Anthologies and Anthologists 117more. Since AP XV, 1 belongs to the preceding Ekphrasis, the collection of
epigrams compiled by Constantine the Rhodian begins only at AP XV, 2. The
collection comprises the following epigrams: AP XV, 2–17; I, 122; IX, 400 and
180–181; XV, 18–19; X, 87; XV, 20; X, 95; XV, 23; and IX, 196–197. As the AP
numbers already indicate, the collection contains a great number of duplica-
tions: epigrams that can also be found elsewhere in the Palatine manuscript.
The reason for this is that Cephalas (for his anthology) and Constantine (for his
collection) made use of the same source: the Palladas Sylloge. The Palladas
Sylloge is not only the source for these doublets, but also for epigrams XV, 9–
10, 18–20 and 23. XV, 2–8 and 11, on the contrary, are verse inscriptions
copied in situ by or for Constantine the Rhodian, and XV, 12–17 and I, 122 are
Byzantine poems^116. XV, 12–14 and I, 122 are poems by ninth-century intellec-
tuals who contributed to the Greek Anthology: Leo the Philosopher, Constan-
tine the Sicilian, Theophanes the Grammarian and Michael Chartophylax^117.
And XV, 15–17 are epigrams by Constantine the Rhodian himself, which he
added to the manuscript because it was his own personal copy of Cephalas’
anthology. The manuscript was his, not only in terms of legal ownership, but
also because he actually contributed to the copying and did the final editing.
This is also why Constantine, like so many other Byzantine scribes, used the
epithet tapeinöß in the lemma attached to AP XV, 15 as a means of signing his
own work without appearing too vainglorious^118.
Incidentally, I would like to point out that it is wrong to call AP XV a
“book” and to treat it as if it were a homogeneous compilation of epigrams. In
fact, this particular book is an invention of modern editors who bracketed
together all the epigrams and short poems they found at the end of the Palatine
manuscript with an utter disregard of palaeographical and codicological data.
This so-called book was written by three different scribes: XV, 28–40 by B^3 (c.
920–930), XV, 1–27 by J (Constantine the Rhodian, shortly after 944), and
XV, 41–51 by Sp (twelfth century). The first part (XV, 1–27) and the second
part (XV, 28–51) of this phantasmal book are divided by a quaternion contain-
ing the Anacreontea. Furthermore, the Hellenistic Technopaegnia (XV, 21–22
and 24–27) are not epigrams and were certainly not intended by Constantine
the Rhodian to be viewed as such. At the tail end of his own manuscript
Constantine put poems that were of interest to him: John of Gaza’s Ekphrasis,
(^116) See LAUXTERMANN 1997: 329–330 and 334–335.
(^117) Treated above on pp. 99–100. CAMERON 1993: 307 asserts that the word mak1rioß in the
lemmata attached to XV, 13–14 indicates that Constantine and Theophanes “had only
recently died”. But the word simply indicates that they are dead and that the lemmatist
feels respect for them. See, for instance, Ambr. E 100 Sup. (s. XIII), fol. 135: to ̄ makar5oy
\Iz1nnoy to ̄ Gezm6troy, a lemma written some 200 years after the death of Geometres.
(^118) See CAMERON 1993: 304.