Anthologies and Anthologists 93Deacon’s anacreontic, in the latter by Ignatios’ anacreontic and Pisides’ De
Vanitate Vitae, vv. 41–56: these two poems, too, have been included in modern
editions of Gregory of Nazianzos as if they were his (Epit. 129 and I, 2, 18)^34.
In Monac. gr. 416 AP I, 92 is not attributed to Gregory of Nazianzos, but to
“Basil the Great”^35. This ascription is also incorrect. But it implicitly indicates
from which source the two Gregorian manuscripts ultimately derive the epi-
gram: the Greek Anthology, where it bears the following title: “in Caesarea in
the church of St. Basil”. AP I, 92 is in fact a verse inscription. The verse
inscription still exists (unfortunately, in a rather garbled version), not in
Caesarea itself, but in the nearby village of Sinassos, at the entrance of the
church of the Holy Apostles, where it accompanies a tenth-century fresco
depicting Pentecost^36. The epigram describes the miraculous intervention of
Jesus Christ on the lake of Galilee. Its didactic purpose is to show the two
natures of Christ. While the waters rage He sleeps like any other human being,
but when He awakes He shows His divine nature by immediately calming the
storm. The epigram would certainly have appealed to the pious monks of
Cappadocia because of its iconophile emphasis on the two natures of Christ, but
it is not entirely clear why they had it inscribed below a picture of Pentecost.
To return to our subject, however, it is reasonable to assume that the Cappa-
docian monks copied the epigram in Caesarea, where it was inscribed in the
church of St. Basil. AP I, 92 is a genuine verse inscription, which ended up in
Par. gr. 1220 and Monac. gr. 416 via the Greek Anthology. And thus an
anonymous verse inscription became a literary epigram supposedly written by
Basil the Great or, if we are to believe modern scholars, Gregory of Nazianzos.
Verse inscriptions can be given approximate dates if they mention emper-
ors or other prominent individuals, but metre and language are equally instru-
mental in assessing the probable date of a poem. Take for instance AP I, 105,
“on Eudokia, Wife of the Emperor Theodosius”, an epigram on a fresco or
mosaic that depicted Eudokia venerating the Holy Sepulchre. Fifth-century,
one would say a priori. But the metre, regular Byzantine dodecasyllables,
obviously militates against such a dating. The verses cannot have been written
before c. 600, and may even have been written much later, say in the ninth
century. Do poem and picture perhaps form an indirect homage to the
Empress Theodora, who showed her piety by restoring the cult of icons and
(^34) See H.M. WERHAHN, in: Studia Patristica VII. Berlin 1966, 340–342. See also MERCATI
1908: 3–6, GONNELLI 1991: 120–121, and LAUXTERMANN 2003b.
(^35) As was duly noted by H.M. WERHAHN, in: Bibliotheca docet. Festschrift C. Wehmer.
Amsterdam 1963, 342–344, who nonetheless avers that “aus inneren Gründen (...) an die
Verfasserschaft tatsächlich zu denken ist”.
(^36) See H. GRÉGOIRE, Revue de l’ instruction publique en Belgique 52 (1909) 164–166.