IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 890. NICETAS DAVID PAPHLAGO. HISTORICAL AND LITERARY NOTICE.
(Leo Allatius, *Diatriba de Nicetis*, ap. Mai. *Biblioth. nov.*, VI, part. II, p. 3.) Among the various surnames and titles of dignity, one Nicetas lies hidden, but because of the same name he is inconveniently divided into many varied and monstrously separated persons; if possible, I shall bring him forth, integrated in his own parts, before the public. He was a Byzantine, and called a Paphlagonian. Joannes Scylitza in the proemium of his history: "For the Daphnopates Theodore, Nicetas the Paphlagonian, Joseph Genesios, and Manuel the Byzantines, Nicephorus the deacon the Phrygian, and so forth." For Theodore Daphnopates, Nicetas Paphlago, Joseph Genesios, and Manuel are Byzantines; Nicephorus the deacon is a Phrygian, etc. Cedrenus drew his material from Scylitza. Nicephorus Callistus (Hist. eccl. lib. XIV, 28) agrees with these. But whether "Paphlago" was a surname or a title of a bishopric, who can disentangle? Clearly in many manuscripts one reads "Nicetas of Paphlagonia," as in Vatican codex 1246, and before the Life of Ignatios the patriarch. And he could also have been from Paphlagonia, but endowed with status in the city of Byzantium: nor does this require proof, for the papers of all writers are full of those of other lands who were adopted as true citizens by cities. And no bishopric of Paphlagonia appears. He was also a man of two names: for he is distinguished by the appellation of David. Hence, quite often, "Nicetas who is also David"; and by some he is called absolutely Nicetas David. And let those who hand down that David was his surname look to the foundation upon which they rest. In some codices, in place of David and Paphlago, "Dadybron" is attached, which was a bishopric in the Paphlagonia of the Gangra region. Hence I argue that he was not unsuitably [called] the Dadybrenian bishop, also called the Paphlagonian, namely because he possessed a bishopric in Paphlagonia. To this is also added the name of Philosopher: "Nicetas who is also David the Philosopher," as is clearly seen in the Vatican manuscript codices 344, 365, and 679. And in others, with nothing else added, "Nicetas the Philosopher," not because he professed only the institution of the monks, but because among other things he especially attributed to himself the task of philosophy—as were most men of that age, and the foremost among them was honored with the title *hypatos ton philosophon* (Chief of the Philosophers). Wherefore this was the Nicetas who was called by the other name David; a Byzantine, a philosopher by rank, bishop of Dadybra in Paphlagonia under [the metropolis of] Gangra; and all the things which, under the name of Nicetas, are referred to various people by these diverse titles, are to be vindicated for this one man. He flourished around the times of Leo and Constantine, as is gathered from the proemium of the Life of Saint Ignatios the patriarch, which he composed neither unlearnedly nor inelegantly: A “And if they should happen to be among the most recent and those times adjacent to our own, they would be all the more worthy of record and praise, as they are capable of building up the Church the more by their proximity. For the ancient and very distant in time, even if it is believed on the trustworthiness of Scripture, yet it would be sooner dismissed by the many for imitation, considering that it is better than the present generation, as those elders were able to succeed. But whatever is believed to have been achieved in our own times, I think would much more goad those who are more devout, and incite them to an equal zeal for virtue. For these reasons I undertake now this contest in my discourse; and a fierce longing is in my heart to describe, in true accounts and ones devoid of all pretense of falsehood, B what manner of man the great hierarch and shepherd of the Queen of Cities, Ignatios, was—under God the Spirit of truth as guide and helper for those who do not know—from the manner of life which he lived.”
If, however, it happens that they approach nearer to our own recent age, then they are indeed much more to be commemorated and lauded above all others, as those who, by virtue of the proximity of their times, can be of much greater benefit to the Church. For that which is very ancient and removed by long intervals of time, even if it deserves faith on account of the authority of the writer, nevertheless causes most people to despair of the effort of imitation, as those who think that it was much easier to live virtuously in those centuries of our ancestors than in our own. But those things which are believed to have been done rightly within our own memory, I think, fire the minds of the pious much more sharply to emulate the honor of virtue. Therefore, a huge desire of mind impelled me to pursue this cause, or struggle, with my speech, and with God the Spirit of truth as guide and helper, to show to those who do not know what kind of man Ignatios was, what his quality, and how great this prelate and pastor of the royal city was in the manner of his life. I speak of that Ignatios who, while posterior in age and flourishing before this generation of ours, none the less conceded nothing to those previous venerable pontiffs either in faith or in confession. What *genea*, or age, is, before which Ignatios is said to have lived, is taught by all the most learned grammarians. Wherefore it will be a matter of doubt to no one that this Nicetas flourished under the aforementioned emperors. He wrote a History, as Scylitza and Cedrenus record, and Nicephorus Callistus in the cited place, that the divine Cyril received the name of John through a divine vision, and laid aside the hatred he had previously conceived against Chrysostom at the exhortation of the Mother of God: "Having found in an apocryphal history of Nicetas the philosopher, who is also called David, and of others, I also thought it necessary to include it in the present history, so that it might not be possible for anyone to doubt how so many luminaries, while going through enmities with each other, reached the peak of holiness, and served as foundations of the Church, with the greatness of the enmity in no way being able to harm the prevailing reputation." In the secret history of Nicetas the philosopher, who is also called David, and likewise having found it among others, I thought it also to be inserted into this my work, lest it occur to anyone ambiguously how such great luminaries, practicing mutual enmities, both arrived at the summit of holiness and stood as foundations of the Church, with enmities of this kind bringing no detriment to the glory of either of them. The life of Saint Ignatios, son of the Emperor Michael Traulus (Balbus) of Constantinople and patriarch of Constantinople, after whose deposition Photius was made patriarch from being a senator and a layman. A Matthew Rader published it, translated into Latin by himself, in Greek and Latin, before the eighth general council, in quarto, at Ingolstadt. Afterward, it was published in the new edition of the general and particular councils at Rome, Cologne, and Paris. Possevino writes in his *Apparatus* that Federicus Metius also translated it from the Greek. It is still read today in manuscript form in the Vatican Library, codex 1452, at the college of the Greeks, at the royal library of Saint Lawrence, and elsewhere. Various orations in praise of the saints. Which I myself have read are: It is preserved under the title of Nicetas the rhetorician and holy man in the Barberini library. [Here follow Greek titles]... All these are read under the same title of the rhetorician in the Barberini library. P.: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of all who hope in him." Under the same title in the Barberini, and under Nicetas the philosopher in the Vatican codices 679 and 819. Possevino in his *Apparatus* thinks it belongs to Nicetas of Byzantium, whose sermon on the martyrdom, discovery, and translation of the venerable relics of the protomartyr Saint Stephen is preserved in the Vatican library under the name of Nicetas the philosopher. Other codices attribute it to Michael Psellus, and note that it was spoken extemporaneously. [Greek phrase]. In the Vatican, cod. 1246. In the Barberina more expressly: "Nicetas the rhetorician of Paphlagonia," or "Nicetas, bishop of Paphlagonia." Codex 247. "The eulogy of Nicetas the rhetorician of Paphlagonia for the holy and wonderworking archbishop of Myra in Lycia."