J. H. Leich’s Commentary on the Life and Deeds of Constantine Porphyrogenitus

EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE PATROLOGIA

^A ...But because these have no connection with sacred history nor do they pertain to religion, they had to be omitted here. The treatises *On the Themes* and *On the Provinces of the Byzantine Empire*, as well as *On the Administration of the Empire*, contribute not a little to the definition of sacred geography. The writings on medicine, on veterinary science, and on agriculture, which Constantine either composed himself or ordered learned men to compose, are not of this place. However, they will become known to our readers from the *Notitia* of the authors of this writer, which J. A. Fabricius provided in his *Bibliotheca Graeca* and which we place before the works of Constantine. J.-B. M. 3 April 1861.

JOANNES ALBERTUS FABRICIUS ON THE WRITINGS OF CONSTANTINE PORPHYROGENITUS

I have spoken of the *Life of Basil the Macedonian*, which his grandson, the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, son of Leo the Wise—that most wealthy cultivator and restorer of all learning—wrote, in this volume, chapter p. 349. ^B [Vol. VI of the old edition; Vol. VII, p. 681 sq. of this edition]. Now it is helpful to review his other writings; for whatever must be said about the emperor himself—who reigned from 6 June 912 under regents, or with his mother Zoe, or with Romanus his father-in-law, and from 946 to 959 alone—the reader will more rightly seek from the chroniclers of the tenth century, whether those be the ancients, such as Zonaras, Cedrenus, Glycas, and others, as well as the continuators of Theophanes, Simeon the Master, George the Monk, Leo the Grammarian, Joannes Scylitzes, etc., or the more modern ones, Baronius, Spondanus, Antonius Pagi, etc., and those who have published extensive commentaries on the emperors, Joannes Cuspinianus, etc., and he who composed the *Life* of this Constantine individually, Martinus Hanckius, *De scriptoribus hist. Byz.*, lib. 1, cap. 25, p. 461-478. FABR.

Item: J. H. Leichius, *De vita et rebus gestis Constantini Porphyrogen.*, Leipzig, 1746, 4°, and the preface to the book *De ceremoniis Byzantinis*; C. Oudin, *Comm. de scriptor. eccl.*, Vol. II, p. 421 sq.; Hamberger, *Z. N.* 111, p. 686 sqq.; Saxius in *Onom.* 11, p. 142 sqq., and I myself in *Introd. in hist. L. Gr.* II, part 1, p. 477 sq., have collected more. HARL.

The book *On the Administration of the Empire* was written (at least in part) in the year 6457 (Christ 949), the seventh indiction, and in the year 6460 (Christ 952), the tenth indiction. Joannes Meursius was the first to edit this from a Palatine codex, which formerly belonged to Baptista Egnatius, with his own translation and corrections, at Leiden, 1610, 8°; then it was placed before other writings of this Constantine at Leiden, 1617, 8° ^C. Most recently, Anselmus Banduri had the same book reprinted in the first volume of his *Imperium Orientale*, with a translation added, which he interpolated and emended here and there, and filled in the gaps.

NOTES

OF THE CEREMONIES OF THE BYZANTINE COURT, BOOK I

...spatharii carrying arms, stand with them on the onopodium, and after the lords, clothed in skaramangia, have come forth from the sacred bedchamber and [said] the customary prayers in the shell of the golden triclinium, where the lords [receive] from our God the divine and...

COMMENTARY

^A (42) They were guards of the sacred person, of noble birth, who carried his arms—that is, the shield and the spear—before the emperor as he proceeded, as is clear from this passage. See Du Cange, *ad Alex.*, p. 259. We have frequent mention in Byzantine history of protospatharii, spatharii, and spatharocandidati. Nicephorus Gregoras interprets the latter as "shield-bearers," correctly indeed from their arms and the duty of carrying them. But spatharii and protospatharii also carried the same things. Goar, *ad Codin.*, p. 25, writes that all spatharii were protospatharii, in which he is mistaken. Nor did the emperor alone have spatharii, but also the superior magistrates, as is evident from Theophanes, p. 368, where "the spatharius of Bisiris or the spatharius of Himerius the patrician" refers to Bisiris’s and Himerius’s spatharius. Goar does not translate this correctly. They were named from *spathe*, a long and broad sword, which they bore in their hand.

^B (43) The terms *hopla*, *harma*, and *harmata* are used by the Greeks in various significations. The last of these, *harmata*, seems to have been translated by the Latins, and indeed it truly was, yet it had reached the Greeks from the Latins before passing back to them; and in its origin it is good Greek, from *harmo*, to fit or to equip (instrument), and so the writer Nicetas, otherwise fastidious and elegant for his age but ridiculous to us today from his affectation of ancient words, did not hesitate to use it, p. 35: "he orders them to be ready, having supped, and to see to their *harmata* [that is, arms] so that they might fight the Turks more punctually at the new year." I therefore doubt whether I should call *harmata* here swords only, or armor, or—and to this I lean more—whether the latter, "their shields and their spears" (for so it should be read), is an epexegesis of the former, "the imperial *harmata*." I do not recall finding the word *harma* used for swords. Modern Greeks use it for armor, as they do *hoplon*. See the distinguished Hemsterhuis on Aristophanes, ^C *Plutus*, v. 450. But very frequently, both Latins and Greeks, whether writers of recent or most ancient times, use *hoplon* just as *hopla*, or likewise "arms" which corresponds to it, for a shield. See Salmasius, *ad Hist. Aug.*, t. I, p. 212, and II, p. 354. Hence it is that "to handle a shield" and "to brandish arms" are the same thing. Du Cange proved this with many examples, s.v. "Arma." Old glossaries say: "having cymbals attached, which the Romans call *armatoria*." In this place, *kymbala* are the same thing as *kombos*, bulbs, knots, bosses, or bronze or iron umbones, the bucculae that stand out from the middle of shields to receive and blunt the force of incoming blows. A *kymbalon* and *kombos* is anything that is swollen into a spherical form. Our author himself, p. 176, called the shield a *kymbalon*. Hence, one may now understand the reasoning of Diodorus Siculus, l. xv, 44, p. 36: "(they were) formerly called *hoplitai* [heavily armed soldiers] from their shields, then they were renamed *peltastai* from the *pelte*." The arguments with which H. Stephanus attacks that passage are indeed specious, yet the distinguished Wesseling defends him rightly. ^D Thus also the same Diodorus, XVII, 18, p. 173, 67: "he dedicated his own proper *hoplon* [shield] to the goddess [Minerva], having taken up the best of the *hopla* [shield] lying in the temple, and having armed himself with this, he used it." That a shield is indicated there is obvious, even from p. 175. In his work, XVIII, 27, p. 278, are found the "shield-bearers," armed with shields and spears (which were never separated), and in that respect they are opposed there to the "apple-bearers," those who carried *spathobaklia* or iron-tipped staffs with golden balls at the end. *Hoplon Athanaies* in Lucillius's poem in the *Anthologia*, p. 151, v. 62, is the shield of Pallas. Aristophanes himself used *hopla* for a shield in *The Wasps*, v. 819, compared with v. 590. For he who himself is "without *hopla*" Cleonymus is there "the shield-runner." The distinguished Hemsterhuis also correctly rendered the opinion of the Comic poet in *The Birds*, v. 390. To Pindar also, "the *hopla* from Argos" are Argive shields, in that place which Athenaeus, 1, c. 22, cites at the beginning, not correctly taken by the interpreter. In the same way, the Latins used to say "they collect themselves into arms" for "they take shelter behind their shields." Virgil: "Aeneas halted and collected himself into arms / crouching on his knee." Also in the Middle Ages, they said *arma* for a shield. A. Cutheis, on the deeds of the Spoletans, apud Du Cange, v. "Grampha": "His own followers preceded him, armed with tablets and shields depicted with the *grampha*, that is, a club or cestus, [and] his own *arma*, that is, shield, and swords and naked spathae." From this flowed the French *les armes*, for familial insignia. For when the old knights used to carry the insignia of each one's own family on their arms—that is, on their shields—thence it happened that what was painted on the arms was called metonymically by the very name of arms. (Such shields with insignia and royal spatharii or candidati with a spear holding a shield can be seen in that Ravennate image of Justinian, of which I spoke a little before, in Alemannus and Du Cange, *Fam. Byz.*, also in Ciampini, t. II, *Monum. Vetust.*, tab. 22.) Those who stood by the Constantinopolitan emperors as spatharii, or candidati, or protectors, were armed with a shield and spear; they were their armigeri, because it was not fitting for the emperors themselves to bear arms. Hence, those who were "troops around the emperor" were formerly called *scutarii*, according to Zosimus I, p. 188. Compare Valesius *ad Amm. Marcell.*, p. 352. Whence it is clear that our author’s expression, p. 237, *ta harma atei* [he holds the arms], was correctly rendered by us as "arms, that is, shields and spears, are held," and in George the Monk, p. 541, *meta armaton* should be translated as "with the stipatharii or attendants, or armigeri." For, not to say that that expression there signifies "with a great number of chariots" or "with nobles proceeding in chariots," the custom of the Constantinopolitan court, by which it was not allowed for anyone else to travel by chariot in a public procession if the emperor was traveling by chariot, but all the nobles either followed on foot or, affected by great honor, as knights, makes this likely. From this at last it also happened that *Harma* was the name for the place in the Circus where the armigeri stood "in arms," that is, shielded and armed with spears, of which [more] below.

(44) The custom of building summer palaces or octagonal porticoes still prevails in the Orient, as is evident from Della Valle, *Itin.*, l. IV, 14, who reports that such round or multi-angular buildings, intended for walking, on whose flat roofs—which however lack railings or parapets—people are often accustomed to walk or even play ball (not without rashness, often with the loss of life), are by the Persians and Turks called *Ginsek*. *Corridoio*, if I remember correctly, is what these galleries that wind in a circle, whether round or angular, and return within themselves, are called by the Italians and French.

(45) In all the greater cities of the Roman Empire, certainly those that had a circus or a theater or an amphitheater and held games, there were also Daphnae, that is, tribunals or basilicæ, in...

^A Regarding chapters 23 and 24, on Iberia and Spain, Meursius had not ventured to interpret them, as they were too corrupt. Banduri corrected the Greek text from a parchment manuscript of the Royal Library, number 2661, written five hundred years ago; with its help, he removed a great many errors, added learned and copious notes, and prefixed a geographical map of the Eastern Empire, arranged by that most celebrated geographer, Guillaume Delisle, by which its aspect, as it was under Constantine Porphyrogennetos and his predecessors, is aptly represented.

[He] was the first to publish the work containing the arrangement of those fighting by sea and land, but only in Greek and illustrated with his own corrections, the same Jo. Meursius did from a codex of the Palatine Library, together with other writings of Constantine which I am now reviewing, Lugd. Bat. 1617, 8. [V. to n. 1.] That Palatine codex was copied from the Viennese one, concerning which see Lambecius VII, p. 201 (c). In the Verona codex, which Scipio Maffeius translated into Latin, it is attributed to Constantine, son of the Roman Emperor, who presided from A.C. 976 to 1028. FABR. — That little book *On Military Apparatus* by both land and sea is also attributed to Constantine, son of Romanos, in the Augsburg codex, witness Reiser in the catalogue, p. 67 end. HARL.

Bonaventura Vulcanius was the first to publish the *Themes of the Eastern Empire* from the codex of the Englishman Thomas Clement, a physician of Mechelen, and added his own version and notes, Lugd. Bat. 1588, 8, via Franciscus Raphelengius. The later book on the *Themes of the West or Europe*, which Vulcanius himself had promised to edit in his notes on Agathias, p. 4, was first published by Fed. Morellus with his own version and notes, Paris. 1609, 8. Meursius combined both the Vulcanius and Morellus editions and, as we have seen, added them to the other writings of Constantine, Lugd. Bat. 1617, 8. ^B Most recently, Anselmus Banduri, whom I praised a little earlier, corrected these two books from a codex of the King of France, 2431 (e), on cotton paper, written 500 years ago, added a new version, or one greatly interpolated from the old, and prefixed the geographical map of Guillaume Delisle, which shows the Constantinopolitan Empire, as it was from the age of Heraclius, digested by means of the *themata*. Banduri's *Eastern Empire* was published, in the first volume of which the books of Constantine Porphyrogennetos are contained, as in the second volume the editor’s notes are, Paris. 1711, fol. [Re-edited Venice 1729, 2 vols. fol.]

In these two little books, Constantine encompasses no less a beautiful record of the provinces and peoples who obeyed the Constantinopolitan Empire, and their origins and antiquities, than he does in his book *On Administering the Empire* concerning other nations, even those able to help or harm and harass it with war, just as he also explains their origins, customs, and institutions of peace and war; whence not without reason Egnatius wrote that he preserved that book as a treasure (f), whose manuscript codex later arrived in the Palatine library, from which very codex Meursius testifies he published the book *On Administering the Empire*. ^C

— NOTES (c) Page 429 of the Kollarius edition, in cod. 111, n. 5. — Leiden in the public library among the Vossian codices, the *Strategikon regarding the different customs of nations* of the Emperor Constantine. Ibid. among the Vossian miscellanies, the *Naumachical Tactics* of Constantine Porphyrogennetos. (See Catalogue of the Leiden Library, p. 393, n. 35, and p. 400, n. 11.) Paris in the public library, cod. 2530. 1) *Tactics concerning the stratagems of naval and pirate warfare*; and the compiler of the catalogue, vol. II, 516 sq., notes that it is clearly evident, with chapter 19 of the *Taktika* of the Emperor Leo being compared to these *Tactics*, that the Emperor Constantine did nothing other than adapt the discourse of Leo, which was a little more elegant, for the use of the common, crude, and rank-and-file soldier. 2) The same emperor's *Precepts and Admonitions to be Observed*, collected from the ancients, and divided into 120 chapters. See Leo's *Taktika*, chapter 20. 3) The same *Concerning the terrestrial command of forces and the legions of soldiers*. Hence, by the same name, the provinces themselves were denoted, in which legions were stationed in garrisons. And in that sense Constantine accepts that word even in the book *On Administering the Empire*, as in 3. 7, *Concerning the Theme of Longobardia*. (c) In the catalogue of Paris codices, vol. II, cod. 854 is listed, and is said to have been written in the 13th century. No mention is made of the Venetian codex in the catalogue of Greek codices of the Marciana, Venice. — Leiden in the academic library among the Scaliger codices, *Variations of reading on the Themes of the East*. *Philoponema* of Constantine the son of Leo. Ibid. among the codices of Bonaventura Vulcanius, Constantine Porphyrogennetos *On the Themes*, which copy the typographers used; the same, *Notitia of the Themes of the East*, written by the hand of Bon. Vulcanius. The same, *On the Themes*, fragment. See Catalogue of the Leiden Library, p. 341, n. 39, p. 344, n. 7, and p. 346 end. HARL.

— [Regarding] the Roman princes, where it says of Constantine Porphyrogennetos: This man, not averse to letters and the best disciplines, which he saved from almost extinction, left a book to his son Romanos, in which he explained the sum of the whole empire, the alliances of all allies, the forces of enemies, strategies, and plans, which we preserve in our library as a treasure, in which he discourses much even about the Venetians himself. Another manuscript copy of this book, which Gyraldus in dialogue V *On Poets*, p. 282, mentions as being guarded most diligently in the library of the Republic of Venice. This book of Constantine is celebrated, which he left on his deathbed to his son Romanos, in which he encompassed the sum of the whole empire, the alliances of allies, the forces of enemies, what sort and how great they were, and all other things pertaining to the empire; which book today the Republic of the Venetians causes to be preserved most diligently in its own private library. Casaubon, in the preface to Polybius addressed to Henry IV, praised the codex of the King of France which Banduri used: ^D "It is preserved in that most rich, Sir, and truly royal library of yours, the book of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos... A work worthy, that by the command of Your Majesty, it might one day look upon the public light." See there, if you please, more in commendation of that book.

113 which the masters sing their golden-enclosed garments, and they go out through the guardian. 114 And in the sigma, both the maglabion and the hetaireia and the logothete await them.

JOAN. JAC. REISKII COMMENTARIUS.

...will complain, yet they used the plural: "The masters are casting off their garments" for: "The master is removing his garments," "the masters are going out" for: "The master is going out." We shall teach below that even in the times of the Augusta Caesar and long before, it was already established in custom to address a single person in the plural, or to speak of him as if of many, a custom which obtains today among all more refined peoples. Moreover, the title *Despotes* placed absolutely denotes the Emperor Augustus, as is evident from coins and various places in this Code. The appellations *despotes*, *despoina*, and *douloi* were introduced by Justinian and Theodora. See Procopius, *Anecdota*, p. 134. The title which specifically denotes a dignity inferior to Caesar is more recent, yet not so recent as Du Cange, asserting at Cinnamum p. 468, thinks, claiming the dignity of *Despotes* was finally instituted by Michael Calaphates. For in our author, Book II, c. 27, p. 362, two sons of Heraclius Magnus, Constantine and David, are mentioned as *despotae*; and to the former is attributed the title *Constantine Auguste, tu vincas*, while the latter is said by his father to have been promoted from the dignity of *despotes* to the dignity of Caesar. This is quite familiar to the Greeks. *Sagia* is found in Theophanes, p. 238; likewise in the same, p. 246, "having chosen the hair, he cast off the dignity of the priesthood," meaning he allowed his hair to be shorn and put on the clerical habit. The diction "to put on repentance" is frequent among the Greeks, concerning which I shall speak at p. 300. Salmasius, *ad Hist. Aug.* t. II, p. 437, compares it with the Latin *mittere vestem* and the French *mettre son habit*; see Du Cange, *Glossary*, in both. Hence the glosses are to be emended, in which *attogatio*, *paradisis*, *L. periclisis*, *pixide*... for *attogatio* is that which is added to togas. I have also thought of *arrogatio*, *paraclisis*.

A. In the Middle Ages the Latins also used the word *periclysis* (as it is usually written); see Du Cange, *Gloss. Lat.*, and they also spoke of gold borders. Which word is Germanic; *Leiste* denotes the hem of a thing. ...of form, yet long, almost flowing to the knees, ample—almost the same as chlamydes; the image of which it is permitted to see in those nobles who stand by Justinian the Great in the monument at Ravenna, in Du Cange, *Famil. Byz.*, p. 97. But I shall speak more on this matter at p. 355.

...*custos* of the imperial treasures, another was heard (subintelligitur *oikos*), house-custodian, that is, guarding, preserving the royal treasures, the *gazophylacium*; see Constant. Porph., *In Vita Basilii Macedon.*, p. 157 and 159. Since the *Phylax* and the *vestiarium* were contiguous and under one roof, it happened that one was put for the other. From our author p. 71, it is evident that the *Phylax* was situated between the Chrysotriclinium and the *Theotokos* of the Pharos. The *Triconchii*, in the Great Palace, was the work of Emperor Theophilus, which would refer to the *sigma*—Greek, that is, Latin C, or a semicircle. Conf. Leo Grammaticus, p. 435. Contin. Theophanis, p. 87, where it is elegantly described, and Du Cange, *CP. Christ.*, p. 112.

The *Maglabitae* are lictors, apparitors, those who preceded the Emperor with *maclavia*, or *manclavia*, that is, manual clubs, to prepare the way for those proceeding, and to drive away the crowd. Authors report variously concerning the *maclavium*, even the Greeks themselves; some swear it was a rod, and they rightly say so, provided they do not mean a *lorum*, a lash or thong, which does not consist. Codinus, *Offic.*: "Lashes hang from the belt of each of these, which they call *maglabia*, like rods for whipping those worthy of being whipped, always carrying *dicanicia*. But when the Emperor rides, they go before, and carrying them upright, they keep order for the people." These cannot be reconciled unless we say the word *loron*, not in the sense in which it is accustomed and ought to be taken, was taken by Codinus, but for a staff, club, spindle, or switch. But why should a man who is skilled neither in his own language nor in matters contemporary to him delay us? That *maclavia* were clubs, not whips, is evident both from the custom of the Turks, whose Ganizaries go about with clubs, a custom transferred from the Greeks, and also from the fact that the Greeks explain the word *maclavium* as *allaction*. Concerning which word we must explain more carefully. Therefore, *allacta* are clubs, either solid or so split that many splinters issuing from one end, and running parallel side by side, can be moved somewhat, and when struck, clatter—what we call *Pritschen*. That I may believe the latter were the *allacta*, and that men armed with such rattles were sent before in processions for the sake of making a path, this is supported by a custom still obtaining among our own charlatans—those itinerant medicine-men, for instance, who, for the sake of gathering a crowd, drag with them a fool clad in motley rags and the habit of the ancient world, having in his hand a rattle. The guarding of the sacred body and the palace was recruited only from strangers, such as Persians, Chazars, Franks, and English. Formerly the *gentiles*, the *schola* of the *gentiles*, were the palatine auxiliaries.

*Logotheta dromi*, the rationalis of the public course, whose authority under the Emperor was greatest then, inasmuch as he had to report to him and decide with him regarding matters happening everywhere throughout the whole empire, as well as introduce envoys and reply to them in the name of the Emperor. Conf. Book II, cap. 228, at the end, where he says: "He who conveys to the Emperor the minutes, that is, the significations and notifications of public affairs, is called by those about the palace the Logothete of the Course." The *pragmata demosia* are when an enemy breaks into the provinces, or sedition, plague, food shortages, fires, or other evils occur somewhere, etc. Conf. regarding his duty Du Cange, *ad Alexiad.*, p. 262. There were besides other *rationales*, such as the *ton testion*, namely the *Genicus*, or the general, and the *Idicus*, or the private treasury; likewise the *ton stratiotikon*, the military treasury, and also that of the praetorian, and the *ton agelon*, of the imperial herds or flocks, concerning which in their own place. Casaubon, *ad Script. Hist. Aug.* I, p. 15, confuses the *Logothetes dromi* with the *curiosi* and *stationarii*. Their power and dignity, however, were far less then than afterwards. When Du Cange says (l. c.) that the Logothetes were to subscribe to bulls, that is not true, unless the Logothete were at the same time the *Canicleus*, to whom that care of subscribing belonged. Such an example exists in *Script. post Theoph.*, p. 92, and Leo Grammaticus, p. 457. Strictly, however, the functions were different and not always joined, as is evident even from this present place of our author. Conf. Goar, *ad Cedren.*, p. 24, and *ad Codin.*, p. 27, n. 27. Whence Du Cange, *Gloss. Gr.*, p. 822, is to be corrected, making the *Logothete dromi* and the prefect of the *Canicleus* the same person.

^A Romano, vol. I, lib. 11, p. 103 foll., and vol. II, in the book of the Novels, p. 129 foll. (Frankfurt 1596, fol.): together with a synopsis of it, composed by Michael Attaliates, they are cited: 2. Concerning the powerful, who succeed to the smallholdings of the poor; 3. Concerning soldiers; 4. Concerning the restitution of the price of military holdings; 5. Concerning the flight of slaves, and the argument of this novel; 6. Concerning the non-abandonment of judgment by those who initiate an action, and concerning those who are absent for three months or a year; 7. Concerning the fact that civil judges ought to accept nothing; 8. Concerning fees (sportulae), περὶ ἐκτακτικῶν; 9. Concerning customs; 10. Concerning the opening of testaments; 11. Concerning the customs of scribes; 12. Concerning those who commit murders with a sword, or with large clubs, or stones, and that deliberately; 13. Concerning second, third, and fourth marriages. He had also published the twelfth constitution, but mutilated at the beginning. Enimundus Bonefidius in his *Juris orientalis* book 1, p. 19 (Paris 1573, 8vo), whom see also at p. 15, where he treats of another constitution of this Constantine, περὶ τοῦ ἀναθεματίζεσθαι τοὺς ἀποστάτας καὶ μουλταρίους. Constitution 15, περὶ πολυγάμων, against fourth marriages, is read in the same place at p. 16 foll. FABRIC. In certain codices of the Laurentian-Medicean library at Florence there are Novels, laws, and constitutions of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, which Bandinius, in his *Catalogue of Greek Medicean Codices*, vol. I, p. 530, cod. 12, nos. 2 and 4, enumerates and reviews individually as they appear there, where there are 11 of his Novels reduced to a compendium. Vol. III, p. 182, cod. 6, no. 16, plut. P. 186, no. 1, and 188 foll., no. 4-10, cod. 7, plut. 80, p. 194 foll., several Novels in cod. 10 which contains the book of laws. At Venice in the library of St. Mark, cod. 173, there are 12 Novels of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the beginnings of which the author of the *Catalogue of Greek Venetian Codices* has placed on p. 101. Ibid. p. 104 concerning codices 180 and 181, and p. 305 concerning cod. 579, which contain the *Ecloga* of the laws of the Emperors Basil, Leo, and Constantine; the first codex contains the Novel of Constantine Porphyrogenitus on preference. ^B At Vienna in the Imperial library, cod. 53, no. 15, the argument of the volume of the Union of the Church by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the cause of fourth marriages, etc. See Lambeck, *Comm.* VIII, p. 1009. Add p. 938 foll. Cod. 6, a Novel concerning the alienation of fiefs, etc. See Kollar, notes to Lambeck's *Comm.* VI, part 1, p. 53. Others ibid. p. 10 foll. in cod. 2, nos. 2 and 4; p. 36 in cod. 3, nos. 11, 19, and 23. In cod. 43, no. 25, Novel 2 concerning those who deliberately commit murders, etc. See Kollar, *Supplement to Lambeck's Comm.*, p. 237 foll. At Paris in the public library, thirteen codices, sometimes 11 Novels or an epitome of them, sometimes others, sometimes an epitome of law by Leo, Constantine, and Basil, divided into 40 titles. See the index to vol. II of the *Paris Catalogue*, under "Constantinus Porphyrog." In the Escorial codex, the Novels of Constantine Porphyrogenitus and other emperors, as attested by Pluer in *Itinerarium per Hispaniam*, p. 163. A Novel in the Uffenbach codex, now at Leipzig, concerning which you may read more in Mai's *Uffenbach Manuscript Library*, part II, col. 527. Harl. 80.

In this Meursian edition of Constantine's minor works (Lugd. 1617, 8vo, after p. 252), four new constitutions are appended, which Charles Labbé published from royal codices, more complete and better, with a new version and corrections among his *Ten Constitutions of the Imperial Novels*, Paris 1606, 8vo: 1. Περὶ στρατιωτικῶν, concerning military holdings, which Theodorus, patrician and quaestor of the Decapolite, dictated: 2. Concerning the holdings of Armenians of others and of murderers; 3. Concerning fees, concerning the opening of testaments, and concerning the fact that there ought to be a certain and defined manner of customs (Theophilus, patrician and quaestor, dictated this); 4. Concerning fees, by which the previous constitution is abrogated, permitting judges and scribes to accept fees. Theodosius (the same as the aforementioned Theodorus), patrician and quaestor of the Decapolite, dictated this. ^C ...the Palatine manuscript and that described by Jo. Sambucus, edited with Leunclavius' Latin version in his already-praised *Greek-Roman Law*, vol. II, pp. 79-134. The year in which this selection was published is corrupt, and for *sol* one should read *sot*, which corresponds to the year of Christ 939, in which Constantine could have promulgated the selection of laws begun by his father, Leo. FABRIC. At Vienna in cod. 2, nos. 2 and 13; cod. 8. See Lambeck's *Comment.* VI, part I, pp. 25, 32, 38 and 74 foll. In the formerly Uffenbach, now Leipzig codex, which formerly belonged to Cuper, and which J. H. Mai reviewed amply in *Bibliotheca Uffenbachiana Mss.*, part II, p. 522 foll., who published the index of 40 titles in Greek with his own Latin version. Puttmann added a preface, translated into Latin by Gottfr. Mascovius, in *Memoriæ Gottfr. Mascovii*, Leipzig 1771, 8vo, p. 121 foll. See also p. 87 foll., and compare D. Casp. Achatius Beck, *De novellis Leonis*, etc., ed. D. Car. Frid. Zepernick, Halle 1779, 8vo, p. 20 and p. 25. Zepernick in his notes, and this man especially in the *Prætermissa*, p. 228 foll. Concerning the surname Porphyrogennetos, the year in which he was born, to wit A.D. 905, and his life, and p. 373 foll., especially p. 376 foll., the *Ecloga* of the laws of Leo and Constantine, concerning the manuscripts, the arrangement, partition, index, etc., are learnedly treated. HARL. Concerning the *Basilika*, compiled under the auspices of Basil the Macedonian and Leo the Wise, and revised by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Jos. Maria Suaresius, bishop of Vaison, treats excellently in his *Notitia Basilicorum* to Urban VIII, the Supreme Pontiff: "The books of the *Basilika* are distinguished into six tens or volumes, and hence called *hexabiblos*, and subdivided into sixty books, and hence called *hexakontabiblos*. Emperor Basil the Macedonian ^D first set his hand to them, as Cedrenus asserts: therefore Leo the Wise attributed these books to the same Basil."

NOTES (g) Codinus mentions this in *Orig. CPol.*, no. 157, Lambeck edition. (h) Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the *Life of Basil the Macedonian*, p. 66, among the writers after Theophanes: "Finding also that the civil laws had much ambiguity and confusion because of [good things, just as also their]"

which had been abolished, I mean the uselessness in them, and having purified the multitude of the essential ones, [he curtailed] their former vastness into summaries, as it were, for the sake of being easily remembered." Joannes Curopalates Scylitzes, p. 37, and from him Cedrenus: "But seeing also that the civil laws had much ambiguity and confusion, he hastened to correct these fittingly as was proper (Cedrenus: 'to restore them'), and to remove the insatiability of those which had been abolished, and to purify the multitude of the essential ones. But he did not have time, being overtaken by death. His son Leo, however, completed the work afterwards."

attributing these books to his father, Novella 81 (i), according to Cujas, chap. 31, book XVII of the *Observations on the Law*, and most have believed Basil to be the author of the *Basilika*, among whom was Francis Balduin. Basil himself in the preface to the *Epanagoge*, whose beginning is *To axioma*, relates how he arranged all the things lying in breadth, or the *Basilika* statutes, into forty books (Cujas attributes sixty), then extracted from those purified ones an epitome distributed into forty titles, or a *Procheiron*. The same in the prologue of the *Ecloge* beginning *O despotes*, directs students to the "cleansing of the breadth," which he had accomplished. "For the same Basil the Macedonian, with his sons Leo and Constantine, or Alexander, published a *Procheiron* (v), which consisted of forty or sixty titles, and existed now under the names of the emperor Leo; now under the names of Leo and Alexander, or Constantine; now under the names of Basil, Leo, and Constantine, and with diverse prefaces in the Palatine library, as Marquard Freher noted in his *Chronology of the Law*; but now it is found in the Vatican in the Palatine codex signed number 223, the title of which is: *Epanagoge of the more apparent one with God, by Basil, and Leo, and Alexander the emperors*, whose preface begins *To axioma*, and in which forty titles are contained. In the same codex there is another inscription: *Selection (*Ecloge*) of the laws and correction set forth from the creation of the world, in the year 6347, that is 838 [sic, 839] from Christ born, in the month of March, indiction 9*, with the names of Leo and Constantine prefixed, whose prologue starts with the word *O despotes*. It is indeed very similar to that which was published by Leunclavius in volume II of the *Greco-Roman Law* (k) from the membranes of Sambucus with the preface derived from the Palatine library codex of the septemvirate: that one, I think, in which although there are forty-two titles, yet in the published version only twenty-eight are read. Furthermore, in the Vatican codex noted as number 856, one may see an *Ecloge* with the same epigraph, except that the name of Basil is also inscribed, but it comprises forty titles, and there is another preface whose beginning is *Ton megan*, which is also placed before the copies of the *Enchiridion*, or *Procheiron* (which are in the form of a manual, and circulate under the names of Leo and Constantine) in the Vatican codex noted as number 857, and the Palatine noted as number 196, of which the first title is *Concerning laws*, as in the Palatine codex noted as number 223; but in the Vatican codex noted as 856, the first title of the *Ecloge* is *Concerning the signification of betrothal*. And this is that *Procheiron* of Basil which is called Harmenopulus', although Harmenopulus himself in the preface to his *Hexabiblos* clearly professes that its authors are "those around Basil, Constantine, ["and"] Leo," and that it contains only forty titles, as Cujas noted. Harmenopulus's *Procheiron*, however, has far more (l); for Harmenopulus culled from that one, and reduced the greater part into his own, and appended other things from the Roman and Cosmas the Master, as he himself confesses. "Harmenopulus's *Procheiron* was written in the year 1143 from the birth of Christ (m), published in Greek at Paris in the year 1540 by Adam Suallemberger, in Latin by Bernardo Rey in 1547 and 1549; again in Latin by Mercerus, at Lyons in 1556; finally in Greek and Latin together by Dionysius Gothofredus; it exists in manuscript in the Vatican 848, 849, 850, 851, and Palatine 256, 369. "Before Harmenopulus, in the year of the creation 1071 or 1077, Michael Attaliota, judge and anthypatos, wrote a *Procheiron* (n), which is called *Ponema*, or *Pragmatike*, and which Leunclavius published in Greek and Latin in volume II of the *Greco-Roman Law*, when he had already indicated it in book II of his *Annotations on the Paratitla*; it exists written by hand in the Vatican codices 640 and 856. "At almost the same time Michael Psellus wove a *Synopsis of Laws* (o) in political verses: it is held in the libraries, the Vatican codex 845 and the Palatine codex 316, and the Constantinopolitan: Antonio Augustinus testifies that he saw the most noble one in the Laurentian library of the Florentines, a work he does not value highly in book IV of his *Emendations*, chap. 3.

^A The same Augustinus, in his notes on the *Novellae*, praises the *Handbook of the Basilika arranged by elements* [alphabetical], of Joseph of Tenedos, and an index of the *Basilika* arranged by elements, whose copies—the ones preserved in the Vatican codices 752 and 854, and Palatinus codex 222—he suspects to be those of which he speaks, especially in the codex inscribed with the words "It has come to pass that..." And indeed, the Ulpian of Tyre is different from the jurisconsult, if we follow the opinion of Casaubon in chapter 2 of his *Animadversions upon Athenaeus*; or he is the jurisconsult himself, if we put faith in Cujas in chapter 39, book XXIV of his *Observations on Law*. He was called by Athenaeus in the books of the *Deipnosophistae* not only "Vit," but also "Kutokeitos," because in his banquets he would taste no food without first asking *ei keitai*, or *ou keitai* ("whether it lies [there], or does not lie [there]"), or *opo keitai*—such was his appellation. Antonius Augustinus himself notes in his *Bibliotheca*, in codices 181, 182, and 187, that this index is commonly called the "alphabetical law." Carolus Labbeus calls it *nomikoi stoicheion* and published the glosses found after it. Cujas, in his preface to the title *De excusatione tutorum*, testifies that an *Ecloga, kai Synopsis ton Basilikon*—a selection and synopsis of the sixty books of the *Basilika* with lists—was given to him as a gift by Jacobus Cambrayus, who had brought it back from a diplomatic mission to Constantinople. ^B The same Antonius Augustinus, in codex 188 of his *Bibliotheca*, examines a *Procheiron* of Antiochus Balsamon similar to the *Procheiron* of Michael Attaliates and to that which is attributed to Basil, Leo, and Constantine; he seems to confuse it with the work of Psellus under the entry *Pandektai*, concerning the proper names of the *Pandects*. "Leo the Philosopher, succeeding his father Basil, finished the volume begun by the same Basil, the *Basilika* (which the Greeks call *Basilikon*), as Cedrenus asserts, and promulgated it by the labors of Sabbatius the protospatharius (as Matthaeus Blastares hands down, and from him Antonius Augustinus in his *Bibliotheca*, in the book on proper names, and in the *prolegomenos* to the *Novellae*). It appears that Photius made use of this redaction of Leo in the *Procanon* under Gothofredus, in the year of the Virgin's birth approximately 886. That the books of the *Basilika* were prepared by Leo is testified to by the highest consensus of Michael Psellus, Michael Attaliates, Harmenopulus, Balsamon, Blastares, and Cujas. ^C Leo likewise published *Epitomes of the Law*, a work consisting of mere definitions and rules, and quite elegant, which was in the Palatine library, as Freherus testifies. Besides the *koinokephalon* or *Basilika nomima*, Antonius Augustinus reveals in his notes on the *Novellae* that Leo also prepared a *Procheiron*, so that it might be like the *Institutes*. Sometimes, of those things which are ascribed promiscuously to him and his father Basil, or to his son Constantine, it is likely that that [work] is the *Leontos Eklogi* which is found in the Royal Parisian Library, which Labbeus praises and from which he brought to light the glosses he published. In the Vatican codex 852, there is read an epistle of the Emperor Leo prefixed to the *arranged by elements* [section], beginning *Ioustinianoi* [to Justinian], different from the first *Novella* of Leo to Stylianus. ^D Constantine, his son, surnamed Porphyrogennetus, followed Leo; he recalled these *Basilika* to the anvil and brought to light a new *anakatharsis*, or repeated revised reading, so that, having ordered all historical [matters] to be collected into a single body of fifty-three common places, he might deserve well—not less regarding jurisprudence than regarding history, which must be conjoined (as Franciscus Balduinus teaches in his entire booklet), as Casaubon observed in his preface to Polybius. Whence he was asserted to be the author of the *Basilika* by Luitprand and Gentianus Hervetus: this *anakatharsis* is cited passim by Theodorus Balsamon. These at last are the true books of the *Basilika* which were edited by Constantine Porphyrogennetus after he had applied the final hand.

The narrative concerning the image of Christ sent by Him to Abgarus, King of Edessa, and translated to Constantinople in the year of Christ 944

^A Romanus and Baronius (at the year 994, n. 13, p. 717, Antwerp Plantin ed.), who attribute this narrative to Constantine, son of Romanus, are refuted, besides Combefis (and Lambecius, loc. cit., p. 413, sqq.), by Hanckius, *De scriptoribus hist. Byz.*, p. 475 seq., and Antonius Pagi in *Critica Baroniana* at the year of Christ 944, n. 3 seq. This narrative also exists in manuscript in the Viennese library; see Lambecius VIII, p. 195 seq. [p. 410 sqq. ed. Kollar., cod. 14, n. 39] and p. 198 [p. 417 sqq., n. 40, and Kollar's note B therein], where an anonymous addendum concerning that image, worshiped at Edessa before it was transferred to Constantinople, is recorded. It begins: *Perì tês hagías en Edéssê acheiropoiêtou kai theías morphês*. F. FABRICIUS—There is also that narrative in the Florentine Laurentian Medicean library, codex 30, which contains the lives and discourses of various Fathers in praise of the Saints from June 18th to August 31st, n. 39, for August 16th. See Bandinius (*Cat. codd. Gr. Laur.* I, p. 456), who furthermore cites the Greek Menaea for the same day, and Leo Allatius (*Diatr. de Simeonum scriptis*, p. 103 sq.). The same history of the Edessene image of Christ is preserved in the Parisian public library, codices 1176, n. 40; 1475, n. 9; 1527, n. 11; 1528, n. 13; 1548, n. 11; and 1611, n. 17. Mention of the Edessene image of Christ, brought to Constantinople, is made in the continuator of Theophanes, in the reign of Romanus, p. 268. HARLAN—to Georgius Acropolita, p. 201. *De consensu*, p. 281, and *De Simeonibus*, p. 111. It begins: *Ti terpnoteron tou nun horômenou theamatos, ê ti lamproteron tês parousês hêmeras;* The title is: *Logos hênika to tou Chrysostomou hieron skênos ek tês hyperorias en tê basilidi tôn poleôn apetethê*. F. FABRICIUS. Among the older writers who have followed the Life of Chrysostom, Constantine Porphyrogenitus is praised in the Viennese Imperial codex 27. See Lambecius (*Comment.* VIII, p. 637 sqq.), and, whom he cites on p. 639, note 4, Savile in the edition of Chrysostom, vol. VIII, col. 943. That oration of Constantine Porphyrogenitus is truly found in Imperial codex 19, witnesses Kollar in the supplement to Lambecius’ *Commentaries*, p. 259 sq. In the Sfortiana library, as Montfaucon notes in *Bibliotheca mss.*, vol. I, p. 702, A.—Paris, in the public library, codices 157, n. 19, and 3100, n. 4. Constantine, son of Leo, is said to be the author of hymns (*aposticharia*) for the praising of divine benefits, in codex Taurinensis 175. See *Catal. codd. regg. Taurin.*, p. 260 sq. Among the Vossian codices in the *Catalogus codd. Angliæ*, vol. II, p. 60, n. 2210, is an anonymous address to Constantine Porphyrogenitus. HARLAN—§ VII, n. 4, p. 681. — See volume CIX of this our Patrologia, in the review of writers after Theophanes. EDIT.

was digested under the auspices of various learned men, *kephalaioôdôn hypotheseôn*, or a collection of historical, political, and moral excerpts arranged under 53 chapters or titles (y), and gathered from the most well-regarded historical monuments of every age. Of these fifty-three titles, only two have clearly reached us, and those not intact: the twenty-seventh, *Perì presbeiôn*, "On Embassies," and the fiftieth, *Perì aretês kai kakias*, "On Virtue and Vice." Fulvius Ursinus published in Greek at Antwerp, 1582, 4to, with notes, the second part of the titles on embassies, digested by a certain John of Constantinople, from the library of Antonius Augustinus, Archbishop of Tarragona. In this part exist *parabolai*, excerpts from Polybius, pp. 1-228; from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, pp. 295-312; from Diodorus Siculus, pp. 313-333; from Appian, pp. 334-372; and from Dio Cassius, pp. 373-447. David Hoeschelius long ago published the other part of the same title on embassies, comprising excerpts from slightly more recent historians, from the Bavarian codex 204. From the preface I shall transcribe the catalog of writers from whom that part of the collection was compiled: "These are from the following Chronicles: 1, Peter the Patrician and Magister. 2, Georgius Monachus' *Chronicle*. 3, Johannes Antiochenus. 4, Dionysius of Halicarnassus' *Roman Antiquities*. 5, 6, Polybius of Megalopolis and Appian. 7, Zosimus of Ascalon. 8, Josephus' *Jewish Antiquities*. 9, Diodorus Siculus. 10, Dio Cocceianus. 11, Procopius of Caesarea. 12, Priscus

NOTES. (y) The author of the preface, prefixed to the individual titles of the excerpts: "Constantine, descendant of the purple, the most orthodox and most Christian of all who have ever reigned, being disposed with a most acute eye toward the understanding of noble things, and having a mind gifted with discernment, judged it best and profitable for the common good, and annually beneficial for life, first, etc." Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Emperor, most tenacious of the true faith and most Christian of all who have ever existed, gifted with a mind most acute for the perception of beautiful things, and finally excelling in that intelligence so that he might easily bring anything to effect, thought that it would be best and generally useful to all that he should search for books from all parts of the world, filled with varied learning, and then that he should distribute that vast mass of books, which used to kill readers—a matter which seemed troublesome and full of weariness to almost everyone—into small parts, and expose the clear utility which could be derived from them to the eyes of men. So that, with this selection having been made, the studious might be able to apply themselves to reading with greater attention and assiduity, and to imprint the eloquence of speech more deeply and thoroughly upon their minds. Furthermore, the Emperor, with a great and happy effort, judged that the entire work should be distributed into *hypotheseis diaphorous*, distinct treatises to the number of fifty-three, in which *hapasa historikê megalourgia*, whatever magnificent things history possesses, is contained included, and there is nothing inserted into history which has escaped this partition into these treatises. Nor is the sequence of the entire work corrupted in any way by the division of the thoughts; but this synopsis, or, to speak more truly, this *oikeiôsis* or unification of related matters, keeps in the crafting of individual parts a configuration convenient to each treatise.

^A retinue, to ensure that he would not immediately rage. Soon he set out to the monks, who lived far from business on Mount Olympus, of such reputation among all for piety and religion that Romanus Lecapenus paid them annual stipends. A rumor had spread that the emperor had deliberated with Theodore of Cyzicus—on which pretext Patriarch Polyeuctus, long detested for his character and conduct, was to be removed. Having returned thence to Byzantium, he completed his mortal life, whether through bodily infirmity or, as many suspected, being once again targeted by poison. He lived 54 years, of which he reigned 26 with his father-in-law Romanus, and 15 alone. The Senate showed great zeal in honoring his funeral and cherishing his memory; he was brought to the sepulcher of his forebears in the church dedicated to the Holy Apostles. He possessed splendid ornaments of virtue and piety, and the highest reverence for God and sacred things. He built many public works, among which are mentioned the church of the Apostles, begun from the foundations, and the most august temple of Holy Sophia, which he magnificently restored. He renovated a bath in the buildings of Marina, a huge work, not inferior to Roman ones; and for those exhausted by old age and sickness, he granted most ample houses where they might be maintained at public expense: he enlarged the palace: he placed in the Circus an ancient obelisk brought from Egypt, and there still remain monuments of that affair, sculpted in stone and ancient bronze. He rebuilt the walls of Nicaea, ^B which had been torn down by the Saracens, with money collected from the treasury. His primary care was that the provinces should not be troubled with new burdens; he practiced such justice that he drove from the city informants, who are a public bane, and such leniency that he spared those who had recently deserved the ultimate penalties. He moved others who were preeminent in legal skill to the most splendid offices; he revived the military arts, naval affairs, and the building of triremes, which had been unknown during the time of peace, and his writings hand down a splendid record of these things, in which he set forth how much soldiers in arms, how great the strength of allies, and by what arts the frontiers of the empire were to be guarded. There was a huge harvest of learned men in that age, among whom Simeon Metaphrastes, by the command of Constantine, wrote out the lives of the saints, and Leontius the Byzantine, and Genesius, and Theodore Daphnopates composed the history of their own times in written books, which have partly survived to our age and partly been lost. However, certain grave and learned writers accuse Constantine of cruelty, drunkenness, and slackness regarding public affairs: if this is a just reproach, those vices seem either to have appeared rarely, or to have been compensated for by greater virtues.