Volume 103, Issue 2

The poetical corpus of 11th-c. Christopher Mitylenaios, such as it is found in manuscript No. Z α XXIX (13th c.) of the Biblioteca della Badia Greca in Grottaferrata, consists of 145 poems and 2856 verses. Of these carmina 123 are written in jambic trimeters, 18 in dactylic hexameters, three in elegiac distichs, and one in an Anacreontic metre. In the first part of the article outer metric is discussed; among other things one learns that the Anacreontic poem 75 forms metrically a case of its own as it consists of eight strophes of four verses each, whereby the even strophes are followed by two so-called koukoullia , that the dactylic hexameters use 28 out of 32 possible schemes, thus contrasting with the Callimachean and Nonnian types, and that in the dodecasyllables the so-called Binnenschluss after the 5th foot is overwhelmingly present while in no less than 16 hexameters the poet uses a caesura after the 3rd foot. In the second part (inner metric) the numerous transgressions of metrical laws are investigated, as well as verse end and accentuation, and prosody; this last item concerns long and short vowels, diphthongs and dichrona, correptio Attica and hiatus . The text ends with a twofold appendix about caesurae .

The Greek Prophetologion manuscript Q12 from the library of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, copied in 1275, contains some thirty marginal notes written in Alanic, a pre-stage of Ossetic. On leaf 100r, the glossator provided the Greek heading τ παραμο(ν) τς μέ(σο) ν´ (i.e. μεσοπεντηκοστς), ‘Eve of Mid-Pentecost’, with a gloss πητζινάκ χουτζάου πάν which most probably means ‘Pecheneg Sunday’. A Pecheneg festival established after the decisive victory of John II over the Pechenegs is attested by both Nicetas Choniates and Ecloga Basilicorum. It is no wonder that this festival reached distant Alania, since the 12th century was a heyday for the Orthodox Christianity in the Northern Caucasus. The battle took place near Beroea in spring of the “fifth year” of John II's reign. The majority of historians tend to opt for 1122, but we would not exclude 1123 either. Whatever the year, the marginal note from Q12 may help in establishing the day of the battle, which is not mentioned either in Greek or in Scandinavian sources. If the battle of Beroea took place in 1122, it happened either on the 20th–22nd or on the 24th–26th of April. If the battle was fought in 1123, the day of the victory could then be either the 10th–12th or the 14th–16th of May.

The Taktikon Escorialense , a list of functions compiled in the time of John I Tzimiskes, is an important source for studying the reform of the military organisation and state apparatus of Byzantium during the 10 th century. Records of this reform, however, can also be found in other, literary and sigillographic sources, so its beginnings, principal stages and characteristics, and how the organisation of the provinces evolved in the 11 th century, were reconstructed independently from the TE by Ahrweiler. Like many other sources of this kind, the TE has particular characteristics that lead one to ask in what measure this list of functions really reflected the transformation of the state apparatus in the 10 th century. The conclusion may be drawn that this taktikon was an unfinished list of Byzantine functions and honorary titles, and, as indicated by data from other sources (first of all, sigillographic ones), it testifies only to a temporary phase in the reform carried out in Byzantium in the course of the 10 th century. There are certain illogical elements in the TE , in the sequence of mentioning the functionaries; some data about the creation of new appointments mentioned in other sources, were omitted from this list of functions, etc. Despite the said shortcomings, though, the TE makes it possible to pose fresh questions, and reactivates some earlier ones connected with the problem of the transformation of the Byzantine central and provincial system, especially in the domain of the Empire's military organisation.

This article provides an in depth analysis of the organization, technology employed and functioning of the guild-organized leather manufacturing industry in the capital during the tenth century. Emphasis is placed on the internai organization and operations of the establishments; the technical processes employed; their business organization form and governing rules; the implications of the guild's occupational exclusivity; the likely market structure, degree of exercisable market power, and their impact on price competition. The scale of operations and growth of firms was determined by entrepreneurial decisions based on market signais. Prices and wages were set by market forces – not by the guild. Pro-competitive regulations and unimpeded new entry fostered correct business conduct and maintained a level playing field. Occupational exclusivity did flot ensure market monopoly, as the guiid system did not aim to promote the members' economic interests, thwart intra-guild and extemal competition, or achieve equality of economic resuits.

Moving from four fragments of Aristander and Callithea (47, 103, 115, 152), this article explores the narrative and ideological meaning of dreams in Constantine Manasses' narrative. Fr. 47, in particular, encloses a quotation from Euripides ( Hecuba 72), which has been put in connection with the commentary on Aristotle's work De divinatione per somnia written by Michael of Ephesus. Nevertheless the arguments for a direct connection between the two texts are not cogent. On the contrary there is a wide range of patristic, theological and philosophical texts showing a strong and ongoing interest in Byzantine culture for the psychological aspects of the oneiric processes. This background is reflected both in Constantine's novel and in his Chronicle , where he reworks and adapts the contemporary debates for narrative purposes.

An anonymous oration, praising the emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, has been recently published by Ch. Dendrinos, who treats it as a funeral oration. However, it is evident that the emperor was still alive at the time of the composition of that text, so we can safely assume that it was intended as a an encomium of the ruling emperor, and it was written some time after the death of the emperor's nephew John VII Palaiologos (1408). On the basis of some textual parallels between that anonymous text and the works of Makarios we put forward the hypothesis that the text published by Dendrinos was written by Makres himself. Finally an anonymous text praising Manuel II Palaiologos, attributed to Isidore of Kiev by G. Mercati, is published for the first time. That piece of oratory was composed shortly after Manuel's return from the West (1403).

Marcian (? – ca 474) was appointed oeconomos of the properties of the Great Church by the Patriarch Gennadius (458–471) possibly after serving as the last Novatian bishop of Constantinople. He employed his considerable personal wealth in founding and restoring churches in the capital, most significantly one named Anastasia, incorporating the “small oratory” in which Gregory of Nazianzen had ministered to the faithful remnant of Nicenes during the winter of 379–380: a church with significant Gothic connections. A critical edition of the complete text of the vita (previously only available in the Metaphrastic version, PG 114, 429–456) is here presented and translated. The vita was composed by one Sergius almost certainly some considerable time after the death of Marcian for, although it provides some useful information on the nature of the surviving buildings attributed to him, the little it has to say about the man himself largely consists of conventional miracula rather than of biographical detail – of which there is surprisingly little. Even certain data known from other sources are passed over in silence. On the other hand, the healing properties of the Anastasia church are affirmed with a passage taken almost verbatim from Sozomen. While the vita is in no sense a biography of the saint, it does contain a wealth of information on a fifth-century Constantinople.

Although the Chronicle of Theodore of Kyzikos has been known to scholarship and was included in Kurmbacher's Geschichte Der Byzantinischen Litteratur , it was later identified with the Synopsis Chronike , and hence excluded from any further research. The article reconsiders the text and its place in Byzantine historiography, focusing on its relationship to the Synopsis Chronike . It analyses their similarities and differences, particularly in terms of textual criticism, and examines possible connections between them. Finally, it concludes that the accepted hypothesis that the two texts are one and the same (or mere variations of the same text) is not valid. Instead, it proposes that the Chronicle of Theodore of Kyzikos and the Synopsis Chronike are two distinct chronicles that derive from an earlier common archetype, which is now lost.