Epigrams on Works of Art 163the following: a reliquary of the head of Symeon the Stylite, a reliquary of the
head of St. Stephen, a diskopoterion, the precious staurotheca of Limburg an-
der-Lahn, the manuscript of the Naumachika and two other splendid manu-
scripts (Epistles of St. Paul and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom) as well as the
monastery of St. Basil in Constantinople^39. The text of the verse inscription on
the reliquary of St. Stephen’s head (now lost, but still extant in the seven-
teenth century in a Franciscan monastery on Crete) reads as follows:
Tën sën k1ran, prwtaqle, mart7rzn kl6oß,
Ùn martyrikoò pròn kat6stevan l5qoi,
st6óz kägâ n ̄n ™x Œlhß crysarg7roy
dwrù penicr/ deiknáß Álbion pöqon,
oÏ c1rin aœt0 t‰ß vyc‰ß szthr5an,
Ö basilikñß sñß Bas5leioß, m1kar,
gambrñß krato ̄ntoß kaò baÀoyloß m6gaß
kaò parakoimwmenoß ™k t‰ß äx5aß.“O champion and glory of the martyrs, your head, which the stones of
martyrdom once crowned, I too now crown with the material of gold and silver,
thus showing my lavish devotion with a humble gift, in reward for which I
request the salvation of my soul, I the imperial servant, who am the brother-
in-law of the emperor and the megas baioulos and hold the office of para-
koimomenos, I your Basil, O Saint”^40.
Basil the Nothos was the brother-in-law of Emperor Constantine VII,
served as his parakoimomenos and was officially the tutor of Romanos II
(megas baioulos, an honorary title). The precise course of Basil’s career in the
imperial administration between 945 and 959, the years of the sole reign of
Constantine VII, is not entirely clear^41 , but it does not really matter for the
present purpose. Far more important than the precise date of the epigram is
what the poet explicitly and implicitly states about Basil’s motives for donat-
ing the reliquary. The epigram does not mention the church or the monastery
to which Basil the Nothos donated his “humble gift”, but it is reasonable to
assume that he donated the relic to the monastery that he had founded himself,
St. Basil’s. Basil had a reliquary made to put the precious relic in; as the
reliquary was decorated with gold and silver, it must have been quite expen-
sive. Although the poet calls Basil’s donation a d0ron penicrön, there can be
(^39) See H. BELTING, Corsi di cultura sull’ arte ravennate e bizantina 29 (1982) 52–57 and
BOURA 1989.
(^40) Ed. FOLLIERI 1964a: 455–464.
(^41) See V. LAURENT, EEBS 23 (1953) 193–205, and W.G. BROKKAAR, in: Studia Byzantina et
Neohellenica Neerlandica (Byzantina Neerlandica 3). Leiden 1972, 199–234.