116 Part One: Texts and Contexts
Cephalas manuscript copied at the behest of Thomas himself or one of his
friends. The second source used by Planudes, Plb, is connected with the name
of one of the most prominent scholars of tenth-century Byzantium, Alexander
of Nicaea^108. Plb contained three epigrams written by Alexander: a witty
epigram on a bath in Prainetos (APl 281)^109 and two epitaphs to Nicholas
Mystikos (APl 21–22)^110. Again, it is very likely that Plb was copied by or for
Alexander of Nicaea. Pla and Plb derive from two early tenth-century manu-
scripts containing the anthology of Cephalas plus a few contemporary epi-
grams added by their rightful owners.
The Palatine Anthology, too, contains a collection of epigrams put together
by the very person who had commissioned the manuscript and did the final
editing, Constantine the Rhodian (scribe J). Constantine the Rhodian was born
at Lindos in c. 880^111. His well-informed marginal scholia on Gregory of Kamp-
sa and Cephalas, which tell us who did what, clearly indicate that he knew
these scholars personally, and suggest by implication that he was a student at
the school of the New Church in the 890s^112. Constantine definitely had a talent
for verbal abuse, as borne out by the great number of satirical poems that go
under his name. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the powerful court
eunuch Samonas availed himself of Constantine’s obliging services, made him
his personal secretary and ordered him in 908 to write a libel against a favour-
ite of Leo VI^113. In the years 913–920 Constantine wrote the first version of the
Ekphrasis of the Church of the Holy Apostles for the entertainment and instruc-
tion of the young prince Constantine VII. In 927 he went on an embassy to the
Bulgarians to negotiate peace, by which time he had obtained a post in the
palace clergy as basilikñß klhriköß^114. Between 931 and 944 he wrote the
second, enlarged version of the Ekphrasis, in which he praises the Lekapenoi^115.
Shortly after 944 he produced the Palatine Anthology. The date of his death is
unknown.
On pp. 666–668, between John of Gaza’s Ekphrasis and the Technopaegnia,
Constantine the Rhodian copied as many epigrams as the available space
permitted; and on pp. 670 and 673, below the Technopaegnia, he copied a few
(^108) On this scholar, see MARKOPOULOS 1994c: 313–326.
(^109) See P. MAAS, BNJ 3 (1922) 333–336 (repr. in: idem, Kleine Schriften. Munich 1973, 468–
472).
(^110) See CAMERON 1993: 317–319. See also ŠEVCENKO 1987: 462.
(^111) For the life of Constantine the Rhodian, see DOWNEY 1955: 212–221.
(^112) See CAMERON 1993: 108–116.
(^113) Theoph. Cont. 376, 1–4. See R. JENKINS, Speculum 23 (1948) 234 (repr. in: idem, Studies
on Byzantine History of the 9th and 10th Centuries. London 1970, no. 10).
(^114) Theoph. Cont. 413, 1–3.
(^115) On the two versions of the Ekphrasis, see SPECK 1991: 249–268.