Anthologies and Anthologists 125The ceremonial hymns are poems that were performed at the imperial court in
order to celebrate a certain historical event. The five ceremonial hymns that
are still extant in the manuscript (nos. 134–138), celebrate emperor Basil I:
poems AB 134–135 deal with Basil’s conversion of the Jews in c. 874, poems
AB136–137 refer to the council of 879–880 and Basil’s attempts to put an end
to the discord between the Photians and the Ignatians, and poem AB 138 is an
anthem performed at Basil’s coronation in 867. Some of the ceremonial hymns
that are missing in the manuscript can be dated precisely: (139) a monody on
the death of Basil’s son Constantine in 879, (140–141) monodies on the fall of
Syracuse in 878, (142) a monody on the fall of Thessalonica in 904, (143–145)
monodies on the death of Leo VI in 912, and (155) a poem on Andronikos
Doukas’ revolt in 906–908.
As we can see, all the datable poems in the second part of the Anthologia
Barberina were composed in the short period between 867 and 912. The only
exception to this rule is AB 88, “on Constantine the Emperor”. Likewise, none
of the anacreontics found in the first part of the Anthologia Barberina were
written after 912 (the death of Leo VI), again with one exception: AB 39.
AB 39 is an epithalamium on the marriage of Constantine VII and Helen in
- In the manuscript the poem is attributed to Leo Choirosphaktes, but it is
beyond any doubt that the ascription is incorrect. The poet of AB 39 plagiariz-
es Choirosphaktes’ epithalamium on the second marriage of Leo VI (AB 36)
almost line by line; on the rare occasions that he attempts to produce a verse
of his own, he commits prosodic blunders such as Choirosphaktes, a competent
author, would never have allowed^138. It is fairly easy to understand the error.
As AB 39 follows immediately after other poems by Choirosphaktes (AB 33–38)
and as it is just a cento of verses taken from an authentic epithalamium by
Choirosphaktes, the scribe of Barb. gr. 310 quite understandably assumed that
the poem should be attributed to the same Leo Choirosphaktes and therefore
added the fateful words to ̄ aJto ̄.
Since AB 39 is the latest datable poem of the collection of anacreontics and
alphabets in Barb. gr. 310, it is reasonable to assume that the Anthologia
Barberina was compiled in 919 or shortly afterwards. If the anthology had been
compiled in the second half of the tenth century (the date of the manuscript),
one would expect to find numerous anacreontics and alphabets written in
honour of Constantine VII, Romanos II, and other members of the Macedoni-
an dynasty, but this is not the case. As for the identity of the anthologist, I
would suggest that he is the same person who wrote AB 39, which is the only
anonymous poem in the first part of the anthology – anonymous precisely
because the author and anthologist did not want to sign his own literary
(^138) See NISSEN 1940: 60–62, GIARDINA 1994: 9–22, and LAUXTERMANN 2003b.