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The biography of Ignatios the Deacon: a reassessment of the evidence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2016
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- Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2002
References
1. Makris, G., Ignatios Diakonos und die Vita des Hl. Gregorios Dekapolites, miteiner Übersetzung der Vita von Michael Chronz, Byzantinisches Archiv 17 (Stuttgart-Leipzig 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2. See ‘Ignatios the Deacon-cleric of the Constantinopolitan patriarchate, metropolitan bishop of Nicaea, private scholar and teacher (a Life reconsidered)’, BMGS 24 (2000) 82-101; and the entry # 2665 in Prosopographie der mittel-byzantinischen Zeit 2. Band, Georgias (# 2183)-Leon (#4270) (Berlin-New York 2000) 166-172. Much more sketchy and closer to the biography presented by Mango and myself is the entry Ignatios 9 in the Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire I: (641-867), ed. by J. R. Martindale (London 2001) (available on a CD-ROM).
3. ‘Quelques remarques sur la vie rurale à Byzance au IXe siècle d’après la correspondance d’Ignace le Diacre’ The Dark Centuries of Byzantium (7th-9th centuries), ed. Kountoura-Galake, E. (Athens 2001) 365–376 Google Scholar. Kaplan opts for an episcopate following the ascension of John Grammatikos to the patriarchal throne (838); see Ibid. 366.
4. See Kazhdan, A. (in collaboration with L. Sherry-Chr. Angelidi), A History of Byzantine Literature (650-850) (Athens 1999) 343–366 Google Scholar. His skeptical views regarding the author of the correspondence, first set forth in JÖB 44 (1994) 233-244, were refuted in the postscript of Mango, C., The Correspondence of Ignatios the Deacon, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 11, CFHB XXXIX (Washington, D.C. 1997) 207–209 Google Scholar.
5. See ed. Efthymiadis, S., The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios by Ignatios the Deacon (BHG 1698), Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs 4 (Aldershot 1998) 70 (§ 2)Google Scholar.
6. See Ibid. 165-166 (§ 69).
7. See Kresten, O., ‘Leontios von Neapolis als Tachygraph ? Hagiographische Texte als Quellen zu Schriftlichkeit und Buchkultur im 6. und 7. Jahrhundert’ Scrittura e Civiltà 1 (1977) 155–166 Google Scholar; cf. the review of Makris’ book by V. Déroche, forthcoming in Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire.
8. See ed. de Boor, C., Nicephori archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani opusculo historica (Leipzig 1880) 145,11-14Google Scholar; note that de Boor’s adding of ειδεν after περιπεσόν is redundant. This passage has been translated by E. Fisher as: ‘when he saw that a party of those who adhered to the true faith had suffered shipwreck due to those who then controlled the helm of the Roman Empire, he calmed down the storm to the best of his ability’; see Byzantine Defenders of Images. Eight Saints’ Lives in English Translation (Washington D.C., 1998) 47.
9. See Pratsch 89 and Makris 9.
10. See Makris 9 and Pratsch 86 respectively.
11. See Makris (p. 9-10) who assigns to Ignatios the Deacon the authorship of the epigram on the monastery of Pege (p. 12), securely dated to the reign of Basil I, and identifiies Ignatios’ most frequent correspondent Nikephoros the Deacon with Nikephoros, author of the Encomium for the patriarch Anthony Kauleas (+901) and recipient of a number of letters of the Patriarch Photios. See contra W. Wolska-Conus, ‘De quibusdam Ignatiis’ TM (1970) 357-360.
12. Pratsch 86 and n. 15; strangely enough, Makris (p. 8) also speaks of ‘Elementarunterricht’.
13. For a survey of the whole question of the ‘Patriarchal School’ and negative conclusions regarding its existence see Katsaros, V., Ίωάννης Κασταμονίτης. Συμβο-λή στή μελέτη τοΰ βίον, τοϋ εργου και тцс εποχής του (Thessaloniki 1988) 163–209 Google Scholar.
14. The ecclesiastical titles of Ignatios in the Suda are not three but two: on the one hand, deacon and skevophylax of the Great Church of Constantinople; on the other, former metropolitan of Nicaea.
15. Among the eight manuscripts preserving VN Ignatios is styled deacon and skevophylax only in Vaticanas gr. 1809 (10th c.), the manuscript on which de Boor’s edition was based, and Vaticanus gr. 707 (a. 1555). Interestingly enough, in Atheniensis gr. 991 (16th c.) VN appears as a work “Ιγνατίθϋ μοναχοΰ’. No author is named in Vaticanus gr. 1667 (10th c.), Parisinus gr. 910 (10th c.) and Parisinus gr. 909 (a. 1368); the beginning of the text in codex Athos-Philotheou 8 (11th c.) is lost. Note that the oldest witness to VN, Vaticanus gr. 984 (9th c.), is a palimpsest legible only in small parts.
16. Though he considers this possibility in n. 34, Pratsch (p. 92-93) proceeds to a different interpretation.
17. VN 215,28-29: ‘тоге διά μετανοίοκ кολ πικρας έπιτιμίας απονίψασθαι κατάνευσον δάκρυσι’; trans. Fisher 139.
18. See 90-91.
19. See VN 216,27ff; trans. Fisher 140.
20. See epp. 426,16-17 and 454,9 in Theodori Studitae epistulae, ed. Fatouros, G., CFHB, Series Berolinensis, XXXI/2 (Berlin-New York 1992) 596 and 643Google Scholar. I fail to understand why P. Karlin-Hayter dismisses the evidence of these letters and concludes that Democharis was not deposed from office on account of his iconophile convictions; see her review of The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios in AB 118 (2000) 191.
21. Correspondence 76-78.
22. Ibid., 86 and commentary 184-185.
23. Ibid. 80 and 102-106.
24. Ibid. 134-136.
25. The sobriquet appears in a marginal note of Vaticanus gr. 1257, a 10th-century MS. It is an obvious emendation of the form καθόρνου that follows the name of Ignatios, one of the four poets of the well-known iconoclastic verses; see Lauxtermann, M., ‘Three Biographical Notes’ BZ 91 (1998) 397–401 Google Scholar. For a similar use of the word κόθορνος see Agathias’ Histories, bk II, 29,9 (ed. R. Keydell, CFHB II, Berlin 1967, p. 79,21).
26. See Correspondence 142-144; and the emendation proposed on the quoted passage by Polemis, I., Έλληνικά 48 (1998) 263–264 Google Scholar.
27. See 97-99; Pratsch even assigns to this period the composition of the Life of St George of Amastris, certainly not a work of iconophile inspiration.
28. On school teachers and the various terms under which they appear in sources, see now Kalogeras, N.M., Byzantine Childhood Education and its Social Role from the Sixth Century until the End of Iconoclasm, PhD. Diss. (Chicago, Illinois 2000) 232–250 Google Scholar.
29. A list of Ign.’s liturgical hymns was drawn up by Makris, op. cit. 16-19; for those dedicated to contemporary saints see Ibid., 10. Yet no indication is given by Makris as to how Ign. is styled in each case. On Ign.’s kanons see also Correspondence 15-16.
30. See epp. 39 (peroration), 42, 46, and 63.
31. Likewise there is no reason to speculate (as does Mango, Correspondence 24) that in his late days Ign. must ‘have been rewarded by promotion to the post of patriarchal skevophylax’; or as Kaplan, art. cit. 367: ‘l’attitude conciliante de Méthodios... finit par donner (ou rendre) à Ignace la fonction de skevophylax’. Methodios’ policy regarding the iconoclastic clergy was far from conciliatory; cf. the review of Flusin, B., REB 57 (1999) 317–318 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
32. For a recent descriptive survey of his classical erudition see Lampakis, S., ‘Παρατηρησεις σχετικά με Tic ό’ψεκ: άρχαιοννωσίας ото εργο τοϋ Ίγνατίου Διακόνου’ The Dark Centuries of Byzantium (7th-9th centuries), ed. Kountoura-Galake, E. (Athens 2001) 109–132 Google Scholar.