References
- 1912 . 1912 – 72 . Nέoς Ἑλληνoμνήμων vol. IX
- Abydos on the Hellespont was a convenient customs house for levying an impost on all shipping passing to and from the Byzantine capital
- I am most grateful to Signor Pietro Zorzanello of the Marcian Library, Venice, for placing the original MS. at my disposal during a recent visit, and for permission to reproduce a photostat of one page. Once again I am indebted to Prof. R. J. H. Jenkins of King's College, London, for encouragement and help, and I have also to acknowledge generous advice on technical matters from Mr R. D'E. Atkinson of Greenwich Observatory and Mr F. Wormald of the British Museum
- In the Burrows Library of King's College, London. I understand that the set in the British Museum was destroyed during the war
- It is to be hoped that Amantos's brilliant Ἱστoρíα τoȗ Bυζαντινoȗ Kράτoυς will lead to a wider appreciation of the work done by Greek scholars in this and other fields
- A survey of these works shows how urgent is the need for a history of the Byzantine Navy compiled with some reference to the Greek sources
- 11 Cf. infra, p., n. 1, p. 14, n. 1, p. 14, n. 2
- 162 – 4 . Op. cit.
- Infra, p. 15, where the Arabs come to Tarsos via Antioch. When they come to the Byzantine Empire that fact is clearly stated, infra, p. 14
- The same phase of reconquest saw the final liberation from the Arab yoke of Krete and Kypros in 961 and 965 respectively
- If not several years earlier
- The dating is mine, but can be justified on internal evidence
- Dain , A. 1943 . Naumachica 19 in Paris
- Bekker , J. , ed. Antopodosis 9 – 14 . Cf. especially Liutprand, in MGH, pp.: Konst. Porph., De administrando imperio, ed. Bonn, p. 232: MPG, vol. CVII, cc. 1129–1158. (Later astrological prophesies fathered on Leon by reason of his traditional mastery of the occult), etc
- De ceremoniis Cf. the various documents preserved in Book II of the of Porphyrogennetos
- Included in the volume are identifiable fragments from some fifteen late astrological writers such as Stephanos Philosophos, Merkourios Trismegistos and Ioannes Kamateros
- The Leipzig MS. is believed to have been burnt during the last raids on the city. Fortunately, at least one set of photostats has survived and is now in Paris. I am indebted to M. Dain for placing copies of ff. 220r.–226r. at my disposal
- This memorandum is one of many dealing with naval expeditions to Krete in 911 and 949. A new annotated edition of these with English translations is at present in preparation
- Their presence in a work on court ceremonial has still satisfactorily to be explained
- 1942 . De ceremonis 222 – 5 . The so-called Appendix must have been written after 945 as we find Romanos II associated in the purple, and it was almost certainly composed between 950 and the Emperor's death. For a vast literature on the cf. G. Moravcsik, Byzantinoturcica I, Budapest
- 467 cit.
- Cf. especially the De administrando imperio.
- Theophanes Continuatus 451 Porphyrogennetos was among other things a keen student of naval architecture, cf. Bonn
- Problemata 8 Porphyrogennetos was born in 905, and the Bιβλíoν τò περιέχoν kτλ is obviously not a work in the same category as the of Leon VI. The terminus ante quem is supplied by the so-called Appendix to Book 1 of the De ceremoniis (supra, p., n. 1), and very probably by the Kretan fiasco of 949 which would seem to have damped his ardour for things naval, cf. the quite disproportionate importance attached to the face-saving success of Basileios Hexamilites in the official biography of the Emperor, infra, p. 14, n. 4
- It is a significant commentary on Macedonian historiography that the official biography of the Emperor contains no reference to the disaster which is known only from Leon Diakonos, Kedrenos, and, as Prof. Jenkins has recently shown, from a hagiographical source and an allusion in the hostile biography of Romanos II
- De thematibus 36 – 9 . For the geographical limits of the Theme, cf. Konst. Porph., pp. (Minor inconsistencies due to compilation from two sources.) For the size of the squadron in 949, idem, De ceremoniis, p. 655
- 1932 . 130 For the Mardaites, vide K. Amantos, Mαρδαíται in Ἑλληνικά, vol. v p. sqq., but certain of his conclusions concerning the so-called Mardaites of the West can scarcely command general acceptance outside Greece
- De administrando imperio 228 – 31 . Cf. Konst. Porph., pp.; De ceremoniis, p. 655, etc
- At this period it is important not to confuse this Antioch with Ἀντιoχεíα ἐπì Kράγῳ, an important Byzantine frontier station on the coast of Kilikia
- Dalton , O. M. 1926 . The Byzantine Astrolabe at Brescia Oxford,. (Off-print from the Proceedings of the British Academy.)
- Tabari 2205 – 19 . In time of war, these expeditions seem to have been annual events but they usually escape the notice of the Greek chroniclers. The Arab chroniclers are more frank, cf. De Goeje, vol. III, pp., 2268; Mas'udi, ed. Barbier de Meynard, vol. II, pp. 318, 423, etc. Their object was primarily predatory, and many appear to have been quite local affairs
- ‘towards Syria’: literally, ‘towards the Saracen land’
- ‘due to the spring solstice’: Lambros, διἀ τò τρoπικòν τoȗ ἀέρoσ legendum, διἀ τò τρoπικòν τoȗ ἐἀρoσ
- The dates of these feasts can be supplied from the Kibyrrhaiotic treatise that follows, and from the tenth century Menology printed in MPG, vol. CXVII. The star of St Basil seems an exception to the rule, for it belongs to the second week of May, whereas the Feast of St Basil falls on 1 January
- ‘the pagans’: literally, ‘the Greeks’; ‘Hellenism’ was the Byzantine term for intellectual paganism, and especially neo-platonism
- ‘(St John) the Theologian’: i.e. St John the Evangelist, 8 May; St Epiphanios, 12 May
- 15 August was readily memorized as the major feast of the Dormition or Assumption of the BVM
- 14 September
- 6 October. The Kibyrrhaiotic treatise distinguishes the Bull's Tail from the Star of St Thomas
- 26 October
- 14 November
- The Story of the Seaman 502 Striking corroboration comes from a sixteenth-century Venetian MS. quoted in Meigs, vol. II
- For a conjectural identification of the admiral, infra, p. 14, n. 4
- The cultus of St Nicholas among sailors is essentially Western, and springs from the Bari translation of 1087
- De ceremoniis 657 It was during March that a Kibyrrhaiotic squadron based on Adalia reconnoitred the Gulf of Iskanderun prior to the Kretan expedition of 911. (Konst. Porph., p.)
- The approximate nature of Byzantine popular astronomy emerges clearly from this transfer of the spring solstice to the nearest major feast, the Annunciation of the BVM
- ‘the first day of spring’: Lambros, ἡνíκα τò ἔαρ ἔρχεται legendum, ἡνíκα τò ἔαρ ἄρχεται?
- The name of this star would seem to be corrupt. Lambros read Σωρεντἡς, but the absence of any explanation cannot increase our confidence in what would appear to be a new derivative from Σωρεúω. Certainly the reading Σωρευτἡς is borne out by the MS., though the initial σ might possibly be στ or even π. A more attractive emendation would be Σπωρευτἡς for Σπoρευτἡς, i.e. ‘the sower’, but the same text tells us that the stars were called by the names of the saints. The Menology for 11 May commemorates the founding of CP, and the martyrs SS. Mokios and Dioskorides, but no obvious corruption suggests itself
- Another example of the transfer of the solstice to the nearest major feast, that of St John the Baptist
- Theophanes Continuatus 453 The spirited frankness of this remark tempts me to wonder whether its author is the young Basileios Hexamilites who was admiral of the Kibyrrhaiotai for part at least of the reign of Konstantinos Porphyrogennetos. With his squadron he wiped out a whole Arab fleet, and the prisoners were paraded in the Hippodrome at CP, presumably as a counterblast to the miserable fate of the Kretan venture. (p.)
- ‘and sail is taken in’: literally ‘and they lower’
- Entakeion is a very fair transliteration of the Arabic Antakiya
- ‘so-called “tawny” wind’: presumably a sand-laden sirocco from the Syrian desert
- ‘Sunday, i.e. the first day of the week’: the Byzantine week was calculated from the Sunday in the same way as the ecclesiastical week in the West; ἡ τετάρτη = dies quarta = Wednesday, etc
- This mention of conjunctions may suggest that the traditions of Hellenistic science were not quite a dead letter in the provinces of Western Asia Minor
- In this English rendering I have thought it best to ignore certain contractions which the original employs without any attempt at consistency. In consecutive sentences, for example, the forms ‘4th’ and ‘fifth’ are used quite indiscriminately