Anthologies and Anthologists 91Furthermore, there are also some interesting lemmata and scholia in AP I
that indirectly indicate that the collection of Christian epigrams must have
been compiled by Cephalas himself. AP I, 106–107, are two verse inscriptions
celebrating the decoration of the Chrysotriklinos commissioned by Michael III;
they date from 856–866. AP I, 109–114, too, are verse inscriptions; they were
found in the church of the Virgin of the Source, which was decorated by Basil
I and his sons Constantine and Leo in the years 870–879. Although verse
inscriptions are destined by their very nature to remain anonymous, the an-
thologist of AP I duly records the names of the poets who wrote the above
epigrams: a certain Mazarenos (AP I, 106–107)^25 and an equally obscure school-
master, Ignatios the Headmaster (AP I, 109–114)^26. From this we may infer
that the anthologist had firsthand information on the two poets and their
literary achievements in the 860s and 870s. Otherwise, how could he have
known which poets out of many possible candidates had been commissioned to
compose the anonymous verses he found inscribed in the Chrysotriklinos and
the church of the Pege? It is reasonable to assume that the well-informed source
used by Cephalas was none other than the collection of verse inscriptions
compiled by Gregory of Kampsa. Gregory lived in exactly the same period as
the two poets and there can be little doubt that he must have personally known
at least Ignatios the Headmaster, a colleague of his. At AP I, 122 we find
another name of a member of the circle of Cephalas: Michael Chartophylax,
whose personal copy of Cephalas’ anthology was used by the Corrector. At
API, 10, a long verse inscription found in the church of St. Polyeuktos, we find
the following curious scholion: m6noysin, 4riste, p1nta m6cri t‰ß s8meron Çtesi
pentakos5oiß. Since the church of St. Polyeuktos was built by Anicia Juliana
between 524 and 527^27 , the scholion appears to err in its arithmetic. However,
if one follows the inaccurate dating provided by the Patria, according to which
Anicia was the daughter of Valentinianus and the sister-in-law of Theodosius
the Great^28 , we arrive at a date in the late ninth century^29. The lemma attached
(^25) For this name, see WALTZ 1925: 321–322, who suggests that the poet, or his family, came
from a place called “Mazara”.
(^26) Ignatios the Headmaster should not be confused with Ignatios the Deacon (born c. 780,
died c. 850): pace MAKRIS 1997: 10 and 12; see WOLSKA-CONUS 1970: 357–359 and MANGO
1997: 13. As for Ignatios’ title: mag5stzr t0n grammatik0n, see the name of the school
located in the Orphanage of St. Paul (s. XI–XII): scolë t0n grammatik0n, and the title
of one of its principals (Basil Pediadites): maÀstzr t‰ß scol‰ß t0n grammatik0n, see P.
LEMERLE, Cinq études sur le XIe siècle. Paris 1977, 233–234.
(^27) C. MANGO & I. ŠEVCENKO, DOP 15 (1961) 243–247.
(^28) Ed. PREGER 1901–07: 57. See P. MAAS, Hermes 48 (1913) 296, n. 2 and CAMERON 1993: 114.
BALDWIN 1996: 98 finds it hard to believe that “the scribe (would have been) this
obtuse”.
(^29) Some fifty years later, scribe J tried to bring the scholion up to date by adding kaò
...konta, but afterwards erased his own addition.