Anthologies and Anthologists 99Apology, we may understand what Lemerle meant when he wrote: “Nous ne
serions pas trop surpris que l’ auteur de ces deux pièces eût l’ esprit un peu
dérangé”^46. However, although one might question Constantine’s ethics, his
splendid style and fine rhetoric clearly show that Leo the Philosopher’s lessons
in the art of literary discourse had not been wasted on him. In fact, despite
Constantine’s sincere regrets, his literary works undoubtedly bear the marks of
his apprenticeship with Leo the Philosopher and the classicistic movement, of
which Leo had been the leading figure until the moment of his death (shortly
after 869)^47. Leo the Philosopher’s unreserved devotion to the ancients and
their legacy deeply influenced the generation that came of age in the years 840–
870 and studied at his school at the Magnaura^48. Constantine the Sicilian was
one of them. He himself had once rallied to Leo’s ideal of an enlightened
hellenism. This also explains the bitter tone of the Psogos and the Apology, for
Constantine attacked what had once been dear to him and, in the process, had
to deny his former self.
Leo the Philosopher and his students were interested in just about any-
thing, ranging from the liberal arts to philosophy, mathematics, astronomy
and natural sciences. One aspect of their various scholarly pursuits appears to
be entirely unknown: namely, collecting and anthologizing ancient epigrams.
None of these anthologies, except for the Parisian Collection of Paederastica,
has been preserved; but if one studies the text history of the Greek Anthology
attentively, there is ample evidence to prove that Cephalas followed in the
footsteps of an earlier generation of scholars, whose work he incorporated in his
own anthology. The final editor of the Palatine Anthology, Constantine the
Rhodian, was apparently aware of Cephalas’ debt to these scholars, for at the
end of his manuscript, where we find a small sylloge by his hand (see below,
pp. 116–117), he indirectly paid homage to their scholarly work. There we find
four poems by four ninth-century scholars: Michael Chartophylax (the scholar
whose personal apograph of Cephalas’ anthology was used by the Corrector)
and three members of the circle of Leo the Philosopher. In AP XV, 12 Leo the
Philosopher, nicknamed Ö æEllhn, expresses his belief as a true Epicurean that
(^46) LEMERLE 1971: 175.
(^47) On Leo the Philosopher, see the brilliant essay by LEMERLE 1971: 148–176. See also N.G.
WILSON, Scholars of Byzantium. London 1983, 79–84, ALPERS 1988: 353–359, V. KATSA-
ROS, in: Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in Carolingian Times, ed. P.L.
BUTZER & D. LOHRMANN. Basel 1993, 383–398, CH. ANGELIDI, in: EJvyc5a. Mélanges
offerts à H. Ahrweiler. Paris 1998, 1–17, and J. HERRIN, Dialogos 6 (1999) 27–31.
(^48) Theoph. Cont. 185 and 192. See LEMERLE 1971: 158–160. The Magnaura school opened
its gates shortly after 843: see SPECK 1974: 4–7. Whether it already existed during the
reign of Theophilos in a different form, does not concern us here: see W. TREADGOLD, The
Byzantine Revival 780–842. Stanford 1988, 374–375 and ALPERS 1988: 345–346.