Epistolary Topoi in the Correspondence between Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and Theodore, Bishop of Cyzicus
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15291/csi.4615Keywords:
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, Theodore of Cyzicus, Byzantine epistolography, epistolary topoi, Greek epistolary phraseologyAbstract
The letters exchanged between Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959) and his close friend Theodore, Bishop of Cyzicus, are of the utmost importance, representing the only preserved example of authentic writings from the emperor. Other than the fact that the correspondence offers details concerning the relationship between Theodore and Porphyrogenitus and their personal lives, it also provides a good foundation for the study of Porphyrogenitus’ style of writing, which is very useful considering that the authorship of the emperor’s literary inheritance is still the object of scholarly discussion. The corpus of this study is made up of ten letters written by Theodore and addressed to Constantine (whose letters of reply have not been preserved) from the Vindobonensis Collection and correspondence between Theodore and Porphyrogenitus from the Athos Collection (ten of Theodore’s and eight of Constantine’s letters). Epistolary topoi found in the letters will be analyzed and divided into two groups: contemplative and linguistic. The aim is primarily to present the features of Porphyrogenitus’ letter-writing style, but also that of his correspondent, with special reference to the extent to which rhetorical recommendations were followed when composing letters.
Downloads
References
Primary Sources
Adler, Ada. 1928–1938. Suidae lexicon. Vol. I-V. Leipzig: Teubner.
Allen, Thomas W. 1931. Homeri Ilias. Vol. II-III. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Barbel, Joseph. 1963. Gregor von Nazianz. Die fünf theologische Reden. Düsseldorf: Patmos-Verlag.
Butcher, Samuel H. 1903. Demosthenis Orationes. Vol. I. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Büttner-Wobst, Theodorus. 1897. Ioannis Zonarae Epitomae historiarum. Vol. III. Bonnae: Impensis Ed. Weberi.
Calvet-Sébasti, Marie-Ange. 1995. Grégoire de Nazianze. Discours 6–12. Paris: Éditions du Cerf.
Chiron, Pierre. 2002. Démétrios. Du style. 2nd ed. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Courtonne, Yves. 1966. Saint Basile. Lettres. Tome III. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Dagron, Gilbert, Bernard Flusin. 2020. Constantin VII Porphyrogénète. Le livre des cérémonies. Tome I. Paris: Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisations de Byzance.
Darrouzès, Jean, Leendert G. Westerink. 1978. Théodore Daphnopatès. Correspondance. Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Dover, Kenneth J. 1968. Aristophanes. Clouds. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Featherstone, Michael, Juan Signes Codoñer. 2015. Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur libri I-IV. Boston-Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Foerster, Richardus. 1913. Libanii opera. Vol. VII. Lipsiae: In aedibus B. G. Teubneri.
Foerster, Richardus. 1963. Libanii opera. Vol. X. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung.
Gallay, Paul. 1964/1967. Saint Grégoire de Nazianze. Lettres. Tome I-II. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Henry, René. 1960. Photius. Bibliothèque. Tome II. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Laourdas, Basileios, Leendert G. Westerink. 1984. Photii Patriarchae Constantinopolitani Epistulae et Amphilochia. Vol. II. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner Verlagsgesellschaft.
Leutsch, Ernst L. von, Friedrich W. Schneidewin. 1839/1851. Corpus paroemiographorum Graecorum. Vol. I–II. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Massa Positano, Lidia. 1965. Teofilatto Simocata. Questioni naturali. 2nd ed. Napoli: Libreria Scientifica Editrice.
Migne, Jacques-Paul. 1860. Patrologiae cursus completus, series Graeca. Vol. 63. Paris: Apud Garnier fratres et J.-P. Migne successores.
Migne, Jacques-Paul. 1862. Patrologiae cursus completus, series Graeca. Vol. 55. Paris: Apud Garnier fratres et J.-P. Migne successores.
Moravcsik, Gyula, Romilly J. H. Jenkins. 1967. Constantine Porphyrogenitus. De administrando imperio. 2nd ed. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks.
Moreschini, Claudio, Paul Gallay. 1985. Grégoire de Nazianze. Discours 32-37. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf.
Mossay, Justin, Guy Lafontaine. 1981. Grégoire de Nazianze. Discours 24–26. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf.
Schatkin, Margaret Amy. 1967. Critical edition of, and introduction to St. John Chrysostom’s “De sancto Babyla, contra Iulianum et gentiles”. Doctoral dissertation. New York: Fordham University.
Shackleton Bailey, David R. 1977. Cicero. Epistulae ad familiares. Vol. I–II. Cambridge, London, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Ševčenko, Ihor. 2011. Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur liber quo vita Basilii imperatoris amplectitur. Berlin-Boston: Walter de Gruyter.
Tziatzi-Papagianni, Maria. 2012. Theodori metropolitae Cyzici epistulae. Accedunt epistulae mutuae Constantini Porphyrogeniti. Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter.
Vogel, Fridericus. 1893. Diodori Bibliotheca historica. Vol III. Leipzig: Teubner.
Weichert, Valentinus. 1910. Demetrii et Libanii qui feruntur τύποι ἐπιστολικοί et ἐπιστολιμαῖοι χαρακτῆρες. Lipsiae: In aedibus B. G. Teubner.
Zanetto, Giuseppe. 1985. Theophylacti Simocatae epistulae. Leipzig: Teubner.
Ziegler, Konrat. 1964. Plutarchi vitae parallelae. Vol. II, fasc.1. 2nd ed. Leipzig: Teubner.
Secondary Sources
Anagnostakis, Elias. 1999. “Οὐκ εἴσιν ἐμὰ τὰ γράμματα. Ιστορία και ιστορίες στον Πορφυρογέννητο”. Σύμμεικτα 13: 97–139.
Bauer, Thomas Johann. 2020. “Letter Writing in Antiquity and Early Christianity”. A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography. Ed. by Alexander Riehle. Leiden and Boston: Brill: 33–67.
Bury, John B. 1906. “The treatise De administrando imperio”. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 15: 517–577.
Ceccarelli, Paola. 2013. Ancient Greek Letter Writing: A Cultural History (600 BC-150 BC). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cugusi, Paolo. 1983. Evoluzione e forme dell’epistolografia latina. Roma: Herder.
Darrouzès, Jean. 1960. Épistoliers byzantins du Xe siècle. Paris: Institut français d’Études byzantines.
Featherstone, Michael. 2014. “Basileios Nothos as Compiler: the De Cerimoniis and Theophanes Continuatus”. Textual Transmission in Byzantium: between Textual Criticism and Quellenforschung. Ed. by Juan Signes Codoñer and Inmaculada Pérez Martín. Turnhout: Brepols: 353–372.
Grünbart, Michael. 2004. “L’epistolografia”. Lo spazio letterario del Medioevo. 3. Le culture circostanti. Vol. I: La cultura bizantina. Ed. by Guglielmo Cavallo. Roma: Salerno Editrice: 345–378.
Grünbart, Michael. 2005. Formen der Anrede im byzantinischen Brief vom 6. bis zum 12. Jahrhundert. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Hatlie, Peter. 1996. “Redeeming Byzantine Epistolography”. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 20: 213–248.
Hunger, Herbert. 1978. Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner. Vol. I-II. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.
Hunger, Herbert. 1969-1970. “On the Imitation (Mimesis) of Antiquity in Byzantine Literature”. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 23/24: 17–38.
Klauck, Hans-Josef. 2006. Ancient Letters and the New Testament: A Guide to Context and Exegesis. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press.
Koskenniemi, Heikki. 1956. Studien zur Idee und Phraseologie des griechischen Briefes bis 400 n. Chr. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.
Kotzabassi, Sofia. 2020. “Epistolography and Rhetoric”. A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography. Ed. by Alexander Riehle. Leiden and Boston: Brill: 177–199.
Lemerle, Paul. 1971. Le premier humanisme byzantin. Notes et remarques sur enseignement et culture à Byzance des origines au Xe siècle. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Littlewood, Antony R. 1976. “An ‘Ikon of the Soul’: the Byzantine Letter”. Visible Language 10, 3: 197–226.
Littlewood, Antony R. 1988. “A Statistical Survey of the Incidence of Repeated Quotations in Selected Byzantine Letter-writers”. Gonimos. Neoplatonic and Byzantine Studies Presented to Leendert G. Westerink at 75. Ed. by John Duffy and John Peradotto. Buffalo, New York: Arethusa: 137–154.
Lončar, Milenko, Teuta Serreqi Jurić. 2016. “Stilske varijacije Porfirogenetovih izvještaja o pohodu Saracena na Dalmaciju i južnu Italiju”. Živa Antika 66, 1–2: 109–137.
Magdalino, Paul. 2013. “Byzantine Encyclopaedism of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries”. Encyclopaedism from Antiquity to the Renaissance. Ed. by Jason König and Greg Woolf. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 219–231.
Malherbe, Abraham J. 1988. Ancient Epistolary Theorists. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
Markopoulos, Athanasios. 1985. “Théodore Daphnopatès et la Continuation de Théophane”. Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 35: 171–182.
Mommsen, Tycho. 1895. Beiträge zu der Lehre von den griechischen Präpositionen. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung.
Moravcsik, Gyula. 1939. “Τὰ συγγράμματα τοῦ Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ Πορφυρογεννήτου ἀπὸ τῆς γλωσσικῆς ἀπόψεως”. Atti del V Congresso Internazionale di Studi Bizantini, Roma 20–26 settembre 1936. Vol. I. Roma: Istituto per l’Europa Orientale: 514–520.
Moravcsik, Gyula. 1983. Byzantinoturcica. Vol. I-II. 3rd ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Mullett, Margaret. 2008. “Epistolography”. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Ed. by Elizabeth Jeffreys, John F. Haldon and Robin Cormack. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 882–893.
Papaioannou, Stratis. 2010. “Letter-writing”. The Byzantine World. Ed. by Paul Stephenson. London and New York: Routledge: 188–199.
Petrucci, Armando. 2008. Scrivere lettere. Una storia plurimillenaria. Roma: Editori Laterza.
Riehle, Alexander. 2020a. “Byzantine Epistolography: A Historical and Historiographical Sketch”. A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography. Ed. by Alexander Riehle. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Riehle, Alexander. 2020b. A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Sarri, Antonia. 2018. Material Aspects of Letter Writing in the Graeco-Roman World (500 BC – AD 300). Berlin: De Gruyter.
Serreqi Jurić, Teuta. 2016. Usporedba jezično-stilskih osobitosti Porfirogenetovih spisa Vita Basilii i De thematibus. Doctoral dissertation. Zagreb: Sveučilište u Zagrebu.
Serreqi Jurić, Teuta. 2017. “Ideja Božje providnosti i utjecaj Svetoga pisma u Porfirogenetovoj Vita Basilii”. Fluminensia 29, 2: 157–178.
Serreqi Jurić, Teuta. 2019. “Stilske razine u djelima Konstantina Porfirogeneta”. Hum 14, 21: 132–159.
Serreqi Jurić, Teuta. 2020. “Stilska sredstva u funkciji oblikovanja lika idealnog bizantskog cara: primjer iz Porfirogenetova spisa Vita Basilii”. Fluminensia 32, 2: 159–181.
Serreqi Jurić, Teuta, Tihana Jurišić. 2023. “The Reflection of Ancient Greek Biography in Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus’ Vita Basilii”. Fluminensia 35, 1: 265–292.
Signes Codoñer, Juan. 1989. “Algunas consideraciones sobre la autoría del Theophanes Continuatus”. Erytheia 10, 1: 17–28.
Signes Codoñer, Juan. 1995. El período del segundo iconoclasmo en Theophanes Continuatus. Análisis y comentario de los tres primeros libros de la crónica. Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert.
Signes Codoñer, Juan. 2017. “The Author of Theophanes Continuatus I-IV and the Historical Excerpts of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus”. Investigatio Fontium II. Griechische und lateinische Quellen mit Erläuterungen. Ed. by László Horváth and Erika Juhász. Budapest: Eötvös Jószef Collegium: 17–41.
Steen, Henry A. 1938. “Les clichés épistolaires dans les lettres sur papyrus grecques”. Classica et mediaevalia 1: 119–176.
Stowers, Stanley K. 1986. Letter writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
Ševčenko, Ihor. 1978. “Storia Letteraria”. La civiltà bizantina dal IX all’XI secolo: aspetti e problemi. Ed. by André Guillou. Bari: Universita degli Studi di Bari, Centro di Studi Bizantini: 91–127.
Ševčenko, Ihor. 1992. “Re-reading Constantine Porphyrogenitus”. Byzantine Diplomacy: Papers from the Twenty-fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 1990. Ed. by Jonathan Shepard and Simon Franklin. Aldershot: Variorum: 167–195.
Tartaglia, Luigi. 1982. “Livelli stilistici in Costantino Porfirogenito”. Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 32, 2: 197–206.
Thraede, Klaus. 1970. Grundzüge griechisch-römischer Brieftopik. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.
Toynbee, Arnold. 1973. Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World. London, New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Trapp, Michael. 2003. Greek and Latin Letters: An Anthology with Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Treadgold, Warren T. 1984. Renaissances before the Renaissance. Cultural Revivals of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Varona, Patricia. 2010. “Contribución al problema de la cronología y las fuentes de la Vita Basilii”. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 102, 2: 739–775.
Weitzmann, Kurt. 1948. The Joshua Roll: A Work of the Macedonian Renaissance. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.
Weitzmann, Kurt. 1963. Geistige Grundlagen und Wesen der Makedonischen Renaissance. Köln: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GMBH.
White, John L. 1978. “Epistolary Formulas and Cliches in Greek Papyrus Letters”. Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers 14: 289–319.
Zilliacus, Henrik. 1949. Untersuchungen zu den abstrakten Anredeformen und Höflichkeitstiteln im Griechischen. Helsingfors: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.
Zilliacus, Henrik. 1964. “Anredeformen”. Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 7: 167–182.
