (v. 8 μάχαιρα 142 διστομουμένη). In the first four verses the inscribed plates are praised: with the opening v. 1 Ὁ λίθος οὗτος λυχνίτης ἐστὶ λίθος Balsamon stresses the stone’s value by alluding to an alleged Parian origin because – according to Pliny’s Natural History – λυχνίτης λίθος is the terminus technicus for the most valuable marble, namely Parian marble. 143 However, λυχνίτης is also the term for red tourmaline, a precious gemstone, which is known for glittering. 144 It is this feature of the stone to which the verses following the beginning of the poem allude: the statement that “the stone shines like the light of the sun” (v. 2 λάμπει γὰρ ὡς φῶς ἡλιακῆς ἀκτίνος) may indeed refer to the effect when the slabs with the edict inscription were irradiated by the light of the sun. This effect is repeated in vv. 41–43: the inscribed slabs are compared with the λίθος ἄνθραξ which, likewise, is a glittering gemstone of red color. 145 The ones looking at the stone without winking (v. 42 ἀσκαρδαμυκτί), but with desire, are resplendent by the boundless light. 146 The Byzantines were aware of such light effects, especially in the Hagia Sophia, as other sources reveal. 147 In v. 34 Balsamon even quotes a direct – although fictitious – speech by the emperor Isaac, namely “στῶμεν”, in the sense of “we are steadfast” and we do not allow the evil to have the plates removed. 148 Whether Isaac indeed said this, is less important. With this intervention, Balsamon added a dramatic element to the epigram. The 50 verses were either inscribed next to the slabs or functioned as a performative epigram which was recited in front of the edict inscription on specific occasions. In order to make the inscription’s slabs firmly 142 μάχαιρα is a very general term for any kind of melee weapon: see Taxiarchis G. Kolias, Byzantinische Waffen. Ein Beitrag zur byzantinischen Waffenkunde von den Anfängen bis zur lateinischen Eroberung (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988), pp. 138–39. 143 Sonja Schönauer, Untersuchungen zum Steinkatalog des Sophrosyne-Gedichtes des Meliteniotes mit kritischer Edition der Verse 1107–1247 (Wiesbaden: Beerenverlag, 1996), p. 130*. 144 Ibidem. 145 Ibidem, p. 105*. 146 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 195, no. 32, vv. 41–43: ὡς λίθον οὖν ἄνθρακα τοῦτον τὸν λίθον / ἀσκαρδαμυκτὶ καὶ μετὰ πόθου βλέπων / καταγλαϊσθῇς ὑπὸ φωτὸς ἀπλέτου. 147 See especially Pentcheva, ‘Hagia Sophia and Multisensory Aesthetics’. 148 The same στῶμεν is also employed in epigram no. 20B, v. 8, in which the word is put into the archangel’s Michael mouth.  ANDREAS RHOBy fixed – at least in a metaphorical sense – the epigram tells that images of the apostles Peter and Paul were set up on either side (vv. 39–40). Like no. 27 (see above, p. 134), the epigram is very much devoted to the praise of Isaac and also ends with the plea to grant him a long reign. Here it is not the visitors of the church, who are asked for this favor, as was the case with the bathers in no. 27, but Christ himself (v. 47 σὺ δέ, κράταιε τοῦ θεοῦ πατρὸς λόγε). The divine momentum is also included in v. 9, in which Balsamon states that “one could call the stone also slabs written by God” (εἴπῃ τις αὐτὸν (sc. λίθον) καὶ θεογράφους πλάκας).Vv. 32–33 are also reminiscent of a verse (19) in epigram no. 27: while there the emperor is circumscribed as πιστὸς βασιλεύς, Ἀγγέλων προστάτης, here he is characterized as … βασιλεὺς Ἄγγελος πρωτοστάτης / μέγας Ἰσαάκιος Αὐσονοκράτωρ. Poems on Schedography The topic of a further group within Balsamon’s poetic œuvre is schedography (σχεδογραφία), a teaching method on word analysis and syntax, based on epimerismoi and extremely popular in the twelfth century, 149 although it was also criticized. 150 Three epigrams (nos. 23, 25 and 41) are addressed to a “little eunuch” 151 (nos. 23 and 25 εὐνοχόπουλος / no. On schedography and its function, see, e.g., Panagiotis A. Agapitos, ‘Learning to Read and to Write a Schedos: the verse dictionary of Paris. Gr. 400’, in Stephanos Efthymiadis, Charis Messis, Paolo Odorico and Ioannis Polemis (eds), “Pour une poétique de Byzance.” Hommage à Vassilis Katsaros (Paris: Centre d’études byzantines, néohélleniques et sud-est-européennes, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 2015), pp. 11–24; idem, ‘Literary haute cuisine and Its Dangers: Eustathios of Thessalonike on Schedography and Everyday Language’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 69 (2015), pp. 225–41; idem, ‘New Genres in the Twelfth Century: The schedourgia of Theodore Prodromos’, Medioevo Greco, 15 (2015), pp. 1–41; idem, ‘John Tzetzes and the Blemish Examiner: a Byzantine Teacher on Schedography, Everyday Language and Writerly Disposition’, Medioevo Greco, 17 (2017), pp. 1–57. 150 Idem, ‘Anna Komnene and the Politics of Schedographic Training and Colloquial Discourse’, Nea Rhome, 10 (2013) 89–107; idem, ‘Grammar, Genre and Patronage in the Twelfth Century: A Scientific Paradigm and its Implications’, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 64 (2014), pp. 1–22: here pp. 5–6. 151 On eunuchs in Byzantium, see Kathryn M. Ringrose, The Perfect Servant. Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium (Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2003); Shaun Tougher and Ra’anan S. Boustan (eds), Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond (Cardiff: Classical Press of Wales, 2002); Shaun Tougher, The Eunuchs in Byzantine History and Society (London: Routledge, 2008); Charis Messis, Les eunuques à Byzance, entre réalité et imaginaire (Paris: Centre d’études byzantines, néo149  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON 41 εὐνουχοπουλίδιον) who wants to begin a study of schedography. As in other epigrams, Balsamon uses warfare imagery in order to describe the use of schedography: in no. 25 he employs words like μάχη, νίκη, and ξίφος, and he tells his addressee, whom he addresses as τέκνον (vv. 1, 3 and 11), to put on the “three-fold defence” (v. 11 τριπανοπλία) to be ready for the “fight” with schedography. In epigram no. 41 Balsamon proves to be quite humoristic. The verses, full of intentionally coined hapax legomena, run as follows: 5 Εἰς εὐνουχοπουλίδιον ἄρξασθαι μέλλον σχεδογραφίας Τὴν κνιδοχορτόπλουτον εὐνούχων φύσιν ἀκριδομικτόβρουχος ἁρπάσοι φύσις εὐνουχοπουλίδιον ἡμῶν δὲ σκέποι θεοῦ τρισυπόστατος ἁγία φύσις ὡς μάννα σιτίζουσα τούτῳ τοὺς λόγους καὶ πλεκτάνας λύουσα τῶν σχεδοπλόκων. 5 On a little eunuch who wants to start with schedography The eunuchs’ nature rich on stinging nettle and grass may be rescued by the nature consisting of grasshoppers and bushcrickets, but our little eunuch may be sheltered by the holy nature of three persons of God, which feeds him the words like manna and untightens the wreaths of the composers (i.e. the weavers) of σχέδη. 152 In this epigram, as well as in no. 25, Balsamon does not necessarily make mere fun of eunuchs at the court, whose social situation had deteriorated under the Komnenoi because an ideology which venerated manliness had become dominant. 153 Both poems are written with some kind hélleniques et sud-est-européennes, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 2014). Balsamon’s epigrams dealing with eunuchs are only mentioned in Messis’ monograph. 152 French translation in Messis, Les eunuques à Byzance, p. 228. This epigram is not only transmitted in the Marcianus (fol. 9r) but also in cod. Par. gr. 2511, fol. 76v. In this manuscript, dated to the fourteenth century, the verses (without the title) follow some gnomica S. Basilii. Deviant readings: v. 1 κνηδοχορτόπλουτον, v. 5 τοῦ λόγου, v. 6 σχεδογράφων. On the manuscript Brigitte Mondrain, ‘L’ancien empereur Jean VI Cantacuzène et ses copistes’, in Antonio Rigo (ed.), Gregorio Palamas e oltre. Studi e documenti sulle controversie teologiche del XIV secolo bizantino (Florence: L.S. Olschki, 2004), pp. 249–96: here pp. 275–78. The manuscript can be studied online: http://gallica.bnf. fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10722248w (accessed 15 March, 2018). 153 Alexander Kazhdan, ‘Sostav gospodstvujuščego klassa v Vizantii XI–XII vv. Anteka i častnye vyvody, IV: evnuhi’, Antičnaja drevnost’i srednie veka, 10 (1973), pp. 184–  ANDREAS RHOBy of irony, 154 which not only refers to “his” (no. 41, v. 3 εὐνουχοπουλίδιον ἡμῶν) eunuch, who was perhaps employed in his household, but also to the teachers employing schedography, the σχεδοπλόκοι, as he calls them in no. 41, v. 6. In vv. 1–2 Balsamon perhaps alludes to a riddle which might have been deciphered in his time but is unknown today. The pun in these verses might also be evidence for the fact that the epigrams no. 25 and no. 41 were performed among other literati, in a so-called theatron or any other intellectual gathering. This also applies for epigram no. 23 which is entitled Στίχοι ἐκδοθέντες τῷ εὐνουχοπούλῳ (“Verses published for the little eunuch”). While nos. 25 and 41 are not openly directed against the method of schede and schedographers, in epigram no. 23 the tone is less friendly: the eunuch is unambiguously told to refrain from “fatted” schedography (v. 6 τῆς μὲν σιτιστῆς ἀπέχου σχεδουργίας). A shrewd character may solve the “tight wattled and manifold schede” (v. 10 τὰ στεγανόπλεκτα ποικίλα σχέδη), but a ἄνηβος (“someone not yet come to man’s estate”) in education and years (v. 12 ἐν λόγοις ἄνηβος … καὶ τοῖς χρόνοις) – the term refers to Balsamon’s little eunuch – should store up the easily comprehensible, not the enigmatic schede (v. 13 εὔληπτα θησαυρίζε, μὴ γρίφα σχέδη). This may express attitudes towards schedography which are not very different from Anna Komnene’s assessment of this teaching method: Anna was not – as often argued – completely against schedography but rather against the form employed in her time; 155 the same seems to be true for John Tzetzes, Nikephoros Basilakes and Eustathios of Thessalonica. 156 Verses 14–15, which form the end of epigram no. 23, are again full of Balsamon’s irony: “If you have digestive problems due to fat dishes, eat the lard of laughing instead of the food” (εἰ γὰρ ἀπεπτεῖς ἐκ λιπαρῶν σιτίων, / φάγῃς στέαρ γέλωτος ἀντὶ βρωσίμου). It may be mentioned that two further epigrams in Balsamon’s collection deal with his eunuch (nos. 21 and 22). In no. 21 the author compares him to a diligent ant which, although little in size, does not at all offer little work. Also in this epigram, Balsamon addresses him as τέκνον 94 cited after idem, ‘Eunuchs’, in Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 1 (1991), pp. 746–47. See also Messis, Les eunuques à Byzance, p. 229. 154 On “irony” in Byzantium, see the contributions by Efthymia Braounou, such as ‘Irony as a Discursive Practice in Historiography: A Byzantine Case in Point’, Medioevo Greco, 16 (2016), pp. 35–71. 155 Cf. Agapitos, ‘Anna Komnene and the Politics of Schedographic Training’, pp. 95–96. 156 Idem, ‘Grammar, Genre and Patronage in the Twelfth Century’, pp. 4–15.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON (v. 7). 157 No. 22 is entitled “On a tall cupbearer, as if written by the little eunuch” (Εἰς ἐπικέρνην μακρόν, ὡς ἀπὸ τοῦ εὐνουχοπούλου). 158 It is no coincidence that it consists of twelve verses, as does no. 21, because it has an intentional parallel structure: No. 21 5 10 *Μυρμηκοφυὲς ἐνδεδυμένος δέμας, *μυρμηκοτραφεῖς οὐκ ἔχεις ἐργασίας· οὐ γὰρ κοπιᾷς, ὡς τὰ μυρμήκων γένη, τοὺς Ἑρμαϊκοὺς ἐξακανθίζων στάχυς, κατὰ γραϊδίων δε συντρόφων φύσιν *μυρμηκοδιφᾷς τοὺς ξενοτρόφους κόπους. Οὕτω σε, τέκνον, ἐκ κακῆς ῥαθυμίας λιμὸς κατέσχε γνωστικῆς εὐπραγίας, εὐνουχικὸν τρέχοντα καὶ ταῦτα δρόμον· *μυρμηκομόχθει τοιγαροῦν, εἴπερ θέλεις *μυρμηκοτρυφᾶν τοὺς θερινοὺς καμάτους ἐν χειμεριναῖς *τεττιγοτρικυμίαις. Νο. 22 *Γιγαντοφυὲς ἐνδεδυμένος δέμας *γιγαντοτραφεῖς οὐκ ἔχεις ἐργασίας· οὐ γὰρ μεριμνᾷς *συχνοκιρνᾶν, ὡς γίγας, *κυπελλομοχθῶν καὶ *κυπελλοσεμνύνων τὰς δεσποτικὰς *δειπνοφιλοτησίας, κατὰ δὲ φαυλότατα Σατύρων γένη *πιθηκοκιρνᾷς ἐν *πιθηκοκεντρίῳ. οὕτω κακίστη συντρόφων ἀμνηστία πίθηκον εἰργάσατο τὸν γίγαντά σε. *γιγαντοκίρνα τοιγαροῦν, εἴπερ θέλεις *γιγαντοτρυφᾶν *εὐχαριστοπραξίας ἐν συντροφικαῖς *πτωχοκακοπραγίαις. No. 22 might indicate that the eunuch and the cupbearer, most likely both employed in Balsamon’s household, had a polemic relationship. However, both epigrams with their intentional parallel structure might also have been composed as a rhetorical exercise, 159 highlighting the possibilities one has when playing with words, especially hapax legomena, which were only coined for these two poems (18 new words, indicated by *, in no. 21 mainly from the stem μυρμηκο-, in no. 22 especially from the stem γιγαντο-). As to schedography, there is one more poem by Balsamon (no. 16) in which this method is mentioned. It consists of 20 verses addressed to a metropolitan of Philippupolis who is the author of a work entitled ᾿Εξαγωγή, which was perhaps of theological content. 160 Balsamon opens the poems with the statement that straying like some Odysseus he sailed through the Charybdis of schedography (v. 2 σχεδουργικὴν χάρυβδιν) because of ignorance (ἐξ ἀμαθίας). He continues with “or (sailing) the French translation of this poem by Messis, Les eunuques à Byzance, p. 228. Galli Calderini, ‘Orientamenti tematici negli epigrammi di Teodoro Balsamone’, p. 182 translates εὐνοχόπουλος and εὐνουχοπουλίδιον as “un giovane eunuco.” However, since the opposite equivalent ἐπικέρνης μακρός refers to the height (of the cupbearer), the cited diminutives describing the eunuch most probably refer to height as well and not to age. 159 Cf. Galli Calderini, ‘Orientamenti tematici negli epigrammi di Teodoro Balsamone’, p. 182; a short note on this poem also by Messis, Les eunuques à Byzance, p. 229. 160 Cf. Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 209. 157 158  ANDREAS RHOBy ebb of the night-battle I could not see the easily accessible day” (vv. 3–4 ἢ μᾶλλον ἀμπώτιδα νυκτομαχίας, / οὐκ εἶχον εὐπρόσιτον ἡμέραν βλέπειν). This passage employing sea and sailing imagery, with which Balsamon also seems to allude to Thucydides’ description of a nightly attack by the Athenians against Syracuse in the Peloponnesian War (7, 44), 161 is continued with some more sardonic remarks about schedography: when looking into a small schedos (?) (v. 9 σχεδάριον) 162 of a friend he found a garden of Hermes flooded by the Sirens (v. 10 σειρηνοκατάκλυστον Ἑρμοῦ κηπίον) 163 through which he hoped to trample down his straying and to benefit from its conveniences (vv. 11–13). “So much grace crowns the σχέδος, so much I take the grapes, which let flow honey, from the grapevine of David 164 in it (i.e. the σχέδος):” 165 with these words Balsamon continues his poem, employing garden imagery. However, the poem ends with some hidden allusions which were perhaps only understandable for the author and his addressee: “When friends are blind towards friends, I do not know: I also do not pray for seeing for those who are sharpsighted regarding the passions of the friends and who tend to blindness regarding their own fate.” 166 The verses might refer to some bad experience Balsamon had with a friend inclined to schedography, perhaps the one mentioned in v. 9, into whose σχεδάριον Balsamon had a look. Although the poem deals with schedography and does not have any connection with its title at first sight, it may have served as a prologue 161 Thucydides’ ekphrasis of the night-battle is also mentioned in the progymnasmata collections of early rhetoricians, e.g. Aphthonios: Michel Patillon, Corpus Rhetoricum. Anonyme, Préambule à la rhétorique. Aphthonios, Progymnasmata. En annexe: Pseudo-Hermogène, Progymnasmata. Textes établise et traduits (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2008), pp. 148, ll. 4–7 (ch. XII 2); νυκτομαχία is also used metaphorically: in one of his letters Theodore Stoudites speaks about the νυκτομαχία αἱρετική of his time (no. 507, 3 Fatouros). 162 This term is difficult to explain: according to the dictionaries σχεδάριον is either a “sketch”, a “rough draft” or a “short document.” For the meaning, which is very likely employed here, namely “small σχέδος”, there are no further attestations to the very best of my knowledge. 163 The reference to Hermes is due to the ancient God’s responsibility for rhetoric; it is also employed in two other poems by Balsamon dealing with schedography (no. 21, v. 4 and no. 25, v. 6). 164 This statement seems to allude to psalm 127 (128), 3: ἡ γυνή σου ὡς ἄμπελος εὐθηνοῦσα ἐν τοῖς κλίτεσι τῆς οἰκίας σου. Οἱ υἱοί σου ὡς νεόφυτα ἐλαιῶν κύκλῳ τῆς τραπέζης σου. 165 Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 184, vv. 14–16: οὕτω χάρις ἔστεψε πολλὴ τὸ σχέδος, / οὕτω μέλι ῥέοντα λαμβάνω βότρυν / ἐκ τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ Δαυϊτικῆς ἀμπέλου. 166 Ibidem, vv. 17–20: εἴπερ δὲ τυφλώττουσιν εἰς φίλους φίλοι, / οὐκ οἶδα· καὶ γὰρ εὔχομαι μηδὲ βλέπειν / τοὺς ὀξυδερκεῖς πρὸς τὰ τῶν φίλων πάθη / καὶ τυφλοπαθεῖς πρὸς τὰς ἰδίας τύχας.  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON book epigram to the Ἐξαγωγή of the metropolitan of Philippupolis. This is a common practice: book epigrams, serving as metrical prologue or epilogue, either preserved as poems of known authors or anonymously are very widespread. 167 Both Balsamon and the metropolitan might have been opponents of schedography, or Balsamon tried to warn his addressee of the dangers of this teaching method. Conclusion As seen by the preserved evidence, the surviving poems of Balsamon, mainly in the cod. Marc. gr. 524, only seem to present a selection of verses composed for a wide variety of purposes. 168 One can easily imagine that only the tip of the iceberg of his epigrams and poems have come down to us: his poetic work is as broad as that of other authors of the twelfth century and beyond. Nevertheless, once contextualized, Balsamon’s poetry offers an interesting insight into the life at court and in the patriarchate at the end of the twelfth century. It is a valuable source for the period of Isaac II, for whom he may have served as court poet. In addition, it offers details about the monastic life, the equipment of monasteries, and ecclesiastical matters of the time. More importantly, his collection of poems reflects some features and trends of late twelfth-century poetry. Moreover, some subtle mentions in the verses also allow us to perceive the author’s thoughts, his humor and, sometimes, his irony and sarcasm. Balsamon’s rich vocabulary, very often coined ad hoc and for one specific purpose, is one of his stylistic devices 169 by which he might have attracted his commissioners. However, he was not a “begging-poet” like his predecessors in the middle of the twelfth century (Theodore and the anonymous Manganeios Prodromos, Constantine Manasses, John Tzetzes) or Manuel Philes in the fourteenth century; he was a high clergy man, who even served as the titular patriarch of 167 This is testified to by the numerous attestations in the “Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams” (DBBE): http://www.dbbe.ugent.be/. 168 I do not agree with Horna, ‘Epigramme’, p. 177 who claims that Balsamon himself was responsible for the collection of the epigrams nos. 1–39. 169 Cf. Erich Trapp, ‘The Role of Vocabulary in Byzantine Rhetoric as a Stylistic Device’, in Elizabeth Jeffreys (ed.), Rhetoric in Byzantium. Papers from the Thirty-fifth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Exeter College, University of Oxford, March 2001 (Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003), pp. 137–49.  ANDREAS RHOBy Antioch, hired for specific occasions. Balsamon’s verses also reveal that even towards the end of the “long” twelfth century (1081–1204), which has often been described as a mere period of decline, 170 poetry was still a viable means to communicate and interact with one’s environment. List of Balsamon’s poems discussed in this article (numbers according to Horna): 1: p. 114 2: p. 117 3: p. 117 4: p. 117 5: p. 117 6: p. 117 7: p. 117 8: p. 117 9: pp. 117-118 10: p. 124 11: pp. 118-119 12: pp. 119-120 13: pp. 120-121 14: pp. 131-133 15: p. 134 16: pp. 141-143 17: p. 135 n. 132 18: pp. 127-128 19: pp. 121-123 20: pp. 129-130 21: pp. 140-141 22: pp. 140-141 23: p. 140 24: p. 129 25: pp. 139-140 26: p. 136 27: pp. 134-135, 138 28: pp. 124-125 29: p. 130 Thanks to studies by Alicia Simpson (e.g. Simpson, Byzantium, 1180–1204: ‘The Sad Quarter of a Century’?) and others this view is now revised. 170  THE POETRy OF THEODORE BALSAMON 30: p. 126 31: pp. 125-126 32: pp. 136-138 34: p. 125 36: pp. 116-117 37: p. 118 39: p. 115 40: p. 114 41: pp. 114-115, 139-140 42: pp. 115, 134-135 43: pp. 135-136 44: p. 115 45: pp. 115-116 Abstract Theodore Balsamon (1130/1140 – after 1195), high official of the Byzantine church, and from c. 1185 to 1190 titular patriarch of Antioch, is mainly known for his canonical work, the commentary on the so-called nomokanon of fourteen titles. In addition, more than 40 poems are transmitted under his name. The wide range of his poetic output, which is mainly transmitted in the cod. Marc. Gr. 524 (a manuscript from the end of the thirteenth century), reveals that occasionally Balsamon also served as an author on commission for the court (especially in the reign of Isaac II) and the aristocracy. His poetry contains epigrams with the purpose to be inscribed (e.g. tomb epigrams, dedicatory epigrams), but also book epigrams, and, interestingly enough, poems on schedography, a popular teaching method in the twelfth century. Theodore Balsamon’s verses do not only offer interesting insights into the life at court and in the patriarchate at the end of the twelfth century, but they also reveal that poetry was still a viable means to communicate at the end of the twelfth century, which is very often described as a period of decline. 