1 On ms. Marcianus Graecus 524 see: Sp. Lambros, “O Mαρκιανòς κώδιξ 524’ Nέος Eλληνομνήμων 8 (1911) 3–59, 123–92; Mioni, E., Bibliothecae divi Marci venetiarum Codices Graeci manuscripti. Thesaurus antiquus (Rome 1985) 399–407 Google Scholar; Spingou, F., ‘Text and image at the court of Manuel Komnenos: Epigrams on works of art in Marc. gr. 524, followed by a description of the manuscript’ (unpublished MPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 2010) esp. 16–35 and 116-62Google Scholar (available for consultation in the Bodleian library, Oxford and the library of Yale University), and an expanded version: eadem, ‘Words and artworks in the twelfth century and beyond. The thirteenth-century manuscript Marcianus Gr. 524 and the twelfth-century dedicatory epigrams on works of art’ (unpublished DPhil thesis, University of Oxford 2013). See also: Odorico, P. and Messis, C., ‘L’anthologie Comnene du cod. Marc. gr. 524: Problèmes d’évaluation’, in Hörandner, W. and Grünbart, M. (eds.), L’épistolographie et la poésie épigrammatique: Projets actuels et questions de méthodologie. Actes de la 16e table ronde organisée par Wolfram Hörandner et Michael Grünbart dans le cadre du XXe Congrès international des études byzantines. Collège de France-Sorbonne. Paris, 19-25 Août 2001 (Paris 2003) 191–213 Google Scholar. Rhoby, A., ‘Zur Identifizierung von bekannten Autoren im Codex Marcianus Graecus 524’, Medioevio Graeco 10 (2010) 167–204 Google Scholar. Spingou, F., ‘The anonymous poets of the Anthologia Marciana: Questions of collection and authorship’, in Pizzone, A. (ed.), Byzantine Authorship (Berlin and New York 2014) 137–150 Google Scholar. A new numbering system for the text in the Marcianus codex has been suggested in the appendix of my DPhil thesis. The numbering offered in this article indicates first the numbering according to Lambros’ description and subsequently according to the new description.

2 In more detail: ‘Words and artworks’, 37–43. I suggest that the quires with the poetry were originally placed in the following order: ff. 89–96, 97–104, 1–7, 8–15, 16–23, 105–112, 113–120.

3 Hörandner, W. (‘Epigrams on icons and sacred objects. The collection of Cod. Marc. Gr. 524 once again’, in Salvadore, M. [ed.], La poesia tardoantica e medievale: atti del I convegno internationale di studi. Mercata, 4-5 maggio 1998 [Alessandria 2001] 120)Google Scholar has also observed that an ‘eleventh-century cluster’ can be found in ff. 1–3^v.

4 Christopher Mitylenaios, Poems, ed. de Groote, M., Christophori Mitylenaii versuum variorum collectio Cryptensis (Turnhout 2012) nos. 138, 120, 121, 123, 125, 126, 127, 132, 134Google Scholar.

5 Lambros, S., Κερκυραϊκά άνέκδοτα єкχειρογράψων Άγίου Όρους, Κανταβριγίας, Μονάχου каі Κερκύρας (Athens 1882) 41 (vv. 306–10)Google Scholar.

6 Theophylaktos of Ohrid, Poems, ed. Gautier, P., Théophylacte d’Achrida. Discours, Traités, Poésies I (Thessalonike 1980) no. 10 Google Scholar.

7 Christopher Mitylenaios, Poems, nos. 51, 42, 45, 74, 75, 76, 80, 82, 89, 95, 98, 101, 112, 113, 117

8 Macrides, R. J., ‘Poetic justice in the patriachate. Murder and cannibalism in the provinces’, in Burgmann, L., Fögen, M. Th. and Schminck, A. (eds.), Cupido Legum (Frankfurt 1985) 137-9Google Scholar.

9 For example on f. 46^v, an epigram dedicated to the amulet of Constantine Monomachos can be found between epigrams dating from the reign of Manuel Komnenos.

10 The epigram is reprinted in von Falkenhausen, V., Untersuchungen über die byzantinische Herrschaft in Süditalien von 9. bis ins 11. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden 1967) 59, n. 453Google Scholar.

11 It is a topos for epigrams on works of art to say that the commissioner has also made the object. Lauxtermann, M., Byzantine poetry from Pisides to Geometres, I (Vienna 2003) 159 Google Scholar.

12 Falkenhausen, Untersuchungen, 93–94,100,187–190. A comprehensive reconstruction of his life can be found in Lavermicocca, N., Bari Bizantina: capitale mediterranea (Bari 2003) 19–23 Google Scholar; Guillou, A., ‘Production and profits in the Byzantine province of Italy (tenth to eleventh centuries): an expanding society’, DOP 28 (1974) 97–100 and 108Google Scholar; Robinson, G., History and Cartulary of the Greek Monastery of S. Elias and S. Anastasius of Carbonne (Rome 1928), 158-60Google Scholar. See also Guilland, R., ‘Patrices du règne de Constantin IX Monomaque’, ZRVI 13 (1971) 2–3 Google Scholar, reprinted in: Titres et factions de l’Empire byzantine (London 1976) XIII.

13 von Falkenhausen, V., ‘Byzantine Italy in the reign of Basil II’, in Magdalino, P. (ed.), Byzantium in the year 1000 (Leiden/Boston 2003) 147 Google Scholar. Burgareila, F., ‘Bizanzio in Sicilia e nell’Italia meridionale: Riflessi’, in Il Mezzogiorno dai Bizantini a Federico II (Torino 1983) 224-6Google Scholar. Chalandon, F., Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile, I (Paris 1907) 46 Google Scholar. Guillou, A., ‘Notes sur la société dans le katépanat d’Italie au XI siècle’, Mélanges d’Archaeologie et d’Histoire 78 (1966) 443, no. 2 = Studies on Byzantine Italy (London 1970) no. XIIGoogle Scholar.

14 Guillou, ‘Production and profits’, 97.

15 Guillou, ‘Production and profits’, 97. An exuberant, and hardly believable, account of the election of Argyros is given by the poetic chronicle of William of Apulia. However, the passage states that the Normans elected him as leader mainly because of his father’s fame. Cf. the account of Amatus of Montecassino, The History of the Normans (written though ca.1080), ed. de Bartholomaeis, V., Storia de’ Normanni di Amato di Montecassino (Rome 1935), II, 28 Google Scholar, (trans. Dunbar, Pr., Amatus of Montecassino: The History of the Normans, rev. ed. Loud, G. [Woodbridge 2004] 75)Google Scholar.

16 Loud, G. A., The Age of Robert of Guiscard: Southern Italy and Norman Conquest (Harlow 2000) 96 Google Scholar.

17 He was a personal enemy of Romanos Skieros, brother of Constantine’s mistress. Skylitzes, Synopsis Historiarum, ed. Thurn, I., Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis Historiarum, (Berlin 1973) 427 Google Scholar: Const. IX, §3,11. 60–66. On Maniakes: Guilland, Patrices, 10–13. Falkenhausen, Untersuchungen, 91–2, 186.

18 William of Apulia, I, 479–85.

19 William of Apulia, I, 496–500, 504–5.

20 William of Apulia, I, 511–8.

21 William of Apulia, II, 1–7.

22 William of Apulia, II, 18–20: Placibus, qui praesidet urbi,/suscipit egressum magnis et honoribus ilium/promvet.

23 In a sigillion of 1053 he reveals his titles as follows: Άργυρος προνοία Θ(εο)νμάγιστρος каі δούξ Ίταλίας καλαβρίας σικελίας καί παφλαγονίας, όμελητος (Robinson, History and Cartulary, 162, И. 31–3). On the title see Falkenhausen, Untersuchungen, 60–2, 104–8.

24 Falkenhausen, Byzantine Italy, 139 (where the relevant bibliography). Guillou, A., Geografia administrative del Katepanato Bizantino d’Italia (IX-XI sec), in Calabria bizantina (Reggio 1974) 113-33Google Scholar, = Culture et société en Italie Byzantine (VIe-XIe s.) (London 1978) IX.

25 Guillou, ‘Production and profits’, 98. William of Apulia, II, 275–83.

26 Interestingly, the rebellion led by Argyros is exclusively mentioned in Latin historical works (esp. Lupus protospatbarios, Annales Barenses, William of Apulia).

27 This is how Skylitzes (348: Basil and Constantine, § 34, 97, 1–3) understands the Lombards. He mentions the rebellion of Meles: δυνάστης γόφ τις των έποίκων της Βάρεως, τοϋνομα Μέλης, παραθήξας τόν έν Λογγιβαρδία λαον δπλαν κατά ‘Ρωμαίων αϊρει.

28 Guillou (‘Production and profits’, 97-9) cites especially Argyros Meles as an example of these Greek-speaking archons.

29 He was probably of Armenian origin, but his family would have been assimilated with the Lombard population already from the tenth century (Falkenhausen, Byzantine Italy, 154-5; see also Garsoïan, N., ‘The problem of Armenian integration into the Byzantine empire’, in Ahrweiler, H. and Laiou, A., Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Society (Washington, D.C. 1998) 56 and 64-5)Google Scholar. See Houben, H., Roger II of Sicily, trans. Loud, G. and Milburn, D. (Cambridge 2002) 9 Google Scholar.

30 His wife Maralda was Latin (Guillou, ‘Production and profit’, 97).

31 Lavermicocca, Bari Bizantina, 20.

32 di Vito, Fr. Nitti, Codice diplomatico Barese: Le pergamene di S. Nicola di Bari, IV (Bari 1900) 67,17-19Google Scholar (the sigillion dates from December 1146 and it is signed by the catepan Eusthathios). Robinson, History and Cartuhry, no. V, 161, 5 (it dates from 1053 and it is signed by Argyros Meles). See also Guillou, A., ‘L’Italia bizantina: δουλεία e οίκείωσις’, Bulletino dell’istituto storico italiano per il medioevo 78 (1967) 16 Google Scholar.

33 Tornikes, Euthymios, Oration to the emperor Manuel Komnenos, delivered when the sultan came to Constantinople, ed. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, A., Noctes Petropolitanae (St Petersburg 1913) 173,13-21Google Scholar (cf. 169, 2-3 and 172-3), cf. Magdalino, P. and Nelson, R., ‘The emperor in byzantine art of the twelfth century’, BF 8 (1982) 133 Google Scholar. The reference to imperial images placed in towns became formulaic in imperial speeches in later Byzantium. For example, Nicholaos Lampenos in his speech for Andronikos II Palaiologos clearly mentions: Σέ б ‘ ώ βασιλεν ai πόλεις γράφουσιν έν είκόσι, προσκυνοϋσι, σέβουσι ( Polemis, I., Ό λόγιος Νικόλαος Ααμ-πηνός καί το έγκώμιον αύτον είς τονΆνδρόνικονB’ Παλαιολόγον [Athens 1992] 81 Google Scholar).

34 John Mauropous, Poems, ed. de Lagarde, P., Iohannis Euchaitorum Metropolitae quae in codice Vaticano graeco 676 supersunt (Göttingen 1882) no. 57 Google Scholar

35 See Spingou, ‘Words and artworks’, 45-46 and eadem, ‘The anonymous poets’, 148-9.

36 Guillou, ‘Production and profit’, 103-4. See also idem, ‘Italie meridionale byzantine ou Byzantins en Italie méridionale?,’ B 44 (1974) 180-8 = Culture et Société en Italie Byzantine, XV.

37 See Guillou, A., ‘Notes d’épigraphie byzantine’, Studi medievali (Spoleto 1970) 403-8Google Scholar = Culture et société, VIII.

38 Όμάγισψος ούδέποτε τής οίκείαςέπιλελησμενος θρησκείας каі διπλόηςάλλ ‘ άεί τάνάντια κατά τήςβασι-λίδος каі της ‘Ρωμανίας φρονων. Will, C., Acta et scripta quae de controversus ecclesiae graecae et latinae saeculo undecimo composita extant (Leipzig 1861) 175 Google Scholar.

39 William of Apulia, II, 18-20.

40 Drpić, I., ‘Kosmos of verse: epigram, art, and devotion in later Byzantium’, (unpublished PhD thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 2011) 286 Google Scholar.

41 It is a painted portrait of Manuel Komnenos and Maria of Antioch crowned by Christ. The donor makes clear that he demonstrates his faith and affection to the emperor by depicting the imperial couple in colours. No. 221/243 has been edited by Magdalino and Nelson, ‘The emperor’, 138-9; for new readings see Spingou, ‘Words and artworks’, 101.

42 Darrouzès, J., Recherches sur les όφφίκια de l’église byzantine (Paris 1970) 87 and 179 (n. 1)Google Scholar.

43 The rank of chartoularios in the ecclesiastical administration is not as important as that of the imperial administration. In the ecclesiastical context there were chartoularioi of the steward (οίκονόμου), of the sakelliou, of the skeuophylax and of the Great Church (Darrouzès, Όφφίκια, 41-43 and 272-3 (and no. 47)). On the function of chartoularios in a secular context see: Guilland, R., ‘Chartulaire et Grand Chartulaire’, Revue des études sud-est européenes 9 (1971) 405-26Google Scholar = Titres et foctions de l’empire byzantine (London 1975) XVIII.

44 See McGeer, E., Nesbitt, J., Oikonomides, N., Catalogue of Byzantine seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg museum of Art, V (Washington, D.C. 2005), nos. 42.4-6Google Scholar; and Nesbitt, J. and Oikonomides, N., Catalogue of Byzantine seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg museum of Art III (Washington, D.C. 1996) no. 2.6Google Scholar. See also Zacos, G., Veglery, A. and Nesbitt, J. W., Byzantine Lead Seals (Basel 1972) nos. 110, 386, 414, 415 and 449Google Scholar. Another chartoularios is mentioned in St Christodoulos’ testament. The founder of the monastery of St John in Patmos asks his spiritual child Theodosios, who was chartoularios and patriarchal notary, to go to Patmos and succeed Christodoulos. See Morris, R., ‘Divine diplomacy in the late eleventh century’, BMGS 16 (1992) 147-56, esp. 152-3Google Scholar.

45 The twelfth-century Manganeios Prodromos (ed. M. and E. Jeffreys [forthcoming] 8.536 and 53.140) uses the homophone χρηστός-Χριστός in order to enforce the implicit comparison between Christ-Emmanuel and Manuel Komnenos. However, in eleventh-century court poetry the modifier ‘χρηστός’ does not have this implicit meaning (see John Mauropous, Poems, no. 48; Christopher Mitylenaios, Poems, no. 44, 52). Nevertheless, the phrase κίφυξ διαπρύσιος (v. 8) perhaps makes the case that in this poem the word χρηστός actually has an implicit meaning. Usually someone is διαπρύσιος κϊρυξ τοϋ Χριστοϋ (e.g. John Mauropous, Canons, ed. F. D’Aiuto, Bollettino dei Classici Suppl. 13 [1994] III, 2, 125).

46 Kakoulidi, E., ‘H βιβλιοθήκη της μονης Προδρόμου-Πέτρας στήν Κωνσταντινούπολη’, ‘Ελληνικά 21 (1968) 3–39 Google Scholar. Cf. Cataldi-Palau, A., ‘The library of the monastery of Prodromos Petra in the fifteenth century (to 1453)’, in Studies in Greek Manuscripts (Spoleto 2008) 209-18Google Scholar.

47 I owe this remark to Marc Lauxtermann.

48 “Επεί δε ήδη προς πλατνσμόν τε καί αΰξησι v ή άγία μονή ήμών vŕ τοϋ Θεοΰ έπιδέδωκε χάριτι, каі τη άντι-λήψει τής θεοφυλάκτου άγίας ήμών δεσποίνης καί μητρος τοϋ θεοστεφοϋς καί κρατίστου ήμν βασιλέως κυρον Άλεξίου τοϋ Κομνηνον (Anna Dalassene), ετι δε каі τοϋ άγιωτάτου δεσπότου καί οίκουμενικοϋ πατριάρχου κυρον Νικολάου (Nicholas Grammatikos)’, Typikon of Petra Monastery, ed. Turco, , ‘La Diatheke del fondatore del monastero di S. Giovanni Prodromo in Petra e l’Ambr. E 9 Sup’, Aevum 75/2 (2001) 350, 9-13Google Scholar. The manuscript gives the title Ήδιαθήκη τοϋ кщюрод τής όσίαςμονης τοϋ πμίου Προδρόμου της έπικεκλημένης της Πέτρα [sic]. The testament is to be found in a bifolium (ff. 179-82) bound together with gatherings of different paper in cod. Ambrosianus E 9 sup. (G. Turco, La diatheke, 330). It seems probable that at least this bifolium was written in Petra monastery (Turco, La diatheke, 333-34). The donation by Anna Dalassene probably refers to the construction of the church and of the aqueduct (cf. Encomion to St. John the Faster, ed. Gelzer, H., ‘Kallistos’ Enkomion auf Johannes Nesteutes’, Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie 29 [1886] 77, 18-24)Google Scholar. Malamut, Elizabeth (‘Le monastère saint-Jean-Prodrome de Petra de Constantinople’, in Kaplan, M. (ed.), Le sacré et son inscription dans l’espace à Byzance et en Occident [Paris 2001] 221 Google Scholar) suggests that many architectural elements of the church date from the reign of Alexios I on the basis of the description of the monastery by Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo.

49 Encomion to St John the Faster, 83,26-32. Ioalites’ body was placed next to the relics of John the Faster and to the relics of an otherwise unattested Constantine the holy fool (Encomion to St John the Faster, 81, 25-6).

50 Encomion to St John the Faster 84, 4-7. Ioalites was a high official of the Byzantine court and more specifically a πρωτοασηκρήτις (Encomion to St John the Faster 83, 28-31, cf. 84, 33-85, 2).

51 Encomion to St John the Faster 85, 5-16.

52 See Malamut, Le monastère, 221-3.

53 I owe this observation to Paul Magdalino. The canons regulated against monks taking secular posts but there were exceptions. See Madariaga, E., ‘H Βυζαντινή οικογένεια των Αγιοθεοδωριτών (I): Νικόλαος Αγιοθεοδωρίτης, πανιερώτατος Αθηνών και υπέρτιμος’, Byzantina Symmeikta 19 (2009) 155-6, n. 27Google Scholar.

54 Ševčenko, N. Patterson, ‘The Heavenly Ladder images in Patmos ms. 122: a 12^th-century painter’s guide?’, “Εξεμπλον. Studi in onore di Irmgard Hutter, I = Νέα Ρώμη 6 (2009) 398 Google Scholar.

55 Lemerle, P., Cinq études sur le XIe siècle byzantin (Paris 1977) 231-3Google Scholar.

56 Janin, R., Les églises et les monastères (Paris 2nd ed. 1969) 399 Google Scholar.

57 Bernard, F., ‘The beats of the pen. Social context of reading and writing poetry in eleventh-century Constantinople’ (PhD thesis, Gent 2010) 215-17Google Scholar. Sola, J. N., ‘Giambografi sconosciuti dell’XI secolo’, Roma e oriente 11 (1916) 151 Google Scholar. Floris Bernard discusses the same poems also in his ‘The Anonymous of Sola and the School of Nosiai’, JÖB 61 (2011) 81-88 (esp. 82-88).

58 For a complete discussion of Psellos’ consulship see M. Lauxtermann ‘The intertwined lives of Michael Psellos and John Mauropous’, in M. Jeffreys and M. Lauxtermann (eds.), The Letters of Michael Psellos (forthcoming). See also Lemerle, Cinq études, 220, who suggests that Psellos was probably a teacher at the school of St Peter.

59 Guglielmino, A. M., ‘Un maestro di grammatica a Bisanzio nell’XI secolo e l’epitafio per Niceta di Michele Psello’, Siculorum Gymnasium 27 (1974) 421-63, esp. 446-63Google Scholar.

60 Έπιστολή δοθέϊσα пара τοϋ τηνικαϋτα μαΐστωρος των Διακονίσσης πρός τόν πατριάρχην, αΐτοϋντος τήν σχολήν τοϋ άγίου Πέτρου, ed. Sathas, K. N., Μεσαιωνική Βιβλιοθήκη, V (Venice, 1876) no. 162: 420-1Google Scholar.

61 Marc Lauxtermann (‘The intertwined’) has recently suggested that the letter dates ‘not long before the Comnenian period when the patriarchate had become solely responsible for the school system’. See also Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 164.

62 …στησονέπί πέτραςπολΛοιςπεψατηρίοις κλονούμενον… (Sathas, no. 162: 421).

63 Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 164-7.

64 Floris Bernard (‘The beats of the pen’, 214-7) has suggested for another poem (Anonymous Sola, VII) that the word Πέτρα signifies the school of St Peter. According to Bernard’s excellent reading it is a poem from a teacher at the school of Nossiai against a teacher at St Peter’s school.

65 In general, chartoularioi were well educated. In the tenth century, the Anonymous Professor (ed. A. Markopoulos [Berlin 2000]) addresses six ‘learned’ letters to five chartoularioi (nos. 2, 3, 38, 78, 93,114). One of them was also a deacon and chartoularios (no. 78). See also Markopoulos, A., ‘L’épistolaire du “professeur anonyme” de Londres’, in Kremmydas, B., Maltezou, Chr. and Panagiotakis, N. K. (eds.), Άφιέρωμα στόν Νίκο Σβορώνο (Rethymnon 1986) 143 Google Scholar.

66 Especially if he was indeed a monk in Petra monastery. See Spingou, ‘Words and artworks’, 54-62.

67 Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 245-6. Poems ώς άπο προσώπον are addressed from poets to people in power. Christopher Mitylenaios has written a comparable poem to the Lazaros poem. He addresses the emperor ώς cató προσώπου/ on behalf of the protospath arios John Ypsinous. In this poem, the protospatharios asks to be promoted (Christopher Mitylenaios Poems, no. 55). However, in our epigram Lazaros has already been promoted. In the twelfth century, Manganeios Prodromos writes ‘A petition to the emperor as if from (ώς άπο) the sebastokratorissa Eirene’ (no. 43). Cf. Nicholas Kallikles no. 22, Theodore Balsamon, no. 22; Marc. gr. 524, no. 220/242 (epitaph). Theodore Prodromos, Historical poems, ed. W. Hörandner (Vienna 1974) 7, 21-23, 25, 27, 40 and 50.

68 I owe this observation to Floris Bernard.

69 Cf. Ljubarkij, J., ‘The Byzantine irony: the case of Michael Psellos’, in Avramea, A., Laiou, A., Chrysos, E. (eds.), Byzantium: State and Society (Athens 2003) 358-60Google Scholar.

70 Kaplan, M., ‘Maisons impériales et fondations pieuses: reorganisation de la fortune impériale et assistance publique de la fin du VIIIe siècle à la fin du Xe siècle’, B 61 (1991) 364, n. 130Google Scholar. Oikonomides, N., ‘St. George of Mangana, Maria Skleraina, and the “Malyj Sion” of Novgorod’, DOP 34/35 (1980-1) 243.Google Scholar See also Demangel, R. and Mamboury, E., Le quartier des Manganes et la première region de Constantinople (Paris 1939) 19–22 and 39-43Google Scholar. Janin, R., ‘Les églises byzantines des saintes militaires’, EO 33 (1934) 171 Google Scholar. For the relevant bibliography see Mathews, Th., The byzantine Churches of Istanbul: A Photographic Survey (University Park and London 1976) 201 Google Scholar. Cf. Bouras, Ch., Τυπολογικές παρατηρήσεις στο καθολικό της Μονής Μαγγάνων στην Κωνσταντινούπολη’, Αρχαιολογικό Αελτίο 31A (Studies) (1976) 138 n. 17Google Scholar. On poetry connected to St George of Mangana, see Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 246-7 and de Stephani, Cl., ‘A few thoughts on the influence of Classical and Byzantine poetry on the profane poems of Ioannes Mauropus’, in Bernard, F. and Demoen, Kr. (eds.), Poetry and its Contexts in Eleventh-century Byzantium (Farnham and Burlington 2012) 156 and 158-160Google Scholar. To this list can also be added an epigram on the encolpion of Constantine Monomachos, which contained among other items a part of the sword of St George: Marc. gr. 524, no. 112/113. On the palace, see Janin, R., Constantinople Byzantine (Paris 1964) 132-3Google Scholar and Demangel-Mamboury, Manganes, 39-43 and III.

71 Kaplan, ‘Maisons impériales’, 353-56; idem, Les hommes et la terre à Byzance (Paris 1992) 315. E. Malamut (‘Nouvelle hypothèse sur l’origine de la maison impériale des Manganes’, in Άφιέρωμα στον Νίκο Σβορωνο, 127-34) suggests that a ninth-century construction pre-existed this one.

72 I owe this suggestion to Cyril Mango.

73 van Opstall, E., ‘Verses on paper, verses inscribed?’ in Hörandner, W. and Rhoby, A. (eds.), Die kulturhistorische Bedeutung byzantinischer Epigramme: Akten des internationalen Workshop (Wien, 1.-2. Dezember 2006) (Vienna 2008) 59–60 Google Scholar. Cf. Lauxtermann, Byzantine poetry, 26-33.

74 See, for example, the hall of the Mouchroutas ( Magdalino, P., ‘Manuel Komnenos and the Great Palace’, BMGS 4 (1978) 101-14)Google Scholar.

75 Anna Komnene, Alexiad, ed. D. Reinsch and A. Kambylis (Berlin 2001) III, 80.

76 Macrides, R., ‘The citadel of Byzantine Constantinople’, in Redford, S. and Ergin, N. (eds.), Cities and Citadels in Turkey: From the Iron Age to the Seljuks (Louvain 2013) 285-8Google Scholar.

77 Demangel and Mamboury, Manganes, 42-3.

78 Psellos, Michael, Chronography, ed. Criscuolo, U., (Milan 1993) 6, 186Google Scholar (see also 187, 11-8), trans. Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire (Toronto 1972) 219 Google Scholar: ‘All round were buildings bordered with porticoes on four or two sides and all [the grounds] as far as the eye could see (for their end was not in sight) were fit for horse riding and the next [buildings] were greater than the first’.

79 Magdalino, P., ‘Manuel Komnenos and the Great Palace’, BMGS 4 (1978) 101-14Google Scholar.

80 See Maguire, H., ‘Gardens and parks in Constantinople’, DOP 54 (2000) 260-1Google Scholar. Cf. Epigrams on a garden, ed. Lambros, Sp., ‘Σύμμικτα’, Νεος ‘Ελληνομνήμων 8 (1911) 100 Google Scholar, epigram 1, v. 9: ρέεις παρέρχη, τοΰτο καί τών ύδάτων’. Nikos Zagklas includes a new edition of the epigram in his forthcoming doctoral thesis.

81 Lefort, J., ‘Rhétorique et politique: trois discours de Jean Mauropous en 1047’, TM 6 (1976) 265–303 Google Scholar. Cf. Mauropous, John, Orations, ed. de Lagarde, P., (Göttingen 1882) no. 182, §14Google Scholar.

82 On ‘φθόνος’ in literature see: Hinterberger, M., Phthonos: Missgunst, Neid und Eifersucht in der byzantinischen Literatur (Wiesbaden 2013)Google Scholar. Id., ‘Phthonos als treibende Kraft in Prodromos, Manasses and Bryen-nios’, Medioevo Greco 11 (2011) 83-106. Id., ‘О φθόνος στη δημώδη λογοτεχνία’, in Jeffreys, E. and Jeffreys, M. (eds.), Neograeca Medii Aevi V. Αναδρομικά και Προδρομικά: Approaches to Texts in Early Modern Greek (Oxford 2005) 227-40Google Scholar.

83 …ού δή εϊ τις то μέγεθος έτημέμψασθαι βούλοιτο, εύθύς άνείργεται τω κάλλει καταλαμπόμενος… …Indeed, if someone should wish to criticize its grandiosity, the stops immediately dazzled by the beauty (Psellos, Chronographia, 186).

84 Psellos, Chronographia, 6,185. John Skylitzes (476, § 29, 44-9) also echoes disapproval, criticizing the amount of gold Constantine IX spent on building the complex.

85 Translation by C. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 218.

86 See Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 100-2.

87 Bernard, ‘The beats of the pen’, 239-81. See also: Magdalino, P., ‘Cultural change? The context of Byzantine poetry from Geometres to Prodromos’, in Bernard, F. and Demoen, Kr. (eds.), Poetry and its Contexts in Eleventh-century Byzantium (Farnham and Burlington 2012) 22, 33-5Google Scholar. Lauxtermann, Byzantine Poetry, 36-7. On the anonymous authors of the Antbologia Marciana see also Spingou, ‘The anonymous poets’.