The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition 978-1840146943

Table of contents :
List of Plates ix
Foreword by George Huxley xv
Introduction 1
PART ONE HISTORY AND ANTECEDENTS
1 The Christian and Antique Background 9
The Old Testament 9
The New Testament 12
Pagan Antiquity 15
The early Patristic period 22
The contribution of popular piety to the conception of the
warrior saint 33
PART TWO THE BYZANTINE WARRIOR SAINTS
2 The Major Warrior Saints: The Etat-Major 41
I St Theodore Tiron and St Theodore Stratelates 44
II St Demetrius 67
III St Procopius 94
IV St Mercurius 101
V St George 109
3 Other Major Warrior Saints 145
VI Sts Sergius and Bacchus 146
VII St Eustathius 163
VIII St Kyrion and the XL Martyrs of Sebasteia 170
IX St Hieron and the Martyrs of Melitene 177
X St Menas of Egypt 181
XI St Artemius 191
XII St Arethas 195
XIII St Martin of Tours 200
XIV St Phanourios 206
4 The Minor Warrior Saints 213
XV St Christopher 214
XVI St Cornelius the Centurion 217
XVII The Holy Five of Sebasteia with Sts Orestes and
Eustratius 219
XVIII St Joannicius 222
XIX Sts Juventinus and Maximinus 224
XX St Longinus of Caesarea 226
XXI Sts Nestor and Lupus 227
XXII St Nicetas (Nikita) the Goth 231
XXIII St Philotheus of Antioch 234
XXIV St Phoibammon 235
XXV Sts Polyeuctus of Melitene and Nearchus 236
XXVI St Sabbas Stratelates 239
XXVII St Sisinnius of Antioch 241
XXVIII Sts Speusippus, Elasippus and Melesippus 243
XXIX St Zosimus of Apollonia 244
Appendix: Additional Minor Warrior Saints 245
XXX St Alexander 245
XXXI St Andrew Stratelates 245
XXXII St Anicetus 246
XXXIII St Athanasius of Clysma 247
XXXIV Sts Basiliscus, Cleonicus and Eutropius 247
XXXV Sts Bonosus and Maximilianus 247
XXXVI St Callinicus 247
XXXVII St Callistratus 248
XXXVIII Dasius 249
XXXIX Sts Emeterius and Chelidonius 249
XL St Eudocimus 250
XLI St Eusignius 251
XLII Gaza, The XL Defenders of 251
XLIII St Gordius of Caesarea 251
XLIV Sts John and Paul 252
XLV St Justus 253
XLVI Marcellus of Tangier 253
XLVII St Maurice of Agaunum and companions 254
XLVIII Sts Probus, Tarachos and Andronicus 254
XLIX St Sebastian 254
L Sts Trophimus, Dorymedon and Sabbatius 255
LI St Typasius 256
LII St Varus of Egypt 256
LIII Sts Victor and Vicentius 258
PART THREE CONCLUSION
5 Towards a Characterization of the Warrior Saint 261
The terrestrial career of warrior saints 261
The beginnings of the cult of warrior saints 266
The early iconography of warrior saints 270
The emergence of an echelon of warrior saints 274
The function of warrior saints in the lives of terrestrial men 277
The aesthetics of warrior saints 285
Epilogue 291
Bibliography 295
Index 307

Citation preview

The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition

This book is dedicated to the Society of Bollandists and its members, past and present.

The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition CHRISTOPHER WALTER

First published 2003 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2003 Christopher Walter The author has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice.. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Walter, Christopher, 1925– The warrior saints in Byzantine art and tradition 1. Christian saints–Byzantine Empire 2. Christian saints in art 3. Art, Byzantine 4. Icons, Byzantine I. Title 270’ .0922’495 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Walter, Christopher. The warrior saints in Byzantine art and tradition / Christopher Walter. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Christian saints in art. 2. Art, Byzantine. I. Title. N8079.5 .W35 2002 704. 9’4863–dc21 2001048703

ISBN 9781840146943 (hbk) ISBN 9781138253858 (pbk)

Contents List of Plates

ix

Foreword by George Huxley

xv

Introduction PART ONE 1

1

HISTORY AND ANTECEDENTS

The Christian and Antique Background The Old Testament The New Testament Pagan Antiquity The early Patristic period The contribution of popular piety to the conception of the warrior saint

PART TWO

9 9 12 15 22 33

THE BYZANTINE WARRIOR SAINTS

2

The Major Warrior Saints: The Etat-Major I St Theodore Tiron and St Theodore Stratelates II St Demetrius III St Procopius IV St Mercurius V St George

41 44 67 94 101 109

3

Other Major Warrior Saints VI Sts Sergius and Bacchus VII St Eustathius VIII St Kyrion and the XL Martyrs of Sebasteia IX St Hieron and the Martyrs of Melitene X St Menas of Egypt XI St Artemius XII St Arethas XIII St Martin of Tours XIV St Phanourios

145 146 163 170 177 181 191 195 200 206

4 The Minor Warrior Saints XV St Christopher XVI St Cornelius the Centurion v

213 214 217

vi

CONTENTS

XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX Appendix: XXX XXXI XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX XL XLI XLII XLIII XLIV XLV XLVI XLVII XLVIII XLIX L LI LII LIII

The Holy Five of Sebasteia with Sts Orestes and Eustratius St Joannicius Sts Juventinus and Maximinus St Longinus of Caesarea Sts Nestor and Lupus St Nicetas (Nikita) the Goth St Philotheus of Antioch St Phoibammon Sts Polyeuctus of Melitene and Nearchus St Sabbas Stratelates St Sisinnius of Antioch Sts Speusippus, Elasippus and Melesippus St Zosimus of Apollonia

219 222 224 226 227 231 234 235 236 239 241 243 244

Additional Minor Warrior Saints St Alexander St Andrew Stratelates St Anicetus St Athanasius of Clysma Sts Basiliscus, Cleonicus and Eutropius Sts Bonosus and Maximilianus St Callinicus St Callistratus Dasius Sts Emeterius and Chelidonius St Eudocimus St Eusignius Gaza, The XL Defenders of St Gordius of Caesarea Sts John and Paul St Justus Marcellus of Tangier St Maurice of Agaunum and companions Sts Probus, Tarachos and Andronicus St Sebastian Sts Trophimus, Dorymedon and Sabbatius St Typasius St Varus of Egypt Sts Victor and Vicentius

245 245 245 246 247 247 247 247 248 249 249 250 251 251 251 252 253 253 254 254 254 255 256 256 258

CONTENTS

PART THREE 5

vii

CONCLUSION

Towards a Characterization of the Warrior Saint The terrestrial career of warrior saints The beginnings of the cult of warrior saints The early iconography of warrior saints The emergence of an echelon of warrior saints The function of warrior saints in the lives of terrestrial men The aesthetics of warrior saints

261 261 266 270 274 277 285

Epilogue

291

Bibliography

295

Index

307

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List of Plates 1. St Michael, Archangel surrounded by warrior saints, icon, Tesoro di San Marco, Venice (c. 1100). Photograph: Mario Carrieri. 2. Sts George and Demetrius, wall painting, Church of the Anargyroi, Kastoria (late 12th century). Photograph: Nancy P. Sˇevcˇenko. 3. Sts Eustratius, Eugenius and Orestes, wall painting, Church of the Mavriotissa, Kastoria (second half 12th century). Photograph: Nancy P. Sˇevcˇenko. 4. Sts Nestor and Mercurius, wall painting, Church of Nicholas tou Kasnitzi, Kastoria (third quarter 12th century). Photograph: Nancy P. Sˇevcˇenko. 5. Sts George, Demetrius and Theodore Tiron, wall painting, south wall of parecclesion, Kariye Camii, Istanbul (14th century). Photograph: Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Photograph and Fieldwork Archives, Washington, DC. 6. Sts Theodore Tiron, Theodore Stratelates, Mercurius, Procopius and Sabbas Stratelates, wall painting, south wall of parecclesion, Kariye Camii, Istanbul. Photograph: Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Photograph and Fieldwork Archives, Washington, DC. 7. Sts Procopius and Sabbas Stratelates, wall painting, south-west corner of parecclesion, Kariye Camii, Istanbul. Photograph: Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Photograph and Fieldwork Archives, Washington, DC. 8. St Eustathius, wall painting, north wall of parecclesion, Kariye Camii, Istanbul. Photograph: Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Photograph and Fieldwork Archives, Washington, DC. 9. St Artemius or Nicetas, wall painting, north wall of parecclesion, Kariye Camii, Istanbul. Photograph: Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Photograph and Fieldwork Archives, Washington, DC.

ix

x

LIST OF PLATES

10. Decapitation of the Quadi rebels, bas relief, Colonna Antonia, Rome (reign of Marcus Aurelius). Photograph: author. 11. Thracian rider, bas relief, Archaeological Museum, Thasos (4th century?). Photograph: Ecole française d’archéologie, Athens. 12. Sextus Valerius Genalis spearing fallen enemy, funeral stele, Corinium Museum, Cirencester (2nd century?). Photograph: Jocelyn Toynbee. 13. Soldier trampling Amazon, sarcophagus, Archaeological Museum, Thessaloniki (220–230). Photograph: author. 14. Horus spearing crocodile, bas relief, Louvre, Paris (3rd century?). Photograph: Louvre. 15. Adventus of Constantine, medallion, Cabinet des Médailles, Paris (6th century?). Photograph: Cabinet des Médailles. 16. Severus III trampling serpent, coin, present whereabouts unknown (4th century). Photograph: P. Courcelle. 17. Solomon spearing Ozybouth, intaglio, Benaki Museum, Athens (3rd century?). Photograph: Benaki Museum. 18. Bahram Gur hunting, Sassanid plate, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (3rd century?). Photograph: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 10028. 19. Harpocrates, portrait, ceramic plaque, Archaeological Museum, Cairo (3rd century?). Photograph: K.M. Kaufmann. 20. St Menas, portrait Orans, eulogia, Archaeological Museum, Cairo (5th century?). Photograph: K.M. Kaufmann. 21. St George, Liberator, metal cross, Cabinet des Médailles, Paris (c. 581). Photograph: Cabinet des Médailles, Paris. 22. St Philotheus spearing serpent, pen case, Louvre, Paris (before 650). Photograph: Louvre. 23 a & b. St Theodore Tiron, seals, Zacos Collection (8th century?). Photographs: G. Zacos.

LIST OF PLATES

xi

24. Sts George and Christopher, portraits, terra cotta plaque from Vinica, Museum, Skopje (before 733). Photograph: K. Balabanov. 25. St Theodore Tiron killing dragon, terra cotta plaque from Vinica, Museum, Skopje (before 733). Photograph: K. Balabanov. 26. St George, torso, miniature, Messina, Biblioteca Universitaria, San Salvatore 27, f. 256r (11th century). Photograph: Nancy P. Sˇevcˇenko. 27. Sts Theodore Tiron and George killing serpents, fresco, Cappadocia, Mavrucan 3 (c. 600?). Drawing: Nicole Thierry. 28. Sts Theodore Tiron and George killing dragon, fresco, Cappadocia, Yusuf Koç kilisesi (13th century). Photograph: Nicole Thierry. 29. Martyrdom of the Holy Five, miniature, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican graec. 1613, p. 241 (c. 1000). Photograph: Biblioteca Vaticana. 30. Medallions of Sts George, Theodore Stratelates and Tiron, wall painting, Monastery of the Hypapante, Meteora (14th century?). Photograph: Gojko Subotic´. 31. Cycle of Martyrdom of St George, wall painting, Monastery of the Metamorphosis, Meteora (14th century?). Photograph: Gojko Subotic´. 32. Martyrdom of St Eustathius and family, wall painting, Monastery of the Metamorphosis, Meteora (14th century?). Photograph: Gojko Subotic´. 33. St Demetrius before the Emperor Maximian, wall painting, Church of Saint Demetrius, Pec´ (14th century?). Photograph: V. Djuric´. 34. Martyrdom of St Nestor, wall painting, Church of St George, Staro Nagoricˇino (1314–1316). Photograph: Marburg, Bildarchiv 227663. 35. Warrior saint wearing chlamys, mosaic, Rotunda of St George, Thessaloniki (c. 510). Photograph: Hirmer Photoarchiv, Munich. 36. St Theodore Tiron, mosaic, Hosios Loukas (early 11th century). Photograph: author. 37. St Nicetas (Nikita), wall painting, Monastery of Gracˇanica (1328). Photograph: author.

xii

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38. Sts Mercurius and Demetrius, wall painting, Monastery of Gracˇanica (1328), Photograph: author. 39. Sts Eustathius and Mercurius, wall painting, Monastery of Gracˇanica (1328), Photograph: author. 40. St Christopher carrying child Jesus, miniature, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican graec. 60, f. 1r (13th/14th century?). Photograph: Nancy P. Sˇevcˇenko. 41. The Sts Theodore holding hands, wall painting, Monastery of Zrze, Macedonia (1368/9). Photograph: source unknown. 42. Sts George and Christopher with dog’s head, carrying Christ Child, and holding leafy staff, icon, Church of St George, Arpera, Cyprus (1745). Photograph: A. and J.A. Stylianou. 43. St Menas Orant, ivory pyx from Alexandria?, British Museum (6th century). Photograph: British Museum. 44. a, The Sts Theodore; b, Sts George and Demetrius, Harbaville Triptych, details, ivory, Louvre, Paris (950–970?). Photograph: Louvre. 45. a, Sts Stephen and Kyrion; b, Sts Kyros, George and Theodore, Borradaile Triptych, details, ivory, British Museum, London (10th century). Photograph: British Museum. 46. XL Martyrs and warrior saints, triptych, ivory, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia (c. 1000). Photograph: Anthony Cutler. 47. Deësis with Sts Nestor, Demetrius and Procopius, metal plaque, Mayer van den Bergh Museum, Antwerp, Belgium (11th century). Photograph: © Museum Mayer van den Bergh. 48. St Theodore Stratelates, miniature, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican graec. 1613, p. 383 (c. 1000). Photograph: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. 49. St Demetrius killing Kalojan, coffer, Monastery of Vatopedi, Mount Athos (11th century?). Photograph: A. Xyngopoulos. 50. Sts Sergius and Bacchus, miniature, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican graec. 1679, f. 48v (12th century). Photograph: Biblioteca Vaticana.

LIST OF PLATES

xiii

51. St Varus and companion killing a prostrate emperor, miniature, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican graec. 1679, f. 137v (12th century). Photograph: Biblioteca Vaticana. 52. Constantine I as warrior, miniature, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barberini graec. 372, f. 100 (11th century). Photograph: Biblioteca Vaticana. 53. Vision of St Procopius, miniature, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barberini graec, 372, f.112v (11th century). Photograph: Collection chrétienne et byzantine, Paris. 54. Vision of St Eustathius, miniature, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barberini graec. 372, f.166v (11th century). Photograph: Collection chrétienne et byzantine, Paris. 55. The Holy Five, miniature, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, E. 89 inf., f. 211r (12th century). Photograph: Nancy P. Sˇevcˇenko. 56. St Menas, miniature, John Rylands Library, Manchester, Coptic, S. 33 (9th century?). Photograph: Reproduced by courtesy of the Director and Librarian, the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. 57. St Theodore Orientalis, miniature, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, Coptic manuscript M 613, f. 1v (late 9th century). Photograph: Pierpont Morgan Library. 58. St George on horseback, icon, British Museum, London (c. 1250). Photograph: British Museum. 59. St Phanourios (misnamed Demetrius), icon, Andreadis Collection, Athens (late 15th century). After exhibition catalogue, From Byzantium to El Greco. Greek Frescoes and Icons, no. 37. 60. The Theodores embracing on horseback, icon, Museum, Plovdiv (19th century). After P. Toteva, Icones de la region de Plovdiv (Sophia, 1975). 61. St Nicetas (Nikita) enthroned, icon, whereabouts unknown (16th century?). Photograph: Okunev. 62. St Zosimos Kephalophoros, icon, Church of St Zosimos, Sozopol (1847). After K. Paskaleva.

xiv

LIST OF PLATES

63. Four warrior saints on horseback, metal cross, detail, Museum of Georgian Art, Tbilissi. Photograph: present whereabouts unknown. 64. Basil II surrounded by warrior saints, miniature, Venice, San Marco, Basil II’s Psalter (c. 1000). Photograph: author. 65. St George investing King Milutin, Church of St George, Staro Nagoricˇino (1314–1216). Drawing: Branislav Todic´. 66. St Longinus and soldiers at Christ’s tomb, miniature, Chludov Psalter, f. 26v, State Historical Museum, Moscow, 129G (9th century). Photograph: Collection chrétienne et byzantine, Paris. 67. St Nestor killing Lyaeus, wall painting, Monastery of Markov, Macedonia (1376–1381). Photograph: author. 68. St Mercurius killing Julian the Apostate, Monastery of St Panteleimon, Agia, Thessaly (1548?). Photograph: author. 69. Military programme, Pigeon House, Çavus¸in, Cappadocia: a, drawing, north apse and wall, Nicephorus Phocas and family, John Tzimisces and Melias; b, north apse, drawing, Nicephoras Phocas and family; c, wall painting, Nicephorus Phocas and family; d, wall painting, north wall, John Tzmisces and Melias; e, wall painting, north wall, XL Martyrs (c. 964/5). Drawings and photographs: Nicole Thierry. 70. The Arch of Eginhard, military programme; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 10440, drawing (date of original now lost, 9th century?). Photograph: Bibliothèque nationale. 71. Procession of warriors, terrestrial and celestial, wall painting, Church of the Holy Cross, Patrauti, Romania (1487). Photograph: M. Berza.

Foreword Dr Christopher Walter had an English upbringing, but his scholarly outlook is that of a continental European. After Westminster and service in the Royal Air Force, he read History at Christ Church, Oxford. His doctoral studies in Byzantine art were directed in Paris by Professor Grabar and, having joined the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption, he studied for the priesthood in Rome. As an Assumptionist he became a continuator of a fine tradition of Byzantine studies among whose practitioners have been the Reverend Fathers Venance Grumel, Jean Darrouzès, Raymond Janin, and Vitalien Laurent at the Institut français d’études byzantines. The Assumptionists had mostly been concerned with philology, history, and topography, but Dr Walter, though also well grounded in matters textual, has devoted himself to Byzantine art. Over the years he has published a distinguished series of books, articles, and collected studies, and the publications have continued, as the present substantial volume shows, into the middle of the eighth decade of his life. His writings have brought international respect for his scholarship, and it is entirely appropriate that this study of warrior saints is, with permission, dedicated to those outstanding investigators of hagiography, the Society of Bollandists. Indeed, if any one scholar may be said in spirit to preside over this book, it is the supreme editor of hagiographical texts, the Bollandist Father Hippolyte Delehaye. Dr Walter and I used to meet sometimes at Byzantine gatherings a quarter of a century ago, but we did not become friends until we were both in Athens in the years 1986–89, he at the Centre byzantin and I at the Gennadius Library. I have happy memories of seminars held at the Centre when congenial learning and generous hospitality were dispensed by him. As a friend, I am honoured to have been invited to write this foreword, the more so since I have no specialist skill in Byzantine iconography. A distinct merit of Dr Walter’s scholarship is his command of Slavonic languages, notably Serbo-Croat and Bulgarian. His linguistic ability enabled him to travel to remote parts of the Balkans and to make use of academic publications on Byzantine antiquities not easily accessible in the West. He was also able to bring intellectual support to persons suffering from the constraints of Communist authority. A second merit arises from the fact of his being a priest, albeit not an Orthodox one. In an increasingly secular and materialistic epoch many modern scholars have xv

xvi

FOREWORD

difficulty in entering into the spiritual life of the medieval Christian East. With his alertness to the power of liturgy and ritual among the Byzantines, Dr Walter brings us closer to their hearts and souls; and as the warrior saints, historical or fictitious, gaze down with dynamic serenity, he shows how they possessed the power to reflect and to strengthen social cohesion and military discipline when the soldiers of the new Israel defended or extended the territories ruled from Constantinople, the new Jerusalem, against the surrounding ethné. With good reason many of these saintly leaders in battle were deemed to be officers of high rank: they too gave leadership. This is an immensely learnèd treatise. Readers will have to work hard, but they will be amply rewarded, because Dr Walter has the ability to open windows, hitherto shuttered, upon many vistas of Byzantine art, culture, and thought in the Mediterranean world and beyond. I thank Dr Walter for having taught me so much, and I am confident that those who read and return to this book will be equally grateful to its percipient, industrious, and erudite author. G.L. Huxley Trinity College Dublin

Introduction To define what a warrior saint was in the Byzantine tradition is seemingly simple: he was a saint who was a warrior. However, once one plunges into the enormous literature in which they figure, difficulties arise. The first is that authors are selective. They restrict their studies to a small number of warrior saints for evident reasons. Thus Hippolyte Delehaye in his magisterial work, Les légendes grecques des saints militaires, limited himself to the members of what he called the état-major. Miodrag Markovic´ published what is, to my mind, the best synthetical study of warrior saints, but it is focused on the echelon of them painted in the church at Decˇani. Paul Underwood also published a detailed study of warrior saints, but it is again focused on a single echelon, which is in the parecclesion of the Kariye Camii at Istanbul. Many studies are a section of a more comprehensive one, such as Anna Marava-Chatzinikolaou’s paragraphs devoted to warrior saints in her all-embracing article ‘Heilige’ in the Lexikon für byzantinische Kunst. Henry Maguire has also written important pages about the characteristics of their portraits in comparison with those of other categories of saints. Warrior saints are described en passant in studies of groups or of individual churches and again in corpora like Ioli Kalavrezou-Maxeiner’s of steatites or Nancy Patterson Sˇevcˇenko’s of illuminated Metaphrastic volumes. However, the great majority of published studies about warrior saints are monographs concerned with a single one, or even a single aspect of him, such as Temily Mark-Weiner’s and mine about St George. In every case, the question ‘what is a warrior saint?’ receives, for the most part implicitly, the self-evident reply that he is a saint who was a warrior! I have begun by calling attention to those scholars who are specialists in Byzantine art, because this is my own primary field of study. However, if one sets out to interpret iconography, it is necessary to extend one’s attention to what has been published about warrior saints by historians and hagiographers. They began to explore the field much earlier than art historians in a somewhat controversial climate, in which some scholars were intent to show that most saints were adaptations of pagan heroes, while others disengaged what was historically authentic in their lives from the century-long accretions of pious legend. The result was the publication, which continues, of scientific editions of their Acts, Lives and Passions. The research carried out by the Bollandists and published in their Acta sanctorum, 1

2

INTRODUCTION

their Analecta and their Bibliographiae is not only superb in its quality, but also provides an assured basis for the research of other scholars in the field. The Bibliotheca sanctorum, published in Rome in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, and the more recent Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium sponsored by Dumbarton Oaks are other essential works of reference. Nevertheless, the question ‘What is a warrior saint?’ still awaits a comprehensive reply. The late Alexander Kazhdan, whose own ventures into the field are valuable, observed that the cult of warrior saints requires special investigation. He was perfectly right but, given his multitude of activities, he was unable to undertake such an investigation himself. No doubt I have been presumptuously daring in attempting to fill the lacuna which Kazhdan left, and my way of setting about it will not receive universal approval. Moreover, it will certainly not be exhaustive. My study is divided into three parts. In Part One, the background and antecedents to the emergence of the Byzantine concept of warrior saints are summarized. This section includes a cursory review of attitudes to the military and war in the Septuagint, followed by an account of how these attitudes were interpreted and modified in the New Testament, particularly under the influence of spiritualizing tendencies, notably the analogous use of military language to describe the transcendental struggle between the forces of good and evil. The Byzantines, like the Israelites, were a bellicose people, not much given to turning the other cheek. Their military organization and their strategy have given rise to endless studies, some of which I have been able to consult. John Haldon, for instance, has recently completed a synthetic study, The Byzantines at War. Historians consult the hagiographical literature when it provides relevant material; obvious examples are the texts about Theodore Tiron and Joannicius. However, they do not usually display much interest in the Byzantine military ethos which was profoundly religious. Possibly the present study, approaching the subject from the angle of their devotion to warrior saints, may inspire historians to take this aspect more seriously. I give attention to the emergence of the essential elements of the hagiography of warrior saints, notably martyrdom (most warrior saints, but by no means all, were martyrs), and the function of martyrs to intercede for and intervene in the lives of terrestrial men, with particular reference to warrior saints. A formal distinction was introduced into hagiography between the celestial and the terrestrial army; a technical language, taken from military and athletic sources, was created, such a term as miles Christi, which, while not applied uniquely to warrior saints, was particularly appropriate to them. I also trace the origins of the mounted warrior destroying an obnoxious person or beast, perhaps their most outstanding iconographical type.

INTRODUCTION

3

Having established their background and antecedents, I turn in Part Two to the examination of individual warrior saints, in order to assemble the basic material necessary to define common characteristics. Here, I came up against methodological difficulties. There are, in fact, a great many warrior saints commemorated in Byzantine liturgical calendars. However, for a large number of them, apart from their commemorations, the literary sources provide little or no information. Moreover these minor warrior saints are for the most part rarely, if ever, represented in Byzantine art. Nevertheless, it would have been regrettable to ignore them completely. I decided, therefore, to relegate them to an appendix. Those whom I have retained, particularly if they were Eastern warriors, received much popular devotion, expressed both in hagiography and in art. My list extends well beyond Hippolyte Delehaye’s état-major. I have paid particular attention to their military career, information about which is usually sparse, their trial, passion and execution, how devotion to their relics and icons developed and the role attributed to them when they were promoted from the terrestrial to the celestial army. Another difficulty, particularly evident for the more illustrious warrior saints, is to decide what importance to attribute to the historicity of the information provided by archaeological evidence for their cult and by hagiographical literature. The problem, which was raised long ago in the so-called Gelasian decree, was much investigated in the nineteenth century; it continues to intrigue contemporary specialists in hagiographical studies. However, for my present purpose, it is of secondary importance. Hagiography was practised in Byzantine society as a literary genre. Their hagiographers were not endowed with the modern spirit of criticism. The faithful rarely called in question the historicity of what their hagiographers recounted. What mattered principally for them was the efficacy of the warrior saints, their capacity to intervene in favour of those who offered a cult to them. Consequently, except when a warrior saint’s Passion was evidently fabulous, I rarely enter into the question of the historical value of what hagiographers recounted. I attribute considerable importance to the decorative programmes of churches in Cappadocia, because the period when they were painted was a watershed. Behind it lay the emergence of a distinctive cult of warrior saints before Iconoclasm. In Cappadocia, the Triumph of Orthodoxy and the consequent renewal of the cult of saints is clearly revealed in the decorative programmes of the churches. All the evidence for the cult of warrior saints in this region cannot be presented exhaustively, because much has yet to be published. However, the evidence which I adduce would have been far less abundant had I not received constant help from Nicole Thierry and Catherine Jolivet-Lévy, to both of whom my debt of gratitude is great. Nicole Thierry, in particular, went to great

4

INTRODUCTION

trouble in vetting what I had written about warrior saints in Cappadocia, on occasions providing me with hitherto unpublished material from her personal notes. In Part Three, the final section, drawing on the material gathered together in the preceding one, I have attempted to answer my opening question: ‘What is a Byzantine warrior saint?’, and another question: ‘What was his place in Byzantine devotional practice?’ As to the first question, the Byzantines themselves would not have given an identical answer at every period of their history. At first, they hardly distinguished warriors from other martyrs. The majority were reputed to have been put to death for refusing to renounce their Christian faith under pressure from the last persecuting emperors. Indeed, in iconography many continued to be considered primarily as martyrs. They were represented in civil rather than military dress holding a martyr’s cross, a fact that has puzzled some scholars like Enrica Follieri. However, progressively it became the practice to represent them in military costume, particularly after the Triumph of Orthodoxy. One cannot but be impressed by the Byzantines’ respect for military status, which increased in later centuries, no doubt because they needed celestial protectors against their terrestrial enemies, Catholic in part but principally Moslem. In iconography from the tenth century, warrior saints began to be recognized as a caste; and certain of them, particularly the members of Delehaye’s état-major, were adopted as patrons by imperial and noble families. With the augmentation of patronage, increasing numbers of churches were built, dedicated to a warrior saint, usually a member of the étatmajor. New iconographical types emerged. Portraits were executed of warriors not only standing or on horseback but also enthroned. They were also represented investing a princely patron or rescuing a captive, generally a youth, from enemies who had taken him prisoner. Yet, apart from St George, biographical cycles were rarely executed for them. A final rare iconographical type of the warrior presenting his severed head to Christ appeared late and again almost exclusively for St George. The aesthetics of warrior saints, usually strong, handsome young men, required examination, together with the prevalence for some of ‘twinning’, two warriors associated in the same picture. Meanwhile, the hagiographers had been at work. Their lack of interest in historical accuracy often surprises. The greater number of their Passions was composed or rewritten in the so-called epic genre. There is much plagiarism and repetition in these Passions, but also flagrant inventiveness, which accounts in part for the amount of variety within the genre. Their military careers and their attitudes to war are presented, if summarily, with considerable diversity. Thanks to these Passions and their commemoration in the liturgy, the warrior saints attracted a far

INTRODUCTION

5

wider public than just the members of high-ranking families and military officers. What made some so much more popular than others is difficult to ascertain. Perhaps it was the degree of their response to invocation. Their office was to help and protect individual clients as well as the Byzantine armies in battle, and in due course the Byzantine Empire; but some were invoked in favour of the deceased. Their cult boomed among converted peoples, the Bulgarians and particularly the Serbs, for whom Miodrag Markovic´ is the outstanding authority. Since it was necessary to impose limits on my study, their cult among the Russians, the Armenians, the Romanians and the Copts only figures incidentally in this study. Other scholars have helped me with individual entries, calling my attention to useful studies and sometimes controlling my text. Their help is acknowledged in footnotes. However, I should make special mention here of what I have learnt from David Woods. Apart from publishing numerous articles concerned principally with the historical authenticity of early warrior saints, he has set up a website, http://www.ucc.ie/ milmart/index.html (‘The Military Martyrs’). I should also acknowledge the help of the devoted staff of the libraries in which I have worked, notably those of the Ecole française d’archéologie in Athens, of the Institut français d’études byzantines and of the Collège de France in Paris. Moreover, the members of the publisher’s staff, whose arduous technical work makes the production of a book possible, often go unrecognized. Finally I must express my very warm thanks to Professor George Huxley, for having read through and eliminated many errors from my draft of this text and for contributing the Foreword.

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PART ONE

History and Antecedents

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CHAPTER ONE

The Christian and Antique Background Before examining the dossier of individual Byzantine warrior saints, it would be desirable to sketch in their cultural background. Notoriously, Byzantine culture was hybrid, incorporating elements from Old and New Testament tradition, from Antiquity and from other sources, which exercised an influence more particularly on the Eastern regions of the Empire and on Egypt. These latter sources can be treated later in passing, but it is necessary to insist at once upon the Byzantine debt to what is recorded in the Bible, commented and developed by the Fathers of the Church, and upon the heritage of Greek and Roman tradition.

The Old Testament In the West the Old Testament was known primarily in the Latin Vulgate. Only since the Reformation has serious attention been given to the Hebrew text, while books which existed only in Greek were long set aside as apocryphal. Things were different in the East. There not only the books which had been translated from the Hebrew but also those known as deuterocanonical only existing in Greek were incorporated into the Septuagint.1 These, supplemented by pseudepigrapha, have always been – and still are – accepted in Byzantine tradition. No doubt the Hebrew text is the more accurate source for the study of Israelite tradition, but failure to refer to the Greek text, of which Western scholars have sometimes been guilty, can lead to errors in interpreting Byzantine texts and imagery. Some possibly forgot that when the Old Testament was quoted in the New, it was invariably from the Septuagint in one of its versions. Here, references to the Old Testament will be made uniquely to the Septuagint.2 1 Recently Western scholars have been studying the Septuagint more assiduously. For an excellent survey of their studies up to the time of its publication, vid. G. Dorival, M. Harl, O. Munich, La Bible grecque des Septante. Du judaïsme hellénistique au christianisme ancien, Paris, 1988. For the pseudepigrapha, which are now being systematically published, vid. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha I, Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, ed. J.H. Charlesworth, New York, 1983. 2 I use the critical text of A. Rahlfs, which is being progressively superseded as the books of the Old Testament are published in La Bible d’Alexandrie, ed. M. Harl. The edition

9

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HISTORY AND ANTECEDENTS

When early Christian Fathers and their Byzantine successors interpreted the text of the Septuagint, their method was generally typological. They sought out the prophetic types (Ù‡ÔÈ), whose full significance would only become apparent with the advent of Christ. This is particularly evident in their choice of illustrations for the marginal Psalters.3 However, their use of typology was not limited to Christ; it was extended to their capital, Constantinople, of which Jerusalem was the type. Allusions to the city as the New Sion are multiple and commonplace. It followed that the Israelite ethos of Jerusalem became the Byzantine ethos of Constantinople, and that, just as the Israelites were a people protected and favoured by the Lord of hosts, so were the Byzantines. Moses transmitted to his people the Ten Commandments, of which the sixth was: Thou shalt not kill (√é ÊÔÓ‡ÛÂȘ, Exodus 20:17). However, this prohibition was not extended to enemies. Not only was it interpreted by the lex talionis: ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ (Deuteronomy 19:21), but also the celestial emissaries of the Lord of hosts intervened to help the Israelites in war and to protect them from their enemies, perpetrating hecatombs on their behalf. All the first-born in the land of Egypt were smitten (Exodus 12:29); the Red Sea was held back so that the Israelites could pass, and then allowed to flow again in order to drown their pursuers: ‘Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea’ (Exodus 15:1). They were helped to occupy the Promised Land after the indigenous population had been expelled or exterminated, and, once established there, to defend their territory against hostile neighbours, notably the Philistines. This conduct may seem far from our contemporary ethos, according to which, at least in theory, the rights of indigenous people are respected; however, it was imitated by the Byzantines. King David had a character with multiple facets. Author of the Psalms, man of prayer, ancestor of the Messiah, he was also an outstanding military hero, the slayer of Goliath and triumphant in battle. ‘Saul made havoc among thousands but David among tens of thousands’, sang the Israelite women to Saul’s disgruntlement after one of David’s victories of the Septuagint, with an archaic English translation, The Septuagint Version Greek and English, published by S. Bagster and J. Pott, New York/London (no date), unfortunately omits the deuterocanonical books. Modern translations of the Bible, for example The New English Bible, in editions published from 1970, and La Bible de Jérusalem, latest edition 1998, include them. A translation of the Septuagint text into modern Greek exists, ^H êÁ›· °Ú·Ê‹, Athens, 1997. Often the Hebrew and Greek are identical, but translations made from the Hebrew should always be controlled by the Greek. 3 C. Walter, ‘Christological Themes in the Byzantine Marginal Psalters from the Ninth to the Eleventh Century’, REB 44, 1986, pp. 269–87; reprinted, Prayer and Power, no. IX.

THE CHRISTIAN AND ANTIQUE BACKGROUND

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(I Kings 18:7).4 David was an exemplar for Byzantine emperors to whom the sobriquet New David was frequently attributed. The ethics of the bellicose Israelites were accepted more readily by the Byzantines, it seems, than the gentler teaching of Christ, who, even if he said that he had come not to bring peace but a sword (Matthew 10:34), nevertheless rejected the lex talionis in favour of turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:38–9) and of loving one’s enemies (Luke 6:27). Byzantine behaviour in war against neighbouring peoples, Persians, Arabs, and Slavs, latter-day Canaanites and Philistines, was modelled on Old rather than New Testament precedents. Examples will turn up in due course. The Lord of hosts did not intervene directly in the life of the Israelites but rather through the intermediary of his celestial retinue, his angels, or, more exactly, his messengers. They have nothing in common with the winged figures, so familiar in Christian iconography, which were modelled on Antique angels of victory. In the Old Testament, they were presented differently, usually taking on human form. At Mambre Abraham’s visitors (one of whom may actually have been Jehovah himself) are described as three men (ÙÚÂÖ˜ ôÓ‰Ú˜) (Genesis 18:2); Lot was visited by two angels (‰‡Ô ôÁÁÂÏÔÈ) (Genesis 19:1). Abraham was stayed from sacrificing Isaac by an angel of the Lord calling him out of heaven (âοÏÂÛÂÓ ·éÙeÓ ôÁÁÂÏÔ˜ K˘Ú›Ô˘ âÎ ÙÔÜ ÔéÚ·ÓÔÜ) (Genesis 22:11). There are references (Job 1:6; 2:1) to the angels of God, called ‘his sons’ in Hebrew, assembling before the Lord, in order to receive his commands. Although the word ‘angel’ is not used specifically in the passage (III Kings 22:19), Mihaeas is said to have had a vision of the God of Israel sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing to his right and left (ÄÛ· ì ÛÙÚ·ÙÈa ÙÔÜ ÔéÚ·ÓÔÜ Â›ÛÙ‹ÎÂÈ ÂÚd ·éÙfiÓ) (III Kings 22:19). However, their functions, benevolent for the Israelites except when they were punished for infidelity, were not always military. Angels with a proper name only emerge late, Raphael as the guide and companion of Tobias (Tobit 5:4–5) who appeared under the guise of a young man, Gabriel, who explained a prophetic vision to Daniel (Daniel 8:16–27), and Michael, described as one of the first princes (Â¥˜ ÙáÓ àÚ¯fiÓÙˆÓ), who intervened against the Persians (Daniel 10:13). The title àÚ¯ÈÛÙÚ¿ÙËÁÔ˜ is first attested Joshua 5:15 and in the apocalypses.5 God communicated with the Israelites rather through his prophets than his angels, who, moreover, did not exercise the office of intercessors. The notion that members of the celestial court could intercede for men on earth only appeared with the Maccabees, together with that of 4 I Samuel 18 :7, according to translations from the Hebrew. I use here the names attributed to the books in the Septuagint. 5 Vid. Lampe, sub verbo.

12

HISTORY AND ANTECEDENTS

survival after death and of accession to heaven by martyrdom. The four books of Maccabees were composed very late, the first probably in the second century BC in Hebrew. The second was composed before 63 BC, possibly earlier, partly in Aramaic but mainly in Greek, the third between 120 BC and AD 70 and the fourth between AD 35 and 100, both in Greek.6 This last book belongs rather to the genre of hagiography. For our purposes the second is by far the most important as a source for the origins of the cult of martyrs in general, not only of warrior saints, even if the Maccabees, by reason of their struggle for the Law and the Temple, were themselves warrior saints avant la lettre. The notions of the resurrection of the dead, implicit in Esaias 26:19 (àÓ·ÛÙ‹ÛÔÓÙ·È Ô› ÓÂÎÚÔ›) and less so in Job 19:26 (âd Áɘ àÓ·ÛÙÉÛ·È ÙÔ ‰¤ÚÌ· ÌÔ˘), is explicit in Daniel 12:2–3, but even more so in II Maccabees 7:9, where the second Maccabean replies to his executioner: ‘You exclude us from this present life but the King of the universe will raise us up to a life everlastingly made new.’ The fourth replied similarly (7:14): ‘Better to be killed by men and cherish God’s promise to raise us again. There will be no resurrection to life for you’. A long passage (II Maccabees 6:18–7:41) extols the merit of those who preferred death to denying their faith. The trustworthy dream, ‘a sort of waking vision’ recounted by Nicanor (II Maccabees 15:11–16), is even more remarkable. He saw the former high priest Onias praying for the whole Jewish community with outstretched hands. A figure of great age and dignity then appeared, who was introduced to Nicanor as the prophet Jeremias. The prophet presented Judas Maccabaeus with a golden sword, saying: ‘Take this holy sword, the gift of God, and with it crush your enemies.’ This passage, explicitly referring to victory in battle, greatly impressed Origen who developed from it his theology of intercession.

The New Testament The Books of Maccabees bridge the gap between the old and new dispensations. The apostles accepted Christ as the Messiah, looking to him to liberate them from their Roman overlords but in the spirit of the old dispensation. However, Christ made it clear that his mission was not that. When, after his Resurrection, they asked him whether this was the time when he would establish once again the sovereignty of Israel, he replied enigmatically that it was not for them to know about dates or

6

Dorival etc., op. cit. supra (n. 2), p. 85.

THE CHRISTIAN AND ANTIQUE BACKGROUND

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times which the Father had set within his own control. He then left them, ascending into heaven (Acts 1:6–9). In the Gospels, those fruits of meditation upon Christ and his mission, perspectives of God’s design for the Israelites and their Christian successors are presented, not, indeed, in an elaborated and carefully reasoned form, but rather in that of frequently recurring obiter dicta. The essential struggle is no longer between the chosen people and their enemies but between the forces of good and evil, although allusion is made to their combat (Hebrews 11:34), where the Israelites’ valiance in war is attributed to their faith. What is rarely evident in the Old Testament but constantly recalled in the New is that the world is in the power of demonic forces. All believers in Christ and his mission are committed to combating these forces, with whom the struggle will continue until the end of time. They are not alone in this combat; God’s army under the leadership of the archangel Michael will finally overcome the Dragon (Apocalypse 12:7).7 That there was a celestial army, ÏÉ©Ô˜ ÛÙÚ·ÙÈĘ ÔéÚ·Ó›Ô˘, was revealed at Christ’s birth, when it appeared to the shepherds, led by an angel, singing the praises of God (Luke 2:13). Christ also alluded to it, when he told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world; had it been, his people would have fought in order to deliver him from the Jews (John 18:16). The heavenly host was to be augmented by an army of martyrs. However, the word martyr (Ì¿ÚÙ˘˜) had yet to acquire the sense of a person who was put to death because he was an inexorable witness to the divinity of Christ. In both the Septuagint and the New Testament, the meaning of the word and its cognates is witness, tout court. For example, in Psalms 24:10, it is written that ‘All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to them that seek his covenant and his testimonies’ (Ùa Ì·ÚÙ‡ÚÈ· ·éÙÔÜ). This is illustrated in the ninth-century Chludov Psalter, f. 22v, quite wrongly, by a barely clad figure lying with his arms outstretched and blood flowing from many wounds,8 because, by the time the Psalter was painted, the word martyr had acquired its specialized meaning. In Serbian and other Slav languages, confusion was eliminated by distinguishing between svedok (witness) and mucˇenik (martyr).

7

Michael receives the title of àÚ¯¿ÁÁÂÏÔ˜ in the New Testament only in Jude 9. I follow the Septuagint numbering of the Psalms. C. Walter, ‘“Latter-Day” Saints and the Image of Christ in Ninth-Century Marginal Psalters’, REB 45, 1987, p. 207; reprinted, Prayer and Power, no. X. For an exhaustive study of the use of the word Ì·ÚÙ‡ÚÈÔÓ in the Psalms to designate the Law, vid. M. Harl, Y a-t-il une influence du ‘Grec Biblique’ sur la langue spirituelle des chrétiens? Exemples tirés du psaume 118 et de ses commentateurs d’Origène à Théodoret. La langue de Japhet, Paris, 1994, pp. 183–202. Vid. also R. Ousterhout, ‘The Temple, the Sepulchre and the Martyrion of the Saviour’, Gesta 29, 1990, p. 51. 8

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In the Apocalypse the notion, later to become explicit, that those who in reward for witnessing inexorably to Christ’s divinity were resurrected and went directly to the celestial court, is implicit in some passages, although the word martyr is not used. They are called ‘the armies in heaven’ (Ùa ÛÙÚ·ÙÂÜÌ·Ù· Ùa âÓ Ùˇá ÔéÚ·Óˇá), who follow the Word of God clad in white and riding on white horses (Apocalypse 19:14) or ‘the hundred and forty-four thousand who alone from the whole world had been ransomed’ (Apocalypse 14:3). The ransomed, of whom warrior saints were only a minority although the earliest were assumed to have been faithful witnesses to death, are presented as constituting an army, but this word was used rather as a collective noun to signify a great number, a militant rather than a military host. Military terms, in fact, are frequent in the New Testament, used, of course, literally when reference was made to the occupying Roman army or its members. The centurions stand out: Longinus,9 who witnessed to Christ’s divinity and Cornelius,10 who was converted by St Peter. In Byzantine hagiography both were said to have abandoned their army career, achieving sanctity as bishops. Military terms were frequently used analogously with reference to fighting the good fight (úÓ· ÛÙÚ·ÙÂ‡Ë … ÙcÓ Î·ÏcÓ ÛÙÚ·Ù›·Ó) against the powers of evil (I Timothy 1:18). St Paul had a penchant for analogies from sport11 and warfare. The most outstanding example occurs in Ephesians 6:10–17: Put on all the armour which God provides, so that you can stand firm against the devices of the devil. For our fight is not against human forces but cosmic powers … Therefore take up God’s armour … Fasten on the belt of truth; for coat of mail put on integrity … Take up the great shield of faith … Take salvation for helmet … For sword take … the words that come from God.

The passage presents lucidly the change in orientation from the Septuagint to the New Testament, although some of Paul’s metaphors 9

Vid. infra, Part 2, XX. Vid. infra, Part 2, XVI. Nor should the anonymous centurion be forgotten who had a synagogue built at his own expense for the Jews at Capernaum, Matthew 8:5–13, Luke 7:1–10, and the one called Julius, who protected Paul on his voyage to Italy, Acts 27. In the New Testament the officers of the Roman occupying army are all presented as competent and just. 11 Z. Stewart, ‘Greek Crowns and Christian Martyrs’, Mémorial André-Jean Festugière, ed. by E. Lucchesi and H.D. Saffrey, Cahiers d’orientalisme 10, Geneva, 1984, pp. 263–6. St Paul never used the word ô©ÏËÛȘ, which occurs only once in the New Testament, Hebrews 10:32, to denote the challenge of suffering from persecution. However, he did once use the verb à©ÏÂÖÓ, II Timothy 2:5, using the analogy of the athlete receiving his crown only if he adheres to the rules. He used the term Û٤ʷÓÔ˜ in a sportive context, I Corinthians 9:25; II Timothy 2:5. 10

THE CHRISTIAN AND ANTIQUE BACKGROUND

15

are taken from Esaias, notably 59:17. An expression frequently used in patristic writings and hagiography, the miles Christi, and the promotion attributed to warrior saints from the terrestrial to the celestial army probably derive ultimately from it. One theme introduced in II Maccabees was not, it seems, taken up in the New Testament. This was the power of intercession attributed to saints in heaven. Christ was considered to be the unique mediator between mankind and the Father (Hebrews 7:20–8). Martyrs, in the later sense, were not given special honour, nor was the word holy (±ÁÈÔ˜) reserved to them. All Christians were potential witnesses and saints. In the Septuagint, ±ÁÈÔ˜, rarely applied to persons in classical Greek, was used to translate over 20 Hebrew words, with the same sense of ‘holy’. St Paul used it regularly in his greetings to the ±ÁÈÔÈ in Rome, Corinth or Ephesus. It is usually paraphrased in modern translations as God’s people. The practice of giving a decent burial was endemic among the Israelites. Tobit risked reprisals during the captivity by going out after sunset in order to bury his dead compatriots (Tobit 1:16–2:8). Christians continued the same practice. When John the Baptist was beheaded, his disciples came to take away his body and bury it (Matthew 14:12). Stephen, after being stoned to death, ‘was given burial by certain devout men who made a great lamentation for him’ (Acts 8:2). However, this was not undertaken because the dead were, in the later sense, martyrs. No special honour was given to their burial place. No distinction was made between the graves of the ordinary run of Christians and of those who had died a violent death. The cult of relics and the building of sanctuaries to contain them began much later.

Pagan Antiquity There were analogies in pagan and Christian tradition. Delehaye cites the case of Electra begging the spirit of Agamemnon to make Orestes return from exile, as well as the speech of Diotima in the Symposium about the intermediaries between gods and mortals, who were influential in both directions, transmitting men’s sacrifices and petitions to the gods and divine orders and recompense for their sacrifices to men.12 However, the greatest debt of the Bible, particularly of the Septuagint, to Greek Antiquity was to its vocabulary. This debt is admirably presented by Dorival and his collaborators.13 The vast majority of words used in

12 13

H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd edn, Brussels, 1933, pp. 100–1. Op. cit. supra (n. 1), pp. 241–59.

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the Septuagint belong to the classical Greek language; some of them are already found in the works of Homer and Hesiod, but, although the Septuagint was written in Greek, it was the Greek of the Alexandrian koine, popular rather than literary. The writers, of course, encountered the difficulty of all translators that words in one language do not have an exact equivalent in another. In order to overcome it, the writers created neologisms, notably by adding a prefix or a suffix to an existing word; occasionally if a Hebrew word was obscure in its meaning, a hapax for example, it was transliterated. Their vocabulary was free from the theological connotations which some words received in the New Testament. However, the more recent specialists reject the thesis that in the Septuagint the Old Testament was consistently hellenized, thus acquiring a philosophical character. In fact, equilibrium was maintained between the Greek and Jewish elements expressed. Hellenization was endemic in the Jewish Diaspora, but the Septuagint also judaized the koine, giving words which had hitherto been pagan and profane typically Israelite connotations; it facilitated access to Israelite traditions for the Gentiles (ö©ÓË), among whom they proselytized. An obvious example of this opening up was the translation of the Divine Names: the Tetragrammaton YHWH was replaced by K‡ÚÈÔ˜ or ï òøÓ (Exodus 3:14) and Sabaoth by ¶·ÓÙÔÎÚ¿ÙˆÚ, a term not used in classical Greek, which was taken over by pagan syncretists to designate the Sun God.14 The influence of the innumerable citations of the Septuagint by New Testament and Patristic authors led to its adoption by the Christian Church, and its rejection by the Jews in favour of the Hebrew text, particularly when the Orthodox began to indulge in polemics against them. In the third century, rabbinic Jews denounced the Septuagint as execrable; the translation of the Torah into Greek which had been commissioned by king Ptolemy was as deleterious for Israel as the fabrication of the golden calf.15 The elaboration of Christian theology with the aid of classical philosophy, notably that of the Stoics, was to come later, thanks particularly to the Cappadocian Fathers who were steeped in Antique culture. However, the Lives of pagan celebrities began to influence hagiography earlier.16 M. van Oytfanghe has analysed lucidly the symbiosis between the culture of Late Antiquity and the new elements which are specifically Christian. The study of the subject has been rendered more complex by 14

Ibid., pp. 254–9. Ibid., p. 124. 16 M. van Oytfanghe, ‘L’hagiographie: un “genre” chrétien ou antique tardif?’, An. Boll. 111, 1993, pp. 135–88. 15

THE CHRISTIAN AND ANTIQUE BACKGROUND

17

the ideological apriorism of some earlier scholars, who set out to explain the genesis of hagiography in terms of pre-existent Hellenistic religious traditions, underestimating or neglecting the influence of Christology and New Testament tradition. Some of those who indulge in demythologizing have advanced the hypothesis that there existed a lost ‘protogospel’ based on a Life of Hercules. A literary genre was created, known as ‘aretology’, from the Greek àÚÂÙÔÏfiÁÔ˜, an official attached to temples. His office was to recount the miraculous deeds of a god or of a human being with supernatural endowments who was venerated there. The àÚÂÙÔÏfiÁÔ˜ also interpreted dreams inspired by divinities or holy men. Delehaye was averse to the expression ‘hagiographie païenne’. However, the term is not inappropriate to describe the Lives of certain eminent pagans, including Socrates. Van Oytfanghe enunciated the components of what he called the discours hagiographique: the subject is imbued with the divine but not divine himself; his historical origin comes from oral tradition; this was put in literary form by one or more authors. The purposes of the discourse, which is performative rather than informative, are various, apologetic, idealistic, instructive or edifying. He preferred to designate the subject as ôÓ©ÚˆÔ˜ ©ÂÔÜ, rather than ©ÂÖÔ˜ ôÓ©ÚˆÔ˜. He was a conventional figure, spiritual, ethical, ascetical and endowed with supernatural gifts, especially that of wonder-working. In pagan tradition before the imperial epoch, the hagiographical discourse was diffuse and partial, although wonder-workers, visionaries, prophets and mystagogues are attested in Greek literature from the sixth century BC. From the fourth century, healing miracles are recounted, notably at Epidauros and shrines of Aesculapius. In Oytfanghe’s opinion, Socrates, about whom the texts are apologetic, laudatory or educative, was a ‘surhomme éthique’, not an ôÓ©ÚˆÔ˜ ©ÂÔÜ, because he was only superficially religious and spiritual. In fact, the pagan hagiographical discourse, of which the earliest would be the third-century AD Life of Alexander by Pseudo-Callisthenes, seems to have been elaborated in parallel with the Christian Lives. The âÈÙ¿ÊÈÔ˜ ÏfiÁÔ˜ of Julian by Libanius, which presents him as a philosopher rather than an emperor, is close in format to Christian hagiography, but a whole series of Lives of philosophers were composed between the third and seventh century; one such was Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus, the ideal philosopher who helped the human soul to accede to divine transcendency. To Oytfanghe’s mind, the closest of all such pagan discourses to Christian hagiography is the Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus. Here all the characteristics of Lives of saints are present: singling out from the time of birth, precocious spiritual maturity, a predestined itinerary through life, mystical relations with the divine, the habitual virtues, celibacy,

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prophetical insight into the future, theurgic gifts, wonder-working and the miraculous confirmation at death of celestial destiny. The problem therefore arises: which emerged first, pagan or Christian hagiography? Oytfanghe considers that there was cross-influence but no generalized dependence in one direction or the other, although Philostratus wrote his Life of Apollonius before any known Christian example of the genre. Moreover, Christian hagiography developed in the context of Israelite and New Testament tradition. Its conformity to the providential design of salvation and the commitment of its subject to the struggle between good and evil had no equivalent in pagan tradition. It was also addressed to all believers, but the public for pagan hagiography was an ever diminishing élite. He calls Christian hagiography ‘une biographie continuée du Christ présent dans les membres les plus parfaits de son Corps mystique’. As Delehaye observed, Christian hagiography was not one literary genre but rather an assembly of several. The Acts of martyrs, when they have survived, tend to be historically accurate. Unfortunately there are virtually none for the warrior saints.17 As will become evident, when they are discussed individually, most Lives of warrior saints belong to the epic genre. They are literary compositions, usually imitative and plagiarizing, with elements taken from many sources. When fully developed, they conform to the criteria noted by Oytfanghe and listed above. Some scholars have been assiduous in their efforts to disengage what is historically authentic in them. This is not a primary motive in the present study, for which it generally suffices that the Byzantines accepted that they were authentic. Only occasionally is their fictitiousness or lack of historicity noted. In Part Two, there will be many occasions to appreciate the value of Oytfanghe’s work. It was against the background of Antique society that Christianity developed. At odds with the Israelites, Christian apologists were even more so with the pagan Romans and Greeks, who were considered by some to incarnate the cosmic forces of evil against which they were committed to struggle. It has sometimes been supposed that Christians were submitted to continuous persecution by their pagan rulers. However, at least at first, they were not consistently and universally victimized.18 After Nero’s pogrom in AD 62–63, which no doubt inspired the denunciation of Rome as

17 H. Delehaye, ‘La persécution dans l’armée de Dioclétien’, Mélanges d’hagiographie grecque et latine, Brussels, 1966, p. 268. Only the Acts of two Western warrior saints Marcellus of Tangier and Maximilian, who were not commemorated in the Byzantine calendar, have survived in a primitive text. Vid. infra, Part 2, XXXV, XLVI. No primitive Acts are known for Byzantine warrior saints. 18 M. Sordi, The Christians and the Roman Empire, Oklahoma, 1986, provides a useful general presentation of the subject.

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the ‘Scarlet Woman … Babylon the great, the mother of whores and of every obscenity on earth’ (Apocalypse 17:1–6), persecution until the third century was usually limited to a specific region. It was initiated by the local governor in virtue of the ius coercendi and provoked by the populace in search of a scapegoat. As Tertullian (c. 160–220) was to write: ‘If the Tiber has flooded the city, if the Nile has failed to flood the countryside, if it has not rained, if the earth has quaked, if there had been a famine or a plague, at once there is an outcry, “The Christians to the lions”.’19 In fact, the offence for which Christians were generally tried was to refuse an act of piety towards the statue of a god or emperor.20 There were indeed occasionally bloody persecutions, notably in Lyon in 177 and in Alexandria in 202–03. However, these were exceptional. It may be that St Irenaeus of Lyon, who died in 202, was the first to use the term martyr in its restricted sense of someone who accepted death rather than refuse to witness to his faith in Jesus Christ: ‘Thus the martyrs give witness and despise death, not according to the weakness of the flesh but according to the prompting of the Spirit.’21 A new period in the history of the persecution of Christians began with the reign of Decius, 249–51, and lasted until the promulgation of Constantine’s edict. Although universal, since it was provoked by the emperors themselves, it was intermittent and motivated by the idea that the Empire, threatened by barbarian invasions, was losing the patronage of the gods on account of its infidelity to them. Attempts to restore the unique and universal cult of the pagan gods were not necessarily directed specifically against Christians, although by then the Church, which had become the most powerful religious organization in the Empire, was their principal target. In his edict of 249, Decius commanded all Christians to sacrifice to the gods and to obtain a libellus confirming that they had done so. Valerian, who ruled from 253 to 260, promulgated edicts in 257 and 258 closing churches, confiscating burial grounds and exiling members of the clergy. Until then Christians had been pursued as individual delinquents. By these edicts it was implicitly recognized that the Church existed as an institution which must be dismantled. However, the edicts did not achieve their purpose. When Gallienus, 253–58, rescinded those of his father Valerian, he also gave the Church the legal right to exist for the first time. Forty years later, Diocletian, 284–305, together with his co-rulers Maximian, 286–305, Galerius, 293–311, and Maximinus Daia, 305–13, returned to 19 Apologeticum 40:2; J.-Ch. Fredouille, ‘Les chrétiens aux lions’, Bulletin de l’association Guillaume Budé, Lettres d’humanité 46, 1987, p. 329. 20 Ibid., p. 337. 21 Contre les hérésies, V 9 ii, ed. A. Rousseau, Paris, 1969, pp. 110–13.

20

HISTORY AND ANTECEDENTS

Valerian’s policy, with even less success than their predecessor. These emperors notoriously provoked great bloodshed. The majority of the martyred warrior saints, whose death was recorded by Eusebius among others and whose Passions would in due course be composed, date from this period. The first Christians, while rejecting paganism, nevertheless accepted the structures of the society in which they lived, where the military condition was on a level of equality with the civil.22 The equality persisted. Every citizen, whatever his religious allegiance, was a potential soldier; conversely every soldier was a civilian. The two conditions were inextricably linked, in spite of the fact that civil and military authority were distinct. An eminent example of the double commitment, civil and military, is offered by the centurion Cornelius, Acts 10. Service in the army was a privilege for those who had the status of citizens. ‘Pour cette élite de patriotes le service militaire passait avant toutes les autres obligations du citoyen et primait toutes les aptitudes civiles.’23 It will be noted that it was exceptional for warrior saints, like Theodore Tiron and Hieron,24 to be members of the rank and file. Besides defending the frontiers, the army was an instrument of coercion and a champion of the law. It was an indispensable safeguard against injustice.25 The first Christians, it seems, served in the army, the majority of whose members were pagans, without problems of conscience. Even when such problems were raised by ecclesiastical authorities and presented by Patristic authors, Christians continued to serve. There is clear evidence, for example, of a tradition of recruiting Christians to the Legio Fulminata;26 even some members of the imperial guard were Christian. However, their number in the Roman army at any given time cannot be assessed with exactitude. Pagan religious practices, both private and public, existed, of course, in the army. Soldiers brought with them the cult prevalent in their region of origin; those of Mithra and of Serapis were particularly popular. Military authorities raised no objections to soldiers having a personal cult.27 However, there was also an official cult of the patrons of the army, in particular Mars, later known as Ares, with his companion Victory (the angel). In due course, Mars ceded his pre-eminence to Jupiter. Minerva, 22

H. Leclercq, ‘Militarisme’, DACL 11, 1108–81. Leclercq, 1109. 24 Vid. infra, Part 2, I, IX. 25 Delehaye, art. cit. supra (n. 17), p. 255. 26 H. Leclercq, ‘Fulminata (Légion XIIe)’, DACL 5, 2692–2703; R.H. Bainton, ‘The Early Church and War,’ Harvard Theological Review 39, 1946, p. 192; vid. infra, Part 2, XXV, St Polyeuctus. 27 Leclercq, 1116–19. 23

THE CHRISTIAN AND ANTIQUE BACKGROUND

21

Juno, and, from the third century in certain regions of the Empire, Hercules counted as protectors of the army,28 where a special cult was also offered to images of the members of the imperial family. On expeditions, emperors were represented on medallions, but in permanent camps there existed statues of them in stone or precious metal.29 Leclercq maintained that it was obligatory only for higher ranking officers to offer an official cult to pagan gods. If they were Christians who refused to do so, they might be obliged to resign their commissions. On the other hand, Christians performed the office of flamines, who were responsible for the cult of the emperor in cities, giving games and presiding at sacrifices. It was up to them to avoid any act which was formally idolatrous. In the case of a cult offered to the emperor, it was not necessarily obligatory to regard him as a divinity. In due course, Constantine was to eliminate progressively from the imperial cult any act which might be considered idolatrous.30 The situation for Christians in the army became intolerable only as imperial persecution of them became systematic when Licinius, Diocletian and Galerius sought to purge the armed forces of Christians. However, they did not necessarily put Christians to death for their faith. They usually obliged them either to renounce it or to resign their commission. Perhaps Christians felt least inhibited in art production, which was usually artisanal. Both pagan and Christian sculptors produced indifferently objects of either religious tradition. Christian artisans were prepared to produce representations of a Sun god, but demurred, for reasons unknown, at Aesculapius.31 Smashing idols is, indeed, an activity which was attributed to many martyrs in their Passions, including those of such warrior saints as Theodore, George, Christopher and Polyeuctus.32 However, in these accounts, the statues were regarded as pagan objects of veneration inhabited by demons, not as works of art. The debt of Christian iconography to pagan art is even greater than that of Christian hagiography to the language of Greek literature, a necessary debt since there is little evidence of an Israelite iconographical tradition. Grabar considered that all Christian iconographical types derived from GraecoRoman artistic tradition. They were taken over as a ‘language’, to which new connotations could be given.33 28 R. Cugnat, ‘Legio, Culte des légions’, Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, ed. C. Daremberg and E. Saglio, Paris, 1892, III 2, 1065–67. 29 Ibid., 1066. 30 Delehaye, art. cit. supra (n. 17), p. 264. 31 Ibid. 32 Vid. infra, Part 2, I, V, XV, XXV. 33 A. Grabar, Christian Iconography. A Study of its Origins, London, 1969. The process of adaptation from pre-Christian to Christian imperial art and thence to the representation of

22

HISTORY AND ANTECEDENTS

The Antique iconographical types which recur in Christian military imagery can be easily exemplified: trampling (plates 13, 16), the calcatio colli,34 beheading, for example on the Colonna antonina, Rome,35 beard pulling (plate 10), for example on the Ludovisi sarcophagus, Termi Museum, Rome.36 Even when there are literary precedents in the Septuagint and New Testament, as frequently for trampling an enemy, Israelite tradition offered no iconographical correlative. To illustrate such literary texts, artists had to seek a model in Antique art. Similarly, representations of military figures, standing, enthroned, or on horseback (plates 11, 12, 15), innumerable in Antique art, were copied in Christian iconography. Military uniform in Byzantine art changed in style, but its elements, borrowed from Antiquity, remained constant: chlamys, cuirass, a short tunic, buskins, with a variety of weapons, spear, sword, bow and arrows, shield.37 However, at the start, Antique military figures were not greatly exploited as models for warrior saints; they were represented in court dress like other martyrs. It was later, particularly after Iconoclasm, that, on the occasion of a ‘renascence’, the Byzantines returned to and copied Antique models for representing warrior saints. Coronation of a victor in battle or in the arena, whether by a winged deity or a human figure, was another popular subject in Antique art.38 Again it was taken up in Byzantine iconography for warrior saints, but not at the beginning, only on the occasion of later ‘renascences’.

The early Patristic period During the first Christian centuries, as noted already, there was no special cult of those martyrs who were to be designated later as warrior saints. the celestial kingdom by analogy is well presented in his L’empereur dans l’art byzantin, Paris, 1936; reprinted London, 1971. His views were challenged by T. Mathews, The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art, Princeton, 1993. C. Walter, ‘Expression and Hellenism. A Note on Stylistic Tendencies in Byzantine Figurative Art from Spätantike to the Macedonian “Renaissance”’, REB 42, 1984, pp. 265–87, in which I attempted not only to assess the debt of early Christian art to the presentation of iconography by Plotinus as a series of ‘hieroglyphs’ but also the place of ‘renascences’ (i.e. returns to antique models) in later Byzantine art; reprinted, Prayer and Power, no. I. 34 C. Walter, ‘Papal Political Imagery in the Medieval Lateran Palace,’ CA 21, 1971, pp. 111–19; reprinted, ibid., no. VIIb. 35 Walter, ‘September Metaphrast’, fig. 25; reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. V. 36 Walter, ‘Triumph of the Martyrs’, fig. 8; reprinted, ibid., no. III. 37 Markovic´, p. 573, nn. 41–4; p. 574, n. 46; p. 583, nn. 119, 121. 38 C. Walter, ‘The Iconographical Sources for the Coronation of Milutin and Simonida at Gracˇanica’, L’art byzantin au début du XIVe siècle, Belgrade, 1978, pp. 183–200; reprinted, Prayer and Power, no. IV.

THE CHRISTIAN AND ANTIQUE BACKGROUND

23

However, the elements were being assembled which would later be merged to form the cult. It is therefore necessary to begin by subsuming them under the category of martyrs, whose general characteristics they shared. As has also been already mentioned, Irenaeus of Lyon was probably the first to attribute to the term martyr the restricted sense of a person who witnessed inexorably to his faith until he was put to death. Martyrs did not at first receive special cult. All Christians alike were witnesses or ±ÁÈÔÈ, and all merited an honourable burial, whether their death was due to violence or natural causes.39 Only progressively, was it considered that those who had been put to death for their faith merited more honourable burial than the general run of Christians. Probably the first to receive it were Roman martyrs buried in the catacombs, but few, if any, of their tombs have survived. The execution of St Achilles was carved on a column of a ciborium in the catacomb of Domitilla.40 There are also portraits of three anonymous saints under the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo,41 but they are unlikely to be earlier than 400. Grabar considered that they were later imitations of earlier iconographical types, of which no examples have survived.42 We are fortunate in having the comprehensive studies by Delehaye of the origins of the cult of martyrs and by Grabar of the origins of the cult of relics. However, if both are almost impeccable as sources of information, each has its drawbacks. Delehaye gives the impression of systematizing too rigorously. There was, in fact, much variety in the way that the cult of individual martyrs developed. Grabar was mistaken on several points: the primary significance of the martyrs’ witness, their character as visionaries and the origins, significance and symbolism of the martyrium.43 Eusebius of Caesarea, whose Ecclesiastical History first assembled information about the Christian martyrs and their cult, was also a devotee of the Emperor Constantine. This emperor, as is well known, was the patron or founder of at least 27 churches.44 Some were built in the Holy Land on sites where a theophany of Christ had occurred. Eusebius called

39

Delehaye, op. cit. supra (n. 12). U.M. Fasola, ’Nereo e Achilleo’, BS 10, 54–5, with reproduction. 41 Vid. infra, Part 2, XLIV, Sts John and Paul. 42 A. Grabar, Martyrium. Recherches sur le culte des reliques et l’art antique, Paris, 1946, II, p. 17, n. 3. 43 On this last point, vid. E. Kleinbauer, ‘The Origins and Function of the Aisled Tetraconch Churches in Syria and Northern Mesopotamia’, DOP 27, pp. 89–114; Ousterhout, art. cit. supra (n. 8). 44 G.T. Armstrong, ‘Constantine’s Churches’, Gesta 6, 1967, pp. 1–9, a most useful list, fully documented, of the certain and putative churches for whose construction the emperor was responsible. Later tradition was to attribute falsely to him yet others, for example the sanctuary of St George at Diospolis (Lydda), vid. infra, Part 2, V. 40

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HISTORY AND ANTECEDENTS

them Ì·ÚÙ‡ÚÈ·. He was, apparently, the first writer to use this word in his description of the Holy Sepulchre to designate a venerated Christian site.45 About 350, St Cyril of Jerusalem raised the question why the Golgotha and the place of the Resurrection was called a martyrium, not a church. He referred back to Sophonias 3,8, with its reference ‘Âå˜ ìÌ¤Ú·Ó àÓ·ÛÙ¿ÛÂÒ˜ ÌÔ˘ Âå˜ Ì·ÚÙ‡ÚÈÔÓ’.46 Grabar developed the ingenious notion that a martyr’s church was called a martyrium, because martyrs were privileged with a theophany at the moment of death.47 However, his ingenuity was misplaced. St Stephen, indeed, was privileged with a theophany, Acts 7:55–6, but it was his testimony to it which provoked the Jews to stone him; the vision was not a reward for perseverance. Grabar cited no text about a martyr receiving a theophany during his passion, although some exist which he might have used. Sabbas Stratelates is said to have received a visit from Christ, encouraging him to persist to the end.48 Even more to the point is the testimony of Papylus, one of the martyrs of Pergamon. Having told the proconsul at his trial that he refused to sacrifice to demons, he was sentenced to death, along with his companions. Conducted to the amphitheatre, the ‘ministers of the devil’ hastened to crucify him, because a crowd had gathered and a rainstorm was imminent. Seeing his joyful, smiling face, his executioners asked him why he was laughing. He replied, ‘I have seen the glory of my God and I have rejoiced that I have been liberated by you.’49 These testimonies, even if Grabar had used them, are not sufficient to substantiate his argument. Isidore of Seville, c. 560–636, defined the word martyrium as ‘place of the martyrs of Greek derivation, because it was constructed in honour of martyrs or because the tombs of martyrs were there’.50 However, the word soon lost this restricted meaning.51 For example in the Life of Theodore of Sykeon, dating from the early seventh century, it was used

45 Vita Constantini 3:28, new translation, ed. A. Cameron and S. Hall, Oxford, 1999, p. 133; Ousterhout, art. cit. supra (n. 8), p. 51. 46 Catechesis 14:10; Harl, op. cit. supra (n. 8), p. 189. 47 Grabar, op. cit. supra (n. 42), I, p. 266; II, pp. 156–8. 48 Vid. infra, Part 2, XXVI. 49 P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, Una nuova recensione del martirio dei SS. Carpo, Papilo e Agatomice, Note agiografiche 5 (Studi e teste 33), Rome, 1920, p. 44; H. Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, Oxford, 1972, pp. 26–7 (Greek), 32–4 (Latin). 50 Etymologiae, xv.4, Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi, ed. W.M. Lindsay, Oxford, 1911; Ousterhout, art. cit. supra (n. 8), p. 50, n. 40. 51 Maraval, pp. 193–4, gives a detailed list of the terms used to designate ‘holy places’. Vid. also, G. Bartelink, ‘“Maison de prière” comme dénomination de l’église en tant qu’édifice, en particulier chez Eusèbe de Césarée’, Revue des études grecques 84, 1971, pp. 101–18.

THE CHRISTIAN AND ANTIQUE BACKGROUND

25

indifferently with ÂéÎÙ‹ÚÈÔÓ to signify both church and sanctuary, although possibly the latter term was used more often for smaller buildings which in modern parlance would be designated as chapels. Grabar also placed too much stress on the martyr as contemplative. This is evident in his application of the term âfiÙ˘ to early portraits of martyrs with a fixed stare. Used to signify contemplator, it was applied in the Eleusinian mysteries to those who had attained the highest grade of initiation.52 Used to signify overseer, it was applied in II Maccabees 3:39, to God watching over Jerusalem. Clement of Alexandria used the term and its cognates to signify contemplator of sacred realities.53 However, I know no case – Grabar certainly did not cite any – of the term âfiÙ˘ signifying a martyr contemplating a theophany. In fact, the essential characteristic of a martyr was his perseverance to death. Even if Eusebius was not the first to apply the term ô©ÏËÛȘ to this perseverance,54 he certainly rendered it popular. He wrote of the ‘athletes of religion, their victorious courage under so many trials, the crowns and trophies which they won in their struggle with demons and invisible enemies’. His analogies are taken from the stadium rather than the battlefield, but for both much the same terminology was used. His account of the Palestinian martyrs, 120 men and 15 women, who ‘carried off the crown of winning athletes in the sacred games of religion’, exists in two versions, one earlier than the other.55 The name of George does not figure among them, possibly because they were all civilians. What is particularly interesting is the difference in the two accounts of their burial. In the earlier version, Eusebius merely observed that they had a decent funeral and were buried as was customary. In the later one, he wrote that their bodies were subsequently placed ‘in splendid temples or holy houses of prayer, that they might never be forgotten, but honoured by the people of God’. Delehaye considered that the later version was also written by Eusebius and not retouched by another hand. If he was right, the emergence of a specific cult of martyrs can be dated exactly to the lifetime of Eusebius. At that time calendars of commemorations and martyrologies began to be compiled, but they are only known in later, supplemented texts.56 52

G.E. Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, Princeton, 1961, pp. 237, 274–8. Paedogogus, ed. I. Marrou, Paris, 1960–70, I.28.1, I, pp. 162–3; I.54.1, pp. 206–7; II.118.5, II, pp. 226–7. 54 Vid. supra (n. 11); Eusebius, Histoire ecclésiastique III, Les martyrs de Palestine XI 28, ed. G. Bardy, Paris, 1958, p. 126. 55 H. Delehaye, ‘Eusebius Caesariensis, De Martyribus Palestinae longioris libelli fragmenta’, An. Boll. 16, 1897, p. 113; Maraval, p. 28. 56 F.L. Cross, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, London, 1957, pp. 866–7; H. Leclerq, ‘Martyrologe’, DACL 10, 2522–2666; Martyrologium Hieronymionum, ed. G.B. de 53

26

HISTORY AND ANTECEDENTS

Since, except in the case of Theodore Tiron, there is so little evidence available for the origins of the cult and sanctuaries of early warrior saints, it would be as well to recall briefly the cases of some other martyrs, in order to make clear how differently their cult developed. Three principal factors may be discerned in this development: their relics, their icons and the zeal of pilgrims, who were often inspired by apparitions and by favours received through their intercession.57 To begin with the Palestinian martyrs, it is evident that, on account, perhaps, of their inefficacity as intercessors, they were little honoured and largely forgotten by the people of God. The only later evidence for their cult is the commemoration in late Byzantine calendars on 16 August of 33 Palestinian martyrs.58 Sts Stephen and Thecla had much in common. They were grouped together later in the Life of the patriarch Tarasios by his disciple Ignatius the Deacon in his description of a cycle of paintings of the martyrs commissioned by the patriarch: ‘What man, looking at Thecla and Stephen, who were the first after Christ to open the door of combat to martyrs … would not have immediately learnt not to curse his enemies?’59 Both were called protomartyrs, Stephen rightly because his martyrdom, recounted in Acts 6:8–8:2, was certainly the first. Thecla was presented in the very early apocryphal Acts of St Paul and Thecla as a disciple of the apostle. Tertullian condemned these Acts as spurious at the end of the second century in his De baptismo, because to him it was unthinkable that St Paul should license a woman to evangelize and baptize.60 However, they were accepted as authentic by Methodius of Olympus in the latter half of the third century. In his Banquet Thecla’s eulogy of virginal chastity is introduced by the words: ‘As for evangelical competence, let us not speak of it since it was Paul who formed you.’61 These Acts were augmented progressively with biographical information. Rossi and L. Duchesne, AA SS Nov. II 1, Brussels, 1894; Commentarium perpetuum AASS Nov. II 2, ed. H. Quentin and H. Delehaye, Brussels, 1931. 57 Maraval’s study of holy places and pilgrimages is detailed, documented and comprehensive. 58 Syn CP, 903–4, 57, only in the Menaea Venitiis, Aug., Venice, 1591, p. xlvi; AA SS, August III, Paris, 1867, p. 265; G.D. Gordini, ‘Palestina, XXIII Martiri di’, BS 10, 54–5. 59 W. Wolska-Conus and C. Walter, ‘Un programme iconographique du patriarche Tarasios?’, REB 38, 1980, p. 256; The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios by Ignatios the Deacon (BHG, 1698), ed. S. Efthymiadis, Aldershot, 1998, § 51, pp. 140–1, 196. For a more detailed account with fuller bibliographical references, vid. C. Walter, ‘The Origins of the Cult of St George’, REB 53, 1995, pp. 302–5. 60 Acta apostolorum apocrypha, ed. R.A. Lipsius and M. Bonnet, Leipzig, 1891, I, pp. 235– 69 (BHG, 1710–13); reprinted New York/Hildesheim, 1972; H. Leclercq, ‘Thècle (sainte)’, DACL 15, 2225–36; G. Dagron, Vie et miracles de sainte Thècle, Brussels, 1978, pp. 21–32. 61 Le banquet, ed. H. Musurillo, Paris, 1963, pp. 200–1.

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There are various testimonies ranging from the third to the sixth century to Thecla’s sanctuary at Meriamlik (Ayatekla) near Seleucia,62 which was visited by Egeria in May 384,63 by Gregory of Nazianzus64 a little earlier as well as by other distinguished pilgrims. Her Life and Miracles were written by a priest of Meriamlik around 450.65 Although it had been recounted that she was martyred either by burning or by wild beasts devouring her, the author maintained that she continued to live in her sanctuary, emerging from her thalamos occasionally to perform a miracle. Most of her clients were from the locality, but her cult spread to Egypt, where she was represented not only on eulogia along with St Menas but also in the decorative programme of a mausoleum at El Bagawat, where she is rescued from burning by a shower of rain.66 It should be noted that this scene was introduced into a programme familiar from the Roman catacombs, consisting of divine interventions in favour of the Three Youths in the furnace and of Daniel in the lions’ den. During the first centuries, she received far more cult than the Theotokos. Her popularity continued; she was mentioned in some 30 Patristic texts.67 She was named ηÏÏÈ¿Ú©ÂÓÔ˜. Nicetas of Paphlagonia called her death a ÎÔ›ÌËÛȘ or a ÌÂÙ¿ÛÙ·ÛȘ, terms current in his time for the demise of the Theotokos.68 She also had a Metaphrastic Life, illustrated in London Additional 11870, f. 174v.69 To this day, she is venerated in Greece. Devotion to the authentic protomartyr Stephen was certainly widespread long before the Invention of his relics in 415.70 In his Encomium of the saint, Gregory of Nyssa invited the members of his audience to emulate him, and to participate in the struggle of the athlete, rather than be simple spectators.71 His relics, whose whereabouts were revealed in a dream, were fragmented and dispersed as far as Africa and Europe. There they were responsible for an extraordinary number of prodigies, especially miraculous cures; Augustine of Hippo gave a long list in his

62

C. Foss, ‘Meriamlik’, ODB 2, 1344. Egérie, Journal de voyage, ed. P. Maraval, Paris, 1982, pp. 226–31. 64 Carmina II, PG 37, 1057. 65 Dagron, op. cit. supra (n. 60), pp. 31–2, not by Basil of Seleucia as had been previously maintained. 66 H. Stern, ‘Les peintures du mausolée “de l’Exode” à El-Bagaout’, CA 11, 1960, pp. 96– 105, fig. 8. 67 M. Aubineau, ‘Le panégyrique de Thècle attribué à Jean Chrysostome’ (BHG, 1720), An. Boll. 93, 1975, pp. 359–62. 68 In laudem sanctae Theclae (BHG, 1722), PG 105, 332. 69 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 122; Walter, ‘September Metaphrast’, p. 19, fig. 16; reprinted, Prayer and Power, no. V. In the title she is called ÚˆÙÔÌ¿ÚÙ˘˜. 70 S. Vanderlinden, ‘Revelatio sancti Stephani’ (BHL, 7850–6), REB 4, 1946, pp. 178–217. 71 Encomium in sanctum Stephanum protomartyrem (BHG, 1654), PG 46, 720d. 63

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HISTORY AND ANTECEDENTS

De civitate Dei.72 A church in the Holy Land was inaugurated on the presumed site of his lapidation in 439.73 Other churches were built in his honour by the empress Eudoxia and Melania.74 However, prodigies attributed to him in the East do not abound as in the West, although Leclercq recounted one without clearly indicating his source. The empress Eudoxia, accompanied by Melania, tripped and sprained her ankle. Thanks to the prayers of Melania before Stephen’s relics placed in her oratory, the sprain was miraculously cured.75 Yet the protomartyr, in spite of his eminent status as a New Testament figure, did not acquire the outstanding popularity of Thecla. No eulogia or other early artifact with his portrait is known.76 A final example, among the many others possible, will suffice to illustrate the diversity in the development of the cult of martyrs. Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, probably acquired his renown because he was one of the first martyrs to have his relics publicly translated. The Caesar Gallus had them transferred from the cemetery of Antioch to a shrine in the suburb of Daphne. Later, since their presence obstructed the oracle in the nearby temple of Apollo from functioning, Julian the Apostate, brother of Gallus, had them removed. The temple was struck by lightning, a prodigy attributed to God’s wrath at Julian’s sacrilege. Meletius, bishop from 360 to 381, had a sanctuary built for them on the far side of the Orontes.77 Babylas was known to Gregory of Tours,78 but locally his cult did not develop greatly. Theodoret of Cyrus did indeed refer to him in his Historia ecclesiastica;79 he did not list him among the saints venerated locally in his Graecorum affectionum curatio. No early representations of Babylas are known, although his memory survived, so that he figured in the Menologium of Basil II, p. l0. Like Thecla’s, his Metaphrastic Life was illustrated in the London September Metaphrast, f. 52.80 Belief in the intercessory power of those who after death had been coopted members of the celestial court, adumbrated in II Maccabees, 15:11–16, but ignored in the New Testament,81 was developed by Origen, 72 De civitate Dei, XXII viii 11–72, ed. G. Bardy, Oeuvres de saint Augustin 37, Paris, 1960, pp. 578–9, 828–31. 73 G.D. Gordini, ‘Stefano protomartire’, BS 11, 1381–2. 74 Vie de sainte Mélanie, ed. D. Gorce, Paris, 1962, pp. 258–9. 75 H. Leclercq, ‘Mélanie la jeune’, DACL 11, 228. 76 Wolska-Conus and Walter, art. cit. supra (n. 59), p. 259. 77 John Chrysostom, Sur Babylas, ed. A. Scatkin et al., Paris, 1990, pp. 15–23. 78 Historia Francorum I viii, PL 71, 175. 79 PG 82, 1097a–b. 80 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 120; Walter, art. cit. supra (n. 69), p. 14, fig. 4. 81 Vid. supra, p. 15.

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who cited the passage in II Maccabees.82 He maintained that souls and spirits share the office of angels. They might even intervene in someone’s favour without actually being invoked. In fact, intercession developed independently of the cult of relics. Prayers invoking the intervention of a saint could be addressed to him anywhere. Origen consoled someone who had lost his friend by saying that Ambrose will be more useful to him in heaven than on earth. The practice of invoking saints as intercessors caught on and spread. The doctrine of intercession was fully developed by Gregory of Nyssa in his Encomium of Theodore Tiron.83 Saints were believed to be able to perform all sorts of services for men. The office of warrior saints would become more particularly that of protection against the inroads of demons and human enemies. A further aspect of early Christianity which must be considered is the attitude of Christians towards war. There were two principal moral issues on which they might have to take a stand: that warriors would probably have to kill and that they would be serving a pagan emperor. It does not seem that Church authorities took up a clear position on either question. However, individual Patristic theologians did. Their attitude towards military service varied, ranging from tolerance to intransigence. Among those who were tolerant was St Ignatius of Antioch, who expounded St Paul’s use of military terms for spiritual combat in Ephesians 6. He wrote in his Letter to Polycarp of Smyrna that men should seek to please the person under whom they were campaigning and receiving their pay. Desertion would be execrable. Writing about the enlistment of Christians in the army of God, he betrayed no abhorrence towards military service in the Roman army. In fact the military hierarchy was used as a model for ecclesiastical organization.84 Others, particularly Origen and Tertullian, were intransigent. Origen, c. 185–254, rejected the bellicosity of the Israelites, affirming Christ’s teaching that his disciples should turn the other cheek. They should exchange their swords for ploughshares and their lances for scythes. ‘We are, thanks to Jesus, the sons of peace.’85 He expressed his views on war particularly in controversy with the pagan Celsus,86 who argued, reasonably enough, that if Christians refused to fight, they exposed the Empire to danger from its enemies.

82 Commentaire in Ioannem, John 4:46–53, PG 14, 509b; In canticum canticorum III, PG 13, 160; De oratione II, PG 11, 448c–d. 83 Vid. infra, Part 2, I: Theodore Tiron and Theodore Stratelates. 84 Lettres, ed. T. Camelot, Paris, 1957, pp. 175–7. The views of Clement of Alexandria were similar, Leclercq, art. cit. supra (n. 22), 1130. Vid. infra (n. 89), Fontaine, I, pp. 145–6. 85 Leclercq, ibid., 1126–30. 86 Contra Celsum, VII 64, ed. M. Borret, Paris, 1969, IV, pp. 318–21.

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In fact, provided that they were not called upon to commit the sacrilege of offering cult to pagan gods, Christians were not averse to military service. They were sufficiently integrated as citizens to adopt a patriotic attitude to war in defence of the Empire. It is unlikely that the majority of them accepted Origen’s opinion that their vocation was to defend the Empire by prayer rather than by arms. Only when anti-Christian emperors sought to weed out Christians from the army were they obliged to consider leaving its ranks. Thus the conflict between Christians and military service was initiated from above. When Constantine officially accepted Christianity there was no longer any obstacle to their joining or rejoining the army. Far from imploring Christians to turn the other cheek, the Byzantine Church displayed no reticence towards their taking up arms. On the contrary, in the East, unlike the West, there was great respect for soldiers, an important factor in the development of the cult of warrior saints. However, it will be seen in the following section that the attitudes of warrior saints themselves towards war, as presented in their Passions, varied considerably. More intransigent even than Origen had been Tertullian, 155/160–220, whose De corona is one of the jewels of antimilitarism. It is sufficiently well known not to require a detailed presentation here.87 After his pagan youth in Rome, Tertullian returned to Africa about 195, where he became a Christian. At first his views about Christians enrolling in the army were liberal, but, being by nature a rigorist, they changed when he joined the Montanists, noted for their fundamentalism. He now denounced Christian service in the imperial army. The hero of De corona is the soldier who refused to wear a laurel crown on the occasion of a donativum at Lampsacus in North Africa, offered by the sons of Septimius Severus on the death of their father in 211. The reason which this soldier gave for his refusal was that to wear a laurel crown was pagan and implicitly idolatrous; it was therefore impossible for a Christian to do so. In consequence, the soldier was cast into prison. ‘Crowned more worthily with the white crown of martyrdom, he awaited the largesse [donativum] of Christ.’ The importance of this incident in the present study is that it is concerned with the crown as a military attribute rather than as the habitual reward for victors in an athletic contest. As to the idolatrous connotations

87 PL 2, 76–102: critical edition by J. Marra, Turin, 1927. Written in 211, G. Bardy, ‘Tertullien’, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 15, 137–8; J. Quasten, Patrology II, Utrecht/ Antwerp, 1953, pp. 307–9; Leclercq, art. cit. supra (n. 22), 1122–6; P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, ‘Supra alcuni passi del De corona di Tertulliano’, Note hagiografiche 8, Studi e testi 65, Rome, 1935, pp. 357–86; G. de Plinval, ‘Tertullien et le scandale de la Couronne’, Mélanges Joseph de Ghellinck, Gembloux, 1951, I, pp. 183–8.

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of a military crown, opinions at the time were divided. Tertullian’s views are considered to derive from a lost treatise De coronis by the fundamentalist Claudius Saturninus, who insisted on the military crown’s pagan connotations and who accepted au pied de la lettre the Sixth Commandment: ‘Thou shalt not kill.’88 Once the Empire became Christian, crowns lost their pagan connotations. In fact, the bestowal by an angel of a ‘white crown of martyrdom’ became an iconographical type regularly exploited in representations of martyrs, whether or not they were warriors. That a warrior saint was a miles Christi or miles Dei, a member of the militia Christi or of the caelestis militia, goes without saying. These terms, whose origins, as has been noted, derive from the New Testament writers, notably St Paul, were especially applicable to warriors.89 Once Constantine had given official recognition to the Church, the bellicosity of the Israelites could be resuscitated. The pagans and their cult could be combated without mercy; they were the new Philistines, now assimilated to the powers of evil, because they were inspired by Satan and addressed their cult to him and his demons. Many Patristic authors developed this theme in military terms. An epic genre was created, which celebrated the victory of the martyrs, witnesses of God. The Cross, vexilla Regis, was their standard. It inspired them to demolish pagan temples and to replace them, sometimes on the same site, by houses of God. Jerome used a military metaphor in a celebrated passage of his Letter 14 to Heliodorus, dated 376, where he compared the graces received in baptism to a donativum.90 Cyprian had already written of the milites Christi in their divinis castris.91 However, Lactantius was the most outstanding exponent of the characteristics of the miles Christi.92 Born in Africa, he converted to Christianity before 303. Brought to Nicomedia by Diocletian, he nevertheless survived the persecutions instigated by the emperor. He won favour with Constantine, who called him to Gaul to supervise the literary education of his son Crispus. In his treatise on the

88 Quasten, op. cit. (n. 87). De Plinval, art. cit. (n. 87), p. 184, wrote that other Patristic authors also disapproved of crowns, for example Clement of Alexandria and Minucius Felix. 89 Especially Ephesians 6:10–17, vid. supra (n. 11). The basic study is that of A. Harnack, Militia Christi, Die christliche Religion und der Soldatenstand in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, Tübingen, 1905; reprinted, Darmstadt, 1963. However, in his edition of the Vie de St Martin by Sulpicius Severus, Paris, 1967–69, J. Fontaine casts much new light on the subject. Vid. esp. I, pp. 143–8; II, pp. 520–5; III, pp. 1144, 1209–10, 1219, 1238, 1343–4, and ‘Militia Dei’ sub indice. Vid. also idem, ‘Les chrétiens et le service militaire dans l’Antiquité’, Concilium 7, 1965, pp. 95–105, a commented bibliography of studies published in the 1950s. 90 PL 22, 348; Fontaine, op. cit. (n. 89), I, pp. 520–1. 91 Letter 10, PL 4, 254. 92 De la mort des persécuteurs, ed. J. Moreau, Paris, 1954.

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death of persecutors, he synthesized the current notions of the conflict between Christians and pagans and between good and evil. Emperors who persecuted Christians were influenced by pagan priests, who in their turn were inspired by demons. Such emperors were destined to end their lives in horrible torments. This theme of triumph over persecutors was to be taken up in various ways. Several warrior saints intervened to put them to death.93 The theme also inspired the iconography of the October volume of Metaphrastic Lives, Vatican graec. 1679.94 The hero of the treatise, who by no means revelled in vainglory on this account, was the soldier of Christ, whose faith and piety no power could destroy and no enemy could quell.95 However, as habitually in the writings of Patristic authors, the title extended to all militant Christians, even if it was particularly applicable to warrior saints. Another theme which was to be exploited regularly in the Passions of warrior saints was the contrast between the terrestrial and the celestial army. This was, of course, already implicit in the New Testament, for example in Christ’s assertion to Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world and that he had the power, which he did not exercise, to call on his people to fight to save him from the Jews.96 The theme was also implicit in Tertullian’s De Idololatria 19:2.97 It has also been suggested that the soldier of Lampsacus was, in fact, a member of the praetorian guard, executed in Rome.98 Woods inferred that the notion of rejecting imperial service in favour of service in the army of God was already taking shape at the beginning of the third century. In later Passions of warrior saints, it would become a commonplace, sometimes explicit,99 but also often implied in their motivation for resigning from the terrestrial army.

93

Vid. infra, Part 2, I: Theodore, IV: Mercurius, V: George, VI: Sergius and Bacchus. Walter, ‘Triumph of the Martyrs’; reprinted, Pictures as Language, No. III. 95 Moreau, ed. cit. supra (n. 92), I, p. 95; commentary, II, p. 296. 96 John 19:16, vid. supra, p. 13. 97 Text cited by D. Woods, ‘Varus of Egypt: a Fictitious Military Martyr’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 20, 1996, p. 196, n. 58. 98 Y. Le Bohec, ‘Tertullien, De Corona I: Carthage ou Lambèse?’, Revue des études augustiniennes 38, 1992, pp. 16–18. 99 Vid. infra, Part 2, XII: Martin; XLVI: Marcellus of Tangier; and, more particularly, XLIX: Varus, in whose Passion it is told that, when he was reproached by Cleopatra for failing to promote the terrestrial military career of her son, he replied that he had obtained for him a loftier appointment, because he had been enrolled in the army of God. 94

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The contribution of popular piety to the conception of the warrior saint An important aspect of the passage from Antique heroes to Christian warrior saints is not always given due consideration,100 possibly because the evidence for it is restricted mainly to popular devotion to amulets and belief in their power. Amulets (ÂÚÈ¿ÌÌ·Ù·, Ê˘Ï·ÎÙ‹ÚÈ·) were highly popular in Antiquity and after. They were hung on a chain around the neck, and incorporated into rings or bracelets.101 They were intended to protect the wearer against the machinations of demons, to whom contemporary medicine attributed, among other things, illness and miscarriages. An early example of the medical use of an amulet is recorded in Plutarch’s Moralia. Isis, when pregnant, wore an amulet, ‘ÂÚÈ¿„·Û©·È Ê˘Ï·ÎÙ‹ÚÈÔÓ’.102 Demons, in Antiquity, were believed to be ambivalent, supernatural beings, able to exercise their powers for man’s good or evil but more often, it seems, for evil. They could be placated by the use of amulets, on which characters and symbols were inscribed. Amulets are often described by modern authors as ‘magical’, although they do not usually indicate with precision the meaning which they attribute to this term.103 It would seem that pagan amulets were considered by them to be effective ex opere operato. They tend to assume that Christian amulets could also be described as ‘magical’. However, for the Jews probably – and certainly for Christians – demons being intrinsically evil, pagan amulets were abhorrent and not to be classed with their own. For them ‘good’ demons did not exist; they were replaced by angels. Most of our knowledge about pagan amulets and their apotropaic powers comes from their condemnation by Christian writers; it was part of their radical assault on pagan cult and magic. Basil of Caesarea expressed roundly his disapproval of the use of amulets for protection against the evil eye (‚·Ûηӛ·).104 Equally open to opprobrium was the consultation of oracles and astrologers; doing so was equivalent to offering cult to 100 C. Walter, ‘The Thracian Horseman: Ancestor of the Warrior Saints?’, Byzantinische Forschungen 14, 1989, pp. 659–73, figs 249–55. 101 The bibliography is abundant. Particularly notable are the studies by C. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian, Ann Arbor/Oxford, 1950; A. Delatte and Ph. Derchain, Les intailles magiques gréco-égyptiens, Paris, 1964. A fuller bibliography may be found in my article, ‘Intaglio of Solomon’, reprinted, Pictures as Language, XXIII. I draw on this article and the one cited in the preceding note for the present text. 102 Plutarch, Moralia II, De Iside et Osiride, ed. J. Babbit, London/Cambridge, Mass., V, pp. 152, 156–8. 103 Byzantine Magic, ed. H. Maguire, Washington, 1995. 104 De invidia, PG 31, 180.

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demons.105 Such practices were officially condemned in canon 36 of the council of Laodicea (Phrygia), which in the late fourth century forbade priests and clerics to be magicians, enchanters or astrologers.106 At about the same date, The Apostolic Constitutions refused admission to baptism to those who made amulets (ÂÚÈ¿ÌÌ·Ù·).107 In the so-called Gelasian decrees, phylacteria inscribed with the names of demons were condemned.108 It looks as if the authorities, both Jewish and Christian, had difficulty in eliminating popular use of amulets. The superstitious, while accepting Christianity, the official religion, were averse to renouncing pagan practices. They preferred, as it were, to back their horses both ways. This was probably the reason why Christian amulets were brought into use. Gregory of Nazianzus described the Trinity as the ‘great and good Ê˘Ï·ÎÙ‹ÚÈÔÓ’.109 Gregory of Nyssa’s sister Macrina wore an iron cross, which was described as a Ê˘Ï·ÎÙ‹ÚÈÔÓ. She also wore a ring containing a fragment of the ‘wood of life’.110 Thus amulets remained in use among Jews and Christians. By far the most important for this study are those associated with Solomon. His cult in Israelite tradition has been admirably presented by D.C. Duling.111 The wisdom which he received from God, as recounted in the Septuagint, III Kings 4:29–34 (Hebrew, I Kings 5:9–14), was interpreted in subsequent tradition as including medical knowledge and power over demons, both, of course, closely connected. In the first century AD, Josephus wrote that ‘God granted Solomon knowledge of the art used against demons for the benefit and healing of men. He also composed incantations by which illnesses are relieved.’112 All the traditions concerning Solomon were assembled in his so-called Testament, a Judaeo-Christian text compiled not later than the third century.113 According to it, in response to Solomon’s prayer for help, the archangel Michael gave him a seal ring by means of which he was able to exercise power over demons. It gives the names of demons responsible for specific maladies, among whom Obyzouth, a female demon with dishevelled hair, was accustomed to strangle newborn babies at birth. 105 For many expressions of such an opinion by Patristic authors, vid. my art. cit. supra (n. 101), p. 34, n. 18. 106 H. Leclercq, ‘Amulettes’, DACL 1, 1787. 107 Constitutiones apostolicae 8 32, PG 1, 1128–33. 108 H. Leclercq, ‘Gélasien (Décret)’, DACL 6, 745. 109 De baptismo, PG 36, 381. 110 Life of St Macrina (BHG, 1012), ed. P. Maraval, Paris, 1971, p. 240; PG 45, 989. 111 ‘Testament of Solomon’, The Old Testament Pseudepigraphia, op. cit. (n. 1), pp. 944–51. 112 Ibid., pp. 946–8. An amulet, dating from the 2nd or 3rd century and intended to protect an unborn child, refers explicitly to Solomon’s seal. 113 Ibid., pp. 960–87 (BHG, 2390). Conveniently accessible in PG 123, 1316–58.

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The earliest explicit reference to the text in Christian sources is in the Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila, c. 400.114 However, Hippolytus, c. 160– 236, had already written that Solomon’s medical advice for curing illness had been suppressed, because people would be tempted to resort to his remedies rather than seek healing from God.115 This prohibition was certainly not followed in Judaeo-Christian milieus, even if outside them Solomon’s medical advice was treated with some reticence. In fact the mechanics of Solomon’s healing powers had a sound theological basis. He was said to have received them from an archangel, to whom God had delegated power over demons. Consequently, in spite of their resemblance to pagan magic, it is permissible to call in question Duling’s reference to Solomon as a ‘magician’ and to his seal ring as ‘magical’. He was reputed to be exercising a divine mission, even if his power to triumph over demons was accepted mainly in the popular religion of Jews and Judaeo-Christians. The Pilgrim of Piacenza saw near the pool at Bethesda a crypt in which Solomon had tortured demons.116 Between 381 and 384, Egeria venerated near Golgotha, along with a fragment of the True Cross, Solomon’s ring.117 Other such objects associated with Solomon’s power over demons were also venerated in the Holy Land. Bagatti suggested plausibly that the cult of Solomon in Jerusalem only ended with the Persian conquest.118 However, growing antipathy between Christians and Jews may have contributed to Solomon’s loss of esteem. After all, he was an Israelite. John Chrysostom had already inveighed against Jewish magical practices, incantations, amulets and medicines.119 This disquisition on Solomon and demons is justified by the fact that it gave rise to the creation of an iconographical type frequently reproduced on amulets but not in monumental art.120 These objects have sometimes been derided for their lack of artistic refinement.121 However such derision would be quite out of place for the superb intaglio of oxide ore 114 F.C. Conybeare, The Dialogue of Athanasius and Zacchaeus and of Timothy and Aquila, Oxford, 1898, p. 70, cited by Duling, op. cit. supra (n. 1), p. 940. 115 Commentary on the Canticles, PG 10, 628–9. 116 P. Bagatti, ‘I giudeo-cristiani e l’anello di Salomone’, Recherches de science religieuse 60, 1972, p. 151. 117 Egérie, Journal de voyage, op. cit. supra (n. 63), p. 64. The British Museum owns rings inscribed ÛÊÚ·Ád˜ ™ÔÏÔÌáÓÔ˜ ‚Ô‹©ÂÈ which may have originated at this shrine, O.M. Dalton, Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities, London, 1931, nos 155, 156. 118 Art. cit. supra (n. 116), p. 159. 119 Adversus Judaeos 8 5, PG 48, 935. 120 C. Schlumberger, Amulettes byzantines anciennes, Paris, 1892, no. 12, p. 15; P. Perdrizet, ‘™ÊÚ·Ád˜ ™ÔÏÔÌáÓÔ˜’, Revue des études grecques 16, 1903, pp. 49–50; Delatte and Derchain, op. cit. supra (n. 101), no. 371; A. Banck, ‘Gemma s izobrazˇeniem Solomona’, Vizantijski Vremennik 8, 1956, pp. 331–8. 121 For example by Delatte and Derchain, p. 261.

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(haematite) in the Benaki Museum, Athens (plate 17).122 Incised on one face is a figure in armour seated on a prancing horse. He holds a spear which is pointed downwards towards a prostrate naked female figure with long hair; she raises her right hand towards the rider. He is identified in the accompanying legend as ™√§√MøN. There is no figure on the obverse side, only a legend: ™ºPA°I™ £E√Y. The prostrate figure is obviously Obyzouth, the female demon who strangled babies at birth. Here is the original iconographical type from which derived that of warrior saints killing a dragon, an obnoxious beast or a persecutor. It obviously had antecedents. Triumphal figures on horseback trampling or spearing a fallen enemy were manifold in Antique imperial and funerary imagery, so that it is hazardous to hypothesize where the type of Solomon killing Ozybouth originated.123 Dating the Benaki intaglio and related amulets is also hazardous. Bonner wrote that unfortunately these objects ‘cannot be dated even within fairly wide limits’.124 However, he considered the haematites to be the earliest, but not earlier than the third century. An amulet of Solomon, now in the University of Pennsylvania Museum, was discovered on an archaeological site at Beisan in a stratum of excavation dated earlier than 325.125 The Benaki intaglio is presumably of Israelite origin; at least it has no Christian connotations. However, such connotations were to be introduced. This was even foreseen in the Testament, but allusively. For example one demon told Solomon that he was thwarted by the mark of the Saviour; ‘this is the sign of the cross’.126 As amulets became more generally current among Christians, other Christian symbols were introduced and the figure on horseback ceased to be accompanied by a legend naming him as Solomon. Several such amulets have been published by Bonner, among them one which was formerly in the Ayvaz collection in Beirut and which is now in Michigan.127 The rider, whose spear is surmounted by a cross, pierces with it not a woman but an obnoxious animal. On the obverse, Christ in a mandorla is surrounded by the four beasts of the Apocalypse.

122

Walter, ‘Intaglio of Solomon’, art. cit. supra (n. 101), p. 33. Ibid., p. 42. E.R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, New York, 1952–68, II, p. 228, suggested that it derived from the Thracian god Hero, but this is only one among many possibilities, Walter, art. cit. supra (n. 100), ‘The Thracian Horseman’. It is tempting to postulate Egypt as the place of origin for reasons which will shortly emerge. 124 Op. cit. supra (n. 101), p. 221. 125 Ibid., no. 303. 126 Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, op. cit. supra (n. 1), p. 977. 127 First published by R. Mouterde, ‘Objets magiques’, Mélanges de l’université St-Joseph 25, 1942–43, p. 121; Bonner, op. cit. supra (n. 101), no. 324 (formerly Ayvaz, no. 55). For other examples, vid. Walter, ‘Intaglio of Solomon’, p. 37, n. 51. 123

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So the iconographical type of Solomon was modified and became specifically Christian. Vikan has designated this new type, on which the figure is frequently anonymous, as ‘the Holy Rider’.128 One such example, described as a clasp, was formerly in the Museum at Strasbourg.129 The unnamed rider pierces a serpent with a spear surmounted by a cross. Such amulets may be inscribed with the words E¥˜ £Âe˜ ï ÓÈÎáÓ Ùa ηο,130 so situating them in the context of the archetypal New Testament combat of good against evil. The anonymity of these first Christian Holy Riders is puzzling, because, in the Byzantine tradition, it was usual to attribute names to those who were represented as enlisted in the struggle against evil. Christ, it is true, who was surely not anonymous and who was easily recognizable, figured occasionally on amuletic bracelets and other objects, riding triumphantly on an ass towards Jerusalem. As Vikan observed, this Adventus was the one biblical event which justified him being presented as a Holy Rider. However, Christ was not represented spearing a demon. On a cup at Ucˇguli, Georgia, he is associated with another figure on horseback, who wears a hood and is haloed. This anonymous figure, unlike Christ, spears a prostrate figure with horns on his head.131 All the early evidence for the replacement of Solomon as the preeminent enemy of evil by a Christian saint is on amulets and allied objects with one exception. This is the painting of Sisinnius, duly identified by a legend, a fresco in chapel XVII at Bawît in Egypt, which Clédat dated to the sixth century.132 Sisinnius was, apparently, Antiochene in origin – like Philotheus, a military figure who killed a dragon but in another context.133 Holy Riders progressively assumed the identity of warrior saints and exercised an apotropaic function notably on the facade of churches in Georgia.134 Yet they still remained anonymous; that is to say, they were not accompanied by legends. However, they can be recognized by their features as Theodore Tiron and George.135 Anonymous Holy Riders, also sometimes identifiable by their attributes,

128 G. Vikan, ‘Art, Medicine and Magic in Early Byzantium’, DOP 38, p. 75; idem, ‘Two Byzantine Amuletic Armbands and the Group to Which They Belong’, The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 49/50, 1991/92, pp. 35–9. 129 ‘Intaglio of Solomon’, pp. 40–1, fig. 6. 130 Ibid., figs 5, 6; E. Peterson, E¥˜ £Âfi˜, epigraphische, formgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, Göttingen, 1926, pp. 91–129. 131 ‘Intaglio of Solomon’, p. 41. G.N. C ˇ ubinasvili proposed a Syrian provenance for this cup, ‘Sirijskaja cˇasa v Usˇgule’, Bulletin du Musée de Géorgie 11 B, 1941, pp. 1–19. 132 Vid. infra, Part 2, XXVII. The chapel’s programme is remarkably syncretistic. 133 Vid. infra, Part 2, XXIII. 134 N.A. Aladas ˇ vili, Monumental’naya skul’ptura Gruzii, Moscow, 1979, pp. 52–6. 135 Vid. infra, Part 2, I, V.

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continued to be represented on apotropaic bracelets, together with Chnoubis, pentagrams and other pagan devices, another indication that in popular piety Christians were eclectic and that its adepts continued to back their horses both ways.

PART TWO

The Byzantine Warrior Saints

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CHAPTER TWO

The Major Warrior Saints: The Etat-Major In Part One, I attempted to sketch out the antecedents of the Byzantine warrior saints. This required an investigation of the place of war and warriors in the earlier traditions of which Byzantine society was tributary. It is clear that the Israelites as God’s Chosen People, with their archetypal king David and their capital Jerusalem, exercised an enormous influence on the Byzantines. They attributed a similar status to themselves, a destiny and mission in the divine design, in which Constantinople was the New Jerusalem and the emperor a New David, committed to the Christianization of the oikoumene. Surrounded as the Byzantine Empire was by enemies, its rulers were obliged to defend their people, destroying their enemies, as the Israelites had the Philistines. Since the Byzantines were frequently at war, soldiers and military service were highly esteemed. A victory obtained by decimating the enemy was not shameful but an occasion for glorification. Christ’s teaching that one should turn the other cheek did not impress the Byzantines unduly. Currents of pacifism existed, but they exercised an influence only upon the attitude of Byzantines to members of their own society not upon their attitude to outsiders, in which the lex talionis was the prevailing rule. What they acquired from the Early Christians was a symbolical discourse, in which the language used for war against human enemies was elevated to a moral or spiritual level. Christ revealed that the world was submitted to Satan, against whom all Christians were at war. It was not difficult to identify the terrestrial minions of Satan with the enemies of Christianity. At the same time, those warriors who were killed in the struggle against evil became martyrs and were recruited into the celestial army. They became a distinct category of martyrs, an echelon with what Hippolyte Delehaye called an état-major. They received special protective or apotropaic powers, sometimes intervening in battle on behalf of the Byzantine army, as angels had done on behalf of the Israelites. Delehaye was the outstanding pioneer in the study of the warrior saints. In fact he may have been the first scholar to have established securely that such a category of saint existed. While recognizing that many saintly martyrs had been, according to their Acts, Passions and liturgical commemorations, engaged in military service, his study, which 41

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has lost none of its value with the passage of time, he limited himself to those known to the Byzantines as ÛÙÚ·ÙËÏ¿Ù·È, the members of what he called the état-major. This group certainly offers a sufficient number of examples to make it possible to characterize a warrior saint. However, Delehaye by no means exhausted the subject. Subsequent research necessarily takes Delehaye’s study as its point of departure. However, here I explore a much wider field. I extend my net to include the many other warriors who were commemorated in Byzantine calendars and for whom, in many cases, Passions, if not Acts, exist. About a considerable number of these, there is, indeed, little in the literary sources beyond the mention that they were soldier martyrs; moreover frequently they have no iconographical record. Since such martyrs do not help us much to understand the Byzantine conception of the warrior saint, I have relegated them to an appendix. The others, the more popular warrior saints, merit individual treatment, as detailed as possible but of varying length. Attention should also be called to warrior saints who did not undergo martyrdom, or, if they did, were commemorated not as warriors but as bishops, for example, having resigned their military commission to embark on a pastoral career. Although Delehaye delineates clearly the essential characteristics of warrior saints, he does not give much consideration to their secondary characteristics, which, however, can enrich our conception of the warrior saint. In the following paragraphs, I begin by presenting again the members of Delehaye’s état-major. However, I do no more than resume what Delehaye has already established. I prefer to study their secondary characteristics: the celestial aid which they received during their military career and martyrdom; the development of their cult, spreading from their original sanctuaries through the Byzantine Empire and beyond; also the development of their iconography, including their typical scenes and attributes if they had such; their specific apotropaic activities, disposing of obnoxious persons and beasts, intervening in battle on behalf of the Byzantine army and protecting the Byzantines against their enemies and conquerors. It should be observed in passing that these secondary characteristics were not all the monopoly of warrior saints. I use the same method when I turn to the popular warrior saints who do not figure in Delehaye’s état-major. Some remarks should be made about the historical value of the literary sources. This is a delicate and complex matter. The Acts drawn up at the time of their martyrdom of which an authentic literary test has survived are minimal. As Delehaye himself noted, the extant Passions were usually composed several generations after the putative date of the martyrdom, although this does not exclude the possibility that the author drew on

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oral or literary tradition. Delehaye further remarked that ‘les légendes qui racontent leurs hauts faits et leur martyre se distinguent par une certaine uniformité dans la trame du récit, dans les développements et dans la variété même des formes qu’elles ont revêtues successivement’. The same point has been made by Elizabeth Key Fowden in her remarkable study of St Sergius. These Passions were composed in the ‘fermenting hagiographical environment of the fifth and sixth centuries when accounts of martyrs’ trials mutually inspired and reinforced each other’. For the present study, which is devoted to what were the Byzantines’ own ideas about their warrior saints, the scientific authenticity of the Passions is not a primary consideration, because for the most part the Byzantines accepted what their hagiographers told them uncritically. However, our contemporary experts in hagiography have a critical approach. Outstanding among them is Timothy Woods, whose penetrating examination of the sources has led him to retain little of the information which they provide as historically authentic. I refer to his studies, but rarely comment on the scientific value of the Passions, except when the likelihood of the hagiographer having exploited oral tradition or Acta no longer extant is strong, or, on the contrary, the Passion is blatantly fictitious. Hippolyte Delehaye’s état-major was made up of the two Theodores, Demetrius, Procopius, Mercurius and George.

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I St Theodore Tiron and St Theodore Stratelates The literary sources for Theodore Tiron In her Alexiad, Anna Comnena wrote of a sanctuary in Constantinople, much frequented particularly on Sundays, which had been built in honour of ‘Theodore greatest of the martyrs’.1 It would have been the celebrated church in the suburb of Bathys Ryax,2 probably built by Justinian during the reign of the Emperor Justin, where, according to Nicetas Choniates writing in 1182, the emperor went for the commemoration of St Theodore during Lent.3 There can be no doubt that the saint in question was Theodore Tiron, because his synaxis was celebrated on the first Saturday of Lent.4 It is a stroke of luck for us that there exists a mosaic icon, now in the Hermitage, which must be a copy of the one venerated in this church, because the legend qualifies Theodore’s name with the words √ BA£HPIAKH™ (more correctly spelt ‚·©˘ÚÚ˘·Î›Ù˘) – of Bathys Ryax.5 By the time that Nicetas Choniates was writing, Theodore Tiron (variously written as T‹ÚˆÓ, T›ÚˆÓ or T‡ÚˆÓ, calqued on the Latin tiro, recruit or young soldier) had been venerated by the Byzantines for seven centuries. Indeed he was one of the most venerated of the early saints. Carolides described him as the first Christian Hercules, the personification of a great Kulturkampf, not only of the Christian faith against the heathen world but also of human culture against evil in nature.6 Theodore’s role in the culture and iconography of the Byzantines is a good starting point for the study of their military saints, not only because his title shows that he was evidently a soldier but also because much was written about him. 1 A. Comnena, Alexiad I, Bonn, 1839, viii 3, pp. 392–3; ed. B. Leib and P. Gautier, Paris, 1937–76, II, p. 133; English translation, E.R.A. Sewter, Baltimore and Harmondsworth, 1968, p. 251. 2 Janin, pp. 150–1. 3 N. Choniates, Historia, Bonn, 1835; ed. J.L. van Dieten, Berlin/New York, 1975, p. 231; English transl., H. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium, Detroit, 1984, p. 131. 4 J. Mateos, Le Typikon de la Grande Eglise II, Rome, 1963, pp. 20–1. 5 A. Banck, Art in the Collections of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, 1996, plate 190; C. Walter, ‘St Theodore and the Dragon’, Festschrift David Buckton (forthcoming), fig. 1. I thank Prof. George Huxley for his help in deciphering the inscription. 6 P. Carolidis, Bemerkungen zu den alten kleinasiatischen Sprachen und Mythen, Strasbourg, 1913, p. 148.

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The literary texts in the main have been published; further, from the earliest days and throughout the Byzantine epoch, he was frequently represented; he also had most of the characteristics which will be seen to be appropriate to a military saint. Theodore’s hagiographical tradition began well with an Encomium pronounced in his sanctuary by Gregory of Nyssa in the late fourth century.7 The text does not specify where Theodore’s first sanctuary lay. It could have been at Amaseia, where he was executed, or at Euchaïta, where he was born. The Homily is a sober, conventional piece of writing, if somewhat lacking in information about Theodore’s personal biography. It recounts how he refused to sacrifice to the gods, setting fire to a temple of Cybele, how he was tortured and put in prison, where he was consoled by celestial visions, and how, finally, he was burned alive (not decapitated). Similar information is given about most martyrs in early Passions. If a Byzantinist is disappointed that so august an authority offers so few concrete facts about Theodore, there are, nevertheless, compensations. One is its value as witness to late fourth-century belief in the power of saints, not only as actively intervening in the lives of terrestrial men. Besides exercising the traditional function of warding off demons, Theodore also protected his clients on journeys, cured their diseases and procured riches for them if they were poor. More particularly, Gregory refers to Theodore’s capacity to intervene in battles, later a specific characteristic of warrior saints, which was not usually mentioned at this early date.

7 Gregory of Nyssa, De sancto Theodoro (BHG, 1760), ed. J.P. Cavarnos, Gregory of Nyssa, Sermons II, 1, Leiden/New York, 1990, pp. cxxv(clxxii, pp. 61–71; PG 46, 736–48. At one time the authenticity of the Homily was called in doubt: Delehaye preferred not to pronounce on the question before it had been published in a critical edition. Cavarnos, who lists 88 manuscripts containing it, does not even raise the question of its authenticity. Vid. C. Zuckerman, ‘Cappadocian Fathers and the Goths, B. Gregory of Nyssa’s Enkomion for St Theodore the Recruit and the Gothic Riots in Asia Minor in 379’, TM 11, 1991, pp. 479–86. It may now be taken for granted that it was delivered by Gregory of Nyssa. A brief recital concerning Theodore’s early life (BHG, 1765) was known to Delehaye, p. 33. He characterized it as belonging to the genre of ‘l’éloge funèbre d’après Menandre’, and not to be taken seriously. In his opinion it was put together from later texts about Theodore. Subsequently he published it, AA SS, Nov., IV, Brussels, 1925, pp. 45–46. Concurrently it was also published by A. Sigalas, EEB™ 2, 1925, pp. 225–6. Sigalas maintained that this text was ancient, possibly anterior to Gregory of Nyssa’s Homily, ‘Des Chrysippos von Jerusalem auf den hl. Johannes den Taüfer 2c, Exkurs, Die alte Theodoros Vita’, Texte und Forschungen zur byzantinische-grieschischen Philologie 20, Athens, 1937, p. 102. Since the text is mainly concerned with Theodore’s childhood – such information was regularly inserted later into saints’ Lives – it may be presumed that Delehaye, not Sigalas, was right.

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As was often the case with popular saints, Theodore’s biography was zealously developed by hagiographers.8 The Passion which Delehaye considered to be the earliest is Bibliographica hagiographica graeca with Auctarium (hence abbreviated to BHG) 1764, attested by a ninth-century manuscript. He published it and, after it had been studied critically by Franchi de’ Cavalieri, republished it.9 Now Theodore’s sanctuary was definitely established at Euchaïta. Franchi de’ Cavalieri was of the opinion that from the beginning it had been there, not at Amaseia. After his execution Theodore’s relics would have been transported to his birthplace, because there they would be in greater security. Thus far, there is little to distinguish Theodore from other martyrs, apart from his capacity to intervene in battle. He was simply a soldier – a recruit to the infantry – who, like many other Christians, refused to renounce his faith. In the next text to be considered, the perspectives change. Although their opinions diverge as to the date of the events described in it and of its actual composition, and although their reasons for being interested in it differ, scholars who have studied the Life and Miracula (BHG, 1764) have found it to be an outstanding piece of hagiographical writing. The unique manuscript in which the text has survived, Vind. hist. graec. 60, would have been written in the late tenth or eleventh century. Delehaye placed its composition categorically after 934. In this he was followed by his fellow Bollandist François Halkin.10 However, even if the text was put together in its present form at that date, it certainly incorporates much earlier material. The anonymous author of the earlier compilation obviously knew Euchaïta and its surroundings well. The topographical information which he offers has attracted some scholars,11 because it reveals what life was like in a region constantly exposed to marauders. 8 They are listed in BHG with Auctarium, 1760–70. For a succinct account, in which both Theodore Tiron and Theodore Stratelates are treated together, vid. A. Amore, Teodoro (di Amasea), BS 12, 238–42. 9 Delehaye, pp. 127–35 (BHG, 1762d); Pio Franchi de’ Cavalieri, ‘Attorno al più antico testo del martyrium S. Theodori Tironis’, Note agiografiche fascicolo 3o, Studi e testi 22, Rome, 1909, pp. 91–107; idem, Note agiografiche fascicolo 4, Studi e testi 24, Rome, 1912, pp. 161–85; Delehaye, AA SS, Nov. IV, pp. 12–13. It embellishes Gregory’s succinct text by introducing information about Theodore’s childhood and martyrdom. Woods, who apparently considered BHG 1761 to be earlier, thinks that details, notably Theodore’s membership of the Cohors Marmariton, also given in BHG 1752d, Delehaye, p. 127, were cribbed from the Passion of St Christopher, vid. infra, XV, p. 214, n. 1. 10 Delehaye, pp. 183–201; idem, AA SS, vol. cit. supra (n. 9), pp. 49–55; Fr. Halkin, ‘Un opuscule inconnu du Magister Ouranos (La Vie de Théodore le Conscrit, BHG, 1762m)’, An. Boll. 80, 1962, pp. 308–24, reprinted, Martyrs grecs, II–VIIIe siècles, Variorum London, 1974, no. IX. 11 Notably, J.F. Haldon and H. Kennedy, ‘The Arab-Frontier in the Eighth and Ninth

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Military protection by the Byzantine army was sporadically available, but more than this was needed. Here Theodore came into his own as is recounted in this text, particularly the part devoted to his miracles. In the first, he made a posthumous apparition, in order that a true likeness might be made of him on an icon. It is mentioned specifically that he was wearing military dress. It is likely that this icon, even if the apparition was legendary, was the prototype of that described in the eleventh century by John Mauropous. Theodore was represented on it as a foot soldier; in the time of Mauropous, it was the focal point of a festival attracting crowds of pilgrims.12 It is mentioned that the text was composed in the ‘fourteenth year of the Emperor Constantine and the seventh indiction’. Taken word for word, the phrase yields the date 754, which Delehaye considered to be suspect because it falls in the period of First Iconoclasm during the reign of Constantine V, when the practice of painting icons, of offering cult to them and asking for the saints’ intercession was officially proscribed. He therefore emended it to yield a date in the tenth century, when he believed the text to have been composed. However, this emendment is rendered unconvincing, now that it is called in doubt that imperial decrees prohibiting cult to icons were applied strictly throughout the Byzantine Empire, particularly to major sanctuaries like, for example, that of St Demetrius in Thessaloniki, where his portraits remained intact. Equally unconvincing – and superfluous – is the emendation espoused by Trombley giving the date as 663/4.13 The text recounts another miracle: Theodore slew a dragon. If the date 754 is retained for its original composition then BHG 1764 provides the earliest literary account of the prodigy. Of this further in due course. In yet another miracle, a respectable lady recognized the martyr in a vision, this time on horseback, helping to ward off a barbarian attack, thanks to the icon, just at the place where it had been painted.14 Theodore intervened in other ways to protect Euchaïta. When angels ordered him to leave the way open to barbarian invaders, he prayed to God to rescind Centuries – Military Organisation and Society in the Borderlands’, ZRVI 19, 1980, p. 91; Frank R. Trombley, ‘The Decline of the Seventh-Century Town: The Exception of Euchaïta’, Byzantine Studies in Honor of Milton V. Anastos, ed. S. Vryonis Jr., Malibu, 1985, pp. 65–90; idem, ‘The Arab Wintering Raid against Euchaïta in 663’, Fifth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference (Abstracts of Papers), pp. 5–6; A. Kazhdan, ‘Hagiographical Notes 17. The Flourishing City of Euchaïta?’, Erytheia 9(2), 1988, pp. 194–9; C. Howard-Johnstone, ‘The siege of Constantinople in 626’, Constantinople and Its Hinterland, ed. C. Mango and G. Dagron, pp. 131–42. 12 Vid. infra (n. 77). 13 Art. cit. supra (n. 11); vid. infra (n. 15). 14 Delehaye, pp. 196–8, miracle no. 4.

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this decision. God duly did so, and the people whom the saint protected were saved. On another occasion, the Arabs failed to destroy his sanctuary, because their leader had fallen to the ground, rolling about and biting his tongue. On yet another, Theodore’s relics were stolen. After an earthquake, the martyr restored them to Eleutherius, then bishop of the city, who subsequently rebuilt Theodore’s shrine. These incidents are as important for those who study hagiography as for those who are more concerned with secular history.15 This collection of miracles differs radically from the earliest surviving one BHG, 1765c, attributed to Chrysippus.16 Delehaye, who studied them in relation to other early collections of miracles, described them as ‘des anecdotes piquantes, d’un caractère populaire, qui mettent en lumière l’idée qu’on faisait du saint’.17 Here, Theodore figures only once as a soldier, in the first miracle, where he rescues on horseback a child who had been sold as a slave to the Ishmaelites.18 Like the saints in the other early collections, Theodore rarely left his sanctuary, which is not specified to be at Euchaïta. The prodigy of killing a dragon, recounted briefly in BHG, 1764, was embroidered by Nicolas Ouranos in his Life of Theodore.19 It is almost certain that he had access to the former. Known to have lived at the end of the tenth century, it does not seem that Ouranos knew Euchaïta personally, in spite of having written that the miraculous icon of Theodore was still venerated there in his time. According to him, Theodore rescued his mother from the jaws of a dragon while she was drawing water from a spring. Surprisingly, he situated the prodigy to the otherwise unknown kingdom of a certain Samuel (or Saul). Other later Lives, with one exception, need not detain us here. This one (BHG, 656) was also published by Delehaye.20 The Life is important, because it provides Theodore with three relatives, all soldiers and martyrs! Eutropius and Cleonicus were his half-brothers, sons of the same mother. Basiliscus was his nephew. They are described as comrades in

15 See particularly C. Zuckerman, ‘The reign of Constantine V in the Miracles of St. Theodore the Recruit (BHG, 1754)’, REB 45, 1988, pp. 191–210. I thank the author for much valuable help in my research on Theodore. 16 Des Chrysippos von Jerusalem Enkomion auf den hl. Theodoros Teron, ed. A. Sigalas, Leipzig, 1921; Delehaye, AA SS, vol. cit. (n. 7), pp. 55–72. 17 Delehaye, ‘Les recueils antiques de miracles de saints’, An. Boll. 43, 1925, pp. 41–5. 18 Ibid. Such rescues were often undertaken by military saints, but not uniquely by them. For example, St Nicolas is represented on horseback in full episcopal dress rescuing a child in his cycle at Ramac´a (Serbia), Djuric´, Vizantiijske freske, p. 98, fig. 102, p. 162. 19 Vid. supra (n. 10). 20 Delehaye, pp. 40–2, 202–3; G.D. Gordini, ‘Cleonico, Eutropio e Basilisco’, BS 4, 54–6; vid. infra XXXIV.

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arms, united to Theodore by their bonds of mutual affection. The existence of these three relatives has no confirmation, whether in literary or archaeological sources. Nor do they figure regularly in echelons of military saints. However, they are commemorated in the Synaxary of the Great Church.21 They were also known to Christopher of Mytilene, and represented at Treskavac (Macedonia), where they wear military dress.22

The spread of Theodore’s cult It was from Theodore’s sanctuary at Euchaïta, which was still visited by pilgrims at least up to the end of the eleventh century, even though the region had been occupied by the Arabs, that his cult spread far and wide. Sometimes it was associated with his relics, which were also widely distributed, witness the inscriptions as well as the literary sources. For example, John Mauropous wrote that the dispersion of Theodore’s relics took place, in order that ‘these universal riches could be widely appreciated’.23 An inscription at Apamea refers to the ‘relics of St Theodore and other saints’.24 He was also venerated in a fifth-century basilica at Gerasa;25 a martyrium was built for him at Jerusalem before the beginning of the sixth century;26 an inscription dated 523 was addressed to him at Kefr Antin;27 a prayer to him was inscribed on an ambo on the island of Milos dating from the fifth or sixth century’;28 another in the former barracks at Ghour (Syria), dated 524–5 or 530–1, invokes Longinus, Theodore and George.29 His shield was suspended in the dome of the church dedicated to him at Dalisandos (Seleucia in Isauria).30 Procopius of Caesarea, writing in the 550s, mentioned two churches dedicated to Theodore in Haemimontus (the district west of Rhodope).31 He also alludes to a church in Constantinople âÓ Ùˇá ^PËÛ›ˆ which was probably the same church as

21

Syn CP, 503. M. Gligorevic´-Maksimovic´, ‘Slikani kalendar u Treskavcu i stihovi Hristofora Mitilenskog’, Zograf 8, 1977, pp. 48–54, figs 4, 5. 23 Iohannis Euchaïtorum metropolitae quae in codice Vaticano graeco 676 supersunt. 24 H. Delehaye, ‘Saints et reliquaires d’Apamée’, An. Boll. 53, 1935, p. 238; Maraval, p. 346. 25 Maraval, p. 330. 26 Ibid., p. 208. 27 Fr. Halkin, ‘Inscriptions grecques’, I, p. 99, n. 9. 28 Ibid., no. 111, p. 122; H. Leclerq, ‘Milos’, DACL 2, 279. 29 Halkin, ibid., Supplément, p. 335. 30 C. Porphyrogenitus, De thematibus, Bonn III, p. 36, lines 11–12. 31 Procopius of Caesarea, De aedificiis, ed. J. Haurt, Leipzig, 1964, p. 147, nn. 3, 26; Bonn II, p. 306. 22

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that at Bathys Ryax, mentioned above.32 However, the earliest recorded chapel in Constantinople dedicated to Theodore was that attributed to the patrician Sphoracius, consul in 452, where the most important feasts in his honour were celebrated.33 In fact, more than 15 churches dedicated to him in the city are known.34 Of these buildings, the most important for our purposes are the barracks at Ghour, because the inscription places this military building under the protection of three warrior saints, and his church at Dalisandos, because his shield was suspended there. Theodore’s cult spread to Italy. He figures in the apse mosaic of the church of Sts Cosmas and Damian, Rome, built by Pope Felix IV (526– 30). By the seventh century he had his own church. He was also the patron of Venice until it acquired the relics of St Mark. However, unlike George, he was not popular to the north of Europe.35 In sum, Theodore was particularly renowned in Syria, Palestine and Asia Minor, as well as in Constantinople. In the West, he was esteemed in Italy, but hardly elsewhere. Only in the churches just mentioned was he clearly venerated as a military saint.

The special functions of Theodore As is well known, the cult of saints was not entirely disinterested. Generally, it was closely associated with the desire to obtain certain favours. A military saint might be invoked for various reasons, although some of their functions were shared by other categories of saint. One which they inherited – but not directly36 – from antique heroes, notably Perseus and Hercules, was that of eliminating an obnoxious beast or person. As has been mentioned above, Theodore was reputed to have slain a dragon.37 For a long time the earliest account of this feat was considered to be an interpolation into his Passio prima (BHG, 1762d) in Paris graec. 1470, dated 890.38 In this version, the dragon was a local menace, blocking the 32 Vid. sup. (nn. 1 and 2). However, Maraval, p. 409, distinguishes between the two churches. 33 Janin, pp. 152–3. 34 Ibid., p. 148. 35 Ewig, p. 395, wrote ‘veilleicht Theodor’. 36 Vid. C. Walter, ‘The Intaglio of Solomon in the Benaki Museum and the Origins of the Iconography of Warrior Saints’, ¢XAE 15, 1989–90, pp. 35–42; reprinted, Pictures as Language, xxiii. 37 Vid. supra (n. 10). 38 W. Hengstenberg, ‘Der Drachenkampf des heiligen Theodor’, Oriens Christianus 2, 1912, pp. 78–106, 241–80, assembled most of the texts relevant to Theodore’s dragonslaying. Only his dating of the earliest account is challenged here.

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road. The soldier of Christ, after making the sign of the Cross, cut off the dragon’s head; from that day the road was free of access. This act had none of the glamour of St George’s rescue of the princess. Its antecedents have been well presented by Boulhoul in his study of Marina of Antioch’s Passion and her much more dramatic encounter.39 She had just finished her prayers when there was an earthquake. A dragon bounded into her cell. Smoke and fire issued from its nostrils; it shrieked and whistled; it exuded an appalling stink; it even brandished a sabre. The dragon swallowed Marina, who made the sign of the Cross. This split open the dragon’s belly from which Marina escaped, while the dragon expired. Boulhoul considers that, although Marina’s cult only developed later, her Passion could date back to the seventh century. The view that BHG, 1764, dating from around 754, is the earliest text in which Theodore’s slaying the dragon is mentioned is corroborated, if not confirmed, by iconographical evidence on seals and a curious terracotta found at Vinica (Macedonia) (plate 25). On two seals, in the Zacos collection, which resemble two others in Laurent’s Corpus, although the military figure on these latter ones is not spearing a dragon, nor is he named. However, the inscription on the reverse names the person for whom the seal was made: Peter of Euchaïta. Laurent, who attributed these seals to the eighth century, maintained that the military figure could not but be Theodore.40 On the two seals in the Zacos collection (plate 23), the military figure, which resembles those on the seals in Laurent’s Corpus, actually does spear a snake, although, again, he is not named. No. 1288, dated between 650 and 730, was also made for Peter of Euchaïta; no. 1287, dated between 550 and 560, was made for a certain Nicolas. A third seal in this collection may be adduced, no. 1289, made for a certain Theodore.41 Here the military figure holds a long cross and shield. Given the practice of Byzantine bishops of having represented on their seals either a saint particularly revered in their diocese or their patron saint, it is reasonable to maintain, first, that the saint is Theodore Tiron and, secondly, that at this early date – earlier than 754 – Theodore was already reputed to have slain a dragon. As so often in Byzantine studies, it is possible to assemble 39 P. Boulhoul, ‘Hagiographie antique et démonologie. Notes sur quelques Passions grecques (BHG, 962x, 964, et 1165–1166)’, An. Boll. 112, 1994, pp. 255–304, esp. p. 263. 40 V. Laurent, Le corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin V1, L’église de Constantinople, Paris, 1963, p. 662, n. 852. The seals are in the Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Mass., and in Constantinople. Laurent did not reproduce them, but referred to a facsimile (actually a drawing) published by J. Ebersolt, ‘Sceaux byzantins du Musée de Constantinople’, Revue numismatique 18, 1914, p. 239, n. 385. Vid. my art. cit., supra (n. 5), fig. 3. 41 G. Zacos and A. Verglery, Byzantine Lead Seals I, ii, Basle, 1972, pp. 792–3, with illustrations.

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a cluster of evidence, no element of which is decisive but which in its totality is convincing. Another such cluster of evidence may be assembled round a terracotta icon of Theodore spearing a dragon. This plaque, unearthed in 1985, is one of 40 found together outside the walls of the fortress near Vinica, known as Vinicˇko Kale. The site was already occupied in Neolithic times. Archaeological evidence shows that the fortress was reconstructed in the fourth and fifth centuries, and several modifications were introduced during this period.42 On the plaques, two Old Testament figures are represented, Joshua and Caleb, both in armour and holding spears. Two saints, Christopher and George, are in civil dress with a cross and shield between them (plate 24). Each holds a spear which he plunges into the jaws of a serpent. Theodore, wearing a cuirass and seated on horseback, holds a spear behind him, on which a dragon is impaled (plate 25). There are two legends, partly effaced: D(eu)S PRECIBUS O(mnibus) SA(nc)TORUM TUORUM (exaudi et) MISER(ere nobis); S(an)C(tus) THEODORUS DRACO. These objects present several problems. The first is that of their original purpose. They were reproduced in quantity on the site. However, it is unlikely that, if they were intended to embellish a building, all would have been destined to just one church. The second problem is posed by the fact that all the legends are in Latin. This would suggest that they were made at the time when the region was still under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Rome, that is to say before Leo III (717–41) brought it definitively under the jurisdiction of Constantinople in 733.43 A third problem arises from the apparent uniqueness in their genre of these terracotta plaques. Certainly nothing similar has been discovered near Vinica. Analogies have been proposed with Coptic and Arab artefacts, with ninth-century ceramics from Tuzalka near Preslav (Bulgaria), and with terracotta plaques in the Museo Bardo, Tunis, but they are all conjectural.44

42 C. Krstevski, ‘Découvertes archéologiques de Vinicˇko Kale’, Catalogue of exhibition, Trésors médiévaux de la République de Macédoine, Paris, 1999, pp. 31–3. 43 S. Vailhé, ‘Constantinople (Eglise)’, Dictionnaire de théologique catholique 3, 1350–54, La question d’Illyrium ecclésiastique, IVe–IXe siècles; Markovic´, pp. 578–9. 44 These objects, apart from a few found earlier on the site, were excavated by Kosta Balabanov, who wrote the text for the catalogues of the exhibitions at the Vatican, 1985, in Zagreb, 1987, and in Skopje, 1991. I am most grateful to Kosta Balabanov for kindly showing me the site of Vinicˇko Kale and the terracottas before they were publicly exhibited. At that time, I held the view that the legend of Theodore slaying the dragon dated back only to the 9th century. I now accept its much earlier date. Most of what has been written about the terracottas is due to Macedonian scholars, vid. the bibliography in the exhibition catalogue cited supra (n. 44), pp. 104–7. H. Melovski, first argued the case for a 4th–6th century date, ‘Keramicˇkite ikoni od Vinicˇko Kale’, Zˇiva antika 9, 1991, pp. 179–97.

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The evidence of the seals and the terracottas eliminates objections to the early emergence of the legend of Theodore slaying a dragon. Since he is portrayed in military dress, his feat is clearly presented as one of the special functions of a warrior saint, although it was certainly not confined to warriors. Theodore’s function as protector of Euchaïta has already been described.45 His intervention elsewhere in battle at a later date was undertaken jointly with Theodore Stratelates; it will be treated in due course. A unique picture of him investing an emperor is now only known from the description of it in Marc. graec. 524, f. 36.46 The emperor was Manuel I Comnenus and the picture was in the house of Leo Sikountinus at Thessaloniki. The emperor was represented on the gate of the house; the most holy Mother of God, having Christ in her bosom, crowned him; an angel preceded him; Theodore Tiron handed him a sword; Nicolas followed behind. In an adjacent picture, Tiron, represented on horseback, rode in front of the emperor, guiding his hands in military contest. A final function of military saints was to dispose of obnoxious tyrants. Lactantius and Eusebius maintained that persecutors regularly came to a bad end, often dying of an obnoxious disease.47 In Metaphrastic volumes, when the first word of a Passion was the name of a persecuting emperor, he might be depicted in an initial letter (lettrine) with a serpent.48 Normally it encircled him, but other formulae were possible: Dochiariou 5, f. 117, Diocletian, f. 205, Maxentius, both encircled by a serpent;49 Sinaï, 508, f. 66v, Trajan holding a serpent in his right hand, f. 190, a crowned figure encircled by a serpent, f. 234v, Maximian (?) holding a vessel from which a serpent is drinking;50 Marc. graec. Z 351 (714), f. 117, Diocletian encircled by a serpent.51 In the Metaphrastic volume, Vatican graec. 1679, martyrs were represented, again in initial letters, actually revenging themselves on their persecutors. However, not all of them were soldiers; even those who were not portrayed in military dress: f. 3, Ananias, a bishop, strangling his persecutor, f. 80v, Probus, Tarachus and Andronicus, warriors, with the emperor prostrate at their feet, f. 137v, Varus, another warrior, spear45

Vid. supra (nn. 14, 15). Sp. P. Lambros, ‘M·ÚÎÈ·Óe˜ Îá‰ÈÍ 524’, NÂe˜ ^EÏÏËÓÔÌÓ‹ÌˆÓ 8, 1911, p. 43. Compare plate 65. 47 Lactantius, De la mort des persecuteurs, ed. J. Moreau, I, Paris, 1954, pp. 55–64; Eusebius, Histoire ecclésiastique, ed. G. Bardy, Paris, 1952–60, II, pp. 113–20, IV, pp. 131–2. 48 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 193. 49 Ibid., p. 90. 50 Ibid., pp. 155–6. 51 Ibid., p. 176. 46

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ing the emperor, f. 336, Epimachus, not a warrior, trampling the emperor and pulling his beard (plate 51).52 These pictures are symbolical of revenge, the forms of which come from antique triumphal imagery.53 They do not reflect any specific deed, historical or legendary. The case is different for Theodore. A curious legend is told by Faustus of Byzantium in his History of Armenia of a sophist’s vision of the assembled martyrs in heaven.54 Thecla joined them; she invited Theodore and Sergius to intervene and rid the world of the persecuting Emperor Valens. Later, the sophist saw the two warrior saints return to announce the death of Valens. In making known the emperor’s death, the sophist risked execution for treason. However, he was given three days’ grace, by the end of which the emperor’s death was publicly known. Since Valens was, in fact, killed at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, the story is entirely apocryphal. However, it reveals his unpopularity as an Arian persecutor of the Orthodox, and the revenge that military saints might be supposed to perpetrate on a persecutor. Faustus’s History, originally written in Greek, has survived only in Armenian. Peeters considered that the story in it of Sts Theodore and Sergius could not possibly have been modelled on the one which is much better known of Mercurius disposing of Julian the Apostate.55 Consequently the feat of Theodore and Sergius is archetypal. Yet, paradoxically, unlike the feat of Mercurius, it was not taken up in iconography. The nearest approach is a miniature illustrating his Homily, In supremum vale, where Gregory of Nazianzus alludes pejoratively to Julian and Valens, in the eleventh-century manuscript, Panteleimon, 6, f. 242v.56 Whereas Julian is represented as being killed by Mercurius, Valens is simply portrayed as an Arian, crouching as Arius does in pictures of the First Council of Nicaea. No doubt the illuminator knew that Valens was a heretic, but was unaware of the legend concerning his death.

52 Ibid., pp. 161–4; Walter, Triumph of the Martyrs, pp. 30–4 reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. III. Vid. infra, XLVIII: Probus etc.; LII: Varus. 53 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 165. 54 P. Peeters, ‘Un miracle de SS. Serge et Théodore dans Faustus de Byzance’, An. Boll. 39, 1921, pp. 70–3. 55 Ibid., pp. 75, 78, 87–8; for Mercurius, vid. infra, IV. 56 G. Galavaris, The Illustrations of the Liturgical Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Princeton, 1969, p. 211, fig. 177.

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Early representations of Theodore Tiron as a warrior The earliest representation of Theodore of which we have any knowledge is that in his sanctuary, described by Gregory of Nyssa:57 there were representations of the ‘saint’s brave deeds, his resistance, his torments, the ferocious faces of the tyrants, the martyr’s most blessed death and Christ in human form, presiding over the contest’. No later passion cycle has survived for Theodore, but it is easily paralleled with those of other martyrs. Unfortunately we cannot know whether Theodore was already portrayed in military dress; it is improbable. Other early pictures of Theodore on seals and the Vinica terracotta, where he does wear military dress, have already been mentioned (plates 23, 25).58 In the sixth-century portrait in Sts Cosmas and Damian, Rome,59 and on the textile in the Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Mass.,60 he wears a chlamys. However, it is clear from these portraits that Theodore’s facial features were standardized very early: the thick, dark hair and the longish tapering beard. This remained constant throughout the Byzantine period, so that he can be identified even when there is no legend giving his name, as on the well-known icon at St Catherine’s, Mount Sinaï, where he wears court dress.61 On two slightly later icons in the same collection, one possibly of Egyptian provenance, the other on which Theodore is accompanied by the deacon Leo, he wears military dress.62 On the votive mosaic in St Demetrius, Thessaloniki, generally dated to the seventh century, he wears court dress.63 In Cappadocia, representations of Theodore are abundant. He appears on horseback, sometimes spearing a dragon. In such pictures he invariably wears military dress. When he is on foot, there is less consistency as 57 Vid. supra (n. 7). References to the Theodores are made by Chatzinikolaou, 1049–59. Vid. also C. Weigert, ‘Theodore Tiro von Euchaïta (von Amasea)’, LCI 8, 447–51; idem, ‘Theodor Stratelates von Euchaïta’, LCI 8, 444–6. More developed are the article by Li1jana Mavrodinova, ‘Sv. Teodor – Razvitiei osobonosti na ikonografskija mu tip v srednovekovnata zˇivopis’, Bulletin de l’Institut des arts (Sofia) 13, 1969, pp. 33–52, and, for their portraits, Underwood, pp. 193–7, figs 10–12; idem, The Kariye Camii III, New York, 1966, nn. 142–78. 58 Vid. supra, nn. 41–4. 59 G. Matthiae, SS. Cosma e Damiano, Rome, 1948, figs 3, 9; Mavrodinova, fig. 1. 60 Age of Spirituality, no. 494, pp. 549–50, entry by N. Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko. 61 Weitzmann, Icons, B3; Age of Spirituality, no. 478, pp. 533–4, entry by S.A. Boyd. The exact date is disputed within the period from c. 550 to the early 7th century. Regrettably, Weitzmann wrongly identifies early icons of Theodore as representing the Stratelates, not the Tiron. His example was followed by other scholars, vid. infra, XXX. 62 Weitzmann, Icons, B13, B14. 63 R. Hoddinott, Early Byzantine Churches in Macedonia and Southern Serbia, London, 1963, pp. 154–5, fig. 34.

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to his dress. Of the former, I have noted 16 examples of him on horseback, in ten of which he spears a dragon. Sometimes he is alone, but more often he accompanies St George.64 They range in date from the ninth to the thirteenth century. Here it will suffice to describe two representative pictures. At Mavrucan 3, Theodore and George on horseback direct their spears at two serpents entwined around a tree (plate 27). It seems to be the earliest surviving example of this iconographical theme.65 At Yusaf koç Kilisesi, Avcılar, a much later example, the two warriors are again represented facing each other. Unfortunately, the dragon at their feet is now hardly visible (plate 28).66 I have noted 15 pictures in Cappadocia of Theodore standing, five in court dress and ten in military dress.67 Again, only two representative examples will be mentioned here, one at Göreme 9,68 the other in the Basilica of Constantine, Yeniköy.69 In conclusion, although it was never de rigueur, it did become more usual to represent Theodore in military dress, especially after Iconoclasm (plate 36). The art of Cappadocia is a watershed, because it was particularly from the eleventh century that notable developments occurred.

Euchaïta and Euchaneia These two places tend to be confused, both in the Byzantine sources – liturgical, hagiographical and historical – and in the writings of modern scholars. However, whatever may have been written to the contrary, their respective situations are clearly different. For Euchaïta, there is no great problem. Although the Byzantine city has been totally destroyed, H. Grégoire’s identification of it as the modern Avkhat, a day’s march from Amaseia, is generally accepted.70 C. Mango and I. Sˇevcˇenko were fortunate enough to identify spolia with inscriptions concerning Euchaïta in the neighbourhood. One inscription is about a wall built by the Emperor Anastasius I between 515 and 518, the other about Euchaïta’s episcopal status during his reign. Euchaïta was also mentioned as a city

64

They are discussed in detail in my art. cit. supra (n. 5), pp. 181–2. N. Thierry, ‘Haut Moyen Age en Cappadoce: L’église de Mavrucan 3’, Journal des savants 1972, pp. 258–63, figure 21. 66 Jolivet-Lèvy, pp. 72–6 (incorrect reference in the index). 67 These are listed in detail in my article, ‘Theodore, Archetype of the Warrior Saint’, REB 57, 1999, pp. 181–2. 68 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 306. 69 Ibid., p. 282. 70 H. Grégoire, ‘Géographie byzantine’, BZ 19, 1913, pp. 59–61. 65

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in Justinian’s Novel 28, dated 535.71 From the seventh century, the see is known to have been autocephalous. An eminent ecclesiastic, Peter the Fuller, Monophysite patriarch of Antioch, was exiled there from 477 to 482.72 However, Euchaïta patently owed its prestige to ‘Christ’s athlete who is a citizen of heaven, Theodore the guardian of this city’.73 Alypius the Stylite visited Theodore’s sanctuary at some moment during his long life.74 So did John Moschus on a pilgrimage which took in the sanctuaries of Theodore at Euchaïta, Thecla at Seleucia, and Sergius at Saphas (sc. Rusafa).75 Theodosius, who visited Asia Minor some time after the death of Anastasius I in 518, was aware of the existence of Theodore’s sanctuary, although he may not have visited it, because he situated it incorrectly in Galatia instead of Hellenospont.76 After that, direct references to Euchaïta are rare until John Mauropous became its bishop. The cult of Theodore (Tiron) was evidently still flourishing at the time of his episcopate.77 However, John Mauropous, in poor health, returned to Constantinople. The name of his successor as bishop is unknown, but the see was occupied, because, according to his biographer, George the Hagiorites with his pilgrim companions was received there hospitably by the bishop in 1059.78 After that, there is only the mention of two bishops, neither necessarily resident, to whom we shall come shortly. It is now time to turn to Euchaneia. Delehaye wrote: ‘On discute … la question de savoir s’il faut distinguer Euchaïta d’Euchaneia … Je persiste à croire que, dans les textes concernant S. Théodore, les deux noms désignent la même localité, ou peut-etre deux localites voisines.’79 Delehaye was, for once, wrong. It is true that in many texts, both ancient and modern, they were either confused or considered to be identical. 71 C. Mango and I. S ˇ evcˇenko, ‘Three Inscriptions of the Reign of Anastasius’ I, BZ 65, 1972, pp. 378–84. 72 Theophanes, Chronographica, ed. C. De Boor, Leipzig, 1883–85, I, p. 125: ‘He fled to St Theodore of Euchaïta’. 73 Mango and S ˇ evcˇenko, citing an inscription found at Yürgüç Pas¸a Camii. 74 Premetaphrastic Life, ed. H. Delehaye, Les saints stylites, Brussels, 1923, p. 152, lines 11–13. Alypius is reputed to have been a centenarian, born c. 515, died under Heraclius, 610–41. 75 Pratum spirituale, § 180, PG 87.3, 3052b. 76 Récits des premiers pélerins en Proche-Orient (IVe–VIIe siècle), ed. P. Maraval, Paris, 1996, p. 194. 77 Giovanni Mauropode, Otto canoni a N.S. Gesù Cristo, ed. E. Follieri, Rome, 1967, pp. 15–16. 78 P. Peeters, ‘Histoires monastiques géorgiennes 11’, An. Boll. 36–7, 1917–19, pp. 121–2. 79 Reviewing J.C.C. Anderson etc., ‘Recueil des inscriptions grecques et latines du Pont et de 1’Arménie’, An. Boll. 30, 1911, p. 366.

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However, a few ancient ones exist which establish with certitude that Euchaïta and Euchaneia were entirely different places. Their respective geographical situation is presented lucidly in the Life of Lazarus of Mount Galesius, who died in 1253. Its author tells us that Lazarus went ‘to Euchaneia where he venerated St Theodore, and then, having left, he went to Euchaïta where he venerated … in the church of Theodore the Tiron’.80 Oikonomides has identified Euchaneia with the modern Turkish Çorum, 35km west of Avkhat (Euchaïta).81 The geographical evidence is confirmed by ecclesiastical documents. Bishops of Euchaneia appear in synodal lists from 1042.82 John of Euchaneia sat with Basil of Euchaïta at the trial of John Italos in 1082.83 Moreover a seal of John of Euchaneia has survived. On one side, there is the portrait of a bearded saint in military dress with cuirass and lance. Only part of the inscription – but enough to identify the saint – is preserved: √ ™TPAT. On the other side, the inscription referring to John of Euchaneia and to Theodore is in better condition.84 A final reference to the two episcopal sees occurs in the proceedings of a meeting of the Constantinopolitan synod on 11 July 1173; at which both Leo of Euchaneia and Constantine of Euchaïta were present.85 Two different episcopal sees could hardly have been situated in ‘localités voisines’; there would certainly have been some distance between them. Once their separate identity has been established, some errors and confusions can be eliminated. Thus, it would have been to Euchaneia, not Euchaïta, as Delehaye and others believed, that John I Tzimisces (969–76) attributed the name of Theodoroupolis (even if the name was not, apparently, used).86 In fact, it was the sanctuary of the Stratelates, not the Tiron, which he had rebuilt, because the Stratelates had intervened in his favour in his battle against the Scythians.87

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BHG, 979–80e, AA SS, Nov., 111, Brussels, 1910, 518. Art. cit. supra (n. 23), p. 333. 82 J. Darrouzès, Notitia episcopatuum ecclesiae constantinopolitanae, Paris, 1981, p. 87. 83 V. Grumel, Regestes, 2nd edn, rev. J. Darrouzes, Paris, 1989, 13, no. 926, pp. 401–2; J. Gouillard, ‘Le procès officiel de Jean 1’Italien’, TM 9, 1985, p. 141. 84 Zacos and Verglery, op. cit. supra, n. 42, no. 519, Text, p. 271, Plates, plate 53; Oikonomides, art. cit. supra (n. 24), p. 328. 85 Regestes, ed. cit. supra (n. 83), no. 1126. 86 H. Delehaye, ‘Euchaïta et la légende de saint Théodore’, Anatolian Studies Presented to W.M. Ramsay, Manchester, 1923, p. 134; reprinted, Mélanges d’hagiographie grecque et latine, Brussels, 1966, p. 280; R. Janin, ‘Euchaïtes’, DHGE 15, 1311–13; idem, ‘Euchania’, ibid., 1313–14. 87 Vid. infra (nn. 97, 98). 81

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Theodore Tiron and Theodore Stratelates That contemporary Byzantinists erroneously attribute the title Stratelates to early representations of the Tiron has already been noted.88 No doubt confusion was facilitated by the fact that, in the early period before the Stratelates had emerged, the name of Theodore was not usually qualified by Tiron. In fact, the earliest text which refers explicitly to two saints called Theodore, one the Stratelates the other the Tiron, is the Laudatio by Nicetas of Paphlagonia (d. 880).89 However, even after the emergence of the Stratelates, it is reasonable to suppose, as is certain in the case of the saint of Bathys Ryax mentioned at the beginning, that the name when unqualified belongs to the Tiron. While much that was written about the Tiron must be taken with a pinch of salt, it would be pushing scepticism rather far to maintain that he had never really existed. It is otherwise with the Stratelates who was surely a fictitious character. As Delehaye wrote, ‘1’existence du second Théodore n’est point établie historiquement’. The accounts of his birth into a family from Euchaïta which moved to Heracleia, of his martyrdom under Licinius of which his servant Abgar composed an eyewitness account, and of his final execution followed by the translation of his mortal remains to Euchaneia (or Euchaïta?), all this is in the style of an experienced professional hagiographer. But what occasioned the creation of another military saint called Theodore of much higher rank than the Tiron? As Delehaye also observed, this was not the unique example of a saint being doubled in hagiography.90 The multiplication of homonyms for a saint normally had one of three origins: in the diversity of the legends circulating about him, in the diversity of the feasts in his honour, and the celebrity of certain sanctuaries where the saint was venerated under different titles (‘sous des vocables divers’). He was not prepared to pronounce which of these three possible origins was that of the ‘dédoublement’ of Theodore. Actually, it is unlikely that any of them offers an explanation. The legends about the Stratelates are mostly calqued on those of the Tiron, but their respective feasts in the synaxaries are presented differently. Also the Stratelates had only one personal sanctuary, that at Euchaneia, for which no evidence exists that it first belonged to the Tiron. Other scholars have been more presumptuous than Delehaye; they have conjectured how the doubling came about. Mavrodinova attributed 88 For example, Doula Mouriki, Ta „ËÊȉˆÙa Ùɘ ^πÂÚɘ MÔÓɘ X›Ô˘, Athens, 1985, p. 156 wrote that the pre-iconoclast was ‘¯ˆÚd˜ àÌÊÈ‚ÔÏ›·˜’ the Stratilates; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 213, n. 13, ‘Le Stratilate, dont le culte, parti d’ Euchaïta [sic], dans le Pont [sic] …’ 89 BHG, 1753, AA SS, Nov. IV, pp. 83–9. 90 Delehaye, p. 15.

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it to two different portrait traditions, one Egyptian and the other Oriental.91 However, the clear distinctions in their portrait type, which were introduced late and which are most obvious when the two saints are represented together, do not derive from different portrait traditions. The most common, if not consistent, was their type of beard, that of the Tiron having only one point, while that of the Stratelates has two. Also the Stratelates, being of much higher rank, was often portrayed wearing a more sumptuous uniform. Oikonomides conjectured that there was an icon of the saint in military uniform in one sanctuary and in the other one of him in civil dress.92 Since Theodore appeared in military uniform in the miracle in BHG, 1764 in order that a faithful likeness of him could be made, the hypothetical icon postulated by Oikonomides would have been of the Tiron, but there is no evidence that the Stratelates made his debut in iconography wearing court dress. Consequently, if an explanation is possible of the doubling, it must be sought elsewhere. What I am about to propose may seem even more presumptuous than the conjectures of Mavrodinova and Oikonomides. It must not be forgotten that there was a third Theodore, for whom no Greek text is known and whose name never appeared in the synaxaries. In fact, the only sources for Theodore Orientalis are two Eastern texts, Bibliographia hagiographica orientalis 1163 and 1174.93 These texts could be placed high in a list of examples of puerile hagiographical folklore. According to them, on the death of the Roman emperor leaving two daughters and no son, the Persians took advantage of the situation to launch an attack. The command of the Roman army fell to Agripittus, who submitted to Satan and took the name of Diocletian. When the horse of the Persian commander, Nicomedes, was wounded in the heart by a Roman archer, he fell and his army fled. The archer, who was called Theodore, received 91

Art. cit. supra (n. 57), p. 50. Art. cit. supra (n. 23), pp. 330–5. I also find unconvincing his assertion that the ËÂ˙fi˜ to whom Mauropous referred, could not have been the Tiron. First, Mauropous, not being a snob, played down the Tiron’s military status. Secondly, Mauropous seems to have consistently ignored the existence of the Stratelates; at least, he never mentioned him by name. 93 A. Galuzzi, ‘Teodoro l’Orientale’, BS 12, 249; G. Balestri, ‘Il martirio di S. Teodoro l’Orientale e de’ suoi compagni Leonzio l’Arabo e Panegiris il Persiano’, Bessarione series 2, l0, 1906, pp. 151–68, 248–63; series 3, 2; 1907, pp. 34–45; P. Peeters, ‘Bulletin des publications hagiographiques’, An. Boll. 26, 1907, pp. 470–1. Theodore Orientalis (the Anatolian) is better attested in Coptic tradition, for example in the late 9th-century manuscript in the Pierpont Morgan Library, no. 144 (plate 57). He is portrayed, f. 1v, on horseback wearing a maniakion. With his lance, mounted by a cross, he pierces a prostrate, chained demon, while, to the left and right, a hand emerges from a segment offering him a crown. A full presentation, with the legends transcribed and bibliography, L. Depuydt, Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library, Leuven 1993, pp. 282–4. The miniature figured in a recent exhibition of Coptic art, L’art copte, Exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2000, no. 52. 92

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high acclaim. Satan now inspired Agripittus (or Diocletian), in association with Maximinus, to exterminate Christians and restore pagan worship. Theodore, however, was converted to Christianity by a dream. Since he refused steadfastly to submit to Satan and Diocletian, he was executed at Antioch. The archangel Michael took charge of his soul, and he was named Stratelates. Possibly it was from him that Tiron’s ‘twin’ derived. It should be noted that the word ÛÙÚ·ÙËÏ¿Ù˘ was equivocal, a point which will receive fuller treatment in Part Three of this study. It could be honorific, as in the case of Theodore Orientalis just mentioned or in that of Mercurius, on whom it was conferred by the ruler for routing a barbarian army with divine help. This will be recounted in the entry for Mercurius. Ordinarily it signified a rank in the army, but it could be a generic term for soldiers of high rank. There is evidence in favour of this. A church at Mavrucan (Güzelöz) in Cappadocia, unfortunately no longer extant, was dated by a dedicatory inscription to 1256–57. It contained portraits of Theodore and George on horseback accompanied by inscriptions: £E√ï√P√™ (sic) √ (Û)TPATH§(·Ù˘) and °EøP°I√™ √ ™TPATH§ATH™.94 Since the term Stratelates was used here generically, it is not clear which Theodore was represented. A further example: on the steatite, dating from about 1000, of the Hetoimasia in the Louvre, there are represented four military saints, Demetrius, George, Procopius and Theodore (again, it is not clear which Theodore), all as martyrs in court dress and holding a cross.95 The legend on this steatite is intriguing: ‘Martyrs [witnesses] of the precepts of the Gospels, having appeared from the four ends [of the world], the ÛÙÚ·ÙËÏ¿Ù[·È] are most ready to be awarded a place in heaven.’ Several comments may be made on this steatite. First that, if the saints are represented as martyrs rather than soldiers, it may be because they are called Ì¿Ú(Ù˘Ú˜) in the accompanying legend; secondly, the term stratelates is used here generically to qualify all the martyrs; thirdly, Theodore has the pointed beard which was to become typical of the Tiron. It may also be appropriate to adduce here another ‘dédoublement’. Sabbas the Goth had a twin called Sabbas Stratelates who was certainly fictitious.96 Finally, there is a phrase in the Life of Basil the Younger (BHG, 263–4f), in which the saint who intervened in battle in favour of John I Tzimisces

94 Jerphanion II, p. 236. He recorded it after Gransault’s notes and photograph, never having found the church himself. 95 J. Durand, ‘La stéatite de l’Hétimasie’, Revue du Louvre 38 3, 1988, p. 194, with full bibliography, n. 2, esp. Kalavrezou-Maxeiner, no. 3, p. 64, 95–6, figs 3, 4; Byzance, no. 175, pp. 269–70, entry also by Durand. 96 Vid. infra, XXVI.

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is called ‘ï ¿ÁÈÒÙ·ÙÔ˜ ÛÙÚ·ÙËÏ¿Ù˘ £Âfi‰ˆÚÔ˜ ï ™ÊfiÁÁ·ÚÈÔ˜’.97 Grégoire accepted that the saint was indeed Theodore Stratelates; he also emended ™ÊfiÁÁ·ÚÈÔ˜ to ™ÊÒÚ·ÎÈÔ˜.98 There is room for confusion, because the patrician Sphoracius had built the earliest and most important church dedicated to Theodore in Constantinople in 452, that is at a time when only one saint of that name existed, the Tiron.99 But where else in Constantinople was the liturgy in honour of Stratelates to be celebrated? A similar problem arose when another Menas emerged, the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜; it will be mentioned later in his entry. A curious fact may be observed when the references in the synaxaries to the feasts of the two saints are examined. While the churches used for liturgies in honour of the Tiron are named, those used for the Stratelates are not, presumably because no church in Constantinople was dedicated to him alone. It is more than likely that, when the Stratelates became renowned because he had intervened in battle in favour of John I Tzimisces, his feasts were celebrated in a church dedicated to his homonym – and more particularly in the most eminent one, that built by Sphoracius. Halkin hardly helped in the complex business of sorting out the two Theodores by treating them as a single person; the same saint could be ‘tantôt un jeune soldat, une recrue, tantôt un général ou stratélate’.100 At first, there may well have been confusion. The word stratelates could have been applied generically or honorifically; on the other hand it could have signified a specific military rank. However, from the second half of the ninth century two separate saints were clearly recognized, one with his sanctuary at Euchaïta and the other at Euchaneia. Although they sometimes muddled them, as do contemporary scholars, the Byzantines did accept that they were distinct historical persons. Nevertheless, not only were details borrowed from the hagiographical tradition of the Tiron for that of the Stratelates, but also the former’s offices were used for the latter. In the earliest Typika, Jerusalem Holy Cross 40 and Patmos 266, both probably dating from the tenth century, the feast of the Stratelates, whose ô©ÏËÛȘ took place in Eû¯·ÈÙÔȘ (sic) was celebrated on 8 June, with the office as written for the first Saturday of Lent, the long

97 H. Grégoire, ‘St Théodore le Stratilate et les Russes d’Igor’, Byzantion 13, 1938, pp. 291–300. 98 In so doing, he provoked a controversy with F. Dölger. For details, vid. my art. cit. supra (n. 5), p. 176. Personally, I prefer both Grégoire’s identification of the person as St Theodore and his emendment to ™ÊÒÚ·ÎÈÔ˜. 99 Vid. supra (n. 33). 100 Fr. Halkin, ‘L’éloge de saint Théodore le Stratélate par Euthyme Protoasecretis’ (BHG, 1753b), An. Boll. 99, 1981, p. 221.

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established feast of the Tiron.101 Later, as in Paris graec. 1990, dated 1063, and Oxford Bodley Auct. E 5 10,3 dated 1329, the translation of the relics of the Stratelates was celebrated that day, while his main feast was transferred to 8 February.102 The places where their respective liturgies were celebrated are presented differently in the Sirmondianus (twelfth to thirteenth centuries). While there are several references to celebrations in honour of the Tiron in churches in Constantinople, particularly in that of Sphoracius, there is never an allusion to Euchaïta.103 On the other hand, for the Stratelates, as has been noted, there is a reference only to his sanctuary at Euchaneia or (mistakenly) at Euchaïta.104 Sometimes the two Theodores were associated in a common cult. Three churches are recorded which are dedicated to both the Tiron and the Stratelates. The earliest known was at Serres; its terminus ante quem would be 1265.105 The second, in Constantinople itself, was at the monastery of K˘ÚÈ·ÓÔÜ, built and endowed by the wife of a man of the same name, with whom her relations had not been harmonious. She herself entered the monastery as a nun.106 The third church at Pergamon, dated by its inscription to 1544–55, was said, in the same inscription, to be dedicated to both the Stratelates and the Tiron.107 Further evidence of their close association is given in Byzantine literature. Three passages in Digenes Akrites, compiled perhaps in the eleventh century,108 refer to the two Theodores together.109 To these passages may be added four poems composed by Manuel Philes (c. 1275–1345).110 From another poem by Philes it can been seen that the Stratelates sometimes usurped the place of his more authentic but humbler predecessor. In this poem, three warrior saints are celebrated, Theodore, Demetrius and George. They are qualified as ‘‰Ú·ÎÔÓÔÊfiÓÙ˜, ÁÔÚÁfiÔ˘˜, Ì˘ÚÔ‚Ï‹Ù˘’. 101

J. Mateos, Le Typikon de la Grande Eglise I, Rome, 1962, pp. xvii–xix, 311. Ibid., p. 229. 103 Syn CP, 499 (17 Feb.), 272 (1 Dec.), 197 (5 Nov.), 774 (26 June). 104 Syn CP, 451–3 (8 Feb.), 725–8 (8 June), where it is specified that Euchaneia was not far from Euchaïta. Paris graec. 1589 (12th century) and 1582 (14th century) both give Euchaïta, not Euchaneia, ibid. So does Vatican graec. 1613, p. 383, in its commemoration of the Stratelates; PG 117, 301–4. 105 Vid. infra (n. 115); Markovic´, pp. 596–7, esp. n. 241, for the spread of their cult in the Balkans. 106 Janin, p. 291, citing G. Pseudo-Phrantzes, Chronicon Majus, PG 156, 75. 107 Halkin, art. cit. supra (n. 27), V, p. 77, citing H. Grégoire, Recueil des inscriptions grecques chrétiennes d’Asie Mineure, Paris, 1922, p. 17, no. 51. 108 E.M. and M.J. Jeffreys, ‘Digenes Akrites’, ODB I, 622–3. 109 Digenes Akrites, ed. J. Mavrogordato, Oxford, 1965, pp. 3, 129, 205. However, the church built by Digenes was dedicated to only one Theodore, ‘the saint and martyr’, ibid., p. 223. 110 Manuelis Philae Carmina, ed. E. Miller, I, Paris, 1855, Poem no. 171, where the Theodores are compared to Hercules; no. 287, p. 138, no. 51, p. 228, no. 262, p. 457. 102

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Grouped with the two others, one would have assumed that this Theodore was the Tiron, were he not described as ‘ÁÏ˘Îf˜ ÛÙÚ·ÙËÏ¿Ù˘’. The choice of adjectives is puzzling. Are they common to all three or each specific to one of them? George was considered to be swift of foot; Demetrius was the myroblytos. Was Theodore then the dragonslayer? Both Theodores were reputed to have slain a dragon, but by the time that Philes was writing, George had become the dragonslayer par excellence.111 There are other signs of the rise in esteem of the Stratelates. For example, he had two feasts which were ‘half-day holidays’ (âÓ Ì¤ÚÂÈ ôÚ·ÎÙÔÈ, âÓ Ì¤ÚÂÈ öÌÚ·ÎÙÔÈ), while the Tiron had only one.112 Also, although the Tiron defended Euchaïta, it is not recorded that he ever intervened in an imperial battle on his own, although he and the Stratelates did so once together on behalf of Theodore II Lascaris in 1256. John III Vatatzes (1222–54) had reconquered Melnik in 1246, but a rebellion led by a Bulgarian called Dragota expelled the Byzantines. From Serres, where he invoked the two Theodores in their sanctuary in the city,113 Theodore II Lascaris (1254–58) marched on Melnik. According to Theodore Pediasimus writing a century later, the emperor en route observed two handsome young men (Ô› Û·ÊᘠôÓ‰Ú ‰‡Ô, Ó¡g ηd àÁ·©ˇg Ù·˜ ù„ÂȘ) whom he did not recognize.114 They routed the enemy. Back at Serres, the emperor recalled his invocation of the two Theodores, whom he rewarded for their intervention by lavishing gifts on their shrine.115

Conclusion In its general lines, the development of the cult and iconography of the two Theodores can be traced without great difficulty. The Tiron appeared in the late fourth century, proclaimed a soldier from the beginning. He had his shrine and relics; he intervened from heaven in men’s lives in ways appropriate to a member of the celestial army; his portrait type was already established in the earliest known representations of him; pro111 Manuelis Philae Carmina, ed. G. Weinsdorf, Leipzig, 1768, no. 6. The usual form of ÁÔÚÁfiÔ˘˜ was ÁÔÚÁfi˜, obviously derived from ÁÚ‹ÁÔÚÔ˜, an adjective which accompanied George’s name on icons. 112 Photii Nomocanon cum commentariis Theodori Balsamonis (12th century), PG 104, 1072– 3; Novel of Manuel Comnenus (1166), PG 133, 760: 7 Feb. and 8 June for the Stratelates, 17 Feb. for the Tiron. 113 Vid. supra (n. 104). 114 Miracula utriusque S. Theodori a Theodoro Pediasimo (BHG, 1773), ed. M. Treu, Potsdam, 1899, p. 21 l. 25. 115 Fr. Dölger, ‘Zwei byzantinische Reiterheroen erobern die Festung Melnik’, Sbornik Gavril Kazarov, Isvestiya na B’lgarskiya Arheologicˇeski Institut 16, 1950, pp. 275–9.

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gressively it became more and more usual for him to be wearing military uniform. In Cappadocia, pictures of him as a warrior, standing or on horseback, are numerous, but there were neither scenes, apart from killing a dragon (plates 27, 28, 63), nor cycles; this was to be a characteristic throughout of the iconography of the two Theodores. In fact the representation in the Menologium of Basil II of the Tiron’s martyrdom by burning, so common in the iconography of other saints, seems in his case to be unique. The portrait of the Stratelates as a warrior in the same manuscript, p. 383 (plate 48), is the earliest known representation of him, although his existence had already been attested by the late ninth century in the Laudatio by Nicetas of Paphlagonia. Modelled closely on the example of the Tiron, his legendary existence, whether deriving from a shadowy Theodore Orientalis or from linguistic confusion, excited little interest before his intervention in battle during the campaigns of John I Tzimisces against the Scythians in the tenth century. He had his own sanctuary at Euchaneia, although his family was said to have originated in Euchaïta. Thanks to John I Tzimisces, the sanctuary of the Stratelates at Euchaneia was to become renowned. Meanwhile, notably on tenth-century ivories, the Tiron had become integrated into the état-major of the warrior saints, where, in fact, the Stratelates would join him. The Lives of both Theodores are included in the ninth Metaphrastic volume,116 but their portraits figure in only one illuminated version, Messina San Salvatore 27, f. 28 (Stratelates) and f. 161v (Tiron).117 According to Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, their style, while provincial, reflects tendencies in eleventh-century Constantinopolitan art. The likely hypothesis is that the manuscript was illuminated in Sicily, where it has remained to this day.118 Their portraits in this manuscript are distinguished by the Tiron’s beard having a single point, while that of the Stratelates has two. ‘This distinction was maintained with remarkable consistency from the eleventh to the fifteenth century.’119 While the two saints may have been rivals at times, in late Byzantine art they became closely associated (plate 30). Their rapprochement surely took place in the sphere of popular

116

The Tiron (BHG, 1763); the Stratelates (BHG, 1752). Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, pp. 75, 76. 118 Ibid., p. 81–2, 229–30, n. 161. 119 A. Kazhdan, ‘Military Notes’, Byzantion 35, 1983, pp. 544–5; A. Kazhdan and H. Maguire, ‘Byzantine Hagiographical Texts as Sources on Art’, DOP 45, 1991, p. 8; H. Maguire, The Icons of Their Bodies. Saints and Their Images in Byzantium, Princeton, 1996, pp. 20–3, figs 11–15. Their different style of beard was not standardized earlier. For example, on the Borradaile triptych, Byzantine Treasures, no. 153, pp. 142–3, the beard of the Stratelates is hardly cleft. In post-Byzantine art, the distinction was not always respected. 117

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piety, because, unlike Sergius and Bacchus, there is no mention in the texts of their having been associated in their lifetime. In echelons of military saints, they are represented next to each other, for example in the Kariye Camii (plate 6)120 and at Decˇani.121 They also appear together in votive pictures, in which they stand in uniform facing each other and orant, their arms raised in supplication towards a segment above them. From it, Christ may be handing them crowns.122 Their brotherly affection is manifest in representations of them on horseback with one placing his arm across the other’s shoulders (plate 60).123 The subject of the handsomeness of military saints and of their camaraderie will be examined in more detail in Part Three. It has been possible to raise most of the questions concerning the characteristics of military saints in this study of the two Theodores. In the course of this catalogue these characteristics will be examined further. It will be observed that, even if they all have common elements, there are also significant differences. In fact each military saint, however much he may have in common with other saintly comrades in arms, has his individuality and therefore merits, in more or less measure, individual treatment.

120 Underwood, art. cit. supra (n. 57), pp. 193–7, a detailed analysis of their portraits in the parecclesion with much comparative material and discussion of such details as the Stratelates having been represented with his right foot bare, p. 195, nn. 25–7. 121 Markovic´, figs 5, 6. 122 Mavrodinova, art. cit. supra (n. 57), figs 7–10, 12. 123 Ibid., p. 41, fig. 5. On a 19th-century icon now in the Museum of Icons at Plovdiv, the cheeks of the two saints touch and their steeds exchange an amorous glance, P. Toteva, Ikoni ot Plovdivski Kraj, Sofia, 1975.

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II St Demetrius For Byzantinists, Demetrius is certainly a most fascinating saint, and this for several reasons. One is the rich complexity of the source material – literary, archaeological, cultic, iconographical – available about him. By no means all of it has been adequately studied. For example, no critical edition exists of his Passio prima and Passio altera. Also numerous Encomia of the Saint still remain in manuscript. As the late Paul Lemerle remarked, so long as these texts remain unpublished scientifically, no definitive appreciation of the Saint is possible. Another reason for his fascination is the number of ambiguous aspects of his life and pristine cult. Did he really originate in Sirmium (Sr(ij)emska Mitrovica) or in Thessaloniki? Were relics of him preserved? If so, where were they placed? Did he have a martyrium on the site of which his basilica was constructed? Or was the account of his imprisonment in the calidarium of the baths, repeated, with differences, in both Passions, fabricated in order to explain the emplacement of his shrine? These are all points on which scholars have emitted differing and conflicting opinions. However, conflict does not end here. The date and stages of the construction of the saint’s sanctuary, as well as the repairs effected after the seventh-century fires, are also controversial subjects. Leaving aside controversy, at least for the moment, certain unusual aspects of the saint’s cult must not be neglected. Most outstanding is the fact that, at least in the earliest centuries for which we have records, his devotees congregated around his ciborium, placed near the narthex at the north end of the basilica. Why? Were the saint’s relics placed, not inside it, certainly, but perhaps beneath it? At his ciborium, apparently, he tended to perform personal miracles (curing maladies, for instance). Moreover, during these early centuries, the saint’s interventions were almost entirely limited to granting favours to citizens of Thessaloniki or to safeguarding the city against marauders. Why did he not, like others – Theodore Tiron, George or Sergius and Bacchus, for example – attract a wider clientèle? Yet another – and probably not the only other – fascinating aspect of the saint is the later development and renewal of his cult as a myroblytos. His myron became notorious, and no doubt contributed largely to his acceptance as a universal saint (in Byzantine and Slav countries, for, unlike St George, he never cut much ice in the West).

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It is not my intention to give here a full exposition of the cult and iconography of St Demetrius.1 Such an exposition would require not only a whole book but also a preliminary study of the many unpublished Encomia already mentioned.2 My aim is rather to call attention to the specific facets of Demetrius as a military saint – that is to say, to distinguish between the points in which he differs from other members of the celestial army and those points which they have in common. This study may be divided conveniently into three sections: the original Demetrius; Demetrius the myroblytos; and the later cult of Demetrius among Greeks and Slavs.

The original Demetrius However controversial interpretations may be of the early evidence, the fully fledged Demetrius of the period after Iconoclasm grew out of the pristine martyr. This evidence will be presented in three parts: the texts, the archaeology and the iconography. 1.

The texts

Paul Lemerle has not only published an erudite edition of the first two Collections of Miracula, but also summarized the contents of the other early texts, for which a scholarly edition is not yet available.3 Here it need only be said that the Passio prima was long accessible only in the Latin translation due to Anastasius Bibliothecarius, dated to 876–82. This version was the one published by Cornelius de Bye in the Acta sanctorum.4 1 Some brief expositions do exist: my own ‘St Demetrius: The Myroblytos of Thessalonika’, Eastern Churches Review 5, 1973, pp. 157–78, reprinted in Studies V; R. Janin, ‘Demetrio di Tessalonica’, BS 4, 558–64; Idem, Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins (reworked by J. Darrouzès), Paris, 1975, pp. 365–72. Subsequently a spate of monographs concerned with aspects of St Demetrius has been published. R. Cormack has also produced a succinct but balanced exposition: ‘The Making of a Patron Saint: The Powers of Art and Ritual in Byzantine Thessaloniki’, World Art. Themes of Unity in Diversity, ed. I. Lavin, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989, III, pp. 547–54. Of the numerous encyclopaedia articles, that by R. Aubert, ‘Demetrius de Thessalonique’, DHGE 14 (1960), 1493–9, is worth retaining. 2 They are listed, when known, BHG, 534–47. See P. Lemerle, Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de saint Démétrius I, Le texte, Paris, 1979, pp. 10–11 (BHG, 449-450). See also Idem, II, Commentaire, Paris, 1981, Appendix, p. 243. 3 Lemerle, op. cit. II, Commentaire, Appendice I: Note sur les Passions et sur le troisième Recueil des miracles, pp. 197–203. 4 De Bye, Acta sanctorum, Oct. IV, 87–9 = PG 116, 1167–72 (BHG, 496) = PL 129, 715–26 (BHL, 2122).

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Only much later was the Greek text published by Hippolyte Delehaye.5 However, Cornelius de Bye published the Passio altera.6 in its original Greek. Most of those, including Cormack and myself, who have written about Demetrius have summarized the two Passions.7 Both situate the martyrdom of Demetrius in the calidarium of the baths. Both attribute his death to the fury of the Emperor Maximian, because it was by the prayers of Demetrius that Nestor overcame his favourite gladiator Lyaeus. Both attribute the construction of Demetrius’ shrine on the site of the baths to Leontius, eparch of Illyricum, who, according to the Passio altera, would have been miraculously cured by the saint. Lemerle has observed how little concrete information is given about Demetrius in the Passio prima, in which interest is concentrated rather on the combat between Nestor and Lyaeus. The Passio altera is more informative: Demetrius was a member of a highly placed family of senatorial rank. He held various offices: âÎÛΤÙˆÚ (secretary); àÓ©‡·ÙÔ˜ (proconsul); ultimately consul. It is not told explicitly that these functions entailed military duty. Concomitantly with his civic duties, he evangelized, holding Gospel meetings in the baths. For the rest, the story proceeds as in the Passio prima, except that a new character enters on the scene, Lupus, Demetrius’ personal servant, whom we may qualify as his batman. He rescues the saint’s orarion, collects his blood, dipping his imperial ring in it. Lupus is, naturally, also put to death. Again Leontius, eparch of Illyricum, whose interests were divided between Sirmium and Thessaloniki, wished to have relics of the saint for the shrine which he intended to build at Sirmium. Such relics, apparently, did exist. However, Demetrius forbade Leontius to take away more than a bloodstained chlamys and a part of his orarion. The question arises as to the real origin of Demetrius. Did he really belong to Thessaloniki or to Sirmium? The conduct of Leontius makes it clear that he considered Demetrius to be associated with both cities. Hippolyte Delehaye observed that, although no Demetrius was commemorated in Thessaloniki in early calendars, a deacon of that name is mentioned in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum. Moreover Leontius is a historical figure, attested by a constitution dated 412–13 in the Theodosian Code. Therefore, unless one is inclined to push scepticism ad absurdum, it is plausible to accept Leontius as the person who established – having the authority and means to do so – the cult of Demetrius, both in Sirmium and Thessaloniki. Destroyed by the Avars in 582, Sirmium could no 5 BHG, 497, Delehaye, Les légendes grecques, pp. 259–63. Summary presentation by Lemerle, op. cit., II, pp. 197–8. 6 BHG, 497, De Bye, ed. cit., 90–5 = PG 116, 1173–84; Lemerle, op. cit., II, pp. 199–202. 7 Vid. supra (n. 1).

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longer rival Thessaloniki as the focal point of the saint’s cult. Nevertheless, there existed at Sr(ij)em, as late as the eleventh century, a church dedicated to him. His association with Sirmium is perpetuated in the modern name of the city, Sr(ij)emska Mitrovica, but how a deacon there was metamorphosed into a consul in Thessaloniki is far from being clear. It is just another of those ‘chemical operations’ of early hagiography which puzzle the modern mind. The Passio prima was known to Bishop John of Thessaloniki, who composed his collection of Miracula in the seventh century.8 It was also known to Photius.9 However, neither this text, nor the Passio altera, nor the Metaphrastic Passion10 provide any information which is historically reliable about the martyrdom of Demetrius and the origins of his cult. Indeed his sanctuary had certainly been founded before these texts were composed. It is highly plausible to suppose they were intended to explain why it was built on a site potentially so little adapted to the foundation of a Christian sanctuary. Before turning to this, allusion must be made to the two earlier collections of Demetrius’ Miracula, works of much higher quality than the Passions, and published properly by Paul Lemerle. Neither collection betrays great knowledge of or interest in the ‘historical’ Demetrius. Bishop John was content in the prologue to his (first) collection to write: ‘You know what is said in the account of the martyr’s passion, that “by inexpressible signs of great power, prodigies, healings and charisms his efficacity became famous everywhere”’.11 John became Archbishop of Thessaloniki during the reign of Phocas (602–10), but most of the miracles which he recounts date from the episcopate of his predecessor Eusebius (before 22 September 586, to not later than the end of 603).12 Lemerle made it explicitly clear that he was primarily interested in the historical information that Archbishop John’s text might yield. This explains his painstaking efforts to date events pre-

8

Lemerle, op. cit., I, p. 53. Bibliotheca, ed. P. Henry, VII, Paris, 1974, pp. 213–15 = PG 104, 104–5. 10 BHG, 498, De Bye, ed. cit., pp. 96–104 = PG 116, 1185–1202; Lemerle, op. cit., II, p. 202– 3, noted scathingly that it is only ‘l’amplification rhétorique et dévote de sa source, qu’il dilue sans y rien ajouter’. In fact, one might have hoped that the Metaphrast would have presented Demetrius as a more conventional military figure. However, its only contribution is to state that in his youth he underwent military training. The Sirmondianus is not more informative, Syn CP 163–6. It gives a Constantinopolitan account of Demetrius, offering no hint as to the Saint’s military status, but mentioning that his Synaxis took place âÓ Ùˇá ‰Â˘Ù¤Úˇˆ. For this church – and others at Constantinople, see Janin, infra (n. 48). 11 Lemerle, op. cit., I, p. 49, 53 lines 5–6; Delehaye, p. 262, lines 20–2 (for the original passage in the Passio). It is blatantly hyperbolical, because the Passio prima gives no information about prodigies wrought by Demetrius. 12 Lemerle, op. cit., II, p. 171. 9

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cisely, which, he recognized, Archbishop John presented in a typological rather than a chronological sequence. As is well known, Thessaloniki was exposed at this period – and long after – to attacks from Slav marauders. However, although Archbishop John has something to say about the interventions of Demetrius to protect the city against them, his anecdotes (the departure point for a homily or exhortation) are mostly concerned with miracles perpetrated at his ciborium. Since we are primarily concerned with Demetrius as a military saint, it would be as well to observe what Lemerle avers to be his first and unique intervention as such, at least as recounted by Archbishop John.13 The incident, which occurs in Miracle no. 13, merits a detailed account. The Slav marauders, after mistakenly attacking the fortified convent of St Matrona at daylight, having realized their error, began to place their ladders against the fortifications of Thessaloniki itself. Demetrius appeared on the walls, in military dress and struck with his lance the first marauder to mount the ladder, causing him to make fall backwards those who were following him, while he himself was killed. Traces of blood marked the place which he had reached and from which he fell. However, even if this is the only specific reference in the two collections of Miracula to Demetrius being actually armed, he definitely figures in them as the defender of Thessaloniki. In Miracle no. 14 of John’s collection, a man with a ruddy complexion, riding a white horse and wearing a white mantle, alarmed and repelled the marauders, who took him to be the leader of a hidden army.14 Again, in Miracle no. 1 of the anonymous collection, Demetrius appears, in defence of the city, marching on the ramparts and on the sea, ‘wearing a white chlamys’, which was, particularly in early representations, an item of military dress. Lemerle dated the composition of the anonymous collection of Miracula some seventy years after John’s. He considered it to have been intended to be at once a complement to and continuation of the preceding collection. It begins by recounting events which had occurred during John’s episcopate. Then, after a gap of about two generations, the author describes events which occurred during his own lifetime. His approach was possibly more to Lemerle’s taste than that of Archbishop John. In his introduction to Miracle no. 3, the author wrote: If it was necessary to record all the miracles wrought by St Demetrius, at Thessaloniki and everywhere, the world would not suffice to 13 Lemerle, op. cit., I, pp. 131–3, § 120, II, p. 172. In an Encomium of St Demetrius, Bishop John notes, among the characteristics of the Saint, his ‘invisible alliance in wars’, Anne Philippidis-Braat, ‘L’enkômium de St Démétrius par Jean de Thessalonique’ (BHG, Auctarium 547h), TM 8, 1981, p. 406, l. 33. 14 BHG, 513, Lemerle, op. cit., I, pp. 145, 157, § 160–1.

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contain all the accounts: release of prisoners, healing of the sick, help in wars, guiding sailors … As for healing illness or demoniac possession, the whole country is sufficiently informed for it to be superfluous to write about them. I am going therefore to return to my preceding intention [which was to write history].15

The question of St Demetrius’ military status will be discussed further in connection with his portrait. For the present, in spite of his interventions against the enemies of Thessaloniki, it is clear that, compared with that of Theodore Tiron at Euchaïta, for example, his military status is only explicit in the 16th and last miracle in the anonymous collection, which Lemerle was surely right to interpret as a later addition.16 Miracle no. 16 recounts how the African Bishop of Thenai, Cyprianus, was captured by – and rescued from – the Slavs. The whole story is interesting, because it exemplifies how Demetrius was considered to operate, admittedly at a later epoch. In captivity, the bishop addressed his prayers to God. Suddenly, as he prayed, a handsome young man in military uniform invited the bishop to escape from slavery by following him. He said that he was called Demetrius, was a soldier and lived in Thessaloniki, whither he took the bishop safe and sound. Then he disappeared. The bishop vainly asked where the ‘soldier Demetrius’ lived. He was told that many soldiers bore that name. Ultimately he was taken to the sanctuary of St Demetrius, where, seeing an icon of the saint, he recognized his deliverer. It may be conjectured that on this icon Demetrius would have been represented as a soldier, although this is not mentioned in the text. As an act of thanksgiving, the bishop resolved to build a church in Thenai, which, apparently, was to be a copy of that in Thessaloniki. With some difficulty, he obtained the necessary elements, including a ciborium. The sanctuary was duly constructed in Thenai, where Demetrius deigned to perform miracles, notably healing those who had been stung by scorpions, one of the banes, at that time, of life in North Africa.17

15 Ibid., I, pp. 190, 193–4, § 216 (Lemerle picked up the reference to John 21, 25); II, p. 172–4. 16 Ibid., I, p. 234–41. 17 The existence of a port and bishopric at Theani are attested in other sources, Ibid., I p. 236, n. 12. However, no further information is available about the shrine and the benevolent activity there of St Demetrius. To this apparition of Demetrius as a soldier may be added another, that recounted in the Life of Theophano, Leo VI’s saintly first wife, and composed shortly after her death in 895 or 896. The apparition was shared by both husband and wife, and occurred while they were at prayer. They saw a young man in military dress holding a spear and shield, E. Kurtz, Uber die hl. Theophano, die Gemahlin Kaisers Leo VI, St Petersburg, 1898, p. 10, lines 10–12, § 15; P. Magdalino, ‘St Demetrius and Leo VI’, Byzantinoslavica 51, 1990, pp. 198–9.

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So much for Demetrius the military saint in the early literary sources. The Passions, unlike those of, for example, Sergius and Bacchus, do not display interest in his military antecedents (if, in fact, there were any). The Miracula, concerned only with the metahistorical Demetrius, extol his activity as protector of Thessaloniki, but do not go out of their way to relate this to his military status. In fact, during this early period, the recounted prodigies of Demetrius are eclectic, and, above all, connected with his ciborium. 2.

The archaeology

Although the layout of the sanctuary only becomes directly relevant to Demetrius as a military saint, when the crypt was refurbished to receive his myron, a few general words must be said about the ensemble, surely one of the most complex of the rare early Christian sanctuaries to be, after many vicissitudes, still in use.18 Lemerle’s account distinguishes three principal stages of construction: an unpretentious sanctuary, a martyrium which was destroyed when the present basilica was constructed; a basilica in the middle or latter half of the fifth century; a partial reconstruction in the seventh century after a fire, following the lines of the previous edifice but with some changes and adaptations. Lemerle also notes three important parts of the complex: (a) the great ‘crypt’ under the transept and apse; (b) a small depository for relics under the altar; (c) a hexagonal ciborium near the narthex placed against the north colonnade. (a)

The so-called crypt was a two-storey construction, which gave – and still gives – on to the street. It was originally a nymphaeum, later christianized as a hagiasma. The site of the Roman baths was no doubt chosen because it was in the calidarium that Demetrius was reputed to have been imprisoned. When the basilica was constructed,

18 The bibliography is considerable and listed by J.-M. Spieser, Thessalonique et ses monuments du IVe au VIe siècle, Paris, 1984. The fundamental study is that by G.A. and M. Sotiriou, ^H ‚·ÛÈÏÈÎc ÙÔÜ êÁ›Ô˘ ¢ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘ £ÂÛÛ·ÏÔӛ΢, Athens, 1952. Spieser added rightly that Sotiriou’s report, made as ephor for Byzantine antiquities shortly after the disastrous fire of 1917, ^AÚ¯·ÈÔÏÔÁÈÎeÓ ¢ÂÏÙ›ÔÓ 4, Ù‡¯Ô˜ 3–4, 1918, pp. 1–47 (Athens, 1921), should also be consulted. It presents dramatically the extent of the disaster and wryly the discoveries which the fire made possible. P. Lemerle’s article, ‘St-Démétrius de Thessalonique et les problèmes du martyrion et du transept’, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 77, 1953, pp. 660–94, reprinted as such but with added references to his op. cit. (n. 4), Appendice II 2, pp. 205–18; Spieser, op. cit. supra, pp. 165–214. Idem, ‘Remarques sur Saint-Démétrius de Thessalonique’, Mélanges M. Chatzidakis (Athens, 1992), pp. 561–9; reprinted Urban and Religious Spaces in Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium (Aldershot, 2001), XI.

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the upper storey was demolished. Access to the basilica from the hagiasma was by a staircase. We shall return later to the crypt. (b) The discovery after the fire of 1917 of the depository for relics under the altar raised embarrassing (and perhaps insoluble) questions. It was habitual to place relics under the altar, the so-called âÁη›ÓÈÔÓ. However, this reliquary, containing, it seems, fragments of a bloodstained garment, was never, from the time that we have literary records, a focal point for the Saint’s cult. Sotiriou saw here the site of the original martyrium, a ÌÈÎÚe˜ ÔåΛÛÎÔ˜. Lemerle, for one, was sceptical about this. Whatever the relics may have been and whether a modest martyrium was, in fact, originally situated here, later to become the site of the altar, the exploration of these questions hardly advances our enquiry into the acquisition by Demetrius of the status of a military saint and in consequence is not attempted here. (c) There remains the ciborium, a hexagonal structure, whose foundations were laid bare after the fire of 1917.19 Although it was destroyed by fire more than once, it would seem that changes in its aspect concerned only details of construction and ornamentation or the kind of material used. The ciborium, with Demetrius standing in front of it, may be seen clearly in W.S. George’s watercolour copy of a mosaic destroyed in the fire of 1917. Cormack suggested a sixthcentury date for it.20 The ciborium represented is, indeed, hexagonal, and conforms to various descriptions of it, notably in the Miracula. It may have served as a model for a rival ciborium in Constantinople, and certainly did for at least one reliquary.21 The scholar who wishes to appreciate more fully the place of the ciborium in Byzantine iconographical tradition may consult Pallas’ article.22 What cult might have been originally offered to the relic under the altar is simply not known. However, in the late sixth century, when the 19 Illustrated, R. Cormack, ‘The Church of St Demetrius: The Watercolours and Drawings of W.S. George’, The Byzantine Eye, Variorum, London, 1989, no. II, fig. 3. 20 Cormack, art. cit. (n. 1), fig. 4. 21 N. Theotoka, ‘¶ÂÚd ÙáÓ ÎÈ‚ˆÚ›ˆÓ ÙáÓ Ó·áÓ ÙÔÜ ·Á›Ô˘ ¢ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘ £ÂÛÛ·ÏÔӛ΢ ηd KˆÓÛÙ·ÓÙÈÓÔ˘fiψ˜’, M·Î‰ÔÓÈο 2, 1941–52, pp. 395–413. The reliquary, albeit octagonal, in the Treasury of the Patriarchate of Moscow, certainly derives – perhaps through the intermediary of a ciborium in Constantinople – from that in Thessaloniki, because it carries an inscription: ‘I am the faithful image of the ciborium of the martyr Demetrius, transperced by a lance …’ It was made for the coronation of Constantine X Doukas (1059– 67) and his second wife Eudokia Makrembolitissa. It is therefore clearly dated. What is of particular interest for this study is the representation on the doors of Sts Nestor and Lupus in military dress, holding spears. 22 D.I. Pallas, ‘Le ciborium hexagonal de St-Démétrios de Thessalonique’, Zograf 10, 1974, pp. 44–58. He interprets the ciborium as a ÚÔÛ΢ÓËÙ¿ÚÈÔÓ for the veneration of an icon.

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first miracles chronicled by Bishop John occurred, the focal point of Demetrius’ cult was undoubtedly the ciborium. Bishop John makes no allusion to a relic under the altar, but he provides numerous descriptions of the ciborium and of what went on there. Often Demetrius emerged from the ciborium, like Thecla from her thalamus,23 in order to perform a prodigy. The first miracle recounted by Bishop John was the healing of the exarch Marianus. Although his condition was desperate, he refused to have amulets hung about his neck, but he was escorted to ‘what is called the silver ciborium of … Demetrius, where some say his relics repose under the earth’. He entered and saw inside ‘the silver bed which carries the effigy of the martyr’. In Miracle no. 6, it is recounted how Bishop Eusebius undertook the restoration of the ciborium, ‘because it is said that it contains the martyr’s tomb and that it is the most beautiful ornament in the entire church’.24 St Demetrius obligingly arranged for the necessary silver to be available. However, the most detailed description of the ciborium in John’s Collection of Miracles is in no. 10: it stood on the left-hand side of the church, with a hexagonal base, eight columns, enclosing carved silver partitions, and it was roofed by discs, surmounted by a cross placed on a silver globe.25 In the late Miracle no. 16 of the anonymous collection, it was probably inside the ciborium that the Bishop of Theani saw an icon of St Demetrius. The text does not say so explicitly, but it does recount how the bishop commissioned a ciborium for his church in Theani.26 The subsequent history of the ciborium is less clear. It may have survived Iconoclasm, only to be ravaged by the Saracens in 904 and ransacked by the Normans in 1185.27 However, at some date, which cannot be precisely fixed, it ceased to be the focal point of the Saint’s cult. This was to become the refurbished hagiasma, with its supply of the Saint’s myron. The transformation is connected with two aspects of the Saint’s cult, implicit in the recital of the late miracle: the spread of his renown outside Thessaloniki, and, above all, his acceptance as a military saint. This section concludes with the citation of a passage from J.-M. Spieser’s study of the basilica, in spite of the fact that his approach is rather different from mine: Etant donné la date tardive à laquelle nous attribuons St-Démétrius, comment interpréter les vestiges les plus anciens qui sont sous l’église? Cela repose tout le problème de l’origine du culte de saint Démétrius

23

C. Walter, ‘The Origins of the Cult of St George’, REB 53, 1995, p. 304. Lemerle, op. cit., I, pp. 90–1, 93, § 55. 25 Ibid., pp. 110–11, 114, § 87. 26 Ibid., pp. 235, 238–9, § 311. 27 Cormack, art. cit. (n. 1), p. 549.

24

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à Thessalonique … Les monuments peuvent-ils là aussi venir au secours des textes? Avouons tout de suite qu’il n’en est rien, sauf à entrer dans les hypothèses qui ne peuvent pas être démontrées. En effet, la fouille de l’église a permis de découvrir des vestiges antérieurs. L’interprétation, qu’on en donne, diverge: on a pensé que les murs ainsi découvertes appartenaient aux thermes sur l’emplacement desquels s’est élevée la basilique, à l’exception d’une abside, située à l’Est de l’ensemble, mais en avant de l’abside de l’église. Celui-ci serait un vestige de l’ÔåΛÛÎÔ˜ élevé par le préfet Léon attesté en 412. On a aussi pensé que cette abside faisait partie des thermes, au même titre que les autres murs découverts. Nous n’avons aucun moyen de décider. Même si la légende de l’ÔåΛÛÎÔ˜ paraît suspecte, il n’en reste pas moins possible qu’une église, plus modeste que celle du VIe siècle, ait précédé celle-ci. Cette hypothèse pourrait d’ailleurs bien s’intégrer à celle qui fait venir le culte de saint Démétrius de Sirmium, même si ce transfert s’est seulement passé au moment du déplacement du siège de la préfecture. Je pense néanmoins qu’il est prudent de ne pas trop s’aventurer dans cette direction et de se contenter des conclusions que nous avons tirées du monument tel qu’il nous est parvenu, tel du moins qu’il est parvenu jusqu’en 1917.28

3.

The iconography

Again Paul Lemerle has provided us with a succinct and lucid exposition of developments in the early iconography of St Demetrius.29 The three references in Bishop John’s Miracula to icons of Demetrius are in no way developed descriptions. In his account of Miracle no. 8, Demetrius appears on a ship carrying a cargo of corn ‘dressed as we see him on his icons’.30 In Miracle no. 10, Demetrius is again seen inside his ciborium, ‘in the costume in which one sees him on his icons’.31 In Miracle no. 15, we are told that the Saint emerged from the ‘ciborium such as he was represented in earlier pictures’. A final example – the only one to give explicit information – is that provided by the late Miracle no. 16 in the anonymous collection. Here the Bishop of Thenai recognizes the figure of Demetrius on his icon as corresponding to the soldier who appeared to him in uniform.32

28

Spieser, op. cit. (n. 18), pp. 213–14. P. Lemerle, ‘Note sur les plus anciennes représentations de saint Démétrius’, ¢XAE 10, 1981, pp. 1–10. It should obviously be studied in conjunction with R. Cormack’s ‘The Church of St Demetrius, the Watercolours and Drawings of W.S. George’, reprinted in The Byzantine Eye, London, 1989, and his Writing in Gold, London, 1985, pp. 50–94. R. Hoddinott, Early Byzantine Churches in Macedonia and Southern Serbia, London, 1963, pp. 141–55, plates 29–34, is also useful. 30 Lemerle, op. cit., I, pp. 100, 102, § 70. 31 Ibid., pp. 111, 115, § 89. 32 Ibid., pp. 235, 239, § 311. 29

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If we set aside the evidence of the late miracle, it seems clear that on his early icons St Demetrius appeared as he does in the surviving mosaics and on W.S. George’s copies of those which were destroyed in 1917. Lemerle postulated that in the earlier pictures mentioned in the text of Miracle no. 15 he was dressed in a simple tunic. Later he was represented in the court dress of the ev-votos, with which we are familiar. Lemerle conjectured that, since Demetrius was recognized in battle-scenes, there may have existed at an early date action pictures, in which he was represented fighting on foot or on horseback. However, there is no sure evidence that Demetrius, unlike Theodore and George, was represented before Iconoclasm in military dress, apart from the white chlamys. He had not yet been fully coopted into the army of military saints. The evidence provided by Cappadocian monuments, so abundant for some military saints, is regrettably sparse for Demetrius and inadequately published. Four examples may be adduced, for none of which photographs are available. Karabas¸ kilise, Sog˘anlı, has the advantage of being objectively dated by an inscription to 1060–01.33 De Jerphanion read an inscription ¢HMOITP™ (sic) next to a figure holding a sword in his hand and a shield with Kufic ornamentation. Jolivet-Lévy has confirmed that he was a ‘saint guerrier’. The other three examples, although not objectively dated, may nevertheless also be assigned to the eleventh century. In the church of St Theodore, Tag˘ar or Yesilöz, a saint, holding a lance and shield, is accompanied by an inscription ¢HMHTPIO™.34 No description is available of the figure of ¢IMHTPHO™ in Elmalı kilise.35 Finally, Demetrius figures with other warrior saints in the Basilica of Constantine at Yeniköy, but, again, no description is available.36 De Jerphanion added another example of a saint who was perhaps Demetrius in Göreme 18, but subsequently Jolivet-Lévy has identified the figure as Theodore.37 These sparse examples in Cappadocia at least tell us that St Demetrius was represented there in the eleventh century, but not earlier, as a military saint. To this iconographical evidence, a literary text may be added. A third collection of the Saint’s miracles was compiled not later than the twelfth century, because it figures in Paris graec. 1517, a manuscript of that date.38 The collection contains five miracles wrought by Demetrius in diverse places, one of which was Cappadocia. The Saint appeared to a peasant at Drakontiana. This led to the construction there of a church

33

Jerphanion, II, p. 337; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 266–70. Jerphanion II, p. 193; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 214. 35 Jerphanion I, p. 435. 36 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 282–3. 37 Jerphanion I, p. 486; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 121–2. 38 Lemerle, op. cit., II, p. 203. 34

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dedicated to him.39 De Bye confessed his failure to identify Drakontiana.40 Others have been more optimistic.41 Hild and Restle propose an identification of Drakontiana with Drazala, now known as Kabaklı, and situated 31km south south-west of Kayseri. Be this as it may, no record exists of a church dedicated to St Demetrius in Cappadocia. On the other hand, the text describing the saint’s apparition to the peasant is relevant. Demetrius presented himself as a soldier on horseback and declined his identity. In fact, although evidence that Demetrius was regarded as a military saint earlier than the eleventh century exists, it is slight. On seals, for example, it was natural that the Bishops of Thessaloniki would want their patron saint to be represented. The earliest surviving example is the eighth-century seal of Bishop Peter; on this Demetrius wears a tunic. However, Bishop Romanus (after 1038), had Demetrius represented on his seal holding a spear and shield. His example was followed by his successors in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Surprisingly, the earliest dateable seals with a military effigy of Demetrius are those of two monks, Euthymius and Metrophanes (tenth century).42 One may also ask why, during the early period, St Demetrius’ cult spread so little outside Thessaloniki. He certainly had a few personal clients elsewhere, as, for example, at Nikopolis in Epirus. There, in the atrium of basilica A, is an inscription, according to which Bishop Dometius thanks Demetrius for his protection.43 A portrait of Demetrius was painted in the seventh century at Santa Maria Antiqua, Rome.44 He also figures in the line of saints in Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna mostly Roman, with, however, Cyprian of Carthage, Vincentius of Spain and Polycarp of Smyrna. Demetrius, of course, is not represented here, any more than the others, in military dress. He is beardless, with short dark hair and a youthful face. This representation is exceptional, and was possibly inspired by an intention to recuperate outstanding non-Roman saints for the universal church.45 39

The text was published by De Bye, AA SS, ed. cit. (n. 4), 197 = PG 116, 1396–7 (BHG, 531). Ibid., p. 197, note b: ‘Nec urbem nec pagum hujus nominis, qui in Cappadocia situs sit, in geographicis, seu tabulis, seu lexicis invenio’. 41 E. Hild and M. Restle, Tabula imperii 2: Kappadokien, Vienna, 1981, p. 172. 42 V. Laurent, Le corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin, V 2, L’église, I, Paris, 1963–65, Peter, no. 449, Romanus, no. 455; the monks Euthymius, no. 1391, and Metrophanes, no. 1412. 43 E. Kitzinger, ‘Studies in Late Antique and Early Byzantine Floor Mosaics I, Mosaics in Nikopolis’, DOP 6, 1951, pp. 86–7, 92. 44 Idem, ‘On Some Icons of the Seventh Century’, The Art of Byzantium and the Medieval World, ed. H. Kleinbauer, Bloomington/London, 1976, p. 137, figs 4, 5. Kitzinger noted the startling resemblance with one of the saints on the well-known Sinaï icon of the Virgin and Child, a saint who would otherwise be identified as George. 45 F.R. Deichmann, Frühchristliche Bauten und Mosaiken von Ravenna III, Wiesbaden, 1958, pl. 123. Built probably by Bishop Agnellus, appointed 556. 40

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It is clear, then, that Demetrius was accepted as a saint, but one with a limited clientèle outside Thessaloniki. Moreover he was venerated as a martyr, rather than as a warrior saint, until the end of the ninth century. Why was there this reticence during the first centuries towards a saint who, later in the East, was to acquire such enormous popularity? Perhaps one reason was the enigma of his relics. It may have been impossible at any time – in the early Christian period as much as today – to affirm where if anywhere the saint’s relics were situated. In the ÔåΛÛÎÔ˜? Perhaps, but was it ever a focal point for veneration? Under the ciborium? The fullest early account of the attitude in Thessaloniki to the Saint’s relics is to be found in Bishop John’s Miracle No. 5.46 He affirmed that the Thessalonians do not have the habit, as elsewhere, of exposing their saints’ relics in order to inspire pious sentiments. The whereabouts of these relics remains hidden. For this reason, it was not possible to accede to the request of the Emperor Maurice for a relic. A similar reply was given to the Emperor Justinian, implemented by an account of being warded off by flames when digging for the relics. Bishop John did imply that the Saint’s relics were somewhere underneath the basilica but that they were inaccessible. The tradition did develop that they were, in fact, underneath the ciborium. Whether or not it was true, it seems that, by the end of the seventh century, it was accepted that they were somewhere in the basilica. The evidence is supplied by Justinian II’s Saltpan Edict, inscribed on a marble block. It was rediscovered in 1885; but, for reasons unknown, disappeared, not, however, without having already been copied in facsimile.47 The most important phrase for us in this inscription is the explicit reference to the presence of the Saint’s body in the basilica. However, here, once again, Demetrius is not called a military saint. If later he certainly became one, it was some time before he was aggregated to the état-major of the army. Several circumstances favoured his adoption: the increasing renown of military saints in imperial circles particularly from the time of Basil II; promotion of his cult in Constantinople, where, according to Raymond Janin, there were no less than ten churches dedicated to him.48 With these may be conjugated two new 46

Lemerle, op. cit. I, pp. 87–90, § 50–4. J.-M Spieser, ‘Les inscriptions de Thessalonique’, TM 5, 1973, no. 8, pp. 156–8, with reproduction of facsimile; pl. VIII 2. J. Haldon, ‘Supplementary Essay’, The Miracles of St. Artemius, ed. V.S. Crisafulli and J.W. Nesbitt, Leiden, 1997, p. 59, n. 20, apparently doubted the authenticity of the edict. However, he provided no argument against it; moreover his bibliographical citations are jejune and archaic. 48 Janin, Eglises et monastères. The oldest known is ÙÔÜ ¢Â˘Ù¤ÚÔ˘, restored by Basil the Macedonian (867–85), and mentioned in the Sirmondianus as the church where his synaxis took place. Vid. supra (n. 10). However, according to the De cerimoniis I 21, Bonn, pp. 121–4, 47

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sources of renown in Thessaloniki: the flow of his myron and his intervention to save the city from the Bulgarian vojvod Kalojan. Before turning to these, reference must be made to a rare – but recurring, particularly in late Byzantine art – iconographical theme, that of Demetrius enthroned. He may be the first warrior saint to have been represented thus in a painting in his basilica, dating most probably from the sixth century, regrettably destroyed by the disastrous fire of 1917 but happily recorded.49 Demetrius, seated, receives a mother who holds out her child towards him. There is no evident reason why, in the cycle in which this scene appears, this should be the only occasion when the saint is represented so. It would be unwise to over-interpret it. Grabar studied the iconographical theme of enthroned martyrs.50 However, it is not evident that Demetrius was represented here in his capacity of being a martyr. Ordinarily enthronement was reserved in iconography for imperial figures.51 However, at a later date, there are cases of warrior saints being represented enthroned; outstanding among them is the twelfthcentury bas-relief of Demetrius inserted into the west facade of San Marco, Venice. It is accompanied by another, copied by a local artisan, of St George.52 Clearly it was not a prerogative of Demetrius to be represented enthroned, even if the privilege was readily attributed to him, as, for example on an icon in the skevophylakion of the monastery of St Barlaam, Meteora.53 Since other enthroned warrior saints will be turning up, it is preferable to postpone discussion of the significance of this iconographical theme.

Demetrius the myroblytos The practice of pouring oil into a sarcophagus containing the relics of one or more saints, which was then taken away in flasks by pilgrims, was common in the first centuries after Constantine, notably in Syria.

the court went for his synaxis to his church ÙÔÜ ¶·Ï·Ù›Ô˘, built by Leo the Wise (886–912). The other churches dedicated to Demetrius listed by Janin date from the mid-12th to the 14th century, and no doubt reflect the Palaiologans’ particular devotion to the Saint, whom they had adopted as their family patron, as well as the growing cult of his myron. 49 A. Grabar, Martyrium II, Paris, 1946, pp. 95, 365, fig. 145, III, fig. xlix 1; Cormack, art. cit. (n. 19), no. 32, p. 70. 50 A. Grabar, ‘Le trône des martyrs’, CA 6, 1952, pp. 31–41. 51 A. Dumitrescu, ‘Une iconographie peu habituelle: Les saints militaires siégeant. Le cas de St-Nicolas d’Arges¸’, Byzantion 59, 1989, pp. 48–53. 52 O. Demus, The Church of San Marco in Venice. History, Architecture, Sculpture, Washington, 1960, pp. 128–31, fig. 40; Markovic´, p. 597, fig. 2. 53 A. Xyngopoulos, ‘≠AÁÈÔ˜ ¢ËÌ‹ÙÚÈÔ˜ ï M¤Á·˜ ¢ÔfÍ ï \Afiη˘ÎÔ˜’, ^EÏÏËÓÈο 15, 1957, p. 135; Walter, ‘St Demetrius’, pp. 168–9; vid. infra, XXI: Nestor and Lupus, n. 56.

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However, the tradition also existed that the relics of certain saints exuded a fragrant liquid, which had apotropaic and therapeutic properties. Demetrius, from an uncertain date,54 probably not earlier than the eleventh century, but certainly continuously up at least to the Turkish conquest of Thessaloniki, had this characteristic. To what extent the flow of his myron, which descended through pipes into basins in the refurbished hagiasma, was miraculous and to what extent the phenomenon was facilitated by human intervention cannot be determined. However, the testimonies to the flow of myron are numerous. According to a Jacobite Synaxary, Every day a perfumed oil flows, which heals those who accept it with faith, particularly on the feast of St Demetrius. That day, in fact, it flows more copiously than others, even from the walls and columns of the church. The people in great numbers wipe it from the walls and put this oil in flasks. This miracle will endure until the end of time. Virtuous priests who have seen this have spoken of it and given witness to it.55

The miracle was not, in fact, destined to endure until the end of time. When the Turks blocked up the hagiasma and converted the church into a mosque, the flow of myron ceased. Meanwhile, however, the myron of St Demetrius had acquired tremendous notoriety. It was substituted for the usual oil in ecclesiastical 54 At least ever since Cornelius de Bye, AA SS, ed. cit. (n. 4), Commentarius praevius, p. 74 = PG 116, 1137, the earliest reference to Demetrius as a myroblytos has been taken for granted to be that in the account by John Kaminiates of the capture of Thessaloniki in 904, De excidio Thessalonicensi, 3, Bonn, supplement to Theophanes Continuatus, p. 490, line 17. A modern edition exists: Ioannis Caminiatae, De expugnatione Thessaloniki, ed. G. Böhlig, Berlin/New York, 1973, p. 5; German translation, Eadem, Die Einnahme Thessalonikes durch die Araber, Graz, 1975, p. 17. See also her n. 4, pp. 116–17. Böhlig did not doubt the authenticity of her author’s text, unlike A. Kazhdan, ‘Some Questions Addressed to Scholars Who Believe in the Authenticity of Kaminiates’ Capture of Thessaloniki’, BZ 71, 1978, pp. 301–14; see also Idem, ‘Kaminiates John’, ODB II, 1098–9. He considered that the text was probably a 15thcentury pastiche. He did not cite the reference to Demetrius as a myroblytos, which would, however, to my mind, have strengthened his case. It is most unlikely that there should be this unique reference to the phenomenon of the myron in the text of an early 10th-century(?) author. Plenty of later testimonies exist: J.F. Boissonade, Anecdota graeca II, p. 150; John Cantacuzenus, Historia I, Bonn 1828, I 53, p. 270, lines 11–12, II, Bonn 1831, III 9, p. 66, lines 10–11; John Staurakios, AfiÁÔ˜ Âå˜ Ùa £·˘Ì¿Ù· ÙÔÜ AÁ›Ô˘ ¢ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘ (BHG, 522), ed. Joachim of Iviron, M·Î‰ÔÓÈο 1, 1940, pp. 373–6, § 37 (mid-12th century); Demetrius Chrysolora, Te âÁÎfiÌÈÔÓ ÙÔÜ ¢ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘ XÚ˘ÛÔÏÒÚ· Âå˜ ÙeÓ êÁ›ÔÓ ¢ËÌ‹ÙÚÈÔÓ (BHG, 545) ed. B. Laourdas, °Ú‹ÁÔÚÈÔ˜ ï ¶·Ï·Ì¿˜ 40, 1957, pp. 343–51, with scholion Ùe ̇ÚÔÓ, p. 353. And, of course, the epigrams of Manuel Philes (c. 1275–1345), vid. infra (n. 59). 55 O. Tafrali, Thessalonique au XIVe siècle, Paris, 1913, p. 138, n. 1, cited after Bibliotheca Orientalis I, 3, Paris, 1903, pp. 376–7. 56 It was complained that in Thessaloniki St Demetrius was more revered than Christ,

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rites;56 soldiers smeared themselves with his myron before going into battle;57 it promoted a market among the wealthy for precious sumptuary works, notably encolpia, to contain it. A number of these have survived, often not only adorned with portraits of St Demetrius and other saints, but also with inscriptions;58 Manuel Philes – and, no doubt, other poets – composed epigrams for these pious objects.59 However, the extension of the cult of the saint’s myron was also probably at the origin of the production of considerable numbers of smaller personal objects. Curiously, few icons, in the strict sense, of Demetrius have survived. There is, certainly, the unique gold icon of St Demetrius in the Guelph Treasure, which David Buckton would date between the late twelfth and the second half of the thirteenth century. The Saint, on horseback, wears armour and carries a lance. He is, consequently, represented as a typical warrior saint.60 The saint was rarely represented Acta et diplomata graeca medii aevi, ed. F. Miklosich and J. Müller, I, Vienna, 1860, no. 77 (sine anno) p. 175. It was also complained in 1361 that chrism from the relics of Sts Demetrius and Barbarus was substituted for the holy baptismal chrism, ibid., no. 186, dated 1355, p. 441. On the ‘political’ importance of St Demetrius’ myron, vid. R. Macrides, ‘Subversion and Loyalty in the Cult of St. Demetrios’, Byzantinoslavica 51, 1990, pp. 194–7. 57 Similarly inscriptions on reliquaries in the British Museum, Byzantium Treasures, no. 200, p. 185, and at Halberstadt, E. Hermes, Der Dom zu Halberstadt, seine Geschichte und seine Schütze, Halberstadt, 1896, p. 100. A. Frolow, ‘Un nouveau reliquaire byzantin’, Revue des grecques 66, 1953, p. 105, n. 3, considered that such phrases were not to be taken literally. However, according to Skylitzes, on one occasion when the Bulgarians were besieging Thessaloniki, the garrison prayed all night by the Saint’s tomb (ciborium?). Then they anointed themselves with his myron, went into battle and defeated the enemy. A young horseman leading the Greek army was seen by Bulgarians who had been taken prisoner, Skylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, ed. I. Thurn, Berlin, 1973, pp. 412–14 = Cedrenus, Historiarum compendium II, Bonn, 1839, p. 532. 58 Hermes, op. cit. (n. 57), pp. 100–1; A. Grabar, ‘Quelques reliquaires de saint Démétrius et le martyrium du saint à Salonique’, DOP 5, 1950, pp. 1–28; idem, ‘Un nouveau reliquaire de saint Démétrius’, DOP 8, 1954, pp. 305–13. This last encolpion is decorated with representations of saints Sergius and Bacchus in court dress besides the bust of Demetrius in armour holding a spear. According to one of the inscriptions, ‘the faith of Sergius brings the venerable container of the blood and myron of Demetrius’. 59 Frolow, art. cit. (n. 57), pp. 100–10, lists a series of epigrams composed for encolpia, other reliquaries and icons by Manuel Philes, often with an explicit reference to myron. A word exists for such containers: Ì˘Ú·Ï›Ë. Manuel Philes, Carmina, ed. E. Miller, Paris, 1855–57, reprinted Amsterdam, 1967. Two sets of epigrams are long and biographical. With one of these we shall be shortly concerned. The following verses nos 270, 271: ‘The bosom of the despot is the city of Thessalonika, because on it lies Demetrius in a golden tomb … The container is of gold and, moreover, exudes myron, because the illustrious martyr Demetrius is within’, figured on an encolpion made for Demetrius Palaeologus, Despot of Thessalonika from about 1322 to 1340. For the Menologium which he commissioned, containing a developed biographical cycle for St Demetrius, vid. inf. (n. 66). 60 D. Buckton, ‘The Gold Icon of St Demetrios’, Der Welfenschatz und sein Umkreis, ed. J. Ehlers and D. Kötzche, Mainz, 1998, pp. 277–85. Apart from the mosaic icon at Sassoferrato,

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alone on other surviving artefacts, only once on an ivory, that in the Cloisters Collection, where he is set in a deep frame, stylized in high relief. What is important for us is that he is in military dress, with a sheathed sword, a shield and a spear (of which the end is broken). His ears are prominent and he is beardless. In other respects he does not conform to a standard portrait type.61 Steatites, on which Demetrius figures alone, are, however, more numerous.62 They were, no doubt, relatively expensive. But even the relatively poor could probably afford to buy a moulded glass cameo. The British Museum owns four such cameos, all made from the same mould. On them a bust of Demetrius is represented in armour with a shield and spear.63

vid. infra (nn. 102, 103), I know of no other Byzantine icon, on which he is represented alone. Sotiriou, Icônes, reproduces two, in which, dressed as a warrior, he accompanies other military saints: I, fig. 69, II, pp. 83–5, no doubt with Sts Theodore and George, dated about 1100, and I, fig. 211, II, pp. 189–90, with St George, both in military dress and armed with spears, dated to the mid-14th century. The central figure, wearing a maniakion in I, fig. 47, II, p. 64, is not, to my mind, Demetrius but Procopius. The earliest other icon known to me of St Demetrius alone is the magnificent figure on horseback, dating from about 1600, in the Antibouniotissas Museum, Corfou, P. Vocotopoulos, EåÎfiÓ˜ Ùɘ K¤Ú΢ڷ˜, Athens, 1990, no. 69, pp. 99–100, fig. 49. 61 He figures, with other warrior saints, on the three celebrated 10th-century triptychs (plate 44b), but not wearing military dress. P.N. Papageorgiou published an ‘ivory’ icon of the saint in military dress holding a spear, bow and arrow, at that time in the collection of Zisis Sarropoulos, ‘\AÚ¯·›· ÂåÎgÓ àÁ›Ô˘ ¢ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘ ÙÔÜ ÔÏÈÔ‡¯Ô˘ £ÂÛÛ·ÏfiÓÈÎËã âd ÂÏÂÊ·ÓÙfiÛÙÂÔ˘’, BZ I, 1892, pp. 479–87. In fact, the object was not carved from ‘elephant tusk’ but from steatite as Elizabeth Zachariadou has also observed, ‘Les nouvelles armes de St Dèmètrius’, E鄢¯›· II, Paris, 1998, p. 689. She suggests that the fact that St Demetrius holds a bow and three arrows is a sign that the icon was made for a Turkish Moslem converted to Christianity. After changing hands more than once, it is now in the Louvre, vid. infra (n. 62). That leaves us with one individual ivory of Demetrius (which may have, in fact, originally been one of a series), that in the Cloisters Collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, Glory of Byzantium, no. 81, pp. 134–5. 62 Steatite had largely replaced ivory in the late Byzantine period. It was used for the portrait of Demetrius, in military dress with a spear, bow and arrows, on a luxurious icon formerly in the collection of the Marquis de Ganay, but in the Louvre since 1989. Its most recent publication is in Byzance, no. 324, pp. 435–6, with bibliography, including I. Kalavrezou-Maxeiner, Byzantine Icons in Steatite, Vienna, 1985, no. 127. This author lists several other steatites of Demetrius alone in military dress: no. 10 (location unknown), 11th century; no. 11, Louvre, with shield and sword, 11th century; no. 12, Cherson, with shield and sword; no. 124, Kremlin, Moscow, a celebrated steatite of Demetrius on horseback, with drawn sword, vid. A. Banck, Byzantine Art in the Collections of the Soviet Museums, Leningrad, 1985, figs 262, 263, p. 319; no. 130, Louvre, vid. Byzance, no. 326, p. 436, Splendeur de Byzance, St. 7, p. 127. Cormack remarked that for the features of Demetrius there was no stable iconography. Kalavrezou-Maxeiner wrote that he was represented with prominent ears. It may be observed that this is often, but not invariably, true. 63 Byzantium Treasures, no. 204b, pp. 189–90.

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A final group of artefacts has been left till last for two reasons. One is that, with two exceptions, they are not decorated with a representation of Demetrius as a warrior saint. A second reason is that the more important of these two exceptions, the Vatopedi reliquary, will be best treated in the following section. A. Grabar’s study of these reliquaries is basic.64 For the Moscow reliquary, it is also the best which we have. This reliquary can be dated exactly by the portraits of Constantine X Doukas (1059–67) and his empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa. It was certainly, from the inscription, destined to contain the Saint’s myron. The absence of his portrait renders plausible Grabar’s opinion that the Lavra reliquary, upon which he is represented, originally formed part of it. Whether or not this (octagonal) reliquary was directly modelled on the Thessaloniki (hexagonal) ciborium or on another ciborium in Constantinople, as Theotoka argued, this latter would have only been an intermediary.65 For the present study this is unimportant; the presence of Nestor and Lupus in military dress as janitors is much more relevant. The importance of the cult of the myron of St Demetrius for promoting the production of artefacts decorated with his portrait has, hopefully, been demonstrated. The use of his myron for protection in battle is clear from inscriptions on reliquaries. This favoured his representation as a warrior. However, this was not the only factor in favour of his military status. There was another, at least as important, which will introduce the next section.

The cult of St Demetrius among Greeks and Slavs The cycle on the Vatopedi reliquary comprises seven scenes: 64 A. Grabar, ‘Quelques reliquaires de saint Démétrius et le martyrium du saint à Salonique’, DOP 5, 1950, pp. 1–28. He listed: no. 1, the Vatopedi reliquary, pp. 3–6, figs 1– 5, vid. infra, nos 2–4, the Halberstadt reliquaries, pp. 6–7, figs 6–14, on none of which is Demetrius portrayed as a warrior; no. 5, the Lavra reliquary, pp. 7–16, which Grabar opined to have originally belonged to the Moscow reliquary (no. 7), vid. supra (n. 21); A. Orlandos, ‘\AÓ¿ÁÏ˘ÊÔÓ ÎÈ‚ˆÙ›‰ÈÔÓ Ùɘ M. §·‡Ú·˜’, \Aگ›ÔÓ ÙáÓ ‚˘˙·ÓÙÈÓáÓ MÓËÌ›ˆÓ Ùɘ ^EÏÏ¿‰Ô˜ 8, 1995–96, pp. 100–4, no. 6, the British Museum reliquary, pp 16–18, fig. 17; no. 7, the Moscow patriarchate reliquary, pp. 18–28, figs 19–22, vid. A. Bank, Byzantine Art in the Collections of Soviet Museums, Leningrad, 1977, p. 308, figs 203–4 (but no reproduction of Nestor and Lupus), Iskusstvo Vizantii v Sobranijah SSSR 2, Moscow, no. 547 (with only one poor photograph of the emperor and empress), The Glory of Byzantium, no. 36, pp. 77–8 (entry by I. Kalavrezou). To these add the reliquary at Dumbarton Oaks, on which Demetrius is represented armed with a spear, A. Grabar, ‘Un nouveau reliquaire de saint Demetrius’, DOP 8, 1954, pp. 305–13, fig. 35; vid. M.C. Ross, Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Medieval Antiquities II, Washington, 1965, no. 160, pp. 111–12, figs lxxiv–lxxv. 65 Vid. supra (n. 21). Other Byzantinists regard Theotoka’s hypothesis with scepticism.

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

85

Demetrius at prayer; he kills a scorpion with the sign of the Cross; Nestor, in military dress, visits him in prison; Nestor, again in military dress, kills Lyaeus; martyrdom of Demetrius; Demetrius heals Marianus; Demetrius, with a long spear, drives marauders away from Thessaloniki (plate 49).

Only in this last scene does he wear military dress and hold a shield.66 It is this scene which is of interest at present. Can its significance be defined more precisely? In other words, is it a symbolical presentation of the Saint as the defender of Thessaloniki, or does it portray a specific event? Unfortunately the inscription is no help, for it only gives the name of the Saint. Several – but not many – cycles are known for St Demetrius, and they have been at least partially published. There was, apparently, a mosaic outside the church at Thessaloniki, commemorating the cure of Marianus, but its precise subject is obscure; in any case, it was an isolated picture, not part of a cycle.67 The earliest surviving scenes of a Demetrius cycle are to be found in the Theodore Psalter, London Add. 19352, f. 125v, dated 1066.68 Here, as often, Nestor’s victory over Lyaeus seems to predominate, while Demetrius is represented at prayer and not in military dress. As I observed earlier, this perfectly fitted one of the dominating themes of the Psalter’s illustrations, the efficacy of prayer.69 It also invites the conjecture that the Passion of St Demetrius was constructed around a preexistent Passion of Nestor. But of this more later. For the present, it is only necessary to note that in the Theodore Psalter Demetrius was not represented as a military saint. The same is true in the Menologium made for Demetrius Palaeologus, Despot of Thessaloniki from about 1322 to 1340, Oxford, Bodley gr. th. f.1, f. 54v–f.55.70 It includes six scenes, apart from a conventional portrait of the Saint in court dress holding a martyr’s cross: 1.

Demetrius before Maximian;

66 A. Xyngopoulos, ‘B˘˙·ÓÙÈÓeÓ ÎÈ‚ˆÙ›‰ÈÔÓ ÌÂÙa ·Ú·ÛÙ¿ÛÂˆÓ âÎ ÙÔÜ ‚›Ô˘ ÙÔÜ ¿Á›Ô˘ ¢ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘’, AÚ¯·ÈÔÏÔÁÈÎc \EÊË̤ÚȘ, 1936, pp. 104–36, plate 2 figs 1–5 (warmly commended by A. Grabar). 67 Lemerle, op. cit. (n. 2), I, pp. 56, 67, § 24. 68 Der Nersessian, pp. 46, 94, fig. 204. 69 Walter, art. cit. (n. 1), p. 172. 70 A. Xyngopoulos, ^√ ÂåÎÔÓÔÁÚ·ÊÈÎe˜ ·ÎÏÔ˜ Ùɘ ˙ˆÉ˜ ÙÔÜ ^A Á›Ô˘ ¢ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘, Thessaloniki, 1970; Hutter, Oxford II, pp. 1, 32–3, 115, pl. 102–3.

86 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

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Nestor visits Demetrius in prison; Nestor triumphs over Lyaeus; Nestor (not in military dress) is executed; the martyrdom of Demetrius; the entombment of Demetrius.

In none of these scenes does Demetrius – or, for that matter, Nestor – wear military dress. In the thirteenth-century church of St Demetrius at Mistra, there are really two cycles intermingled, one for the Saint and the other for Nestor. They comprise ten scenes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Demetrius teaching; Demetrius in prison; Demetrius before Maximian; Nestor (apparently in military dress) visits Demetrius in prison; Nestor fighting Lyaeus; Nestor, in armour with spear and sword, triumphs over Lyaeus; Nestor before Maximian; execution of Nestor; martyrdom of Demetrius; entombment of Demetrius.

Again, in none of these scenes, is Demetrius represented as a military saint.71 The St Demetrius cycle in the Bogorodica Ljevisˇka, Prizren (c. 1310–13) is situated in an upper chapel.72 The cycle at Decˇani has also been competently published.73 It contains the following scenes: 1. 2.

Demetrius gives alms; Demetrius at prayer;

71 G. Millet, Monuments de Mistra, Paris, 1910, plates 68–70, provide the essential documentation, because the frescoes have deteriorated considerably since he and his wife Sophie photographed or copied them by hand; S. Dufrenne, Les programmes iconographiques des églises byzantines de Mistra, Paris, 1970, pp. 7, 34, 37; M. Chatzidakis, ‘NÂÒÙÂÚ· ÁÈa ÙËÓ îÛÙÔÚ›· ηd ÙËÓ Ù¤¯ÓË Ùɘ MËÙÚÔfiÏ˘ ÙÔÜ MÈÛÙÚ¿’, ¢XAE 9, 1977–79, pp. 162–3, figs 51, 52. 72 Djuric´, Vizantijske freske, p. 49. 73 J. Radovanovic´, ‘Heiliger Demetrius – Die Ikonographie seines Lebens auf den Fresken des Klosters Decˇani’, L’art de Thessalonique et des pays balkaniques et les courants spirituels XIVe siècle, Belgrade, 1987, pp. 75–88; S. Pajic´, ‘Ciklus sv. Dimitrija’, Zidno slikarstvo manastira Decˇana. Gradja i studije, ed. V. Djuric´, Belgrade, 1995, pp. 353–60.

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3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

87

Demetrius blesses Nestor; Nestor kills Lyaeus; execution of Nestor, for the first time in military dress; martyrdom of Demetrius (in very poor condition); Marianus seeks to be healed; Demetrius saves Thessaloniki from starvation;74 Demetrius props up a falling tower at Thessaloniki (here, for the first time, he wears military dress); Demetrius wards off marauders from Thessaloniki (again in military dress); the vision of angels of an illustrios and Demetrius’ refusal to abandon Thessaloniki during the siege;75 Demetrius, in military dress on horseback, spears and unhorses the Bulgarian vojvod Kalojan, as the accompanying inscription explains.

This is an extraordinarily rich cycle. It betrays not only a knowledge of the literary sources but also of other Demetrius cycles, notably those in which the history of Nestor is predominant. Its iconography borrows from the cycles of other saints. All this helps to formulate, with a measure of certitude, some points about the iconography – and hence prevalent conceptions in the hagiography – of the Saint. It has already been noted that he was venerated – and represented – above all as a martyr. His forte may have been his power of intercession (his representation in prayer, as well as blessing Nestor before his combat, recurs). He performed prodigies for individuals who were citizens of Thessaloniki or who proceeded to his shrine from elsewhere. However, he was also the protector of Thessaloniki, and, given that in the Decˇani cycle two related scenes occur, in one of which the Saint is fending off marauders from the city and in the other of which he is specifically killing the vojvod Kalojan, it is possible to affirm that the scene of Demetrius fending off marauders from the walls of Thessaloniki was, at least at the beginning, symbolical. When he killed Kalojan, he was normally represented on horseback, although, perhaps, the two scenes were sometimes confused.76 74

Lemerle, op. cit. supra (n. 2), I, pp. 100–3, Miracle no. 8, § 68–72. An outstanding incident, ibid., I, pp. 157–65, but this is the only surviving representation of it. 76 The fact is that, at least at the beginning, Demetrius was not often represented on horseback. See, however, the representation of him killing Kalojan at Krokeia (Laconia), with an inscription dating the church to 1286, A. Philipiddes-Braat, ‘Inventaires en vue d’un recueil des inscriptions historiques de Byzance, III Inscriptions du Peloponnèse, T M 9, 1985, pp. 318–19, § 59. The paintings have been indifferently published by N. Drandakis, ‘ ^Ae ÙȘ ÙÔȯÔÁڷʛ˜ ÙÔÜ êÁ›Ô˘ ¢ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘ KÚÔÎÂáÓ (1286)’, ¢XAE, 14, 1984, p. 213, with no mention of this important picture, to which Pamela Armstrong drew my attention. 75

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In fact, of course, St Demetrius did not kill Kalojan! The true historical facts are well-known. The Bulgarian vojvod Kalojan (Skalojan – Dog John – to the Greeks), after a successful campaign, in alliance with the Greeks, against the Latins, and a victory at Adrianople, set out to revenge the crimes of the Greeks against the Bulgarians. Basil II had adopted the title of Boulgaroktonos. Kalojan adapted this to Romanoktonos. After a bloody campaign in Thrace and Northern Macedonia, he set siege to Thessaloniki. Alas for him, he was assassinated by another Bulgarian vojvod Manastras, it seems with the collusion of his spouse.77 One readily understands that the vojvod Manastras preferred the credit for the assassination to be attributed to St Demetrius. Nevertheless the complicity of a Bulgarian may help to explain why St Demetrius, the protector of Thessaloniki, was also accepted as a protector by the Slavs. The iconography of St Demetrius killing Kalojan at Decˇani belongs to a tradition which has a long history behind it.78 A theme used for Sts Theodore and George was extended to Demetrius. Of this there will be questions later.79 For the moment it suffices to note that this iconographical presentation of Demetrius, apparently already attested at Krokeai (Laconia), first figured in his cycle in a Slav church, that is at Decˇani. It suggests that the Slavs readily accepted this way of presenting St Demetrius, even if, in fact, they knew that Kalojan had been assassinated by a Slav vojvod.80 Moreover this iconographical type served, more, it seems, than that of Demetrius defending Thessaloniki, for numerous representations of the Saint in Balkan countries, throughout the period of Turkish domination. It was the military St Demetrius, the protector of cities and churches, who particularly appealed to the Slavs. For this, plenty of evidence exists. The Saint’s cult in medieval Serbia came from Thessaloniki, not from Sr(ij)emska Mitrovica. Churches were dedicated to him, the earliest, 77 The principal literary source is the Annales of G. Akropolites, Bonn, p. 26, where he recounts how Kalojan took on the name of ^PˆÌ·ÈfiÎÙÔÓÔ˜, while the Greeks changed Kalojan’s name into ™Î˘ÏÔÈÒ·ÓÓ˘; A. Vasiliev, Histoire de l’empire byzantin II (1081–1453), Paris, 1932, p. 181; I. Dujcˇev, ‘Appunti di storia bizantino-bulgara’, Medioevo bizantino-slavo I, Rome, 1965, pp. 215–16. 78 Walter, ‘Intaglio of Solomon’, pp. 35–42. 79 Vid. infra, pp. 127–9. Meanwhile, N. Theotoka, ‘^√ ÂîÎÔÓÔÁÚ·ÊÈÎe˜ Ù‡Ô˜ ÙÔÜ ^AÁ›Ô˘ ¢ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘ ÛÙÚ·ÙȈÙÈÎÔÜ Î·d öÊÈÔ˘ ηd Ôî Û¯ÂÙÈÎb˜ ·Ú¿‰ÔÛÂȘ ÙáÓ ©·˘Ì·ÙáÓ’, Acts, Ninth Byzantine International Congress (Thessaloniki, 1953), Athens, 1955, I, pp. 477–83. She shows how both variants of Demetrius killing Kalojan persisted long in post-Byzantine tradition. 80 Thus it is simplistic of Hoddinott, op. cit. supra (n. 29), p. viii, 61, to aver that St Demetrius was the Christian successor of the Cabiri and the Thracian Horseman. The Saint’s antecedents are rather more complex, C. Walter, ‘The Thracian Horseman: Ancestor of the Warrior Saints?’, Byzantinische Forschungen 14, 1989, pp. 659–73.

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probably, that at Prilep (c. 1283).81 There were others at Davidovica (1281–90),82 Ohrid (third quarter of the fourteenth century),83 Pec´ (1345)84 and Markov monastery (1376–81).85 Several Demetrius cycles exist in Serbian churches, in an upper chapel in the Bogorodica Ljeviska (1310– 13);86 in St Demetrius, Pec´ (c. 1345), where the Saint is portrayed driving marauders away from Thessaloniki;87 in the church at Decˇani as already mentioned;88 at Markov monastery (1376–81), which was also dedicated to the Saint.89 One or other of these formulae – Demetrius, on horseback in military dress, spearing or unhorsing Kalojan – was to become a ‘typical scene’, frequently painted on the facade of churches, with Demetrius normally in the company of other warrior saints, George, a Theodore or Mercurius. This ensemble will be considered later. At present only Demetrius is being examined. He is represented spearing Kalojan on the facade of the church at Moracˇa (1251–52),90 and again similarly at Dragalevci, Bulgaria (dated 1476 by an inscription, but the paintings on the facade would be later).91 On the facade of the church at Temska, Serbia, the Saint is unhorsing Kalojan.92 It may seem surprising – even paradoxical – that Slavs, particularly the Bulgarians, should have adopted and rendered an increasingly fervent cult to the Saint who was reputed to have killed their vojvod. D. Obolensky offers an explanation.93 First, the cult of St Demetrius was 81

Djuric´, Vizantijske freske, p. 17. Ibid., pp. 43–4. 83 Ibid., p. 90. 84 Ibid., p. 58. 85 Ibid., p. 80. 86 D. Panic´ and G. Babic´, Bogorodica Ljevisˇka, Belgrade, 1975, pp. 68, 99, n. 47 (with no detailed information). 87 A. Stojakovic´, ‘Quelques représentations de Salonique dans la peinture médiévale serbe’, X·ÚÈÛÙ‹ÚÈÔÓ Âå˜ \AÓ·ÛÙ¿ÛÈÔÓ \√ÚÏ¿Ó‰ÔÓ II, Athens, 1966, pp. 29–30, fig. 3. 88 Radovanovic´, art. cit. supra (n. 73), fig. 13, introducing a variant iconography with Demetrius unhorsing Kalojan. It has no literary parallel, so that it must be modelled on the scene of Mercurius unhorsing Julian the Apostate. 89 Djuric´, pp. 80–3, 218–19, n. 105 (without much concrete information about the cycle). 90 Ibid., pp. 37, 194–5, n. 37. The paintings on the facade are, in fact, much later. V. Petkovic´, Pregled crkvenih spomenika kroz posvenicu srpskog naroda, Belgrade, 1950, proposes the 16th or 17th century, p. 197 (date), p. 201, figs 596, 597 (the paintings of Demetrius and George). 91 A. Grabar, La peinture religieuse en Bulgarie, Paris, 1928, p. 291 (date of church from inscription, but the paintings on the outer facade were executed later), pp. 300–1. The inscription calls Kalojan ™(K)A§√IAN! (Did the artist not understand Greek?); G. Subotic´, Ohridska slikarstva skola XV. veka, Belgrade, 1980, pp. 129–30, fig. 101, pp. 132–3. 92 Petkovic´, op. cit. supra (n. 90), pp. 322–4 (16th or 17th century). 93 D. Obolensky, ‘The Cult of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki in the History of Byzantine82

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propagated among the Slavs by Sts Cyril and Methodius, as well as by their successor Clement of Ohrid. A canon for his feast day in Old Church Slavonic, probably composed by Methodius before his death in 886, has no Greek original. It is preserved in the Meneia of 1096. Obolensky quotes an anecdote, for which no Greek model has been found either. It concerns a pagan chieftain who unsuccessfully besieged Thessaloniki but took two maidens captive. He said to them: ‘I hear that you have a great god called Demetrius who works many miracles. Embroider me his likeness on an image, so that I may venerate him and defeat my enemies.’ However, things did not work out quite as the chieftain had hoped. During the night, the Saint whisked back the maidens to his shrine in Thessaloniki, together with the image which they had made.94 Nevertheless, it illustrates the attitude of Slavs towards Demetrius, who, they hoped, would bestow on them the same favours as he did on the citizens of Thessaloniki. One readily understands how, in Christian countries subjugated to Turkish Moslems, these representations of St Demetrius appealed to them, subtly but eloquently, for protection against their conquerors.

Conclusion At the beginning of this entry on St Demetrius, the question was posed: in what points did he resemble and differ from other warrior saints? An examination of his dossier makes it clear that he was in no way, at least at the start of his career, a model warrior saint. In iconography he was invested with their attributes rather late. On the three celebrated ivory triptychs, for example,95 dated to the tenth century, he figures with other members of the celestial army, but always in court dress as a martyr, not in military costume (plate 44b). On another archetypal picture, the triumphal frontispiece to Basil II’s Psalter Venice Marc. graec. 17, f. III (plate 64), he apparently holds some weapon,96 but in the bust representation of Slav Relations’, Balkan Studies 15, 1974, pp. 3–22, reprinted, The Byzantine Inheritance of Eastern Europe IV, London, 1982. There is, in fact, a considerable literature on the subject, notably A. Papadopoulos, ^√ ±ÁÈÔ˜ ¢ËÌ‹ÙÚÈÔ˜ Âå˜ ÙËÓ ^EÏÏËÓÈÎcÓ Î·d BÔ˘ÏÁ¿ÚÈÎËÓ ·Ú¿‰ÔÛÈÓ, Thessaloniki, 1971; V. Tapkova-Zaimova, ‘Le culte de saint Démétrius à Byzance et aux Balkans’, Problèmes d’histoire et de culture, Miscellanea bulgarica 5, Vienna 1982, with further bibliography. 94 Cited by Obolensky after D.S. Iliadou, ‘^√ ôÁÈÔ˜ ¢ËÌ‹ÙÚÈÔ˜ ηd Ôî ™Ï¿‚ÔÈ’, 8th International Byzantine Congress, Thessaloniki, 1953, Acts III, Athens, 1958, p. 134. 95 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, Elfenbeinskulpturen II, no. 31 (Palazzo di Venezia, Rome), no. 32a (Vatican Museums), no. 33 (Harbaville triptych, Louvre, Paris). 96 Vid. infra, p. 277.

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him on the lower side of the rim of the panel of the military Archangel Michael in the Treasury of San Marco, Venice, dated to around the year 1000,97 Demetrius has no military attribute. Nevertheless, it is clear that, as the defender of Thessaloniki, he had long been participating, on the side of the Thessalonians, in their defence. Even if the relatively early texts – the Passions and Bishop John’s Miracula – rarely make allusion to Demetrius’ military status, those about Sts George and Theodore Tiron do prepare the way, an account of the reference in Demetrius’ second Passion to his having undergone military training, for his assimilation to other members of the celestial army. In iconography, it is more evident that Demetrius assumed a universal military character after the cult of his myron had been established, and that, again, I would place relatively late, since I share Kazhdan’s view that the text attributed to John Kaminiates was probably a fifteenthcentury pastiche.98 The thirteenth century seems the most likely date for Demetrius’ definitive establishment as a military saint. Manuel Philes, who wrote so many epigrams for containers of Demetrius’ myron, lived from about 1275 to 1345. Contemporary art historians, moreover, now tend to place these engraved objects no earlier than the thirteenth century. Demetrius, therefore, did not do much to help form the Byzantine notion of a warrior saint; rather, this had already been shaped when it was applied to him. He then took to it readily. References to the apotropaic properties of his myron only become abundant in late Byzantine literature, even if the date of the earliest one remains open to discussion. Consequently, to sum up, St Demetrius was above all, at least from the time that literary information was available, regarded as a saintly martyr whose principal task was to protect the city of Thessaloniki and its inhabitants. Of his antecedents as a citizen of Sirmium; we know virtually nothing.99 Curiously, the Passions, while they reveal so little about him, do follow the conventional martyrdom sequence for Nestor. Demetrius only kills a scorpion by making the sign of the cross, in the second version, while Nestor kills a pagan gladiator in both versions! The hypothesis may therefore be maintained, but not proved, that the legend of Nestor’s martyrdom is antecedent to that of Demetrius, whose function was to intercede for him. 97

The Treasury of San Marco, ed. D. Buckton, Milan, 1982, pp. 141–7, no. 12. Vid. supra (n. 54). 99 M. Vickers, ‘Sirmium or Thessaloniki? A Critical Examination of the St Demetrius Legend’, BZ 67, 1974, pp. 337–50. Woods has recently advanced the ingenious hypothesis that the warrior Demetrius derives his military status, not from a metamorphosis of the deacon of Sirmium but from a Spanish martyr, St Emeterius, whose relics would have been translated to Thessaloniki during the reign of Theodosius I and whose name closely resembled that of Demetrius, vid. infra, XXXIX. 98

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It has been noted in passing that painted cycles for St Demetrius (plate 33), if not numerous, are more so than for other military saints apart from George. The scenes are mostly conventional and, no doubt, generally modelled on those of other saints. However, two scenes in Demetrius’ cycle do stand out. One shows him driving off marauders from Thessaloniki. This can be classified as a generic representation of him defending the city of which he was protector. The other, where he spears, or unhorses, a single person, refers to an explicit (if legendary) event: Demetrius killing Kalojan. For the rest, two icons must be singled out for comment. One has already been discussed above. In fact, it has been mentioned several times.100 Elizabeth Zachariadou has observed – and, to my mind, rightly – that this steatite icon was made for a Turk converted to Christianity. It is not often remarked that Turkish Moslems, enlisted in the Byzantine army, did convert, and took the name of Demetrius. Zachariadou has called attention to the fact that, on this steatite icon, the Saint holds a bow with three arrows, a typically Turkish detail! Elsewhere, warrior saints often carry a bow, for example several of them at Decˇani – but hardly ever three arrows. So Zachariadou’s hypothesis is plausible. The other icon which merits detailed study is that at Sassoferrato. I have already written about this icon, but superficially.101 It is a composite object. First of all, it contains at the centre an unusually elegant portrait of St Demetrius in mosaic. Secondly, it carries an inscription, of which, as I had already noted, Lampe used an inaccurate copy. Thirdly, there was a place for a phial (now lost) of myron above the icon.102 The icon was transferred at some date from the collection of Niccolò Perotti (1429–80) to the Museo civico. How and when it arrived at Sassoferrato is not certain. However, conjecture is possible, and Maria Theocaris has undertaken it.103 The icon would have accompanied the putative relics of St Demetrius to Sassoferrato. These were deposed in the nearby Abbey of San Lorenzo not later, according to the Abbey’s records, than the early thirteenth century by the Normans who had sacked Thessaloniki. This provides a suitable ending to a brief account of St Demetrius, in which the guiding line has been an examination of his military status. He 100

Vid. supra, esp. nn. 61, 62. Art. cit. supra (n. 1), p. 165, n. 29. 102 A. Vasiliev, ‘The Historical Significance of the Mosaic of St Demetrius at Sassoferrato’, DOP 5, 1950, pp. 29–39, gives a full account of the icon (in his translation of the inscription about the myron, ‘jar’ is hardly an elegant synonym for ‘phial’! ) See also Byzantine Art, Ninth Exhibition of the Council of Europe, Athens, 1964, no. 171, p. 238 (with illustration), bibliography, pp. 533–4. 103 M. Theocaris, ‘Une icône en mosaïque de St Démétrius et la découverte des reliques du saint en Italie’, ¶Ú·ÎÙÈÎa Ùɘ \Aη‰ËÌ›·˜ \A©ËÓáÓ 53, 1979, pp. 508–26. 101

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conforms to the paradigm, in that he had – and still has – his own sanctuary. His Passions, however, as they have come down to us, are relatively late texts, later than the construction of his first sanctuary. His collections of Miracula (all posthumous) bear witness to the fact that, in the first centuries, his interest was almost exclusively in Thessaloniki and its citizens. This is one reason why his cult spread little and why there was relative tardiness in accepting him as a military saint. The emergence of the cult of his myron (which I place late) changed all this. Pilgrims came to his shrine from all over the Christian East. He then became a popular and universal saint. The apotropaic properties of his myron made him appeal to soldiers. It was also an aspect of his individuality. Other military saints did not exude the myron, which led to the manufacture of numerous encolpia and other reliquaries such as exist for St Demetrius. Moreover, one forms the impression that in private cults not only were those who commissioned them individualistic but also wished the objects to conform to their personal taste and idiosyncrasies. Demetrius’ feats in defending Thessaloniki and disposing of Kalojan, as Sts George, Sergius, the Theodores and Mercurius were reputed in their time to have disposed of other persecutors and enemies, established his reputation as a competent protector and defender, confirming his place in official iconography. He figures regularly, along with other members of the celestial army, in echelons of military saints, particularly on the walls of churches. As the Turkish menace became stronger, so his importance became greater. However, this does not explain why he became so enormously popular in Russia, where the Turkish menace was not great, nor why, in the West, he was virtually ignored. An answer to these two questions lies outside the scope of the present study.

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III St Procopius Procopius did not begin his hagiographical career as a soldier. In fact, he was introduced into hagiography as a cleric. Whereas Demetrius’ possible origin as a deacon at Sirmium is hypothetical, the early life and martyrdom of Procopius are both well documented.1 Eusebius presented him as the first of the Palestinian martyrs.2 Only the briefer version has survived in Greek; it is succinct. However, the longer version is available in other languages.3 From this we learn that he was born in Aelia or Jerusalem. A Christian, he worked for the Church of Scythopolis as lector, interpreter and exorcist. Since he refused to sacrifice to the gods or offer a libation to the emperors, he was put to death at Caesarea in Palestine. The success of his cult, if not phenomenal, was impressive. The sanctuary at his place of martyrdom, destroyed by fire in 484, was rebuilt by the Emperor Zeno (474–75, 476–91).4 It was visited by the anonymous Pilgrim of Piacenza between 560 and 570.5 A church in his honour was built at Gerasa between 526 and 537.6 Janin listed three churches and one oratory dedicated to Procopius at Constantinople. That in the palace built by Justinian for his sister Vigilantia was restored by Antonina, the widow of Belisarius; another at Cheloni was falsely attributed to Constantine. In this church and that at Kondylio, the feast of Procopius was celebrated on 8 July. Finally, an oratory in the church of St Menas on the acropolis of Constantinople was reputed to house some of his relics. This oratory and the church of Vigilantia were visited by the anonymous 1 H. Delehaye long ago presented the case history of Procopius in two studies, Les légendes hagiographiques, Brussels, 1905, ‘Le dossier d’un saint’, pp. 142–67; Les légendes grecques, pp. 70–87, with appendices, Paris graec. 1470 (dated 890), pp. 214–27, and Paris graec. 897 (12th century), pp. 228–32. 2 Eusebius of Caesarea, ‘De martyribus Palaestinae’, Histoire ecclésiastique III, ed. G. Bardy, Paris, 1958, p. 122. 3 Delehaye, Les légendes hagiographiques, op. cit. supra (n. 1), pp. 144–5 (French translation of the Latin version); Eusebius Caesariensis, ‘De martyribus Palaestinae longius libelli fragmenta’, An. Boll. 16, 1897, pp. 114–15. For the Syrian, Georgian and Latin versions, vid. G. Garitte, ‘Version géorgienne de la Passion de St Procope par Eusèbe’, Le Muséon 66, 1953, pp. 245–66. 4 Delehaye, Les légendes hagiographiques, p. 78; Maraval, p. 300. 5 P. Maraval, Récits des premiers pèlerins chrétiens, Paris, 1996, pp. 203–5, 234. 6 Maraval, p. 330.

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English pilgrim in 1093.7 Outside Constantinople and his sanctuary at Caesarea in Palestine, there is further evidence for the saint’s cult: an inscription at el-Mehayet, near Madaba, invokes the God of St Lot and St Procopius;8 a battle against the Turks at Trebizond took place around the saint’s church, but only in 1223.9 However, we are anticipating, for nothing has been said so far about the metamorphosis of Procopius from cleric to soldier. There is no hint of this in the earliest Passion (BHG, 1576), an embellished version of the account of Eusebius, introducing the clichés which figure so regularly in accounts of martyrdom.10 The radical changes occur in the second version (BHG, 1577). The first part is the account of a pagan youth called Neanias. Presented by his mother, also pagan, to Diocletian at Antioch, Neanias was appointed Doux of Alexandria and dispatched to the city to hound out Christians and to punish them severely. Outside Apamea, on his way to Alexandria, there was an earthquake accompanied by lightning. Neanias heard a voice, that of Christ; he also had a vision of a crystal cross. The voice told him that in this sign he would conquer. Forthwith Neanias had a cross, similar to that which he had seen in his vision, made of silver and gold. Miraculously, three icons appeared of Christ and the archangels Michael and Gabriel beside the cross. Thanks to the cross, Neanias won a stunning victory over the Agarenians, killing 6000 of them. He converted to Christianity. Appalled by her son’s conversion, his mother denounced him to Diocletian. His passion began. He was taken to Caesarea, where he was tortured and imprisoned. Christ appeared to him, healed his wounds and changed his name to Procopius. In due course, he was executed, along with his mother, who converted to Christianity during her son’s trial.11 The third, definitive version of the Passion of Procopius appears in the two Metaphrastic Lives (BHG, 1578, 1579), which do not modify the significant changes introduced into the second version.12 It is hard to understand why Neanias became Procopius, especially as virtually all traces of the historical Procopius disappear in the rewritten Passion. However, there is no doubt that the refurbished Procopius was a military

7

Janin, pp. 443–4. Fr. Halkin, Incriptions grecques, I, p. 108, VI, p. 332. 9 R. Janin, Les églises et monastères des grands centres byzantins, Paris, 1975, p. 288. 10 Delehaye, Les légendes hagiographiques, pp. 147–52. 11 Ibid., pp. 152–5. 12 Ibid., p. 157. According to Delehaye, the two Metaphrastic Lives differ only slightly. The latter, BHG, 1579, is published in AA SS, July II, Paris, 1867, 556–76. 8

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saint, who won an outstanding battle. His vision is an evident concoction including elements taken from St Paul’s conversion and Constantine’s vision. Nevertheless the account, certainly composed by the eighth century, was to be influential. The part concerning the miraculous icons was read at the second Council of Nicaea, and the vision was to figure in the iconography of Procopius.13 Unlike Demetrius, Procopius was represented often in Cappadocia. One reason for this may be that many calendars which depend on the Martyrologium Hieronymianum place his martyrdom at Caesarea in Cappadocia, not in Palestine.14 The representations may be divided into two groups: the portraits and the scenes of his vision. In the tenth-century churches, Procopius is invariably represented in court dress, at Haçlı kilise,15 at the church of the Archangels, Zindanönü,16 at Göreme no. 11, St Eustathius,17 at the church of the Holy Apostles, Mustafa Pasˇa, Sinasos,18 at Balkan Deresi 4, Sts Peter and Paul.19 Only from the eleventh century is Procopius represented in military dress, in Göreme no. 21,20 in Göreme no. 11 (before 1148–49),21 in the basilica of Constantine, Yeniköy22 and in Yusuf koç kilisesi.23 The scene of his vision is first attested in Cappadocia.24 Nicole Thierry has recorded five examples, all apparently dating from the eleventh century, in the following churches: Göreme no. 11, St Eustathius, Göreme no. 10, Chapel of Daniel, twice, rock church no. 5, necropolis of Göreme, Göreme no. 2a Saklı kilise. The iconography hardly differs from one 13

Mansi 13, 89–90; Mango, pp. 144–5. Martyrologium Hieronymianum, AA SS, Nov. II 1, p. 88; AA SS, Nov. II 2, 1931, pp. 308, 358–9. 15 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 53. 16 Ibid., p. 58. 17 Ibid., p. 113. 18 Ibid., p. 181. 19 Ibid., p. 202. 20 Ibid., p. 126. See also A. Wharton Epstein, ‘Rock-cut Chapels in Göreme Valley, Cappadocia: The Yılanlı Group and the Column Churches’, CA 24, 1975, pp. 115–35, fig. 2. 21 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 115, plate 70, fig. 1. 22 Ibid., p. 282. 23 Ibid., pp. 74–5, preferring a 13th-century date. N. Thierry, ‘De la datation des églises de Cappadoce’, BZ 88, 1995, p. 448, is sceptical about high-quality paintings having been executed under Turkish occupation. She had earlier proposed an 11th-century date for this church, ‘Yusuf koç kilisesi’, Mélanges Mansel, Ankara, 1974, I, pp. 193–206, reprinted, Peinture d’Asie Mineure et la Transcaucasie aux Xe et XIe siècles, Variorum, London, 1977, IX. 24 N. Thierry, ‘Le culte du cerf en Anatolie et la vision de saint Eustathe’, Monuments et mémoires, Fondation Eugène Piot, 72, 1991, pp. 60–3 (briefly); Eadem, ‘Vision d’Eustache.Vision de Procope. Nouvelles données sur l’iconographie funéraire byzantine’, \APM√™. TÈÌËÙ›ÎÔ˜ ÙfiÌÔ˜ ÔÙeÓ Î·©ËÁËÙc N.K. MÔ˘ÙÛfiÔ˘ÏÔ III, Thessaloniki, 1991, pp. 1855–9, figs 8, 10. 14

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example to another. Where the picture is in fair condition, as is the case with the two examples in the chapel of Daniel, Neanias/Procopius is seated on horseback in court dress, facing the cross placed in a circle before him, towards which he extends a hand. The name of Procopius is inscribed on the example on the west wall of the chapel of Daniel. The immediate source of inspiration is evident: the account of the vision of Neanias in the second state of the Passion of Procopius. However, Nicole Thierry considers that it was also inspired by the far older and more widespread iconography of the conversion of St Eustathius, a funerary theme, to which we shall turn in due course. In fact, apart from the miniatures in two Psalters, the Vision of Procopius was represented only at Göreme, Cappadocia, during the eleventh century. The well-known ivory triptychs are probably contemporary with the earliest portraits of Procopius in Cappadocia. They show him integrated into the echelon of military saints, although, as in the earlier portraits in Cappadocia, he wears court dress. Such is the case on the Borradaile triptych,25 the Harbaville triptych,26 the Palazzo Venezia triptych,27 and the triptych in the Museo cristiano (Vatican Museums).28 It is only on the wings of the ivory of the XL Martyrs in the Hermitage that all the warrior saints, including Procopius, wear military dress (plates 46, 47. Procopius holds an unsheathed sword and a shield.29 Kalavrezou-Maxeiner lists only one steatite on which Procopius is represented, the Hetoimasia now in the Louvre.30 The inscription on the steatite calls the saints represented on it ‘the stratilatai who have appeared from the four corners of the world’. However, all four of them (the others are Theodore, Demetrius and George) wear court dress and hold a cross. Procopius, in military dress with sword, spear and shield, figures, along with Demetrius and Nestor, on the plaque with a Deësis in the Mayer van den Bergh Museum, Antwerp, dated to the eleventh century.31 There is also an icon of three military (?) saints at St Catherine’s Mount Sinaï.32 All three figures are in court dress and hold crosses, but the inscription with his name – Nestor – has survived only for the figure at the 25 26

Goldschmidt and Weitzmann II, p. 36, fig. 38b; Byzantium. Treasures, no. 153. Goldschmidt and Weitzmann II, pp. 34–5, no. 33; Splendeur de Byzance, Iv. 8, pp. 99–

100. 27

Ibid., plates X and LXIII, no. 31. Ibid., p. 34, nos 32a–b, plates XI and XIII. 29 A. Banck, Byzantine Art in the Collections of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, 1966, no. 126. Banck suggests the 10th or 11th century. Given the military dress of the warrior saints, the 11th century is more likely. 30 Kalavrezou-Maxeiner, no. 3, plates 3, 4. Vid. supra, I: the Theodores, n. 95. 31 Splendeur de Byzance, Br. 23, p. 186. 32 Sotiriou I, no. 47, II, p. 64. Vid. infra, VI:, Sergius and Bacchus, n. 7. 28

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extreme right. The Sotirious identified the two others as Demetrius and Procopius. Weigert made the same identification but reversed the figures!33 The centre one wears a maniakion. Patterson Sˇevcˇenko considered this to be an attribute of Procopius, but she wrote wrongly that he wears it on tenth-century ivories.34 The only military saints to have this attribute regularly are Sts Sergius and Bacchus. Consequently, the figure wearing a maniakion on the extreme left is more likely to be Sergius. However, the identification of the figures on this present icon is necessarily conjectural. There is, in fact, only one thirteenth-century icon at St Catherine’s, Mount Sinaï, on which the saint represented wearing the maniakion is certainly Procopius, because he is named in the accompanying legend. He wears court dress, but his military status is affirmed, because, while he holds a cross in his left hand, in his right hand he holds a sword.35 Representations of Procopius recur in several manuscripts. In bust form, he figures with five other warrior saints, beside Basil II’s portrait in the frontispiece to the emperor’s Psalter (plate 64).36 More to our purpose are those which figure in liturgical manuscripts. Procopius’ portrait illustrates his Passion in Mosq. graec. 1063, f. 125v; he holds a shield and spear.37 He also figures in three of the illuminated manuscripts of the Metaphrastic volume which includes his Life. The latest would seem to be Paris graec. 1528, which Patterson Sˇevcˇenko dates to about 1105.38 Here, f. 63, Procopius in his portrait wears court dress. At the end of the Life, f. 86v, is a scene of his martyrdom, set in a hilly landscape with much low vegetation. Procopius, dressed in a long tunic, leans forward, awaiting the executioner’s sword. The scene is unique, but Patterson Sˇevcˇenko pointed out that it closely resembles many scenes of execution in the surviving first volume of the Menologium of Basil II. It is highly likely that the lost second volume contained a scene of the martyrdom of Procopius, which would have been the model for the miniature in the Paris manuscript. The two other illuminated volumes contain a portrait of Procopius in military dress, holding a shield: Alexandria Greek Patriarchate cod. 35 (303), f. 53v,39 Mosq. graec. 9 (Vladimir, 382), f. 72v.40 33

C. Weiger, ‘Prokopios’, LCI, 229–30. Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, ‘Prokopios’, ODB III, p. 1731. 35 D. Mouriki, ‘Four Thirteenth-Century Sinaï Icons by the Painter Peter’, Studenica et l’art byzantin autour de l’année 1200, ed. V. Korac´, Belgrade, 1988, pp. 343–4, fig. 5; Sinaï, pp. 113, 174, no. 47. 36 I. Spatharakis, The Portrait in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts, Leiden, 1976, pp. 22–3, fig. 9. 37 V. Lazarev, Storia della pittura bizantina, Turin, 1967, fig. 268. 38 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, pp. 140, 144–5. 39 Ibid., pp. 46, 47. 40 Ibid., pp. 68, 71. 34

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Curiously, the scene of Procopius’ Vision is only represented outside Cappadocia in two marginal Psalters, illustrating Psalm 67:36, ‘God is wonderful in his holy ones’. In each case, the iconography of the miniature is identical, so that they are related, possibly through the intermediary of an earlier lost manuscript. In the Barberini Psalter, the miniature appears on f. 112v,41 in the Theodore Psalter, London Additional 19532, on f. 85v (plate 53).42 In each case Procopius, in military dress and haloed, is seated on a prancing horse. He extends a hand towards a cross which hangs from a segment in the sky. For the rest, we have the portraits of St Procopius in church decoration. He figures with St Mercurius in the west arch under the cupola at Hosios Loukas.43 Other warrior saints figure in the north and south arches. Later, the warrior saints, as an echelon, were represented at the lowest level in churches. St Procopius was almost invariably present.44 I mention only a few churches as examples: The Anargyroi, Kastoria (eleventh century);45 Staro Nagoricˇino, with shield, bow and spear (after 1309);46 the parecclesion of the Kariye Camii (plate 7), to the west side of the western arcosolium with St Mercurius, unsheathing his sword (early fourteenth century);47 Decˇani, next to St George in the cohort of military saints, paintings finished 1346–47.48 Compared with the cult of St Demetrius, that of Procopius seems to have been official rather than personal. There are few icons of him and on these he usually appears in the company of other military saints. His cult had a conventional beginning with a sanctuary at the reputed place of his execution in Caesarea, Palestine, and spread to Constantinople, even to Rome. However, there is no evidence that his apotropaic powers, whether in battle or otherwise, were regularly exercised. If he had eulogia, none has survived. There are two puzzles connected with him. One is why he should have been transmuted from a clerical to a warrior saint. The other is why the iconography of his vision had so little success. Yet there is no doubt that, for artists as well as hagiographers, he was an authentic warrior saint, who won an outstanding battle thanks to divine 41 C. Walter et al., The Barberini Psalter, Codex Vaticanus Barberianus graecus 372, p. 97; idem, ‘“Latter-day” Saints’, p. 215, fig. VI; reprinted, Prayer and Power Papal Imagery, no. XI. 42 Der Nersessian, pp. 37, 90, 98; Walter, art. cit., n. 41, ibid. 43 E. Diez and O. Demus, Byzantine Mosaics in Greece: Daphni and Hosios Loukas, Cambridge (Mass), 1931, fig. 36. 44 Weigert, art. cit. supra (n. 33) gives a useful list. 45 S. Pelekanides, K·ÛÙÔÚ›·, Thessaloniki, 1953, plate 23b. 46 B. Todic´, Staro Nagoricˇino, Belgrade, 1993, fig. 46. 47 P.A. Underwood, The Kariye Camii, New York, 1966, III, The Frescoes, p. 256, plates 498–9. 48 Markovic´, p. 607, fig. 2.

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help. As such, he earned a place as one of the most outstanding members of the celestial army.

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IV St Mercurius J.M. Sauget1 following S. Binon,2 considered Mercurius to be one of the most enigmatic of saints. He certainly is enigmatic, but then so are most warrior saints in some way! The documents concerning him are published.3 They derive from the first Passio, which Delehaye called ‘un récit de fantaisie fait de réminiscences et de lieux communs … une composition artificielle comme les Actes de Théodore, Georges et Procope’.4 Nevertheless, the Byzantines, who were not endowed with the same critical spirit as the eminent Bollandist, accepted these fantaisies as authentic. Even if most of what is recorded about this fairly popular warrior saint is fantaisie, we do, in fact, have one piece of historically valid information concerning the principal centre of his cult. Theodosius, not long after the death of Anastasius I in 518, visited the sanctuary of Mercurius, along with that of St Mammas, in Caesarea of Cappadocia.5 Curiously, accounts of his posthumous prodigy may have been in circulation earlier than his first Passio. It will be presented in due course. The Passio recounts that Mercurius lived under the Emperors Decius and Valerian. A soldier in the Martenses, he saw in a vision an angel who presented him with a sword, promising him victory and telling him not to forget his God. Mercurius duly routed the barbarians, slaying their king. He was summoned to the presence of the emperor, who rewarded him with the title of Stratelates. Meanwhile he had been visited again by the angel. He recalled that his father had been a

1

J.M. Sauget, ‘Mercurio di Caesarea’, BS 9, 365–6. S. Binon, Essai sur le cycle de St Mercure, Paris, 1937. 3 Passio (BHG, 1274), Delehaye, pp. 234–4; later version of Passio (BHG, 1275), S. Binon, Documents grecs inédits relatifs à S. Mercure, Louvain, 1937, pp. 27–39; The Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 1276), Delehaye, pp. 243–58; the Oratio of Nicephorus Gregoras (BHG, 1277), Binon, ibid., pp. 67–91; Narratio (BHG, 1227a), ibid., pp. 173–4. The texts are the source for the entries in the Sirmondianus, Syn CP, 258 (26 Nov.) and in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 206; PG 117, 180. The bibliography concerning the posthumous prodigy will be given when this is discussed. 4 Delehaye, p. 95. 5 Theodosius, Itinera Hierosolymita, ed. P. Maraval, Récits des premiers pèlerins au ProcheOrient, Paris, 1996, p. 194. The relics of a St Mercurius translated from Quintodecimo to Benevento are those of another saint, Mercurius of Aeclanum, sometimes confused with the saint of Caesarea, H. Delehaye, ‘La translatio sancti Mercurii ad Beneventum’, Mélanges d’hagiographie grecque et latine, Brussels, 1966, pp. 189–95. 2

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Christian. Mercurius also converted. The emperor, who admired his youthful beauty, his ruddy face and sprouting beard, invited him to offer cult to Artemis. This he refused, announcing that he was a Christian. Like other condemned warriors, he personally stripped off his military chlamys and cincture, whereupon he was tortured and thrown into prison; there, once again, he was visited by an angel. The emperor ordered him to be transported to Caesarea (the one detail confirmed by Theodosius) and executed. Many miracles occurred at his shrine. This is transparently an example of the hagiographical genre, with reminiscences of what is told in the Passio of other military martyrs. His youth and beauty, as well as his gesture of divesting himself of the signs of his military status, recall Sts Sergius and Bacchus. The vision in which he was presented with a sword, enabling him to conquer the barbarians, recalls that of Procopius, although this incident was not represented in Byzantine iconography. In fact, there are, apparently, only two examples of a scene from his life. One is the miniature in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 206 (25 November), where he is represented naked to the waist with a cloth round his loins, leaning forward to be decapitated.6 In this his portrait type had already been established, notably his sprouting beard. The other, also of his execution and iconographically similar, is in the Oxford Menologium, f. 18.7 The earliest known representation of Mercurius is that of his posthumous prodigy in Paris graec. 510, f. 409v, in which he is represented on horseback already in military dress. His portraits are far less common in Cappadocia than those of Eustathius, in spite of his being a local saint. Those which are recorded are not all adequately described. Probably the earliest would be Direkli kilise, dating from the first quarter of the tenth century. Here he wears an unusual military uniform and holds a sword in his right hand.8 Of that in El Nazar (Göreme no. 1), dated by Jolivet-Lévy to the second quarter of the tenth century, no description is available.9 He is also represented in the basilica of Constantine, Yeniköy (eleventh century), with a cuirass, a red tunic and blue chlamys, and holding a lance and round shield.10 In St Barbara, dated 1006 or 1021, in spite of the poor condition of the painting, the shield can (or could) be discerned hanging

6

Vid. supra, n. 3. Hutter, Corpus II, no. 1, p. 10, fig. 31. 8 Thierry, Nouvelles églises, p. 87. 9 Jerphanion I, p. 181; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 85, for date. 10 Personal communication by N. Thierry; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 282. The description in Turkish by S.Y. Otöken, whose article Jolivet-Lévy cites (p. 282, n. 2), p. 136, has not been accessible to me. 7

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from his back.11 In Karabasˇ kilise, Sog˘anlı, he holds a spear and shield.12 In Ala kilise, Belisırma, the name of Mercurius is legible, but the painting is effaced.13 Finally, in the chapel of the Theotokos of St John the Baptist and St George, he is represented in court dress, but no date is given.14 Thus, in seven churches in Cappadocia, in which Mercurius is recorded to have figured, it is certain that he was represented as a warrior four times. Although Mercurius is represented only on three of the tenth-century ivory triptychs, each time he has a military attribute. On the Harbaville triptych, he appears in bust form, holding a spear.15 On the triptych in the Museo cristiano, Vatican, he wears military dress.16 On the ivory in the Hermitage, again he holds a spear.17 Thus, even if he was not yet established as a leading warrior saint, his membership of the celestial army was acknowledged. The two magnificent panels in the Museo San Marco, Venice, may be associated with these ivories. On each the archangel Michael is represented in the centre in military costume. Around the border are placed figures of saints, many of them military. On the panel with the half figure of the archangel (c. 1000), at the extreme left, there is a bust of Mercurius. He holds a spear, but his facial features are not typical, because he is beardless.18 On the panel with the full figure of the archangel (plate 1), the oval medallions on the left and right borders contain pairs of warrior saints, full length, in military costume and armed with a spear and shield. Mercurius is placed next to Eustathius, not inappropriately. However, again his facial features are untypical; this time he has a full beard. In fact, his portrait and that of Eustathius are virtually identical.19 Mercurius had the honour of being included among Basil II’s celestial military protectors on the frontispiece to the emperor’s Psalter, Venice Marc. graec. 17, f. III (plate 64).20 His portrait also occurs in the fourth volume of the Metaphrastic Menologium (17–30 November) on five occasions, twice in military dress: in Paris graec. 580, f. 2v, in the third row of the saints whose Lives appear in this volume, Mercurius, holding a

11 Jerphanion, II, p. 325. It is not clear which one of the several churches dedicated to St Barbara this would be. 12 Jerphanion, II, p. 337. 13 Thierry, Nouvelles églises, p. 194. 14 Jerphanion, I, p. 124. 15 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann II, no. 33, pp. 34–5, plate 13; Splendeur de Byzance, Iv. 8, pp. 99–100. 16 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, no. 32a, p. 34, plate XI. 17 A. Banck, Byzantine Art in the Collections of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, 1966, no. 126. 18 The Treasure of San Marco, Venice, ed. D. Buckton, Milan, 1984, no. 12, pp. 141–7. 19 Ibid., no. 19, pp. 171–4. 20 Vid. infra, p. 277.

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spear and shield, is placed to the extreme left;21 in Athos Dochiariou, cod. 5, f. 216, at the head of his Life, he holds a naked sword.22 These, with the miniatures in Paris graec. 510, Basil II’s Psalter and the three others in Metaphrastic Lives where he wears court dress, are apparently the only examples of his portrait in manuscripts. In the western arch supporting the dome in the principal church of Hosios Loukas, Mercurius is represented with his regular sprouting beard along with Procopius, in military dress.23 In his bust portrait in the crypt, like the other military saints, he wears court dress.24 After this, he appears fairly regularly in monumental wallpainting. Underwood noted that the group in Hosios Loukas is often the same in other echelons of military saints, for example in the Kariye Camii (plate 6), where Mercurius also has a sprouting beard.25 In Serbia at Gracˇanica (plates 38, 39), Pec´ and Psacˇa; in each case he is presented as a warrior.26 Representations of Mercurius are also common in Kastoria (plate 4). Pelekanides has published seven examples, ranging from the eleventh to the seventeenth century.27 At Decˇani, Mercurius, in military dress with a helmet, holds neither a spear nor a sword; instead he has a bow slung over his right shoulder, while he holds an arrow between his outstretched hands.28 Both helmet and arrow are fairly common in late and post-Byzantine representations of him.29 The latter has a significance which will become clear when the sources for his typical scene, Slaying Julian the Apostate, are examined. Strictly, he had no ‘twin’, but he was commonly paired with Eustathius or Procopius. Besides the miniature of him slaying Julian in Paris graec. 510, f. 409v,30 there is another early picture of the same subject, an icon at St Catherine’s, Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, p. 21. Ibid., pp. 88, 90. 23 E. Diez and O. Demus, Byzantine Mosaics in Greece: Daphni and Hosios Loukas, Cambridge, Mass., 1931, fig. 34. A good portrait has also survived in the Odolar Cami, P. Schazmann, ‘Des fresques byzantines récemment découvertes par l’auteur dans les fouilles d’Odolar Camii, Istanbul’, Studi bizantini e neoellenici 6, p. 380, figs cxxii 2, cxxiii 1. 24 C.L. Connor, Art and Miracles in Medieval Byzantium, Princeton, 1991, fig. 21. 25 Underwood, p. 197 and n. 29, fig. 13. 26 S. Petkovic´, La peinture serbe du Moyen Age, Belgrade, 1930–34, I, 61a, 80b, II, 170. 27 S. Pelekanides, K·ÛÙÔÚ›·, I, B˘˙·ÓÙÈÓaÈ TÔȯÔÁÚ·Ê›·È, Thessaloniki, 1953. 28 Markovic´, pp. 573, 603, fig. 5. 29 For example, in K·ÛÙÔÚ›·, Pelekanides, op. cit. supra (n. 27), St Athanasius Moutzaki (1385), fig. 54a, St Nicolas Kyritzi (14th and 17th centuries), fig. 166b, Apostoli of George (1547), where he is anomalously portrayed with a long beard, fig. 203a, St John Theologus Mavriotissa (1552), figs 315a–b, Panagia Rasiotissa (1553), fig. 225a, and Panagia of the Archon Apostolaki (1606), fig. 243a; K. Paskaleva, C’rkvata Sv. Georgi’ v Kremikovskija Manastir, Sofia, 1980, fig. 25. 30 H. Omont, Miniatures des plus anciens manuscrits grecs de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 2nd edn, Paris, 1929, p. 29, plates 53, 54. The miniature is fully discussed by L. Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth Century Byzantium, Cambridge, 1999, pp. 232–5. 21

22

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Mount Sinaï, which Weitzmann attributed to a Coptic workshop active in the tenth century.31 However, before presenting them in a more detailed fashion, it would be as well to sketch in the literary tradition behind them.32 On 26 June 363, Julian was killed by a javelin, but who threw it? Gregory of Nazianzus alluded to the incident in his Homily 42, Supremum vale. He said that Julian was sent (by God) to the Persians and his soul to hell.33 Sozomenus, writing between 439 and 450, was not more explicit,34 nor was Nicephorus Callixtus who followed him.35 The story of Basil’s dream was first told by John Malalas, whose chronicle ends in 563. This was taken up in the Chronicon Pascale,36 in which Christ ordered Mercurius to slay Julian. According to John Damascene, it was the Theotokos who asked Mercurius to do the deed.37 However, the prototype of the ‘récits qui ont pullulé sur le cadavre de Julien l’Apostat’, to cite Peeters, was the Greek original used by Faustus for his Life of Basil. It was probably written in the early fifth century.38 The Greek original would also have been used by Pseudo-Amphilocius.39 This was the most popular account of the incident. Other warrior saints were also reputed to have intervened to dispose of an undesirable ruler: George for Diocletian and Demetrius for Kalojan, as well as Theodore and Sergius for Valens. Peeters considered the story of the intervention of the last two to have been the model for that of Mercurius.40 It was generally supposed that Julian was killed by a javelin, but a passage in the Story of Julian the Apostate, composed in Edessa between 502 and 532, gives a rather different 31

Weitzmann, Icons, B 49, pp. 78–9, plates xxxi, civ; Sinaï, p. 97, no. 11, p. 143. Delehaye, pp. 96–100; H. Leclercq, ‘Julien l’Apostat’, DACL 8 i, 390–97; Binon, art. cit. supra (n. 2), pp. 12–26. 33 PG 36, 461. See also Gregory’s Homily 5, Contra Julianum II, PG 35, 680b, where various hypotheses are aired. Julian would have been killed by a barbarian, a Saracen, or even one of his own solders but Gregory gives no hint of a miraculous intervention. 34 Sozomenus, Historia ecclesiastica, VI 2, 3–6, ed. J. Bidez and G. Hansen, Berlin 1960, pp. 236–9; PG 67, 1293b; Binon, p. 17. 35 Nicephorus Callixtus, Historia ecclesiastica, X 35, PG 146, 549; Binon, p. 26. 36 John Malalas, Chronographia II, 23–4, Bonn, p. 552, lines 1–10; PG 97, 497b–c; Binon, p. 23. 37 John Damascene, Contra imaginum calumniatores, ed. Kotter, p. 161; PG 94, 1277, 1364. This version was quoted from the apocryphal Life of Basil by his disciple Helladius. It presents Basil praying before an icon of the Theotokos on which Mercurius is also portrayed. He goes on the request of the Theotokos to dispose of Julian and returns, his sword dripping blood. Pseudo-Amphilocius turns the incident into a dream. Nicephorus Gregoras introduced it into his Oratio, ed. cit. (n. 3), pp. 78–81. 38 P. Peeters, ‘Un miracle de SS. Serge et Théodore et la Vie de S. Basile dans Fauste de Byzance’, An. Boll. 39, 1921, pp. 87–8. 39 Binon, op. cit. supra (n. 2), p. 10. 40 Peeters, p. 87, art. cit. supra, n. 38, pp. 79–82; Binon, op. cit. supra, n. 2, pp. 9–10. 32

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account. Jovian, the future emperor, was in Nisibis, when he was recalled by Julian to Edessa. Fearing that Julian was planning to persecute the Christians of the city, he consulted the bishop and the local clergy. That night he had a prophetical dream, in which one of the XL Martyrs who perished in the icy lake under Maximinus appeared to him in military dress holding a bow and three arrows. One of these was destined for Julian.41 This was evidently the source for the portraits of Mercurius holding an arrow. The sequence of scenes in Paris graec. 510 was not only the earliest but also the fullest illustration of the incident.42 In the first scene, Julian on horseback is about to cross a bridge. In the second, Basil is shown at prayer before an altar; behind him stand a bishop, a deacon, monks and lay persons. Like many miniatures in this manuscript, the source for these illustrations is not the text which they accompany. They derive from the legend according to which Basil in a dream saw Mercurius slaying Julian. It lacks verisimilitude, because Basil only became Bishop of Caesarea in 370, seven years after Julian’s death. The version on the Sinaï icon is more succinct.43 Its lower left-hand corner, which was cut off to repair another icon, has now been replaced. Although part is still missing, the sense of the picture is clear. Mercurius is seated on a horse; behind him lie Julian and his mount. Unlike the Vision of Eustathius, this scene was never represented in Cappadocia, but another manuscript of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Athos Panteleimon 6, f. 242v, is illustrated in the margin of no. 42, Supremum vale, with a slight variant of this iconographical type.44 Mercurius on horseback spears the fallen Julian. Finally he joins Sts George and Demetrius as one of the protectors of the church at Dragalevci, where, unfortunately, the figure of the fallen Julian has been destroyed.45 Other examples are known,46 but this iconographical type was often

41

Ibid., pp. 79–82. Vid. supra (n. 30). 43 Vid. supra (n. 31). 44 G. Galavaris, The Illustrations of the Liturgical Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Princeton, 1969, pp. 146–7, 211, fig. 177; Walter, ‘Triumph of the Martyrs’, p. 32, fig. 7. Vid. supra (n. 33). 45 G. Subotic´, Ohridska slikarstva sˇkola, Belgrade, 1980, pp. 128, 130, fig. 101, pp. 132–3 (15th century). 46 A fresco in the chapel of St Mercurius, Corfou, dated 1074/5, P. Vocotopoulos, ‘Fresques du XIe siècle à Corfou’, CA 21, 1971, pp. 165–6; an icon in Verria dating from the 15th century, T. Papazatos, B˘˙·ÓÙÈÓb˜ ÂåÎfiÓ˜ Ùɘ BÂÚÔ›·˜, on which Mercurius, in military dress on horseback, spears a tiny Julian outside a tent, prostrate and holding out his arms as if he was begging for mercy, Athens, 1995, p. 71, plates 112–13; an icon dating from c. 1600 once in the collection of Firmin Didot, Binon, op. cit. supra (n. 2), pp. 132–4. 42

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abandoned in late Byzantine art. Instead, Mercurius was represented standing and spearing Julian, in conformity with an iconographical type often used for other warrior saints, especially by Cretan painters from the fifteenth century onward. In fact, on a panel in the Maria Latsi collection, Athens, he is represented thus beside St George, also standing but killing a dragon.47 Elsewhere, Mercurius figures alone: on an icon in the church of St Nikola Bolnica in Ohrid, on another in St Nicolas ton Kipon, Skopelos, on a panel in the Benaki Museum, Athens, in civil dress, on yet another in the Great Lavra, Mount Athos, dated 1630, and on an eighteenth-century wallpainting in the church of Christ sto Kastro, Skiathos, where, unusually, Julian is seated.48 The Byzantines were fascinated, even obsessed, by the memory of Julian the Apostate (plate 68). This, no doubt, accounts for the popularity of the military saint who slew him. He was certainly revered as a warrior. He is portrayed far more often thus than as a simple martyr in court dress. It may be recalled that his Passio, in fact, begins with an account of his success in battle. Although no inscription is known in which he was invoked, and although he had no shrine in Constantinople, his popularity and his place in the celestial army are not in doubt. He may even have contributed to the establishment of the type of the warrior saint. How he came to be considered to be one of the XL Martyrs may be more suitably examined in connection with another military saint, called Kyrion.

Appendix: Sts Mercurius and Kyrion In some Synaxaries, but not in the Sirmondianus, the names of the XL Martyrs are given with Kyrion at the head of the list.49 Apparently only one representation exists of a figure bearing his name. It is on the Borradaile triptych (plate 45a), at the bottom right of the right-hand wing.50 The figure has abundant hair and a long, pointed beard. He wears a loose chlamys which covers his left hand. In his right hand he holds a martyr’s cross and a crown floats over his head. Once Kyrion has been identified as one of the XL Martyrs, the crown can be easily explained. In representations of the martyrdom of the XL Martyrs, all have a crown floating over their head. That he should have the features of an elderly man is more difficult to explain. Elderly men usually figure in scenes of 47 P. Vocotopoulos, ‘An Icon of St Mercurius Slaying Julian the Apostate’, Bulletin, Medieval Art, New series no. 2, Skopje, 1996, p. 138, plate 2. 48 Ibid., p. 138, plates 1, 3–4. 49 Op. cit. supra (n. 3), 521 (9 March). 50 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann II, no. 38b, p. 36; Byzantium Treasures, no. 153, pp. 142–3.

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the XL Martyrs on the icy lake, some in the front row. The unlikelihood that soldiers would be elderly has led some scholars to suggest that there were members of the laity among the XL Martyrs. This point will be discussed in the entry devoted to them. It may be remarked that the features of the fourth figure from the right on the Dumbarton Oaks mosaic icon closely resemble those of Kyrion on the Borradaile triptych.51 In the Story of Julian the Apostate, the dream in which Mercurius was seen leaving to dispatch Julian was attributed to Jovian, the future emperor, not to Basil.52 Composed in Syriac, the Story recounts how Jovian saw in his vision one of the XL Martyrs, called Marcur, who slew Julian. Mar in Syriac meant Lord (Kyrios). The name was written in two words: Mar Kur. Hellenized, Mar Kur would have become Merkourios and Latinized Mercurius. It seems, then, that Kyrion, the first of the XL Martyrs, became Mar Kur in Syriac, which, Hellenized, is identical with Mercurius.53 This identification would, perhaps, have increased the prestige of the warrior saint. Since the relics of the XL Martyrs were fractioned and widely distributed, it would be plausible that a parcel of Kyrion’s reached Caesarea, where it was venerated under the name of Mercurius.

51 O. Demus, ‘Two Palaeologan Mosaic Icons in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection’, DOP 14, 1960, fig. 1. 52 Vid. supra (n. 41). 53 Binon, op. cit. supra (n. 2), pp. 9–10.

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V St George Introduction We arrive at last at the entry for the ‘star’ warrior saint, George, ÌÂÁ·ÏÔÌ¿ÚÙ˘˜, Ù·Íȿگ˘, ηÏÏ›ÓÈÎÔ˜, above all ÙÚÔ·ÈÔÊfiÚÔ˜.1 In court ceremonial, according to Pseudo-Kodinos, a banner on which he was portrayed on horseback was carried in procession separately from that of the four great warrior marytrs Demetrius, Procopius and the two Theodores.2 By reason of his pre-eminence, it might have seemed more logical to treat him first. However, there were reasons for not doing so. One was that he would then have stolen all the limelight. Another is that the cult of St George does not fit easily into the schema used for the preceding entries. He had, indeed, all the characteristics of a warrior saint, but he also readily assimilated those of other saints and of deities who were receiving cult in regions where devotion to him developed. Yet another reason is the extraordinary disproportion between the minimal knowledge available of the historical St George and the maximal amount of cult which he received, not at once when he first emerged but progressively later, so that at the present day he is still the most popular warrior saint. When I began to devote attention to warrior saints, I envisaged a study of St George which would emulate that which Nancy Patterson Sˇevcˇenko devoted to St Nicolas. However, I quickly realized that in George’s case this would be beyond the scope of a single person; it would require the collaboration of a team. It can be argued correctly that a fortiori his presentation as just one in the whole company of warrior saints will be inadequate. I concede the point readily. All that I can hope

1 For ÙÚÔ·ÈÔÊfiÚÔ˜, vid. AA SS, vol. cit. infra (n. 3), 152. I gave a paper at the 4th International Symposium on Georgian Art, held in Tbilissi in May 1983, entitled ‘Le culte, les légendes et l’iconographie de saint Georges, un projet de recherche’. The volume of the Acts in which it was destined to appear has not been published and, no doubt, never will be. Subsequently I have published three articles on St George: ‘The Cycle of St George in the Monastery of Decˇani’, Decˇani et l’art byzantin au milieu du XIVe siècle, Belgrade, 1989, pp. 347–57; ‘St George “Kephalophoros”’, EYºP√™YN√N (Festschrift M. Chatzidakis), Athens, 1992, pp. 694–703; ‘The Origins of the Cult of St George’, REB 53, 1993, pp. 295– 326. Material from these publications is incorporated in this entry. 2 Pseudo-Kodinos, Traité des offices, ed. J. Verpeaux, Paris, 1966, p. 196, lines 4–8.

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to do here is to outline various aspects of St George, indicating summarily the lines of research on him which have already been pursued – and which can be continued further – stressing what is outstanding or specific to him and giving references to the more relevant and less known bibliography. Lippomani was the first to undertake a serious study of St George. However, modern scholarship really begins, as one might expect, with that of the Bollandists.3 The excellent account of him in the Acta Sanctorum by Papebroch, in collaboration with Bolland, the founder, and Henschen, has inspired the work of succeeding scholars, who have not always explicitly acknowledged their debt to him.4 Sometimes they repeat Papebroch’s conjectures as established facts. Those facts which he did establish, also often cited without acknowledgement, frequently come from manuscript sources which it would now be difficult to identify; this is particularly the case for the establishment of the cult of St George in the West. As for the Byzantine sources for St George, again our debt to the Bollandists is enormous. The BHG lists some 30 texts, of which nine are concerned with his Passio or Vita, 12 are Laudationes and the rest Miracula.5 The most important of these texts were published at the beginning of the twentieth century,6 when hagiographers were intent to establish what could be known of early martyrs which was historically authentic, in a climate where, on the one hand, the pious were reluctant to relinquish their belief in the legendary and, on the other, the sceptical maintained that these celebrated martyrs were reincarnations of pagan gods and heroes. The method of the best hagiographers was to eliminate subsequent accretions in Passions so as to lay bare the basic historical facts.

3

AA SS Aprilis III, Antwerp, 1675, 100–63. Encyclopaedias, particularly those which are religious, regularly include an article on St George, necessarily selective and usually erroneous on one point or another. Among the more accurate ones may be noted: H. Thurston, ‘George, Saint’, Catholic Encyclopaedia 6, 1909, 453–55 (resumé of a good if dated article, idem, ‘St. George’, The Month 74, 1892, pp. 457–83); H. Leclercq, ‘Georges (Saint)’, DACL 6, 1924, 1021–1229; G. Marsot, ‘Georges de Lydda’, Catholicisme 4, 1956, 1855–56; D. Balboni, ‘Giorgio, santo martire’, BS 6, 1965, 512–25 (inclined to be too credulous of traditions about St George’s martyrdom); R. Aubert, ‘Georges (Saint) de Lydda’, DHGE 20, 1983, 633–41; W. Haubrichs, ‘Georg Heilige’, Theologische Realenzyklopädie 12, 1984, 380–5 (unreliable for iconography). 5 BHG, 669y–691y. 6 H. Delehaye, Les légendes grecques des saints militaires, Paris, 1909 (cited as Delehaye); K. Krumbacher, Der heilige Georg in der griechischen Überlieferung, Munich, 1911; J.B. Aufhauser, Der Drachenwunder des heiligen Georg in der griechischen und lateinischen Überlieferung, Leipzig, 1911; idem, Miracula S. Georgii, Leipzig, 1913. 4

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Passions and cult Regrettably, in the case of St George, this method does not work. His earliest Passio (Bibliographica Hagiographica Latina, 3363), which Delehaye described as ‘une sorte de Monte Testaccio, formé par des débris de toute provenance et sans cohésion’ and elsewhere as having ‘sa place marquée à côté des fantastiques récits des Mille et une nuits’,7 was entirely fabulous. Cumont, who studied it and published extracts from the Latin version, identified Iranian Mazdean and Jewish influences. George was presented more as a magician than a soldier, although his military status was affirmed: he was a young aristocratic officer from Cappadocia (‘Genere Capodorum [sic] et comes super multos milites’). Apart from the affirmation that George was a soldier, Cumont found nothing of historical value in this first Passio.8 However, it was not necessary to wait for Cumont before the fabulous character of the Passio was denounced. In the socalled Decree of Gelasius, it was condemned as an example of the Acts of martyrs composed by heretics and ignoramuses (‘ab infidelibus et idiotis’) and included in its list of apocryphal writings.9 In the subsequent revised version, hagiographers set out to render the narrative more plausible. The more spectacular prodigies were eliminated. George’s passion was situated in the reign of Diocletian instead of that of a mythical king Dadianus. George was firmly established as a soldier, although he was not endowed with a military career. This version, found in Vatican graec. 166, ff. 272–8 (BHG, 271, 272), was presented 7 H. Delehaye, reviewing Cumont’s article, infra (n. 8), An. Boll. 57, 1939, pp. 134–6; Idem, op. cit. (n. 6), p. 69. Delehaye criticized Cumont for retaining George’s Cappadocian origins when his principal sanctuary was so evidently established at Lydda. In fact, there is no knowing where George originated. After the Triumph of Orthodoxy, he was consistently called George of Cappadocia, usually with a reference to Lydda (Diospolis). For example Andrew of Crete (c. 650–740) prudently wrote Homilia in sanctum Georgium, PG 97, 1177b ‘of Lydda or Cappadocia’. (He also called George ‘ÙÔÜ XÚÈÛÙÔÜ ÛÙÚ·ÙÈÒÙ˘’.) 8 F. Cumont, ‘La plus ancienne légende de saint Georges’, Revue de l’histoire des religions 114, 1936, pp. 6–51; Haubrichs, op. cit. infra (n. 16), pp. 209–14, 217–23. 9 Standard critical edition by E. von Dobschütz, ‘Das Decretum Gelasianum …’, Texte und Untersuchungen 38, 1912, pp. 40–1, 57, line 330 (text), pp. 273–5 (commentary). More easily accessible in H. Leclercq, ‘Gélasien (Décret)’, DACL 6, 773, 745. Vid. B. de Gaiffier, ‘La lecture des Passions des martyrs à Rome avant le IXe siècle’, An. Boll. 87, 1969, pp. 63– 5 for a summary account of the origins and later history of the decree. The oft-repeated statement, for example vid. Dobschütz, p. 273, that the patriarch Nicephorus confirmed the condemnation is not supported by the texts. Errors have crept in in the course of their transmission, which, in modern scholarship, probably began with Iuris ecclesiastici graecorum historia et monumenta, ed. J.B. Pitra, II, Rome, 1868, p. 332, canon no. 46, attributed to Nicephorus. Delehaye, op. cit. supra (n. 6), p. 72, gives an incorrect reference to Pitra. According to J. Darrouzès, the Ordonnances ecclésiastiques, Regestes, no. 406, are of doubtful authenticity. However, Glykas did not cite canon no. 46, as Darrouzès wrote, but no. 45.

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as signed by an eyewitness, Pasicrates, on 23 April (the purported date of George’s execution which became his feast day). In fact, it was not more authentic than the earlier one. Moreover, George was not the anonymous soldier who, according to Lactantius and Eusebius, tore down an imperial decree in Nicomedia,10 nor was he related to the Georgian St Nino.11 That his father was a Cappadocian pagan senator called Gerontius and his mother, Polychronia, a Christian who brought him up as a believer, was an even later accretion, similar to accounts of childhood introduced into the Lives of other warrior saints such as Theodore. Nevertheless, these fictions gained credence at Byzantium. They recur in Lives of St George – and sometimes in encyclopaedia articles – up to this day.12 Our genuine knowledge of the historical saint was summed up definitively by Dom Henri Leclercq in his lapidary phrase: ‘Né à? en?, mort à? en?’.13 Hagiographers, recognizing that much – even most – of what is recounted in early Passions is historically implausible, used to base their argument in favour of a martyr’s authenticity on evidence for his cult. This certainly existed for George but, as for other early martyrs, it dates from well after his reputed death. The dossier of his sanctuary at Lydda is well known. The earliest pilgrim’s account of it is that of Theodosius, dating from about 530: ‘In Diospolim (sc. Lydda), ubi sanctus Georgius martyrizatus est; ibi et corpus eius est et multa miracula fiunt.’ His testimony could hardly be more explicit. It is supported by the testimony of the Pilgrim of Piacenza, and by that of Adomnán (or Adamnan, 624– 704, the celebrated Abbot of Iona), but it is not mentioned by Jerome in his Letter no. 106,14 which perhaps gives us a terminus post quem for the construction of the sanctuary. Historical incertitude in no way stopped the spread of St George’s cult, although in this early period he was not quite as popular a warrior saint

10 Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum, XIII, ed. J. Moreau, Paris, 1954, I, pp. 91–2, II, pp. 276–81 (commentary). Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica VIII 5, ed. G. Bardy, Paris, 1958, II, p. 11. Papebroch, AA SS, vol. cit. (n. 3), 106–8. The most likely name for this eminent anonymous person is Euitius, who is mentioned in the Syrian Martyrology as having been executed in Nicomedia at about this time, H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd edn, Brussels, 1933, p. 148. 11 P. Peeters, ‘Les débuts du christianisme en Géorgie d’après les sources hagiographiques’, An. Boll. 50, 1932, pp. 50–1. 12 For example, N. Velimirovic´, ‘Sveti velikomucˇenik Georgije’, Pravoslavlje, 579, Belgrade, May 1991, p. 11. 13 Leclercq, art. cit. supra (n. 4), 1011. 14 Récits des premiers pèlerins chrétiens en Proche-Orient, ed. P. Maraval, Paris, 1996, Theodosius (after 518), p. 188, the Pilgrim of Piacenza (560–70), p. 221, Adomnán from Arculphus (c. 680), pp. 285–7. Jerome (385–6), p. 149, mentions Lydda but not George.

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as Theodore. Halkin has listed inscriptions referring to him;15 Haubrichs gives no less than 86, but these need to be carefully controlled.16 George’s cult spread rapidly to Constantinople. Nine churches there were dedicated to him,17 but the church ÙÔÜ ^IÂÚ›Ô˘ was falsely attributed to Constantine by the Pseudo-Kodinos.18 The earliest dated church dedicated to St George was that âÓ Ùˇá •ËÚÔΤÚΡˆ, first mentioned in 518.19 Churches dedicated to St George were also numerous in the Byzantine empire outside Constantinople.20 In the Holy Land, besides his sanctuary at Lydda, possibly built as early as the end of the fourth century,21 there was a church dedicated to him outside Jerusalem.22 In Rome, Belisarius put the Porta San Sebastiano under the saint’s protection in 527.23 The church of San Giorgio in Velabro, where there was a relic reputed to be the saint’s skull, was built during the pontificate of Pope Zacharias (741–42).24 His relics had already spread further westwards.25 Gregory of Tours (538–94) was among those who possessed one.26 Several heads of the saint, besides that at San Giorgio in Velabro, from which a fragment was obtained by Bishop Hatto of Mainz in 888 for Reichenau,27 were in circulation. One head, obtained on the island of 15 Fr. Halkin, ‘Inscriptions grecques relatives à l’hagiographie’, Etudes d’épigraphie grecque et d’hagiographie byzantine, London, 1973, I p. 95, at Brâd with St Christopher, after J. Lassus, Sanctuaires chretiens de Byzance, Paris, 1947, pp. 171–2, and sub indice. 16 W. Haubrichs, Georgslied und Georgslegende im frühen Mittelalter, Königstein, 1977 (with ample bibliography, pp. 11–54), pp. 225–32. For example, W.H. Waddington, Inscriptions grecques et latines en Syrie, Paris, 1870, pp. 505–6, no. 2158, read the inscription at Shaqqa (Saccaea) as yielding the date of 354–57 or even 323, but, rightly, with reservations, because it is suspiciously early. A. Alt, Palästina Jahrbuch 29, 1932, p. 90, n. 1, and P. Thomsen, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 65, 1942, p. 128, corrected the reading of the date to a more plausible one in the 6th century. Halkin, art. cit. supra (n. 15) gave the earlier dating, I, p. 105, but later corrected it, ibid., VI, p. 336. A. Kazhdan, ‘George, Saint’, ODB 2, 834–5, repeated Waddington’s dating with no reservation. 17 Janin, pp. 69–78. 18 Ibid., p. 69; Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanorum, ed. T. Preger, I, Leipzig 1901, ¶¿ÙÚÈ· KˆÓÛÙ·ÓÙÈÓÔ˘fiψ˜ III, p. 271; G.T. Armstrong, ‘Constantine’s Churches’, Gesta 6, 1967, p. 9. 19 Ibid., p. 70. 20 R. Janin, Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins, Paris, 1975, index, sub nomine. 21 Maraval, p. 298. 22 Ibid., p. 268. 23 Balboni, art. cit. supra (n. 4). 24 Ibid.; Liber pontificalis I, ed. L. Duchesne, 2nd edn, Paris, 1955–57, p. 434. Balboni lists further churches dedicated to St George, notably in Italy. 25 Ewig, p. 395. 26 In gloria martyrum, PL 71, 792–3. 27 W. Haubrichs, ‘St. Georg auf der frühmittelalterlichen Reichenau’, Festschrift Friedrich Prinz, Stuttgart, 1993, pp. 503–9.

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Aegina, ended up in the church dedicated to the saint in Venice, and another was reputed to be at Veszprèm in Hungary in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.28 According to Abu Salih, St George’s body passed to Egypt, where 40 churches and three monasteries were dedicated to him.29 It is evident that many false relics of St George must have been in circulation. One sanctuary in Syria merits a detailed presentation. It is that at Ezra (Zorava).30 When Melchior de Vogüé visited it in the mid-nineteenth century, it was still being used for cult, as it is indeed at the present day. Its dedicatory inscription, well known to scholars, is still in place. Behind the main altar is a shaft, where, according to the priest in charge, the relics of St George still rest. I am not aware that a scientific investigation of this shaft has ever been undertaken. In any case, the relics, according to Syrian practice, would have been placed originally in the southern apse chapel, accessible only from the body of the church, which dates from 514–15. It is rare to find a church of this epoch in a good state of preservation and still used for cult. The dedicatory inscription has often been published, but it is of such interest that it merits being transcribed once again: A house of God has replaced the dwelling of demons. The light of salvation has shone in a place which darkness previously covered. Where sacrifices were made to idols, there are now choirs of angels. Where God was provoked, God is now appeased. A certain man, a friend of Christ, the first magistrate Ioannis, son of Diomedes, has offered this edifice to God, as a gift at his own expense, having deposed there the precious relic of the victorious saint and martyr George, who appeared to Ioannis not in sleep but in reality (Ê·Ó¤ÓÙÔ˜ ·éÙˇá \Iˆ¿ÓÓË, Ôé η©’≈ÓÔÓ àÏÏa Ê·ÓÂÚá˜).

The inscription incorporates three important statements: by building a church on the site of a destroyed temple, the cult of idols was eliminated so that angels replaced demons, still a common practice in the sixth

28 A.M. Setton, ‘St George’s Head’, Speculum 48, 1973, pp. 1–12; G. Fedalto, La chiesa latina in Oriente III, Documenti veneziani, Verona, 1978, no. 653 (after An. Boll. 96, 1978, p. 433); G. Tusker and E. Knapp, ‘Europäische Verbindungen der mittlealterlichen Heiligenverehrung in Ungarn’, An. Boll. 110, 1992, p. 52. I have not seen L. Valle, Le reliquie di S. Giorgio soldato e martire custodito fino al 1732 a Pavia e ora nella chiesa arcipretale di Borgo Vico in Como, Pavia. 1903. 29 Delehaye, p. 49. For Serbia, Markovic´, p. 600. 30 The main facts which the ample bibliography concerning the church contains are easily accessible in H. Leclercq, ‘Ezra’, DACL 5, 1052–6, and H.C. Butler, Early Churches in Syria, ed. E. Baldwin Smith, reprinted Amsterdam 1969, p. 122.

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century; there was a relic of St George in the church; the saint appeared in reality, not in a dream. (In the Life of Theodore of Sykeon, to be discussed in the following paragraphs, the word çÊ©·ÏÌÔÊ·Óᘠwas used of the saint’s apparitions.31) Unfortunately the inscription gives no information as to the nature of the relic. Further, he is not said explicitly to have been a warrior, but the adjective ηÏÏÈÓ›ÎÔ˜, which often qualifies warrior martyrs, notably George, was used. A remarkable text of an unusual kind is the Life of Theodore of Sykeon, written slightly later, probably at the beginning of the seventh century, by his disciple who had taken the name of George.32 Not only does it recount the active part played by St George in Theodore’s life, but also gives us useful information about the saint’s icon. However, St George was not the only saint whom Theodore invoked. He was cured from a grave illness by the Anargyroi, Sts Cosmas and Damian, whose icon hung above his bed. They appeared and interceded for him; Christ, ‘master of life and death’, spared Theodore’s life.33 When Theodore built a church in honour of St George, he also endowed it with chapels dedicated to the martyr Plato34 and Sts Sergius and Bacchus.35 Once, when beset by demons, he invoked, along with St George, the Mother of God and the àÚ¯ÈÛÙÚ¿ÙËÁÔ˜ Michael.36 However, the references to other saints in the Life are far outnumbered by those to St George, with whom Theodore had a special relationship. It began by ‘the holy martyr of God’ appearing to his mother in a dream, in order to dissuade her from making her son enter the imperial service, because ‘the emperor of heaven’ had need of him.37 George’s first direct appearance to Theodore occurred when he was a schoolboy.38 Instead of going home for lunch between lessons, he went to the nearby martyrium of the saint on a rocky hill, led by the saint who appeared to him as a young man. Theodore began to make nocturnal visits to the martyrium, again accompanied by the saint who appeared to him with the features of the family’s manservant Stephen, before assuming his own.39 In the martyrium, Theodore was surrounded by demons in the form of wolves 31

Vid op. cit. infra (n. 32), § 32, I, p. 29, II, pp. 31–2. Vie de Théodore de Sykeon (BHG, 1748), ed. A.-J. Festugière, Brussels, 1970, cited in the succeeding pages as Vie, followed by paragraph (§) and volume (I, Greek text; II, translation). 33 Vie, § 39, I, pp. 34–5, II, pp. 37–8. 34 A local saint, J.-M. Sauget, ‘Platone’, BS 10, 959–61. 35 Vie, § 55, I, pp. 47–8, II, pp. 50–1. For Sergius and Bacchus, vid. infra, VI. 36 Vie, § 161, I, pp. 140–1, II, pp. 143–50. 37 Vie, § 5, I, pp. 4–5, II, p. 8. 38 Vie, § 7, I, pp. 1–6, II, p. 10. 39 Vie, § 8, I, pp. 7–8, II, p. 10–11. 32

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and other fearsome beasts. The ‘martyr of God’ shielded him like a man wielding a sword. When Theodore’s mother came to hear about these nocturnal rambles, she sent servants to fetch her son home. He was punished and tied to his bed. In the night, ‘a most handsome and good-looking young man’ appeared to her. He unsheathed his sword, threatening to behead her if she continued to prevent her son from making these nocturnal visits. From Theodore’s description of the young man who accompanied him to the martyrium, she recognized that St George had appeared to her.40 When the saint next intervened in Theodore’s life, it was to protect him from ‘the enemy of the human race’, disguised as his friend Gerontius, who challenged him to jump off a precipice (an incident no doubt modelled on Christ’s temptation, Matthew 4:5–6).41 The saint led him to the martyrium. There, at the age of 14, Theodore took up residence.42 He fell ill. When the saint asked him the cause of his malady; he referred to a demon, which appeared. The saint tortured it and sent it away.43 Ordained a priest, Theodore continued to reside at the martyrium,44 only leaving it to make his first visit to Jerusalem.45 He acquired the reputation of a wonder-worker, which became so great that he received many visitors. One of the most illustrious was the future Emperor Maurice (582–602), whom Theodore told to pray to St George.46 The martyrium was soon too small for the crowd which frequented it, obliging Theodore to have a new church built, worthy of his heavenly patron.47 When the local Bishop of Anastasioupolis died, Theodore was appointed his successor.48 This did not prevent him from making a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He would have preferred to remain in the Holy Land in the monastery of St Sabbas, but St George appeared to him in a dream, urging him to return home.49 Theodore then undertook another journey, this time to Constantinople, where, with the help of the saint, he obtained privileges for his monastery.50 On his return from Constantinople, he was visited by a wrestler suffering from pains in his head and limbs. Theodore gave him oil and wine 40

Vie, § 9, I, pp. 8–9, II, pp. 11–12. Vie, § 11, I, pp. 9–10, II, pp. 12–13. 42 Vie, § 15, I, p. 13, II, p. 16. 43 Vie, § 17, I, pp. 14–15, II, pp. 17–18. 44 Vie, § 23, I, pp. 20, II, p. 23. 45 Vie, § 24, I, pp. 20–3, II, pp. 23–4. 46 Vie, § 54, I, p. 46, II, p. 49. 47 Vie, § 55, I, pp. 47–8, II, pp. 50–1; vid. supra (nn. 30, 31). 48 Vie, § 58, I, pp. 49–50, II, pp. 52–3. 49 Vie, § 62–3, pp. 52–3, II, pp. 55–7. 50 Vie, § 82, I, pp. 69–70, II, pp. 72–3. 41

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with which to anoint himself, telling him to report what he saw in his dreams. The wrestler duly said that a ‘young man wearing a chlamys’ appeared to him and pulled his hair. All pain then left his body. Theodore recognized the young man as ‘the glorious martyr of Christ George’.51 Subsequently through St George’s intercession he obtained the cure of a woman suffering from a flux of blood.52 Theodore, anxious to acquire St George’s relics, asked him to satisfy his wish. Aemilianus, Bishop of Germia, had various relics of the saint, a piece of his skull, a finger, one of his teeth and another unspecified part of his body. St George appeared to the bishop, exhorting him to give relics to Theodore for his new church.53 Later, a demoniac cried out to Theodore: ‘Oh violence! Why have you come here, ironeater, with George of Cappadocia to unmask me?’ Theodore cured the demoniac by prayer and the sign of the cross. He also imprisoned demons with St George’s help, ‘for, in such circumstances, he had the saintly megalomartyr of Christ George at his side, who helped him from childhood’.54 Theodore committed Domnitziolos, nephew of the Emperor Phocas (602–10), to the protection of St George, who saved his life when his army was ambushed by the Persians. The general’s grateful munificence made it possible to roof the new church with tiles and to buy a number of sacred vessels.55 The special relationship between Theodore and the saint accounted for other prodigies, the last of which are concerned with his passage to eternity. One night, the saint appeared to Theodore while he was sleeping. He gave him a staff and invited him on a journey. Later he appeared on horseback, leading another horse. Theodore told his disciples that he was going to the archangels, but that they need not be sad, because they had a great protector. After commending his community to God and the martyr, he died on the eve of the ‘combat of the holy martyr George’ (22 April) in the third year of the reign of Heraclius (613).56 At this point the Life ends, but a short epilogue may be added. Heraclius had the relics of both St George and St Theodore translated to Constantinople. They were deposited in a newly built sanctuary near the Adrianople Gate, where the Russian pilgrim Antony of Novgorod venerated them about the year 1200.57 51

Vie, § 86, I, p. 73, II, p. 76. Vie, § 96, I, p. 78, II, p. 91. 53 Vie, § 100–1b, I, pp. 80–2, II, pp. 83–5. 54 Vie, § 108, I, p. 86, II, p. 89. 55 Vie, § 120, I, pp. 96–7, II, pp. 100–1. 56 Vie, § 167–9, I, pp. 154–9, II, pp. 158–63. 57 Janin, pp. 36–7, M. Kaplan, ‘Les sanctuaires de Théodore de Sykéon’, Les saints et leur sanctuaire à Byzance, ed. C. Jolivet-Lévy et al., Paris, 1993, pp. 75–9. 52

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This remarkable text merited here a longish excursus for a number of reasons. As a Life of Theodore of Sykeon, it is far more sober and far less fantastic than the Passions studied in this section, apart from that of Arethas (XII). Its chronology and topography are accurate; Sykeon was situated on the much frequented highway from Constantinople to Ankara. Theodore’s renown attracted eminent personages travelling that way to visit him at Sykeon. His reputation for sanctity was confirmed by the speedy translation of his relics, along with those of St George, to the capital. If one is prepared to accept the authenticity of miraculous prodigies, those recounted in the Life pose no special difficulty. They conform to those attributed to Theodore Tiron by Gregory of Nyssa: protection from demons, curing maladies, occasionally saving lives. They are theologically correct, in that sometimes they are the result of intercession addressed to Christ or accompanied by the sign of the cross. The apparitions are also recounted succinctly without panache, occurring either in dreams or ‘çÊ©·ÏÌÔÊ·Óᘒ, although possibly one might demur at St George threatening to cut off the head of Theodore’s mother with a sword. One of the most important apparitions, from an art historian’s point of view, has yet to be recounted. St George appeared once to Theodore’s grandmother Elpidia. She had a vision of a young man, ‘exceedingly handsome with shining clothes and curly hair gleaming like gold’. She had no difficulty in identifying him as St George ‘for he closely resembled his portrait’.58 This was a common way of identifying a saint seen in a vision. The example of Euphemia recognizing the person of whom she had a vision as St Artemius by referring to his icon is recounted below.59 Another example, among many, is that of a monk travelling to Constantinople to see the Holy Face imprinted on the Mandylion, in order to confirm that the person appearing to him in visions was really Christ.60 No icons of St George from the early seventh century have survived, but the description of him in Elpidia’s vision is close to his appearance in later ones. It reveals that St George’s iconography was already established by the late sixth century as it would remain up to this day. The Life of Theodore is regrettably laconic in the information that it gives us about the historical St George. We are told only that his combat was accompanied by cruel tortures and that he originated from Cappadocia. There is no direct reference to his having been a warrior. The only signs of 58

Vie, § 32, I, p. 29, II, pp. 31–2. Vid. infra, XI: St Artemius, Miracle 34, n. 12. 60 ‘Vita S. Pauli iunioris in Monte Latro’ (BHG, 1747), ed. H. Delehaye, An. Boll. 11, 1892, § 37, pp. 150–1. 59

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his military status are that he wore a chlamys and carried a sword. He is regularly described simply as a martyr – or rather a megalomartyr. However, this was often the case with military saints. The account of Theodore obtaining the saint’s relics is puzzling. He travelled more than once to the Holy Land. It seems incredible that he never made the detour to Lydda to visit the sanctuary of his beloved saint, although it certainly existed by then. Yet there is no reference to this in the Life. Moreover, when he wished to obtain relics he did not address himself to the guardians of the sanctuary at Lydda but to a local bishop. How had the bishop obtained the relics? The Life leaves us guessing. Haubrichs has suggested that there were perhaps two martyrs venerated under the name of George.61 The conjecture is plausible but there is no literary evidence, as in the case of Nicolas, in favour of two (or more) Georges having been blended into one saint.

Miracles Miracles were attributed to him. We have already taken note of the fantastic prodigies recounted in the earliest Life; they do not concern us here. Delehaye studied the early collections of posthumous miracles of a number of saints, made no later than the seventh century.62 However, he omitted St George, because no early collection in Greek is known. The accounts of miracles published by J.B. Aufhauser are selected from various manuscripts and do not form a genuine collection.63 Moreover they are often late. Festugière, in his edition of accounts of George’s miracles, noted that in most texts only a few are recounted.64 Manuscripts with a large collection are late. The fullest, Athos Joasaphion, 308, dates from 1878. Neither scholar, it seems, was interested in collections in other languages. Yet collections of St George’s miracles do exist, particularly in Coptic and Ethiopic.65 The fact that the Ethiopian text contains many Greek words makes it probable that it depends on a lost Greek original. These collections resemble in their content and presentation the Greek ones of other saints published by Delehaye. Most are connected with the

61 62

Haubrichs, op. cit. supra (n. 14), p. 233. H. Delehaye, ‘Les recueils antiques des miracles des saints’, An. Boll. 43, 1925, pp. 5–

73. 63

Vid. supra (n. 6). Collections de miracles … St Georges, transl. and ed. A.-J. Festugière, Paris, 1971, pp. 259–334. 65 E.A. Wallis-Budge, George of Lydda. The Patron Saint of England. A Study of the Cultus of St George in Ethiopia, London, 1931. 64

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sanctuary at Lydda.66 The same kind of incidents are recounted: healing, police work, helping to enrich the sanctuary. The original incident which particularly interests us here exists in Coptic, Ethiopic and Arabic versions of the Miracula.67 Diocletian sent an official to Lydda, who broke a glass lamp before the icon of St George. A piece of glass stuck in his head; he developed leprosy and died. Diocletian himself went to Lydda, where the archangel Michael intervened. Diocletian went blind and shortly afterwards died. This incident does not connect George explicitly with the death of Diocletian as do the interventions of Theodore and Sergius with the death of Valens68 and of Mercurius with that of Julian the Apostate.69 However, it may be at the origin of the representations, particularly in Georgian art, of St George killing a man, who is sometimes designated in the accompanying legend as Diocletian. There is no explicit reference to St George’s military status either in these early collections of Miracula. Such references do, however, exist in the later ones, some of which, notably those recounted by Adomnán,70 were taken from collections dating back to the sixth century. Festugière rightly associates several of the saint’s interventions to rescue people with his military status,71 like the best known one, as yet not discussed, the rescue of the princess from the dragon, the apocryphal feat which redounded so much to the saint’s popularity.72 Almost as well known is his rescue of the youth of Mytilene,73 but St George rescued other captives, a young Paphlagonian,74 and the son of a general, Leo.75 He also

66

Ibid., pp. 69–75. Ibid., pp. 20–1, 145. 68 Vid. supra, I, n. 54. 69 Vid. infra, VI, nn. 36–9. 70 Festugière, op. cit. supra (n. 42), p. 264; Aufhauser, op. cit. supra (n. 6), pp. 161–7. 71 Festugière, p. 268. 72 Vid. infra, pp. 140–2. 73 Aufhauser, op. cit. supra (n. 6), pp. 100–3. Regrettably, D. Talbot Rice’s paper ‘The Accompanied St George’, Actes du VIe congrès international d’études byzantines, Paris, 1951, pp. 383–7, is inaccurate. Vid. I. Dujcˇev, ‘Due note di storia medievale’, Byzantion 29–30, 1959–60, pp. 259–60; R. Cormack and S. Mihalarias, ‘A Crusader painting of St George: “maniera greca” or “lingua franca”?’, The Burlington Magazine, Mar. 1984, pp. 131–41, esp. pp. 137–8. Vid. also O. Meinardus, ‘The Equestrian Deliverer in Eastern Iconography’, Oriens christianus series 4, 57, 1973, pp. 142–53 (concerned principally with the small figure who accompanies not only George but also sometimes Theodore and Demetrius); L. Kretzenbacher, Griechische Reiterheilige als Gefangenenretter, Vienna, 1983, pp. 7–35; A. Kazhdan, ‘St Nicholas, St George and the Cretans’ Attacks’, Byzantion 54, 1984, pp. 177–82. 74 Aufhauser, pp. 13–18. Kazhdan, art. cit. (n. 73), pp. 177–82; Fr. Halkin, ‘Bibliographie’, An. Boll. 89, 1971, pp. 145–7. 75 Aufhauser, pp. 18–44. 67

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rescued captives of the Saracens and Bulgarians.76 With these rescues, Festugière associates St George’s intervention to preserve the life of a soldier’s horse in battle in answer to the soldier’s prayer before the saint’s image painted on a marble column in his sanctuary at Lydda,77 and his resuscitation of a soldier whose assassin was motivated by the wish to steal the money which the soldier was carrying.78 These incidents recall that soldiers had a particular predilection for the saint. These are George’s only miracles with military associations noted by Festugière, but he did also intervene in battle, although only in the postIconoclast period, when the number of miracles attributed to him increased notably. For example, one Ethiopian collection includes as many as 80.79

Pagan and Christian analogies Before passing to the iconography of St George, it would be as well to situate the saint in relation to pagan deities and heroes and to Christian saints. The more naïve assimilations can be dealt with rapidly. Generally they assume falsely that the legend of the saint rescuing a princess from a dragon was ancient, whereas it is well established that it dates back no earlier than the eleventh century.80 The most naïve assimilation is to Horus and the crocodile.81 For Perseus the case is slightly different, 76

Festugière, op. cit. supra (n. 60), p. 268. Ibid., p. 268; Aufhauser, pp. 164–7. 78 Festugière, p. 269; Aufhauser, pp. 93–100. 79 V. Arras, ‘La collection éthiopienne des miracles de S. Georges,’ An. Boll. 78, 1960, pp. 273–84. 80 Vid. infra (p. 272). Apparently Krumbacher, op. cit. supra (n. 6), pp. 297–9, was prepared to accept a 5th-century date for the prodigy, and is followed by P. Boulhoul, ‘Hagiographie antique et démonologie’, An. Boll. 112, 1994, p. 255, citing Miraculum de dracone (BHG, 587). In early Christian art representations of an anonymous figure killing a dragon do occur, for example on a Coptic textile cited by Haubrichs, art. cit. supra (n. 4), p. 381, with no reference, but it would not be circumspect to identify these figures as St George, because in named early representations of him he is killing a man. There are, in fact, named representations of St George killing a dragon without the princess in Cappadocia dating from much earlier than the emergence of his iconographical type with the princess, where interest centres on her rescue. However, the evidence does not support so early a date as the 5th century for the saint being so represented, although that in the church dedicated to him at Zindanönü could possibly date back to the latter half of the 6th century, Thierry, art. cit. infra (n. 98). A. and J.A. Stylianou, ¶·Ó·Á›· ºÔڂȈٛÛÛ·, Nicosia, 1973, p. 70, wrote ‘We all know that St George killing the dragon symbolizes the defeat of paganism.’ I, for one, did not. 81 Ch. Clermont-Ganneau, ‘Horus et St. Georges d’après un bas-relief inédit du Louvre’ (plate 14), Revue archéologique, nouvelle série 32, 1876, pp. 196–204, 372–99; 33, 1877, 77

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because the stories are so similar: Perseus rescued Andromeda from a sea monster at Joppa which is close to Lydda, although it was not at Lydda that the apocryphal account of the rescue originated. Moreover, since the gap in time between Perseus and St George is so great and since there is no literary filière between the two prodigies a direct connection between them is hard to establish.82 The case of Mithra is again different. F. Cumont called St George ‘l’héritier de la puissance tutélaire de Mithra’, but did not maintain that the saint was a reincarnation of him.83 St George was commonly qualified by the word ÚÔÛÙ¿Ù˘, which means much the same as tutelary. Moreover Cumont showed that in Georgian folklore St George was reputed to steal cattle, an activity earlier attributed to Mithra.84 St George, in fact, was highly popular in Georgia – the name, of course, does not derive from George as is sometimes averred – where representations of him are numerous, particularly on metal icons of him killing a man. Another example of his role in Georgian folklore was not to take over the power of the raingods (Cinka), who dominated the period from 28 October to 6 November, but to banish them to the underworld.85 As the inscription at Ezra quoted above witnesses, a saint did not necessarily assimilate the power of pre-existent supernatural beings, often considered to be demonic, but rather dispossessed them of it. J.G. Frazer, surprisingly for so distinguished an authority on comparative religion, having observed that the pre-Christian feast of the Palilia fell on 21 April, two days before that of St George, inferred that the saint could be identified with Tammuz, Adonis, Pales or even Pergrubius (a Lithuanian divinity). It seems that the festivities of the Palilia and George

pp. 23–31, considered that the theme of St George and the Dragon ‘remonte au moins à Constantin’ (p. 398); Al. Geyet, L’art copte, Paris, 1902, p. 113, actually called Horus on the now well-known bas-relief in the Louvre St George! The recent study by D. Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt, Princeton, 1998, pp. 3–4, ‘Overture: the Armor of Horus’, with adequate bibliography, is more sober and scholarly. I thank Garth Fowden for introducing me to this study. 82 P. Carolidis, Bemerkungen zu den alten kleinasiatischen Sprachen und Mythen, Strasbourg, 1913, pp. 191–5, made the assimilation, of which P. Peeters, in his review of the book, An. Boll. 39, 1920, p. 184, was critical. 83 M.F. Cumont, ‘Mithra en Asie Mineure’, Anatolian Studies presented to William Hepburn Buckler, ed. W.M. Calder and J. Keil, Manchester, 1939, p. 74, ‘George of Cappadocia, mounted on a white warhorse, would have inherited the tutelary power of Mithra.’ 84 Idem, ‘St. George and Mithra the Cattle-Thief’, Journal of Roman Studies 27, 1937, pp. 63–71. 85 M. van Esbroeck, ‘Le substrat hagiographique de la mission khazare de Constantinople’ An. Boll. 104, 1986, pp. 346–7. In Georgia, St George also inherited the powers of the moon god, whose statue, on the summit of Mount Armazi, was destroyed by St Nino, M. Tarchnischvili, ‘Le dieu lune Armazi’, Bedi Kartlisa 11–12 (36–7), 1961, pp. 36–40.

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did undergo osmosis in both directions, but there is no evidence for an identification.86 However, while one may demur at the identification of St George with pre-Christian divinities or the presentation of him as a reincarnation of any of them, one can readily accept osmosis, which led ultimately to him replacing them in folklore and popular devotion. A case in point is his acquisition of the attributes of the Slav god Volos or Veles and no doubt many more could be cited.87 Mention should also be made of Gibbon’s identification of St George with the heretical Bishop of Alexandria, who ousted Athanasius.88 This allegation was refuted rapidly by Papebroch and his collaborators; it is doubtful that subsequently any scholar took it too seriously, although it was carefully analysed by Bury.89 Early Christian representations We may now turn to the representations of St George in art. Early examples are not numerous. Among the first would be two portraits at Bawît. In the north church, he is represented on a column full-length, haloed, wearing a cuirass under his chlamys with a sword girded to his left side. He is beardless with abundant hair in a circle round his head. Thus he is clearly a warrior. Clédat was prepared to date this painting to the sixth century.90 In chapel 18 of the monastery of St Apollo, he is represented in bust form with similar features and accompanied by an inscription.91 86 J.G. Frazer, ‘St George and the Palilia’, Revue des études ethnographiques et sociologiques 1, 1908, pp. 1–15. 87 B.A. Uspienvski, Kult svw. Mikotaja na Rusi, Lublin 1985, reviewed in An Boll. 104, 1986, pp. 251–2. Irakli Sourgouladze, ‘St Georges dans les croyances religieuses géorgiennes’, abstract of a paper delivered at the 4th International Symposium on Georgian Art, Tbilisi, 1983. In the bibliography are cited B. Vardevelisé, Religious Beliefs and Archaic Rites of the Georgian Tribes, Tbilisi, 1957 (in Russian); T. Otchiaouri, The Myths of the Mountain Inhabitants in East Georgia, Tbilisi, 1967 (in Georgian). G.K. Spyridakis, ‘St Georges dans la vie populaire’, L’Hellénisme Contemporain 6, 1952, may also be consulted. 88 E. Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury, London, 1896, II, pp. 470–2. St George was born in a fuller’s shop; he made a fortune by supplying the army with bacon. His career was then merged with that of Bishop George of Alexandria. Vid. Bury’s appendix no. 22, for what is of historical value in Gibbon’s presentation of St George. 89 AA SS, vol. cit. supra (n. 3), 112. 90 J. Clédat, ‘Baouit’, DACL 2, 221, fig. 1263; M. Klause and K. Wessel, ‘Bawît’, LBK 1, 580–2, proposing the late 6th or 7th century; M. Rassagh-Debergh, ‘La peinture copte avant le XIIe siècle. Une approche’, Acta ad archeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia 9, 1981, p. 251; Markovic´, pp. 578–9, fig. 27. 91 Clédat, ‘Les fouilles exécutées à Baouît’, Mémoires de l’Insitut d’archéologie orientale du Caire 12, 1904, p. lxii, lxiii, 91.

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Unfortunately the icon of the Virgin and Child accompanied by two saints at Sinaï is not helpful, because, since there are no inscriptions, the beardless saint could equally well be Demetrius.92 Usually their portraits, although very similar, can be distinguished. However, on an eighteenth-century icon in the National Art Gallery, Sofia, the two saints are represented on horseback with exactly the same features.93 More promising is the representation of George on a processional cross, once in the private collection of Gustave Schlumberger and now in the Cabinet des médailles, Paris (plate 21).94 It is 30cm high and 14cm wide. On the lower part, George, in military dress and haloed, holds a shield in his left hand and with his right hand draws a kneeling figure to his feet. Unfortunately, his features are not clear. Grabar, who accepted a sixthcentury date for this object, pointed out that George’s gesture was that of the restitutor or liberator, such as Christ uses in pictures of the Anastasis, drawing Adam to his feet. There are several legends: ‘Lord, help Gennadia’, ‘Light of life’, ‘St George, help Mesembrius Theognis’, ‘Help’. St George is again evidently a warrior. There is no certainty who Gennadia was, but Henri Grégoire suggested, in a private letter to Schlumberger, that Mesembrius Theognis could be identified as the general of that name attested for the year 581.95 This is more than plausible, but Haubrichs goes a little too far in writing that the object itself is dated to 581.96 Schlumberger also possessed a seal upon which St George is represented in military dress. Markovic´ placed it in the sixth or seventh century.97 92

Weitzmann, Icons, B 3, pp. 18–21; vid. supra, II: Demetrius, n. 41. C. Petrov, Ikoni ot Trevneski Zografi, Sofia, 1978, no. 16. 94 G. Schlumberger, ‘Monuments byzantins inédits’, Florilegium ou recueil de travaux d’érudition dédiés à Monsieur le marquis Melchior de Vogüé à l’occasion de son quatre-vingtième anniversaire, Paris, 1909, pp. 555–9; A. Grabar, Martyrium. Recherches sur le culte des reliques et l’art antique, Paris, 1946, I, pp. 348–9, II, p. 86. 95 Schlumberger art. cit. (n. 94), p. 556; The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, ed. J.R. Martindale, VIIIb, Cambridge, 1992, p. 1303. For Mesembrius, vid. Menandor Protector, Excerpta historiae, Bonn, 1829, pp. 424–5. 96 Haubrichs, art. cit. supra (n. 4). Further, it is not clear why he dates a stamp of George on horseback (fig. 9) to the 6th or 7th century. The Syrian miniature of George, Berlin Preuss. Bibl. Sachau 220, f. 50,which he also cites, is certainly much later in date, L. Leroy, Les manuscrits syriaques à peintures, Paris, 1964, pp. 341–9, fig. 117, 4. 97 Markovic´, p. 579, n. 84, citing G. Schlumberger, Sigillographie de l’empire byzantin, Paris, 1884, no. 144, a seal for the Demarchos of the Blues. However, this early date is wildly implausible. V. Laurent, Le corpus des sceaux byzantins V 3, l’église, supplément, Paris, 1972, dated a single seal with St George’s bust to the reign of Michael III (842–67), no. 1213, p. 137, on the grounds of the close resemblance of the portrait of Christ on the reverse to that on the emperor’s coins. Another, no. 1592, he placed in the 10th century. Generally he opted for the 11th century. The seals used by members of the Comnene family can be more securely dated to the 11th or 12th century. G. Zacos and A. Verglery, Byzantine Lead Seals I, Basel, 1972, catalogue a certain number of Comnene seals, nos 2680, 93

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Another early object on which St George is represented is a terracotta from near Vinica (plate 24). He stands next to St Christopher holding up his shield with his right hand. Both saints spear a serpent with a human head. Neither wears military uniform but both have military attributes; again their facial features are not clear.98 The date of the terracottas is controversial. However, since the legends are in Latin, it is likely that they were executed while the region was still under Roman jurisdiction, giving a terminus ante quem of 733.

Representations in Cappadocia Further pre-Iconoclast paintings have survived in Cappadocia, for example in the church Mavrucan no. 3 (also known as Güzelöz no. 3 or Mistikan kilise) in the region of Çavus¸in, dedicated to St George (plate 27). Here he is represented on horseback together with St Theodore. They are attacking two serpents twisted around a tree. N. Thierry dates the painting to the beginning of the seventh century.99 There is a portrait of St George, rather damaged, in the church of St John the Baptist, Çavus¸in (also seventh century) with a legible inscription: √ A°I√™ °EøP°I√™. He is represented in court dress, holding a cross in his right hand, so that he is evidently a courtier martyr. However, at Küçük Tavs¸an Adası, although he is dressed as a courtier, he holds a sword.100 The mausoleum 2681, 2708 etc., on which George is represented as a warrior. His effigy first appears even later on coins (information kindly communicated to me by P. Grierson). 98 K. Balabanov, Ikone iz Makedonije, Catalogue of exhibition at Zagreb, Skopje, 1987; no. 7, p. 35; Trésors médiévaux de la République de Macédoine, Catalogue of Exhibition at Paris, ed. E. Petrova and V. Huchard, Paris, 1999, no. 3, pp. 36–7. For a discussion of the date of the terracottas, vid. supra, I: Theodore, n. 44. 99 N. Thierry, ‘Haut Moyen Age en Cappadoce: l’église no.3 de Mavrucan,’ Journal des savants, 1972, pp. 258–63, fig. 21; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 58–60. The date may seem precocious, but the whole decoration recalls in both style and iconography early Oriental models. The motif of two serpents twisted round a tree was not copied later. George is introduced as the companion of Theodore, but he may have already been becoming the more popular of the two. Actually, they are frequently represented together, with equal status. In the church dedicated to him at Zindanönü, near Çavus¸in (possibly the second half of the 6th century), traces remain of him alone fighting a dragon, N. Thierry, Haut Moyen Age II, pp. 293–302, fig. 64, plate 156; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 58–60. However, in Haçlı kilise, Kızıl Çukur (beginning of 9th century), Theodore kills a dragon alone, while of George there is only a portrait, Thierry, Haut Moyen Age II, pp. 245–54. In due course, George certainly became the more popular of the two. In another possibly pre-Iconoclast church, Açikel ag˘a kilisesi (7th–9th century), George and Theodore wear a chlamys, N. Thierry, ‘Un décor préiconoclaste de Cappadoce: Açikel ag˘a kilisesi’, CA 18, 1968, pp. 36–69; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 328, plate 183, fig. 2. 100 N. Thierry, Haut Moyen Age I, p. 93, with incomplete description. Madame Thierry

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in which it is situated may date back to the early sixth century, which is contemporary with the Life of Theodore of Sykeon. Thus some evidence for George’s being recognized and represented as a warrior before Iconoclasm, albeit sparse, does exist. However, after Iconoclasm the number of representations of him as a warrior increased enormously especially in Cappadocia, where military saints in general were highly revered, although George took pride of place. He figured both as the protector (ÚÔÛÙ¿Ù˘) of soldiers and as the conqueror of evil par excellence. He is often placed in a prominent position, at the entry of the church or before the sanctuary, even in the apse. His iconography varies. He may be represented as a martyr, but more often, especially from the tenth century, as a soldier, in bust form, standing and on horseback, sometimes killing a dragon but not with the princess.101 He is also one of the rare saints to have a cycle in Cappadocia. Obviously it is impossible to give a detailed list of pictures of him in the region. The reader who is intent to learn about George’s iconography in depth must consult the indexes of the authoritative studies of Cappadocia.102 Here his iconography will only be exemplified. We may begin with his portraits. His bust portrait may be exemplified by that in Göreme no. 16 (early eleventh century), possibly dedicated to him, where he is represented on a large scale in the apse holding a shield.103 Standing portraits of George are numerous. Some examples from the tenth century may be cited: Kılıçlar kilise, Göreme no. 29 (between 900 and 950), with a lance and shield;104 Tokalı I (first quarter of tenth has provided me with further details and a colour photograph. V. Ruggieri, ‘La chiesa di Küçük Tavs¸an Adası nella Caria Bizantina’, JÖB 40, 1990, pp. 396–7, with a legend √ A°I√™ °E(ÒÚ)°I√™. I thank V. Ruggieri for drawing my attention to this painting, and providing me with a photograph as well as further information about it. See also a fragment of his bust at Kavaklı dere (7th century?), Thierry, Haut Moyen Age II, p. 370, schema 117, fragmentary inscription (A°... °E ...). 101 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 13; V. Lazarev, ‘Novij pamjatnik stankovoj z ˇ ivopisi XII v., i obraz Georgija-Voina v vizantijskom i drevnerusskom iskusstve’, Vizantijskij Vremennik 6, 1953, pp. 186–235, 25 figs; M.B. Alpatov, ‘Obraz Georgija-voina v iskusstve Bizantini i drevnej Rusi’, Trud’i otdela drevnerusskoj literatur’i instituta russkoj literatur’i 12, 1956, pp. 292–310; B.E. Scholz, ‘Die Paar-weise-symmetrische Darstellung des Hl. George und des Hl. Theodore Stratelates (!) zu Pferde in der Kunst von Byzanz und Georgien vom 10-13 Jh.’, Akten (Vienna Congress) JÖB 32, 5, 1982, pp. 243–53. 102 Jerphanion; Thierry, Nouvelles églises; Thierry, Haut Moyen Age; Jolivet-Lévy; Restle, Byzantinische Wandmalerei. 103 Jerphanion I, pp. 492–5; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 120–1, plate 74, fig. 1; Restle I, pp. 40–1, 121–2. At Eski Gümüs, now Gümüs¸ler, Nig˘de (second half of 11th century?), George is also placed in the apse, full-length but wearing a chlamys, beside the echelon of bishops, Jolivet-Lévy, p. 280, plate 152. 104 Jerphanion I, p. 203; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 137–40.

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century), with Hieron;105 church in the form of a Greek cross, Karlık (beginning or middle of tenth century), with Theodore.106 From the eleventh century, when St George was more frequently represented as a warrior, the following may be cited: Church of the Hermitage, Zelve (mid-tenth or eleventh century?), holding a drawn sword;107 Orta Mahalle kilisesi, Avcılar (beginning of the eleventh century), where George is placed at the entry of the apse holding a lance and a small round shield.108 In later Byzantine art standing portraits of St George in armour are countless, although there is only one illustrating a Metaphrastic Life.109 The painting in the church of Kırk Dam Altı kilise, Belisırma, in the region of Hasan Dag˘ı, in spite of having been executed much later, is of particular interest, because George, to whom the church was originally dedicated, is represented in the dedication scene in military dress with spear and shield between the emir Basil Giagoupis and a certain Thamar who presents the church to him. He is addressed in the dedication inscription, which allows the church to be dated between 1282 and 1298, as ‘TÚÔ·ÈÔÊfiÚ ̿ÚÙ˘˜ ï K·¿‰ÔÍ’.110 St George was represented on horseback, usually in the company of St Theodore. It seems that in Cappadocia when they were represented together they were invariably killing a dragon or dragons (plate 27, 28),111 except in one scene where George is rescuing a captive. In fact, if no dragon figures in the painting, it is likely that in the course of time it has been obliterated. In later Byzantine art, St George is sometimes – but rarely – represented on horseback without a dragon, as, for example, at the monastery dedicated to him at Djurdjevi Stupovi near Ivangrad (c. 1175), on two thirteenth-century Crusader icons and a votive painting commissioned by the horse-tamer Nicephorus, son of Kallias, in the narthex of the church of the Panagia Phorbiotissa, Asinou (dated vari105

Jerphanion I, p. 268; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 94–6. N. Thierry, ‘A propos des peintures d’Ayvalı köy’, Zograf 5, 1974, p. 20; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 175–6. 107 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 12–13. 108 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 67–9. 109 Messina San Salvatore 27, f. 256, in armour holding a lance and sword (plate 26). This is the only miniature of St George illustrating his Metaphrastic Life, Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, p. 78. 110 Thierry, Nouvelles églises, pp. 200–13 (inscription corrected), fig. 49; V. Laurent, ‘Note additionnelle: l’inscription de l’église de St-Georges de Bélisérama’, REB 26, 1968, pp. 367– 71; S. Vryonis, ‘Another Note on the Inscription of the Church of St George at Belisarama, B˘˙·ÓÙÈÓ¿ 9, 1977, pp. 9–22 (proposing to identify Thamar as a Georgian princess). George has the same title on his icon on the iconostasis at Staro Nagoricˇino, B. Todic´, Staro Nagoricˇino, Belgrade, 1993, p. 32, drawing 5, fig. 86; an excellent reproduction, K. Weitzmann, etc., Ikone, Belgrade, 1983, p. 174 (published in several languages). 111 Theodore when alone sometimes killed a monster with a human head. 106

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ously from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries).112 Examples of his killing a dragon – though, it must be insisted, without the princess – are fairly numerous. The following may be cited: besides the seventh-century one at Mavrucan no. 3, cited above,113 there is another from the middle of the ninth century, Yılanlı kilise, Yes¸ilköy (Íhlara);114 yet another from the beginning of the tenth century, Pürenli seki kilisesi;115 and four others from the eleventh century, Yusuf koç kilisesi, Avcılar;116 Saklı kilise, Göreme 2a;117 church of the Rock, necropolis of Göreme;118 Yılanlı kilise, Göreme no. 26.119 The various forms that the dragon or serpent may take are irrelevant to the present study. I have already treated the matter summarily elsewhere.120 It seems that no special rules existed for the representation of mythical beasts in Byzantine tradition. The artists were therefore free to give full play to their fantasy. Thus the dragons which Sts George and Theodore kill vary from one representation to another. The dragon may resemble a serpent, but more often it has the familiar form, with a body like an enormous lizard and sometimes two heads or more. St George was never represented in Cappadocia killing a man. Yet this iconographical type originated before that of his killing a dragon. Later they continued in parallel until the type of George saving a princess emerged and became dominant from the eleventh century. The earliest securely named and dated example seems to be that at Aght ‘Amar (915– 21), where he figures with Theodore and Sergius killing respectively a 112 Djuric´, Vizantijske freske, pp. 27–8, p. 190, n. 25; Walter, art. cit. supra (n. 1), ‘St George at Decˇani’, drawing 4; Markovic´, p. 600, n. 266. Traces remain of a cycle for him in this church, Djuric´, ibid. He first appeared in Serbian art in military dress in the church dedicated to St Michael at Ston, Dalmatia (1222–28), Markovic´, p. 602, fig. 45. Crusader icons, Weitzmann etc., op. cit. supra (n. 109), p. 220 (with Theodore), p. 232 (alone). Stylianou, op. cit. supra (n. 80), pp. 34–6, 69–70, fig. 12; Eidem, op. cit. infra (n. 126), pp. 137–8. 113 Vid. supra (n. 99). 114 Thierry, Nouvelles églises, p. 91. This and the subsequent examples were kindly communicated to me by N. Thierry. Yılanlı means serpent or dragon. 115 Ibid., p. 91. In this and the preceding church, there is also a cross menacing the serpents or dragons. 116 N. Thierry, ‘Yusuf koç kilisesi, église rupestre de Cappadoce’, Festschrift Mansel, Ankara, 1974, I, pp. 193–206. 117 A. Wharton Epstein, ‘Rock-cut Chapels in Göreme, Cappadocia; the Yılanlı Group and the Column Churches’, CA 24, 1975, pp. 117–19; Restle, fig. 32. 118 N. Thierry, ‘Découvertes à la nécropole de Göreme’, Comptes rendus de l’académie des inscriptions, 1984, pp. 682–7, fig. 17. 119 Jerphanion, pp. 405, 608; Restle, figs 246, 247. 120 Art. cit. supra (n. 1), ‘St George at Decˇani’, p. 353. Another summary treatment may be found in P. Boulhoul’s article, ‘Hagiographie antique et démonologie. Notes sur quelques passions grecques’, An. Boll. 112, 1994, pp. 262–3. The earliest account of their morphology in Byzantine tradition is that by John Damascene, De draconibus, PG 95, 1600–1.

1. St Michael, Archangel surrounded by warrior saints. Tesoro di San Marco, Venice.

2. Sts George and Demetrius. Anargyroi, Kastoria.

3. Sts Eustratius, Eugenius and Orestes. Mavriotissa, Kastoria.

4. Sts Nestor and Mercurius. St Nicolas Kasnitzi, Kastoria.

5. Sts George, Demetrius and Theodore Tiron. Kariye Camii, Istanbul.

6. Sts Theodore Tiron, Theodore Stratelates, Mercurius, Procopius and Sabbas Stratelates. Kariye Camii, Istanbul.

7. Sts Procopius and Sabbas Stratelates. Kariye Camii, Istanbul.

8. St Eustathius. Kariye Camii, Istanbul.

9. St Artemius or Nicetas. Kariye Camii, Istanbul.

10. Decapitation of the Quadi rebels. Colonna Antonia, Rome.

11. Thracian rider. Archaeological Museum, Thasos.

12. Sextus Valerius Genalis spearing fallen enemy. Corinium Museum, Cirencester.

13. Soldier trampling Amazon. Archaeological Museum, Thessaloniki.

14. Horus spearing crocodile. Louvre, Paris.

15. Adventus of Constantine. Cabinet des Médailles, Paris.

16. Severus III trampling serpent. Present whereabouts unknown.

17. Solomon spearing Ozybouth. Benaki Museum, Athens.

18. Bahram Gur hunting. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

19. Harpocrates. Archaeological Museum, Cairo.

20. St Menas. Archaeological Museum, Cairo.

21. St George, Liberator. Cabinet des Médailles, Paris.

22. St Philotheus spearing serpent. Louvre.

23. a & b, St Theodore Tiron, seals. Zacos Collection.

24. Sts George and Christopher. Museum, Skopje.

25. St Theodore Tiron killing dragon. Museum, Skopje.

26. St George. Messina, Biblioteca Universitaria, San Salvatore 27, f. 256r.

27. Sts Theodore and George killing serpents. Cappadocia, Mavrucan 3.

28. Sts Theodore and George killing dragon. Cappadocia, Yusuf Koç kilisesi.

29. Martyrdom of the Holy Five. Vatican graec. 1613, p. 241.

30. Medallions of Sts George, Theodore Stratelates and Tiron. Hypapante, Meteora.

31. Cycle of Martyrdom of St George. Metamorphosis, Meteora.

32. Martyrdom of St Eustathius and family. Metamorphosis, Meteora.

33. St Demetrius before the Emperor Maximian. St Demetrius, Pec.

34. Martyrdom of St Nestor. St George, Staro Nagoricino.

35. Warrior saint wearing chlamys. Rotunda of St George, Thessaloniki.

36. St Theodore Tiron. Hosios Loukas.

37. St Nicetas (Nikita). Gracanica.

38. Sts Mercurius and Demetrius. Gracanica.

39. Sts Eustathius and Mercurius. Gracanica.

40. St Christopher carrying child Jesus. Vatican graec. 60, f. 1r.

41. The Sts Theodore holding hands. Zrze, Macedonia.

42. Sts George and Christopher. St George, Arpera, Cyprus.

43. St Menas Orant. British Museum.

44. a, The Sts Theodore; b, George and Demetrius. Harbaville Triptych, Louvre.

45. a, Sts Stephen and Kyrion; b, Sts Kyros, George and Theodore. Borradaile Triptych, British Museum.

46. XL Martyrs and warrior saints. Hermitage, St Petersburg.

47. Deësis with Sts Nestor, Demetrius and Procopius. Mayer van den Bergh Museum, Antwerp.

48. St Theodore Stratelates. Vatican graec. 1613, p. 383.

49. St Demetrius killing Kalojan. Vatopedi, Mount Athos.

50. Sts Sergius and Bacchus. Vatican graec. 1679, f. 48v.

51. St Varus and companion killing prostrate emperor. Vatican graec. 1679, f. 137v.

52. Constantine I as warrior. Vatican Barberini graec. 372, f. 100.

53. Vision of St Procopius. Vatican Barberini graec. 372, f. 112v.

54. Vision of St Eustathius. Vatican Barberini graec. 372, f. 166v.

55. The Holy Five. Milan, Ambrosiana E.89 inf., f. 211.

56. St Menas. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Coptic S. 33.

57. St Theodore Orientalis. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Coptic M 613, f. 1v.

58. St George on horseback. British Museum.

59. St Phanourios (misnamed Demetrius). Andreadis Collection, Athens.

60. The Theodores embracing on horseback. Museum, Plovdiv.

61. St Nicetas (Nikita) enthroned. Present whereabouts unknown.

62. St Zosimos Kephalophoros. St Zosimos, Sozopol.

63. Four warrior saints on horseback. Museum of Georgian Art, Tbilissi.

64. Basil II surrounded by warrior saints. Venice, San Marco, Basil II’s Psalter.

65. St George investing Milutin. St George, Staro Nagoricino.

66. St Longinus and soldiers at Christ’s tomb. Moscow, Chludov Psalter, f. 26v.

67. St Nestor killing Lyaeus. Monastery of Markov, Macedonia.

68. St Mercurius killing Julian the Apostate. Monastery of St Panteleimon, Agia, Thessaly.

a

b

c

69. a, Nicephorus Phocas and family, John Tzimisces and Melias; b, Nicephorus Phocas and family; c, Nicephoras Phocas and family; d, John Tzimisces and Melias; e, XL Martyrs. Cappadocia, Pigeon House, Çavusin.

d

e

70. Arch of Eginhard. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 10440.

71. Procession of Warriors. Romania, Patrauti.

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dragon and an obnoxious beast.121 However, the iconographical type probably originated much earlier. An unnamed equestrian figure killing a man is represented on the facade of the church at Martvili, Georgia (912–57), where the representation of unnamed warriors on horseback continued. At Nikordzminda (1010–14) there are two such representations, on the Eastern facade and on the tympanum over the West door. At Nikordzminda the portrait types on both reliefs are those of Sts Theodore and George.122 On an icon at Mount Sinaï (ninth or tenth century) the equestrian warrior killing a man is named in the accompanying legend as St George.123 Tschubinashvili has catalogued a number of Georgian icons in repoussé work, with the same iconographical type.124 Some may date back to the eighth century, but most are not earlier than the tenth or eleventh century. The prostrate figure is commonly said to be Diocletian, but he is only so named on two examples dating from the eleventh century. One is at Nakipari.125 The other is in the Russian-Georgian Museum at Kutaissi.126 Finally, there is the same iconographical type on two silver icons, one at Tsvirli-Tchobeni and the other in the Georgian National Museum at Tbilissi.127 An apparently unique picture in the church of the Panagia, Moutoullas, Cyprus (1280) portrays St George on horseback spearing a prostrate figure of a woman wearing a crown, who from the waist downwards has the form of a coiled serpent.128 The long history which lies behind all these iconographical types has been presented in the first section of this study. 121 S. Der Nersessian, Aght ‘Amar, Church of the Holy Cross, Cambridge (Mass.) 1965, pp. 5, 19, figs 49, 50. 122 N.A. Aladashvili, Monumental’naja skul’ptura Gruzii, Moscow, 1977, p. 54, plate 56 (Martvili), pp. 150–1, plates 149, 150; pp. 158–9, plate 156 (Nikordzminda). N. Thierry, ‘Au limites du sacré et du magique: un programme d’entrée d’une église de Cappadoce’, Res orientales 12, 1999, pp. 233–47. 123 Weitzmann, Icons, B44, pp. 71–3. 124 G.N. Tschubinashvili, Georgian repoussé work, eighth to eighteenth century, Tbilissi, 1957, plates 92–8, 103. 125 Ibid., plate 93; Idem, Gruzihskoe cekannoe iskusstvo, Tbilissi 1959, plate 183; reproduced, Weitzmann, Icons, fig. 28, and Weitzmann et al., op. cit. supra (n. 109), p. 101. 126 Tschubinashvili, op. cit. supra (n. 124), plate 95; Idem, section on Georgian art, Byzanz und der christliche Osten, ed. W.F. Volbach and J. Lafontaine-Dosogne, Berlin, 1968, p. 332, plate 360. 127 Orfèvrerie géorgienne du VIIe au XIXe siècle, ed. T. Sanikidze and G. Abramishvili, Geneva, 1979, no. 15 (Tsvirli-Tchobeni); Weitzmann et al., op. cit. supra (n. 109), p. 125 (Tbilissi). Only one example in wall painting is known to me, in the church at Iprasi (dated 1096), S. Amiranashvili, Istorija gruzinskogo isskustva I, Moscow, 1950, p. 187, fig. 68. 128 D. Mouriki, ‘The Wall Paintings of the Church of the Panagia at Moutoullas’, Cyprus, Byzanz und der Westen, Vienna, 1984, pp. 193–4, figs 20, 21; A. and J.A. Stylianou, The Painted Churches of Cyprus, London, 1985, pp. 328–9, fig. 195.

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There is only one example in Cappadocia of the iconographical type of St George with a pillion rider, one of the captive youths whom he rescued. This is in the church of St George at Ortaköy.129 The paintings in this church are late, three epitaphs in the entry vestibule providing a terminus post quem of 1293. Restle considered them to be post-Byzantine. Jerphanion knew of analogous scenes only on Mount Athos, for example at Dionysiou (c. 1600).130 What is peculiar about the iconography is that St George is not only rescuing the youth but also killing a dragon. In other words, two prodigies have been conflated. In fact, the rescue of the youth was already an iconographical type in the Byzantine epoch. There are several examples in Georgia dating from the twelfth or thirteenth century.131 Another remarkable example is the icon recently discovered and now in the British Museum, probably dating from the middle of the thirteenth century. It can be identified as representing the rescue of the youth of Mytilene (plate 58).132 Admittedly representations of the subject were more frequent after the Turkish occupation, when the iconographical type was adapted, for example on a votive icon, possibly executed during the eighteenth century in Thessaly. St Demetrius is portrayed on horseback spearing Kalojan with the donor, a priest riding pillion behind him.133 Nevertheless, it is perfectly plausible to date the painting in the church at Ortaköy to the late thirteenth or fourteenth century. Again the iconographical type of the pillion rider was not new; it existed already in Sassanian art. Yet another iconographical type occasionally used for George was the warrior saint enthroned.134 St George was one of the few saints – and the only warrior – to have cycles in Cappadocia. Five cycles have been recorded.135 Unfortunately all are in a severely degraded condition. At 129

Jerphanion II, p. 241; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 251–3; Restle, p. 232. G. Millet, Monuments de l’Athos I, Les peintures, Paris, 1927, plate 211, fig. 3. 131 E. Privalova, Pavnisi, Tbilissi, 1977, pp. 91–109, Pavnisi (1158–84), p. 93, fig. 22, Adisi (late 11th century), p. 93, fig. 22, Bocˇorma (c. 1100), p. 94, fig. 23. 132 Cormack and Mihalarias, art. cit. supra (n. 73), p. 137, fig. 2, to be compared with the same subject on an icon at Mount Sinaï, fig. 6; Aufhauser, op. cit. supra (n. 6), pp. 100– 3. It has an obvious Sassanid model (plate 18). 133 Whereabouts now unknown. Published in the catalogue of an exhibition at the New Grecian Gallery, London, 1972, no. 16. 134 A. Dumitrescu, ‘Une iconographie peu habituelle: les saints militaires siégeant. Le cas de St-Nicolas d’Arges¸’, Byzantion 59, 1989, p. 56; K. Paskaleva-Kabadaieva, C’rkvata Sv. Georgi v Kremikovskija manastir, Sofia, 1980, pp. 72–4, figs 45, 46. Vid. supra, II: Demetrius, n. 52. 135 T. Mark-Weiner, Narrative Cycles of the Life of St. George in Byzantine Art, Doctoral dissertation, New York, 1977, lists three: Göreme no. 9, Göreme no. 16, Karagedik kilise. Jolivet-Lévy adds Church of the Hermitage, p. 13, but notes only a representation of the saint holding out his unsheathed sword, which seems to be rather a portrait, and Açık 130

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Göreme no. 9 (early tenth century), two scenes are identifiable, his interrogation by Dadianus (legible inscription) and his torture on a wheel.136 At Göreme no. 16 (early eleventh century), his interrogation and two tortures, being beaten and sawn in half, are represented. In Karagedik kilisesi, Belisırma (eleventh century), where the remains of an expanded cycle have survived, his interrogation and torture, possibly on the wheel and being clad in iron shoes, are represented together with his rescue by an angel and his funeral(?).137 These are the earliest known cycles for St George, although a far better representation of the torture on the wheel in isolation exists in the ninth-century Chludov Psalter, f. 44, illustrating Psalm 43:23, ‘For your sake, we are put to death all day long.’138 Their relevance to a study of St George as a military saint is limited to their witness to his outstanding popularity in Cappadocia. His cycles in general, exceptionally numerous in Byzantine and post-Byzantine art, will be discussed later in this entry. This presentation of St George in Cappadocia – lengthy but still inadequate – offers a convenient watershed in the study of his cult and iconography. It also shows how important it is to give attention to the iconography of saints in Cappadocia, especially as most of the thorny problems about dating have now been satisfactorily resolved.

Later developments We may now turn to the later developments.139 They give little new information, even legendary, about the saint’s life, apart from the rescue of the princess which was presented as occurring during his lifetime, but a great deal about his increasing popularity, the extension of his cult, particularly as ÚÔÛÙ¿Ù˘, and its reflexion in iconography. It coincides with changes in the concept of the emperor who, during the apogee of the Byzantine Empire from the reigns of Nicephorus II Phocas (963–69), John I Tzimisces (969–76) and Basil II (976–1025), acquired the new quality Saray, Güls¸ehir, p. 225, where she refers only to his martyrdom. She maintains plausibly that all five churches were dedicated to him. 136 Jerphanion, I, pp. 132–3, 599; Restle, II, fig. 124, just visible below to the right of the door; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 120. 137 Thierry, Nouvelles églises, pp. 34–5, implemented by J. Lafontaine-Dosogne, ‘Nouvelles notes cappadociennes’, Byzantion 33, 1963, pp. 155–6; Thierry, ‘Peintures rupestres de Cappadoce’, REB 26, 1989, p. 355. 138 M. S ˇ cˇepkina, Miniatjur’i Hludovskoj Psalt’iri, Moscow 1977, at folio number; Walter, ‘“Latter-Day” Saints’, p. 208; reprinted, Prayer and Power, no. X; Idem; ‘St George at Decˇani’, art. cit. supra (n. 1), pp. 351–2. Vid. infra, Typical scenes, Torture on the wheel, pp. 138–40. 139 Markovic´, pp. 587–600, passim.

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of military courage and was celebrated for his glory on the battlefield. St George now figured regularly in any series of portraits of warrior saints, in the frontispiece to Basil II’s psalter,140 on the celebrated ivory triptychs141 (plate 44b) and continuing in the mosaics of Hosios Loukas.142 At first echelons of warrior saints were placed high in church decorative programmes, but, from the twelfth century, they began to be moved to ground level, a sign of their increasing importance (plates 2, 5, 30).143 Undoubtedly the development of St George’s cult owed much to his being adopted as ÚÔÛÙ¿Ù˘ by Byzantine emperors. Yet, curiously, Philotheos Kokkinos, patriarch 1353–54 and 1364–76, in his canon to be sung for the emperor and his army in time of battle, invoked Procopius, Theodore, Mercurius and Eustathius, but not George.144 Nevertheless, devotion to St George spread widely with the help of the foundations of imperial and high-ranking persons who accepted him as patron, because they were able to lavish money on endowing churches dedicated to him. Prince Jaroslav commissioned the chapel of St George at St Sophia, Kiev (1045–61/7);145 Theodore Lemniotes (c. 1180) the north aisle of the Anargyroi, Kastoria;146 Dragutin, who intended it to be his mausoleum, the narthex of Djurdjevi Stupovi (1282–83);147 Milutin the restoration and redecoration of the church at Staro Nagoricˇino (1316–18);148 and George Pec´pal his family mausoleum at Decˇani (1346–47).149 Although it was not invariably the case, munificent endowments were usually made, either in order to encourage St George to protect those responsible for them in battle, or to reward him for having done so. Such sentiments are expressed

140

Vid. infra, p. 277. Vid. supra, III: Procopius, nn. 25–9. 142 E.G. Stikas, Te ÔåÎÔ‰ÔÌÈÎeÓ ¯ÚÔÓÈÎeÓ Ùɘ ÌÔÓɘ ^√Û›Ô˘ AÔ˘ÎÄ ºˆÎ›‰Ô˜, Athens, 1970, pp. 137–8, plate 38. Dated to the early 11th century, A. Cutler, ODB 949–50. M. Chatzidakis argues convincingly for 1011, ‘A propos de la date et du fondateur de St-Luc’, CA 19, 1969, pp. 127–50. C.L. Connor’s conjectural dating to the 10th century, Art and Miracles in Medieval Byzantium, Princeton, 1991, p. 69, does not merit serious consideration; vid. my review of this book, REB 50, 1992, pp. 334–5. 143 Markovic´, p. 590, with a list of examples, including Nerezi (1164), P. Miljkovic´-Pepek, Nerezi, Belgrade, 1966, plates 40–1; I. Sinkevic´, The Church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi, Wiesbaden, 2000, pp. 59–60, with reproductions. 144 Markovic´, p. 587. 145 V. Lazarev, Mozaiki Sofii Kievskoj, Moscow, 1960, p. 52; G. Babic´, Les chapelles annexes des églises byzantines; Paris, 1969, p. 107. 146 S. Pelekanides and M. Chatzidakis, K·ÛÙÔÚ›·, Athens, 1984, pp. 39, 44. 147 Djuric´, p. 43. 148 Ibid., p. 51; Todic´, op. cit. supra (n. 109), pp. 113–15. 149 Vid. supra art. cit. (n. 1), Walter, ‘St George at Decˇani’; B.M. Popovic´, ‘Program z ˇ ivopisa u kapeli Pec´pala’, Zidno slikarstvo manastira Decˇana, gradja i studije, ed. V. Djuric´, Belgrade, 1995, pp. 451–9. 141

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133

in the Canon composed by George Skylitzes, in which the saint’s aid is requested to help the imperial army to gain victory over the Scythians, Persians and barbarians.150 Intervention in battle The Dioscuri provide an Antique precedent for intervention in battle.151 They fought with the Romans at the Battle of Lake Regillus, and announced the victory, watering their horses at the fountain of Juturna in Rome. The apostles John and Philip intervened in favour of the Emperor Theodosius, mounted on white horses.152 St Andrew also intervened in favour of the city of Patras, of which he was patron,153 as well as the Theodores and Demetrius.154 However, St George intervened more frequently, not necessarily alone and not only in favour of the Byzantines. His intervention to save the life of Domnitziolus, nephew of the Emperor Phocas (602–10), has been recounted above.155 He also intervened in favour of Nicephorus II in 961 before he became emperor, at the siege of Chandax, together with Demetrius, the two Theodores and the archangel Michael,156 and again in favour of Andronicus II, to whom he promised victory when he was kneeling before an icon of the saint on horseback outside the chapel of the Theotokos NÈÎÔÔÈÔÜ.157 He intervened in favour of Serbian kings158 – of Nemanja, releasing him from prison and helping him in battle, in thanks for which he built the church of St George at Ras; of Stefan Prvovencˇani against the Byzantine Emperor Michael I Angelus, an action compared to Mercurius disposing of Julian the Apostate; and of Milutin also against the Byzantines. Stefan Urosˇ III

150 S. Pétridès, ‘Deux canons inédits de Georges Skylitzes’, Vizantijskij Vremmenik 10, 1903. Petrides suggests that the emperor in whose favour St George was to be invoked was Manuel Comnenus (1143–80). This is surprising, because Skylitzes lived in the second half of the 11th century. 151 H. Delehaye, ‘Castor et Pollux dans les légendes hagiographiques’, An. Boll. 23, 1904, pp. 427–32; G. Sántha, Byzantine Legends of Warrior Saints (in Hungarian with a resumé in Italian), Budapest, 1943, pp. 40–4, 69–71; P. Grimal, Dictionnaire de la mythologie grecque et romaine, Paris, 1951; C. Walter, ‘The Thracian Horseman: Ancestor of the Warrior Saints?’, Byzantinische Forschungen 14, 1989, pp. 660–1. 152 Theodoret of Cyrus, Historia ecclesiastica, PG 82, 1252. 153 Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De administrando imperio, Bonn, pp. 219–20, ed. Gy. Moravcsik et al., Washington, 1967, pp. 226–33. 154 Vid. supra, I: Theodore, nn. 114, 115; II: Demetrius, nn. 14, 72. 155 Vid. supra, n. 55. 156 G. Schlumberger, Un empereur byzantin au dixième siècle, Nicéphore Phocas, new edition, Paris, 1923, p. 74. 157 Nicephorus Gregoras, Historia byzantina, Bonn, 1829, VII, 5, pp. 303–5. 158 Markovic´, p. 601.

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embellished the saint’s icon at Staro Nagoricˇino in thanks for help in battle in 1330. St George was adopted by the Crusaders,159 notably by the English. Edward III appointed him national patron in the place of Sts Peter and Paul.160 The English invoked him against the French in the Hundred Years War. He helped Alexander Nevsky, Grand Duke of Novgorod, against the Swedes in 1240 and against the Teutonic Knights in 1242, as well, perhaps, as Prince Dmitri, with the aid of Demetrius, Boris, Gleb and the archangel Michael, at the battle of Kulikovo.161 Given St George’s wide variety of clients, recalling the Great War epigram ‘Gott straft England and God save the king’, one wonders what might have happened if he was invoked by both sides. Protector of Byzantines against conquerors In the Byzantine Empire he came to be needed as a protector against conquerors more than as an ally in a battle which might culminate in victory. This accounts for the enormous number of prophylactic representations in late Byzantine churches. These were numerous in Transylvania, where the indigenous Romanian Orthodox sought protection against their Angevin conquerors,162 and in Crete, which was subject to Venice from 1204 to 1669.163 In Romania, St George was usually represented on horseback, but in Crete there is a remarkable number of cycles. Cycles of St George We now turn to cycles of St George. A large number of them have been catalogued, thanks to the assiduous work of Temily Mark-Weiner. Her 159 P. Deschamps, ‘La légende de S. Georges et les combats des Croisés dans les peintures murales du Moyen Age’, Monuments et Mémoires (Fondation E. Piot), 44, 1950, pp. 109–23, plates 12–15; C. Erdmann, Die Entstehung des Kreuzzugsgedankens, Stuttgart, 1936, esp. p. 260. 160 Gibbon, op. cit. supra (n. 88), p. 472, n. 126. 161 A. Mazon, ‘Dimitri et Eudoxie’, Ann. Boll. 68, 1950, pp. 334–52. 162 E. Cincheza-Buculei, ‘Implicatii sociale si politice in iconografia picturii medievale romanesti din Transilvania, secolele XIV–XV. Sfintii militari’, Studii si cercetari de istoria artei 28, 1981, pp. 3–34, figs 1–17, with resumé in French. Sts Theodore and Demetrius are represented but much more often St George. The author calls attention to their Byzantine style and their close resemblance to Cretan painting of the same period. She explains this as due to the similar subservient position of the two regions to Catholic overlords. 163 G. Gerola, TÔȯÔÁÚ·ÊÈÎfi˜ ηٿÏÔÁÔ˜ ÙáÓ ÙÔȯÔÁÚ·ÊËÌ¤ÓˆÓ \ÂÎÎÏËÛ›ˆÓ Ùɘ KÚ‹Ù˘, Herakleion, 1961; K. Gallas et al., Byzantinisches Kreta, Munich, 1983.

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study is the obligatory starting point for further research on the subject.164 Naturally, the results of her enquiry can be presented only summarily here. The reader who wishes to go into more detail must consult the text of Mark-Weiner’s dissertation. She has catalogued 78 cycles, more or less extended and complete, in wall painting: one from the tenth and two from the eleventh century in Cappadocia;165 10 from the twelfth century; six from the thirteenth century; 19 from the fourteenth century (13 in Crete); 15 from the fifteenth century (13 also in Crete); 10 from the sixteenth century; 14 from the seventeenth century. To these she has added 35 cycles, mostly developed, on icons dating from the twelfth to the eighteenth century. Mark-Weiner has also catalogued 77 subjects, many of them rare. The most common are his interrogation, some tortures, notably crushing between stones, scraping, the wheel (the most frequent), the lime pit, the iron shoes, the cauldron, execution and some miracles, the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of the ox, destruction of idols and the rescue of the princess from the dragon. Apart from the last, all the scenes which recur frequently depend on the first fantastic Life and the second purporting to have been signed by Pasicrates. The later accretion concerning his childhood is rarely represented; an example of a cycle which introduces such scenes is in the church at Recˇani, Kosovo (c. 1370).166 Selecting examples of cycles for exemplification is an invidious task. I have chosen ones from different countries which have been, in some cases, adequately published and which are, for the most part, extensive. They are presented here in chronological order. 1. 2. 3.

The Anargyroi, Kastoria (1170–80), with nine scenes, including the rescue of the princess but not the wheel torture.167 Episkopi, Mani (late twelfth century), with 10 scenes, including neither the wheel torture nor the rescue of the princess.168 The tower of St George, Hilandar (mid-thirteenth century), with various scenes including the wheel torture.169

164 Op. cit. supra (n. 133). Regrettably, this doctoral dissertation has not been published. I am therefore most grateful to Ms Mark-Weiner for having put a copy of it at my disposal. 165 Vid. supra, nn. 133–5. 166 V. Djuric´, ‘Nepoznati spomenici srpskog srednjevekovnog slikarstva u Metohiji’, Starine Kosova i Metohije 2–3, 1963, pp. 67–86. 167 S. Tomekovic´, ‘Les répercussions du choix du saint patron sur le programme iconographique des églises du 12e siècle en Macédoine et dans le Péloponnèse’, Zograf 12, 1981, p. 36; vid. supra art. cit. (n. 144). 168 Tomekovic´, pp. 35–6. 169 V. Djuric´, ‘Fresques médiévales à Chilandar. Contribution au catalogue des fresques

136 4.

5.

6.

7.

8. 9.

10.

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St George, Kalamas, Crete (thirteenth century, possibly earlier), with six scenes, including the wheel torture but not the princess. Highquality Comnene painting.170 St George, Staro Nagoricˇino (1316–17), a well-preserved and very full cycle with 21 scenes, including both the wheel torture and the rescue of the princess.171 Pec´pal mausoleum, Pantocrator, Decˇani (1346–47), where there were originally 16 scenes, of which one is now lost and two badly damaged.172 St George, Ubisi, Georgia (late fourteenth century), 13 scenes, almost completely preserved, including both the wheel torture and the rescue of the princess.173 St George, Kremikovci, near Sofia (after 1493), 14 scenes including the wheel torture, with the rescue of the princess separately.174 St George, Voronets, Romania (first half of sixteenth century), one of the fullest cycles, with both the wheel torture and the rescue of the princess.175 Metamorphosis, Meteora (plate 31).

Choosing icons for exemplification is also invidious. Again I have selected ones which have been adequately described in easily accessible publications. 1.

2.

Local Lore Museum, Mestia, Georgia (eleventh century), 11 scenes including George distributing his wealth to the poor, a subject which was popular in the West, and various tortures, among which the lime pit, presented in the form of a cross.176 Museum of Ukrainian Art, Kiev (twelfth to thirteenth centuries),

du Mont Athos’, Actes du XIIe congrès international d’études byzantines (Ohrid, 1961), Belgrade, 1964, III, pp. 67, 69–71. 170 Art. cit. supra. (n. 159), Gerola, no. 276; Gallas, p. 297. 171 Walter, art. cit. supra (n. 1) ‘St George at Decˇani’, pp. 348–51; Todic´, op. cit. supra (n. 109), pp. 113–15, figs 45, 54–6, 67, 68, 81. 172 V. Petkovic´, ‘Ciklus slika iz legende sv. Djordja u Decˇanima’, Starinar 5, 1928–30, pp. 7–11; Walter, ibid., pp. 347–54; Popovic´, art. cit. supra (n. 147), pp. 451–9, figs 2–15 (full description and illustration). 173 I. Lordkipanidzé, ‘Le cycle de la Vie de St Georges dans les peintures d’Oubissi’ (in Russian), Decˇani et l’art byzantin au milieu du XIVe siècle, ed. V. Djuric´, Belgrade, 1989, pp. 97–107, figs 1–30 (full description and illustration). 174 Paskaleva-Kabadaieva, op. cit. supra (n. 134), pp. 72–95, figs 45–51, 5. (full description and illustration). 175 P. Cormanesco, Voronet. Fresques des XVe et XVIe siècles, Bucharest 1959. 176 Tschubinashvili, op. cit. supra (n. 124), plates 71–3; M. Vielliard-Troiekouroff, ‘St George distribuant ses biens aux pauvres’, CA 28, 1991, pp. 100–2.

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3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

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sculpted on wood, 10 scenes plus two which are badly damaged, including the wheel torture.177 St Catherine’s Mount Sinaï (thirteenth century), 20 scenes, including George distributing his wealth, the wheel torture and the rescue of the princess.178 Athens, Byzantine Museum no. 89 from Kastoria (thirteenth century), sculpted on wood and painted, 11 scenes plus three unidentifiable, including George distributing his wealth, but not the wheel torture (possibly one of the lost scenes) nor the rescue of the princess.179 Hermitage, St Petersburg, no. 108 (early fourteenth century), in which a transformation has taken place, to be seen in other later icons, for now the central scene is the rescue of the princess, 15 scenes, including distribution of wealth and the wheel torture.180 St Catherine’s, Mount Sinaï (fifteenth century), 14 scenes, with George distributing his wealth, the wheel torture but not the rescue of the princess.181 Georgian Museum of Fine Arts, Tbilissi (end of fifteenth century), 11 scenes, including the wheel torture and two for the rescue of the princess, presented, like (1), in the form of a cross.182 Church of the Virgin, ™ËÏ·ÈÒÙÈÛÛ·, Corfou (c. 1583), by the celebrated painter Michael Damaskinos, with the rescue of the princess as the central scene and ten others, five to the left and five to the right, including the wheel torture.183

A number of observations may be made about these cycles. The first concerns their structure. Basically, the cycles correspond to the Passions; in other words they belong to the genre of contes (the English word tale has not quite the same connotations; it is better translated by folk story). An entry for George is rightly included in an encyclopaedia of 177 V. Pucko, ‘Mariapol’sjij rel’ef Sv. Georgija’, ZRVI 13, 1971, pp. 313–31, plates 1–5, including the wheel torture. 178 Sotiriou, Icônes, I, plate 167, II, pp. 149–54; Vieillard-Troiekouroff, pp. 100–1, fig. 5. 179 J. Maksimovic´, ‘La sculpture byzantine du XIIe siècle’, L’art byzantin du XIIIe siècle, Symposium de Sopoc´ani, 1965, Belgrade, 1967, p. 32, fig. 18; A. Xyngopoulos, ‘Icônes du XIIIe siècle en Grèce’, ibid., p. 79, fig. 11; Vieillard-Troiekouroff, p. 101; Weitzmann et al., op. cit. supra (n. 109), p. 155. 180 V. Lazarev, Novgorodian Icon-painting, Moscow, 1969, p. 16, figs 17, 18; VielliardTroiekouroff, p. 101, fig. 9, dating it to the 13th century. 181 Sotiriou, Icônes, I, plate 169, II, pp. 154–5; Vieillard-Troiekouroff, p. 101, fig. 6. 182 Tschubinashvili, op. cit. supra (n. 122), plates 172, 173; Amiranashvili, op. cit. supra (n. 127), pp. 257–8, plates 169, 170. 183 P.A. Vocotopoulos, EåÎfiÓ˜ Ùɘ K¤Ú΢ڷ˜, Athens, 1990, no. 26, pp. 50–1, plate 29, 30 (in colour), figs 128–33, all scenes fully described and only one not illustrated in detail, the raising of Glykerius’ ox.

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Märchen.184 The same principles of analysis can be applied to all the Passions of warrior saints, but George is almost the only one to have a biographical cycle in iconography, which is unique in his case by reason of the number which have survived. A second observation concerns his costume. Almost invariably, he is wearing court dress, not military uniform. The reasons for this are clear. Most scenes are derived either from his passion or his childhood and youth. It has already been noted several times that warrior martyrs were not represented during their passion in military dress. Stripping of uniform was one of the first incidents in their passions. In childhood scenes, notably George distributing his wealth, the saint had not yet enrolled in the army. However, in the iconography of two of his miracles, which occur outside his passion cycle, he wears military dress. One is the posthumous miracle of Mytilene, in which George rescues the captured youth on horseback dressed as a soldier (plate 58). The other is his rescue of the princess from the dragon, a miracle which was presented as occurring in his lifetime when he was an army officer. The narrative sets the incident in the context of George the soldier returning home on leave; this explains why he wears military dress. One might conclude that George’s biographical cycles have little relevance to his status as a soldier, were it not that his renown as ÙÚÔ·ÈÔÊfiÚÔ˜ is the reason for their being so numerous. Frequently they were painted in churches dedicated to him, often along with more than one portrait of him in military dress. Typical scenes, laceration on the wheel A third – and much longer – observation concerns his ‘typical scenes’. Many saints had typical scenes or attributes.185 Typical scenes could be taken from the saint’s biography and represented alone, encapsulating the whole of it, as the Vision of Eustathius,186 or exist independently of any known biographical cycle, as the Vision of Procopius. It will be noted that St Christopher had both a typical scene and an attribute.187 In George’s biography, his typical scene was at first the torture on the wheel, which exists in isolation in the ninth-century Chludov Psalter earlier than any surviving cycle. It was taken up in the Theodore Psalter, f. 55, and the Barberini Psalter, f. 77, in each case illustrating Psalm 43:23, as in the Chludov Psalter. 184

Enzyklopädie des Märchens V, ed. K. Ranke, Berlin, 1987. C. Walter, Art and Ritual of the Byzantine Church, London, 1982, pp. 85–115, esp. pp. 103–6; idem, ‘St George at Decˇani’, art. cit. supra (n. 1), pp. 351–3. 186 Vid. infra, VII: Eustathius. 187 Vid. supra, III: Procopius, and infra, XV: Christopher. 185

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The wheel, originally an instrument for quartering and for dislocating the limbs, is described graphically in IV Maccabees 9:12–13:19: They set him on a wheel. And on it the noble youth was racked till his bones were out of joint … The torture strained him yet tighter on the wheel. And all the wheel was covered with his blood.188

However, in George’s martyrdom the wheel was an instrument of laceration (plate 31); knives were placed below – or occasionally as in the Chludov Psalter above – the wheel to tear the martyr’s flesh to shreds as it turned. It seems likely that the change in the wheel as an instrument of torture from dislocation to laceration was made specifically in the Passions and iconography of St George. It was mentioned in both the earliest Passio ‘in tormento rotae’,189 and the Passio a Pasicrate

188 The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, ed. R.H. Charles, Oxford, 1913, p. 67. Cf 8,13, p. 675; 11,18, p. 678. There is no reference to the wheel in the tortures described in II Maccabees 7, and the torture is described much more succinctly in the Metaphrastic Life of the Maccabees (BHG, 1006a), B. Latysˇev, Menologii. anonymi byzantini saeculi X quae supersunt, Petrograd, 1912, p. 236, lines 7, 19. In the only miniature of the torture illustrating a manuscript of their Metaphrastic Life, Mosq. graec. 9, f. 136, the wheel is furnished with knives, Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, p. 69. This was also the case in the much earlier Paris graec. 510, f. 340, H. Omont, Miniatures des plus anciens manuscrits grecs de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 2nd edn, Paris, 1929, p. 27, writing correctly that the wheel is ‘garnie de pointes de fer qui déchirent son corps’, plate 48; L. Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, Cambridge 1999, fig. 34 (but the detail in her reproduction is not clear). She writes incorrectly, p. 259, that the Maccabee is ‘being broken on the wheel’, and does not note the discrepancy between the text of IV Maccabees and the iconography. J. Vergote, ‘Les principaux modes de supplice chez les anciens et dans les textes anciens’, Bulletin de l’Institut belge de Rome 20, p. 151, 160–3, presents in detailed fashion the change from dislocation to laceration. He was of the opinion that the use of the wheel for laceration originated with St George. Many other martyrs were said to have undergone this torture. Delehaye gives an impressive list, Les passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires, Brussels, 1921, p. 281. However, representations of the torture, except for the Maccabee and St George, are not common. One example may be cited, that of Anthimus in illustration to his Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 135), PG, 115, 180b, in London Additional 11870, f. 44v, Walter, ‘September Metaphrast’, pp. 13–14, fig. 3; reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. V; Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, p. 120. The wheel torture plays little part in Byzantine texts about St Catherine (AåηÙÂÚ›ÓË) (BHG, 30–32b). In iconography she was usually represented in portrait form, A. Kazhdan and N. Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, ‘Catherine of Alexandria’, ODB I, 392–3; P. Assion, ‘Katharina’, LCI 7, 289–97; Patterson Sˇ evcˇenko, sub nomine. I have found only one representation of her undergoing the wheel torture, in the lower left-hand corner of her biographical icon at Sinaï, dated to the 12th or 13th century, Icônes I, no. 197, II, pp. 147–9. In post-Byzantine art, Catherine may be accompanied by a wheel which is decorative or symbolic, for example in the upper part of an icon at Sinaï, where a broken wheel is placed beside her, C. Walter, ‘A Little Known Typological Representation of the Monastery at Sinaï, ¢XAE ¢’ IZ’, 1993–94, fig. 1. According to the OED, sub verbo, the Catherine wheel first appeared in heraldry in the 16th century. 189 Cumont, art. cit. supra (n. 8), appendix, p. 45; Delehaye, p. 52.

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(BHG, 671, 672), which follows the same order as the earliest version for the tortures.190 A fuller description of the torture, including the lacerating knives, appears in later texts, for example the Metaphrastic Life.191 Possibly the idea of laceration was inspired by the fact that after the wheel torture George’s body, cut in pieces, was thrown into a well.192 The Maccabees, who, according to the Metaphrastic Life, were tortured on a wheel, without specification as to how, are lacerated in the miniature in Mosq. graec. 9, f. 136.193 In George’s archetypal case, laceration on the wheel evidently encapsulates his martyrdom; it has no military connotations. Typical scenes, the rescue of the princess Later, probably in the twelfth century, torture on the wheel began to be replaced by the rescue of the princess as George’s typical scene, sometimes being represented on icons as the central scene, with the other biographical scenes placed around it. In church decoration it could equally be given greater importance, being placed apart from the other scenes, and possibly depicted on a larger scale in a prominent place. Errors in interpreting and dating this iconographical theme have been mentioned already in passing. They may be resumed here: the theme of Horus and the crocodile was not directly adapted to George and the dragon (plate 14),194 nor that of Perseus rescuing Andromeda to George rescuing the princess.195 George killing the dragon, usually in the company of Theodore Tiron, may date from the early seventh century,196 but certainly not from the time of Constantine.197 In fact, the date and origin of the iconographical type of George rescuing the princess can be accurately placed. The earliest account of this miracle, which was not posthumous like those in the collections of Miracula,198 is in a Georgian manuscript, Patriarchal Library, Jerusalem, cod. 2, dating from the eleventh century. It is worth quoting at length after the Russian translation by Eka Privalova.199 190

Delehaye, p. 57. PG 115, 147b (BHG, 677). Reference is also made, as one would expect, to his youth and beauty, ibid., 145c. 192 Delehaye, p. 56. 193 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 69. 194 Vid. supra, n. 81. 195 Vid. supra, n. 82. 196 Vid. supra, n. 99. 197 Vid. supra, n. 89. 198 Vid. supra, nn. 62–79. 199 Privalova, op. cit. (n. 132), p. 73. An alternative tradition, equally unhistorical, is that 191

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In the city of Lasia [a mythical place] reigned a godless emperor, the idolater Selinus. As a punishment for his unbelief, God sent to a nearby lake a terrifying dragon which devoured the inhabitants of the city. On many occasions, the emperor took measures against the dragon but in vain, so huge and awful was it. The time came when the inhabitants of the city met together to reproach the emperor for his ineffectiveness and to insist that he take some steps. Then the emperor proposed that a list should be drawn up of the inhabitants, such that each would sacrifice a child, and he promised that he would offer his only daughter when the time came. And so it was decided. When the emperor’s turn came, he dressed his daughter in the imperial purple, and, having decked her as for a wedding, with tears and weeping he brought her along. The emperor offered the people gold and silver and his empire in compensation if he could keep his only daughter, but the people were inexorable. They all met to look at the emperor’s daughter. However, the Lord wished to perform a miracle in the name of St George, who was alive at the time. He was returning home from Diocletian’s army to his estate in Cappadocia, when he stopped by the lake to water his horse. Then he saw a girl weeping on the bank. The girl told the handsome youth that he should flee to escape death; she told him of her plight. George asked her what god was worshipped in her city. She replied: Hercules, Apollo, Scamander and the great goddess Artemis. George reassured her, and, lifting his eyes to God, asked him to perform a miracle and help him to vanquish the dragon, so that all might see that God was with George. And a voice replied: ‘Do what you wish; I am with you.’ At that moment the dragon appeared. George hastened towards it, made the sign of the cross and asked the Lord to change the wild beast into an animal which would be docile with him. As George said this, the dragon fell at his feet. The saint tied it with the girl’s girdle, handed it to her and told her to go to the city nearby. The people, seeing this, were terrified and prepared to flee. George calmed them and required them to become Christian. After that, all acknowledged their faith in Christ. Then George took out his sword and killed the dragon. Then the people assembled and prostrated themselves at the saint’s feet and gave thanks to the Lord. Then St George sent for Bishop Alexander who baptized the emperor, his court and all the people in the course of the following days, in all 45 000 persons. And there was great joy in the city. The emperor had a shrine built in honour of the saint, and St George went into the shrine and performed a miracle. By the altar, he caused a lifegiving spring to flow which even now performs miracles.

Of course, in a popular folk tale, St George would have married the princess and lived happily ever afterwards! This is an example of how Christians adapted the genre to their own ends.

the incident occurred in Beirut, C. Astruc, ‘St Georges à Beyrouth,’ An. Boll. 77, 1959, pp. 54– 62. At one time, visitors to Beirut were shown the tree to which the saint tethered his horse!

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That this edifying tale originated in Georgia is made more plausible by the fact that the iconographical type corresponding to it is first witnessed there. The earliest dated example is at Pavnisi (1158–54).200 However, other examples can be dated earlier on stylistic grounds, Adisi (late eleventh century),201 Bocˇorma (c. 1100),202 possibly Ikvi (twelfth century).203 The iconographical type, once established with St George on horseback, the princess leading the dragon and the citizens of Lasia looking on from the ramparts, only varied later in details: St George could be represented killing the dragon and the princess looking on from afar (plate 63). Of course, there was much scope for improvisation and individuality in the way of representing the dragon.204 The iconographical type was represented in Russia at Stara Ladoga in 1167–68.205 The oldest surviving Greek text is in Rome, Bibliotheca angelica 46 (C.F.1), ff. 189–91v, dating from the twelfth to the thirteenth centuries.206 It is close to the Georgian text, from which it had probably been translated. As in the Georgian, George is described as ‘óÚ·ÖÔÓ Î·d àÓ‰ÚÂÖÔÓ’. The earliest representation is in the church of the Anargyroi at Kastoria (c. 1180).207 Examples of the scene figuring in biographical cycles have been noted above.208 No doubt the saint’s chivalrous act had a particular appeal in the psychological climate of the period of the Crusades. It has remained consistently popular in the West and even more in the East up to the present day. It even spread to Islam.209 St George Kephalophoros The final iconographical type of St George, represented holding his severed head in his hand, first appeared late.210 The two earliest dated 200

Ibid., pp. 16–17, fig. 5. Ibid., p. 11, fig. 18. 202 Ibid., p. 82, fig. 20. 203 Ibid., p. 79, fig. 19. 204 Vid. supra, n. 118. 205 V. Lazarev, Freski Staroj Ladogi, Moscow, 1960, pp. 32–5, fig. 10. Following A. R’istenko, Legenda o sv. Georgii i drakone v vizantijskoj i slavjanorusskoj literaturah, Odessa, 1909, pp. 219–20, which I have not seen; Privalova, pp. 73–5. 206 J.A. Aufhauser, Das Drachenwunder des heiligen Georg in der griechischen und lateinischen Uberlieferung, Leipzig, 1911, pp. 52–69. 207 E. Pelekanides, K·ÛÙÔÚ›· I, Thessaloniki, 1953, fig. 32; Pelekanides and Chatzidakis, op. cit. supra (n. 114). 208 Vid. supra, pp. 134–8. 209 F.A. Pennacchietti, ‘Il parallelo islamico di un singolare episodio di San Giorgio’, Bollettino della Società per gli studi storici, archeologici ed artistici della Prov. di Cuneo 107, 1992, pp. 104–6. 210 Walter, art. cit. supra (n. 1), ‘St George “Kephalophoros”’. 201

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examples are on Mount Athos, one a wall painting in the catholicon of Xenophontos (1545), the other an icon in the chapel dedicated to him at St Paul’s (1552). Manolis Chatzidakis attributed both to the painter Antonios.211 The iconographical type is fairly consistent: St George, armed with a sword and spear, holds a second severed head in his left hand; he holds out his right hand in adoration towards the bust of Christ in a segment placed in the top right-hand corner. Both figures have an unrolled scroll on which a dialogue is inscribed: ‘You see what [the] lawless have done, Oh Word. You see my head cut off for your sake.’ ‘I see you, martyr, and I give you [a] crown.’ (The crown is actually already placed on St George’s head.) By the sixteenth century, the iconography of the kephalophoros saint had a long tradition behind it in both West and East.212 There were two starting points. One was the Homily of John Chrysostom in honour of Sts Juventinus and Maximinus, in which he said that the severed head of a martyr was more terrifying to the devil than when it was able to speak. He then compared soldiers showing their wounds received in battle to martyrs holding their severed head in their hands and presenting it to Christ.213 The other was the Western Life of St Denys, founder of the episcopal see of Paris, who was identified in it with Dionysius the Areopagite.214 According to this, Denys or Dionysius walked two millia after execution carrying his severed head. Kephalophoroi saints, of whom there were a hundred or so in Western tradition, usually performed this prodigy in order to indicate the emplacement of the shrine where their relics should be venerated.215 The Post beatum (MÂÙa ÙcÓ Ì·Î·Ú›·Ó) was translated into Greek before 833. The brief notice for Dionyius the Areopagite in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 82, recounts the prodigy, which in the accompanying miniature is represented by the martyr presenting his severed head to a pious woman.216 More explicitly, in the volume of Metaphrastic Lives for October, Mosq. graec. 175, f. 28 (and only in this illuminated volume), Dionysius is represented holding his severed head in his hands.217 In Byzantine tradition the Western motivation for the prodigy did not hold for their 211

M. Chatzidakis, ^EÏÏËÓ¤˜ ˙ˆÁÚ¿ÊÔÈ ÌÂÙ¿ ÙËÓ ôψÛË I, Athens, 1987. C. Walter, ‘Three Notes on the Iconography of Dionysius the Areopagite, 3. St Dionysius “kephalophoros”’, REB 48, 1990, pp. 268–74, reprinted Prayer and Power, no. III. 213 PG 50, 575–6 (BHG, 974). 214 Known as the Post beatum, AA SS Octobris IV, Brussels, 1780, 762–94 (BHL, 2178). 215 P. Saintyves, ‘Les saints céphalophores’, Revue de l’histoire des religions 99, 1929, pp. 158–231. 216 PG 117, 84–5. 217 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 53; V.D. Likhachova, Byzantine Miniature, Moscow, 1977, p. 16 (illustrated). 212

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far smaller number of kephalophoroi saints. Their martyrs were not in the habit of displacing themselves after death in order to indicate where their relics were to be venerated. Thus the severed head was given a significance more in line with John Chrysostom’s Homily cited above. This is evident in the hyperbolic language used by the Metaphrast, for whom Dionysius’ head was a prize … a trophy … a treasure … (‚Ú·‚ÂÖÔÓ … ÙÚfi·ÈÔÓ … ©ËÛ·˘ÚfiÓ).218 The second word recalls that St George was called ÙÚÔ·ÈÔÊfiÚÔ˜. In this iconographical type, the trophy which he carries is his own severed head.

218

PG 4, 605.

CHAPTER THREE

Other Major Warrior Saints Besides the members of the état-major, there were other warrior saints held in great honour by the Byzantines, who contributed in a greater or lesser degree to the respect in which the whole echelon was held. Nine saints with and without companions stand out from the rest. Accounts of them now follow in roughly chronological order, with particular reference to the characteristics which encouraged devotion to them.

145

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VI Sts Sergius and Bacchus Although he referred to them more than once, Hippolyte Delehaye never specified his reasons for rejecting the authenticity of the Passions of these two martyrs who, Sergius especially, received widespread cult. However, in the present study they claim attention, because they were so evidently soldiers.1 In recent years, they had not greatly interested scholars until Elizabeth Key Fowden published her book.2 According to the Passio antiquior, both soldiers were highly placed in the imperial military establishment. Sergius, primicerius of the schola gentilium, one of the units of the imperial bodyguard, was esteemed by the emperor (Maximian or Maximin Daia, 305–15). Bacchus was secundarius. Throughout the Passion, there are allusions to the close bond of friendship between them. They were ‘stars joyously lighting the world’. Indissociable in the army of this world, they were also excellent soldiers of Christ. Thanks to the esteem in which the emperor held him, Sergius was able to obtain the post of governor of the province of Augusta Euphratensis for a friend, Antiochus. Courtiers, jealous of the favour which the two enjoyed with the emperor, denounced them as Christians. The emperor, reluctant to believe this, obliged them to accompany him to the temple in order to sacrifice. When they refused to enter the temple and feast upon the meat of the sacrificial offerings, the emperor had them stripped of their military uniform and their golden necklace removed.3 They were dressed in women’s

1 Passio antiquior (BHG, 1624), ed. I. van de Gheyn, An. Boll. 14, 1895, pp. 371–95; Latin version, Acta sanctorum Octobris. III, Paris, 1868, pp. 863–70 (7 Oct.); translation of Greek text by J. Boswell, vid infra (n. 2), pp. 365–76. Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 1625), B. Latysˇev, Menologia anonymi byzantini quae supersunt I, Petrograd, 1911, pp. 337–47; PG 115, 1005–32. 2 General article, A. Amore, ‘Sergio e Baccho’, BS 11, 876–9. On points of detail, J. Boswell, The Marriage of Likeness. Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, London, 1995, cited here after the French translation, Les unions du même sexe dans l’Europe antique et médiévale, Paris, 1996; D. Woods, ‘The Emperor Julian and the Passion of Sergius and Bacchus’, Journal of Early Christian Studies 5, 1997, pp. 335–67. The global study by E. Key Fowden, The Barbarian Plain. St Sergius Between Rome and Iran, Berkeley and Los Angeles/ London, 1999, supersedes all others. I gratefully thank Ms Key Fowden for allowing me to read a draft of her book before publication, as well as checking the first draft of my text, correcting it and making valuable suggestions. 3 The so-called maniakion, of which more later when their iconography is discussed. Vid. my article, ‘The M·ÓÈ¿ÎÈÔÓ or Torc in Byzantine Tradition’, REB 59, 2001, pp. 179–92 for more detailed treatment.

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clothing and marched through the streets with heavy chains hung around their neck. The emperor then – a cruel touch – sent them to Antiochus, the friend and protégé for whom Sergius had obtained the governorship of Augusta Euphratensis. Instructions were given to Antiochus to try them, and, ‘since those who carry the shield and lance of our empire cannot be hostile to the cult of the gods’, if they refused to renounce their Christianity, to put them to death. The night of their departure, they were visited by an angel who told the ‘noble soldiers and athletes of Christ’ to take courage. In heaven they would receive ‘the trophies of triumph and crowns of faith and perfect unity’. Antiochus received them at his residence in the fortress at Barbalissus. Patently ill at ease at being called upon to try his benefactor, he had Sergius and his companion put in prison but not deprived of normal comforts. The next day he brought them to trial. In the face of his appeal to them to recant, they remained obdurate in their loyalty to ‘Christ, Son of God and eternal sovereign’. Antiochus separated them. Sergius was re-imprisoned, while Bacchus was scourged to death. Before expiring, he heard a voice from heaven: ‘Come … my noble athlete and soldier Bacchus’. Antiochus ordered that he should not be buried but his body thrown outside the encampment. Protected all night by wild birds and beasts, his mortal remains were recovered the next day by hermits who buried them in a grotto. The grief of Sergius was boundless. ‘Never again, brother and companion in arms, shall we chant together: “How good and joyful it is for brothers to live in unity.”’ That night, Bacchus, wearing military dress, appeared in a vision to Sergius left alone on earth. He asked why Sergius was weeping, since they were only separated in body. He recommended Sergius to make a confession of faith, in order that they be united by the same crown of justice. Sergius was now transferred from Barbalissus to Sura, where he was given a final opportunity to recant. When he refused, he was subjected to a barbaric torture. He was made to run before Antiochus’ carriage wearing boots studded with nails. Their itinerary is given fairly exactly: from Barbalissus to Sura, thence to Tetrapyrgium, about nine miles from Sura4 and then to Rusafa, nine miles further on. Sergius was to be executed nearby. A great crowd followed to witness his death. ‘Seeing the beauty which flowered in his face, and the grandeur and nobility of his youth, they wept bitterly.’ At the moment of his decapitation, a voice was heard

4 The spelling of these places varies, even within the same text! I standardize them as Rusafa, Barbalissus, Tetrapyrgium, Sura.

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from heaven: ‘Come also, Sergius, soldier and conqueror.’ Various prodigies occurred. In due course, his sanctuary was constructed nearby. Views on the veridicity of this Passio antiquior vary. Delehaye, as has been noted, was entirely sceptical.5 Obviously it belongs to a genre of hagiography, incorporating many notorious clichés: the revelation of the soldiers’ Christianity, their refusal to take part in rites of sacrifice, their trial, imprisonment with angelic visitations, their torture and execution, the prodigies which followed their death, the refusal of wild beasts to devour their corpses, their surreptitious burial until a more appropriate sanctuary could be erected. The way in which Passions were composed is well known. They were usually ‘mosaics’, put together with details borrowed from earlier ones. D. Woods has undertaken the most radical analysis of this Passion. He has linked it with the reign of Julian the Apostate, who is the only emperor known to have humiliated recalcitrant soldiers by parading them publicly in women’s clothes. Franchi de’ Cavalieri suggested that this Passion draws upon a lost one of Juventinus and Maximinus.6 Woods does not agree. He conjectures rather that the author of the Passio antiquior had at his disposal ‘a lost account of the sufferings of some of their fellow Christian soldiers at the same period’.7 He draws attention to anachronistic details such as the unlikelihood of a schola gentilium forming part of the imperial bodyguard before the advent of Constantine. He goes yet further. ‘Sergius and Bacchus are fictitious martyrs’, who vanish, to be replaced by two anonymous Christian soldiers exiled (not martyred) under Julian, while the cult of the legendary Sergius developed around an anonymous grave at Rusafa!8 The origins of the less celebrated cult of Bacchus at Barbalissus would have been similar. Delehaye himself could not have disposed more devastatingly of two ‘fictitious’ martyrs! A. Baumstark dated the Passio antiquior to the fifth century, as did Brock.9 It is no doubt to be associated with the growth of interest in their relics and cult at that period. The Bishop of Hieropolis, in whose diocese Rusafa was situated (it had not yet become itself the seat of a bishop), financed the construction or restoration of Sergius’ sanctuary before the 5 H. Delehaye in his ‘Bulletin’, An. Boll. 23, 1904, ‘Je tiens à dire … que je ne leur ai jamais attribué la moindre valeur historique’. Cf Woods, art. cit. supra (n. 2), p. 339. 6 P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, ‘Dei SS. Gioventino e Massimino’, Note Agiografiche 9, Studi e testi 175, Rome, 1953, pp. 169–200. 7 Woods, art. cit. supra (n. 2), p. 344. 8 Ibid., pp. 364–5. 9 A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluss der christlich-palästinischen Texte, Bonn, 1922, p. 95 and n. 2; S. Brock, ‘The Syriac Background’, Archbishop Theodore. Commemorative Studies on His Life and Influence, ed. M. Lapidge, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 30–53.

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Council of Ephesus (431).10 However, the first explicit allusions to the Passio antiquior are to be found in an Encomium pronounced by Severus of Antioch on 1 October 514.11 He referred to the appearance of Bacchus to Sergius in prison, in order to strengthen his courage. He also dwelt on their resemblance and their mutual affection: I said ‘with Bacchus’, because in our discourse we must not separate those whom the crown of martyrdom has joined together. They were alike in build, in physiognomy, in grandeur. They were young in body and even younger in spirit. They were in agreement in the same spirit of piety.

Jacob of Sarug (died 521) praised them in a verse Homily: ‘Beautiful name, Sergius, which is beloved to all ears, and whose story is the favourite and the pride of the populace.’12 It will be noted that Jacob of Sarug does not link the name of Bacchus with that of Sergius. The latter was by far the more popular of the two. United they may have been in heaven, but in terrestrial cult Sergius is often on his own. These testimonies to their passion and cult are all posterior to the reign of Julian the Apostate (died 26 June 363). Consequently there is no chronological objection to the hypothesis of Woods that the Passio antiquior was put together at about that time. Nevertheless, to my mind, if Woods (and Delehaye) refuse any claim to veracity to the Passio antiquior and suppose that neither saint ever actually existed, they go too far. The hagiographer knew how to tell a good – and, in parts, original – story within the framework of the genre: their intimacy with the emperor, their influence in favour of a protégé, their rejection by both emperor and protégé on account of their unshakeable adherence to the Christian religion, above all their profound friendship, founded on their common faith and their soldierly camaraderie, qualities which were to be held up as an example for emulation to other male couples, whatever the nature of their relationship.13 The analogous case of St George may be adduced, whose historicity is accepted, even if nothing genuine about his life is known. Similarly, I personally would accept the historicity of Sts Sergius and Bacchus without difficulty. Further, for them, unlike George, I would maintain that we

10 Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, ed. E. Schwartz, Strasbourg, 1914, 1.4, p. 185; cf. 1.4, pp. 162–7. 11 Severus of Antioch, Homily 57, SS. Sergius and Bacchus, Syriac translation of James of Edessa, ed. R. Duval, Patrologia orientalis 4, Paris, 1908, pp. 83–94. 12 Jacob of Sarug, ‘Mimra on the victorious Sergius and Bacchus’, ed. P. Bedjan, Acta martyrum et sanctorum, Paris, 1890–97, after Key Fowden, pp. 25–6. 13 It was this aspect of the Passio antiquior which particularly intrigued J. Boswell, op. cit. supra (n. 1), pp. 170–7, and sub indice.

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do have some genuine knowledge. As to what is authentic in the Passio antiquior, our criteria are necessarily in part subjective. Woods has pointed out that the first part, up to the dispatch of the two soldier saints to Antiochus, is superior in style and composition to the second part. With the exception of their unusually close friendship and the removal of their maniakia, an action which does not recur in other accounts of the martyrdom of warriors, the whole of the first part may well be derivative. Nevertheless, because so many details in Passions were borrowed from others – or at least set out in the same clichés, it does not follow that there was not a genuine historical substratum. Woods finds the second part, with its embellishments of monks performing burial rites and of recurring prodigies, even less veridical than the first.14 Curiously, my reaction is the opposite. I am impressed by the accuracy of the account of Sergius’ itinerary from Barbalissus to Rusafa, although I am prepared to concede that maybe he did not run all that way shod with iron nails.15 I find it highly unlikely that this account was ‘lifted’ from a lost one of the exile of two recalcitrant soldiers under Julian the Apostate. Sometimes it seems that those who study these Passions are almost as inventive as the hagiographers themselves. Fictitious or historical, St Sergius and – in a lesser degree – Bacchus received considerable cult particularly in the East. The impressive ruins of Rusafa, which continue to be excavated, make it clear that this was no shanty shrine.16 Excavations have revealed an earlier structure under the church built or restored by the Bishop of Hierapolis before 431. Anastasius I had Sergius’ thumb translated to Constantinople. He made Rusafa into an independent bishopric (514–18), renaming it Sergioupolis.17 Justinian

14

Woods, art. cit. supra (n. 2), p. 355. It was studied by the Bollandist editor of the Latin version of the Passio antiquior, vid. supra (n. 1), pp. 840, 863–70 (the text should be read in parallel with the Greek), by W.M. Ramsay, The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, London, 1890, p. 357, and by the Bollandist editor of the original Greek. For Rusafa, there is no problem; Sura is mentioned by Procopius in his De bello persico, I, Bonn 1833, p. 172, lines 5–6, as being close to the Euphrates. When the Pilgrim of Piacenza visited the region, probably some time between 562 and 572, he went to the city of Barbalissus ‘where St Bacchus, brother [sic] of St Sergius lies’ (another rebaptized anonymous tomb?), and on to the city of Sura ‘in the middle of which flows the river Euphrates which we cross at this point with a bridge’. He added, not in agreement with the account in the Passio antiquior, that both saints were martyred there. It seems unlikely that he visited Tetrapyrgium, which he confused with Rusafa as the site of Sergius’ sanctuary; it was, at that time, ‘in the country of the Saracens’, Récits des premiers pèlerins chrétiens au Proche-Orient, IVe-VIIe siècle, ed. P. Maraval, Paris, 1996, p. 235. 16 The site has been assiduously studied in recent years by the German archaeologist Thilo Ulbert and his team. For Ulbert’s extensive bibliography, Key Fowden, p. 215. Key Fowden summarizes their findings in her third chapter, pp. 60–100. 17 Key Fowden, p. 92. 15

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invested in practical constructions, a rampart and cisterns (527–42), so that the pilgrims and inhabitants could survive attacks by Arab (Saracen) marauders. He also endowed the sanctuary with a military garrison. The sanctuary was known to John Moschus (540/50–619/34)18 and, probably, Gregory of Tours (538–94).19 Sergius was eminently the protector of Rusafa, a specific commitment of some military saints (cf. Theodore Tiron and Demetrius). He intervened in order to prevent Chosroes from storming the city in 543. Despite the presence of Arabs, and, later, Ottomans, the sanctuary continued to be frequented by pilgrims. During the campaign of excavations in 1982, silver objects were unearthed at the Holy Cross church, buried there just before the Mongol onslaught in 1259–60.20 They all date from the thirteenth century. When the saints’ cult spread to the Dalmatian coast, their shrine at Skadar sometimes earned for the city the name of Rusafa!21 If the cult of the two saints, particularly that of Sergius, spread widely, both West and East, it was particularly concentrated in Syria. Theodoret of Cyrus mentions Sergius in his list of saints much venerated in Syria.22 This is amply borne out by the surviving inscriptions, placing a church under his protection and often associated with one of his relics. Several scholars give lists of churches dedicated to Sergius and, possibly, Bacchus. Their lists do not correspond exactly; moreover sometimes the date of the church is not certain. Thus the dating of the church at Eitha (modern Hit) to 354 is implausible, given the lack of evidence contemporary with it for the cult of Sergius. Key Fowden has reinterpreted the inscription, giving the much more likely date of 536–37 or 551–52, which coincides with the period of greatest building activity in honour of Sergius in the region.23 Delehaye also noted a cluster of churches around Rusafa, dependent on the sanctuary, which would not be earlier than 431, that is to say after the construction or restoration of the saint’s principal sanctuary.24 Two churches are securely dated to the fifth century: that at Salamina, 430–31,25 and that at Edessa, 435–37.26 In

18

John Moschus, Pratum spirituale, PG 873, 3052. Gregory of Tours, De gloria martyrum I 97, PL 71, 790–1; Ewig, p. 393. 20 Key Fowden, pp. 185–6. 21 V. Djuric´, ‘Crkva Bogorodice u Bogdasˇ ic´u i njene freske’, Zograf 16, 1985, pp. 26–40. 22 Theodoret of Cyrus, Thérapeutique des maladies helléniques, ed. P. Canivet, Paris, 1958, II, p. 335. For the date of the text, ibid., I, pp. 28–31: before the council of Ephesus, 431, possibly before Theodoret became bishop in 426. 23 Key Fowden, pp. 105–7. 24 H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, Brussels, 1933 (2nd edn), pp. 209–10. 25 Fr. Halkin, ‘Inscriptions relatives à l’hagiographie’, Etudes d’épigraphie et d’hagiographie byzantines, London, 1973, I, p. 99. 26 Maraval, p. 352. 19

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the early sixth century, dedications become more numerous: one at Bosra, 512–13;27 at Sheikh Miskin, 517;28 at Gaza, for which we have Choricius’ description of the dedication, 527–50 (when Choricius was master of rhetoric there);29 Justinian’s building at Constantinople, 527– 36.30 A significant number of early representations of the two saints, particularly of Sergius, have survived, although, according to Key Fowden, none can be dated earlier than the mid-sixth century.31 First in the list, naturally, comes the mosaic in the church dedicated to Sergius at Gaza, built by the governor of Palestine Stephen, probably about 536. According to Choricius, Stephen, standing by Sergius, ‘asks him to accept the gift graciously. Sergius consents, and … lays his right hand on Stephen’s shoulder, being evidently about to present him to the Virgin and her Son, the Saviour’.32 We know of no follow-up to this mosaic, although the iconographical formula is attested for other saints: a scene in which a saint presents the donor to Christ with or without the Virgin was considered appropriate in the apse or elsewhere in the church in question. However, other iconographical traditions for Sergius and Bacchus are better documented. An important find was made in the 1920s at Rusafa, a stone mould for making ‘eulogies’ (small pious objects intended to be taken away by pilgrims from a sanctuary). It is marked with a figure on horseback, accompanied by the legend: Eulogy of St Sergius.33 Maria Marlia did not, 27

Ibid., p. 330. Halkin, op. cit. supra (n. 25), I, p. 107. 29 Maraval, p. 304; F.K. Litsas, ‘Choricius of Gaza and His Descriptions of Festivals at Gaza’, JÖB, 32/3, 1982, p. 430. 30 Janin, pp. 451–4; Maraval, p. 408. A church about which much has been written, but whose purpose (a place of worship at Constantinople for the Monophysites?) has been principally studied by C. Mango in two articles, ‘The Church of Sts Sergius and Bacchus at Constantinople and the Alleged Tradition of Octagonal Palatine Churches’, JÖB 21, 1972, pp. 189–93; ‘The Church of Sts Sergius and Bacchus Once Again’, BZ 68, 1975, pp. 385–92, reprinted Studies on Constantinople, Aldershot 1993, no. XII and no. XIII. In my review of this volume, REB 53, 1995, pp. 374–6, I expressed my opinion that it was unlikely that Justinian lavished large sums of money on building this church and on improving amenities at Rusafa only in order to win favour with the Monophysites. Would not his hope that the common devotion of Monophysites and Chalcedonians to Sts Sergius and Bacchus would help to heal the breach between them have been more in line with his Religionspolitik? On the complex question of frequentation of sanctuaries, notably in Syria, by separated Christians, vid., besides Maraval, esp. pp. 133–6, 152–62, M. Mundell, ‘Monophysite Church Decoration’, Iconoclasm, ed. A. Bryer and J. Herrin, Birmingham, 1977, pp. 59–74. 31 Key Fowden, pp. 29–44. 32 Litsas, art. cit. supra (n. 29). English translation, Mango, p. 62. 33 A. Jalabert and R. Mouterde, ‘A propos de saint Serge, aviation et épigraphie’, An. Boll. 67, 1949, p. 116. In 1924, it was in a private collection in Aleppo. 28

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seemingly, take this object too seriously, because it is of uncertain date.34 However, the production of such objects, particularly at the sanctuaries of St Symeon Stylites the Younger and St Menas,35 flourished in the sixth century. It would be reasonable to conjecture that the stone mould for making eulogias of Sergius dates from about the same time. Key Fowden has noted prophylactic objects with the same iconography and, in consequence, obviously related to the stone mould:36 a bronze attachment in the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri, a bronze bracelet once in Beirut,37 a lead seal in the Zacos collection38 and possibly a bracelet in the Jeffrey Spier collection, New York.39 Thus clear evidence exists for the continued production of prophylactic objects connected with Sergius, deriving from eulogies made at Rusafa. Independently, a tradition developed of representing Sergius – with or without Bacchus – either full-length Orans, as in the votive mosaic in St Demetrius, Thessaloniki,40 or in bust form. From the iconographer’s point of view, the mosaic in the church of St Demetrius has several advantages. First, its seventh-century date is pretty secure; secondly, the portrait is accompanied by an inscription, naming the saint and likely to be contemporary with the mosaic; thirdly, Sergius is wearing what would be most commonly his (and Bacchus’) attribute, the maniakion. This is not the place in which to attempt a detailed study of what was, in fact, just a torc, made of precious metal and worn around the neck. It was known to the Gauls and Persians, and was conferred on barbarian soldiers for acts of outstanding bravery. It was later worn by members of an emperor’s or a high officer’s personal bodyguard, often his standard-bearers. It became, in fact, part of official dress. In the De cerimoniis,41 it is described 34 M. Mango, art. cit. supra (n. 30), p. 68, n. 97. For Eulogia in general, see K. Wessel, ‘Eulogia’, RBK 2, cols 427–33, making apparently no direct allusion to this object. 35 For Menas, Maraval, pp. 319–22 and C. Walter, ‘The Origins of the Cult of St George’, REB 53, 1995, p. 305, citing the opinion of Z. Kiss that production began about 400. Vid. infra, X. 36 Key Fowden illustrates these objects, pp. 29–44. 37 C. Mondesert, ‘Inscriptions et objets de Syrie et de Palestine’, Syria 37, 1960, pp. 123– 5, fig. 4. 38 G. Zacos and A. Verglery, Byzantine Lead Seals, Basle, 1972, no. 2975, Text, I 3, p. 1680, Plates I, pl. 202. 39 Now in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, acquisition number 986.181.93. 40 Dated to the 7th century and widely commented. R. Hoddinott, Early Byzantine Churches in Macedonia and Southern Serbia, London, 1963, pp. 153–4, plate 33b: R. Cormack, ‘The Church of St Demetrius. The Water-Colours and Drawings of W.S. George’, The Byzantine Eye, London, 1989, II, no. 40. 41 De Cerimoniis II 1, Bonn, p. 410. The candidati received fom the emperor’s hands a gold maniakion with three jewels. Compare I 8 5, Bonn, p. 391, line 13, and II 52 8, Bonn, p. 708,

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how the emperor himself bestowed the maniakion. Curiously, by the time of the composition of the De officiis, the word had lost the meaning of torc and was used instead to denote a sleeve.42 In official scenes, where a ruler is accompanied by a bodyguard, its members may be represented wearing the maniakion. For example, in the two miniatures in the Rossano Gospels, ff. 8 and 8v, of Christ before Pilate the guards wear the maniakion.43 It is the same with Justinian’s guards in the celebrated mosaic in San Vitale, Ravenna.44 Such banal examples, of no great significance in themselves, help nevertheless to bring out that of the maniakion in the iconography of Sergius (and Bacchus). In this respect, pace the Pseudo-Kodinos, their Passion is exceptional. Consequently it may be readily understood why Sergius (and Bacchus) were usually, but by no means always, represented wearing the maniakion of which they had been deprived. It became a sign of their victory and their enlistment in the celestial army. Since Byzantine texts and iconography provide little evidence that the maniakion was an attribute of other military martyrs, it is plausible to suppose that, when one military figure is represented wearing the maniakion, he is Sergius; if there are two, they are Sergius and Bacchus. The best-known early example of the two saints together wearing the maniakion is no doubt the icon, taken away from St Catherine’s, Mount Sinaï by Bishop Uspensky and now in Kiev.45 The legend specifying their line 18–20. See M.P. Speidel, ‘Late Military Decorations: Neck- and Wristbands’, Antiquité tardive 4, 1996, pp. 235–43, esp. pp. 236–9. 42 Pseudo-Kodinos, Traité des offices, ed. J. Verpeaux, Paris, 1966, pp. 199–200. The passage is most informative. He compares the change in meaning of diadema (formerly crown, in his time girdle) with that of maniakion (p. 219, sleeve), to which he preferred the word ÛÙÚ¤ÙÔ˜ (already used in Antiquity meaning a collar of twisted or linked metal). He also relates that tyrants had the girdle, a mark of honour, and the ÛÙÚ¤ÙÔ˜ taken off before the martyr was handed over to the executioners. In writing this, he may have been drawing on a text like the entry for Sts Sergius and Bacchus in the Sirmondianus, Syn. CP. 115, line 25 (7 Oct.), where, however, the word maniakia is used. This use of maniakion for torc may well have been obsolete in the time of the Pseudo-Kodinos. It does not occur in the Metaphrastic Life of Sergius and Bacchus, vid. supra (n. 1), PG 115, 1009a, where, in fact, there is no reference, when they were stripped of their badges of rank, to a torc, only to a girdle. 43 A. Muñoz, Il codice purpureo di Rossano, Rome, 1907, plates xiii, xiv. 44 F.W. Deichmann, Frühchristliche Bauten und Mosaiken von Ravenna, Mainz, 1958, fig. 359; Idem, Ravenna Geschichte und Monumente, Wiesbaden, 1969, p. 122. The maniakia worn by Justinian’s guards do not seem to have attracted his attention. 45 The first serious study of this icon was probably that of D. Ainalov, ‘Sinaiskija ikoni voskovoj zˇivopisi’, Vizantiiskii Vremmenik 9, 1902, pp. 352–61, fig. III. He was also probably the first to note the importance of the maniakion as the two saints’ attribute. Surprisingly it had escaped the attention of Gabriel Millet, Le monastère de Daphni, Paris, 1899, p. 147, plate X 4 and XI 4 (as Ainalov pointed out, art. cit., p. 359, n. 1). Millet, in describing the

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names, was only added later; consequently it does not really confirm, what is nevertheless surely evident, that these two young men, each wearing the maniakion, are, in fact, the ‘heavenly twins’. Moreover, it seems that their portrait type was already established. Their faces are, of course, youthful and beardless; they have an abundant, rounded, curly coiffure. They also resemble each other closely, as if they were, in fact, really twins. The same process of identification may be applied to other representations of young men wearing a torc, such as the two saints represented on a phial for oil, now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore,46 dated to the second half of the sixth century, and the silver bowl from Kerynia, Cyprus, now in the British Museum, dated by its stamp between 641 and 651.47 Thus a fairly large documentation for St Sergius (and Bacchus), consisting of objects of high artistic quality, has survived from the period before Iconoclasm.48 It can be augmented by two objects, on which the persons represented were certainly not Sergius and Bacchus, although their names were inscribed next to them. One is an imperial cameo of Honorius and Maria in the Rothschild collection, Paris. The reidentification is the more surprising, given that Maria’s features are evidently feminine. The other reidentification is more plausible, because the two (Roman) figures are soldiers, wearing military costume and facing each other. The subsequent (Byzantine) inscription, naming them Sergius and Bacchus, is in Greek.49 Sergius and Bacchus continued to be represented in Byzantine art after Iconoclasm, but they did not enjoy the same popularity as St George and the Theodores. In Cappadocia I have noted 11 examples of their portrait, few of which have been studied assiduously by specialists. The earliest one recorded is that in Yılanlı kilise, Hasan Dag˘ı, dating from the second portraits of the two saints at Daphni, drew attention only to the sword and spear which they hold as emblems of their military function. Their maniakia did not escape the eye of Josef Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom, Leipzig, 1901, pp. 125–6. He considered their torcs, decorated with three jewels, to be a sign of their noble rank. Ainalov dated the icon to the 6th century. However, subsequently art historians have opted rather for the 7th century, notably E. Kitzinger, ‘On Some Icons of the Seventh Century’, The Art of Byzantium and the Medieval West, ed. W.E. Kleinbauer, Bloomington/London, 1976, p. 240, n. 26 (with extensive bibliography), fig. 9. See also Weitzmann, Icons, B 9, pp. 28–30, fig. 30. 46 Age of Spirituality, no. 536, pp. 536–7. 47 Byzantine Treasures, no. 135, pp. 120–1; Age of Spirituality, no. 493, pp. 548–9. Neither catalogue entry provides an adequate bibliography. The highly detailed study by O.M. Dalton, in which the silver bowl was first presented, ‘A Silver Treasure from the district of Kerynia, Cyprus, now preserved in the British Museum’, Archaeologia 57, 1900, pp. 158–65, ought certainly to be consulted. 48 Key Fowden, pp. 29–44. 49 H. Leclercq, ‘Gemmes’, DACL 6, col. 857, fig. 5143.

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half of the ninth or the first half of the tenth century.50 Next in date would be that in Direkli kilise, Belisırma, a church which was painted between 976 and 1025.51 The two saints, whose portraits are (or were) in good condition were represented in sumptuous court dress, closely resembling each other. They are beardless, but do not have, as sometimes elsewhere, abundant curly hair. They do not wear the maniakion, but each holds a martyr’s cross in his right hand. For Kılıçlar kilise, Göreme no. 29 (mid-tenth century) no detailed description is available.52 In Sümbüllü kilise at Yes¸ilköy, Íhlara (end of the tenth to the beginning of the eleventh century), Bacchus is identified by the accompanying inscription, and Sergius, whose inscription has not survived, by his resemblance to Bacchus.53 No detailed description is available. For their portraits in St Barbara, Sog˘anlı (1006 or 1021) again no detailed information is available.54 In Elmalı kilise, Göreme no. 19 (mid-eleventh century), the two saints are represented (as usual) as young and beardless.55 In Karanlık kilise, Göreme no. 23, (mid-eleventh century) their bust portraits, reproduced by de Jerphanion, display the usual youthful martyrs, with an abundant coiffure but no military attributes.56 They also appear in Yusuf koç kilisesi (eleventh century), in bust form and holding a martyr’s cross, in the vault next to the right arm of the church.57 They appear again in Ala kilise (probably eleventh century), but no description of them is available.58 In Karabas¸ kilise, de Jerphanion noted the portraits of Sts Sergius and Bacchus in the vault of an arch on the right-hand side. He copied the accompanying inscriptions with their names, but did not describe the

50 Thierry, Nouvelles églises, p. 102, plate 52c (where, however, Sergius is hardly visible); Eadem, ‘De la datation des églises en Cappadoce’, BZ 88, 1995, pp. 433–5; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 310. 51 Thierry, p. 102, plate 84c; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 323, 326–7; Thierry, art. cit .supra (n. 50), pp. 433–5. 52 Jerphanion, I, p. 210; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 141 (date). 53 Thierry, p. 176, Jolivet-Lévy, p. 307 (date). 54 Jerphanion, II, pp. 307–2; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 262. 55 Jerphanion, I, p. 436. This church and the following one (Karanlık kilise) belong with Carıklı kilise, Göreme 22, to the group called by de Jerphanion ‘églises à colonnes’. He dated them to the mid-11th century. For confirmation of this dating, see N. Thierry, ‘L’art monumental byzantin en Asie Mineure du XIe au XIVe siècle’, DOP 29, 1975, p. 87, n. 68, and C. Jolivet-Lévy, ‘Carikli kilise, l’église de la précieuse croix à Göreme (Korama), Cappadoce: une fondation des Mélissènoi?’, EYæYXIA, Paris, 1998, I, pp. 301–11. 56 Jerphanion, I, pp. 396, 401, plate 105 1, 108; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 135. 57 N. Thierry, ‘Yusuf koç kilisesi, Eglise rupestre de Cappadoce’, Mélanges Mansel, Ankara, 1974, p. 197, reprinted in Peintures d’Asie Mineure et la Transcaucasie aux Xe et XIe siècles, Variorum, London, 1977, IX; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 72, n. 37, p. 15 (dating). 58 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 330.

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paintings.59 There have been several repaintings between the beginning of the tenth century and 1060–61 (date of an engraved inscription).60 They also figure in the church of St George, Belisırma (Kirk dam altı kilise), dated 1283–95, in medallions on the north wall to the left of the apse. They were in a good state of preservation in 1962.61 The dossier of representations of St Sergius and St Bacchus in Cappadocia is disappointing. Since descriptions are mostly inadequate, generalization can only be tentative. The recorded paintings extend over a long period, but their descriptions provide no evidence of development in their iconography. There seem to have been only stereotyped portraits of the two saints. Young, beardless, with abundant hair, they closely resemble each other. They are dressed invariably as courtier martyrs holding a cross. They have no military attribute and never wear their typical maniakion. Consequently, it is clear that in Cappadocia they were venerated primarily as martyrs, not as warrior saints. Later, since their Passion was included in the October volume of the Metaphrastic Lives at the date of their commemoration (7 October), they were represented in some illuminated manuscripts of the volume: Vindobon. hist. graec. 6, f. 3v, the frontispiece with a gallery of saints, in which they are presented as young courtiers with sheathed swords and a long, thin, black cross;62 Mosq. graec. 175, f. 37v, portraits, holding spears and f. 50, martyrdom (one falls forward while the other stands praying);63 Istanbul Greek Patriarchate, Chalke Ùɘ ÌÔÓɘ 80, f. 39v, clad in loincloths and inserted into the upright bars of the letter M;64 Vatican graec. 1679, f. 48v, composing the initial M by holding a sword between them, wearing court dress and each holding a spear in his outer hand.65 It is to be noted that there is little to suggest that these miniatures are related except, perhaps, negatively. In no case are the two saints dressed in armour, although they carry some weapon except in the scenes of martyrdom; nor do they wear a maniakion. This is less surprising if the term was falling into desuetude when the Metaphrast wrote his version of their Passion. Sergius and Bacchus do not figure on any of the great ivory triptychs, while their presence is irregular among military saints in monumental 59

Jerphanion, II p. 340. N. Thierry, ‘Etude stylistique des peintures de Karabas¸ kilise en Cappadoce, 1060– 1061’, CA 17, 1967, pp. 161–75; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 267–70. 61 Thierry, Nouvelles églises, p. 208. 62 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 19. 63 Ibid., p. 53. The miniature should be compared with that of their martyrdom in Vatican. graec. 1613, p. 95, reproduced by Boswell, op. cit. supra (n. 1), fig. 16. 64 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 112. 65 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 162; Boswell, fig. 6. 60

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art. Beside the mosaics of Daphni,66 some other important examples should be noted. One is their portraits in the church of Nea Moni, where, in fact there are in all only seven military saints.67 They wear court dress but hold sheathed swords. Neither has a maniakion. They are not represented in the mosaics at Hosios Loukas, nor in the paintings in the crypt. They do not figure in the series of warrior saints at Decˇani. On the other hand, there are clipeate portraits of them, in court dress but wearing the maniakion, in the Kariye Camii,68 and bust portraits in the Protaton, Mount Athos, again wearing the maniakion but holding a martyr’s cross.69 Finally, a few miscellaneous artefacts should be mentioned. The ivory coffer, which passed from the Medici collection to the Bargello, Florence, in 1879, is fairly large (490mm long, 152mm wide, 120mm high). It has long attracted the interest of scholars.70 Various figures are represented on it: Christ and his Mother, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul and John Chrysostom. One would hardly expect to find Sergius and Bacchus in such august company; one may suppose that the person who commissioned the coffer had a special devotion to them. They are represented together on one of the shorter sides, youthful, the usual portrait type, in court dress, holding a martyr’s cross and wearing the maniakion.71 The two saints are also represented on a reliquary of St Demetrius in the Dumbarton Oaks collection.72 Demetrius is portrayed on the reliquary in bust form as a military saint with armour and a sword. On the other side, Sergius and Bacchus are full-length in tunic and chlamys, holding a cross. An inscription, clearly alluding to them, invites the two triumphant martyrs, together with Demetrius, to protect the owner of the reliquary. Possibly he was called Sergius or Bacchus. 66 Millet, op. cit. supra, n. 45, p. 147. Better reproductions in E. Diez and O. Demus, Byzantine Mosaics in Greece: Daphni and Hosios Loukas, Cambridge (Mass.) 1931, figs 68, 69. 67 D. Mouriki, The Mosaics of Nea Moni, Chios, Athens, 1985, nos 51 and 53, pp. 71–3, 154– 6, plates 58, 60, 196, 197, 200, 201. The other military saints are Theodore Stratelates and Orestes (one of the Holy Five), both in armour, Menas, Nicetas and Eustratius, all, like Sergius and Bacchus, in court dress. 68 P.A. Underwood, The Kariye Camii, New York, 1966, III pp. 265, 266, figs 516, 517. 69 G. Millet, Monuments de l’Athos I, Les peintures, Paris, 1927, fig. 40 1, 41 1. Dated to the early 14th century, A.M. Talbot and A. Cutler, ‘Protaton’, ODB 3, 1742. 70 Probably first published by H. Graeven, ‘Adamo e Eva sui cofanetti bizantini’, L’Arte, 1899, fig. 13a; Strzygowski, op. cit. supra (n. 45), p. 125; Dalton, art. cit. supra (n. 47), pp. 158–60, fig. 2. 71 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, Elfenbeinskulpturen I, Kästen, Berlin, 1930, no. 99 a–e, p. 56, plates LVIII, LIX, give the fullest description, dating the coffer, as did Dalton, art. cit. p. 169, to the 12th century. Curiously, they call the maniakia Märtyreringen, which, of course, is not exact. 72 A. Grabar, ‘Un nouveau reliquaire de St Démétrius’, DOP 8, 1954, pp. 305–13.

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Three icons at St Catherine’s, Mount Sinaï, merit attention. One portrays three saints, all beardless, in court dress and holding a martyr’s cross in their right hand. The name of only one is legible, Nestor, but the central figure, wearing a maniakion, is likely to be Sergius and not Demetrius, as the Sotirious suggested. They dated it to the eleventh century.73 On another icon, dating from the last quarter of the thirteenth century, Sergius and Bacchus are represented on horseback, in armour with weapons, wearing circlets and maniakia. As usual, they closely resemble each other. The iconography – together on horseback and fully armed – is exceptional for these two saints, but common enough, for example, for the two Theodores. The Sotirious proposed a thirteenthcentury date and execution in some place under Venetian domination.74 The third icon, on which Sergius figures alone, has many points in common with the previous one: his facial features, his arms and armour (the sheathes on both are remarkably alike). Only the maniakion is missing. Weitzmann proposed an Italian origin for this icon, perhaps Apulia. It would not be presumptuous to conjecture that both these icons were executed in the same workshop.75 One final monument should be recorded. It is a modest church dedicated to Sts Sergius and Bacchus at Kitta, Mani. A dedication inscription over the West door asks the Lord to help George, his wife and children, he who has built this church in honour of the saintly martyrs Sergius and Bacchus and St George. The two bust portraits in the apses are rather damaged, but they are evidently Sergius and Bacchus; only one of them wears the maniakion, which can be easily distinguished and which is adorned with three jewels. A twelfth-century date has been proposed for this church.76 The essential features of the iconography of Sergius and Bacchus were set out by Dalton a century ago: ‘the beardless type of face and the

73 G. and M. Sotiriou, Icônes du Mont Sinaï, Athens, 1956, no. 47, II, p. 64. Their reasons for identifying the two unnamed saints as Demetrius and Procopius are not clear. They noted that ‘Demetrius’ was wearing a maniakion. Vid. sup. pp. 82–3; 97–8. 74 Ibid., I, no. 185, II, pp. 170–1; Sinaï, p. 192, fig. 66. 75 K. Weitzmann et al. Ikone (Serbian edn), Belgrade, 1983, pp. 206, 232 (reproduction). American edn, The Icon, New York, 1982, reproduction also p. 232. 76 M. Altripp, Die Prothesis und ihre Bildausstattung in Byzanz unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Denkmälers Griechenlands, Frankfurt am Main, 1998, p. 250. The church and paintings were described with singular brevity by N. Drandakis in \AÚ¯·ÈÔÏÔÁÈÎa \AÓ¿ÏÂÎÙ· \ÂÍ \A©ËÓáÓ 4, 1971, p. 236, where he writes of the portraits of the saints to whom the church is dedicated in the prothesis and diakonikon, giving no detailed description, and, a fortiori, not mentioning the maniakion. The dedicatory inscription over the West door was transcribed and translated by P. Greenhalgh and E. Eliopoulos, Mani. Reise zur Südspitze Griechenlands, Munich, 1988, p. 118.

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chlamys are constant features, the collar [sc. maniakion] is sometimes omitted, and the attributes vary between a cross and a sword’.77 They could be represented primarily as martyrs, not as military saints. Another aspect of their iconography cannot be set aside lightly, particularly since John Boswell published his book on Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe.78 It is based on the analysis of over 50 texts in manuscripts ranging from the eighth to the seventeenth century, which record, he maintains, a ceremony of homosexual union.79 Whether his designation of these texts is accurate, does not concern us here. Boswell wrote, no doubt correctly, that Sergius and Bacchus, since they constituted the archetype of a saintly couple,80 were commonly cited in these texts.81 Although none of the texts is illustrated by a miniature of Sts Sergius and Bacchus, Boswell nevertheless uses their iconography in support of his thesis. It must be said that he does not do this with the competence of an art historian. One should not, perhaps, blame him for dating the icon of the two saints in Kiev to the sixth century, for here he has followed A. Grabar.82 However, it was sentimental to see in the miniature of the two saints jointly holding a sword in Vatican graec. 1679, f. 48v83 ‘Sts Sergius and Bacchus … united as they were in life’ (plate 50). Placing two figures in an initial letter was a commonplace formula in Byzantine manuscript illumination. Equally, his interpretation of the miniature of their martyrdom in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 95,84 is romantic. This representation does not specifically ‘put the accent on their reciprocal attachment and on the sorrow which they experienced at being present at the martyrdom of their companion’. Again it is a commonplace iconographical formula: one martyr is executed while the other awaits his turn. Boswell noted himself that the scene is not in conformity with the account of their martyrdom in the Passio antiquior. It is surprising that he did not make more of a characteristic trait of their iconography: their extraordinarily close resemblance. He wrote of them as ‘the very incarnation of the couple of military saints’. This is true enough, but Boswell’s statement that Sergius and Bacchus were often represented together, their haloes 77

Dalton, art. cit. supra (n. 47), p. 160. Boswell, vid. supra (n. 1). 79 Ibid., pp. 363–4. 80 Ibid., p. 168. 81 Ibid., p. 213. 82 Ibid., p. 432, n. 172: A. Grabar, L’art byzantin, Paris, 1938, no. 60. Boswell could have consulted more recent bibliography. Vid. supra (n. 45). 83 Vid. supra (n. 63), fig. 16. The connotations which Boswell attributes in his text to the word ‘homosexual’ are not consistent. 84 Ibid., fig. 6. 78

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touching or on horseback with the horses’ nostrils touching,85 is not correct. It may be asked what light the fact that Sergius and Bacchus were regularly invoked in the texts which Boswell studied might cast on their iconography.86 The hagiographers certainly presented the two saints as closely united, both by their military camaraderie and by their profound adherence to the Christian faith. Their characters were closely similar, as well as their features in iconography. They have the same youthful, beardless faces and the same abundant, often curly, hair. Although at the beginning, Sergius was the more popular of the two, receiving more assiduous cult especially at Rusafa, after Iconoclasm he was usually represented – and hence revered – together with Bacchus. Their Passions and the iconography which they inspired provide us with an excellent paradigm for the warrior saint. This may be because the texts were more deliberately structured by hagiographers in what had become an established literary genre. To end this entry, it may be useful to summarize the traits in their Passions which became regular features in the repertory of warrior saints. Whether or not these traits were authentic is beside the point. First of all, in spite of the fact that their military status was clearly defined, no information is given about their active engagement in battle. As will be seen, this was often the case, although there are notable exceptions. Secondly, their Passions begin with their avowal that they were Christians, on account of which they were cashiered and stripped of their military insignia, an incident which occurs regularly in those of other warrior saints. Thirdly, another regular

85 Boswell, p. 175. He cites no example of this iconography, and, in fact, none is known to me. The two saints are rarely represented on horseback. Only one example is known to me, a Crusader icon dating from the last quarter of the 13th century at Sinaï, Sinaï, pp. 119, 192, no. 66. They are represented decorously apart as was usual in the iconography of two warrior saints on horseback What Boswell writes about them is more applicable to the Theodores – and, actually, he does make similar observations about them (with inaccuracies), pp. 180–1. They were also, apparently, invoked in ceremonies of homosexual union, but with the inconvenience that hagiographers attribute no personal relationship to them during their lifetimes. A 19th-century icon of the Theodores, their cheeks touching and their haloes overlapping, on horseback with their horses exchanging friendly glances, is now in the Museum of Icons, Plovdiv (plate 60). Vid supra, I: the Theodores, p. 66, n. 123. Further, Boswell, p. 434, n. 172, refers to representations of these two saints dating from the 4th century! In his support he cites O.M. Dalton, Byzantine Art and Archaeology, Oxford, 1911. On checking his references, I found that none of them supported Boswell’s implausible hypothesis that at that time pictures of Sergius and Bacchus already existed. 86 Boswell writes, incorrectly, that Sergius and Bacchus were never considered to be brothers. Vid. supra (n. 15), where the Pilgrim of Piacenza called them brothers. However, Boswell concedes that the terms used for them in Greek, for example Û‡Ó‰ÂÛÌÔ˜ and ëÙ·›ÚÔ˜, did not necessarily have erotic connotations.

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incident, an angel encouraged them to persevere to execution. Fourthly, at the moment of the execution of Bacchus, they avow their close bond of affection; the terrestrial camaraderie, common to many warrior saints, reaches fulfilment when they are reunited in heaven, triumphant athletes of Christ, and enlisted in the celestial army. When Sergius before his own execution sees Bacchus in a vision, he is wearing military dress. Fifthly, they exercise offices regularly attributed to warrior saints; they intervene to protect a city (Rusafa) or a person,87 and dispose of a tyrant.88 In their iconography, like other warrior saints, they sometimes wear a martyr’s tunic, sometimes military uniform. Either way they usually have some military attribute, a weapon, or, in their particular case, the Ì·ÓÈ¿ÎÈÔÓ.

87 In his Historia ecclesiastica, 15, 23, PG 147, 69, Nicephorus Callistus tells how Sergius and Bacchus intervened to rescue a man who had been put to the stake. They arrived on horseback, dressed in white. The man survived. In consequence, he was baptized, taking the name of Sergius. The names of his two sons were changed to Sergius and Bacchus. 88 For Sergius accompanying Theodore Tiron, when he disposed of the emperor Valens, vid. supra, I: the Theodores, p.54.

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VII St Eustathius There are important distinctions between Eustathius and Procopius, although they also had points of contact. While Procopius certainly existed, whatever transformation he underwent thanks to the fertile imagination of hagiographers, it is almost equally certain that Eustathius did not. Nothing historically verifiable is known about him, not even when and where he lived. Moreover no sanctuary is known where his relics might have been deposed, where his cult may have begun, and from which it might have spread.1 Perhaps this is why Hippolyte Delehaye did not consider him, unlike Procopius, as a candidate for the état-major. Yet Eustathius was by far the more popular of the two; he figures earlier in iconography and that of Procopius derives in part from his. The earliest source for Eustathius is a Passion (BHG, 641).2 This is closely followed by the Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 642),3 and by the Laudatio of Nicetas of Paphlagonia (BHG, 643).4 The Sirmondianus, 20 September, draws on these sources, adding that his martyrium in Constantinople was at the Deuteron.5 Eustathius’ legend spread widely. It was translated into numerous Eastern languages as well as Western ones, in which the account of the prodigy, the occasion of Eustathius’ conversion, was applied to St Hubert. Delehaye, whose publications on Eustathius6 are the point of departure for further research on the saint, suggested two

1 There does exist a convent in the basin of the Euphrates dedicated to the Apparition of Eustathius; it is claimed that his conversion took place there. A small chapel in ruins stands above the church, M. Thierry, ‘Deux couvents Gréco-Arméniens sur l’Euphrate Taurique’, Byzantion 61, 1991, pp. 496–519. Thierry dates the church to about the 10th century, p. 506; the ruined chapel may be earlier. The site is not implausible, but no objective evidence is available in favour of the hypothesis that the chapel was actually built on the site of his conversion. 2 AA SS, Sept. VI, Paris/Rome 1867, pp. 123–5; PG 105, 376–417 (at foot of page). 3 An. Boll. 3, 1884, pp. 61–113. 4 PG 105, 376–417. 5 Syn CP, 59–61. The only other evidence for a church dedicated to Eustathius at Constantinople is in a treatise, which appears under the name of Pseudo-Kodinos, De Aedificiis Constantinopolitanis, PG 157, 596, where it is attributed to the ‘Athenian Irene’; Janin, p. 118. 6 H. Delehaye, ‘La légende grecque de saint Eustache’, Mélanges d’hagiographie grecque et latine, Brussels, 1966, pp. 212–39. Vid. also Ireneo Daniele, ‘Eustachio’, BS, 5, 281–91, and for Western tradition, A. Monteverdi, I testi della leggenda di S. Eustachio, Bergamo 1909–10.

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possibilities for the origin of the legend: either Eustathius was the hero of a hagiographical fiction, who was later taken to be an authentic person, or he was an Eastern martyr, about whom nothing genuine is known. The fact that he is said to have been born in Rome under Trajan and martyred there under Hadrian does not imply that he was a Roman saint. Many points in the text make it evident that his Passio was composed far from the Eternal City.7 Eustathius has an undoubted claim to be considered as a warrior saint. It is as well to summarize first the dominant incidents in his life. He is presented as a soldier, an eminent and successful general.8 Still a pagan, while out hunting with his military comrades, he had a vision (explicitly compared in his legend with that of St Paul) of Christ’s image placed between the antlers of a stag. He and his wife and two sons were also converted. His name was changed from Placid to Eustathius. All of them were baptized. There followed a period of great hardship (explicitly compared with the trials of Job). He disappeared from public life, and the members of his family lost touch with each other. When barbarians invaded Roman territory, he was sought out to lead the Roman army against them.9 Unknown to each other, his two sons were recruited for the army. Although now a Christian, Eustathius had not renounced his military commitment. He won a resounding victory over the barbarians; he returned to Rome, covered with glory and laden with booty. However, when the emperor, now Hadrian, invited Eustathius to accompany him to the temple of Apollo, in order to render thanks to the god, Eustathius refused, because he and his family, now reunited, were Christian. Condemned to death, they were taken to the stadium, where the lion refused to molest them. They were then burned in a brazen bull. They died, but their bodies, which had remained unscathed, were retrieved by other Christians. The incidents in the legend which have received most attention are the saint’s vision of Christ between the antlers of a stag (analogous visions occur in the lives of other saints, although they were never as popular as his), and his death, with the other members of his family, in the brazen bull, more particularly the former. The theme of his Vision has been exhaustively treated for Cappadocia and Georgia by Nicole Thierry.10 The earliest examples in both regions

7

Delehaye, art. cit. (n. 6), pp. 237–9. Passio antiqua, PG 105, 379. 9 Ibid., 401–4. 10 N. Thierry, ‘Le culte du cerf en Anatolie et la vision de St Eustathe’, Monuments et Mémoires, 72, 1991, pp. 33–100, with a supplement by C. Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 101–6, adding three further examples in Cappadocia; Eadem, ‘Vision d’Eustache. Vision de Procope. 8

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date from the seventh century. Since the iconographical theme does not exist at that date in other regions, it is reasonable to suppose that his cult originated there. The cult of the stag was widespread, and hunting scenes were included in the repertory of Sassanid art (plate 18).11 These could easily be adapted as models for his Vision. However, the fact that Eustathius carries a spear in Cappadocian scenes does not signify that he was equipped as a soldier; in Georgian representations he carries a bow and arrow. Their weapons were for hunting, not for fighting. The frequent use of the scene in Cappadocia in a funerary context is confirmed by the inscriptions which accompany them as, for example, in the church of the priest John in the valley of Peristrema: ‘For the remission of the sins of the servant of God Theodosius.’12 The relevance of the theme to a funerary context could be that the saint’s Vision is interpreted as a preview of what all men may hope to experience in heaven: I Corinthians 13:12, ‘Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face.’ In Georgia, Eustathius never wears military dress in scenes of his Vision and only once in Cappadocia. This is in the late church (thirteenth century) of St George, Ortaköy, where, apparently, he also has a shield.13 The Vision is represented in all the marginal Psalters (plate 54).14 In each case, Psalm 96:11, ‘Light has sprung up for the righteous’, is illustrated. If the ninth-century Psalters have a connection, possibly through an archetype, with Palestine, as some scholars, including myself, have proposed, it would have been by means of them that the iconographical theme was received in Constantinople. In none of them, however, is Eustathius evidently dressed as a warrior. In the Barberini Psalter, f. 166v, he closely resembles Procopius (f. 108v), even in facial features. The scene of the Vision continued to be executed sporadically in Byzantine art, rarely in monumental painting, sometimes in manuNouvelles données sur l’iconographie funéraire byzantine’, APM√™, ÙÈÌ‹ÙÈÎÔ ÙfiÌÔ ÛÙeÓ Î·©ËÁËÙcÓ N.K. MÔ˘ÙÛfiÔ˘ÏÔ, III, Thessalonika, 1991, pp. 1845–60, bringing the total of the representations known in Cappadocia to 22. The early examples in Georgia are bas reliefs, Eadem, ‘Le culte du cerf’, pp. 79–90. 11 Eadem, ‘Le culte du cerf’, pp. 66–77. 12 Ibid., Schema no. 11, pp. 53, 54–6. 13 Ibid., Schema no. 13, pp. 53, 51–2. 14 C. Walter, ‘“Latter-day” Saints and the Image of Christ in the Ninth-Century Marginal Psalter’, REB 45, 1987, pp. 209–10; idem, ‘“Latter-day” Saints’; p. 216, fig. 13; reprinted, Prayer and Power, no. X, no. XI. In the Hamilton Psalter, Berlin, Kupferstichtkabinett 78 A 9, f. 136, Eustathius stands facing the stag; he holds his horse’s bridle, D. Pallas, ‘EåÎfiÓ· ÙÔÜ êÁ›Ô˘ EéÛÙ¿©ÈÔ˘ ÛÙc ™·Ï·Ì›Ó·˜’, X·ÚÈÛÙ‹ÚÈÔÓ Âå˜ K. \√ÚÏ¿Ó‰ÔÓ III, Athens, 1966, fig. 103b. A. Coumoussi, art. cit. infra (n. 17), p. 52, wrote incorrectly that Eustathius was not represented in the Barberini Psalter. In fact he figures on f. 166v, C. Walter et al., The Barberini Psalter. Codex vaticanus Barberianus graecus 372, Zürich, 1989, p. 118.

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scripts or on icons. It figures in his cycle in the September volume of the Metaphrastic Lives, London Add.11870, f. 151.15 His Vision also figures in the selection of Metaphrastic Lives, Esphigmenou 14, f. 52; here he is represented on horseback, again in civil dress.16 The painting from the end of the thirteenth century in the church of St Thecla, central Euboea, is in poor condition, but here Eustathius holds a shield as well as a spear, a sign that he is presented as a warrior. The details of his dress, on account of the poor state of the painting, are hardly distinguishable.17 D. Pallas has published an icon on Salamis, where Eustathius is represented in armour holding a shield, thus as a warrior.18 More to the point are two icons on Patmos, although both are postByzantine. No. 107, a biographical icon in the church of St George in the Chora,19 dates from 1610 to 1630. Eustathius, in the centre on horseback, wears military dress; he carries a spear and shield. A hand blesses him from a segment. The Vision is represented on the border in the top lefthand corner. Eustathius is kneeling; again he wears military dress. On no. 143, also a biographical icon, dated 1610–40, in the church of Eleimonitra, the Vision is in the centre. Eustathius, on horseback in armour with a spear, faces the stag.20 Finally, there are two wallpaintings. One, probably dating from the thirteenth century, is in the church of St Thecla, Euboea, mentioned above.21 The other is in the Trapeza of the Great Lavra, Mount Athos.22 Here Eustathius, in armour but without a weapon, stands, his arms outstretched in a gesture of adoration, before the stag. Thus it is mainly in the later representations that Eustathius is portrayed as a warrior. It may be more common for him to be wearing civil dress, because the Vision did not occur in a military context, but when he was out hunting. In fact his Vision was the primary motive for devotion to him. The other iconographical type for Eustathius, of which there are many examples although less than of the Vision, is his martyrdom with his family in the brazen bull (plate 32). As was customary in scenes of mar15

Walter, ‘September Metaphrast’, p. 15, fig. 8; he stands before the stag in court dress. Treasures II, plates 329–30. 17 A. Coumoussi, ‘Une représentation rare de la vision de saint Eustache dans une église grecque du 13ème siècle’, CA 33, 1985, pp. 51–60, drawing, p. 51. 18 Pallas, art. cit. supra (n. 14), plates 93, 99. 19 M. Chatzidakis, Icons of Patmos, Athens, 1985, pp. 141–2, plate 182. 20 Ibid., pp. 163–6, plate 182. 21 Coumoussi, art. cit. supra (n. 17), pp. 51–60. 22 G. Millet, Monuments de l’Athos I, Les peintures, Paris, 1927, Plate 147 1, at the extreme right of the Menologium; better reproduction in Thierry, art. cit. supra (n. 10), ‘Le culte du cerf’, p. 35, fig. 1. 16

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tyrdom, he is not in military costume (plate 32). Although the theme does not really concern us here, in passing some examples may be cited. One of the earliest is the painting in Tokalı kilise 2 (Göreme no. 7), dating from 950–60.23 The parents, their arms outstretched in a gesture of prayer, stand in the flaming brazen bull with their two sons either flanking them or in front of them. In the Menologium of Basil II, p. 53, the family is represented in the same way.24 Thus the iconographical type was already established in the tenth and eleventh centuries. It recurs in Metaphrastic volumes, Venice, Marc. graec. Z 586, f. 156,25 London. Additional 11870, f. 151,26 in the selection of Metaphrastic Lives, Esphigmenou 14, f 52v,27 in the Oxford Menologium, f. 10,28 in various churches usually in a Menologium, for example Gracˇanica, where one of the sons is portrayed climbing into the bull to join his parents and brother,29 in the Trapeza of the Great Lavra30 etc. Finally, there are the portraits of Eustathius. The earliest are probably those in Cappadocia. Among the fairly numerous examples, Jolivet-Lévy has noted two of the saint in military dress: in Karabalut kilise, Avcılar, dated to the first quarter of the eleventh century,31 and the church of Ören, Nar, probably eleventh century,32 where besides his cuirass, he holds a shield in his left hand. Maybe there are other examples which have not yet been recorded. It is clear that by the tenth century Eustathius was accepted at Constantinople as a member of the celestial army, even if he was not included in the état-major. He figures among them on the well-known tenthcentury ivories: the Borradaile triptych, where he wears military dress and holds a sword and spear;33 the Harbaville triptych, again in military dress with a sword and spear;34 on the triptych in the Museo cristiano, but in court dress;35 probably on the triptych in the Palazzo

23

Thierry, ibid., p. 40. Vatican graec., 1613, p. 53 (20 Oct.). The text, PG 117, 62, closely resembles that of the Sirmondianus, vid. supra (n. 5). 25 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 178. 26 Vid. supra (n. 1). 27 Vid. supra (n. 16). 28 Oxford gr. th. f. 1, f. 10, Hutter, Corpus II, no. 1, pp. 4–5, fig. 15. 29 P. Mijovic´, Menolog, Belgrade, 1973, p. 289, schema 21, p. 290. 30 Vid. supra (n. 22). 31 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 77. 32 Ibid., p. 231, plate 136, fig. 3. 33 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann II, no. 38b, p. 36; Byzantium Treasures, no. 153, pp. 142–3. 34 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, no. 33, pp. 34–5, plate xiii; Splendeur de Byzance, Iv. 8, pp. 99–100. 35 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, no. 32a–b, p. 34, plates xi, xii. 24

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Venezia;36 wearing military dress, and again on the ivory in the Hermitage,37 in military dress and holding a sword in his left hand. There appears to be only one portrait of Eustathius in a manuscript. He figures in the frontispiece to the Metaphrastic volume, Oxford Barocci 230, f. 3v,38 with all the saints for September, in the centre of the third row with his family. He wears civil dress. In wallpainting Eustathius regularly figures in echelons of military saints. Only two outstanding examples will be cited. In both he is represented as a warrior: in the parecclesion of the Kariye Camii, Constantinople (plate 8), at the west end of the north wall;39 and at Decˇani.40 The tradition of the cult of Eustathius had several peculiarities, which have been noted in passing. Although his portrait type seems to have been established early and continued without great modification – thick brown hair, sometimes waved as at Decˇani, and a bushy brown beard – unlike that of Demetrius, whose portrait varied across the centuries. However, he remains an obscure figure. Both of Delehaye’s propositions – an early oriental martyr, of whom no traces remain, or a literary invention – are equally plausible; neither can be proved. Apart from the detail that he had one church dedicated to him in Constantinople,41 later texts add nothing to his earliest Passio. Nothing is known as to the development of his cult before the seventh century, the date of the first surviving representations of his Vision. He had no Eulogia; he performed no miracles, but it is evident from funerary iconography that his intercession was valued in Cappadocia, where his cult was in part personal. Elsewhere, from the tenth century it was generally official. Whether founded on lost historical sources, or a purely literary invention, his Passion makes a good story: a successful pagan general converted by a vision to Christianity; the subsequent trials and separation from the other members of his family; his recall to command the Roman army in a victorious campaign against pagan invaders; a triumphal return to Rome, the reuniting of the members of his family; and finally their execution as Christians. Thus his military status was affirmed in a more detailed fashion than for most warrior saints. As for his cult, the evidence for it is provided mainly by iconography. 36 Ibid., no. 31, p. 33, plates x and lxiii. The inscription is lost, but, by analogy with the other ivory triptychs, on which he invariably appears, the most likely identification of the figure would be Eustathius. 37 Alisa Banck, Byzantine Art in the Collections of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, 1966, no. 126. 38 Hutter, op. cit. supra (n. 28), I, 1977, no. 34, pp. 49–50, fig. 172. 39 P.A. Underwood, The Kariye Djami, New York, 1955, pl. 261. 40 Markovic´, fig. 8. 41 Vid. supra (n. 5).

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In Constantinople in the tenth century, his iconography was modified. Representations of his Vision became less numerous and ultimately sporadical, but portraits of him as a warrior became frequent, first on ivories and then in wallpainting. Paradoxically, although Eustathius became the object of Byzantine devotion on account of his Vision, his Passion is unusually rich in information about his military commitment both before and after his conversion. His actual trial and martyrdom follow the conventional pattern, but it was rendered unusually piquant by the fact that he was an eminently successful general. In other Passions it is also implied that for pagan emperors military valour and success were no compensation for adherence to Christianity. When the Byzantines began to systematize the cult of warrior saints, Eustathius was coopted to the echelon. This coincided with a decline in interest in him as a visionary.

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VIII St Kyrion and the XL Martyrs of Sebasteia The passion of the XL Martyrs of Sebasteia is one of the best authenticated. The Homilies of Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and that attributed to Ephrem of Syria date back to within a century of their death.1 The martyrs’ Testament, which is considered to be authentic by the majority of specialists, would even have been composed before they were put to death.2 The literary sources are abundant, but in some cases difficult of access.3 A number of good studies of them exist, but many are now dated.4 It was therefore an excellent initiative to organize a symposium about them in Belfast.5 The way was opened for a new synthetical study – and possibly re-edition of the texts. Fortunately, here we are only concerned with the military status of the XL Martyrs. Fortunately, also, enough material is available to treat the subject, if not definitively, at least adequately. According to Franchi de’ Cavalieri, in spite of their differences, the early accounts of their martyrdom and of the subsequent development of their cult do not contradict each other. Unlike him – and others – for whom the starting point is Basil’s Homily, we shall begin with what purports to be the earliest text, the Testament. Its purpose is stated in the 1 Basil, Laudatio (BHG, 1205), PG 361, 508–26; Gregory of Nyssa, Laudationes (BHG, 1206–8), PG 46, 749–88 (the third closely following Basil’s); Ephrem of Syria, Laudatio (BHG, 1204), S. Ephrem Syriae Opera Omnia V, ed. C. Assemani, Rome 1732, II, pp. 341–6. 2 Testamentum (BHG, 1203), translated into French, H. Leclercq, Martyr, Paris, 1903–5, II, pp. 385–9; into English, H. Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian Martyrs. Text and Translation, Oxford, 1972, pp. 354–60. 3 Besides the above, Passio (BHG, 1201), R. Abicht and H. Schmidt, ‘Quellennachweise zum Codex Suprasliensis’, Archiv für slavische Philologie 18, 1896, pp. 144–52; Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 1202), B. Latysˇev, Menologia anonymi bizantini quae supersunt I, Petrograd, 1911, pp. 337–47; Theodore Studite, Catechesis (BHG, 1208b), ed. C. Auvray, Paris, 1881, pp. 217– 20. 4 H. Leclercq, ‘Quarante Martyrs de Sébaste’, DACL 14, 2003–6; P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, Note agiografiche 7, Rome 1928, pp. 155–84; A. Amore, ‘Sebastia XL martiri di’, BS 11, 768– 71; A. Kazhdan and N. Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, ‘Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia’, ODB 2, 779–80. 5 Belfast Byzantine Colloquium, The XL Martyrs of Sebasteia, held well over a decade ago. Publication was promised in 1987–8. Most deplorably, at the time of writing (2002), this volume has still not appeared. Reference can therefore only be given to the abstracts, except for that of P. Karlin-Hayter who has published an expanded version of her paper, ‘Passio of the XL martyrs of Sebasteia. The Greek tradition: the earliest account (BHG, 1201)’, An. Boll. 109, 1991, pp. 294–304.

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first paragraph: to prevent their relics from being dispersed. Although they came from different places, they all fought the same fight; consequently they wished to be buried together at Zela in the country of Saleim near Sebasteia in Cappadocia. Moreover, they did not wish their relics to be dispersed. It is notorious that their wishes were not respected. Even Basil and Gregory of Nyssa were parties, without compunction, to this dispersal. In the Testament, it was not stated that all the martyrs were soldiers. In fact, Eunoïcus, a child, would surely not have been old enough to serve as a soldier. He was, however, committed to be present at their martyrdom, having taken part in their combat which he would continue, but he would not himself be put to death.6 Nevertheless, he figures in the list of their names. These lists vary, at least in the order of names. Kyrion’s name is not placed first here, nor in the Sirmondianus, although it was in other synaxaries.7 Basil first wrote that all the XL Martyrs were warriors. He called them ÙÔÜ XÚÈÛÙÔÜ ÛÙÚ·ÙÈáÙ·È and Ê·Ï¿ÓÍ ÛÙÚ·ÙȈÙÈ΋.8 Basil must have depended on oral sources rather than the Testament. Thus two traditions ran parallel: one left open the social status of the XL Martyrs; the other affirmed definitely that they were soldiers. According to Basil, they were all young; their military qualities had been proved, which earned them the favour of the emperor.9 Gregory of Nyssa also wrote that they were young, adding that they were handsome and robust, members of the twelfth legion Fulminata which was stationed at Melitene near Sebasteia.10 Both Cappadocian Fathers were involved in the distribution of their relics, more particularly Gregory of Nyssa.11 It is therefore likely that neither was familiar with the Testament, unless they simply ignored it. According to Maraval, the most important factor in the wide and rapid spread of their cult was Basil’s Homily.12 However, Karlin-Hayter 6 Actually, in one version his mother put his living body on the cart with the others to be burned, so that he would not be deprived of the glory of martyrdom. 7 Syn CP, 521 (9 Mar.). 8 Vid. supra (n. 1), § 3, 512b, § 1, 508c. 9 Franchi de’ Cavalieri, op. cit. (n. 4), p. 158. 10 Ibid., p. 168. For the legendary origin of the legion’s name, vid. infra, XXV: Sts Polyeuctus and Nearchus, n. 98. 11 Basil, vid. supra (n. 1), PG 31, 521; Gregory, ibid., PG 46, 784b. He had his parents buried beside a relic ÙáÓ ÛÙÚ·ÙȈÙáÓ. The rescue of their relics from the river into which they were thrown is attributed to Peter, Bishop of Sebasteia, in later versions of their Passion, for example the Metaphrastic Life, op. cit. (n. 3), p. 347. Peter was a historical figure attested in other texts, P. Devos, ‘S. Pierre Ier, evêque de Sebaste, dans une lettre de Grégoire de Nazianze’, An. Boll. 79, 1961, pp. 346–60. 12 P. Maraval, ‘Les premiers développements du culte des XL’, abstract, Colloquium, cit. (n. 5).

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considered that their Passio also had a wide distribution which began before that of Basil’s Homily. She went even further, maintaining that the Passio was Basil’s principal source. On the other hand, Cunningham’s view was that the Passio was dependent on the Homily.13 There were relics of the XL Martyrs at Sion near Myra in Lycia by the fifth century, and at Chalcedon and Theodosioupolis by the sixth century, when they also spread to Syria and Jerusalem.14 However their principal shrine was to become that at Caesarea in Cappadocia, where a martyrium is attested from the end of the fourth century, at which date their cult is also attested in Constantinople, where at least eight churches were dedicated to them,15 in marked contrast to Mercurius who had none! A clear witness to the popularity of their cult in the ninth century may be found in Ignatius the Deacon’s Life of the patriarch Tarasios, written about 847. He described scenes of martyrdom commissioned by the patriarch for churches. Among them figured that of the XL Martyrs: Who contemplating those who firmly resist, naked and immobile on winter ice and in cold winds, submitting to those who break their legs and throw into a burning fire their bodies, which survive the brazier of coals thanks to their natural solidity, would not wish to have them for protectors and would not ask for their support by fervent and instant prayers?16

This text introduces us to the XL Martyrs in art.17 Reference to their portrayal was already made by Basil.18 According to Kazhdan and Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, their martyrdom on the icy lake was to become, after the Great Feasts, one of the most popular subjects in Byzantine art.19 The martyrs were invariably represented naked apart from a loincloth, so that they cannot be identified as warriors. This was not anomalous, 13 Karlin-Hayter, art. cit. (n. 5); M. Cunningham, ‘St Basil’s Homily on the XL MM’, Colloquium. 14 P. Maraval, index sub Martyrs XL (de Sébastée): Idem, Colloquium. 15 Janin, Eglises et monastères, pp. 486–492. 16 Ignatii Diaconi Vita Taraisii Archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani (BHG, 1698), ed. I.A. Heikel, Helsingfors, 1889, p. 415, lines 13–18; W. Wolska-Conus and C. Walter, ‘Un programme iconographique du patriarche Tarasius?’, REB 38, 1980, pp. 250, 257. 17 Summary accounts of their iconography: A. Chatzinikolaou, 1059–61; K.G. Kaster, ‘Vierzig Märtyrer von Sebaste’, LCI 8, 550–3. More developed accounts of scenes of their martyrdom: O. Demus, ‘Two Palaeologan Mosaic Icons in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, DOP 14, 1960, pp. 89–109; H. Maguire, Art and Eloquence in Byzantium, Princeton, 1981, pp. 36–41; T. Velmans, ‘Une icône au Musée de Mestia et le thème des Quarante Martyrs’, Zograf 14, 1983, pp. 40–51. 18 Vid. supra (n. 1), § 2, 508c–509a. Quoted by John Damascene, ed. B. Kotter, p. 146; PG 94, 1361. 19 Kazhdan and Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, art. cit. (n. 4), 780.

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because in scenes of their passion warrior saints do not wear their military uniform, of which they were stripped, or stripped themselves, at their trial.20 Since the iconography contains no specific sign of their status as soldiers, it is not necessary to enter into the detail of this vast repertory. Only one question need detain us here: is there any means of knowing whether they were, in fact, all warriors? Some figures in these scenes have the features of older men, in spite of both Basil and Gregory saying that all the XL Martyrs were young soldiers.21 Before discussing this apparent anomaly, however, it is preferable to examine the alternative forms of their iconography. One was a cycle of their martyrdom.22 It occurs in marginal psalters and one church. In the psalters, it appropriately illustrates Psalm 65:12: ‘We went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of refreshment.’ Basil had already quoted this verse with regard to the XL Martyrs in his Homily.23 Theodore Studite quoted Basil in his letter to the emperors Michael and Theophilus.24 The Psalm was used in the office of the XL Martyrs,25 and verse 12 was quoted in the Ekphrasis of a lost painting in their church near the Chalkoun Tetrapylon.26 Of the four marginal psalters which still contain their cycle, the earliest are the Theodore and Barberini Psalters.27 It also occurs in the Hamilton and Kiev Psalters.28 The folio for Psalm 65 is missing from the ninthcentury psalters and the Baltimore Psalter, almost certainly torn out for their illustrations. One may conjecture that the representation of the Martyrs’ exposure on the icy lake (not the whole cycle), framed in the

20 For examples of the warrior stripping himself of the signs of his military status, vid. infra, XXIII: St Sabbas Stratelates, n. 111, citing Follieri. She lists, besides Sabbas, Gordius of Caesarea (XLIII), Procopius (III), and Mercurius (IV). To these may be added Polyeuctus (XXV). 21 Franchi de’ Cavalieri, op. cit. (nn. 9, 10), pp. 158, 168. 22 D.P. Buckle, ‘The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. A Study of Hagiographical Development’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 6, 1921–22, pp. 352–60. 23 Basil, vid. supra (n. 1), § 8, 521 b. 24 Theodore Studite, Epistulae II 199, PG 99, 1608–9. 25 Le Typikon de 1a Grande Eglise, ed. J. Mateos, Rome, 1962, I, p. 244. 26 ^√ M·ÚÎÈ·Óe˜ Îá‰È˙ 524, N¤Ô˜ ^EÏÏËÓÔÌÓ‹ÌˆÓ 8, 1911, pp. 126–7. 27 London Add. 19352, f.81r–v (dated 1066), Der Nersessian, pp. 36, 92–3, figs 130, 131; Vatican Barb. graec. 372, f. 107r–v (c. 1100), C. Walter et al., The Barberini Psalter, Codex Barberinianus 372, Zurich 1989, pp. 48–9, 95; Walter, ‘Latter-Day’ Saints’, p. 221; reprinted, Prayer and Power, no. XI. My still unpublished paper on these cycles, Colloquium, cit. (n. 5), is corrected here on a number of points. 28 Berlin Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett 78 A 9, f. 130r–v, unpublished hitherto, but due to appear in my paper for the Colloquium (n. 5); St Petersburg, Saltykov-Sˇ cˇedrin State Public Library 1252 F vi, f. 86 (1397), G. Vzdornov, Issledovanie o Kievskoj Psaltiri, Moscow, 1978, p. 123.

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eleventh-century Psalters, was copied from the Chludov Psalter. Three representations still exist in Santa Maria Antiqua, Rome; they date from the seventh to eighth century.29 If, with all the possible cycles available, the Studite monk Theodore, the illustrator of the London Psalter, opted for the XL Martyrs and no other, it was no doubt because, first, his eminent predecessor of the same name greatly venerated them30 and, secondly, because he himself came from Caesarea in Cappadocia.31 Only one example of their cycle has survived in wall painting, in the church of St Sophia, Ohrid (c. 1050).32 It differs in some respects from those in the marginal psalters. These cycles only advance our enquiry in a negative sense: they show that, even in a developed cycle, there is no iconographical sign that the XL Martyrs were revered as soldiers. It is otherwise with the portraits in Cappadocian churches. These have not been studied as assiduously as the scenes of martyrdom and the cycles. Descriptions of them are rarely developed, and no global study of them exists. Consequently, it is worth listing all the examples mentioned by specialists. Those portraits in which the martyrs do not wear military dress can be listed summarily.33 As soldiers, they are represented at St John the Baptist, Çavus¸in (seventh to ninth century).34 In Karabas¸ kilise (early tenth century) they are also on horseback and called › ±ÁÈÈ ÛÂÚ¿ÓÙ· (sic).35 In Göreme no. 3 (tenth century), they are on foot holding spears.36 In the Pigeon House (Kus¸luk kilise), Çavus¸in (962–69) (plate 69e), where they accompany on foot John I Tzimisces and the Armenian general Melia on horseback, they wear 29

Demus, art. cit. (n. 17), pp. 101–2, fig. 6; Maguire, op. cit. (n. 17), pp. 36–41, fig. 18. Theodore Studite, Parva catechesis, vid. supra (n. 3), pp. 217–20. He recommended their perseverance under great suffering as an example to his monks. 31 Der Nersessian, p. 13. 32 G. Babic´, Les chapelles annexes des églises byzantines, Paris, 1969, pp. 117–19, fig. 83; C. Grozdanov, ‘Ciklusot na Ceteriesette Macˇenici vo Sveta Sofia Ohridska’, Studii za Ohridskiot Zˇivopis, Skopje, 1990, pp. 42–50; my review of the latter, REB 50, 1992, pp. 336–7. 33 In chronological order: (1) Güllü Dere no. 4 (913–20), Thierry, Haut Moyen-Age I, p. 139; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 37, 44 (date); (2) Pürenli seki kilisesi (first half of 10th century?), Thierry, Nouvelles églises, pp. 138–9, fig. 65a; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 304, 305; (3) Kubbeli kilise, Holy Apostles (first half of 10th century), Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 264, 295; (4) Tokalı 2, Göreme no. 7 (950–60), ibid., pp. 107, 108; Restle II, pp. 107, 108, x, figs 98, 99; (5) Pancarlık kilise, Ürgüp, St Theodore (before 1000), Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 219, 222; Restle II, xxv, fig. 37; (6) St Eustathius, Göreme no. 11 (second half of 11th century) Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 115, 117; Restle II, xiii, fig. 134; (7) Ala kilise, Belisırma (c. 1200), Thierry, Nouvelles églises, p. 198, fig. 90; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 330. The typical scene is only represented once in Cappadocia, XL Martyrs, S¸ahinefendi (1216–17), Thierry, Nouvelles églises, pp. 98–100; Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 206, 207; Restle III, xliv, figs 421, 422. 34 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 25, 26. 35 Ibid., pp. 268, 270. 36 Jerphanion I, pp. 143, 600; Restle II, iii, plate 45. 30

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armour and carry a sword in the left hand with sometimes a spear in the right. Their identity is certain, because some of their inscriptions are still legible.37 This picture is unique, because it is the only existing one in Byzantine art in which the XL Martyrs are represented undertaking one of the particular functions of warrior saints: protecting the army. It is therefore all the more appropriate that they are wearing military dress. I shall return to these frescoes in the following section. A miniature in Messina Biblioteca Universitaria, San Salvatore 27, f. 190v, is doubly unique. It is the only surviving one illustrating their Life in a Metaphrastic volume, and its iconography is exceptional.38 Twentyone figures in court dress holding a cross are bunched together, but they are not standing on a lake. Patterson Sˇevcˇenko has suggested various explanations of this anomalous picture. Clearly the artist has made a mistake. The most plausible explanation may be that, having no model available, he simply copied the preceding miniature, f. 172v, of the 42 Martyrs of Amorium. The two miniatures are, indeed, closely similar. Other representations of them appear in manuscripts. Since they are not fully listed elsewhere, I propose to do so here, although all are versions of the typical scene with no indication that the martyrs were soldiers. The best known is that in Mosq. 183, f. 179.39 There is another in Jerusalem, Sabbas 208, f. 6v.40 The miniature in Dionysiou 50, f. 202, has not been published. In conclusion, it may be said that the literary sources, apart from texts which depend directly on the early homilies, do not affirm that the XL Martyrs were soldiers. The texts dependent on the homilies do, indeed, make a point of their military commitment. However, the Testament, Theodore Studite and Ignatius the Deacon, for example, do not dwell on their social status. They were above all martyrs who underwent terrible suffering. This and their apparent power as intercessors, particularly for the departed, inspired general devotion to them. Thus artists were free to give some of them features which would be quite unsuited to a young soldier. Kyrion, the only one for whom an independent portrait exists on the Borradaile triptych, who was one of their leaders, certainly has the 37 L. Rodley, ‘The Pigeon House, Çavus ¸ in’, JAB 33, 1983, p. 316, figs 6, 8; Thierry, Haut Moyen-Age I, pp. 49–50, the first and fullest description; N. Thierry, ‘Un portrait de Jean Tzimiskès en Cappadoce’, TM 9, 1985, fig. 2. 38 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 77. 39 Demus, art. cit. (n. 17), p. 103, n. 60, fig. 7; D. Treneff, Miniatures du ménologe grec du XIe siècle de 1a Bibliothèque synodale de Moscou, Moscow, 1911, plate VIII 36; S. Der Nersessian, ‘Moskovskii menologii’, Vizantija Jozn’ie Slavjane i Drevnjaja Rus’ Zapadnaja Evropa, Moscow, 1973, p. 110, n. 28. Now in the State Historical Museum. 40 A. Baumstark, ‘Ein illustriertes griechisches Menaion des Komnenonzeitalters’, Oriens Christianus II 1, 1926, pp. 70–1, plate II 1.

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beard of an older man. He can, it seems, be recognized in the front row of some typical scenes, for instance the mosaic icon at Dumbarton Oaks.41 It should also be noted that the way of representing them underwent a change after Iconoclasm. Instead of bearing their sufferings stoically, they manifest their pain openly and comfort each other.42 The later representations, notably in Georgia, are among the most poignant in Byzantine art. Furthermore, the XL Martyrs rarely undertake the specific offices of warrior saints. Kyrion only dispatches Julian the Apostate after he has been transmuted into Mercurius. They do not intervene in battle, and only once, in the Pigeon House at Çavus¸in, do they protect an emperor and his general. In this respect they are markedly different from such saints as the Theodores, Demetrius and George. Moreover, there are no apotropaic objects on which they are represented. Some warrior saints, notably Sergius and Bacchus, wear indifferently civil dress, holding a martyr’s cross, or military uniform. The same is true of the XL Martyrs in Cappadocia, although there the portraits in civil dress outnumber those in military uniform. We are brought, in consequence, to accept that the XL Martyrs, as their name may suggest, were revered above all as martyrs, and that their social status, military or civil, was of secondary importance. This may be why not even Kyrion ever figures in an echelon of military saints. Once again, we are presented with an example of warrior saints who are difficult to categorize. In their case, the literary sources are authentic, and merit serious consideration because, like all witnesses, they do not exactly agree. We are told that they were proved in battle, that they belonged to the legion Fulminata which is attested in other sources. We are also told that they were all young and handsome, characteristics which are not confirmed by their iconography. Various interpretations have been made of this discrepancy. However, it is clear that their enormous popularity derived, not from their military status but from the sensational nature of their martyrdom. Only one of them, Kyrion, was accepted, on an ivory triptych (plate 45a), as an associate of the warrior saints. The others only exercise an apotropaic function in one programme, that in the Pigeon House at Çavus¸in, to which I shall return in the following section.43

41

Demus, art. cit. (n. 17), fig. 1. He would be the fourth figure from the right in the front

row. 42 43

Maguire, op. cit. (n. 17), pp. 36–41. Vid. infra, p. 283.

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IX St Hieron and the Martyrs of Melitene Hieron and the Martyrs of Melitene follow naturally the XL Martyrs of Sebasteia, whose Passion was the model for theirs. As Peeters unflatteringly put it: ‘The whole narrative has been assembled shamelessly in imitation of the Passion of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia, interlarded with fables worthy of a poet somewhat lacking in inspiration.’1 It is with the fables, more extensively developed in the Metaphrastic Life than in the primitive Passion, that we are principally concerned here. Historically, Hieron and his companions are shadowy figures. No shrine or relics are attested which would have confirmed that they really existed, however suspect their Passion may be. As with other putative saints, the Byzantines seem to have accepted their authenticity. We have to draw on the texts which they have bequeathed to us. A version of their Passion must have existed and cult would have already been offered to them when the lost Greek text was composed, on which the Martyrologium Hieronymianum depends, itself dating from the mid-fifth century. Diocletian and Maximian, having been defeated by the Persians, needed to enlarge their army. Accordingly Agricolaus was dispatched to Cappadocia to recruit soldiers. Having heard rumours about a particularly robust worker in a vineyard called Hieron, Agricolaus sent men to enrol him. However, Hieron, not wishing to rub shoulders with a crowd of rascally soldiers, beat the men off with a club. He and his companions, who were also to be recruited, took refuge in a cave. When other men were sent to press-gang him, Hieron again beat them off, encouraged by an eagle.2 Finally, on his brother’s advice, Hieron with his companions submitted to the recruiters. They were taken off to Melitene. There they were required to sacrifice. The preceding night, Hieron received a visitation from an angel in white clothing.3 He was told that his destiny was to engage in combat not for a terrestrial emperor but for 1 P. Peeters in his commentary on the commemoration of Hieron in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, AA SS, Propylaeum Novembris, Brussels 1940, p. 507. The primitive Passion (BHG, 749) is published in AA SS, Nov. I II, Brussels, 1910, pp. 329–35; the Metaphrastic Life, ibid., pp. 335–8, = PG 116, 109–20. See also Syn CP, 199–201 (7 Nov.); Menologium of Basil II, p. 166, PG 117, 148–9. General account, G. Lucchesi, ‘Gerone e compagni, santi, martiri di Melitene’, BS 6, 268–9. 2 PG 116, 112a = AA SS, p. 335, §4. 3 PG 116, 112c = AA SS, p. 336, §6.

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the celestial emperor. Hieron told his companions of the visitation. All being Christians, they agreed to boycott the sacrifice. The consequences of their refusal are recounted in the habitual clichés, with the addition that Hieron’s hand was cut off, because it had hit Roman soldiers. It was subsequently presented to his mother.4 One or two points in this narrative require comment. First, Hieron’s unwillingness to join the army was motivated not by opposition to military service as such but by his objection to being in bad company. Secondly, the actual occasion of his martyrdom and that of his companions was not directly related to their initial refusal to be recruited, nor to the army as such, but to their refusal to sacrifice. Considering that many soldiers were clandestine Christians and that the emperors needed reinforcements, it is surprising – but not without precedent – that these recruits, one of whom was an exceptionally robust man, should have been so summarily dispatched for their adherences to Christianity. A third point is that Hieron’s action in beating off the recruiters was applauded by later Christians; in fact it was considered, at least by the illustrator of the Sinaï Metaphrast, to be the central incident in his Life. It implies that Christians regarded military service with repugnance mainly because it obliged them to live with loose-living soldiers, a theme which also recurs in other Passions of warrior saints.5 Hieron was a fairly popular saint in his native Cappadocia.6 Although in the earliest picture of him in St John, Güllü Dere 4 (913–21), he wears court dress,7 in all other Cappadocian churches where he is portrayed he wears military uniform. Moreover, he is sometimes represented much larger than other saints and his image is placed in a prominent position near an entrance. The most interesting example is in the Pigeon House (Kus¸luk), Çavus¸in (c. 964–65), because here he enters into a distinctly military programme.8 About contemporary is the portrait in Tokalı 1 (a later addition, c. 950–60), on the north wall at the east end of the church. Here again he is larger than the other figures apart from St George, who faces him on the south wall. As Jolivet-Lévy has pointed out, the two warrior saints share the same rank and have the same apotropaic function.9 He is represented 4

PG 116, 117d = AA SS, 337, §15. John Chrysostom deplored the drunkenness and intemperance which reigned at military banquets, Homilia in Juventinum et Maximinum (BHG, 975), PG 50, 574. 6 C. Jolivet-Lévy, ‘Hagiographie cappadocienne. A propos de quelques images de saint Hiéron et de saint Eustache’, \E˘ÊÚfiÛ˘ÓÔÓ (Festschrift, M. Chatzidakis), Athens, 1991, pp. 205–18. 7 Ibid., p. 206. 8 Ibid., p. 205, fig. 108a; vid. supra, VIII: the XL Martyrs, who also appear in the church’s programme, and infra, p. 283. 9 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 206, fig. 9a. 5

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yet again in the church of the Cistern, Avcılar (eleventh century?),10 and in Saklı kilise (mid-eleventh century), where his lance and shield are clearly visible.11 Less likely is the identification of Hieron with a bearded saint in the church at Ören, Nar (eleventh century?).12 Only two letters of the accompanying inscription can be read: IE … These are almost the only pictures of Hieron extant in wallpainting. He does not figure in any echelon of warrior saints. Yet his cult was not only local, since he was awarded a Metaphrastic Life. However, only one manuscript of the third volume (3–16 November) in which his Life is illustrated exists: Sinaït. 500, f. 92v.13 It is a scene of Hieron beating off the recruiters. Set in front of a cave in a mountain, Hieron wields a club; he is about to hit a man who has seized him by the hand. Before them lie two figures, presumably other recruiters of whom Hieron had already disposed. There is another figure in armour behind to the right; he is kneeling. A bust figure of an angel with outstretched arms is placed to the upper right of the scene. There is an inscription on the miniature: ‘Hieron killing those who came to him. The angel is strengthening him.’ If it were not for the inscription, one might suppose that this is a conflation, for an angel did visit Hieron later in Melitene. In the text, as has been seen, an eagle appears in the clouds during one of his confrontations with the recruiters. However, since the bird is obviously a divine messenger, the confusion is not great, although, the inscription exaggerates in saying that Hieron actually killed ‘those who came to him’. Two other miniatures represent the mass execution of Hieron and his companions. One is in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 115;14 the other is in the Oxford Menologium, Bodley theol. f. 1, f. 16.15 They are fairly much alike. In the former miniature, two men have already been decapitated and lie on the ground. A group behind them and to the left await their turn. The foreground is occupied by Hieron, an old man with white hair and beard, naked apart from a loincloth; his hands are tied. He leans forward, while the executioner holds a sword above his head, ready to strike. In the latter miniature, two youths are being crucified to the left. Below them, numerous figures lie on the ground, having already been decapitated. To the right, Hieron, wearing a tunic, kneels; a deacon is addressing him. Again the executioner is ready to strike. 10

Ibid., p. 207, fig. 109b. Ibid., p. 207, fig. 110a. 12 Ibid., p. 207. 13 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, pp. 65, 227, n. 136; K. Weitzmann and G. Galavaris, The Monastery of St Catherine at Mount Sinaï. The Illuminated Greek Manuscripts I. From the Ninth to the Eleventh Century, Princeton, 1990, no. 28, p. 76, fig. 206. 14 Vid. supra (n. 1). 15 Hutter, Oxford II, pp. 8–9, fig. 27, p. 95. 11

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It was customary for soldier martyrs to be represented not wearing military uniform when they were put to death, while, in the first miniature, Hieron has not yet been recruited. Thus his status as a warrior is only explicit in the majority of his portraits in Cappadocia. That these portraits are sometimes outsize underlines the local popularity of his cult, which elsewhere, unlike that of the XL Martyrs, was singularly limited. In fact, he is only represented later in a liturgical context. Mijovic´ has recorded a mass execution in the wall calendar at Pec´,16 and Hieron alone in that at Pelinovo.17 Neither is illustrated in his book.. Why Hieron never figures in echelons of warrior saints is not clear, unless it was because he did not actually exercise the profession of a soldier. However, the message of the angel in the Sinaï Metaphrast underlines the fact that he was endowed with an essential quality of warrior saints: he was a soldier of Christ, not a soldier of the emperor. He was something of a maverick, reversing the habitual roles of executioner and martyr, by laying hands on the recruiters sent to press-gang him.

16 17

P. Mijovic´, Menolog, Belgrade, 1973, p. 365. Ibid., p. 379.

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X St Menas of Egypt Four distinct saints bear the name of Menas (MÂÓĘ). One can be eliminated from this enquiry at once, although he has sometimes been confused by modern scholars with the others. This is the Abbot Menas, portrayed on a sixth-century icon in the Louvre, with Christ’s hand placed on his shoulder. The inscription in Coptic calls him Father Menas Abbot.1 The second was Menas of Cotyaeum,2 whose legend is a branch of that of the third Menas of Egypt or Phrygia. With the possible exception of a lost mosaic icon only known from an inscription at Anazarbus,3 no specific representations of Menas of Cotyaeum are known; moreover, his story peters out in the literary sources. The fourth, who emerged during the reign of Basil I, was known as K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜, the eloquent. Unravelling his iconography from that of Menas of Egypt, a confusion for which the Byzantines themselves are primarily responsible, will be one of our tasks here. Menas of Egypt was the most outstanding of the three.4 The earliest source for him, not often quoted, is the hymn by Romanus the Melode (died after 555).5 Romanus refers to his Egyptian origins and his membership of the army in Phrygia.6 He calls Menas ÛÙÚ·ÙÈÒÙ˘.7 However, more detailed information is provided by the earliest surviving Passion.8 Both Romanus’ hymn and the earliest Passion depend on a yet earlier lost

1 N. Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, Age of Spirituality, no. 497, pp. 552–3; L’art copte en Egypte, Catalogue of exhibition, ed. E. Delpont, Paris, 2000, no. 72, pp. 108–9, among numerous presentations. The confusion with Menas of Egypt was made (surprisingly) by J. Leroy, Les manuscrits coptes et coptes-arabes illustrés, Paris, 1974, p. 39, n. 1; (less surprisingly) by M.C. Celletti, BS 9, 328 (fig.), 342 (text); and by G. Kaster, ‘Menas von Ågypten (von Cotyaeum in Phrygien)’, LCI 8, 3–7. 2 Maraval, p. 386. 3 M. Gough, ‘Anazarbus’, Anatolian Studies 2, 1952, inscription 4a; Fr. Halkin, ‘L’inscription métrique d’Anazarbe en l’honneur de saint Ménas’, Byzantion 23, 1953, pp. 239–43. 4 His bibliography is immense. Vid. particularly H. Leclercq, ‘Ménas (Saint), DACL 11, 324–97; J.-M. Sauget, ‘Menna (Menas), santo, martire? in Egitto’, BS 9, 324–45; Maraval, Lieux saints, p. 319, n. 70; M. Krauser, ‘Karm Abu Mena’, LBK 3, 1126–58; A. Kazhdan and N. Patterson Sˇ evcˇenko, Menas, ODB 1339. 5 K. Krumbacher, Miscellen zu Romanos, Munich, 1909, pp. 1–9. 6 Ibid., p. 2, verse 2. 7 Ibid., p. 5, verse 12. 8 Ibid., pp. 31–43 (BHG, 1254).

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Passion, which was modelled on Basil’s Homily on Gordius.9 Other embellished Passions exist in several Oriental languages.10 The cohort of which Menas was a member (ÙáÓ \PÔ˘ÙÈÏÈ·ÎáÓ which is not otherwise known) was sent under the Emperor Diocletian from Egypt to Cotyaeum in Phrygia; there Menas openly declared his faith and was in consequence beheaded. At this point, the probably legendary Menas of Cotyaeum emerged. In the local version, his body was burned there. In the Egyptian version it was carried, at his wish, in a coffin back to his native Egypt by the cohort. The voyage was perilous; monsters with heads like camels and long necks attacked the ship, but flames emerging from the coffin protected the soldiers; the monsters were dispersed. On its arrival in Egypt, the cohort was called upon to quell barbarians. Their captain took the coffin with them and, thanks to its presence, the barbarians were routed. However, when the cohort started back to Phrygia, no camel could bear the weight of the coffin containing the martyr’s relics. The soldiers were obliged to leave it at the place from which it would not budge. Before burying it and constructing a rudimentary shrine on the spot, a sculptor was engaged to carve a wooden image of Menas, who was represented as a soldier standing between two camels. (‘La vie de saint Ménas’, Leclercq observed, ‘est décidément une sorte de film, où les chameaux tiennent large place.’) The carving was taken back to Cotyaeum, where it became the focus of devotion to Menas. This would hardly have been necessary if his relics had never left the place.11 Yet another version even recounts that Menas was never martyred. He died naturally at his residence in Egypt, on the site of which his immense sanctuary was subsequently built.12 Conflicting as these legends may be and weak in historical veridicity,13 they do, nevertheless, all affirm that Menas was a warrior saint. The later Metaphrastic Life of Menas,14 which follows the same general pattern, also obligingly tells us that Menas was tall and handsome, a commonplace, of course, for military saints.15 9 PG 31, 489–507 (BHG, 703). P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, ‘Osservazioni sulle leggende dei SS. martiri Mena e Trifone’, Studi e Testi 19, Rome 1908, p. 9-18, demonstrated the dependence. P. Bertocelli, ‘Gordio’, BS 7, 121; vid. infra, XXVII. 10 M. Drescher, Apa Mena. A Selection of Coptic Texts Relating to St Menas, Cairo 1946. 11 Leclercq, art. cit. supra (n. 4), with passages from the Ethiopian version in translation. 12 Sophronius of Jerusalem, SS. Cyri et Ioannis miracula (BHG, 475–6), PG 67 3596. 13 H. Delehaye, ‘L’invention des reliques de saint Ménas à Constantinople’, An. Boll. 29, 1910, p. 126, ‘Les actes sont privés de la moindre valeur historique’. 14 Acta sancti Mena martyris Aegypti (BHG, 1250), ed. G. van Hooff, An. Boll. 3, 1884, pp. 258–70. 15 Ibid., p. 259, line 17.

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A considerable number of miracles were attributed to Menas. Kazhdan rightly wrote that it is never specified which Menas.16 However, they must have been performed by Menas of Egypt, because they are ancient and associated with a sanctuary. (Delehaye accepted this attribution ‘sans la moindre hésitation possible’.) There is no reason to connect them with Menas of Cotyaeum, and they were put together too early to be attributed to Menas K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜.17 The detail of these miracles does not concern us here. The only point to retain us is that in some of them Menas appeared in military dress, frequently on horseback. As for the cult of Menas of Egypt, it was principally connected at the beginning with his shrine.18 An immense number of eulogies or ampullas were made there and circulated far and wide. Both the shrine and the eulogies will be treated in due course. Meanwhile, it may be noted that a church was already dedicated to Menas in Constantinople before 425, when the Akoimetoi established themselves nearby. A second church is mentioned in a late Synaxary; there was a third in Thessaloniki, which was visited by Gregory Decapolites towards 831.19 Menas already had a church in Rome by the late sixth century, when Pope Gregory I preached there.20 The earliest reference to Menas of Egypt in a liturgical calendar is to be found in the Martyrologium Hierominianum.21 He was also mentioned in the Martyrologium Romanum, where he is called Mennas Aegyptianus miles Cotyaei.22 In the same martyrology, on 12 December, Menas, Hermogenes and Eugraphus are commemorated together.23 Since the latter two were the companions of the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜, it is clear that the fourth Menas had made his appearance.24 In the Sirmondianus, there are three com-

16

Art. cit. supra (n. 3), p. 670. H. Delehaye, ‘Les recueils antiques des Miracles des Saints’, An. Boll. 43, 1925, pp. 46– 9; Drescher, op. cit. supra (n. 10), pp. 7–96, 108–25, 150–9; P. Devos, ‘Un récit des miracles de S. Ménas en copte et en éthiopien’, An. Boll. 77, 1959, pp. 451–63; 78, 1960, pp. 154–60; idem, ‘Le juif et le chrétien, Miracle de S. Ménas’, ibid., pp. 275–81. In his article just cited, Delehaye promised a full treatment of the miracles in the next volume for Nov. of the AA SS. The promise was repeated in AA SS Propylaeum Dec., Brussels, 1940, ‘cum primum Deo placuerit’. However, this volume has not yet appeared. 18 For bibliography, Maraval, p. 319, n. 71. 19 Janin, pp. 333–4; G. Dagron, ‘La vie ancienne de Marcel l’Acémète’, An. Boll. 86, 1968, pp. 272, 290; Syn CP, 533–4, lines 53–4; Janin, p. 397. 20 Homilia 36 in Evangelia, habita ad populum in basilica sancti Mennae martyris die natalia eius, PL 76, 1259. 21 Sauget, art. cit. supra (n. 4), 339-341; AA SS Nov. II i, Brussels, 1894; Nov. II ii, Brussels, 1931, at 11 Nov. 22 AA SS Propylaeum Dec., Brussels, 1940, 510–12. 23 Ibid., 575. 24 J.-M. Sauget, ‘Menna, Ermogene ed Eugrafo’, BS 9, 346–8. 17

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memorations: one of Menas, entitled ÛÙÚ·ÙÈÒÙ˘, with Vincent and Victor on 11 November; another of the Invention of the relics of Menas K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ (17 February); a third, also of the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜, with Hermogenes and Eugraphus (10 December).25 The K·ÏÏÈÎÛÏ·‰Ô˜ with his companions were receiving cult in the East long before the Sirmondianus was written, because both he and Menas of Egypt were included in the Menologium of Basil II. There, however, the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ was not called a soldier; on the contrary, he was considered to have been a senator and a distinguished orator (hence his sobriquet). The legend of the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ was composed, no doubt, about the time of the Invention of his relics.26 An analysis of the text of his unpublished Passion27 has been made, provided by Delehaye and Sauget.28 The K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ was said to have lived under Maximian (305–13), not Diocletian (284–305) as Menas of Egypt. Maximian sent him to Alexandria, where he openly professed Christianity, and overwhelmed a crowd in the stadium by speaking eloquently for three hours about Christ’s divinity. In his turn, Hermogenes was sent there; he had Menas tortured and cut in pieces, but Christ miraculously restored him to life. Hermogenes was in turn converted. The emperor went himself to Alexandria with his notary Eugraphus and 10 000 men. When Eugraphus also became a Christian, the emperor put him to death with his own hands; he ordered Menas and Hermogenes to be beheaded. Menas had asked to be buried in Constantinople (which at the time of Maximian did not yet exist); this was refused. His body, placed in an iron coffin, miraculously floated thither, where it was rediscovered many centuries later and deposed in the ancient sanctuary of Menas the Egyptian. It is hard to understand why this narrative, which is both gratuitous and fantastic, was composed, but it was evidently taken seriously by the Byzantines. To return to Menas the Egyptian and his extraordinary cult, after the end of persecution a more impressive church was built on the site of his modest burial place at what came to be known as Karm Abu Mena by Lake Mareotis. However, the cult of Menas really developed only from the reign of Arcadius (395–408), who was responsible for the construction of the great basilica. The sanctuary expanded to vast dimensions in order to cater for the crowds of pilgrims, particularly in the reign of Zeno (474–91), who actually visited the sanctuary. In its heyday, it was served by hundreds of priests and thousands of tradesmen.29 In fact, it 25

Syn CP, 212–14, 470. Delehaye, art. cit. supra (n. 13), pp. 117–50; J.-M. Sauget, art. cit. supra (n. 24), 345–8. 27 BHG, 1270. There is also a Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 1271), PG 116, 368–416. 28 Delehaye, art. cit. supra (n. 13), pp. 121–5; Sauget, art. cit. supra (n. 24), ibid. 29 Sauget, art. cit. supra (n. 4), 332. 26

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has been described as the Egyptian Lourdes.30 Its prosperity continued up till the ninth century, when Arab depredations began. These continued to augment, reaching their height in the eleventh century. By the twelfth century, only the church of St Menas remained. Karm Abu Mena was then lost from view until German archaeologists rediscovered it at the beginning of this century.31 Their work was continued after the Second World War.32 From the point of view of iconography, the most important aspect of the cult of Menas is the production at his sanctuary of eulogies.33 The kilns at Karm Abu Mena have been rediscovered where these objects were made: small ceramic bottles resembling a pilgrim’s flask in shape. Water or oil was taken away in them from the sanctuary. The earliest ones, decorated with the portrait of Menas as an Orant surrounded by a border of bay leaves, date back to the reigns of Arcadius (457–74) and Zeno (474–91). These are few in number (plate 20).34 At the following level, starting in the reign of Justinian (527–65), the two camels, placed either side of Menas, were introduced, often with an inscription on the reverse and a cross, the whole surrounded by a border of bay leaves. In the last period, from Heraclius (610–41), the same motif persisted but was rigidly schematized, often with ÂéÏÔÁ›· inscribed on the reverse. When Arab invasions began, production dwindled and ultimately ceased. It is reasonably sure that these motifs were adapted from pre-Christian representations of Harpocrates (plate 19),35 but it cannot be inferred in consequence that Menas simply reincarnated the heathen god, since Early Christian artists regularly adapted pagan models to their needs. Given that the camels were not immediately introduced into the iconography

30

B. Bagatti, ‘Alla Lourdes d’Egitto’, La Terra Santa 26, 1951, pp. 26–31. K.M. Kaufmann, Die Ausgrabungen der Menasheiligtümer, Cairo, 1906–08; Das Menasstadt, Leipzig, 1910; Die heilige Stadt der Wüste, Munich, 1924. 32 P. Grossmann’s campaign reports, Abu Mina, Mitteilungen des deutschen archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo, 38, 1982, pp. 131–4; 40, 1984, pp. 123–51. 33 K. Wessel, ‘Eulogia’, LBK 2, 430–1. 34 For their extensive bibliography, both general studies and presentations of single ampullae, vid. the bibliographies accompanying the articles cited in n. 4. The pioneer study was by K.M. Kaufmann, Zur Ikonographie der Menas-Ampullen, Cairo 1910. Their exact dating is precarious, because the iconographical types, once established, continued to be used over a long period. The most recent studies by Z. Kiss are published in Travaux du Centre d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Etudes et travaux, Warsaw, 3, 1969; 5, 1971; 7, 1973; 9, 1976. He has attempted a chronological presentation according to the level at which the ampullae have been excavated. 35 This was established long ago by M. Kaufmann, ‘Menas und Horus-Harpokrates im Lichte der Ausgrabungen in der Menasstadt’, Oriens Christianus series 2, 1, 1911, p. 88–102, esp. p. 93, fig. 4 (Harpocrates standing in military dress), pp. 94–5, fig. 5 (Harpocrates taming hostile beasts held in his left and right hand). 31

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of Menas, it is likely that their presence reflects the incident in one variant of his legend where the ship carrying his coffin was attacked by obnoxious beasts with heads like camels, although it is possible that the legend developed from the iconography. The theme of Harpocrates taming hostile beasts was adapted to Menas, who is adored by the camels now submitted to him. That Menas was a soldier was not called in doubt by the Byzantines. However, on the ampullae his costume, a tunic and chlamys, is not evidently military. To find him wearing a cuirass is uncommon, in spite of the references in the texts to his military status, but some examples were noted by J. Drescher.36 Representations of him on horseback are also uncommon, but one figures on an ampulla37 and another, more interesting, in a Coptic manuscript in Manchester, Rylands Library, Coptic S. 33 (plate 56), where Menas is represented not only on horseback but also in armour with, anomalously, a maniakion.38 The ampullae spread far and wide. Yet it seems unlikely that they had reached Gaul by the fourth century,39 for at that date their manufacture had hardly yet begun. In more recent times, they were again dispersed mainly to the museums of Europe and America. The British Museum alone has over fifty examples.40 Menas is also represented on other, more precious, works of art. Among these may be noted the ivory pyx in the British Museum (plate 43) with a unique biographical cycle (sixth century),41 a relief in the Greco-Roman Museum, Alexandria (fifth century),42 and another in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan.43 On none of these is he represented strictly in military dress. However, his costume was interpreted as being that of a soldier, certainly in the West where he was regularly represented wearing armour, as on a statue in the church of St Firmin, Rochehaut, with the young, beardless face attributed to him in Early Christian art and consequently modelled on the imported ampullae.44 In the East, as will be shortly seen, his portrait features were radically changed, prob-

36

J. Drescher, op. cit. supra (n. 10), reproduced in BS 6, 334. Kaufmann, op. cit. supra (n. 29), fig. 80. 38 Leroy, op. cit. supra (n. 1) p. 193, fig. 106 ii. He did not venture to date the manuscript. 39 Ewig, p. 391, citing W. Neuss, Die Anfänge des Christentums im Rheinlande, 1933, p. 34. 40 O.M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Early Christian Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum, London, 1901, nos 860–915. No. 850 is described, with illustration, Byzantine Treasures, no. 123, p. 110–11. I thank David Buckton for permitting me to examine a selection of them. 41 Age of Spirituality, no. 514; Byzantine Treasures, no. 65. 42 Age of Spirituality, no. 512. 43 Ibid., no. 517. 44 Reproduced, BS 6, 332. 37

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ably when his cult was renewed at the time of the Invention of the relics of the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜. It seems that Menas faded from the Byzantine memory when his sanctuary at Karm Abu Mena ceased to be easily accessible. When his cult was revived, his iconography was renewed. There are portraits of him in Cappadocia, especially in the eleventh century. He was represented at Sümbüllü kilise, Peristrema,45 at St Barbara, Sog˘anlı,46 in the church of the Cistern, Avcılar,47 and at Karabas¸ kilise.48 In each case, he wears a chlamys but no other military garb. The new portrait type which he was given persisted through the rest of the Byzantine epoch. His face is no longer young and beardless, but elderly with grey, curly hair and a grey, rounded beard; contrary to what is written in his Metaphrastic Life, he is not outstanding for his handsomeness. The reason for this change in his iconography is not evident. He figures again at Timios Stavros (Mustafa Pas¸a), Sinasos and at St Eustathius, Ortaköy.49 His two associates, Vincent and Victor, were only connected with him because they were also commemorated on 11 November. When they accompany him, as at St Barbara, Sog˘anlı, Karabas¸ kilise and St Eustathius, Erdemlı, it is evident that he is Menas of Egypt, although, as far as I am aware, he is never so entitled. In Tokalı kilise II, Göreme no. 7,50 he is also accompanied by Vincent and Victor. Menas K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ is represented there too with his companions, Hermogenes and Eugraphus, so that the two martyrs named Menas can hardly be confused. Once at least in Cappadocia, in a late church, St George, Ortaköy (thirteenth century?), the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ figures holding a cross with a medallion of Christ at the centre.51 They are distinct persons, as has been mentioned above, in the Menologium of Basil II: p. 174, Menas of Egypt, and p. 234, the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜. In both miniatures they are executed with their respective companions. Menas of Egypt had already acquired his new portrait type, while the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ has dark receding hair and a dark pointed beard. Slightly earlier, Menas of Egypt had been introduced among the established warrior saints on two triptychs, that in the Museo cristiano, Vatican,52 and the Borradaile triptych in the British Museum.53 However, 45

Jolivet-Lévy, p. 104. Jerphanion II, p. 313; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 104. 47 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 91. 48 Jerphanion II, p. 337; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 104. 49 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 187, 274. 50 Jerphanion I, pp. 315–16, 319. 51 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 252–3. 52 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann II, no. 32, p. 35, plate XI. 53 Ibid., no. 38, p. 36, plate XV; Byzantium Treasures, pp. 142–3, no. 153. 46

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he is represented there in civil dress, a martyr holding a cross in his right hand. On the reverse of the panel in the Treasury of San Marco, Venice, with a half-figure of St Michael, a Menas figures twice. Presumably then, both have been represented.54 Regrettably all the miniatures have been cut out of the relevant volumes of the Metaphrastic Lives with one exception, that in Sinaït. 500, f. 129,55 at the head of the Life of Menas of Egypt (11 November). He stands between Vincent and Victor, and he has his characteristic facial features. However, anomalously, he holds a cross with the image of Christ at the centre, which is an attribute of the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜.56 He, unlike Menas of Egypt, has an extended cycle in the selection of Metaphrastic Lives, Esphigmenou 14, f. 294r–v,57 where he is represented with his characteristic features and accompanied by Hermogenes and Eugraphus; he does not hold a cross with an image of Christ. In wallpainting, a Menas was often portrayed in civil dress, but with no specification as to which one he was.58 Theoretically, it should be possible to distinguish them, but in practice it is more difficult. When there is no mention in the inscription, he should be Menas of Egypt (just as Theodore without a title in the inscription is more likely to be the Tiron). However, this is only supposition unless both of them are represented in the same church. Thus at Staro Nagoricˇino the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ is given his title, so that the other Menas who is unqualified must be the Egyptian.59 In an echelon of warrior saints, or when he is accompanied by Victor and Vincent, this is evident. On the other hand, his portrait type is not determinant, because the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ was sometimes represented with the features of the Egyptian.60 Also, as in Sinaïticus 500, the

54

The Treasury of San Marco, Venice, ed. D. Buckton, Milan, 1984, pp. 141, 142–3, no. 12. Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, p. 65 (she does not mention this detail); K. Weitzmann and G. Galavaris, The Monastery of St Catherine at Mount Sinaï. The Illuminated Manuscripts I, Princeton, 1990 no. 28, pp. 76–7, fig. 210. 56 T. Chatzidakis-Bacharas, ‘Particularités iconographiques du décor peint des chapelles peintures murales de Hosios Loukas occidentales de St-Luc en Phocide’, CA 32, 1972, pp. 89–92, figs 2–3; eadem, Les peintures murales de Hosios Loukas. Les chapelles orientales, Athens, 1972, pp. 70–4. 57 Treasures II, pp. 214–15, plates 335–6, pp. 366–8 (text). 58 For some examples, vid. Chatzidakis-Bacharou, op. cit. supra and art. cit. supra (n. 56); the problem of identification was tackled superficially by D. Mouriki, The Mosaics of Nea Moni on Chios, Athens, pp. 170–1 (Greek edn, pp. 185–7). She concluded that the Menas in this church, plate 84, was the warrior, although his only item of possibly military dress is his chlamys. Markovic´, pp. 611–14, tackles the problem of how to distinguish them more thoroughly. I accept most of his conclusions. 59 B. Todic´, Staro Nagoricˇino, Belgrade, 1993, p. 77. 60 In the Hermeneia, ¢ÈÔÓ˘Û›Ô˘ ÙÔÜ ºÔ˘ÚÓÄ, ^EÚÌÂÓ›· Ùɘ ZˆÁÁÚ·ÊÈÎɘ, ed. A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Petrograd, 1909, p. 157, ï MËÓĘ ï K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ is described as 55

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Egyptian could be given the attribute of the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜. Obviously such anomalies are errors on the part of the artists concerned. According to Markovic´, the earliest surviving Eastern Christian representations of Menas in full military attire are to be found in Serbian churches, for example in the Holy Apostles, Pec´ (c. 1290).61 Undoubtedly one of the most striking portraits of him is that in the echelon of military at Decˇani. He has his proper facial features, and, besides wearing armour, holds a spear and a shield.62 He does not figure in the echelon in the parecclesion of the Kariye Camii, but he continued to be represented thus in postByzantine times. From what has been said, it should be clear that Menas may be numbered among the more complex military saints. There was no doubt that in most hagiographical sources it was taken for granted that he was a soldier. Yet, although he performed some of the apotropaic offices of his kind – protecting the soldiers with his relics on board ship and helping them to rout barbarians in Egypt, and although according to his Miracula he made apparitions at his sanctuary in military dress, his outstanding renown, expressed in the vastness of his sanctuary at Karm Abu Mena, in the enormous quantity of his ampullae manufactured there and in the wideness of their distribution, would seem to be mainly due to his reputed healing powers. His early iconography does not specially emphasize the fact that he was a warrior. Also, compared with the XL Martyrs for instance, few shrines were dedicated to him. He virtually disappeared from cult when his Egyptian sanctuary ceased to function, only to be rediscovered some centuries later. He was then attributed a new portrait type. Although they were sometimes confused, particularly in their iconography, their Lives differ substantially. Yet, while representing him along with other military saints on ivories in the tenth century, Byzantine artists were slow to depict him with explicit military traits. If Markovic´ is right, the earliest surviving evidence for his being so portrayed dates only from the late thirteenth century. His military status was then established securely; it was the period when the cult of military saints in general underwent considerable development. In brief, Menas the soldier seems to have ultimately received more from this cult than he

Á¤ÚˆÓ ÛÙÚÔÁÁ˘ÏÔÁ¤Ó˘, while ï MËÓĘ ï K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ is described as Ó¤Ô˜ ç͢Á¤Ó˘. Markovic´, p. 614, n. 370, remarks that it is interesting that Dionysius of Fourna made this mistake, but, actually, Dionysius was only half wrong. In Vatican graec. 1613 and in Esphigmenou 14, as well as in the main church of the Kariye Camii, P.A. Underwood, The Kariye Djami, New York, 1965, no. 173, where he is accompanied by Eugraphus and Hermogenes, the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜ is given his proper features. 61 ‘Svetih ratnika’, p. 615, n. 374. He lists other examples, ibid., n. 375. 62 Ibid., fig. 7.

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contributed to it, for at the beginning he had been venerated primarily as a martyr with healing properties by individual clients on account of the favours which he could bestow. When his cult was revived, probably in the ninth century, he was only gradually coopted into the official worship of the Byzantine Church.

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XI St Artemius As the translator wrote in his introduction to the latest edition of the Miracula of St Artemius, ‘A saint who specializes in healing hernias and testicular and genital diseases is scarcely a bore and … the charm of the stories and the vivid personality of the saint would be sufficient reason’ for an English translation.1 Surely no one will disagree with the judgment, but unfortunately allusions in the Miracula to Artemius’ social status are few and the Passio a Ioanne Monacho is laconic.2 However, from these and other sources, we do learn that Artemius is attested from the late fourth century, when he was concerned with the Translation of the relics of Sts Timothy, Andrew and Luke to Constantinople. Later he was appointed prefect in Egypt, where he sought out the whereabouts of St Athanasius by torturing a virgin; this suggests that he had Arian tendencies. He was probably denounced by Egyptians during the reign of Julian the Apostate for destroying statues of pagan gods. When he refused to offer cult to Apollo, he was degraded and executed. The virgin Ariste had his body embalmed and sent to Constantinople. The earliest Passio, written about 430 some seventy years after his death, is now lost, but later versions suggest that it was conventional. One detail given in the Miracula no. 32, is that he received before dying the gift of healing, because his own body was crushed.3 Crushing, in fact, was one of his ways of healing diseased testicles. There are references in the Miracula to his rank as ¢Ô‡Í.4 This title

1 The Miracles of Artemius. A Collection of Miracle Stories by an Anonymous Author of Seventh-Century Byzantium, transl. and commentary by V. Crisafulli and J. Nesbitt, Leiden, 1997, p. xi. The Greek text is taken without emendments from the earlier edition by A. Papadopoulos, Miracula XLV (BHG, 173). The new edition appeared too late to be included in the most recent Auctarium. Vid. the approbative review by V. Déroche, REB 56, 1998, pp. 286–9. 2 BHG, 170, AA SS, Oct. VIII, Paris/Rome, 1866, 856–83. 3 Crisafulli and Nesbitt, pp. 172–3. 4 Ibid., Miracula, no. 16, pp. 105–6. ‰Ô‡Í was first used to designate a military commander in 289 during the reign of Diocletian; later it was used for any subordinate office, A. Kazhdan, ‘Doux’, ODB 1, 9. 659. AéÁÔ˘ÛÙ¿ÏÈÔ˜ was the title of the Prefect of Egypt, Idem, ‘Augoustalios’, ODB 2, 1330. Artemius was known to have been Augoustalios by Egyptians who visited his shrine. One, who hardly met with the approval of the author of the Miracula, urinated in the church and spoke the strange-sounding dialect of Alexandria, no. 17, Crisafulli and Nesbitt, p. 112. Theodoret of Cyrus called Artemius ÛÙÚ·ÙËÁfi˜, A.

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recurs in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 126,5 and in the Sirmondianus where he is called ¢ÔfÍ Î·d AfÁÔ˘ÛÙ¿ÏÈÔ˜ \AÏÂÍ·Ó‰Ú›·˜.6 In the Metaphrastic Life, it is said that, on returning from Alexandria, he made preparations for war against the Persians.7 Thus his designation as a military saint was not fictive. He did not have his own sanctuary in Constantinople, but his relics were deposed in the church of St John of Oxeia after 491, when it was constructed by Anastasius I on the site of his palace, long before the compilation of the Miracula, usually placed between 658 and 668.8 Although Artemius’ miraculous healings were conferred principally on people of humble origin, they achieved a certain notoriety, a notoriety which continues among Byzantinists to this day. The fact that his principal clients were not rich people, and in consequence could not afford to commission icons and churches, explains partly why so few early representations of Artemius are known. However, there were paintings of him in the church of St John of Oxeia. One of his martyrdom, which still existed in the reign of Heraclius (610–41), was unfortunately already lost when the Miracula were written.9 There is one reference in this text to an icon whose subject is not specified. However, in the context, it can hardly have been of any person but Artemius.10 On another occasion a woman took her son, suffering from a testicular disorder, to the church, carrying with her an icon of the saint.11 The most interesting icon was his portrait on the templon, because, as is sometimes recounted in early Byzantine hagiography, it enabled Euphemia to whom he appeared to recognize him, since his features, both in the apparition and on the icon, were identical. However, neither this icon nor the others were described by the anonymous author.12 He only tells us that Artemius, like other warrior saints, was ‘handsome’. It is unlikely that Artemius was represented so early in military dress. In the miniature of his execution in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 126, the earliest surviving picture of him, he is naturally wearing a tunic. In fact,

Kazhdan, ‘Hagiographical Notes’, Erytheia 9, 1988, p. 200, reprinted in Authors and Texts in Byzantium, Aldershot, 1993. 5 PG 117. 6 Syn CP, 151–3 (20 Oct.). 7 PG 115, 1169d (BHG, 172). 8 Janin, pp. 52–3; Déroche, rev. cit. supra (n. 1), pp. 286–7. 9 For these icons, vid. C. Mango, ‘On the History of the Templon and the Martyrion of St. Artemius at Constantinople’, Zograf 10, 1979, pp. 40–3, reprinted, Studies on Constantinople, no. XV. 10 No. 6, Crisafulli and Nesbitt, pp. 88–9, 238. 11 No. 31, Crisafulli and Nesbitt, p. 163. 12 No. 34, Crisafulli and Nesbitt, pp. 176–81. Vid. inf. (n. 20).

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when his costume is mentioned in the Miracula, it is invariably civil.13 However, it is clear that Artemius’ portrait type was already established, with dark hair and a short, pointed dark beard. Later, this was described as ‘like Christ’.14 There is no portrait of Artemius in Cappadocia. However, it recurs in illuminated manuscripts of his Metaphrastic Life, where he is invariably portrayed as a civilian.15 He figures in bust form in the Martorana (midtwelfth century) along with other warrior saints. Although they are all represented in civil dress, this is a first intimation of his integration into the echelon.16 In fact no portrait of Artemius in military dress is known earlier than that at Timotesubani, Georgia (first quarter of the thirteenth century).17 Half a century later, he was represented as a warrior at St Nicolas, Manastir (1271).18 From the fourteenth century, such representations of Artemius become more numerous, but are seemingly rarer than those of him in civil dress.19 It cannot be known exactly when the shrine of St Artemius ceased to function, no doubt, however, before the twelfth century, for it was not mentioned by pilgrims as one of the places which they visited. Maybe 13 Socially, Artemius was of high rank, so that it was not inappropriate that he should appear dressed as a senator, no. 37; he also wore civilian clothes (·Á·Ó¿), no. 22; a chlamys, alb and cincture, no. 36. 14 There were two early traditions of Christ’s portrait, C. Walter, ‘Iconographical Considerations’, The Letter of the Three Patriarchs to Emperor Theophilus and Related Texts, ed. J.A. Munitiz et al., Camberley, 1997, pp. xlvi–xlviii. Artemius’ portrait is in the Zeus tradition. In the ^EÚÌËÓ›·, Dionysius follows Byzantine tradition; it is said that Artemius was to be represented ‘¬ÌÔÈÔ˜ ÙÔÜ XÚÈÛÙÔÜ Âú‰Ô˜’. Nicetas, vid. infra, XXII, who follows immediately in the ^EÚÌËÓ›·, was to be represented similarly. For this reason, in an echelon of military saints without legends, it is not feasible to try to distinguish Artemius from Nicetas. 15 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, Mosq. graec. 175, f. 149, p. 54; Istanbul Greek Patriarchate, Chalke Ùɘ MÔÓɘ 80, f. 127, p. 114; Vatican graec. 1679, f. 160, p. 163, where he is represented pointing a lance down at a crowned figure (p. 194, he is confused with Arsenius); Walter, ‘Triumph of the Martyrs’, pp. 31–2, fig. 4; reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. III. Esphigmenou 14, f. 90r–v, Treasures II, plates 331–2, pp. 210–11, text, pp. 364–5. 16 E. Kitzinger, The Mosaics of St. Mary’s of the Admiral in Palermo, Washington, 1990, no. 391, fig. 54, the regular portrait type, but this mosaic was almost entirely restored in the 19th century, ibid., p. 291. 17 Markovic´, p. 594, n. 212, citing E.L. Privalova, Rospis Timotesubani, Tbilissi, 1970, pp. 97–8. 18 Privalova, ibid. 19 Lists are given by Underwood, p. 206, n. 62, and by U. Knöben, ‘Artemius von Ågypten’, LCI 5, 253–4. To these may be added two late examples on Patmos of Artemius in military dress, M. Chatzidakis, The Icons of Patmos, Athens, 1985, no. 61, p. 103, plate 38, an icon where he figures in armour and holding a sword and shield, along with three nonmilitary saints (1580–90); no. 93, p. 134, plate 144, a bema door, holding a spear and shield (1600–10).

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the fact that Artemius ceased to perform healing miracles left the way free to rehabilitate him as the military saint that he was. However, except, perhaps on the bema door, where he could have been defending the church’s sanctuary, he exercised none of the traditional apotropaic functions of a military saint. He did not appear in battle, nor did he defend a city, nor exterminate a hated persecutor. In fact, in Egypt, he had been a persecutor himself. His recorded miracles, with one exception, were acts of healing, performed for individual persons. On one occasion he did bend the divine will. Euphemia was dying of the plague, probably that of 619, in her home. She saw in a dream the angel psychopomps, at the ready to carry off her soul. However, Artemius intervened. He transported her to his shrine, laying her before his reliquary. But this was an individual rescue, not to be compared to those of Demetrius and Theodore Tiron, defending their cities against a divinely ordered attack.20 In short, the literary sources make it clear that Artemius was a warrior who actually took part in battle. His exposure as a Christian, followed by his trial and execution, follow the conventional pattern. However, his cult in the church of St John of Oxeia was inspired by his peculiar gifts of healing. Only when the shrine ceased to function, was he coopted to the echelon of warrior saints, and this is first attested in the thirteenth century.

20

Miracle no. 34, vid. supra (n. 12).

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XII St Arethas The warrior saints who have so far been presented were all martyred during the reign of persecuting emperors including that of Julian the Apostate. Their Passions, moreover, were cast in the hagiographical style of the fourth and fifth centuries. St Arethas lived in the sixth century; consequently the circumstances of his martyrdom, the historical value of the literary texts and his introduction into the Byzantine calendar have little in common with those of his predecessors. Arethas is the Hellenized form of Hârith. He was not Orthodox but Monothelete; he was not Greek but Himyarite, one of a people living in Southern Arabia; he was not martyred by a pagan or apostate emperor but by Jews; if he really was a soldier, little or nothing can be deduced from the sources about his military career. These sources, in various languages, have been mostly published.1 The earliest, the Letters of the Monothelete Bishop Symeon of Beth-Arsâm, were written within months of the death of Arethas in November 518.2 The later ones, although sometimes differing in matters of detail, not only present a remarkably coherent tradition but are also free from the legendary embroideries which are endemic in most hagiographical writing. Our point of departure, for once, in the study of a warrior saint is both historical and accurate. The Greek Passio or Martyrium, adapted from Eastern texts – the aforementioned Letters and the partially surviving Book of the Himyarites3 – was ‘edited’ to bring it into line with points of doctrine, on which the Orthodox differed from the Monotheletes.4 Irfan Shahîd, to whom we are indebted not only for making many texts in Oriental languages easily 1 The sources and the relevant literature are passed in review by G.L. Huxley, ‘On the Greek Martyrium of the Negranites’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 80 C 3, 1980, pp. 41–55. Pietro Sfair, ‘Areta di Nagrân e compagni’, BS 2, 401–3, is good but outdated. More up-to-date summary accounts are given by P. Devos in his introduction to ‘L’abrégé syriaque BHO 104 sur les martyrs himyarites’, An. Boll. 90, 1972, pp. 337–59, and his review of Shahîd’s book, vid. infra (n. 2), ibid., pp. 425–7. 2 I. Shahîd, The Martyrs of Najrân. New Documents, Brussels, 1971. 3 Idem, ‘The Book of the Himyarites: Authorship and Authenticity’, Le Muséon 76, 1963, pp. 349–62, reprinted, Byzantium and the Semitic Orient before the Rise of Islam, London, 1988, VIII. He demonstrates that these sources are truthful and contemporary. 4 BHG, 166, AA SS, Oct. 10, Paris, 1869, ed. E. Carpentier with a remarkably learned commentary; Shahîd, op. cit. supra (n. 2), pp. 204–9.

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accessible but also for studying them meticulously, comments on its conciliatory style – ecumenical avant la lettre. It would have been composed during the period when Justinian’s policy was neo-Chalcedonian, possibly before Symeon of Beth-Arsâm visited Constantinople for the last time about 540. It is eloquent of the composer’s sagacity that, as a result of his work, this Monothelete martyr was readily accepted among the Byzantine canonized saints and commemorated in the liturgy. We are concerned here primarily with the Greek texts. Besides the Passion, there is a pre-Metaphrastic5 as well as a Metaphrastic Life.6 According to the common tradition, the Himyarite king converted to Judaism, taking the name of Jusuf. He began to persecute violently the mainly Monophysite Christians, notably those who lived in the city of Najrân. Obtaining entry to the city by ruse, he demanded the local Bishop Paul. There is some confusion as to which bishop – there were two of this name – was being sought out. On hearing that Paul II had been dead two years and Paul I rather earlier, the king ordered that the later bishop’s remains be disinterred and burned. He then turned his attention to the living. There was a community of zealous lay Christians 340 strong, headed by Arethas, who is called in his Passion by various titles: öÍ·Ú¯Ô˜, â©Ó¿Ú¯Ë˜, η©ËÁËÙ‹˜, ÚÔÙÚÂÙÈÎe˜ Ùɘ fiÌÔÏÔÁ›·˜.7 In addressing him, the king referred to his elderliness, his white hairs and his venerability.8 In the pre-Metaphrastic Life, he is said to be in charge of the governorship of the city (ï ÙcÓ àÚ¯cÓ âÁίÂÈÚÈṲ̂ÓÔ˜ Ùɘ fiψ˜),9 95 years old and ready to end his life as a martyr, having seen the sons of his sons and of his grandsons.10 The Menologium of Basil II, p. 125,11 and the Sirmondianus simply call him ÚáÙÔ˜ Ùɘ fiψ˜ NÂÁÚĘ.12 Thus no strictly military title is attributed to him. Given his age and his infirmity and the fact that some accounts say that he had to be helped to his place of execution, he could hardly have been, at the time of his martyrdom, an active soldier. All accounts agree that he was the first to be executed. The rest, somewhat ghoulishly, anointed themselves with the blood of their leader while awaiting their fate. Here the story of the saint’s passion ends. However there was a sequel. Prompted by the Emperor Justin, the king of Ethiopia intervened, expel5 Fr. Halkin, ‘Le martyre d’Aréthas et de ses compagnons himyarites’ (BHG, 166z), Six inédites d’hagiologie byzantine, Brussels, 1987, pp. 133–78. 6 BHG, 157, PG 115, 1249–89. 7 Op. cit. (n. 4), II, § 7, p. 728 F. 8 Ibid., IV, § 15, p. 734 F. 9 Op. cit. (n. 5), § 5, pp. 127, 160. 10 Ibid., § 10, p. 168. 11 PG 117, 124–5. 12 Syn CP, 159; Janin, p. 229.

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ling king Jusuf from Najrân. Christianity was restored, and a martyrium was built; it was much frequented by pilgrims, who were lodged there as in a guest house. A glowing account is given in later non-Christian sources of the processions and festivities which took place. However, this did not last long. In fact, Christianity was disestablished by the Moslems in the seventh century. The sanctuary then ceased to be frequented.13 For the rest, little is known of the spread of the cult of Arethas. There is no record of the displacement of his relics, although Shahîd surmises that refugees from Najrân took some to Syria.14 Certainly there is no evidence of their presence at Constantinople, where no sanctuary was dedicated to him. The sole evidence of his cult there is the introduction of his commemoration on 10 October into Byzantine liturgical calendars, the earliest being the Typicon of the Great Church.15 In the Sirmondianus, it is said that his commemoration took place in the church of the Theotokos âÓ ÙÔÖ˜ ¶ÚˆÙ·Û›Ô˘.16 It is not possible to know what pictures, if any, of Arethas decorated the martyrium at Najrân.17 The earliest surviving example is that in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 135. It is a conventional scene of martyrdom, with a mountain landscape to the left, a youthful, haloed figure standing in front of it. To the right is a group of figures, all haloed, awaiting execution. In the centre, Arethas, the only bearded, elderly figure, leans forward while the executioner, sword held aloft, stands behind him. Arethas, in a representation of his martyrdom, would, in any case, not have had any military attribute. He was not represented in Cappadocia. However, he was considered to be sufficiently eminent to figure on three tenth-century ivories. On the Harbaville triptych, he is placed on the right in the lower row of the left wing;18 on that in the Palazzo Venezia, he is in the same position;19 on that in the Museo cristiano, he is in the same row but to the left.20 In each case, he is portrayed not as a soldier but as a martyr in court dress, holding a cross in his right hand. Representations of Arethas recur several times in illustrated volumes for the month of October of the Metaphrastic Menologium. In the frontis13

I. Shahîd, ‘Byzantium in South Arabia’, DOP 33, pp. 69–73, reprinted, op. cit. (n. 3), IX. Ibid., p. 80. 15 J. Mateos, Le Typicon de la Grande Eglise. Ms. Ste-Croix no. 40, Xe siècle, Rome 1962, I, pp. 338–9. 16 Vid. supra (n. 12). 17 Shahîd, art. cit. (n. 13), pp. 70–2. 18 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann II, pp. 34–5, no. 33; Splendeur de Byzance, Iv. 8, p. 99. 19 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann II, p. 33, no. 31. 20 Ibid. II, p. 34, no. 32. 14

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piece of Vind. hist. graec. 6, f. 1v, he is the third figure from the right in the third row; he holds a long black cross and he does wear military dress.21 In Vatican graec. 1679, f. 29, again in military dress, he forms an initial letter with a bishop; it is likely to be the Paul II of Najrân, who was sought out by Jusuf, the Himyarite king.22 In Mosq. graec. 175, f. 216v,23 something went wrong, for four men are represented in the miniature already beheaded, although, in the texts, it is invariably said that Arethas was beheaded first. In fact Arethas stands by, his arms bound, wearing a mantle; he is the only figure in the scene to be haloed. To the right, stands a group of prospective martyrs, one of whom is a woman; all the accounts say that the companions of Arethras were men. It must be supposed that the artist sought inspiration in some other picture rather than in the text. In a final manuscript, containing a selection of Metaphrastic Lives, Esphigmenou 14, f. 136–136v (135v–136?), the Life of Arethas is illustrated with a cycle. The saint is represented twice, once in the scene where king Yusuf arrives at the gates of Najrân; he stands, an elderly man with white hair and beard, at the head of the other citizens: in the other, he is being executed. While there is some consistency in the attribution to Arethas of a white beard and hair, he did not have a well-defined portrait type; generally he wears civil dress. The only early exceptions are the two eleventh-century Metaphrastic Menologia where he is dressed distinctively as a warrior. They escaped Markovic´ who, to my knowledge, is the only scholar to have investigated the iconography of Arethas in depth. He wrote that Arethas was first portrayed as a warrior at Decˇani.24 It was here that he first figured in an echelon of warrior saints, but, as has been seen, he had been portrayed as a warrior before in other contexts. At Decˇani, he wears a cuirass and holds a shield and spear. However, his facial features are quite untypical, not at all those of an elderly man but of one in the prime of life with long, curly, brown hair and a modest brown beard. If his portrait is compared with that in the King’s Church at Studenica, the difference will be seen to be enormous. In the latter church, he is represented as a martyr, bald with white hair and beard.25 Besides the example at Decˇani, Markovic´ cites others of Arethas as a warrior only on the territory of the Medieval Serbian kingdom at Psacˇa

Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, p. 20. Ibid., p. 164; Walter, ‘Triumph of the Martyrs’, p. 31; reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. III. I wrote erroneously that no Bishop Paul is mentioned in the text. 23 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 56. 24 Markovic´, pp. 616–17, fig. 10. Vid. also K.G. Kaster, ‘Arethas’, LCI 5, 242–3. (But the miniature in Vatopedi 456, which he cites, is of another Arethas, a bishop!) 25 Gordana Babic´, Kraljeva crkva u Studenici, Belgrade, 1987, fig. 65, p. 108. 21

22

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and Resava.26 He attributes this initiative to Serbian founders who, however, employed Greek painters. Markovic´ suggests that they probably copied lost models in Constantinople. He adduces further examples in Russia. The justification for attributing the status of a warrior to Arethas could only be that, as ÚáÙÔ˜ of the city of Najrân, he would have been the military commander responsible for warding off the unbelievers who attacked the city. Given the accuracy of our information about Arethas, it is unfortunate that his place was so limited in Byzantine cult and iconography. He neither performed miracles, nor made apparitions. After the disestablishment of his shrine at Najrân, there is no record of cult being offered to his relics. His cooptation to the echelon of warrior saints was almost fortuitous. It took place late, independently of the introduction of the Monothelete martyr into the Byzantine liturgical calendar, which probably occurred, at least unofficially, as early as the sixth century, motivated by the wish to exploit this outstanding martyr in the cause of Christian reconciliation.

26

Markovic´, p. 617.

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XIII St Martin of Tours Martin of Tours (316–83) was, it seems, the last Western saint to enter the Byzantine liturgical calendar. Ambrose preceded him, but Augustine of Hippo, his contemporary, did not follow him. The interest manifested by his later successor at Tours, Gregory, in the cult of Eastern saints had no equivalent for the cult of Western saints at Constantinople. He marks a dividing point, for, while in his time the cult of saints in the East and West had many common features, its connotations were beginning to diverge significantly. Since our theme is the military characteristics of Byzantine warrior saints, we shall begin by examining how Martin was presented in Eastern sources. The earliest Eastern text about him is in the Historia ecclesiastica of Sozomenus, composed between 415 and 460.1 Sozomenus wrote that Martin was born, a member of a noble family, on Eastern territory at ™·‚ÒÚÈ· in Pannonia. He had a distinguished military career, rising to the rank of Û˘ÓÙ·Á̷ٿگ˘. He then chose the philosophical life, living in Illyria, in Milan and on the island of °·ÏÏ·Ú›·, the identity of which is uncertain. Then he was made bishop of the church âÓ T·ÚڷΛӷȘ (Tours). He performed many miracles, notably raising the dead to life. This rather laconic account was followed by a more developed Life composed in the eighth or ninth century.2 It tells us nothing about Martin’s origins but begins with his career as a soldier, which would have taken place under the two Western emperors, Gratian (367–83) and Valentinian (364–75). A count and an able soldier, he was appointed stratelates in command of 50 000 men with the task of repelling a barbarian attack on Rome. At the sight of the multitude of barbarians, his soldiers took fright. Martin was then confronted with a beggar in rags. He took pity on him, fetched a sword from his tent, cut his chlamys in half, giving one part to the beggar, whom he also nourished. That night, he was visited by Christ wearing the beggar’s half of the chlamys. In reward for his act of charity, Christ promised him victory over the barbarians. 1

Historia ecclesiastica III i 4, PG 67, 1081. H. Delehaye, ‘La vie grecque de saint Martin de Tours’ (BHG, 1181, 1181b), Studi bizantini e neoellenici 5, 1939, pp. 428–31; reprinted, Mélanges d’hagiographie, Brussels, 1966, pp. 403–7; Fr. Halkin, ‘Légende grecque de saint Martin de Tours’, Rivista di studi bizantin e neoellenici 20–1, 1983–84, pp. 69–91. The volume of the AA SS in which Delehaye announced that it would be published has yet to appear. 2

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The next day, when Martin assembled his soldiers for battle, again they refused to fight. He then told them that he would confront the barbarians alone. His soldiers regained their courage; they agreed to accompany him. However, they did not fight, because the barbarians offered to parley. Peace concluded, Martin returned to Rome, where he was received in triumph by the emperor and senate. He explained that the victory was due not to their arms but to the intervention of Christ. He then announced his intention to retire from the army and devote the rest of his life to the service of God. These events are recounted in the first four paragraphs of the Life.3 Since the rest of Martin’s life, as hermit and bishop, is dispatched in a few lines, it is evident that the author particularly esteemed him as a high-ranking soldier of noble birth whose military career ended with a resplendent victory, thanks to Christ, and integrated artfully into his account the encounter with the beggar. However, he esteemed Martin far more as a miracle worker. What follows – nearly four-fifths of the text – is devoted to his miracles.4 The anecdotes, which Delehaye considered to be puerile, were adapted from those of other saints; they have nothing in common with the miracles recounted by Sulpicius Severus, Martin’s consummate Western biographer, apart from his predilection for raising dead men or animals to life. They are not recounted in detail here, because they have no connection with Martin’s military attributes. A further text, which may depend on the Life, is placed at the date of Martin’s commemoration (12 November) in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 176.5 It recounts summarily that he was a soldier, encountered the beggar, won a victory, and worked miracles. The miniature accompanying it portrays a miracle. Martin, dressed as a bishop with an omophorion, stands in prayer. He faces a hand issuing from a segment above; rays of light descend from the hand towards him. To Martin’s left, lies a man outstretched on a bier, behind which stand a woman and a youth, presumably the deceased’s wife and son. It is evidently an illustration of a specific miracle, probably representing Martin resuscitating a dead man to witness against a dishonest creditor who had tried to oblige his widow to reimburse again a debt which he had already settled.6 This miniature is the only known Byzantine representation of Martin. The prestigious mosaic in which Martin holding a crown stands at the head of a file of

3

Halkin, art. cit. supra, pp. 71–4. H. Delehaye, ‘Les recueils antiques de miracles des saints’, An. Boll. 38, 1920, pp. 305– 25; idem, ‘Quatre miracles de saint Martin de Tours’, ibid. 55, 1937, pp. 29–48; Halkin, art. cit., pp. 75–91. 5 PG 117, 156. 6 Halkin, art. cit., pp. 75–7. 4

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martyrs in the sixth-century church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna (the church was originally dedicated to him), is Western in inspiration. Martin was also commemorated in Byzantine synaxaries, notably in the Sirmondianus at 12 November.7 He is called â›ÛÎÔÔ˜ ÊÚ·ÁÁ›·˜ and ÛÙÚ·ÙËÏ¿Ù˘; his victory and miracles are mentioned. And that is all about Martin in Byzantine tradition. He could be summed up briefly as a saint little venerated in the East, where there were neither relics nor a sanctuary, and where he figured minimally in iconography. There was no question, in spite of the relative prominence given in the Greek Life to his achievements as a soldier, of his cooptation into the company of warrior saints. At this point he could be abandoned, were it not that the remarkable difference between his veneration in the West and in the East merits commentary. This is desirable for two reasons: first, it can be shown how the Byzantine hagiographers, who had to draw on Western sources, could adapt them at will, free from the inhibitions of Sulpicius Severus about military commitment; secondly it is useful, at the moment of the parting of the ways, to observe how the ideal of martyrdom was adapted in the West to monastic asceticism. Martin was not a martyr in the strict sense of the word, but he heads the file of them in Sant’Apollinare Nuovo. The Life by Sulpicius has been a source of controversy ever since the time of its writing.8 Here, fortunately, we do not have to enter into the thorny question of whether or not Sulpicius was a consummate liar, concealing his delinquencies behind such pious phrases as ‘verbis meis dominus est testis’.9 We may follow him au pied de la lettre. With regard to Martin’s military career, which in his Life took place under Constantius and Julian, not Gratian and Valentinian, Sulpicius wrote that, as the son of a soldier, Martin was obliged to enlist, contrary to his aspiration from his earliest years to the service of God.10 He did so under pressure from his father, who, unlike his mother, never converted to Christianity. His virtues, even before baptism, were those of a monk rather than of a soldier.11 His

7

Syn CP, 217–18. J. Lahache, ‘Martino vescovo di Tours’, BS 8, 1248–79, is useful, but naturally J. Fontaine’s monumental edition of the Vie de saint Martin de Sulpice Sévère, Paris, 1967–69, cited Vita, must be consulted, esp. I, pp. 171–210. Since its appearance, two important studies have been published: C. Stancliffe, St Martin and His Hagiographer. History and Miracle in Sulpicius Severus, Oxford, 1983, esp. pp. 341–9; T.D. Barnes, ‘The Military Career of Martin of Tours’, An. Boll. 114, 1996, pp. 25–32. 9 Epistula 1 14, Fontaine, I, p. 322; Barnes, p. 25, n. 2, who observes that even Athanasius was not above perpetrating blatant falsehoods and invoking divine support in favour of their veracity. 10 Vita, 2. 2; Fontaine, I, p. 254. 11 Vita, 2. 7–8; Fontaine, I, p. 256. 8

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encounter with the beggar is placed at Amiens and not in a military context.12 After baptism, his service in the army was purely nominal.13 Then came the notorious incident of the donativum, about which much ink has flowed, and Martin’s resignation from the terrestrial army to enlist in that of God.14 However, before quitting, Martin offered to face the barbarian enemy unarmed, in order to make it clear that his resignation was not motivated by cowardice. Sulpicius places the incident in the context of a barbarian invasion of Gaul, not an attack on Rome, and explains the divine intervention, not as a reward for Martin’s generosity but in order that God’s soldier (miles suus) could display his courage. In both the anonymous Eastern Life and that of Sulpicius, he obtained his victory without shedding blood.15 Although the incidents in the Byzantine narrative all have their equivalent in that of Sulpicius, there is no evidence that its author had access to his Life. It will also be observed that the donativum, crucial to the narrative of Sulpicius, was omitted in the Eastern version. At the same time, Sulpicius, all along, played down Martin’s military commitment. The point of the donativum was that it gave Martin the opportunity to make a public renunciation of his military commitment. Sulpicius’ reticence is easy to understand if the religious climate in which he was writing is taken into account. Devotion to warrior martyrs was increasing in the West although not quite on the same scale as in the East.16 Military service for Christians had, indeed, long been proscribed, not only because they would be obliged in battle to kill but also because they would be serving a pagan emperor. Revealing before a tribunal that they were committed Christians was the standard starting point of most Passions of warrior martyrs. As was observed in the introductory part of this study, there was a current of fundamentalist opinion, represented by Jerome but above all by Tertullian, which refused uncompromisingly the engagement of Christians in the army.17 If, as is generally supposed, the third canon of the synod of Arles (314) legitimized military service for Christians ‘now that the Church enjoyed civil peace’, there was less reason for Martin, as a Christian, to have

12

Vita, 3, 1–5; Fontaine, I, pp. 256, 258. Vita, 3, 6; Fontaine, I, p. 258. 14 Vita, 4, 1–3; Fontaine, p. 260. 15 Vita, 4, 6–9; Fontaine, I, pp. 260, 262. Fontaine’s commentary on these passages, II, pp. 430–538. 16 Fontaine, II, pp. 510–13. 17 De corona, PL 2, 76–102. Among the many discussions of this text, P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, ‘Sopra alcuni passi del De corona di Tertulliano’, Note agiografiche 8, Vatican, 1935, pp. 257–386; J. Quasten, Patrology II, Utrecht/Antwerp, 1953, pp. 307–9. 13

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reserves about being a soldier,18 particularly as Julian himself, at the time, was outwardly a Christian. When, where and whether the donativum actually took place do not, fortunately, concern us here,19 only the fact that it was recounted by Sulpicius, who could then affirm that Martin renounced his military engagement in the guise of an honorary martyr. The contemporary fundamentalists who calumniated this former soldier – become bishop – being in general opposed to soldiers embracing the clerical state, could thus be appeased.20 In the rather different religious climate of Constantinople, where no objections were raised to Martin’s military past, no appeasement was necessary. Possibly this is why the donativum was omitted from the Greek Life as irrelevant.21 From the time of the Maccabees on, the concept of martyrdom underwent a long development. However, by the end of the fourth century, at least in its literal sense, it had become stabilized. Henceforward, martyrdom meant that someone underwent death rather than renounce his Christian faith. All the early warrior saints were martyrs, and, indeed, in iconography, they were frequently represented as such, in civil dress holding a cross. The cult of martyrs – the only saints – greatly increased in the first Christian centuries, in both East and West; it continued to do so in the West with the introduction of the reading of the Acts and Passions of the martyrs in the liturgy before 393 when it was legitimized by canon 36 of the synod of Hippo.22 18 ‘Milites arma in pace non proiciant’. Fontaine, II, p. 505, n. 2, considered this (H. Marrou’s) interpretation to be the most likely. However, if in pace is translated as in peacetime, the implication may rather be that Christians were permitted to bear arms when there was less likelihood of their being obliged to kill. In both the Western and Eastern accounts, Martin confronts an enemy army without bloodshed. However, in some accounts of a future martyr’s military service, for example that of Eustathius (VII), no compunction is shown about the slaughtering the enemy. 19 The problem has been amply discussed by Fontaine, II, pp. 516–21; idem, ‘Sulpice Sévère a-t-il travesti S. Martin de Tours en martyre militaire?’, An. Boll. 81, 1963, pp. 31–58; Barnes, art. cit. supra, n. 8. 20 Epistula 1 to Eusebius, § 1–9 (more particularly concerned with his feats as a miracle worker); Fontaine, I, p. 317–20. 21 Yet the donativum did figure in Byzantine hagiography, but not in John Chrysostom’s Encomium of Juventinus and Maximinus, PG 50, 571–6. They were not condemned for refusing the donativum but for criticizing Julian’s paganism at a military banquet. John Chrysostom’s Homilies would have been translated into Latin too late to have been known by Severus, Fontaine II, pp. 514–15; however, the condemnation of the two warriors may well have been bruited in the West. That both this and Martin’s retirement from the army took place under Julian may have inspired Severus to recount the incident, but his likely model was the condemnation of the soldier of Lampsacus. 22 Fontaine, art. cit. (n. 19), p. 42; B. de Gaiffier, ‘La lecture des actes des martyrs dans la prière liturgique en Occident. A propos du passionnaire hispanique’, An. Boll. 72, 1954, pp. 143–5.

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However, once the Empire had become Christian, the likelihood of martyrdom became remote. The question then arose whether there was any other means of achieving sanctity. One answer was to assimilate the ascetical monastic life to martyrdom. These saintly ‘latter-day’ martyrs came to be known as confessors, of whom the first was Martin. However, a summary account of Martin’s career as a soldier served a purpose. It was presented by Sulpicius as a period of preparation, analogous to the Old Testament which preceded the New. It was the time when Martin acquired the militancy which remained characteristic of him throughout his life. Thus the donativum was interpreted as a watershed, when, as Fontaine put it, the officer seeking to be retired in the regular way was transformed into ‘un héros de genre littéraire en vogue: le martyr militaire des Passions épiques’.23 For Fontaine, the Life of Sulpicius was both a narratio and an apologia, both ‘un rameau tardif de la biographie antique’24 and ‘un orfèvre en hagiographie’.25 For Delehaye, despite the distortions consequent on its double articulation, it was also a masterpiece of hagiography.26 Given its quality and complexity, the interest shown in it, in our times among those who study hagiography critically, is not surprising. It is also worth noting that the Life by Sulpicius Severus is of a quality difficult to match in Byzantine Passions. What is more significant, however, in the present context is the extraordinary disproportion between the relative indifference manifested towards Martin in the East and the enormous popularity of his cult in the West. This is well exemplified by the representations of him. While only one is known in Byzantine art, that in the Menologium of Basil II, those of him in Western art are manifold, particularly of his giving half his mantle to the beggar.27 Thus Martin’s Life clearly marks the moment of division between Western and Eastern hagiography. For the former, he was the first and the most eminent confessor of the faith; for the latter, he was just one of the more humdrum warrior saints who renounced his commission, did not undergo martyrdom and ended his life as a bishop and thaumaturge.

23

Fontaine II, p. 515. Ibid. II, p. 181. 25 Ibid. II p. 180. 26 H. Delehaye, ‘S. Martin et Sulpice Sévère’, An. Boll. 38, 1920, pp. 5–136. 27 Vid. the appendix to Lahache, art. cit. supra (n. 8); S. Kimpel, ‘Martin von Tours’, LCI 7, 572–9. 24

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XIV St Phanourios No contrast could be greater among Byzantine warrior saints than that between Phanourios and Arethas (XII). The central facts about Arethas are well established: the date and place of his birth, the circumstances of his martyrdom, the place where his relics were deposed. For Phanourios, nothing is recorded except posthumous miracles, which, it seems, Arethas did not perform. There is no point in speculating about what can be known of a historical Phanourios, because he was undoubtedly a fictitious saint.1 He came into being, if the sources are reliable, through the misreading of an inscription, as also happened for St Salsa of Typasa,2 and much later in the West for St Philomena.3 The oldest relevant document is an account of his posthumous miracles in Vatican graec. 1190, dated 1542.4 On the basis of this Zachariadou argued that the cult of Phanourios began in Crete only after 1360.5 However, an eighteenth-century manuscript in the possession of N. Stavrinides gives a slightly different version of the origins of his cult.6 In spite of the later date of this manuscript, the account in it seems more plausible than that in the earlier one. A further source is provided by the nineteenth-century Synaxaries.7 It is true that the documents on which the Synaxaria would have drawn are unknown; they may depend only on oral tradition. Nevertheless, these sources, when they are put together, result in a consistent overall picture of the origins of the cult and iconography of St Phanourios. In the fourteenth century, we are told, a ruined church was discovered outside the city of Rhodes; it contained icons which were all damaged 1 Maria Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, ‘St Phanourios: Cult and Iconography’, ¢XAE 4 1, 1980– 81, pp. 223–8, presents and interprets the sources admirably. I thank her sincerely for reading and controlling my text. 2 D. Woods, ‘Varus of Egypt: a Fictitious Military Martyr’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 20, 1996, p. 198, citing H. Grégoire, ‘Ste Salsa, roman épigraphique’, Byzantion 12, 1937, pp. 212–34. 3 Dante Balboni, ‘Filomena’, BS 5, 796–800. 4 Published in AA SS May 6, Paris/Rome, 1866, pp. 689–91 (BHG, 1510), for 27 May; E. Zachariadou, ‘^IÛÙÔÚÈÎa ÛÙÔȯÂÖ· Ûã ≤Ó· ©·ÜÚ· ÙÔÜ êÁ›Ô˘ º·Ó·Ú›Ô˘, \AÚ¯ÂÈÔÓ ¶fiÓÙÔ˘ 26, 1964, pp. 309–18. 5 Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, art. cit., pp. 224–5. 6 Ibid., pp. 225–7. 7 Ibid., pp. 223, 227.

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with one exception. This portrayed an unknown warrior saint accompanied by an inscription. The metropolitan Neilos of Rhodes deciphered it as ºAN√YPI√™.8 A monastery was founded in honour of this new saint, who, early in the fifteenth century, worked a miracle, liberating three Cretan priests taken prisoner by the Turks. The higoumenos of the monastery of Varsamonero, Crete, was instrumental in bringing a copy of the icon of Phanourios to his monastery, where a chapel in honour of the saint was built in 1426 and decorated in 1431. His cult developed in Crete, where all the earlier icons of him were painted. How and when his cult spread from Crete is not clear, but to this day he is invoked in Greece as the saint who reveals lost objects.9 Both the original icon and the copy commissioned by the higoumenos are lost, but a number of other icons of Phanourios exist, notably those painted by Angelos Akotantos, the highly talented Cretan artist, in the second half of the fifteenth century. Vassilakis-Mavrakakis has established that the artist, who signed his works with only his first name, was identical with another Angelos known only from his will. She has also shown that the signature ‘Angelos’ on an icon in Cairo with the date 1604 was a later addition.10 Now the oeuvre of Angelos can be assembled more securely and his influence on Cretan painting more exactly assessed.11 He seems to have specialized in painting portraits of warrior saints, notably George, Demetrius, Theodore and Phanourios. Angelos created, or recreated, the iconographical type of the standing warrior saint, wearing a richly decorated cuirass. All the known portraits of Phanourios by Angelos or members of his school have now been published.12 There are three icons of Phanourios which Angelos signed: a doublesided one formerly on the templon of his chapel at the monastery of 8 Vassilakes-Mavrakakes, ibid., p. 237, suggests that the inscription was actually º·ÓÂÚˆÙ‹˜, a title applied once to St Theodore in the Life of St Joseph the Hymnograph by John the Deacon (BHG, 945, 946) for 3 Apr., AA SS Apr. 1, Acta graeca, p. xviii (shorter version), reprinted, PG 105, 933. St Theodore Tiron intervened to help a man find his lost servant; this kind of intervention was regularly attributed to Phanourios in his Miracula. 9 Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, art. cit., p. 238. 10 Eadem, ^√ ZˆÁÚ¿ÊÔ˜ òAÁÁÂÏÔ˜ \AÔÎÙ¿ÓÙÔ˜: Ùe öÚÁÔ Î·d ì ‰È·©‹ÎË ÙÔÜ (1436)’, £ËÛ·˘ÚÈÛÌ¿Ù· 18, 1981, pp. 290–8. 11 Previously scholars had been puzzled as to why an artist, whose style was obviously of a much earlier date, should have painted in this way. For example, M. Chatzidakis, in Icons of Patmos, Greek edn, Athens, 1977, English edn, Athens, 1985, p. 114, accepting the authenticity of the signature and date on the Cairo icon, suggested ingeniously that Angelos deliberately archaized, as on his signed icon of Phanourios, no. 69, pp. 116–17, plate 27, but he dated the closely related unsigned icon of St George, no. 24, pp. 75–6, plate 26, to 1500–20. For both, the date proposed by Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, the second half of the 15th century, can be retained. 12 Vassilakes-Mavrakakes, art. cit. supra (n. 1), pp. 229–32.

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Varsamonero,13 with on one side Phanourios enthroned, his feet resting on a dragon (unsigned), and on the other Phanourios with Christ (signed); another on Patmos,14 of him standing with shield and spear; the third on the island of Pholegandros,15 on which again he is standing with shield and spear. Four other icons of Phanourios, unsigned but evidently related to the oeuvre of Angelos, are close to these in style: one at Varsamonero,16 of Phanourios enthroned, his feet on a dragon and crowned by an angel; another in the Metochion of St Catherine, Herakleion, from the monastery of the Theotokos Hodegetria,17 with two scenes, above, Christ appearing to the Holy Women, below, Phanourios who is intervening to save a ship; in the same Collection,18 a standing portrait of Phanourios with a spear and Christ blessing; in a private collection in Athens,19 a standing portrait with a sword. To these should be added the copy, dated 1688, of Phanourios enthroned at Varsamonero in the Metochion of St Catherine, Herakleion,20 and a late icon in the monastery of Kenourgio of Phanourios on horseback surrounded by four scenes, painted by Michael Polychronios in 1848.21 The most consistent features in these paintings are the sumptuous military dress of Phanourios, his attribute and his portrait. For his costume, there is nothing special to record, because it was common to all the warrior saints painted by Angelos and his associates. However, the attribute, which he almost invariably carries, was peculiar to him. It was a cross surmounted by a candle, which he normally held in his right hand. Vassilakes-Mavrakakes gives its explanation.22 Not only is it mentioned in his Synaxaria, but also Nikolas Malaxos introduced it in the sixteenth century into verses and chants composed in honour of the saint:23 º·ÓÔ‡ÚÈÔ˜ ÊᘠÄÛÈ ÈÛÙÔÖ˜ ·Ú¤¯ÂÈ. However, Phanourios not only 13 Ibid., pp. 229–30, figs 51b, 52a; EåÎfiÓ˜ Ùɘ KÚËÙÈÎc˜ T¤¯Ó˘, Herakleion, 1993, nos 122, 122b, pp. 478–9. 14 Chatzidakis, op. cit. supra (n. 10), no. 69; Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, p. 230, fig. 52b. 15 Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, pp. 231–2, fig. 57b. 16 Ibid., pp. 230–1, fig. 57b; EåÎfiÓ˜ Ùɘ KÚËÙÈÎc˜ T¤¯Ó˘, op. cit. supra (n. 13), no. 123, p. 480. 17 Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, p. 231, fig. 55. 18 Ibid., p. 231, fig. 57a; EåÎfiÓ˜ Ùɘ KÚËÙÈÎc˜ T¤¯Ó˘, no. 95, pp. 448–9. 19 Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, p. 232, fig. 58. 20 Ibid., pp. 231, 232, fig. 53b; EåÎfiÓ˜ Ùɘ KÚËÙÈÎc˜ T¤¯Ó˘, op. cit. supra (n. 13), no. 115, p. 472; Sinaï, no. 95, p. 220. 21 Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art, Athens, 1986, no. 176, p. 173. 22 Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, pp. 234–6. 23 Ibid., p. 227; S. Eustratiades, ^AÁÈÔÏfiÁÈÔÓ Ùɘ \√Ú©fi‰ÔÍÔ˘ \EÎÎÏËÛ›·˜, Athens, 1960, pp. 457–8.

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209

brought light to all believers but also brought things to light, discovering lost animals and objects. The facial features of Phanourios remained constant from the earliest dated portrait of him (1445), represented, curiously, as a deacon, in the church of St Constantine at Avdou Pediados, Cyprus.24 He is young and beardless, very like Demetrius and George, apart from his characteristic long, curly locks hanging either side of his head. Nano Chatzidakis has suggested that an icon bearing the name of Demetrius in the collection of R. Andreadi, Athens, was originally intended to be Phanourios, but the name was changed in the accompanying legend (plate 59).25 In all its details, it closely resembles the portrait of Phanourios on the Patmos icon.26 As mentioned at the beginning, Phanourios was an entirely fictitious character. The sources for his miracles can be easily inferred: they adapt those of St George.27 His name was probably a misreading or adaptation of the word Ê·ÓÂÚˆÙ‹˜, which inspired both his specific activity as a saint and his specific attribute. However, those who created Phanourios pushed their ingenuity no further. They were content to present him as corresponding to the type of the warrior saint as it was established in the late Byzantine period, emulating the most distinguished members of the étatmajor, George, Demetrius and, perhaps, Theodore Tiron. He was left ‘floating’ in both time and space, unsituated historically and endowed with neither a military career, nor a country of origin. There is no account of a trial and execution, nor was he endowed with relics. His interventions were private; he responded to requests to find lost things, but he protected no specific community. His military status was not in doubt, but he never figured in the late Byzantine echelons of warrior saints. *

*

*

Of this group of nine warrior saints, with or without companions, VI– XIV, only Sergius and Bacchus (VI) have much in common with the members of Hippolyte Delehaye’s état-major. They were martyred like them at the epoch of persecuting emperors and their Passion composed at the period when the epic genre predominated. The probably fictitious

24 Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, p. 229, fig. 51a. This is the unique representation of Phanourios as a deacon. She suggests, ibid., p. 234, that, like St Demetrius, he underwent a metamorphosis. However, there is no evidence for this in the literary sources. Possibly the artist simply made a mistake. 25 Affreschi e icone dalla Grecia, Athens, 1986, no. 58, pp. 100–1; From Byzantium to El Greco. Greek Frescoes and Icons, Athens, 1987, no. 37, p. 172. 26 Vid. supra (n. 13). 27 Vassilakis-Mavrakakis, p. 236.

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Passion of Eustathius (VII) sets his martyrdom much earlier and gives more place than was habitual to his military career. At least at the beginning, his vision of Christ when hunting inspired the development of his cult, independently of his success in battle before and after his conversion, although the account of his trial and execution is in accordance with the prevailing norms. He was later coopted into the echelon of warrior saints. For Hieron (IX) and the XL Martyrs of Sebasteia (VIII), we are well documented, even if the testimonies are not entirely in agreement. However, they, like Eustathius, were invoked for other reasons than those which were specific to warrior saints. It was believed that they could help the deceased to be received clemently when they presented themselves for judgment. Hieron and his companions (IX) were not strictly warriors, although their trial and execution are recounted in the traditional way. It seems that their Passion was also fictitious. Nevertheless, Hieron was greatly revered in his native Cappadocia, although elsewhere he received little cult and was never coopted into the echelon of warrior saints. Menas (X) had a double career. There was no doubt that he had been a warrior, but, at the beginning, his sanctuary, the ‘Egyptian Lourdes’, was frequented on account of his healing powers. His cult, propagated by the flasks, manufactured and filled with water or oil at his sanctuary, spread far and wide. Later, refurbished, he became a conventional member of the echelon of warrior saints. Artemius (XI) equally received cult on account of his healing powers particularly for genital disorders. It was only later, after his shrine had ceased to function, that he too was coopted into the echelon of warrior saints. The next three warriors date from rather later, so that our sources for them are, to some extent, more reliable. Arethas (XII) was exceptional, because he was martyred by Jews, not pagans, in the sixth century. No information is available about his military career, although his martyrdom is well documented; he was readily accepted in the Byzantine calendar and coopted, much later, into the echelon of warrior saints. Martin of Tours (XIII) was a pre-eminent and well-documented Western saint, who was little venerated in the East, where, however, his military commitment was readily accepted, although, to the modest extent that he received cult, he was revered as a bishop and miracle worker, not as a warrior. Finally Phanourios (XIV) was an entirely fictitious warrior, almost invariably represented in military dress but invoked because he had the gift of bringing lost objects to light. Like Martin, he never figured in echelons of warrior saints. Of this group of nine warriors and their companions, five, it will have been noted, first attracted devotion for reasons which were quite independent of their military status. Three of them, Eustathius, Menas, and

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Artemius, were to be coopted into the echelon. The three others who were also to be coopted, Sergius, Bacchus and Arethas, received cult explicitly as martyred warriors. The existence of these major warrior saints, even if they were not members of the état-major, makes it clear that, for the Byzantines, they shared their characteristics more or less. It emerges that the Byzantines did not have a basic and perennial notion of what constituted a warrior saint. Their notion, as one might have expected, evolved over the centuries, culminating in the establishment of an echelon which was not, however, comprehensive. Some warriors were never coopted into it, while the choice of those to figure in painted echelons varied. The evolution of the Byzantine notion of the warrior saint towards the constitution of an echelon will be examined in the concluding section.

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CHAPTER FOUR

The Minor Warrior Saints As work progressed on this study, I observed that a great many warriors, mostly martyrs, are commemorated in Byzantine calendars. Some were relatively important and endowed with Passions; others usually did not figure elsewhere than in their commemoration; yet others may have escaped by attention. It would have been cumbersome and of little practical importance to have integrated all of them into this study. Consequently I have relegated a considerable number of them to an appendix, simply in order to have recorded them. The next 16 entries are devoted to those who, for differing reasons, enrich our conception of the Byzantine warrior saint. It seemed simpler to present them in alphabetical rather than chronological order. For convenience, the numbering of the entries continues from that of the preceding ones. In compiling this list, Markovic´’s study of the warrior saints represented in the echelon at Decˇani has proved invaluable. I have also profited from the list which David Woods has registered on his website and from his publications. Others I discovered myself.

213

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XV St Christopher G. Bardy observed that St Christopher was ‘un des plus populaires, mais aussi un des moins connus parmi les saints martyrs de l’antiquité’. According to Gordini, the earliest surviving Passions, which are in Latin (BHL, 1764–66), only date from just before the eighth century.1 The first surviving texts in Greek date from even later. However, there is one early reference to the cult of St Christopher, an inscription from a church at Chalcedon, constructed by Bishop Eulalius in 450 and dedicated on 22 September 452,2 that is several centuries earlier than the first Greek Passions.3 The earliest texts about him in Greek include the entry for 9 May in the Sirmondianus,4 the Passio (BHG, 308w) (eleventh century),5 and the account in the imperial Menologium of Michael IV (1034–41).6 Christopher was originally known as Reprevos (^P¤Ú‚Ԙ), a name not otherwise known, member of a people called Cynocephali (‘Dog-heads’).7 He was recruited into the T¿ÁÌ· M·ÚÌ·ÚÈÙáÓ, to which, according to his Passion, Theodore Tiron8 also belonged. Appalled by the savage annihilation of Christians by the pagan Roman army, he converted, inspired by the vision of an angel. A miracle occurred; his staff (Ú^¿‚‰Ô˜) sprouted leaves. He was baptized and took the name of Christopher, because he carried Christ within him (âÓ ¤·˘Ùˇá). He converted fellow soldiers, was tortured, converted the prostitutes sent to seduce him, destroyed pagan statues of gods, was further tortured but healed by angels and finally decapitated. His body was buried by a river which it prevented miraculously from flooding. This conventional rigmarole obviously has no 1 G. Bardy, ‘Christophe (saint)’, DHGE 12, 777–8; G.D. Gordini, ‘Cristoforo’, BS 4, 349– 64; D. Woods, ‘St. Christopher, Bishop Peter of Attalia, and the Cohors Marmaritarum: A Fresh Examination’, Vigiliae Christianae 48, 1994, pp. 170–86. 2 Accurately transcribed by H. Grégoire, ‘Inscriptions historiques byzantines, VI. St Christophe et la cubiculaire Euphémie’, Byzantion 4, 1927–28, pp. 461–5. 3 BHG, 308w–311k are the earliest ones. 4 Syn CP, 667–70. 5 Passion, ed. G. Van Hooff, An. Boll. 1, 1882, pp. 121–248. 6 BHG, 311b, Fr. Halkin, Hagiologie byzantine, Brussels, 1986, pp. 32–46, with French translation, published too late to figure in Auctarium. 7 J. Schwartz, ‘A propos de l’iconographie orientale de S. Christophe’, Le Muséon 67, 1954, pp. 93–8. 8 BHG, 1761–62, AA SS Nov. IV, 1925, 30, 40. Vid. supra, I: the Theodores, p. 46, n. 9.

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historical value. However, it is not without interest, because it is related to Christopher’s iconographical tradition, although whether inspiring it or deriving from it, is not clear. St Christopher is remarkable for having not only an attribute but also two iconographical types. Usually he held his attribute, the leafy staff, in his left hand, while the Christ which he carried within him was exteriorized as the infant Christ carried on his shoulder. He was also often represented with the head of a dog. There is an early first witness to Christopher cynocephalus on a terracotta from Vinica, probably made before 733 (plate 24).9 He wears a short tunic and stands with St George. Both hold up a shield and cross placed between them; both spear a serpent with a human head. An inscription reads XPOFORUS, a curious muddle of Greek and Latin script.10 Thus St Christopher was represented as a soldier and Cynocephalus about the time of the earliest surviving literary text about him. According to another legend, he was given a dog’s head to disguise his handsomeness; he was indeed said to have been exceptionally tall and robust. He was highly popular in Cappadocia, where he exercised the same apotropaic function as the terracotta from Vinica. He was often placed, again with St George, beside the entrance or before the apse of the church.11 Unfortunately these portraits have been neither systematically catalogued nor reproduced. In them he has an ordinary human head but is only twice recorded as wearing military costume, in the church of the Hermitage at Sog˘anlı (tenth or eleventh century), where he holds his attribute,12 and in Kılıçlar kilisesi, Göreme no. 33 (eleventh century).13 Elsewhere he wears a chlamys. There exists a number of icons of St Christopher with a dog’s head.14 On one in the Byzantine Museum, Athens, he wears military costume; he is being crowned by Christ, who emerges in bust form from a segment above him on the icon.15 However, he continued to be represented sporadically as a conventional military saint, for example in the church of

9

Vid. supra, p. 52. Catalogues of exhibitions, Ikone iz Makedonije, Zagreb, 1987, no. 7, illustrated, p. 36; Trésors médiévaux de la République de Macédoine, Paris, 1999, no. 3, illustrated, p. 37. 11 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 345, n. 58. 12 Ibid., p. 13. He also holds his attribute, but wearing civil dress, in St Basil, Tokalı, Göreme no. 7, ibid., p. 96. For his attribute, vid. Jerphanion, I, p. 268; idem, ‘Les caractéristiques et les attributs des saints’, La voix des monuments, nouvelle série, Paris, 1938, p. 316, fig. 47 3. 13 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 143, 146. 14 A. Chatzinikolaou, ‘EåÎfiÓ˜ ÙÔÜ ·Á›Ô˘ XÚÈÛÙÔÊfiÚÔ˘ ÙÔÜ Î˘ÓÔÎÂÊ¿ÏÔ˘’, Mélanges O. and M. Merlier III, Athens, 1957, pp. 225–33. 15 Ibid., p. 226, fig. III b. No date is proposed for this icon. 10

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the Anargyroi, Kastoria (eleventh century),16 and at Moutoullas, Cyprus (1280), where he is mounted on a horse side-saddle and carries a sword.17 In the bust portrait in the Protaton, Mount Athos (fourteenth century), he does not wear military uniform, but he has the long curly locks falling to his shoulders which were sometimes attributed to him.18 The iconographical type of St Christopher carrying the child Jesus on his shoulder, is by far the best-known one in the West. The earliest recorded account of this prodigy is in Giacomo di Voragine’s Golden Legend, although it is unlikely to have originated there (plate 40).19 The first examples of it in Byzantine tradition appear somewhat later. There are two on Mount Athos, in both of which St Christopher, not in military uniform, also holds the leafy staff in his hand, in the catholicon of the Great Lavra (1535),20 and at Dochiariou (1568).21 Finally on the iconostasis in the church of St George of Arpera near Tersephanou, Cyprus (1745) (plate 42), St Christopher, in military dress, is represented cynocephalus, carrying the child Jesus and holding his leafy staff. It is the only portrait of the saint known to me in which his two iconographical types are combined and his attribute also included.22 Although Christopher’s Passion contains many characteristic elements found in other Passions of warrior saints, they serve mainly as a substructure for the fantasies of hagiographers. Devotion to him was less strong in the East than in the West. Western influence probably accounts for his developed iconography in Cyprus. The Byzantines never coopted him into echelons of military saints.

16

Ibid., p. 227; S. Pelekanides, K·ÛÙÔÚ›·, Thessaloniki, 1953, fig. 23a. G.A. Sotiriou, Ta B˘˙·ÓÙÈÓa ÌÓËÌÂÖ¿ Ùɘ K‡ÚÔ˘, Athens, 1935, fig. 85b; A. and G.A. Stylianou, The Painted Churches of Cyprus, London, 1985, p. 320. 18 G. Millet, Monuments de l’Athos, Paris, 1927, fig. 51, 1. Chatzinikolaou, art. cit. supra (n. 14), p. 227, wrote incorrectly that he is represented here in military dress. 19 H. Delehaye, Cinq leçons sur la méthode hagiographique, Brussels, 1934, pp. 142–6. 20 Millet, op. cit. supra (n. 18), fig. 138 2. 21 Ibid., fig. 242 1. 22 Stylianou, op. cit. supra (n. 17), p. 444, fig. 263. 17

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XVI St Cornelius the Centurion All that is historically certain about Cornelius (KÔÚÓ‹ÏÈÔ˜) is recounted in Acts 10.1 He was the centurion (ëηÙfiÓÙ·Ú¯Ô˜) of a Roman cohort. By disposition he was pious, given to prayer, and munificent to the local Jewish community. This has led to the suggestion that he was a proselyte who retained his military post,2 but St Peter’s remark (Acts 10:28) that it was forbidden for a Jew to enter a foreigner’s house makes this seem unlikely. The visions which led to the centurion’s conversion merited him a place in early Christian hagiography,3 but subsequent embellishments of his legend, unless they derive from oral tradition, are all apocryphal. As biblical exegetes have recognized, the conversion of Cornelius was important to the author of the Acts above all because it authorized the acceptance of Gentiles into the Christian community unburdened by the dictates of the Mosaic law. Among the accretions to his legend may be noted his appointment as Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine in succession to Zacchaeus and his ultimate martyrdom. He is commemorated in the Sirmondianus on 13 September.4 His Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 371) is the principal Byzantine source for him.5 Cornelius was not often portrayed in Byzantine art. He never appears in Cappadocia. However, in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 125, he is commemorated on 20 October and represented twice, once dressed as a bishop smashing idols and again on his deathbed.6 His Life in manuscripts of the first Metaphrastic volume for September was illustrated by a miniature three times: Oxford Bodleian Barocci 230, f. 3v, in the frontispiece, where, dressed as a bishop, he stands between Autonomus and Nicetas;7 London Additional 11870, f. 108, where, in lay dress, he stands 1

T.G. de Orbiso, ‘Cornelio il Centurione’, BS 4, 189–92. H. Leclercq, ‘Militarisme’, DACL 11, 1120. 3 Part of a lost Life was identified by Fr. Halkin, ‘Un abrégé inédit de la vie ancienne et disparue de Corneille le centurion’, Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici N.S. 1(11), 1964, pp. 31–7 (BHG, 370z). Another text published by Halkin, ‘Une passion inédite de Corneille le centurion?’, An. Boll. 81, 1963, pp. 28–30 (BHG, 370y), is described by him as ‘un exemplaire un peu insolite du récit bien connu et accessible à tous’. 4 Syn. CP, 27–40. 5 PG 114, 1293–1312. 6 PG 117, 115. 7 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 17. 2

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in prison at prayer;8 Venice Marc. graec. Z 586, f. ll0, where, dressed like an apostle, he lies on his deathbed.9 Cornelius, in common with Martin of Tours (XIII), abandoned the army for a pastoral career. In Byzantine tradition, he was revered as a bishop, not as a warrior.

8 Ibid., p. 121; Walter, ‘September Metaphrast’, p. 19, fig. 18, reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. V. 9 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 177.

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XVII

219

The Holy Five of Sebasteia with Sts Orestes and Eustratius

No hagiographical text for the Holy Five of Sebasteia has survived earlier in date than their Metaphrastic Life.1 However, one or more Passions certainly existed. The Metaphrastic Life incorporates the Testament of their leader Eustratius, which provided for the construction of a basilica in their honour at Arauraka, whither their relics were translated from Sebasteia, the place of their martyrdom.2 It has long been recognized that this Testament depends on that of the XL Martyrs.3 The substance of an earlier Passion is recounted in the Menologium of Basil II at 13 December, accompanying the first surviving representation of the Holy Five.4 All their names are given here; in the miniature which it accompanies their portraits are individualized and their respective martyrdoms correctly represented. Orestes, the only member of the Holy Five to have been a soldier, is described in the Metaphrastic Life as ‘a well built and good-looking man’ (àÓ‹Ú ÂéÌÂÁ¤©Ë˜ ηd ÂéÚÂ‹˜ Â¥‰ÂÈ). The Menologium and the Sirmondianus are more laconic.5 It is sometimes said that Eustratius was also a soldier,6 although he is never represented in military dress, always as a courtier. He seems rather to have been a highly placed civil authority. They are called the Holy Five (Ôî ±ÁÈÔÈ ¤ÓÙÂ) in the title of the miniature illustrating Psalm 118:1, a verse which they chant on their journey, in the Theodore Psalter, f. 158.7 Here Orestes is represented carrying a shield. Since they became fairly popular saints, they were often represented, either as a group portrait or in a cycle.8 In these groups, the facial 1 BHG, 646, PG 116, 465–506, and Epilogue (BHG, 646a), Fr. Halkin, ‘L’épilogue d’Eusèbe de Sebastée à la Passion de S. Eustrate et de ses compagnons’, An. Boll. 88, 1970, pp. 279–83, with observations on the ancientness and fictitious character of the text. E. Mottironi, ‘Eustrazio, Aussenzio, Eugenio, Mardario ed Oreste’, BS 5, 313–15 (general study); J. Boberg, ‘Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugenius, Mardarius, Orestes’, LCI 6, 200–1 (iconography). 2 Maraval, p. 375. 3 Anonymous review, An. Boll. 17, 1898, pp. 467–8. 4 Vatican graec. 1613, p. 241; PG 117, 204. 5 Syn CP, 305–6. 6 For example, Anna Chatzinikolaou, ‘Heilige’, LBK 2, 1050. 7 Sirarpie Der Nersessian, p. 33, fig. 256; PG 116, 488; Walter ‘Latter-Day Saints’, p. 226. 8 K. Weitzmann, ‘Illustrations to the Lives of the Five Martyrs of Sebaste’, DOP 33, 1979, pp. 97–112.

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features of Orestes – beardless with thick, dark hair – are constant. In representations of his martyrdom, he is naked apart from a loincloth. In the Menologium of Basil II, a tiny cross may be observed hanging from his neck (plate 29). According to both the text which the miniature accompanies and the Metaphrastic Life, he did wear a cross under his uniform, which was revealed when he pulled back his chlamys. In the Life of St Eustratius, Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale graec. 89 (B. II 4), f. 77, Orestes is represented in military dress before Lysias who is examining the cross.9 The numerous individual portraits of an Orestes in Cappadocia are of a doctor of the same name, who was martyred there at Tyana in 255.10 Confusion between the two has occurred, but where Orestes is placed near to the other members of the Holy Five, it is clear that he is not the saint of Tyana, even if he is not invariably portrayed in military dress. Thus he is placed next to Mardarius in Kılıçlar Kusˇluk (Göreme no. 33), a church dating from the first half of the eleventh century.11 In Karanlık kilise (Göreme no. 23), dating probably from c. 1050–75, his identity is made clear not only because he wears military dress but also because he has a cross hanging from his neck.12 Some further examples of representations of Orestes, member of the Holy Five, may be cited. In the Nea Moni, Chios, also dating from the eleventh century, there are individual portraits of all the members of the Holy Five with Orestes in military dress.13 He appears in the Panagia Chalkeon, Thessaloniki,14 and at Daphni,15 each time in military dress with a cross. He appears again on the south wall of the north-west chapel at Hosios Loukas, in military dress but without a cross, unnamed but identifiable by the presence of his four companions, each with his portrait type.16

9 Ibid., p. 120, fig. 20; PG 116, 485. In some other cycles, notably that accompanying the Metaphrastic Life in Esphigmenou 14, f. 343r–v, Treasures II, pp. 219–20, 369–70, Orestes does not appear in military dress. 10 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 41–2; J.-M. Sauget, ‘Oreste’, BS 9, 1228–31; F. Tschochner, ‘Orestes von Tyana’, LCI 8, 99. 11 Jerphanion, Eglises rupestres, I, p. 247; Restle II, no. 288; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 146 (for the date). 12 Jerphanion, I, pp. 401–2; Restle II, no. 232; N. Thierry, ‘La Vierge de Tendresse à l’époque macédonienne’, Zograf 10, 1979, p. 32 (for the date). 13 D. Mouriki, The Mosaics of Nea Moni on Chios’, Athens, 1985, pp. 67–8, 143–4 (English edn), pp. 73, 157–8 (Greek edn), figs 61, 202, 203. 14 D.E. Evangelidi, ^H ¶·Ó·Á›· ÙáÓ X·ÏÎÂáÓ, Thessaloniki, 1951, p. 65, fig. 18. K. KreidlPapadopoulos, Die Wandmalereien des XI. Jahrhunderts in der Kirche ¶·Ó·Á›· ÙáÓ X·ÏÎÂáÓ in Thessaloniki, Graz, 1966, gives the name of Orestes without description, associating him, not quite accurately, with Mardarius as ‘Zwei Kriegerheilige’. 15 G. Millet, Le monastère de Daphni, Paris, 1899, p. 123, fig. 58. 16 Th. Chatzidakis-Bacharas, Les peintures murales de Hosios Loukas. Les chapelles orientales, Athens, 1982, pp. 74–81, fig. 11.

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In the thirteenth-century painting from Episkopi Eurytania, now in the Byzantine Museum, Athens, Orestes in military dress is placed next to Eugenius.17 Two manuscripts of the first December volume of the Metaphrastic Lives contain miniatures of the Holy Five: Ambrosiana graec. 1017 (E 89 inf.), f. 211 (plate 55), a group portrait with Orestes in military dress,18 and Laurenziana Plut. XI: 11, f. 201v, a sequence of tiny roundels containing busts of each member of the Holy Five, with Orestes again dressed as a warrior and holding a shield and spear.19 Since in monumental programmes, Orestes is normally grouped with the other members of the Holy Five (plate 3), he does not figure in echelons of military saints. In fact, the literary sources, while invariably calling him a warrior, give no information about his military career. Further, he had no existence apart from the Holy Five, whereas Eustratius, the eminent civil official, not only had his personal Life but was also sometimes represented individually in other contexts, for example on the tenth-century ivory triptychs.20 Schiemenz suggested, it would seem gratuitously, that it was not always possible to determine which of the two saints called Orestes was represented in Cappadocia.21 Except when an Orestes, whether or not in military dress, accompanies the other members of the Holy Five, he is the doctor martyred at Tyana. I know of only one case of Orestes the warrior being represented without his companions, on an enamel on the Pala d’Oro.22 Here, as is the case for the other enamels, he has been taken out of his original context, but there is no difficulty in identifying him as the warrior, because he wears military dress. It must be said that any confusion between the two saints called Orestes is the fault not of the Byzantines themselves but of modern Byzantinists.

17

Splendeurs de Byzance, P. 4, p. 29; Glory of Byzantium, no. 17, p. 51. Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, Menologion, p. 131; Weitzmann art. cit., fig. 4. 19 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 109. 20 On the Harbaville triptych, bottom left-hand figure of left wing, holding a martyr’s cross, Splendeur de Byzance, Iv. 8; Byzance, catalogue of exhibition, Paris, 1992, no. 149. 21 G.P. Schiemenz, ‘Doppelkirche von Babayan’, Istanbuler Mitteilungen 36, 1986, pp. 197–200. 22 La Pala d’Oro, il Tesoro di San Marco, ed. H.R. Hahnloser, 2nd edn, Venice, 1994, W.F. Volbach, ‘Gli smalti della Pala d’Oro’, p. 59, plate LV, no. 129, with a gratuitous reference to a study of Orestes of Tyana! 18

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XVIII St Joannicius St Joannicius (\Iˆ·ÓÓ›ÎÈÔ˜) was born in Bithynia in 754.1 He began life as a shepherd, but at about the age of 20 he enrolled in the imperial army. Originally favourable to iconoclasm, he became an iconophile about 795. After 20 years of military service as a sentinel (âÍÎÔ‡‚ÈÙˆÚ), he resigned from the army, becoming a monk on Mount Olympus. However, he did not remain there. He passed his time in peregrination, acquiring the reputation of a miracle worker.2 In old age, he returned to Mount Olympus, where he died a natural death on 3 November 846. His saintly qualities were recognized; he is commemorated in the Byzantine calendar on 3 November,3 or 4 November.4 St Joannicius was evidently highly esteemed, since we are well documented about him. There are two Lives, one by Peter which is earlier and reliable, the other by Sabbas.5 However, his Metaphrastic Life follows rather the later, less reliable one.6 We are told that he was a zealous soldier, excelling others in knowledge and strength. We are also told, as customarily when soldiers are described, that everyone found him delightful and handsome in appearance (·ÛÈ … ì‰f˜ ηd óÚ·ÈfiÙ·ÙÔ˜ ηÙÂÊ·›ÓÂÙÔ).7 He fought in the Byzantine army against the Bulgarians. Because he was appalled by the slaughter of his comrades he resigned his commission and decided to become a monk. Since, in any case, he did not undergo martyrdom, Joannicius was revered as a holy man and miracle worker, not as a warrior. In the earliest known representation of him in the Menologium of Basil II, where he is called a thaumaturge, he is portrayed in his monastic habit, his arms outstretched in prayer towards a hand and rays of light which emerge from a starry segment.8 He is also portrayed as a monk in the 1

J.-M. Sauget, ‘Giovaniccio’, BS 6, 1065–6. Od. Lampsidis, ‘Das Wunder des heiligen Ioannikios in der Kirche des Evangelisten Johannes in Ephesus’, An. Boll. 100, 1982, pp. 429–30. 3 Menologium of Basil II, p. 153; PG 117, 142. 4 Syn. CP, 192–3. 5 Life by Peter (BHG, 936), AA SS Nov. II 1, Brussels, 1894, 384–435; Life by Sabbas (BHG, 935), ibid., 332–83; C. Mango, ‘The Two Lives of St. Ioannikios and the Bulgarians’, Okeanos, Harvard Ukrainian Studies 7, 1983, pp. 393–404. 6 (BHG, 937) PG 116, 36–92. 7 Life by Peter, 386 F. 8 Vid. supra, n. 3. 2

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illustrated manuscripts of volume III of the Metaphrastic Lives.9 In fact, this was his regular iconographical type.10 Joannicius as a soldier has interested military scholars more than art historians, by reason of the information which his Lives provide about recruitment to the Byzantine army.11 However, he belongs to the group of warriors, among them Martin (XIII) and Cornelius (XVI) who abandoned their military commission to undertake the pastoral work which gave them their title to sanctity.

9 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, Sinaït. graec. 500, f. 43v, p. 65; London Additional 36686, f. 5v, pp. 120–1; Venice Marc. graec. Z 351, f. 38v, p. 170. In the later two miniatures a personification of Mount Olympus appears. The author has omitted the name of Joannicius from her list of saints who figure regularly in her study, p. 209. 10 G. Kaster, ‘Johannicus Thaumaturgus von Bithynien’, LCI 6, 198–9. 11 For example, M. Kaplan, Les hommes et la terre à Byzance du VIe au XIe siècle, Paris, 1997, p. 236, but vid. the criticisms of P. Karlin-Hayter, Byzantion 67, 1997, pp. 579–80.

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XIX Sts Juventinus and Maximinus The only piece of hagiographical writing about Sts Juventinus and Maximinus (\IÔ˘‚ÂÓÙÖÓÔ˜ ηd M·ÍÈÌÖÓÔ˜) to have survived is the Encomium attributed to John Chrysostom.1 He probably delivered it in Antioch on their anniversary although in what year is uncertain.2 However, the tradition of their martyrdom was widely known.3 At the beginning of his study – the most exhaustive one – of the two martyrs, de’ Cavalieri lists the ancient authors who referred to them. Malalas recounted, improbably, that they were condemned for inciting the Christians of Antioch to rise against Julian the Apostate, prophesying the emperor’s imminent death in battle.4 What he wrote differs from other historians’ accounts of their martyrdom, among whom there is a consensus that the two soldiers openly took exception at a military banquet, outstanding for the inebriation and ribaldry of the participants, to Julian’s policy of suppressing Christianity and reimposing pagan practices. Juventinus and Maximinus were denounced, condemned and executed probably in 363. Theodoret of Cyrus gave an account which is more circumstantial than that of Chrysostom. De’ Cavalieri thought that he must have had access to a written source, whereas Chrysostom obtained his information from oral tradition.5 Theodoret’s account, which that in the Sirmondianus closely resembles,6 reads like a conventional Passion. After referring to their distinguished military careers, without, however, going into detail, he described their personal interview with Julian, who failed to induce them to renounce their Christian faith. Officially they were condemned 1 BHG, 975, AA SS Jan. III, Paris, 1863, 232–5 = PG 50, 571–8. It is intercalated, after an Encomium of Babylas, in a series of Homilies on Lazarus. The title is not Chrysostom’s; he does not actually refer to the two martyrs by their names. Of these there are minor differences in spelling, vid. infra (n. 42), De’ Cavalieri, p. 185, 186 note 1. 2 P. Peeters, ‘La date de la fête de SS. Juventin et Maximin’, An. Boll. 42, 1924, pp. 77–82. 3 P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, ‘Dei santi Gioventino e Massimo’, Note agiographiche fascicolo 9, Studi e testi 176, Vatican, 1953, pp. 167–200; J.-M. Sauget, ‘Gioventino e Massimiano’, BS 6, 1070–3. 4 Chronographia XIII, PG 97, 489; De’ Cavalieri, pp. 187–9. 5 Historia ecclesiastica III, ed. L. Parmentier, Leipzig, 1911, pp. 193–4; De’ Cavalieri, pp. 180–6. 6 Syn. CP, 122, where the two martyrs are said not only to be endowed with moral and spiritual force but also to be handsome (ÌÂÁ¤©ÂÈ ÛÒÌ·ÙÔ˜ ‰È·Ú¤ÔÓÙ˜).

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for lese-majesty, but the Antiochenes considered this to be merely a cover for their real ‘crime’, that of being Christians. They preferred to die for the king of angels rather than serve an impious emperor and to carry arms for the celestial fatherland rather than the terrestrial one. Theodoret’s actual source remains hypothetical, but the way that his account is structured renders it likely that he had had access to a written Passion. Woods, however, conjectured that there was another possible source, a lost account of two soldiers exiled under Julian.7 In whatever way it was transmitted, the story of the martyrdom of Sts Juventinus and Maximinus was found by hagiographers to be a useful model, inspiring the Passions not only of Sts Sergius and Bacchus (VI) and of John and Paul (Appendix, XLIV) but also, perhaps, Sulpicius Severus’ Life of St Martin of Tours (XIII). Chrysostom’s Encomium of the two warrior saints is important in another way, because he introduced a striking comparison between veterans showing their wounds received in battle to the emperor and martyrs presenting their severed heads to Christ.8 Unless the resemblance between Chrysostom’s simile and the iconographical type of the kephalophoros saint is coincidental, it is in the former that the origin of latter is to be found, although St George was almost the only warrior for which it was used.9 These two martyrs are important for this study, because their Passion was exploited by hagiographers in composing those of other martyred warriors, although exactly how they exploited it is a matter of controversy. They received themselves little cult and figured minimally in iconography. I know only the representation of their martyrdom in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 99, in which they are represented wearing tunics, bearded but young.10 One, whose body lies in the foreground, has already been decapitated. The other leans forward, submitting his head to the executioner’s sword.

7 D. Woods, ‘The Emperor Julian and the Passion of Sergius and Bacchus,’ Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 5 3, 1997, pp. 335–67. Vid. supra, VI: Sergius and Bacchus. 8 Vid. supra (n. 1), 575–6 9 Vid. supra, pp. 143–4. The unique icon of Zosimus, XXIX, p. 244, kephalophoros is calqued upon George. 10 PG 117, 97, where they are called Â˙Ô› öÓÔÏÔÈ. This accords with the term used by Theodoret, Â˙¤Ù·ÈÚÔ˜.

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XX St Longinus of Caesarea The name Longinus (Greek) derives from ÏfiÁ¯Ë, the lance with which the soldier pierced Christ’s side on the Cross (John 19:34). Although John’s account of Christ’s Passion differs from that of the three synoptic ones which are identical, this soldier was early identified with the centurion (ëηÙfiÓ·Ú¯Ô˜) who stood guard and who was convinced that Christ was the Son of God (Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39; Luke 23:47). He was also identified with the officer in charge of the soldiers who subsequently stood guard at Christ’s sepulchre (Matthew 27:65–6). He would have then resigned from the army, taken up residence at Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he was appointed bishop and in due course died as a martyr. The centurion was first commemorated under the name of Longinus in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum on various days. The Life of Longinus is an outstanding example of how the early Christians created their hagiography.1 That Longinus was a warrior is not open to doubt, but he hardly fits into the category of warrior saints. Indeed he was never represented as such.2 He figures, invariably in military dress, in Christological iconography (plate 66); there are no portraits of him and no representations of his martyrdom. Like the three already mentioned, Martin (XIII), Cornelius (XVI) and Joannicius (XVIII), he is one of the retired soldiers who were sanctified by their pastoral work.

1 2

G. Lucchesi, ‘Longino’, BS 8, 89–95. L. Petzoldt, ‘Longinus von Cäsarea, der Centurio’, LCI 7, 410–11.

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XXI Sts Nestor and Lupus Some warrior saints acquired their renown through their association with another greater one. This was the case for Nestor and Lupus, protégés of Demetrius. All that is known of them is related in his two Passions. They do not figure in his Miracula; Archbishop John displayed no interest in them.1 Later liturgical texts depend entirely on what was recounted about them in the Passions of Demetrius. Of the two, Nestor is the more outstanding figure.2 His victory over the pagan gladiator Lyaeus, already recounted in II, because his success was attributed to Demetrius’ prayers, was followed by his martyrdom, presented conventionally. He was commemorated on 27 October, the day after Demetrius.3 No pre-Iconoclast representations of him are known, and there is only one in Cappadocia, Saklı kilise (Göreme no. 2a).4 It has been suggested that he is the sixth warrior saint, whose accompanying legend is lost, portrayed on the frontispiece to Basil II’s Psalter, but the identification of this figure is rendered difficult by its poor condition.5 Nestor’s execution is not included in the earliest surviving Demetrius cycle, Theodore Psalter, f. 125v.6 It is, however, worth recalling that in the scene where Nestor fights Lyaeus he wears military dress (plate 67), while Demetrius, who is praying for him, wears court dress. He had already risen in importance as a warrior saint, because his execution was represented in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 141. Wearing a tunic, he bends forward, his hands tied behind his back, while the executioner wields a sword. The scene is set in a conventional landscape, with a small-scale but elaborate piece of architecture to the extreme right. It is just possible that this is a reminiscence of the Golden Gate of Thessaloniki, beside which, according to the Passio altera of Demetrius, Nestor was executed. The reference to the Golden Gate is clearer in the same scene in 1 P. Lemerle, Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de saint Démétrius II, Commentaire, Paris, 1981, pp. 198–201. 2 J.-M. Sauget, ‘Nestore’, BS 9, 829–31. 3 Sirmondianus, Syn CP, 167–202; Menologium of Basil II, p. 141; PG 119–20 (giving the date as 26 Oct.). 4 Restle, Wandmalerei, plan II, no. 194, with neither description nor illustration. 5 Markovic´, pp. 592–3. All the other warriors are members of the état-major. 6 Der Nersessian, pp. 45, 94, fig. 204.

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the wall calendar at Staro Nagoricˇino (plate 34).7 Here the execution takes place directly in front of city gates, above which a figure, surely Demetrius, is represented on horseback. The painting has a special interest; it may be the unique example of the execution of a warrior portrayed wearing military dress. On minor objects – icons, reliquaries, encolpia and so on – if Nestor appears he invariably accompanies Demetrius. This might be a case of ‘twinning’, frequent in the iconography of warrior saints, in spite of the fact that the two saints did not have equal status. Nestor was rather Demetrius’ equerry, although his victory over the gladiator Lyaeus helped him to be readily adopted as a warrior saint. On the archetypal enamel and silver-gilt icon in the Treasury of San Marco, Venice (plate 1), the archangel Michael is flanked by four couples of warrior saints; all nine figures wear military dress. Demetrius and Nestor are placed together in the lower part of the left-hand border, each holding a shield and spear.8 They appear again, accompanied this time by Procopius, standing together in military dress on the relief in the Mayer van der Bergh Museum, Antwerp (plate 47).9 The identification of the two warrior saints, whose accompanying legend is no longer legible, as Demetrius and Nestor on an icon at St Catherine’s, Mount Sinaï, is unlikely and certainly conjectural.10 A seventeenth-century icon, which is in the skevophylakion of St Barlaam, Meteora, may also be adduced.11 Demetrius, enthroned in military dress, is armed with a sword, spear and shield. He places his feet on an obnoxious beast, no doubt the scorpion which in his Passio altera he is said to have annihilated with the sign of the Cross, although here it resembles rather a crocodile! Nestor stands to the right, slightly behind the throne, also in military dress and armed. He is presented 7

Walter, ‘St Demetrius’, pp. 176–7, fig. 14; B. Todic´, Staro Nagoricˇino, Belgrade, 1993, p.

82. 8 M. Frazer, ‘Byzantine Enamels and Goldsmith Work’, The Treasure of San Marco, Venice, ed. D. Buckton, Milan, 1984, dating it to the late 10th or first half of the 11th century. On account of the emphasis on the military dress of all the figures, I would opt for the later date. Frazer remarks that it is a work which stands apart. 9 E. Voordeckers, ‘A Bronze Relief in the Mayer van der Bergh Museum in Antwerp’, Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 1, 1970, pp. 181–93; Splendeur de Byzance, Exhibition catalogue, Brussels 1982, Br. no. 183, p. 180, where it is dated to the 11th century; I would opt for the 12th. 10 Soteriou I, no. 47, II, p. 64. I have given the reasons why I am sceptical above, II: Demetrius, p. 82, n. 60. 11 A. Xyngopoulos, ‘òAÁÈÔ˜ ¢ËÌ‹ÙÚÈÔ˜ ï M¤Á·˜ ¢ÔfÍ ï \Afiη˘ÎÔ˜’, ^EÏÏËÓÈο 15, 1957, p. 135; Walter, ‘St Demetrius’, pp. 168–9. A. Dumitrescu, ‘Une iconographie peu habituelle: les saints militaires siégeant. Le cas de St-Nicolas d’Arges¸’, Byzantion 59, 1989, p. 54, n. 14, cites a similar icon at Hilandar, vid. infra p. 143.

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like a guard behind an emperor, so indicating that his status was inferior to that of Demetrius. Two further minor objects should hold our attention. The reliquary, Halberstadt, no. 16a, is decorated on the outside with representations of Demetrius and Nestor, both in court dress.12 Grabar was unable to see the interior, where Nestor is represented again in bust form.13 The second object is the famous Heiborium in Moscow, often cited but rarely described adequately.14 The detail which is of concern here is the representation of Nestor and Lupus in military dress on the doors. If Demetrius does not figure with them it is because a relic of him was placed inside; his two protégés are guarding it.15 Portraits of Nestor figuring in an echelon of warrior saints are numerous (plate 4). Here he acquired a certain independence. For example, in the church of St Nicolas Kasnitzi, Kastoria, dating from the eleventh century, he is placed between Eustratius and Mercurius.16 Like the other warriors, he wears military dress and holds a spear. This may be the earliest example of Nestor in an echelon, for he does not appear in the mosaics of Daphni, Nea Moni and Hosios Loukas. He was omitted from the later echelon at Kariye Camii. On the other hand, he appears frequently in Serbian echelons, at Staro Nagoricˇino with Demetrius, 1316–18,17 at Resava with Lupus, before 1337,18 at St Andrew, Treska, near Skopje, between Nectarius and Nicetas, 1388–89 according to an inscription.19 Finally, he appears at Decˇani in military dress in the church’s outstanding echelon of warrior saints.20 Of Lupus, the other protégé of Demetrius who could be qualified as his batman, his patron’s Passions tell us even less than they do about Nestor, only that he rescued the relics of Demetrius which worked miracles.21 For doing so, he was put to death. The Sirmondianus records a saint called Lupus, but, since there was more than one saint with that name,

12 A. Grabar, ‘Quelques reliquaires de St Démétrius et le martyrium du saint à Salonique’, DOP 5, 1950, pp. 6–7. 13 The Glory of Byzantium, no. 108. 14 The best description is that by A. Grabar, art. cit. supra, n. 12, pp. 18–28, figs 19–22. 15 Almost certainly the Lavra reliquary for a relic of St Demetrius was originally part of the Moscow reliquary, A. Orlandos, ‘\AÓ¿ÁÏ˘ÊÔÓ ÎÈ‚ˆÙ›‰ÈÔÓ Ùɘ M. §·‡Ú·˜’, \Aگ›ÔÓ ÙáÓ ‚˘˙·ÓÙÈÓáÓ MÓËÌ›ˆÓ Ùɘ ^EÏÏ¿‰Ô˜ 8, 1955–56, pp. 100–4. 16 S. Pelekanides, K·ÛÙÔÚ›·, Thessaloniki, 1953, fig. 55a. 17 Todic´, op. cit. supra, n. 52, fig. 47. 18 V. Djuric´, Resava, Belgrade, 1963; Markovic´, fig. 48. 19 J. Prolovic´, Die Kirche des heiligen Andreas an der Treska, Vienna, 1997, no. 83, p. 97, fig. 91. 20 Markovic´, p. 607, fig. 3. 21 G.D. Gordini, ‘Lupo’, BS 8, 383–4.

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they may have been confused.22 Two examples where he figures with Nestor have already been mentioned, on the Moscow reliquary and in the echelon at Resava; a third is at Decˇani.23 This one is not without interest, because he holds a bow and three arrows, an iconographical detail, which, according to Zachariadou, was Turkish in origin and which was used to designate a Turk who converted to Christianity.24 It is less than likely that Lupus was ever considered to have been a converted Moslem! Lupus is also represented, somewhat surprisingly, enthroned in what could be called an echelon of military saints in the church of St Nicolas de Arges¸ , Romania.25 This fifteenth-century echelon is, as Dumitrescu wrote, hardly habitual. In fact, although warriors were represented enthroned, it is apparently the only known example of several of them being presented in an echelon. Moreover those whose accompanying legend is legible are, apart from Mercurius (IV), not members of the état-major. Nestor and Lupus are important for this study, because they show how two figures, who were assumed to be warriors but are only known because they were the protégés of a third, could be integrated very differently into Byzantine hagiography. Both were accepted into the echelon of warrior saints, but Nestor received far more devotion than Lupus. In fact, although he was associated closely with Demetrius, Nestor acquired a certain independence. It is plausible – but only conjectural – to suggest that the tradition that he overcame a pagan gladiator in combat existed independently of his association with Demetrius and that it was integrated later into the Passions of Demetrius. At any rate, in the cycles in which he appeared with Demetrius, his triumph over Lyaeus is assimilated to a military career, terminated by his execution. While this was represented independently of Demetrius in the Menologium of Basil II, it was associated with Demetrius, represented on horseback, in the calendar cycle at Staro Nagoricˇino.26

22

Syn CP, 917, 1035. Markovic´, p. 610, fig. 5. 24 E. Zachariadou, ‘Les nouvelles armes de St Dèmètrius’, E鄢¯›· II, Paris, 1998, p. 689–93. 25 Dumitrescu, art. cit. supra (n. 11), p. 51, fig. 5. 26 Vid. supra (n. 7). 23

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XXII St Nicetas (Nikita) the Goth St Nicetas (NÈ΋ٷ˜, Serbian Nikita) was a soldier, Gothic by race, who lived in the latter half of the fifth century.1 The Gothic forces, who were encamped on the Danube, were divided among themselves on religious matters, but the pagans were predominant. Nicetas was a member of the Orthodox minority. He made friends with a certain Marianus from Mopsuestia, ‘M·ÚÈ·Ófi˜ … Ê›ÏÔ˜ Á¤ÁÔÓÂÓ ÙÔÜ êÁ›Ô˘ Ì¿ÚÙ˘ÚÔ˘ NÈ΋ٷ’. When Nicetas professed his faith openly, he was sentenced and burnt to death. Marianus took charge of his bodily remains, which he translated to Mopsuestia. There a sanctuary was built in which they were deposed. The earliest known representation of him is in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 37, being burnt in a fire. He has youthful features with short hair and wears a tunic.2 However, in later portraits of which there is a certain number, he has dark hair and, in the Hermeneia, is said to resemble Christ. The preceding entry in the Hermeneia is for St Artemius, of whom the same description is given. Consequently, in echelons of military saints when there is no accompanying legend as in the parecclesion of the Kariye Camii, it is not possible to know whether the warrior represented is Artemius or Nicetas.3 Portraits of Nicetas recur often in Cappadocia. De Jerphanion recorded several, in some of which he wears a chlamys.4 Only for one of them does he describe Nicetas as a ‘saint militaire’.5 Jolivet-Lévy has added another in the basilica of Constantine, Yeniköy (paintings, eleventh century), in the company of St Theodore.6 He had now acquired his standard portrait type with dark hair and beard. This is also apparent in the miniatures illustrating three illuminated manuscripts of the September

1 Nicetas has a Passion (BHG, 1339), H. Delehaye, ‘Sts de Thrace et de Mésie, 7. Passio S. Nicetae’, An. Boll. 31, 1912, pp. 209–15, and a Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 1340), PG 115, 704– 12. He is commemorated in the Sirmondianus, Syn. CP, 45–6, on 15 Sept. R. Janin, ‘Niceta’, BS 9, 888–9. 2 PG 117, 49. 3 Vid. supra, XI: Artemius, p. 193, n. 14. 4 Göreme no. 1 (El Nazar), Jerphanion I, p. 180; Göreme no. 29 (Kılıçlar kilisesi), I, p. 210; Sog˘anlı, Belli kilise 2, II, p. 293. 5 Göreme no. 21 (St Catherine), ibid., I, p. 475; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 126. 6 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 282–3. Vid. her observations on the cult of Nicetas in Cappadocia and elsewhere, p. 52, nn. 33, 34.

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volume of Metaphrastic Lives: Oxford Bodleian Library, Barocci 230, f. 3v, where he appears in the frontispiece in court dress between Cornelius and Euphemia;7 British Library Additional 11870, f. 117v, where, incorrectly, he is decapitated;8 Venice Marc. graec. Z 586, f. 119v, where he is correctly being burnt.9 Markovic´ has called attention to the greater tendency in Serbian art to represent military saints in uniform and not in court dress,10 although, as has been noted, Nicetas (Nikita) was already portrayed thus, if rarely, in Cappadocia. Starting early on seals, his portrait was often painted in churches from the thirteenth century.11 Three outstanding examples are those in the churches dedicated to him near C´ucˇer, Macedonia, where he is fully armed,12 at Gracˇanica (plate 37), and at Decˇani. Unfortunately there, his portrait cannot be compared with that of Artemius, for the latter was destroyed when a new iconostasis was constructed.13 At Vatopedi, he is represented wearing a chlamys and holding a cross.14 Reference was made with regard to Lupus in the preceding entry to the echelon of enthroned warrior saints at St Nicolas de Arges¸, Romania.15 Nicetas, if he figured among them, would be one of those whose accompanying legend no longer exists.16 However, representations of Nicetas enthroned are common. In one outstanding example, an icon painted in the sixteenth century in Novgorod, Nicetas, in armour, is seated on a throne. An angel is crowning him. His feet rest on a two-headed dragon; from one of its mouths there emerges a black demon. With his left hand Nicetas holds the demon by its neck, while his right hand is raised to strike it (plate 61).17 Dumitrescu emitted the hypothesis that the iconography of warrior saints represented thus had as its archetype a portrait of Nicetas. This subject will be treated further in the ensuing section.18 It is evident that Nicetas was a fairly popular warrior saint. He is said to have wrought miracles at his sanctuary in Mopsuestia, and he rePatterson Sˇ evcˇenko, p. 17. Ibid., p. 121; Walter, ‘September Metaphrast’, p. 16, fig. 10. 9 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 177. 10 Markovic´, pp. 593–4. 11 Idem, p. 593, note 208; S. Kaster, ‘Niketas’, LCI 8, 42-43. 12 G. Millet and A. Frolow, La peinture du Moyen Age en Yougoslavie, Paris, 1957, III, plate 47 4. 13 Markovic´, Figs 6, 11. 14 G. Millet, Monuments de l’Athos, Paris, 1927, 81 2. 15 Vid. supra (n. 70). 16 Dumitrescu, vid. supra XXI, (p. 228, n. 11), pp. 56–8, figs 8, 9. 17 I. Okunev, ‘L’icone de saint Nicetas frappant le diable’ (in Russian), Seminarium Kondakovium 7, pp. 205–16. Okunev remarked that there is no incident in the life of Nicetas with which this representation of him can be easily associated. 18 Vid. infra, pp. 272, 281. 7

8

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ceived cult in Constantinople (plate 9),19 although of his military career nothing is known. He is important for the present study on account of his close relationship with another warrior, Marianus, and of his representation enthroned.

19

Janin, pp. 380–1.

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XXIII St Philotheus of Antioch Philotheus of Antioch1 has attracted interest because he is represented on a pencase dating from before 650, which is now in the Louvre, Paris (plate 22).2 On this unique object, which came from Antinoöpolis (Antinoë) in Upper Egypt, he is portrayed standing in armour, holding with his left hand a shield marked with a cross and piercing a serpent with a human head in the mouth with a spear held in his right hand. In the inscription above his portrait, he is invoked: A°IE ºI§√£E B√H£I Tø ï√Y§ø ™√Y ¶AMIø (sic). The inscription below is an incantatory formula. Philotheus, a Coptic saint, is nevertheless commemorated in the Byzantine calendar on 11 January.3 However, he does not figure in Byzantine art. The pencase is of particular importance, because, along with other Egyptian representations of warriors, St Philotheus’ portrait conforms very early in date to what would become a standard iconographical type. Thus there is a strong possibility that it originated in Egypt. This possibility will be discussed in the following section.4

1

P.-M. Sauget, ‘Filoteo di Antiochio, BS 5, 805–8. H. Leclercq, ‘Calame’, DACL 2, 1582–3; Walter, ‘The Intaglio of Solomon’, p. 42, reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. xxiii; Markovic´, p. 580, nn. 92–9, fig. 34 (the fullest account); L’art copte en Egypte, Catalogue of exhibition, ed. E. Delpont, Paris, 2000, no. 36, p. 64. 3 Syn. CP, 431. 4 Vid. infra, p. 271. 2

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XXIV St Phoibammon St Phoibammon was the grandson of Antiochus, whom the Emperor Valentinian (or Valerian) had appointed governor of Egypt.1 He grew up, therefore, in elevated society. While young, he converted to Christianity, receiving divine favours. He resolutely refused to offer cult to idols. This came to the knowledge of the Emperor Maximian, who ordered that he be forcibly reconverted to paganism. Instead, however, he converted members of his entourage, including a soldier called Dionysius. It may be inferred that Phoibammon himself was an officer of the imperial army. Ultimately he was tortured and decapitated. Phoibammon was a Coptic martyr who does not figure in Byzantine calendars. However, he is of importance for the present study, because a remarkable picture of him, accompanied by an inscription √ A°I√™ º√IBAMM√N and dated to the sixth century, has survived in chapel no. XVII at Bawît.2 Mounted on horseback, dressed as a courtier and crowned, he holds a second crown in his left hand and a lance surmounted by a cross in his right. An angel extends a third crown to him. This painting provides further evidence that there exist in Egypt precocious examples of iconographical types which became current in later Byzantine art.

1

J.-M. Sauget, ‘Febammone’, BS 5, 505–6. J. Clédat, Le monastère et la nécropole de Baouît, Cairo, 1904, p. 80, plates 53, 54. Often reproduced: for example by A. Bauer and J. Strzygowski, Eine alexandrische Weltchronik, Vienna, 1906, p. 186, fig. 31; C. Diehl, Manuel d’art byzantin, 2nd edn, Paris, 1925, p. 74; BS 5, 503–4. 2

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XXV Sts Polyeuctus of Melitene and Nearchus St Polyeuctus (¶ÔÏ‡Â˘ÎÙÔ˜) was a pagan who envisaged becoming a Christian when an edict, promulgated by the Emperors Decius and Valerian, imposed idolatry on all their subjects.1 Polyeuctus, not yet baptized, made his hostility to imperial policy public by tearing down the edict and by smashing idols. He stripped himself of his ‘sordid’ military chlamys in order to become a soldier of Christ. He was executed, probably at Melitene in 251. He is commemorated on 9 January.2 His relics were translated in the early fifth century to Constantinople, where Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II (408–50), had a church built in his honour. Anicia Juliana replaced it by a more sumptuous building between 524 and 527.3 Polyeuctus’ relics were still there in the tenth century.4 The Passion of St Polyeuctus is well documented. Aubé published early Homilies (BHG, 1566–68k), albeit in an uncritical edition.5 There is a Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 1568),6 and another Life in the Imperial Menologium at Baltimore (BHG, 1568d).7 These texts are not informative about Polyeuctus’ military career, but they are of interest for this study for several reasons. They tell us that after Polyeuctus had been condemned to death he had a vision of a young man who approached him and urged him to despise all terrestrial things.8 Such visions were granted to other warrior saints, but they differ somewhat from that granted to the martyr Carpus of Pergamon.9 They explain how the celebrated legion in which Polyeuctus served came to be known as Fulminating (KÂÚ·˘ÓÔ‚fiÏÔ˜). After the death of Polyeuctus, the members of his legion were suffering from lack of water. They in1 H. Delehaye, Origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd edn, Brussels, 1932, p. 180; J.-M. Sauget, ‘Polieuto’, BS 10, 996–9. 2 Syn. CP, 379, with Nearchus. 3 M. Harrison, A Temple for Byzantium, Austin, Texas, 1989, pp. 33, 35. 4 K.N. Ciggaar, ‘Une description de Constantinople traduite par un pèlerin anglais’, REB 34, 1976, p. 259, no. 27. 5 B. Aubé, Polyeucte dans l’histoire, Paris, 1889. 6 PG 114, 417–219; W. Lackner, ‘Zu Editionsgeschichte, Textgehalt und Quellen der Passio S. Polyeucti des Symeon Metaphrastes’, Byzantinische Festschrift, H. Hunger, Vienna, 1984, pp. 221–31. 7 Fr. Halkin, Le ménologe impérial de Baltimore, pp. 84–98. 8 Ibid., pp. 86, 93. 9 For Carpus, vid. supra, p. 24; vid. infra, XXVI: Sabbas Stratelates.

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voked their martyred comrade, who caused a heavy storm to supply abundant rain. This both assuaged their thirst and killed a great number of barbarians.10 The Lives also include a discussion of the possibility of ‘baptism by blood’. Polyeuctus confided in Nearchus his fear that, not having been liturgically baptized, he would not be admitted to heaven; his friend reassured him.11 Most important for this study is the account of the profound friendship which united Polyeuctus the pagan and Nearchus the Christian. Like various other cases of military camaraderie, it did not escape Boswell’s attention.12 It is certainly one of the most moving; it inspired the French playwright Corneille, although he did not make their friendship the central plot of his plays. Boswell observed correctly that this couple was far less exploited in texts concerning à‰ÂÏÊÔÔ›ËÛË than, for example, Sts Sergius and Bacchus. Nevertheless, the expressions used to describe their intimacy are strong: their friendship was measureless (à̤ÙÚ· ÊÈÏ›·); they were brothers not by birth but by affection (à‰¤ÏÊÔd Ôé ηÙa Á¤ÓÔ˜ àÏÏa ηÙa ÚÔ·›ÚÂÛÈÓ); they clasped each other and held hands. If they were moved to sorrow by the idea of separation, it was, as with Sts Sergius and Bacchus, because martyrdom was the threat to the unity of their souls. Boswell pointed out that Polyeuctus did not express hope of being reunited with his wife and children in heaven, only with Nearchus! Their camaraderie finds no expression in iconography. They were never portrayed together; in fact no picture of Nearchus exists. The execution of Polyeuctus was represented in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 302.13 He is also portrayed beardless as a martyr holding a cross in the upper row of saints to the left of the central figure, Elias, one of the 26 busts on the reverse of the panel of St Michael (c. 1000) in the Treasury of San Marco (plate 1).14 His Metaphrastic Life was also illustrated with a miniature in two manuscripts: Sinaït. graec. 512, f. 2v, the frontispiece, between Paul of Thebes and Marcianus, as an elderly martyr with long hair and a pointed beard;15 Venice, Marc. Z 586 (829), f. 1, again as a martyr with a long, black beard.16 10

Ibid., pp. 90–1, 97 and Halkin’s n. 17, p. 91. Aubé, op. cit. supra (n. 5), pp. 26–30. 12 J. Boswell, Les unions du même sexe, Paris, 1996 (French translation of Same-Sex Unions in Modern Europe, New York, 1994), pp. 166–9, pp. 431–4, nn. 145–68. 13 PG 117, 248. 14 Il Tesoro di San Marco, ed. H.R. Hahnloser, Florence, 1971, no. 17, p. 27 (entry by A. Grabar); The Treasury of San Marco, Catalogue, ed. D. Buckton, Milan, 1984, pp. 141–7; ‘Polyeuctus von Melitene’, LCI 8, 218–19 (unsigned). 15 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 23. 16 Ibid., p. 44. 11

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Consequently, it does not seem that a portrait tradition was established for Polyeuctus at Byzantium, nor, in spite of the imposing church built in his honour at Constantinople, was he greatly revered as a warrior saint. He does not figure in their echelons.

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XXVI St Sabbas Stratelates St Sabbas Stratelates was the ‘twin’ of St Sabbas the Goth.1 Enrica Follieri, who studied him exhaustively, has provided an apodictic demonstration that he is an entirely fictitious character.2 Nevertheless, he received cult at Byzantium and was provided with a Passion, unfortunately now lost.3 Information is provided about him rather by Synaxaries, notably by the Sirmondianus for 24 April,4 Patmos 254, f. 289–91v,5 and the verse calendar of Christopher of Mytilene.6 According to the Patmos account, for which Follieri easily established the texts from which it was plagiarized, notably the Passions of St Sabbas the Goth and of St Procopius (III), the Stratelates was reputed also to be a Goth by origin, a high-ranking officer and secretly a Christian. Exposed during a persecution in the army under the Emperor Aurelian, the judges ordered that Sabbas be stripped of his cincture, ‘Ùe ۇ̂ÔÏÔÓ Ùɘ ÛÙÚ·Ù›·˜’. Like warrior martyrs in other Passions – Follieri cites those of Gordius, Procopius and Mercury – he took off his ˙ÒÓË himself, publicly proclaiming: ‘XÚÈÛÙÈ·Ófi˜ ÂåÌÈ’. At this point, he was visited by Christ under the form of a young man who encouraged him to persevere.7 He was tortured and thrown in prison. Then he was condemned to death by drowning along with 70 companions. All this would have taken place in Rome. Sabbas Stratelates was not often represented in Byzantine art, and, when he was, curiously considering his title, he is not usually dressed as a warrior.8 Thus, in his clipeate portrait in the King’s church at Studenica (1314), he is portrayed as a martyr, in civil dress and holding a cross.9 Even in so august a series of warriors as those in the parecclesion of the 1

J.-M. Sauget, ‘Saba il Goto’, BS 11, 531–3. E. Follieri, ‘Saba Goto e Saba Stratelata’, An. Boll. 80, 1962, pp. 249–307. 3 BHG, 2383; ibid., pp. 286–9. 4 Syn. CP, 176. 5 BHG, 2388a, published by Follieri, art. cit. supra (n. 2), pp. 259–61. 6 Ibid., pp. 249–50. 7 Follieri, p. 260, calls attention to a similar incident in the Passion of St Polycarp. Another such visit is also recorded for St Polyeuctus, vid. supra, p. 236. 8 Ibid., pp. 277–9. Follieri adduced only one example of Sabbas Stratelates portrayed in military dress, in the Ephemerides Moscorum figuratae (its date and present whereabouts are unknown), of which drawings were published by Papebroch, AA SS May I, republished, Paris/Rome, 1866, p. xxvi. 9 G. Babic´, Kraljeva crkva u Studenici, Belgrade, 1987, p. 111, figs 43, pp. 52, 96, 101. 2

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Kariye Camii, he is represented similarly (plates 6, 7).10 However, one portrait of him was unknown to Follieri. It is in the series of pictures of saints at Treskavac inspired by the verse calendar of Christopher of Mytilene.11 Here he is accoutred as a warrior, sword and shield in hand. Sabbas the Stratelates is a remarkable example of the paradoxes endemic in the hagiography of warrior saints. The twin of another Sabbas, his creation seems to have been gratuitous. His Passion was constructed, as happened frequently, from incidents already recounted in other saints’ Passions. Yet, in spite of the high military rank attributed to him, he was usually portrayed in civil dress.

10 Underwood, p. 200, no. 258, fig. 14; Idem, The Kariye Djami, New York, 1966, p. 258, plate 100. 11 M. Gligorevic´-Maksimovic´, ‘Slikani kalendar u Treskavcu i stihovi Hristofora Mitilenskog’, Zograf 8, 1987, pp. 50, 52, fig. 4.

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XXVII St Sisinnius of Antioch Maybe St Sisinnius (™ÈÛ›ÓÓÈÔ˜) of Antioch is an intruder here, because it does not seem that he was actually a warrior even though he was portrayed as one.1 Lives of him are known in both Ethiopian and Byzantine tradition, in which he is presented as the protector of new-born babies against the female demon who killed them. In the Ethiopian tradition, which recounts that he was born in Antioch, it was his own sister, possessed by a demon, who killed the babies.2 On becoming a Christian, Sisinnius murdered her. In the Byzantine account he is said to have been a member of a Constantinopolitan family who intervened to save his sister Melitene’s children from a female demon called Gyllou.3 Sisinnius interests us here because in chapel XVII at Bawît he figures along with St Phoibammon, also from Antioch.4 His iconography is even more impressive,5 because it is so similar to that used for apotropaic images of Solomon. Haloed, seated on horseback and wearing a short tunic and chlamys, he holds a shield with his left hand while with his right hand he spears a recumbent female figure who in the accompanying inscription is called Alabasdria. He is surrounded by symbolic figures, including a centaur, the piercing of the evil eye and Alabasdria’s daughter, identified by the accompanying inscription; she is winged and her figure ends in a reptile’s tail. According to Clédat, these symbols derive for the most part from the myth of Horus. This picture of a Christian saint performing the apotropaic functions attributed to Solomon is unique. Suitably depaganized, the iconographical theme would later be used regularly for some warrior saints. It should also be observed that on amulets, without being portrayed, Sisinnius might be invoked along with Solomon.6

1

J.-M. Sauget, ‘Sisinnio’, BS 11, 1246–7. Clédat, op. cit. supra (XXIV, p. 235, n. 2), p. 81. 3 The Byzantine account, Apostrophe seu narratio de impura Gyllone (BHG, 2403) was published by K.N. Sathas, MÂ۷ȈÓÈÎc BÈ‚ÏÈÔ©‹ÎË 5, Venice/Paris, 1876, pp. 573–5, among writings attributed to Psellus. 4 Vid. supra, XXIV. 5 Clédat, op. cit. supra (n. 6), p. 80, plates 55, 56. 6 For example, on one published by C. Schlumberger, Amulettes byzantins anciens, Paris, 1892, no. 1, p. 2, with inscription ºEY°E MEMI™IMENI ™√§√M√N ™E ¢I√KI ™I™INNI√™ ™I™™INAPI√™ (sic), Flee, detested one, Solomon is pursuing you, Sisinnius Sisinnarius. 2

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Sisinnius may well have been confined in the Byzantine cult of saints to popular piety, for, although the name ™ÈÛ›ÓÓÈÔ˜ is noted a number of times in the index to the Synaxarium constantinopolitanum, no entry corresponds to the person who has just been presented. However, a St Sisinnius is portrayed in Cappadocia,7 twice as a warrior, once in St Catherine’s, Göreme 21 (after 1050),8 and again in one of the churches at Hacı I·smail Dere, Mustafapasˇa (tenth century).9

7 G.P. Schiemenz, ‘Wunderkraft gegen kämpfende Widersache’, EEB™ 44, 1979–80, pp. 212–14, has established a full list of representations of Sisinnius in Cappadocia. 8 Ibid., p. 213; Jolivet-Lévy, p. 126, n. 335. 9 Schiemenz, p. 213, without specifying whether the painting is in church no. 1 or no. 2.

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XXVIII Sts Speusippus, Elasippus and Melesippus The Passion of these three martyrs (™‡ÛÈÔ˜, \EÏ¿ÛÈÔ˜, MÂϤÛÈÔ˜ – all, it may be noted, compounds of ¥Ô˜) is known from a single manuscript in the Missione urbana di S. Carlo, Genoa (BHG, 1646).1 There is only one reference to them in a Synaxary.2 They were warriors, but the Passion is not informative about their military careers. They were renowned above all as horsebreeders and accomplished riders. They converted to Christianity at a banquet, where their grandmother Neonilla, herself a believer, was present. In due course, they were denounced, arrested, interrogated, tortured and put to death. Also only one representation of them is known, their martyrdom in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 328, where one is beheaded, another awaits his turn and the third is perishing in flames; a figure stands either side of him making a gesture of adoration.3 No portraits of them are recorded in their native Cappadocia. As Sauget pointed out, the context of their emergence into hagiography is more interesting than their actual Passion.4 This was analysed in detail by Grégoire in his two publications of its text. Their cult was virtually limited to Cappadocia, a region where a long tradition of horsebreeding existed and where many pagan deities or heroes rode on horseback. The most obvious parallel is provided by Castor and Pollux, who often had a third companion, making the title of Tergemini appropriate to both. There was obvious osmosis from the cult of Castor and Pollux to that of Speusippus, Elasippus and Melesippus. However, whether the three warrior saints really did exist or were merely pagan heroes baptized is a question which lies outside the scope of the present study. Their importance here lies in the fact that, like Castor and Pollux, they were genuinely considered to be blood brothers; they offer a precedent for later examples of twinning. However, in the case of Polyeuctus and Nearchus (XXV), the Passion notes explicitly that they were brothers by affection, not by blood. 1

Published by H. Grégoire, Saints jumeaux et dieux cavaliers, Paris, 1905, pp. 462–74. Cryptoferratensis B. g. IV (12th century), Syn. CP, 397–400, 17 Jan. 3 PG 117, 264. 4 J.-M. Sauget, ‘Speusippo, Elasippo, Melesippo’, BS 11, 1349–50. 2

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XXIX St Zosimus of Apollonia A warrior named Zosimus, who lived during the reign of the Emperor Trajan (98–117), resigned from the Roman army at Pisidia on becoming a Christian. When he refused to offer sacrifice to Jupiter and Juno, publicly proclaiming his faith, he was tried, tortured and put to death. He was encouraged to be obdurate by a voice from heaven and some of his sufferings were miraculously cured by an angel. He is commemorated in the Sirmondianus on 19 June, the reputed anniversary of his execution; also his Passion, probably incorporating his Acts, has been published by the Bollandists.1 Zosimus is said to have come from Apollonia, the port on the Black Sea now known as Sozopol. His cult seems to have been for the most part local. There is a church dedicated to him outside the old city; it was built in 1857, according to local tradition on the site of an earlier one. It contains a late icon of the saint, painted by Demetrius of Sozopol in 1847 (plate 62).2 The legend calls him St Zosimus in Sozopol of Apollonia. He is portrayed standing. He is beardless, with the features of a young man; his brown hair is short and cut back behind the ears. He wears a cuirass, buskins and a chlamys. In his left hand he holds a spear, while in his right hand he holds his severed head. In the top right-hand corner, Christ is represented blessing him, while in the top left-hand corner an angel extends a crown towards him. His portrait is surrounded by a cycle of ten scenes from his Passion, in close conformity with the literary account. No other icons of Zosimus are known to me, but it is probable that Demetrius of Sozopol copied the biographical scenes from an older icon now lost. That Zosimus should have been represented kephalophoros is exceptional. Demetrius would surely have used an icon of St George as a model, because he is the only other warrior saint for whom this iconographical type was used.3 The fidelity to traditional Byzantine iconography in his biographical cycle, combined with his portrait, inhabitually kephalophoros, make Zosimus relevant to the present study. 1 K. Kunze, ‘Zosimo, santo martire in Pisidia’, BS 12, 1501; Syn CP, 757; AASS, 3 June, Antwerp, 1701, pp. 813–17 (BHG, 1808). 2 K. Paskaleva, Ikoni ot Stranz ˇ anskija Kraj, Sofia, 1977, no. 4, pp. 8–9; C. Walter, ‘An Icon of St Zosimos of Sozopol’, An. Boll. 119, 2001, pp. 40–44. 3 Vid. supra, V: St George, p. 143, n. 210.

APPENDIX

Additional Minor Warrior Saints The preceding 29 entries supply the necessary material on which to base an adequate notion of the place of warrior saints in Byzantine art and tradition. This will be attempted in Part Three. However, there were many others who were commemorated in Byzantine Synaxaries. They came to my notice during my research in view of this study. Further, some warrior saints were highly popular in the West but were hardly noticed, if at all, in the East. The brief notices which ensue record all those whom I discovered. Yet others, probably, escaped my attention. For convenience they are listed in alphabetical order and numbered in continuation from the preceding ones.

XXX

St Alexander

In the echelon of warrior saints at Decˇani, there is a youthful figure with long curly hair falling on to his shoulders which is reminiscent of some portraits of St Christopher.1 He holds a sword in his right hand and is named in the accompanying legend Alexander.2 Since no place of origin for him is given in the legend, he could be identified as any one of the military saints of that name: Alexander of Rome, executed in Thrace under Maximian, Alexander of Thessaloniki or Alexander of Pidno. In hagiographical texts, these saints tend to be confused, deriving from what was written about Alexander of Rome. The earliest known portrait of an Alexander in military dress is in the church of St Cyril of Alexandria at Kiev (twelfth century). Others exist at Staro Nagoricˇino, the Peribleptos, Ohrid (1294–95), St Athanasius, Kastoria, St Maria, Globoko (Prespa), Mateicˇ (all fourteenth century) and elsewhere. However, he had no regular place in echelons of military saints.

XXXI

St Andrew Stratelates

The Sirmondianus includes two commemorations of a military St Andrew. One, for 19 August, refers to the combat of the holy megalomartyr 1 2

Vid. supra, XV. Markovic´, pp. 607–10, fig. 9. My entry here resumes Markovic´’s text.

245

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\AÓ‰Ú¤Ô˘ ÙÔÜ ÛÙÚ·ÙËÏ¿ÙÔ˘; the other, for 19 July, associates his name with his companions.3 There is no surviving Life of Andrew Stratelates earlier than that in the tenth Metaphrastic volume, in manuscripts of which it is not illustrated.4 According to this text, he commanded a division of the army of Maximinianus Galerius, which was sent by Diocletian to fight the Persians. He invoked Christ, and in consequence won a battle. He underwent baptism and, denounced, was then executed along with other Christians, probably on 19 August 305.5 No representations of Andrew Stratelates are known to me.6

XXXII

St Anicetus

St Anicetus (\AÓ›ÎËÙÔ˜) is known through his more distinguished nephew Photius, a civilian, with whom he was martyred under Diocletian at Nicomedia and commemorated on 12 August.7 He held the rank of comes in the imperial army.8 Several representations of him exist, one, in civil dress, in the crypt at Hosios Loukas,9 others in Cappadocia: one in the church of the Cistern, Avcılar (second quarter of the tenth century) with Photius;10 Kılıçlar kilisesi (Göreme no. 29) (of the same date);11 at Tokalı 1 (Göreme no. 7) (950–60?);12 Elmalı (Göreme no. 19) (mid-eleventh century?);13 Karanlık (Göreme no. 23) (latter half of the eleventh century).14 The portraits of Anicetus in Cappadocia are not described so that, with one exception, it cannot be known how he is presented. This exception is in the last-named church, Göreme no. 23, for which Jerphanion has published a reproduction of his portrait. Anicetus is young and beardless; he wears court dress and holds a martyr’s cross. He does not recur again in later Byzantine art. 3

Syn CP, 818. BHG, 118, PG 115, 596–609. 5 L. Clugnet, ‘André, tribun romain’, DHGE 2, 1603–04; G.D. Gordini, ‘Andrea, tribuno e compagni’, BS 1, 1128–9. 6 K. Kaster, ‘Andreas, Stratelates von Kilikien’, LCI 5, 159. 7 Syn CP, 885-886; Passion (for Photius), BHG, 1542, 1543, B. Latys ˇ ev, ‘Hagiographica graeca inedita’, Mémoires de l’Académie impériale de St. Pétersbourg 8e série, 12 2, 1914, pp. 93–113. 8 A. Koren, ‘Aniceto, Fozio e compagni’, BS 1, 1265–6. 9 C.L. Connor, Art and Miracles in Medieval Byzantium, Princeton, 1991, fig. 23, in civil dress. 10 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 81, n. 106. 11 Jerphanion, I, p. 209. 12 Jerphanion I, p. 269. 13 Jerphanion I, p. 436 14 Jerphanion I, p. 402, plate 105 3. 4

APPENDIX: ADDITIONAL MINOR WARRIOR SAINTS

XXXIII

247

St Athanasius of Clysma

Athanasius of Clysma (now called Suez) was, apparently, an Egyptian warrior martyr, for whom a Passio exists,15 but no portraits of him are known.

XXXIV

Sts Basiliscus, Cleonicus and Eutropius

Basiliscus, the nephew of Theodore Tiron, is mentioned, along with Cleonicus and Eutropius, Theodore’s half-brothers, in the saint’s Passion (BHG, 656).16 This is the main source for their military status. An iconographical tradition must have existed for them, since they figure in the calendar cycle at Treskavac, Macedonia.

XXXV

Sts Bonosus and Maximilianus

These two military saints, whose Passion at Antioch under Julian the Apostate is known only from a Latin text (BHL, 1427), do not figure in Byzantine hagiographical tradition, although the Latin version probably derives from a lost Greek original.17

XXXVI

St Callinicus

In the Sirmondianus, 11 saints bearing this name (K·ÏÏ›ÓÈÎÔ˜) are listed in the index. Five of these may have had military associations: 1. 2. 3.

Callinicus of Gangra and Paphlagonia, commemorated 29 July;18 Callinicus of Melitene with Hieron and 37 companions, commemorated 7 November;19 another Callinicus, commemorated 17 October;20

15 BHG, 193; H. Delehaye, ‘Les martyrs d’Egypte’, An. Boll. 40, 1922, pp. 118–19; M.A. Calabrese, ‘Atanasio di Clysma’, BS 2, 549–50. 16 Vid. supra, I: Theodore, nn. 20–2. 17 D. Woods, ‘Ammianus Marcellinus and the Deaths of Bonosus and Maximilianus’, Hagiographica 2, 1995, pp. 25–55, gives a full account and analysis of what can be known about them. 18 Syn CP, 853; mentioned in the unillustrated part of the Menologium of Basil II, PG 117, 564–5; BHG, 101–2; P. Bazoche, ‘Callinico’, BS 3, 675–6. 19 Syn CP, 201, line 42. 20 Syn CP, 143, line 54.

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THE BYZANTINE WARRIOR SAINTS

Callinicus, companion of Thyrsus of Nicomedia, commemorated 14 December;21 Callinicus, companion of Meletius and Therapion of Galicia, commemorated 24 May.22

5.

In Cappadocia, there are partially obliterated inscriptions which may be reconstituted as yielding the name of K·ÏÏ›ÓÈÎÔ˜, but the portraits which accompany them are, when reproduced, difficult to interpret. Moreover, it is not always clear which Callinicus, if any, is represented. Thus the saint with a brown beard wearing a red chlamys represented at Cömlekçi kilisesi (c. 900?) could also be Cattidius or Cattidianus, while the one represented in Sadettin koç kilise is more surely Callinicus.23 For the martyr in St Eustathius (Göreme no. 11) (first half of the tenth century), the name has to be reconstituted from … NHK√™. The bust portrait is hardly visible.24 If Callinicus is represented in Tokalı II (Göreme 7) (950–60?), the certain presence of a portrait of Thyrsus makes it clear that he is the martyr of Nicomedia (4).25 It does not seem that a warrior saint called Callinicus figures in subsequent Byzantine art.26

XXXVII

St Callistratus

According to his Metaphrastic Life, Callistratus was a soldier who came to Rome and was martyred under Diocletian by being cut up into pieces.27 He was commemorated on 27 September.28 He is represented three times in illuminated volumes for September, but in no instance dressed as a soldier. In the row of saints in the frontispiece to Oxford Barocci 280, f. 3v, he is dressed as a princely martyr.29 In London Additional 11870, f. 209v,30

21

Syn CP, 305; BHG, 304. Syn CP 706; Menologium of Basil II, PG 117, 474; BHG, 110–11. 23 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 294, who suggests that he is either the martyr of Melitene (ii) or of Nicomedia (iv). 24 Jerphanion I, p. 151; Restle II, fig. 134. 25 Jerphanion I, p. 316. 26 LCI 7, 265 (unsigned). 27 J. Gouillard, ‘Callistrate’, DHGE 11, 449; A. Rimoldi, ‘Callistrato’, BS 3, 692–3; Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 291), PG 115, 881–90. Vid. also ‘La Passion ancienne de S. Callistrate’ (BHG, 291); ed. Fr. Halkin, Byzantion 53, 1983, pp. 232–49. 28 Syn CP, p. 70. 29 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 18. 30 Ibid., p. 123; Walter, ‘ September Metaphrast’, p. 17, fig. 12, reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. V. 22

APPENDIX: ADDITIONAL MINOR WARRIOR SAINTS

249

and in Venice Marc. graec. Z 586, f. 266,31 he is executed. His martyrdom had been represented already in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 70.32 The later artists therefore followed iconographical tradition rather than what was recounted in the text which they were illustrating.33 The tradition was continued in monumental Menologia, in the narthex of the church of the Metamorphosis, Meteora,34 and at Cozia,35 while at Pelinovo Callistratus and his companions were represented in bust form.36

XXXVIII

Dasius

What little is known of this Egyptian martyr is preserved in the Alexandrian Synaxary, where he is commemorated on 30 August, and the Ethiopic translation of it.37 A soldier, he was tortured and executed during Diocletian’s persecutions in Lower Egypt. He figures neither in Byzantine calendars nor in Byzantine art.

XXXIX

Sts Emeterius and Chelidonius

For these two Spanish martyrs, the earliest source is Prudentius, who wrote some time before 405.38 They had a shrine at Callagurris in Hispania Tarraconensis. According to the ingenious hypothesis advanced by Woods, their relics would have been translated to Thessaloniki, probably during the reign of the Spanish Emperor Theodosius I (379– 95), on the occasion of one of his periods of residence in the city, 379–80 and 387–88. These relics were an orarion and a gold ring. Similar ones are mentioned in the Passions of St Demetrius. About 412–13, the Eparch of Illyricum, Leontius, received a cure at the shrine of Sts Emeterius and Chelidonius which was in a state of disrepair. Their relics were then deposited in the church of St Demetrius the deacon. The confusion between Emeterius and Demetrius, whose names were so similar, was then complete. Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, p. 179. PG 117, 36. 33 B. Schnackenburg, ‘Kallistratos und Gefährten von Rom’, LCI 7, 265–6. 34 Personal observation, 1983. 35 P. Mijovic´, Menolog, Belgrade, 1973, p. 350. 36 Ibid., p. 378. 37 J.-M. Sauget, ‘Dasio’, BS 4, 484–5. 38 D Woods, ‘Thessalonika’s Patron: St Demetrius or Emeterius?’, Harvard Theological Review 93, 2000, pp. 221–34. For this entry I rely entirely on Woods, who kindly made his article available to me when it was still in proof. 31 32

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THE BYZANTINE WARRIOR SAINTS

Woods readily concedes that his hypothesis entails a speculative reconstruction. However, he points out that the metamorphosis of the deacon Demetrius of Sirmium into the warrior Demetrius of Thessaloniki, propounded in particular by Hippolyte Delehaye, is equally hypothetical. However, the latter hypothesis, as often occurs in Byzantine studies, has, with the passage of time, become accepted as a virtual certitude. Consequently scholars may be reluctant at first to accept the equal validity of what Woods has proposed. Emeterius and Chelidonius found no personal place in Byzantine hagiographical tradition. Moreover, the alternative explanation which Woods has proposed of how a military St Demetrius came into being in no way impinges on my presentation of the development of his cult as a warrior martyr from local to universal in the East. The starting point for this was above all the Miracula collected by Bishop John of Thessaloniki.39

XL

St Eudocimus

Eudocimus (Eé‰fiÎÈÌÔ˜) was not an early Christian martyr. In fact, he was not a martyr at all. He served in the army of the iconoclast Emperor Theophilus (829–42) but was himself an iconophile.40 Three literary sources for his life are known, an Encomium (BHG, 606), a Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 607)41 and an Epitome (BHG, 607e). He was commemorated on 31 July. There is no record of his having been represented in Cappadocia, but he figures in the tenth volume of illustrated Metaphrastic Lives, invariably as a warrior. Patterson Sˇevcˇenko cites four examples: Alexandria Greek Patriarchate cod. 35 (303), f. 92v;42 Mosq. graec. 9, f. 125;43 Berlin graec. fol. 17 (graec. 255), f. 177;44 Paris graec. 1528, f. 122v.45 The only picture of him known to me in monumental painting is in the King’s Church at Studenica, where he is portrayed incorrectly as a martyr in civil dress and holding a cross.46

39

Vid. supra, II: Demetrius. J. Darrouzès, ‘Eudocime’, DHGE 15, 1337; H. Celinski, ‘Eudocimo’, BS 5, 147. 41 PG 115, 487–96. 42 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 46. 43 Ibid., p. 69; illustrated, V. Lazarev, Storia della pittura bizantina, Turin, 1967, fig. 208. 44 Ibid., p. 79. 45 Ibid., p. 141. 46 G. Babic´, Kraljeva crkva u Studenici, Belgrade, 1987, p. 110, fig. 62. Vid. also K.G. Kaster, ‘Eudokimos’, LCI 6, 174–5. 40

APPENDIX: ADDITIONAL MINOR WARRIOR SAINTS

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Thus, in spite of being an established warrior saint in Byzantine tradition, and one about whom our information is exact, he was never integrated into their echelon.

XLI St Eusignius Eusignius (EéÛ›ÁÓÈÔ˜) was commemorated on 5 August.47 According to his Passion,48 he was the soldier who explained to the Emperor Constantine the significance of his vision of the Cross. He lived to a great age, being 110 years old when he was denounced to Julian the Apostate as a Christian and, in consequence, beheaded. I know of no representations of him in Byzantine art.

XLII

Gaza, The XL Defenders of

These valiant defenders of Gaza against besieging Arabs when finally obliged to surrender, were taken prisoner and commanded by Amer, the leader of the conquerors, to apostasize.49 When they refused, they were conducted in chains first to Eleutheropolis and then on to Jerusalem. Since they remained obdurate in refusing to deny Christ, some of them were executed; the survivors were escorted back to Eleutheropolis where they in turn were executed. Their martyrdom probably took place in 637. They do not figure in Byzantine calendars, but they are commemorated in the Martyrologium Romanum, the first group of victims on 6 November and the second on 17 December.

XLIII

St Gordius of Caesarea

St Gordius of Caesarea was a centurion in the Roman army, from which he retired in order to avoid being obliged to make pagan sacrifices. When he declared publicly that he was a Christian, he was beheaded. Commemorated on 3 January, he was the subject of a celebrated Homily

47

Syn CP, 867–70; J.-M. Sauget, ‘Eusinio’, BS 5, 278–9. P. Devos,’Une recension nouvelle de la Passion grecque (BHG, 639) de saint Eusignios’, An. Boll. 100, 1982, pp. 209–28; R.-G. Coquin and E. Lucchesi, ‘Une version copte de la Passion de saint Eusignios’, ibid., pp. 185–208. 49 V. Grumel, ‘Gaza, LX difensori di’, BS 6, 77. A Latin Passio sanctorum sexaginta martyrum, probably translated from the Greek, has been published, An. Boll. 23, 1904, pp. 300–3. Vid. also AA SS Nov. III, Brussels, 1910, pp. 247–50. 48

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THE BYZANTINE WARRIOR SAINTS

by Basil of Caesarea (BHG, 703),50 which was plagiarized for other Passions, notably that of St Menas.51 His Greek Passion is lost, but a version of it in Armenian exists; 52 he is also mentioned in the Sirmondianus.53 His execution is illustrated in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 292.54 He wears a tunic. He is not, to my knowledge, represented elsewhere in Byzantine art.55 Fr. Halkin suspected that Gordius of Caesarea had a double, known as Gordius of Antioch, whose Passion (BHG, 703) exists.56 However, the real name of this martyr, a member of the Palatine Guard, has been shown to be Hesychius.57

XLIV

Sts John and Paul

In spite of the fact that a Greek translation of the Latin Passion of these two saints exists,58 they are not mentioned in Byzantine Synaxaries. Halkin suggests that, written in poor Greek by a Levantine, the Passion was addressed only to Greek speakers established in Rome. Their story has points in common with the Passions of authentically Byzantine warrior martyrs both real and fictitious. The author may have borrowed from one, now lost, written about Sts Juventinus and Maximinus.59 Sts John and Paul were blood brothers who were recruited to the army by a distinguished general called Gallican,60 whom they converted to Christianity. Under Julian the Apostate he was martyred for his faith in Alexandria. Their own martyrdom duly followed.61 Their luxurious house

50

Basil, Homily 18, PG 31, 489–507. Vid. supra, X: p. 182, n. 9. 52 M. van Esbroeck, ‘La Passion arménienne de saint Gordius de Césarée’, An. Boll. 94, 1976, pp. 357–86. 53 Syn. CP 367. 54 PG 117, 240. 55 K.G. Kaster, ‘Gordius (Gordias) von Cäsarea’, LCI 6, 418–19, refers to his portrait in the King’s Church, Studenica, but this is not mentioned by Babic´, op. cit. supra. (n. 46). 56 Fr. Halkin, ‘Un second St Gordius?’, An. Boll. 79, 1961, pp. 5–16. 57 W. Lackner, ‘Ein verkappter Hesychios-Passio’, An. Boll. 88, 1970, pp. 5–12. 58 Fr. Halkin, ‘La passion grecque des saints Gallican, Jean et Paul’ (BHG, 2191), An. Boll. 92, 1974, pp. 265–86. 59 Vid. supra, XIX, P. 225. 60 G. De Sanctis, ‘Gallicano’, BS 6, 12–14. 61 Idem, Giovanni e Paolo, martiri celimontani, Rome, 1962; Idem, ‘Giovanni e Paolo’, BS 6, 1046–49; P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, ‘Del testo della passio SS. Ioannis et Pauli’, Note agiografiche, fascicolo 5, Studi e testi 29, Rome, 1915, pp. 41–62. 51

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in Rome was converted to become their sanctuary, celebrated for its wealth of early Christian paintings.62 In the Greek version of their Passion they are called ‘XÚÈÛÙÔÜ ÛÙÚ·ÙÈáÙ·È’, but they were represented in civil dress holding scrolls in Santa Maria Lata, Rome, in the ninth century.63 In Byzantine tradition they figure no more in iconography than in hagiographical tradition.

XLV St Justus St Justus (\IÔ˘ÛÙÔ˜), of whom no traces exist in Western hagiography, making it likely that his sobriquet ‘of Rome’ refers to the New Rome,64 is commemorated in the Sirmondianus on 14 July.65 Since his Passion has not survived, Synaxaries are the principal source for him. According to them, he was converted to Christianity by a vision of the cross. Having distributed his wealth to the poor, he was arrested by his tribune, tortured and put to death. He is represented in military dress in Cappadocia in Saklı kilise (Göreme no. 2a) (after 1050),66 and in St John the Baptist, Güllü Dere no. 4 (913–20).67 I have not encountered a military saint of this name elsewhere.

XLVI

Marcellus of Tangier

Marcellus, a centurion whose Passion exists only in Latin, publicly resigned from military service in order to serve in the army of Christ.68 He was martyred in Tangier in 298 and is venerated principally at León in Spain. His existence is considered to be authentic. That a soldier should quit the terrestrial army to be coopted into the celestial one, so becoming a miles Christi, is a commonplace in Byzantine hagiography, but he was not commemorated in Byzantine calendars.

62

H. Leclercq, ‘Celius (Maison du)’, DACL 2, 2832–70. M. Lechner, ‘Johannes und Paulus von Rom’, LCI 7, 194. 64 A. Amore, ‘Giusto’, BS 7, 23–4. 65 Syn. CP, 819–20. 66 Jolivet-Lévy, p. 113, n. 253. 67 Thierry, Haut Moyen Age I, p. 158. 68 J.M.F. Catón, ‘Marcello’, BS 8, 665–8. 63

254 XLVII

THE BYZANTINE WARRIOR SAINTS

St Maurice of Agaunum and companions

The ‘dux gloriosus’ of the Theban legion, who was martyred along with the men under his command, was much venerated in the West, but he too was not commemorated in Byzantine calendars.69

XLVIII

Sts Probus, Tarachos and Andronicus

Of these saintly martyrs of Anazarbus in Cilicia, only Tarachos was a soldier, elderly and retired; he had resigned his commission on becoming a Christian.70 Commemorated on 12 October,71 these martyrs have a Passion (BHG, 1574),72 and a Metaphrastic Life (BHG, 1575).73 They are represented in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 109. Tarachos, portrayed as elderly, lies on the ground having been already executed, while, of the two younger figures, one is actually being beheaded and the other awaits his turn.74 Tarachos is frequently represented as a martyr in Cappadocia, but not as a soldier.75 All three appear as martyrs in the miniatures illustrating their Lives in two Metaphrastic volumes for October, Mosq. graec. 175, f. 68v, where the iconography is the same as in the Menologium of Basil II,76 and again in Vatican graec. 1679, f. 80v.77 This latter miniature is more interesting, because, while Tarachos is represented above, an elderly figure in a clipeate image, the two younger figures stand over a prostrate emperor (Diocletian). Thus, although none of the figures is represented as a warrior, they provide an example of the iconography of martyrs triumphing over their persecutors.

XLIX

St Sebastian

Sebastian, reputed to have been a member of the Emperor Diocletian’s personal guard and greatly esteemed by him, was martyred in Rome on 69 R. Henggaler, ‘Maurizio’, BS 9, 193–204; R. Peusch, ‘Mauritius von Agaunum’, LCI 7, 610–23. 70 F. Caraffa, ‘Taraco, Probo e Andronico’, BS 12, 123–4. 71 Syn. CP, 132–3. 72 AA SS Oct. V, Paris/Rome 1869, 566–84. 73 PG 115, 1068–80. 74 PG 117, 105. 75 Jolivet-Lévy, pp. 214, 225, 264, esp. n. 57. 76 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 54. 77 Ibid., p. 162; Walter, ‘Triumph of the Martyrs’, p. 31, fig. 2; reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. III.

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account of his Christian faith. He became the city’s third saintly patron after Peter and Paul. His cult spread widely in the West, where, particularly during the Renaissance, commissions for pictures of him were more than abundant.78 However, his cult did not develop in the East. Although he was commemorated in the Sirmondianus and a twelfth-century Synaxary on 18 December,79 there is no other evidence known to me for his cult, nor am I aware of any portrait of him in Byzantine art.

L

Sts Trophimus, Dorymedon and Sabbatius

These three martyrs, although they did not, in fact, perish together, share a common Passion (BHG, 1853),80 whose historical exactitude is unlikely.81 It is placed under the Emperor Aurelius Probus, during whose reign Christians were not greatly harassed. They would not have been executed under Diocletian, because Dorymedon is called a martyr âÎ ÙáÓ àÚ¯·›ˆÓ. Moreover the sarcophagus of Trophimus, rediscovered near Synnada in 1907, is stylistically more appropriate to the third century. Nevertheless, to follow the narrative of the Passion, Aurelius Probus promulgated an edict that all Christians should sacrifice. Trophimus and Sabbatius were sent to Antioch in Pisidia, where the torments to which Christians were subjected so appalled them that they were themselves converted and publicly invoked Christ. As a result, they were arrested and tortured. Sabbatius died in consequence. Tarasius, however, was sent to Synnada, where he visited the senator Dorymedon, a Christian, in prison. When they both refused to sacrifice to Castor and Pollux, they were interrogated, tortured and sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts which refused to molest them. They were then decapitated. Their Metaphrastic Life82 is illustrated in two illuminated manuscripts of the volume for September. In London Additional 11870, f. 141, there is a cycle in four roundels.83 Sabbatius is brought before the emperor and tortured by being attached to a post while his flesh is scraped; he dies as a result of his injuries. Trophimus and Dorymedon are brought before

78 G.D. Gordini, ‘Sebastiano di Roma’, BS 11, 776–89; iconography, P. Cannata, ibid., 789–801. 79 Syn CP, 321; Paris graec 1589, ibid., 321 line 47–325 line 47. 80 AA SS Sept. VI, Paris/Rome 1867, pp. 12–20. 81 F.A. Angarano, ‘Trofimo, Dorimedonte e Sabbazio’, BS 12, 672–3. 82 PG 115, 733–49 (BHG, 1854). 83 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko, p. 122; Walter, ‘September Metaphrast’, no. 16, p. 15, fig. 7; reprinted, Pictures as Language, no. V.

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THE BYZANTINE WARRIOR SAINTS

the governor; they are executed. In Venice, Marc. graec. Z 586, f.146, which departs from the narrative in that all are represented together, Sabbatius has already succumbed: he is lying dead on the ground; Trophimus has had his head severed, while Dorymedon is about to be executed.84 Their martyrdom had already been represented in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 49.85 Here, Sabbatius is being tortured while the other two martyrs are executed. They are not portrayed elsewhere. The narrative and its illustration are conventional, but, since there is some doubt whether Sabbatius and Trophimus were soldiers, while Dorymedon was certainly a senator, they may be out of place in this study.

LI

St Typasius

The Passion of St Typasius has survived in a single manuscript.86 It describes him as a Christian military veteran, who was executed in Mauretania during the period of Diocletian’s persecutions, more precisely in 304 on 11 January, the date of his commemoration.87 However, the Passion has been shown to be a composite work with the usual plagiarism of other Passions.88 In another article, Woods argues that the title of Praepositus saltus, attributed to Typasius and unattested elsewhere, was civil not military, and that his martyrdom may be tentatively assigned to the period between October 297 and January 299.89

LII

St Varus of Egypt

Two pre-Metaphrastic Passions of St Varus (√û·ÚÔ˜) and his six companions, all hermits allegedly martyred in Egypt, are known.90 They also have a Metaphrastic Life.91 They were commemorated on 19 October.92 Patterson Sˇevcˇenko, p. 178. PG 117, 57. 86 C. Smedt, ‘Passiones Tres Martyrum Africanorum’, An. Boll. 9, 1890, pp. 107–34. 87 G.D. Gordini, ‘Tipasio’, BS 12, 497. Typasius is not commemorated in the Byzantine liturgical calendars. 88 D. Woods, ‘A Historical Source of the Passio Typasii’, Vigiliae christianae 47, 1993, pp. 77–84, with bibliography. 89 Idem, ‘An Unnoticed Official: The Praepositus saltus’, Classical Quarterly 44, 1994, pp. 245–51. 90 BHG, 1862, AA SS Oct. VIII, Paris/Rome 1866, pp. 428–23; BHG, 1862a, unpublished. 91 BHG, 1863, PG 115, 1141–60. 92 Syn. CP, 149. 84

85

APPENDIX: ADDITIONAL MINOR WARRIOR SAINTS

257

According to these accounts, Varus was a soldier, who displayed interest in seven hermits imprisoned for their faith. When one of these hermits died in prison, Varus, who made no secret of being a Christian, expressed his desire to replace the dead hermit. Summarily condemned, he was tortured and executed. The next day the remaining six hermits, refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods, were also tortured and put to death.93 A pious woman called Cleopatra made the journey to Egypt to collect Varus’ relics which she translated secretly to Palestine. There, near Mount Tabor, she had a sanctuary built for them, where she invoked Varus in favour of her son’s career in the imperial army. When he died suddenly, she expressed her disappointment to the martyr, who told her that her son had received the loftiest of promotions, since he had been enrolled in the army of God. Woods, who has studied the relevant texts meticulously,94 noted in them not only anomalies, contradictions and plagiarism, but also anachronisms and hagiographical commonplaces. He concluded that the whole composition is fictitious. The original version, which did not antedate the fifth century, would have probably been inspired by the wish to explain the presence of relics in a shrine near Mount Tabor, which was already extant, and to promote cult at the shrine. Nevertheless, Varus and his companions were venerated elsewhere in Byzantium. The brief account of them in the Menologium of Basil II, p. 128,95 is illustrated by a miniature of seven figures, wearing only tunics, suspended by their hands from a bar and being tortured by two executioners placed to their left and right. They are also represented in illuminated manuscripts of the October volume of the Metaphrastic Lives: Vind. hist. graec. 6, f. 1v, frontispiece between St Luke the Evangelist and St Andrew in Krisei as a martyr in court dress;96 Mosq. graec. 175, f. 114v, in which five hermits have already been beheaded while Varus, dressed in a long tunic, is about to be beheaded in his turn, accompanied by a second scene of Varus, with a dark, pointed beard and wearing a loincloth, hanging upside down from a tree and being scourged;97 Istanbul Greek Patriarchate, Chalke Ùɘ ÌÔÓɘ 80, f. 109, initial letter in which two haloed figures, probably Varus and Cleopatra, place a hand on the haloed

93 J.-M. Sauget, ‘Varo, soldato e VI compagni, eremiti’, BS 12, 958–9 (with inaccurate BHG numbers). 94 D. Woods, ‘Varus of Egypt: a Fictitious Military Martyr’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 20, 1996, pp. 175–200. 95 PG 117, 128. 96 Patterson S ˇ evcˇenko (sub nomine Ouaros), p. 19. 97 Ibid., p. 55. A second miniature, which would have contained their portraits, f. 105v, has been cut out.

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THE BYZANTINE WARRIOR SAINTS

figure of a child between them, probably Cleopatra’s son;98 Vatican graec. 1679, f. 137v, initial letter in which two haloed figures in tunics, stand on the recumbent figure of an emperor (Maximinianus), prodding him with a staff (plate 51).99 As is the case for Sts Tarachus, Probus and Andronicus,100 St Varus is not portrayed in military dress, but he participates in the triumph of martyrs over their persecutors. He does not appear later in Byzantine art.

LIII

Sts Victor and Vicentius

In its entry for 11 November, the Sirmondianus gives: òA©ÏËÛȘ ÙáÓ êÁÈáÓ Ì·ÚÙ‡ÚˆÓ MËÓÄ, B›ÎÙˆÚÔ˜ ηd BÈÎÂÓÙ›Ô˘.101 It was the coincidence of the date of commemoration of these three martyrs that brought them into association with Menas, for, although all of them are portrayed together particularly in wallpainting,102 no text refers to their having been associated with Menas during their lifetime.

98

Ibid., p. 115. Ibid., p. 163; Walter, ‘Triumph of the Martyrs’, p. 31, fig. 3. 100 Vid. supra, XLVIII. 101 Syn. CP, 211–14. 102 Vid. supra, X: St Menas, esp. nn. 25, 50, 55. 99

PART THREE

Conclusion

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CHAPTER FIVE

Towards a Characterization of the Warrior Saint It is time to draw the threads together, to provide an overall picture of the warrior saints in Byzantine tradition. They are presented under the following headings: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

The terrestrial career of warrior saints The beginnings of the cult of warrior saints The early iconography of warrior saints The emergence of an echelon of warrior saints The function of warrior saints in the lives of terrestrial men The aesthetics of warrior saints

(a)

The terrestrial career of warrior saints

Two preliminary observations should be made. First, this theme is rarely developed in the literary texts; allusion to it is often made only at the moment when the warrior in question is arraigned before a judge. Secondly, it is usually impossible to control the historical authenticity of what the texts tell us. This point will be raised when the available information is blatantly plagiarized or legendary. The major warrior saints Theodore Tiron (I) was, from his sobriquet, evidently considered to be a soldier, but no account exists of his part in a military campaign. Gregory of Nyssa tells us only that he was stationed at Amaseia when he incurred disapprobation for setting fire to a temple of Cybele and for refusing to sacrifice to the gods. The early career of the Stratelates was fictitiously modelled on that of his ‘twin’ and only attested in the ninth century; it is not developed in detail. For Demetrius (II), our information is even more laconic; there is only a single allusion to his having at some time undergone military training. Sts Sergius and Bacchus (VI) are clearly presented as highly placed career officers in one of the units of the imperial bodyguard. However, 261

262

CONCLUSION

there is no reference to their military activity, although it may be inferred from their being stationed near the Eastern frontier of the Empire that they were considered to be members of the military force responsible for defending it. They were put to death for refusing to renounce their Christian faith, but their enlistment in the army was not implied to be in any way incompatible with religious allegiance; on the contrary, the camaraderie of soldiers is in their case explicitly associated with their faith in Christ. Procopius (III), as a historical figure, was not even a soldier. Only when he was refurbished by assimilation with Neanias did he become one. Thanks to a vision, he not only won an astounding victory, killing 6000 Agarenians, but also converted to Christianity. No doubt he would have then demurred at fulfilling his preceding commission to hound out and punish Christians. However, he was not required to do so, for he was put to death for publicly professing his faith. Eustathius (VII), for whom all our information is legendary, is said to have been a highly successful general. After his conversion by a vision of Christ when out hunting, he disappeared from public life. However, his faith did not inspire him to refuse reenlistment. He led the Roman army against barbarians, again with no moral scruples about killing. He won a resounding victory. It was only when he refused to render thanks to Apollo for his success that he was executed for being a Christian. Mercurius (IV) is again a somewhat legendary figure. As a soldier in the Martenses, thanks to a vision in which an angel presented him with a sword, he succeeded in routing a barbarian army and killing their king. Thus, far from being reprobated for moral reasons, his campaign against barbarians was successful thanks to the divine help which he received. As a Christian, he refused to render thanks to the pagan god Artemius. Instead he renounced his commission, divesting himself of his military chlamys and cincture. He too was executed for his faith. Kyrion and the XL Martyrs of Sebasteia (VIII), by contrast with Mercurius, are well attested in the literary sources, although some scholars have raised doubts as to whether they were all warriors. Those of them who were in fact soldiers helped to defend the Eastern frontier. They were members of the 12th legion Fulminata, known from other sources to have recruited Christians. According to Basil, they had proved their military qualities, which implies that they also had no moral scruples about killing the enemy. They too were put to death for their faith. St Hieron and the Martyrs of Melitene (X) were, historically speaking, shadowy figures, whose Passion, embellished with fables, was modelled on that of the XL Martyrs. Strictly speaking, they were not warriors. Press-ganged by imperial recruiters, they were reluctant to be enlisted in

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263

the army, not because they were averse to killing but because they did not wish to be obliged to rub shoulders with licentious comrades. Their leader, Hieron, was particularly averse to recruitment. Before being pressganged, they were already Christians, hence their refusal to take part in a preliminary sacrifice to heathen gods. For this reason they were put to death without ever having been formally enlisted in the army. Original elements are introduced into their Passion, notably an aversion to military life as such. Arethas (XII) is also presented in the literary texts as out of the ordinary. Unlike the preceding ones, not only is his Passion historically reliable, but also he was not a victim of persecuting pagan emperors. He was a Himyarite Christian martyred for his faith in the sixth century, at an age when he was certainly too old to be serving as an active soldier, by a king who converted to Judaism. Nevertheless he was revered at Byzantium as a warrior saint. For Menas the Egyptian (X) the literary sources are complex and conflicting. Already a Christian, he served under Diocletian as a soldier in Phrygia. Menas the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜, with whom he was sometimes confused, was not a warrior, as his sobriquet makes clear. The third Menas of Cotyaeum, whose Passion can hardly be extricated from that of Menas the Egyptian, would have been martyred in the same way as the first, all three being executed for their faith. Artemius (XI) had a successful career, being appointed Doux in Egypt, but no information is available about his military commitment. Probably denounced for destroying pagan statues, he refused to offer cult to Apollo. As a Christian, seemingly of Arian tendencies, he was degraded by Julian the Apostate. Martin of Tours (XIII) was known in the East, although he was not glamourized as in the West. In the Byzantine sources he is said to have had a successful career as a soldier. His military status, which so embarrassed Western Christians particularly when he later became a bishop, raised no problems at Constantinople. His resounding victory over barbarians, attained without bloodshed, was recounted in his Greek Life. However, unlike the preceding warriors, he was not put to death for his faith. Consequently, he was not, like them, in Eastern parlance a martyr. In fact, he was renowned above all as a miracle worker. In the one known representation of him in Byzantine art, he is performing a miracle, dressed as a bishop. Phanourios (XIV) was an entirely fictitious warrior saint. What is recorded about him derives from a lost but recopied icon, the inscription on which was misread. Consequently, nothing can be recounted about his military career, which, apparently, had no interest for those who compiled his legend as late as the fourteenth century.

264

CONCLUSION

As for George (V), what was written about him was also almost entirely fictitious. However, most of the legends were compiled far earlier than those about Phanourios. They affirm consistently that he was a warrior who was executed for his Christian faith, without entering into detail about his military career or mentioning his attitude to war. The earliest Passion attributed his martyrdom to an otherwise unknown king Dadianus. In its revised form it was attributed more plausibly, if not more authentically, to Diocletian. He was said to have been martyred at Diospolis (Lydda) in Palestine, but it rapidly became common, as in the seventh-century Life of Theodore of Sykeon, to call him George of Cappadocia. There, returning from military service, according to the late legend, he rescued the princess from the dragon. That is all the information available about the military career of the most eminent warrior saint. The minor warrior saints For the following saints, even less is known about their military careers. The emperor responsible for their execution was usually Diocletian. This is the case for Andrew Stratelates (XXXI), who invoked Christ, won a battle and converted, for Anicetus (XXXII), who rose to the rank of Comes, for Callistratus (XXXVII), Dasius (XXXVIII) and Typasius (LI). Others, Bonosus and Maximilianus (XXXV), Eusignius (XLI), John and Paul (XLIV) and Juventinus and Maximinus (XIX), were victims of Julian the Apostate. Accounts of military martyrs from an earlier persecution like Trophimus, Dorymedon and Sabbatius (L) and Zosimus (XXIX) are rare. Some are recorded only in accretions to the Passion of another warrior saint, like Basiliscus, Cleonicus and Eutropius (XXXIV), who figure as relatives of Theodore Tiron (I), and Victor and Vicentius (LIII) who were associated with Menas (X). Others like Marcellus of Tangier (XLVI), Maurice of Agaunum (XLVII) and Philotheus of Antioch (XXIII) were not commemorated in the Byzantine liturgical calendar. Nor, apparently, were the XL Defenders of Gaza (LXII) commemorated, although they had defended the city against the Arab conquerors and were put to death probably in 637 for refusing to apostatize. There are unusual cases like that of Orestes, one of the Holy Five (XVII), all of whom were martyred, but he was the only warrior among them. Accounts of their passion give no details of his military career, but tell us that he wore a cross under his uniform. When this was exposed, he was revealed to be a Christian. He was frequently represented in Byzantine art usually wearing military uniform but with other members of the Holy Five, never in an echelon of warrior saints.

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Christopher (XV), like some other warrior saints, is said to have been recruited to the pagan Roman army from a barbarian people, the Cynocephali. Appalled at the slaughter of Christians perpetrated by these pagans, he converted, inspired by the vision of an angel. Having manifested in various ways such as smashing idols in his contempt for pagans, he was tortured and beheaded. The case of Joannicius (XVIII) has points of resemblance with that of Christopher. However, in his case, there are authentic literary sources. He lived in the eighth century, serving for 20 years in the imperial army. But, unlike Christopher, he was already a Christian, as were his comrades. He was appalled by the number of them who were slaughtered by pagan Bulgarians, and for this reason resigned his commission to become a monk. He died a natural death on Mount Olympus. He was greatly revered by the Byzantines but as a miracle worker, not as a warrior saint. The two New Testament centurions, Cornelius (XVI) and Longinus of Caesarea (XX), were said in later tradition to have left the Roman army to enter the clergy, but there is no reference to their having found military service repugnant. They became bishops and ended their lives as martyrs. They too were not considered by the Byzantines to be warrior saints. Nicetas (XXII) was another barbarian, a Goth. In the fifth century when he lived, his people were divided in their religious allegiance but the majority were pagans. When Nicetas openly professed his Christianity, he was sentenced to be burned to death. Yet another Goth would have been Sabbas Stratelates (XXVI), were his existence not completely fictitious. However, what is told about him illustrates well how hagiographers imagined the making of a warrior saint. This high-ranking officer is presented as a secret Christian who was denounced under the Emperor Aurelian. He stripped off his military cincture and avowed his faith publicly. Christ visited him in prison in order to encourage him to persevere. He was put to death by drowning. Thus he put his religious allegiance before his military commitment.

Whatever sources hagiographers may have had at their disposal, oral or written traditions, it is evident that most of what is recounted in the Passions of warrior saints is not historically authentic. The exceptions are those of late warriors who were revered as saints like Arethas (XII) and Joannicius (XVIII). The rest reflect the post-Constantinian ideological climate, when enrolment in the army was not regarded with misgivings by the Byzantines. The antimilitarism of Tertullian and Origen did not have many later echoes in the East.

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CONCLUSION

The bêtes noires of hagiographers from the fourth century onwards were Diocletian and Julian the Apostate, to whom most martyrdoms were attributed. It is significant that when the first fabulous Passion of St George was recast, it was set in the reign of Diocletian. Moreover, when warriors were martyred, it was not because they refused an engagement which might oblige them to kill. It is true that much was made by Sulpicius Severus of Martin’s (XIII) reluctance to kill, but Sulpicius did this in order to impress his Western audience; this theme was not taken up by the Byzantines. Slaughter of barbarians was no more opprobious to them than was slaughtering Philistines to the Israelites. Objections were raised only to the slaughter of Christians, as by Joannicius (XVIII). Either military martyrs were unwilling to serve a pagan emperor, or they were arraigned before a judge for proclaiming publicly that they were Christians. If they raised objections to military service like Hieron (IX), it was because they did not wish to associate with men who were dissolute. Thus the accounts of the military careers of warrior saints are extremely meagre. Most begin only when they proclaim publicly their Christian faith. A few, like Procopius (III) and Mercurius (IV), owed their success in battle to divine help. Eustathius (VII) took command of an army again after becoming a Christian. The issue of the morality of killing was not raised. One might have expected this issue to be a distinctive aspect of their Passions. It was not. Moreover at the time of the composition of most of their Passions, warrior saints were not considered to constitute a distinct category of martyr.

(b) The beginnings of the cult of warrior saints The public expression of the cult of saints only became general after Constantine had given official recognition to the Christian Church. Steps were taken to eliminate pagan cult, which nevertheless continued to have its adherents, undergoing a brief restoration when Julian the Apostate was emperor. Although some pagan temples survived, many were destroyed or transformed.1 Their material was used to construct churches, sometimes on the site of a demolished pagan temple, in order that choirs of angels might inhabit a place hitherto occupied by demons.2 Interest in the avatars of Christianity became passionate and universal. However, at 1 J. Deichmann, ‘Christianierung II’, Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum 2, 1954, 1230–4, listed 89 pagan temples converted into churches. 2 As, for example, the church in honour of St George at Ezra (Zorava), vid. supra, V: George, p. 114, n. 30.

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first these avatars were limited to Christ, particularly in the places where he had manifested his divinity, and to his immediate followers, the apostles. Emulating Constantine’s mother Helena, pilgrims came from far and wide to visit the sanctuaries of the Holy Land and to venerate the relics of the Apostles, in whose honour magnificent sanctuaries were built.3 We are fortunate in having accounts of the journey of such early pilgrims as Egeria. The cult of relics took on other forms than venerating them in the sanctuary in which they were placed. Cyril Mango has written illuminatingly about the development of these other forms of cult, notably the translation of the relics of saints and of their fraction.4 It was a principle of Roman law, that tombs were inviolate. In Christian parlance, the requies aeterna of the dead was not to be disturbed. It was reaffirmed by Constantius II in 357 and again 30 years later by an imperial edict, which, however, accepted that a new shrine might be built on the site of a saint’s tomb. As already noted, Eusebius, in his Life of Constantine, witnessed to this general practice; Constantine himself sponsored some such shrines. Mango further pointed out that no displacement of saints’ relics is mentioned in Egeria’s account of her pilgrimage in 381–84. Nevertheless, setting aside the case of the displacement of the relics of Babylas, which was exceptional because it occurred at the time of Julian the Apostate, important translations had already taken place earlier, in 356 and 357, of the relics of Timothy, Andrew and Luke to the church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople.5 Mango goes into detail about the motives for this exception, which had no doubt been imperially sponsored. This does not concern us here. What is important is that the prestige given by relics and their protection, like those of David at Jerusalem, was sought by inhabitants of cities and countries which had no indigenous sanctuary. Relics brought the faith, as Paulinus of Nola put it, to many parts of the earth which were without martyrs. The practice caught on.6 Fathers of the Church who had earlier inveighed against the violation of saints’ tombs, became themselves ardent collectors of relics. The instance of Basil and of Gregory of Nyssa avidly acquiring relics of the XL Martyrs of Sebasteia (VIII) was noted above. In the eleventh century, John Mauropous was to write that

3

Maraval, passim. C. Mango, ‘Constantine’s Mausoleum and the Translation of Relics’, BZ 83, 1990, pp. 54–61; reprinted, Studies on Constantinople, Aldershot, 1993, no. V. 5 Jerome, Contra Vigilantium 5, PL 23, 343, denounced Constantine’s initiative as sacrilegious; Mango, p. 53. 6 Ibid., p. 53. 4

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CONCLUSION

the relics of Theodore (I) were dispersed, in order that ‘these universal riches could be widely appreciated’. In a few cases, notably those of Sergius and Bacchus (VI) and of Menas (X), the existence of sanctuaries where the relics of warrior saints were reputedly deposed is attested by archaeological evidence. It seems that only the sanctuaries of Demetrius at Thessaloniki (II), although it is open to question whether his relics were ever really deposed there, and that of George at Lydda (V) still function to this day. Other sanctuaries of warrior saints are attested in the literary sources, of Procopius (III) at Caesarea in Palestine and of Mercurius (IV) at Caesarea in Cappadocia. The XL Martyrs of Sebasteia (VIII) may have received the sanctuary for which they wished at Saleil in Cappadocia, in spite of the rapid dispersion of their relics. Alexander (XXX) who had a sanctuary at Drusipara in Europa is likely to have been the warrior saint of that name.7 We are told enigmatically that Christopher (XV) was buried by a river, although his earliest attested sanctuary was at Chalcedon.8 Eustratius and his companions, the Holy Five (XVII), had a sanctuary at Arauraka, Armenia, although their relics were subsequently translated to Sebasteia in Cappadocia.9 Juventinus and Maximinus (XIX) were no doubt buried in the same cemetery as Babylas at Antioch, although there is no record of a sanctuary having been constructed for them.10 Longinus (XX) had a sanctuary at Andradalis in Cappadocia, the region in which he was considered to have exercised an apostolate.11 The relics of Nicetas the Goth (XXII) were taken by his friend Marinus to Mopsuestia, where a sanctuary was built for him. Polyeuctes (XXV) had a sanctuary at Melitene where he was martyred,12 although his relics were translated in the early fifth century by Eudocia to Constantinople where she had a new sanctuary built for them. A reliquary for Trophimus (L) has been excavated at Synnada in Phrygia; if it was placed in a sanctuary, all traces of it are lost.13 Vicentius and Victor (LIII) also have attested sanctuaries in Egypt,14 but they may not have been warriors. If they figured as such, it was because they were co-opted into the retinue of Menas (X), their liturgical commemorations occurring the same day.

7

Maraval, p. 392. Ibid., p. 365. 9 Ibid., p. 375. 10 Ibid., p. 341. 11 Ibid., p. 374. 12 Ibid., p. 375. 13 Ibid., p. 386. 14 Ibid., pp. 303, 326. 8

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Thus no less than 14 early sanctuaries of warrior saints are recorded in Europa (the region north-east of Thrace), Cappadocia, Armenia, Egypt, Syria and the Holy Land. The spread of the cult of saints, particularly in Syria and the Holy Land, is well documented by the inscriptions in which they were invoked, although these did not necessarily imply the presence of a relic.15 Nevertheless, fractions of relics were being readily parcelled out and distributed. It would be tedious to list all the references to them in the literary sources in detail here.16 However, it is worth mentioning that, of the warrior saints, Theodore (I) and Sergius, with or without Bacchus (VI), were by far the most important. Warrior saints were sometimes invoked to protect military buildings as were Longinus, Theodore and George on the lintel of the barracks at Ghoûr in Syria, probably constructed in 531/2 under Justinian.17 However, it was not only the military who asked for the protection of warrior saints. For example, the church at Qabr Hiram near Tyre, built in 576, which contained a mosaic of the ‘illustrious and most venerable martyr saint Christopher’, was not a military building.18 Warrior saints could be invoked along with others, for example at Brâd in Syria, where George (V) and Christopher (XV) along with Philotheus (possibly XIII), John the Baptist, Dometius and Euphemia were venerated. It is probable that this church possessed relics of all the saints named.19 The greatest number of early sanctuaries dedicated to warriors saints was, of course, situated at Constantinople, where relics were collected with the same enthusiasm with which a modern philatelist collects stamps. Nine churches there dedicated to warrior saints dating from the period before Iconoclasm are recorded.20 However, they were not yet considered to constitute a specific echelon; they were simply martyrs who happened to have been warriors.

15 Vid. the useful catalogue made by Fr. Halkin, ‘Inscriptions grecques relatives à l’iconographie’, Etudes d’épigraphie et d’hagiographie byzantines, London, 1973, with bibliography; Maraval, passim. 16 Maraval, index, sub nomine. 17 Halkin, op. cit. (n. 15), VI, p. 335. 18 Ibid., I, p. 97. 19 Ibid., I, p. 95. 20 Maraval, pp. 401–10, gives a short list of the attested early sanctuaries in Constantinople, of which the following were dedicated to warrior saints: Alexander (XXX) before 446, George (V), 5th century, the XL Martyrs (VIII) c. 450, Menas (X) before the 5th century, Polyeuctus (XXV) early 5th century, Procopius (III) of uncertain date, Sergius and Bacchus (VI) 527–36, Theodore (I) two, mid-5th century and under Justinian. For more detailed information, vid. Janin, names, sub indice.

270 (c)

CONCLUSION

The early iconography of warrior saints

The early pictures of warrior saints are not numerous. Most have been noted in the first section or in their entries in the second section. Often they were portrayed in the same way as other martyrs, in civil dress holding a cross. Only occasionally do we find examples of them represented in military uniform and even here the iconography is open to interpretation. It may be asked whether the chlamys was really a distinctive element of military dress. There is an important piece of evidence in favour of this. In the enigmatic programme decorating the Rotunda of St George in Thessaloniki, the profession of the figures represented is given in the surviving legends. Three of them are said to be soldiers; the others were civilians. These three figures, unlike the civilians, wear a chlamys (plate 35).21 For Theodore (I), although the icon has not survived, we are told that he appeared in a vision in military uniform to a lady so that she could paint his portrait accurately. A few early examples of his representation as a warrior have survived, notably on seals. It seems that some time elapsed before Demetrius (II) was represented explicitly as a warrior. There are references to his intervention wearing a chlamys in defence of Thessaloniki, but it was only in the account of a late miracle, no. 16, that he is said to have appeared in military uniform to the Bishop of Thenai and that the bishop identified him from an icon in his ciborium, but no such representation of him has survived from the period before Iconoclasm. Sts Sergius and sometimes Bacchus (VI) were portrayed wearing a chlamys and, more particularly, the maniakion, which was not strictly an element of military dress, from the sixth century. In the seventh century, Sergius was portrayed on a bracelet as a holy rider.22 No early representations of Procopius (III) are known. Representations of Eustathius (VII) exist from the seventh century, but of his vision when out hunting, not as a warrior. Mercurius (IV) was depicted for the first time in Paris graec. 510. Basil refers to portraits of Kyrion and the XL Martyrs of Sebasteia (VIII), but gives no details of their dress. In later scenes of their martyrdom on the icy waters, they were portrayed wearing loincloths. For Hieron (IX) and Arethas (XII) no early representations exist. On the other hand there are numerous examples for Menas (X), as early as the fifth century on his eulogies, wearing a chlamys, less often a cuirass and sometimes on horseback. There are references in his Miracula to icons of Artemius (XI) and to his costume, but this was invariably described as civil. 21 22

In fact, it does not seem that any of the three really were warriors. Vid. infra, nn. 32–5. E. Key Fowden, The Barbarian Plain, Los Angeles/London, 1999, pp. 29–44.

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For George (V), references to his portrait are slightly more numerous. In the seventh-century Life of Theodore of Sykeon, his icon is mentioned but without a developed description. It is possible, since in apparitions recounted in the same text he is said to carry a sword, that he was portrayed in military uniform as in the portraits of him at Bawît, which Clédat dated to the sixth century. He is so represented on the sixthcentury cross in the Schlumberger collection at the Cabinet des Médailles and some representations of him in military dress in Georgian repoussé work may be as early as the eighth century. He also figures in military uniform on a terracotta from Vinica, probably dating from before 733, together with Christopher (XV), also in military uniform. In two early paintings of him in Cappadocia, at St John the Baptist, Çavus¸in, and Küçük Tavs¸an Adası he wears court dress; although in the latter he holds a sword. With three important exceptions, no other early representation of a warrior saint exists. These exceptions are Philotheus of Antioch (XXIII), who was represented in military dress on an Egyptian pencase dating from before 650, now in the Louvre, Phoibammon (XXIV), and Sisinnius of Antioch (XXVII). The latter two were represented in chapel XVII at Bawît, which Clédat dated to the sixth century. A. Grabar was not primarily concerned with warrior saints in his remarkable analysis of the iconography of the paintings which have survived at Bawît.23 It is an open question whether they are of an entirely original conception or whether it is their good fortune to have survived while other similar complexes have been destroyed. Either way, the paintings at Bawît merit more intensive study, because they witness to so many aspects of the passage from pagan iconography, through syncretistic adaptation of pagan themes by Christians towards the elaboration of an authentic Christian iconography, purged of earlier pagan elements. It has already been noted in Part I how Thecla, a New Testament character by adoption, was introduced at Bawît into a programme which had been elaborated in the decoration of the Roman catacombs,24 the theme of which was divine intervention in favour of Old Testament avatars. The programmes at Bawît also included apotropaic themes of pagan origin. The representations of Phoibammon (XXIV) and Sisinnius (XXVII) in chapel XVII at Bawît, taking up the well-established iconography of Solomon killing the female demon, anticipate the later function of warrior saints who at that time were invoked mainly to protect Eastern Christians against their enemies, diabolical and human.

23 24

A. Grabar, Martyrium, Paris, 1946, II, pp. 296–310. Stern, art. cit. supra, chapter 1, p. 27, n. 66.

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CONCLUSION

For fuller evidence of the progressive integration of warrior saints into officially approved iconography, it is necessary to turn to their representations in Cappadocia. Paintings here, few in number and too often sadly decayed, have survived from the period before Iconoclasm. From the period after the Triumph of Orthodoxy they are far more numerous. Pictures of warrior saints have been noted in their respective entries in the preceding section. They provide the documentation necessary for establishing what would be the characteristics of the habitual iconography of portraits of warrior saints. The few iconographical types adopted by the Byzantines were fairly standardized. Often, indeed, they were represented like other martyrs, in court dress holding a cross. Their representations in military costume were portraits, bust, full length, or on horseback. The iconography of a warrior saint enthroned was unusual before the twelfth century.25 In general, paintings of scenes other than episodes from the life of Christ, were rare in Cappadocia. Among the warrior saints, only George (V), had a cycle. Theodore Tiron (I) was also a popular subject but he had no cycle. The two of them were represented together, facing each other on horseback, usually spearing a serpent or dragon. This type occurred as early as the ninth century in Yılanlı kilise on Hasan Dag˘ı, and recurred frequently in the following centuries. For the rest, there are almost exclusively portraits. Demetrius (II) became a celebrity only when he began to exude myron. He was not portrayed in Cappadocia earlier than the eleventh century, when four portraits of him are recorded, all in military dress. I have noted eleven examples of Sergius and Bacchus (VI), extending over a long period with their regular portrait type, young and beardless, wearing court dress and holding a martyr’s cross but never wearing their attribute, the maniakion. Procopius (III) probably owed his popularity in part to the fact that some calendars placed his martyrdom incorrectly at Caesarea in Cappadocia, not in Palestine. In his early portraits he invariably wears court dress; only from the eleventh century was he dressed as a warrior. Also the vision which led him to win a battle was represented at least five times. The vision of Eustathius (VII), a theme also popular in Georgia, interested artists in Cappadocia more than his portrait, although in only one representation of his vision does he wear military dress. In spite of having his sanctuary at Caesarea, Mercurius (IV) was less popular than Procopius, but he was represented more often as a warrior than in court dress, once as early as the ninth century in Direkli kilise. The most widespread iconographical theme for the 40 Martyrs of Sebasteia (VIII)

25

Vid. supra, p. 232, infra, p. 281.

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was their martyrdom, but portraits of them abound in Cappadocia, sometimes in court dress but also as warriors. It will be necessary to turn later to their portraits in the Pigeon House at Çavus¸in. Hieron (IX) was another local saint, whose popularity is manifest. In only one, the earliest portrait of him, is he represented in court dress. As with the XL Martyrs, it will be necessary to turn later to his portrait at Çavus¸in.26 Arethas (XII), not surprisingly, does not figure in Cappadocia. Menas (X) was only represented in Cappadocia in the eleventh century, after his rediscovery. As in his early portraits, his only military garment is his chlamys. He is accompanied by Victor and Vicentius (LIII), the two companions whom he acquired. This makes it possible for him to be distinguished in wall painting from the K·ÏÏÈΤϷ‰Ô˜, except when artists confused them. Artemius (XI) was not represented in Cappadocia, nor was Martin of Tours (XIII), nor, of course, Phanourios (XIV). For the rest, of those whom I have classified as minor warrior saints, some were represented in Cappadocia. Anicetus (XXXII) is recorded, but, in the only detailed description of him, he is wearing court dress. It is not possible, from the information available, to know if the Callinicus (XXXVI) represented there was indeed a warrior saint. On the other hand, Christopher (XV) was popular, exercising his apotropaic function, in full military dress at least twice, elsewhere wearing a chlamys. Orestes, one of the Holy Five (XI), figured there with his companions, not always in military dress. He is easily distinguished from the local martyr, who bears the same name. Nicetas the Goth (XXII) was also represented in Cappadocia, but only twice in military dress. These saints sometimes exercised an apotropaic function, but they were rarely portrayed in an echelon. There are no recorded representations in Cappadocia of the other warrior saints listed in my repertory. Nevertheless, there were at least 16 who, as well as the XL Martyrs, figure there. Often the earliest known portrayals of a warrior saint is in the Menologium of Basil II. However, these scenes are of martyrdom, in which they do not wear military costume. There is one exception, Theodore Stratelates (I). He is represented, in portrait form, fully accoutred, as a warrior against an architectural background (plate 48).27 A possible explanation of this exception is that the Stratelates was much in vogue at that time, because he had intervened in battle in favour of John I Tzimisces (969–75).28 In the illustrated Metaphrastic volumes, over 20 warrior saints 26

For these saints and their representation at Çavus¸in, vid. infra, n. 66. Vatican graec. 1613, p. 383 (8 Feb.), PG 117, 301–4. 28 Vid. supra, I, P. 59. 27

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figure. These examples make it clear that warrior saints were highly esteemed and provide evidence by their iconography that, with the passage of time, it became customary, although never rigorously necessary, to represent them with military dress or a military attribute.

(d) The emergence of an echelon of warrior saints The introduction of a series of portraits into church decoration began early. It can be usefully exemplified by those in the Rotunda of St George in Thessaloniki, which has been much studied. It includes a number of figures accompanied by a legend ÛÙÚ·ÙÈÒÙ˘, distinguished from the others by wearing a chlamys, although it is possible that none of them was, in fact, a warrior (plate 35)!29 Grabar was primarily interested in the overall programme of the Rotunda. For him, the outstanding elements are the presence of a phoenix in the cupola, giving it an eschatological significance. Christ carrying a long-armed cross is placed in the central medallion held up by angels. Grabar supposed this scene to be an allusion to the Ascension rather than an actual representation of it. Its imagery is triumphal: Christ has won a victory over death. Below the medallion, there remain 24 pairs of feet, somewhat excessive for the unidentifiable figures to be only apostles. Grabar compared the programme with the lost one known only from engravings at San Prisco, Capua, dating from the sixth century.30 Basing himself on this analogy, he interpreted the whole as referring to Christ’s Second Coming. He also adduced the analogy of the eleventhcentury decorative programme in St Sophia, Sofia.31 In the Orthodox Baptistery at Ravenna, the figures surrounding the cupola, with the scene of Christ’s Baptism at the centre, are certainly the apostles. Below them the architectural surrounding also resembles that in the Rotunda, although no saints figure there.

29 E. Weigand, ‘Der Kalenderfreis von Hagios Georgios in Thessaloniki. Datierung, Ideenund Kunstgeschichtliche Stellung’, BZ 39, 1939, pp. 116–45; R. Hoddinott, Early Byzantine Churches in Macedonia and Southern Serbia, London, 1963, esp. pp. 112–13; A. Grabar, ‘A propos des mosaïques de la coupole de St-Georges à Salonique’, CA 17, 1967, pp. 59–81. The portraits in the Rotunda make it clear that, at least in early Byzantine art, the chlamys was considered to be inter alia an element of military dress; it was so defined by Liddell and Scott. Vid. also Reiske’s notes to his edition of De cerimoniis, II, p. 469, with citations of the word used in a military sense. According to A. Kazhdan and N. Patterson Sˇ evcˇenko, ‘Chlamys’, ODB 1, 424, it was losing its military character by about the 6th century to become a regular element of court costume. 30 Grabar, pp. 64–5, fig. 9. 31 Ibid., p. 65, fig. 10.

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In the Rotunda, there is a whole series of martyrs fairly well conserved. Grabar manifested little interest in them. He doubted that this really was, as Weigand maintained, a calendar programme, the ancestor of later monumental menologia. Grabar did not enter into the problem of the identity of the martyrs. Hoddinott gave their names, but did not cite the sources which he used to establish who they actually were. Here Weigand was more exact, but he had less evidence than we have now. Grabar admitted that he was at a loss as to how to determine why these particular martyrs had been chosen, most of them being little known. He and Hoddinott name three who are described in their accompanying inscriptions as ÛÙÚ·ÙÈÒÙ˘: Leon (§¤ˆÓ), for whom no martyr bearing this name is said to have been a warrior;32 Therinos (£ÂÚÖÓÔ˜) is obscure.33 St Paul had a disciple called Onesiphorus (\√ÓËÛÈÊfiÚÔ˜), II Timothy 1:16–18, but, again, there is no evidence that he was a warrior, although a Passion for him has been published.34 I had, therefore, good reasons for not including them in my lists of warrior saints. Weigand wrote of two other martyrs designated in their accompanying inscription as ÛÙÚ·ÙÈÒÙ˘, who were not mentioned by Hoddinott and Grabar: Basiliscus, who could be, as Weigand suggested, the relative and Û˘ÛÙÚ·ÙÈÒÙ˘ of Theodore Tiron (I and XXXIV). If so, it is the only picture of him known to me. The other was Eukarpion (EéηÚ›ˆÓ), who shares a Passion with Trophimus (L).35 Two positive conclusions may be drawn from this examination of the Rotunda, first that martyrs, including some who are designated specifically as warriors, could be allotted a place as witnesses in a programme centred on Christ’s victory over death; secondly the warriors are given a specific article of dress, the chlamys, which differentiates them from the civil martyrs. However, unless they were deliberately paired off, each with a civil martyr, their distribution is not structured; an echelon of warrior saints had yet to be constituted. Also the absence of ones who were considered to be major warrior saints is disturbing. Echelons of saints including warriors become frequent from the tenth century (plates 44–45). Allusion has been made frequently to the four celebrated ivory triptychs in the repertory of warrior saints. To these should be added the ivory triptych in the Hermitage of the XL Martyrs who stand, as habitually, in icy water (plate 46). On the side panels are

32

Vid. BS, sub nomine. J.-M. Sauget, ‘Terino’, BS 12, 429–30, refers to Syn CP, 628, but with no affirmation that he was a warrior. 34 Fr. Halkin, Inédits byzantins d’Ochrida, Candie et Moscou, Brussels, 1963, pp. 314–27 (BHG, 2325); Syn CP, 823–4 (BHG, 2323). 35 Weigand, p. 121; BHG, 2464. 33

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CONCLUSION

portraits of eight warrior saints: above, from right to left, George, Theodore Tiron, Eustathius and Eustratius (actually a highly placed functionary but sometimes co-opted into the echelon of warrior saints); below, Demetrius, Mercurius, Theodore Stratelates and Procopius. All except Eustratius hold swords or spears or shields. They wear armour; Eustratius wears a long chlamys. This triptych is the earliest example of a formal echelon of warrior saints.36 Markovic´ has traced the increasing number of warrior saints who figure in monumental decorative programmes.37 They were first given prominence in the mosaics at Hosios Loukas, where six in military dress are portrayed in the arches upholding the cupola: Theodore Tiron with Demetrius, Theodore Stratelates with George, and Procopius with Mercurius.38 In the church of St Nicolas Kasnitzes at Kastoria, for which the date is controversial – most probably late twelfth century – there is an echelon on the north wall, George, Demetrius and Nestor; opposite them on the south wall are Mercurius and Procopius with the two Theodores. Menas, called ‘the Egyptian’, accompanies them, wearing an enormous representation of Christ on a medallion, more appropriate to the iconography of the K·ÏÏÈÎÂÏ¿‰Ô˜.39 Henceforward these echelons would figure regularly in wallpainting, but, apart from the members of the état-major, the choice of warriors was varied.40

36 A. Banck, Byzantine Art in the Collections of the USSR, Moscow, 1966, no. 126. She dates the triptych to the 10th or 11th century; the later date seems more likely. Some scholars have placed it even later. 37 Markovic´, pp. 591–4. 38 Other warrior saints are portrayed in the church, but in civil dress: Vicentius and Victor (LV), Nestor (XXI). Theodore Tiron is portrayed a second time in the diaconicon. Sergius and Bacchus, curiously absent at Hosios Loukas, are represented at Daphni, vid. supra, VI. 39 S. Pelekanides, Kastoria, Thessaloniki, 1953, plates 54b, 55a; Idem and M. Chatzidakis, K·ÛÙÔÚÈ¿, Athens, 1985, p. 52, plan, p. 58, date, figs 10, 12, 13. 40 There are two outstanding echelons. One is in the parecclesion of the Kariye Camii, Underwood, pp. 187–212, figs 3–29: George, Demetrius, the two Theodores, Mercurius, Procopius, Sabbas Stratelates (XXVI), Eustathius (VII), Artemius (XI) or Nicetas (XXII), Sergius and Bacchus, both with maniakion (VI), an unidentified military saint, Nestor? (XXI), all, except Sabbas Stratelates, in military dress. Other martyrs, not warriors, figure in the programme. The other is at Decˇani, pp. 607–20, plates 2–13: George, twice (V), Procopius (III), Nestor (XXI), Demetrius, twice (II), the two Theodores (I), Lupus (XXI), Mercurius (IV), Artemius, lost (XI), Menas (X), Eustathius (VII), Alexander (XXX), Arethas (XII), Trophimus (L), Nicetas (XXII), all in military dress. Both echelons are admirably presented by Underwood and Markovic´ respectively.

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The function of warrior saints in the lives of terrestrial men

Echelons, consisting only of portraits, do not give full evidence as to why the warrior saints received cult. Undoubtedly, like the other martyrs, they were witnesses to immortality and could intercede for mankind. However, their military status gave them an important apotropaic or protective function. Their membership of the celestial army appears clearly on the magnificent enamel icon in the Treasury of San Marco (plate 1), dating from the late eleventh or early twelfth century, on which four couples of military saints in uniform are represented flanking St Michael, the àÚ¯ÈÛÙÚ¿ÙËÁÔ˜, himself in military dress and holding a sword. They are identified by inscriptions: to the left, above the two Theodores and below Demetrius and Nestor; to the right, above Procopius and George and below Eustathius and Mercurius.41 One cannot know whether this icon was an imperial commission, but it is significant that, already in the De cerimoniis, ‘the holy martyrs the stratelatai’ had been named, along with Christ, the Theotokos and the àÚ¯ÈÛÙÚ¿ÙËÁÔ˜ Michael as protectors of Constantinople.42 Even more eloquent is the testimony of Basil II’s portrait, the frontispiece to his Psalter, also at San Marco, graec. 17, f. III (plate 64), because it is accompanied by a dedicatory poem.43 A translation of this is: What new wonder is to be seen here! Christ extends in his lifebearing hand from heaven the crown, symbol of power, to the despot Basil, faithful and mighty. Below [are] the princes of the angels. One [angel], having taken [the crown], has carried [it] and joyfully crowns. The other [angel], linking to power victories as well, [the] lance, weapon which terrifies adversaries, having carried [it], he gives [it] into the ruler’s hand. The martyrs fight with him as a friend, throwing down enemies at his feet.

If one turns now to the miniature, it is easy to interpret it by reference to the dedicatory poem. Basil, in full military panoply, has his right hand placed on the lance which the angel is presenting to him; he already holds a sword in his left hand. The crowning is portrayed in two episodes:

41 D. Buckton, The Treasury of San Marco Venice, Milan, 1984, no. 19, pp. 171–4, with bibliography; Markovic´, p. 592. 42 De Cerimoniis, Bonn, I, p. 481. 43 C. Walter, ‘The Iconographical Sources for the Coronation of Milutin and Simonida at Gracˇanica’, L’art byzantin au début du XIVe siècle, Belgrade, 1978, pp. 192–5; reprinted, Prayer and Power, IV. Markovic´, p. 592, wrote extensively of this miniature, with a developed bibliography, n. 196. It has, indeed, been frequently commented, but, as far as I am aware, I am the only scholar to have published a photograph of the dedicatory poem, plate 11 B. This makes it possible to control the sometimes inaccurate transcriptions of other scholars.

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Christ hands down a crown; then the other angel places it on Basil’s head. The poem makes clear that it is a symbol of power, a diadem rather than an Antique symbol of victory.44 His victories are symbolized, as the poem explains, by the lance. The ‘martyrs’ are six warrior saints, represented in bust form. However, only five names are still legible: Theodore, George, Demetrius, Procopius and Mercurius. As for the sixth, whose name is illegible, I earlier took it for granted that he is the second Theodore, but Markovic´ has subsequently argued strongly in favour of identifying him as Nestor.45 I would prefer now to leave the question of his identity open. A similar doubt arises as to the identity of the enemies thrown down at Basil’s feet. As is well known, Basil II earned the dubious title of Boulgaroktonos, because, when he triumphed over the Bulgarian tsar Samuel in 1014, he sent home the captive Bulgarian soldiers, allegedly 14 000, in batches of a hundred, all blinded, with a one-eyed man to lead each group. However, he spent most of his long reign (976–1025) fighting battles, so that ‘the enemies’ could as well be all the surrounding nations who were a menace to the Byzantine Empire. In fact, he died on the eve of a campaign against the Arabs in Sicily.46 He was a highly competent general, probably happiest in the atmosphere of military camps. Moreover, the qualification of him as ‘faithful’ in the dedicatory poem may not be fulsome hyperbole. He never married; on the other hand, there are no scurrilous stories about him seeking consolation with mistresses.47 He was, as far as we can know, a pious, clean-living man. It is probably deliberate, not coincidental, that, in this Psalter, his triumphal portrait is followed immediately by miniatures illustrating the Life of king David. Basil II was a New David, whom succeeding generations associated with Heraclius as the two greatest Byzantine emperors. Once again, we may observe how closely the Byzantines modelled their conduct towards other peoples on that of the Israelites. Basil II’s reign was an apogee, the appropriate moment to say a few words about links between the Byzantine army, religious practice in it, and the notion of warrior saints. There was continuity in military organization from the period before Constantine, although reforms were introduced in the early fourth cen-

44 I now depart from my earlier interpretation of the crown as a symbol of victory. The iconography derives from such coronations by the angel of Victory in Antique art, but the poem makes it clear that here the crown is a symbol of power. 45 Ibid., p. 592. 46 G. Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State, English edn, Oxford, 1956, p. 278. 47 M. Arbagi, ‘The Celibacy of Basil II’, Byzantine Studies/Etudes byzantines 2, 1975, pp. 41–5.

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tury.48 The legions once massed along the frontiers were reorganized with local frontier militias (limitanei) and mobile field armies (comitatenses) garrisoned within the Empire. By the fifth century, five such armies existed under the command of Magistri militum. In the sixth century, another was created for Armenia. These armies were made up of enlisted Roman citizens, and foederati of many nationalities under Roman command. During the sixth century, methods of warfare changed. In imitation of the Persians and Avars, cavalry and archery were used increasingly. After Justinian I, the army declined, but was then reorganized again. The military were regrouped in themes; hereditary army service was reimposed; new imperial units, tagmata, were based in and around Constantinople. The greatest period was from the reign of Nicephorus II Phocas (963–69) to that of Basil II. These soldier emperors reconquered territories lost to the Arabs and Bulgarians, using more heavily armed troops, kataphraktoi. They had learnt to combine perfectly cavalry and infantry tactics. Command was centralized in Constantinople and foreign mercenaries were hired increasingly. However, large, multinational, centralized forces proved unwieldy; they were no match for the Western feudal armies in 1202–03. It would be too complex to go into detail about rank in the Byzantine army, but one title, stratelates, requires comment.49 Sometimes it was used generically, as in the De cerimoniis for the members of the état-major. It was attributed to three warrior saints, Theodore (I), Sabbas (XXVI) and Andrew (XXXI) as a personal sobriquet. In his Passion it is recounted that Mercurius (IV) received the title honorifically. Kazhdan pointed out that it had various uses, but basically signified a general, translating the Latin magister militum. In the Byzantine army, it was sometimes what Kazhdan calls an ‘isolated’ dignity, an honorific title. However, in the tenth and eleventh centuries it was widely used to designate a general or commander in chief. The literary sources are too laconic to make it possible to know why Theodore, Sabbas and Andrew were given this title. It could be used as a generic term for the warrior saints who protected Constantinople, although in the treatise of Pseudo-Kodinos, unlike the De cerimoniis, Demetrius, Procopius and the Theodores are described as ‘the holy four great martyrs’, with their leader George.50 Exceptionally in the inscription accompanying the portraits of George, Demetrius (II) and

48 E. McGeer and A. Kazhdan, ‘Army’, ODB 1, pp. 183–5, with references to relevant articles in the ODB. 49 J. Durliat, ‘Magister militum – ™ÙÚ·ÙËÏ¿Ù˘ dans l’empire byzantin (VIe–VIIe siècles)’, BZ 72, 1979, p. 306–20; A. Kazhdan, ‘Stratelates’, ODB 3, p. 1965; Idem and A. Cutler, ‘Magister militum’, ibid., 2, pp. 1266–67. 50 Le traité des offices du Pseudo-Kodinos, ed. J. Verpeaux, Paris, 1966, p. 196.

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the Theodores (I) in St Andreas, Treska, they are called √I ™TPATIøTAI T√Y ME°A§√Y BA™I§Eø™.51 Only in the case of Mercurius is there a direct connection between his performance in the terrestrial army and the title, which the other two received on account of their performance in the celestial army. The public image of Byzantine soldiers was highly favourable. In his Tactica, Leo VI (886–912) wrote of them as soldiers of God and champions of the Church. Their enemies were also those of the true God, while all baptized men were brothers.52 In fact, Christian religious practice in the army, taking over from pagan rites, became increasingly intense. Vieillefond wrote that military manuals of the tenth and eleventh centuries read more like collections of canons for a monastic order.53 Crosses and icons were, of course, carried into battle; standards were blessed; there was a period of three days fasting and purification before starting a campaign. Services of thanksgiving for victory and for those killed in battle were held.54 It is sad that this elevated notion of the military vocation did not incite the Byzantine army to adopt a more humane attitude towards those whom they fought and conquered. Water and food were poisoned; houses and crops on enemy territory were burned. Nor should it be forgotten how Basil II earned the title of Boulgaroktonos.55 The Praecepta militaria, usually but not invariably attributed to Nicephoras Phocas, ordered prayers to be said by soldiers morning and evening, with severe punishment for those who did not participate. It is interesting that this highly successful general took religious practice in the army so seriously, for it was with him that the image of the noble knight was introduced into Byzantine literature. High birth and military courage, as well as piety, were added to the repertory of imperial virtues.56 If emperors were largely responsible for the growing cult of military saints, other highly placed persons in Byzantine society followed their 51

J. Prolovic´, Die Kirche des heiligen Andreas an der Treska, Vienna, 1997, p. 193. PG 107, 669; J.-R. Vieillefond, ‘Les pratiques religieuses dans l’armée byzantine d’après les traités militaires’, Revue des études anciennes 38, 1935, pp. 322–30. 53 Vieillefond, pp. 324–5; E. McGeer, ‘Military religious services’, ODB 2, 1373–4. 54 Th. Détorakis and J. Mossay, ‘Un office byzantin inédit pour ceux qui sont morts dans la guerre’, Le Muséon 101, 19–88, pp. 183–211. The soldiers are called ÛÙÚ·ÙÈáÙ·È XÚÈÛÙÔÜ, as if by death in battle they were integrated into the celestial army. 55 Vieillefond, p. 330. 56 A. Kazhdan and G. Constable, People and Power in Byzantium, Washington, 1982, p. 100. Leo the Deacon wrote an adulatory account of Nicephoras Phocas. Vid. also, E. McGeer, Sowing the Dragon’s Teeth: Byzantine Warfare in the Tenth Century, Washington, 1995, in which he has edited the Praecepta militaria. However, J.-C. Cheynet, in his review of McGeer’s book, REB 53, 1997, p. 332, shows less confidence than the author in attributing the Praecepta to Nicephoras Phocas. 52

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example. They had their effigies imprinted on seals and coins. Churches and other religious foundations were dedicated to them, particularly to St George.57 The cult of the myron of Demetrius, and the practice of being anointed with it before going into battle, if exceptional, were, nevertheless, widespread. They have already been described.58 However, the iconographical themes reflecting these practices are limited virtually to their portraits and scenes of investment, like that of Milutin in the church of Staro Nagoricˇino.59 In fact, the triumphal scenes, apart from those in Vatican graec. 1679 (plate 51), are limited to revenge on early persecuting emperors, particularly Diocletian and Julian the Apostate, and, in late Byzantine art, the representation of warrior saints enthroned.60 The earliest example known of an enthroned warrior saint is in the lost series of paintings in the church of St Demetrius in Thessaloniki; it is more than improbable that he is being honoured here as a warrior saint. A plaque of St Demetrius enthroned was inserted into the west facade of San Marco. If it is booty from the Fourth Crusade, it cannot be later than the twelfth century.61 The companion figure of St George was considered by Demus to be a Venetian replica of Demetrius. It is to be noted that the accompanying legends on both plaques are in Latin, not Greek, characters. On a steatite in the Museo sacro at the Vatican, Sts Demetrius and Theodore Tiron are represented enthroned, in military dress and holding swords.62 Later it became usual to place an obnoxious beast under their feet, so underlining the fact that they were triumphing over evil. Examples have already been cited for Demetrius (II), Phanourios (XIV), and Nicetas (XXII). To these may be added a fine painting of St George enthroned and trampling a dragon in the church dedicated to him at Kremikovci in Bulgaria, with an inscription: George cutting down enemies in battles. (A person) among enemies is cut down by swords (⯩ÚÔ‡˜ ï Ù¤ÌÓˆÓ °¤ˆÚÁÈÔ˜ âÓ Ì¿¯·È˜, ö¯ˆÓ ·Ú’⯩ÚáÓ Ù¤ÌÓÂÙ·È ‰Èa Í›ÊÔ˘˜).63 The legend attributes 57

Vid. supra, V. Vid. supra, II. 59 Vid. supra, XIV. 60 A. Dumitrescu, ‘Une iconographie peu habituelle: les saints militaires siégeant. Le cas de St-Nicolas d’Arges¸’, Byzantion 59, pp. 48–63. The representation in this church of six warrior saints (Artemius, Lupus, Mercurius and Procopius, with two whose legend is lost) is certainly exceptional. Elsewhere, the theme of a single warrior saint, or a pair, enthroned is fairly widespread. 61 O. Demus, The Church of San Marco in Venice. History, Architecture, Sculpture, Washington, 1960, pp. 128–31, figs 40, 41; Markovic´, fig. 42. 62 I. Kalavrezou-Maxeiner, Byzantine Icons in Steatite, Vienna 1985, I, pp. 187–8, II, fig. 107. She dates the steatite to the 13th century. 63 K. Paskaleva-Kabadaieva, Crkvata ‘Sv. Georgi’ v Kremikovskija Manastir, Sofia 1980, pp. 72–4, figs 45, 46. She dated it to the late 15th century. 58

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CONCLUSION

specifically to George the function of intervening against enemies in battle. Examples for Nicetas are curiously abundant in Russian art.64 A final, little-known icon of Theodore Tiron, dated 1663, may be adduced. It is in the Macedonian Museum in Skopje.65 The warrior saint again has his feet placed on an obnoxious beast, while two angels crown him. There seems to be only one surviving programme of church decoration in which the participation of warrior saints in a Byzantine victory is explicit, that in the Pigeon House of Çavus¸in (plate 69), to which allusion has been made more than once in connection with the XL Martyrs (VIII) and Hieron (IX). This church has been frequently studied.66 In order to understand its complex programme, it is necessary to place it first in the context of the development of the cult of the Cross with its accompanying legend, IC XC NI KA. In the Rotunda of St George, martyrs, including putative warriors, were introduced into a programme centred on the triumphant Cross. During the reign of Leo III (717–41), the legend IC XC NI KA was added to the Cross, particularly on the miliaresion.67 Since at this period the Empire was gravely threatened by the Arabs, the Cross with its accompanying legend has been interpreted as a sign of defiance to them and of confidence in victory over them. It figures in several programmes of church decoration in churches around Çavus¸in. These churches are all on territory where the Phocas family was influential.68 The Pigeon House was built in honour of Nicephoras Phocas by anonymous admirers who kneel at the feet of the archangel Michael. Although they did not employ artists of the same high quality as those who decorated Tokalı kilise, their programme is original and highly significant. The portrait of Nicephoras figures in the apse accompanied by those of his wife, father, brother and son. His nephew and successor as emperor, then magistros, John Tzimisces, also figures there on the north wall, on horseback with the general Melia. Later, when he became emperor (969– 76), the formula inscribed next to John I Tzimisces was modified: To John, emperor, long years! 64

Dumitrescu, art. cit. (n. 60), p. 58. Ikone iz Makedonije, Catalogue of exhibition, Zagreb, 1987, no. 48, p. 81. 66 Jolivet, pp. 14–22. More particularly, L. Rodley, ‘The Pigeon House Church, Çavus ¸ in’, JÖB 33, 1983, pp. 310–30; Thierry, Haut Moyen Age I, pp. 43–57, II, pp. 403–5; Eadem, ‘Un portrait de Jean Tzimiskès en Cappadoce’, Travaux and Mémoires 9, 1985, pp. 477–84. The church was known to de Jerphanion, I, pp. 520–50, but he was mainly interested by the scenes from the life of Christ. 67 C. Walter, ‘IC XC NI KA. The Apotropaic Function of the Victorious Cross’, REB 55, 1997, pp. 195–8. 68 J.-C. Cheynet, ‘Quelques remarques sur le culte de la Croix en Asie Mineure au Xe siècle’, Histoire et culture chrétienne. Mélanges M. Marchasson, Paris, 1992, pp. 72–4. 65

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They are accompanied by members of the XL Martyrs; but, in fact, the Cross, with the legend IC XC NIKA, does not figure in the programme. Instead the military procession is directed towards Nicephoras Phocas, who holds a cross in his hand. Constantine and Helena holding up the Cross are represented, inhabitually, in the apse, while a large portrait of Hieron (IX), in military costume, has been painted above the south side apse. Counterbalancing it above the north apse, is the scene of the àÚ¯ÈÛÙÚ¿ÙËÁÔ˜ ‰˘Ó¿Ìˆ˜ K˘Ú›Ô˘, in military dress, appearing to Joshua (Joshua 5:13–15). In the legend accompanying the scene, the archangel is named Michael.69 The programme of the Pigeon House is, from the point of view of the present study, peculiarly important by reason of the carefully elaborated nature of its ideology. It makes it possible to provide, what so far has not been attempted explicitly, a full answer to the question: ‘What is a Byzantine warrior saint?’ Beginning with their introduction among other martyrs as witnesses of the Triumph of the Cross, they early became popular as intercessors for and protectors of Christians. By the time of Nicephoras Phocas, the stratelatai had long been invoked in court ceremonial as patrons of the Empire. Now the XL Martyrs and Hieron, co-opted into the celestial army, appear specifically as protectors and allies of the terrestrial army. The presence of the archangel Michael as chief of the celestial army gives the echelon of warrior saints a place in the divine dispensation. The name Michael was now to be regularly given to the anonymous àÚ¯ÈÛÙÚ¿ÙËÁÔ˜ who had intervened in Joshua’s favour at Jericho. The warrior saints, members of the celestial army, are associated with John Tzimisces and his general Melia, who represent the terrestrial army. Constantine’s memory is evoked as the warrior emperor who triumphed over paganism, conquering by the sign of the Cross and giving the Church a privileged status in the Byzantine state. No equivalent programme has survived in Byzantine art. To find one that is analogous, it is necessary to wait until the church of the Holy Cross at Patrauti, Bucovina, Romania (plate 71), built by Stefan cel Mare in 1487. Its decoration attracted André Grabar’s attention long ago,70 but it has mainly interested Romanian scholars. The Communist régime neglected the upkeep of Christian monuments, so that the paintings are best studied from photographs made in the 1930s.71 Even then, the paint69 Jolivet, p. 21, n. 53, with bibliographical references to other, later representations of Michael in military costume; eadem, ‘L’image du pouvoir dans l’art byzantin à l’époque de la dynastie macédonienne’, Byzantion 57, 1987. 70 A. Grabar, ‘Les croisades de l’Europe orientale dans l’art’, Mélanges Charles Diehl II, Paris, 1930, pp. 19–27. 71 Repertoriul monumentelor s¸i oiectlolor de artä din timpul lui S ¸ tefan cel Mare, ed. M. Berza, Bucharest, 1958, pp. 60–7, fig. 32.

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ing had deteriorated, although it was still recognizable that the procession of haloed warriors on horseback in military dress was directed towards the Cross painted in white in a segment of the sky. The first warrior, equipped with wings, is the archangel Michael, who turns back towards the following one, designated as Constantine, to whom he is pointing out the Cross. Grabar identified the next figures as George, Demetrius, and the two Theodores. He conjectured that the rear of the procession is brought up by Procopius, Mercurius, Nestor, Artemius and Eustratius. The programme is less elaborate and more damaged than that in the Pigeon House. However, the association with Constantine is strengthened by the painting of him discovering the Cross on the west wall. It is also he who presents Stefan cel Mare, holding a model of the church with a cross placed on one of its cupolas, to Christ. Other interpretations of the programme may be possible, but Grabar’s is more than plausible. It celebrates in allegorical form Stefan’s victory over the Turkish army at Vasluiu in 1475. Romania was one of the regions in the Ottoman Empire where Byzantine traditions were more easily kept alive. However, no later programme similar to that at Patrauti has survived, in spite of the impact of rulers on church decoration. The warrior saints continued to be venerated, but the post-Byzantine period cannot be studied in detail within the scope of the present study.72 With the Latin conquest of Constantinople and the continual advance of the Turks into Europe, the triumphal attitude of the Byzantines to the warrior saints whose special function had been to lead them to victory was modified. Now they needed above all protection from their conquerors. The apotropaic function of warrior saints came back into vogue. It appears in the countless representations of them, particularly on the facade or at the entrance to churches, and on the holy doors of the iconostasis. These pictures were often simple portraits, but a popular iconographical type was also that of the warrior saint killing an enemy – Diocletian, Julian the Apostate and Kalojan – or an obnoxious beast. It served as a ‘coded’ language: for persecuting emperor or obnoxious beast, read the Turks.

72 N. Jorga, Byzance après Byzance, republished Bucharest, 1971; D. Nastase, ‘L’idée impériale dans les pays roumains et “le crypto-empire chrétien” sous la domination ottomane’, ™˘ÌÌÂÈÎÙ¿ 4, 1981, pp. 201–50; S. Ulea, ‘La peinture extérieure moldave: où, quand et comment est-elle apparue?’, Revue roumaine d’histoire 23, 1984, pp. 285–310. I gratefully thank Petre Guran for his help particularly with Romanian bibliography.

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The aesthetics of warrior saints

M.I. Rostovtzeff remarked long ago, with regard to Parthian art, that Palmyrene gods, as well as heroized men, were resplendent in their boyish beauty […]. Despite their military dress, the military gods of Palmyra are refined, elegant ephebes of the Oriental type […]. The graceful figures of the boyish gods and of their curly haired attendants, the slim proportions of their bodies, the romantic eyes, their almost airy appearance enable us to grasp at once, even without the help of the haloes and radiant crowns which surround the heads of the gods, their solar, ethereal and celestial nature.73

Similar observations could be made about many early portraits of warrior saints, notably about those in the Rotunda of St George and those of Sts Sergius and Bacchus (VI).74 However, warrior saints were represented as being robust as well as handsome.75 Maguire points out that different categories of saints are given a specific physique: monks are ascetic and emaciated, apostles ‘humanized’, bishops ‘formalized’. On the other hand, ‘saints who assumed a military rôle were portrayed both in literature and art, as vigorous, well dressed and well equipped’.76 This was, perhaps, a military as much as a hagiographical exigency. The descriptions of Saul and David in the Septuagint offer a case in point. Saul was ‘of great stature, a handsome man’ (aÓcÚ àÁ·©fi˜). There was not among the sons of Israel a better-looking one than he, ‘head and shoulders above all the people’ (I Kings 9:2). David is described as ‘ruddy with beautiful eyes, handsome in the sight of the Lord’ (·fÙe˜ ˘ÚÚ¿Î˘ ÌÂÙa οÏÏÔ˘˜ çÊ©·ÏÌáÓ, ηd àÁ·©e˜ ïÚ¿ÛÂÈ K˘Ú›ˆ) (I Kings 16:12). There were, therefore, biblical precedents for describing warrior saints as handsome and robust. In fact, in their Passions or accounts of them in synaxaries, they were described almost banally in this way. Allusions to such descriptions are made in Part Two. They may be recalled briefly here. The Theodores (I) were represented as mature men with beards. Of Demetrius (II), nothing is said about his appearance, which possibly explains why it was long before he acquired a portrait type. Equally, the 73 M.I. Rostovtzeff, ‘Dura and the Problem of Parthian Art’, Yale Classical Studies 5, 1935, p. 237, cited after Key Fowden, pp. 34–5. 74 Key Fowden, pp. 29–35. 75 H. Maguire, The Icons of Their Bodies. Saints and Their Images in Byzantium, Princeton, 1996, pp. 48–99, 140–94. 76 A. Kazhdan and H. Maguire, ‘Byzantine Hagiographical Texts as Sources for Art’, DOP 45, 1991, p. 3.

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literary sources for saints Sergius and Bacchus (VI) do not describe them directly although they were represented from the beginning as a pair of closely resembling ephebes. Again, the texts do not dwell on the appearance of Procopius (III). Eustathius (VII) only enters on the scene as a mature married man with two sons. In many other entries, reference is made to physical appearance. Mercurius (IV) was admired by the emperor on account of his youthful beauty, ruddy face and sprouting beard. Gregory of Nyssa described the XL Martyrs (VIII) as being young, handsome and robust. It was because he was robust that Hieron (IX) was recruited for the army. On the other hand, Arethas (XII) is presented as a venerable old man with white hair. For Menas of Egypt (X), there were two portrait types, first young, but later mature; in his Metaphrastic Life, he was described as being outstandingly handsome. Artemius (XI) was said to be merely handsome, although, the Hermeneia describes his features as resembling those of Christ. The Byzantines were not interested in the appearance of Martin of Tours (XIII). Phanourios (XIV), only known from a spurious icon, was invariably represented as robust, youthful and handsome like Demetrius and George. Elpidia, the grandmother of Theodore of Sykeon, had a vision of an exceedingly handsome young man with shining clothes and hair gleaming like gold, so closely resembling his icon that she had no difficulty in recognizing him as St George (V). This text is anterior to the earliest known icon of him, but he was invariably represented in accordance with Elpidia’s description. For Christopher (XV) there was an alternative tradition of portraying him with a dog’s head; it was bestowed on him miraculously, in order to conceal his handsomeness. Everyone found Joannicius (XVIII) delightful and very good-looking. Nicetas the Goth (XXII) was said in the Hermeneia, like Artemius (XI), to resemble Christ. Tarachus (XLVIII) only emerges as a retired, elderly soldier. Thus for at least nine of the warrior saints, reference is made directly to their handsomeness or their robustness, while four were said to be of mature age or elderly. In portraits of them, it was conventional to represent them young, handsome and robust, whether or not they were so described in the texts. For example, Demetrius (II) is always young and handsome; so is Procopius (III), and, in his early portraits of him, Menas of Egypt (X). In the echelon at Decˇani, Nestor and Lupus (XXI), Alexander (XXX) and Trophimus (L) are all glamorous ephebes. The expression of male beauty, habitual in Antique art, came back increasingly into fashion in late wall paintings, although never so forcibly as in pictures of Sebastian in the West (XLIX), where, during the Renaissance and after, he was represented as a glamorous ephebe, naked apart from his loincloth. On his

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icons, Angelos, the Cretan painter who underwent the influence of Venice, invariably rendered young warrior saints as handsome, adding Phanourios (XIV) to his repertory. The Byzantines did not dwell on their sentiments in contemplating an icon. Mathews wrote that one was supposed to fall in love with these saints … The involvement of the Orthodox beholder with his painted images was complete … The believer entered a world of images in a way that the modern viewer of paintings cannot accomplish.77

I am not sure that he was completely right. Empathy is a characteristic of human psychology, which continues to function in pace with developments and changes in artistic media. A passage about a budding actor in a film in James Baldwin’s novel, Another Country, seems to me to offer an insight into the way that a Byzantine might have contemplated an icon of a warrior saint: The face of a man, a tormented man. Yet, precisely in the way that great music depends, ultimately, on great silence, this masculinity was defined and made powerful by something which was not masculine. It was not feminine either and something … resisted the word androgynous. It was a quality to which numbers of persons would respond without knowing to what it was that they were responding. There was great force in the face and great gentleness. It was a face which suggested, resonantly in the depths, the truth about our natures.78

It was rare for Byzantines to state their views on the relationship between physical and spiritual beauty. However, one example occurs in the Life of Theodore of Sabbas, later Bishop of Edessa (BHG, 1774), written by his nephew Basil, later Bishop of Emesa.79 A principal source for it would have been the Life of Michael of Sabbas.80 Michael of Sabbas certainly figures largely in the Life of Theodore, but the principal preoccupation of the author of the latter was to describe a youth who was both holy and handsome. He was elegant (àÛÙÂÖÔ˜), his cheeks just blooming with down 77 T. Mathews, ‘The Sequel to Nicaea II in Byzantine Church Decoration’, Perkins Journal, July 1988, pp. 14, 19. 78 London, 1963. Cited after the edn in Penguin Books, 1990, p. 324. 79 Noted by Kazhdan and Maguire, art. cit. supra (n. 76), but superficially. Z ˇ itie izˇe vo svat’ih otca nasˇego Theodora arhiepikopa edessago, ed. I. Pomialovskij, St Petersburg 1892. The text is relatively early, probably 9th or 10th century, and attested by a manuscript, Mosq. synod. 321, dated 1023. It has been pronounced to be ‘une mosaïque de légendes et de plagiats’ (but we are used to that!) by J. Gouillard, ‘Théodore le Sabaïte’, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 15, 284–6. 80 P. Peeters, ‘La Passion de S. Michel le Sabaïte’, An. Boll. 48, 1930, pp. 65–98, acknowledging that the resemblance between the texts was first noted by S. Vailhé.

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and his body outstanding for its comeliness (ÂéÚ¤ÂÈ·). These physical traits served to make evident the beauty (óÚ·ÈfiÙ˘) of his soul. Since the late James Boswell published his two studies on the history of sexuality,81 Byzantinists have manifested increasing interest in the subject.82 It is well known that Byzantine’s attitudes differed considerably from those of Antiquity. They did not go in much for representing the naked human body, except that of Antique heroes, for example Hercules on a sixth-century plate in the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris, and the damned regularly in scenes of the Last Judgment. Such representations of the nude are, by today’s standards, hardly erotic.83 There is an aspect of sexuality which particularly concerns us here, the practice of ‘twinning’, which Boswell relates to adelphopoiia.84 The outstanding example in the Septuagint is, of course, David and Jonathan. In his lament for Jonathan, David said: ‘I am grieved for you, my brother 81 J. Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality, Chicago, 1980; Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, New York, 1994 (cited here after the French translation, Les unions du même sexe dans l’Europe antique et médiévale, Paris, 1996). Boswell, who died in 1994, also published many articles and provoked much controversy. A critical bibliography by P. Halsall may be found at the website: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/ index-bos.html (People with a History, John Boswell Page, up to 1998). 82 Balanced accounts are published in Desire and Denial in Byzantium, ed. L. James, London, 1999. 83 J. Hanson, ‘Erotic Imagery on Byzantine Ivory Caskets’, ibid., pp. 173–84; B. Zeitler, ’Ostentatio genitalium: Displays of Nudity in Byzantium’, ibid., pp. 185–201. 84 Boswell, op. cit. supra (n. 81), Les unions du même sexe, in which he argued that a religious rite, Adelphopoiia (à‰ÂÏÊÔÔÈ‹ÛȘ) was currently used to bless such unions. The word, which does not appear in Liddell and Scott, would seem etymologically to mean ‘making a brother’. Lampe cites the example of Christ, the only begotten son, making all mankind his brothers, Athanasius, Oratio 2, Contra Arianos, PG 26, 280. In the early 7th-century Life of Theodore of Sykeon, ed. A.-J. Festugière, vid. supra, V, § 134, I, p. 110, II, p. 106, the patriarch Thomas, being greatly fond of Theodore and having confidence in him, persuaded him to make an adelphopoiia, so that they would be united both in this life and the afterlife. The word evidently acquired the sense of a public religious ceremony to confirm unions or associations between men. It is used in this sense by George the Monk, Theophanes continuatus, Bonn, p. 820, as Boswell has noted, in the curious account of a certain Nicolas, who took the then penniless future Basil I into his house, bathed him, clothed him and then went through a ceremony of adelphopoiia with him in church. The patriarch Nicephorus forbade monks to make an adelphopoiia, Epistola ad Theodosium, PG 100, 1064. For further examples, vid. C. Rapp, ‘Ritual Brotherhood in Byzantium’, Traditio 52, 1997, pp. 285–326, and the commentary by D.C. Smythe, ‘In Denial: Same-Sex Desire in Byzantium’, op. cit. supra (n. 82), pp. 145–8. He cites Boswell as having pointed out that ‘heterosexuals will be more inclined to assume [simple enduring friendship] as the likely interpretation, while gay people will only consider it one of two distinct possibilities’. Smythe further avers that to deny the possibility of friendships existing on an erotic level at Byzantium would be to succumb to homophobia (although he did not use this word). Adelphopoiia may well have been used by the parties concerned as a way of giving their homosexual relationship civil status, like the contemporary French Pacte civil de solidarité (Pacs).

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Jonathan. You were very lovely to me. Your love to me was wonderful beyond the love of women’ (II Kings 1:26).85 The outstanding example of twinning in Antiquity is Castor and Pollux, blood brothers and military heroes, who intervened in battle on behalf of the Roman army. However, twinning is a word which can have different connotations. Boswell is right that those who study hagiography have not sufficiently clarified the significance of twinning when applied to an associated couple of saints. One is accustomed to the association of Sts Peter and Paul as the principal heads of the Church. However, in the case of warrior saints, they may be associated as twins for various reasons. In fact, they were the saints who were most frequently represented as twins. A close bond of friendship certainly existed between Sts Sergius and Bacchus, the twins who were the most frequently invoked in ceremonies of adelphopoiia. Boswell has given their relationship particular attention.86 He also adduced the friendship of Polyeuctus and Nearchus (XXV), by far the most romantic in hagiography.87 That of Nicetas the Goth and Marinus (XXII) apparently escaped him. It should be noted that, in all three cases, the avowal of strong affection occurs at the moment of martyrdom, which is comparable to David’s lament on hearing of the death of Jonathan. Sergius wept over the dead body of Bacchus; Polyeuctus, not yet baptized, was anxious lest he could not be united with Nearchus in heaven; Marinus took the relics of Nicetas to Mopsuestia where he had a sanctuary built for them. Iconography provides plenty of evidence for twinning, especially for warrior saints. Its popularity may derive from approval of the camaraderie, which was a regular characteristic of military life.88 It strengthened discipline in action, so that there was less danger of breaking the ranks. However, we are far from the sacred battalion of Thebes, made up of pairs of lovers.89 Twins were sometimes blood brothers, like John and Paul (XLIV), or Speusippus, Elasippus and Melesippus (XXVIII). Others appeared by doubling, like the two Theodores (I), to whom Boswell refers as being invoked in the rite of adelphopoiia,90 and as being portrayed embracing closely. 85

Commented by Boswell, p. 163. Vid. supra, Part 2, VI, where I have studied Boswell’s views on them critically. 87 Boswell, pp. 166–70, 179–200. 88 It may be recalled that soldiers of the British army stationed in India were forbidden to marry. In such circumstances, it was natural that romantic same-sex couples developed, openly it seems. They did not excite disapproval but were known as ‘Darby and Joans’! 89 Boswell, pp. 95–6. He expresses surprise that specialists in hagiography did not establish the parallel, and suggests that it was because so many of them were 19th-century clerics, pp. 179, 439, n. 229. 90 Idem, pp. 180–1. 86

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Boswell was right, but, to my knowledge, they are the only warrior saints represented embracing closely. In the church at Zrze, Macedonia,91 dated 1368–69, they are represented holding hands (plate 41). On a nineteenth-century icon, now in the Museum of icons, Plovdiv, they are represented on horseback, dressed in armour but not carrying weapons. Their cheeks touch; each has an arm around the other’s shoulders (plate 60). Even the horses, their respective mounts, exchange a friendly glance!92 There was no question of the Tiron and his double having had any association in their lifetime. Consequently, the representation of such intimate camaraderie must have been due either to the artist’s personal inspiration or to that of the patron who commissioned the icon. Similar questions arise with regard to the accounts of warm friendship in the Lives of warrior saints. Are these historically reliable, or are they due to the imagination of the hagiographers? If we accept them as historical, then how did the saintly couples conceive their relationship? How far would they have been prepared to go in their physical expression of it? We have, of course, no means of answering these questions; if they expressed their sentiments in writing, their love letters have not survived. In fact, it is likely that the hagiographers themselves chose to describe these friendships, no doubt embellishing their text. This would imply that they did not disapprove of military camaraderie. However, nowhere is it explicitly said that these couples shared the same intimacy as those of the sacred battalion of Thebes. Boswell, given his personal sexual orientation, had every right to bring up the subject of same-sex unions in Byzantine hagiography and to amass information about it. He was sometimes inaccurate, sometimes maybe too daring in his conjectures, but he has rendered great service to our studies in bringing a subject, previously almost taboo, ‘out of the closet’.

91 92

Djuric´, p. 85. P. Toteva, Ikoni ot Plovdivski Kraj, Sofia, 1975, no. 78.

Epilogue Apart from Hippolyte Delehaye who distinguished the members of the état-major from the general run of warrior saints, so far as I know only one scholar, an American, has attempted to categorize them. A.F.C. Webster distinguished between warrior saints who were princes and those who were not.1 Empirically the distinction is valid. Constantine, Alexander Nevsky and the canonized Serbian rulers were all warriors, but this categorization was not undertaken by the Byzantines themselves. My approach has been rather to enquire into the way in which the Byzantines came, across the centuries, to elaborate the notion of the warrior saint, usually, at least at first, a martyr, whose specific characteristics distinguished him progressively from other categories of saints. It was necessary, as a preliminary step, to enquire into the antecedents to Byzantine militarism. These were principally Israelite tradition as presented in the Septuagint and the New Testament and Antique tradition as it was vehicled by Greek and Roman society. A point which may not be always sufficiently stressed by those who specialize in the study of Byzantine military organization and strategy is the Byzantines’ conviction that they had inherited the role of the Israelites as God’s Chosen People. In extending or defending their empire, they always relied on the support of celestial allies. Icons were carried into battle; saints were invoked, more particularly those who had been warriors in their terrestrial life. Time and again I have been impressed by the way that their military ethics were modelled on those of the Israelites. The conception of a ‘just war’ hardly emerges in their campaigns, any more than that of pacifism implicit in Christ’s injunction to ‘turn the other cheek’. A Byzantine was as little likely to turn his other cheek to a Slav invader as an Israelite to a Philistine! In fact the more humane teaching of the New Testament only enters into Byzantine military ethics, in so far as the struggle against enemies was raised to a higher level: demons were the principal adversaries, inspiring terrestrial enemies; they were to be combated with all the panoply of spiritual arms.

1 A.F.C. Webster, ‘Varieties of Christian Military Saints. From Martyrs Under Caesar to Warrior Princes’, St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 24, 1980, pp. 3–36.

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I was also impressed time and again by the Byzantines’ admiring respect for serving soldiers, which was constant; dissident pacifists like Tertullian and Origen carried little weight. Western reticence towards soldiers, committed to kill in violation of the Ten Commandments, is rarely evident in Byzantine literature. The psychological climate was consequently favourable to the development of the cult of warrior saints. In order to study the development of this cult, it was desirable to examine, at least superficially, each saint designated in the sources as a warrior. I was now surprised to discover how many there were. I sorted them into three categories: the major, the minor and the others. The vast majority of the major and minor warriors were victims of persecuting emperors, notably Diocletian and Julian the Apostate. Also their Passions and Miracula, composed mostly long after their martyrdom according to the dictates of a literary genre, tend to standardize them with little regard for historical accuracy. Anecdotes included in the text give warriors a distinct personality. However, in these texts ideology is dominant. Rarely is their terrestrial military career recounted, even briefly, in these texts. In such instances, it is usually because a battle was won, thanks to divine intervention. This serves to reinforce the underlying ideology: divine help was available in order to assure that the Byzantines maintained their place in the divine economy as the people chosen to be the successors of the Israelites. I am not sure that these points have been made in previous studies of warrior saints. However, they serve to show how the distinctive concept of them emerged in Byzantine cult. Theodore Tiron (I), as has already been observed, was early endowed by Gregory of Nyssa with the specific apotropaic functions of a warrior saint. It took some time before other warrior saints obtained the same attributes and were represented regularly in military dress. It has also been observed already how the function of the stratilatai as defenders of the Empire became explicit in such texts as the De cerimoniis. There was an analogous development in iconography, when echelons of warrior saints in military dress became widespread. We reach the apogee with John I Tzimisces, when Byzantine military tactics, religious practice in the army and the cult of military saints combined to inspire iconography. Later the Byzantines, like the Israelites, were led into captivity. Their devotion to warrior saints did not decline; on the contrary, it increased. They sought protection from them against their conquerors. Nevertheless, it seems clear to me that it was at the apogee that the Byzantine conception of the warrior saints received its complete definition: a body of saints, militarily fully equipped, whose function was to defend them against their enemies, human but demoniacally inspired, and who were regularly portrayed apotropaically in strategic places, particularly at the entry to churches.

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The military character of princes merits further study, particularly that of Constantine. While he never entered into an echelon of warrior saints, he was nevertheless present, particularly in programmes of wall painting, with his mother Helena. He was also represented in the marginal Psalters, illustrating Psalm 59:6, seated on horseback. He holds a shield and a lance surmounted by a cross. One figure lies prostrate at his feet, while two others shoot arrows at him (plate 52).2 Furthermore Constantine has a place in the military programmes decorating the Pigeon House at Çavus¸in and the church at Patrauti (plates 69 and 71). Constantine’s military character in Byzantine iconography lies outside the scope of the present study, but I hope to devote an excursus to it. Another eminent warrior who in later Byzantine iconography was regularly portrayed in military dress, was Michael the àÚ¯ÈÛÙÚ·Ù‹ÁÔ˜ (plate 1). Again he never figures in echelons of warrior saints, but he had become important to the Byzantines as leader of the celestial army. I hope also to devote an excursus to him. Only allusion has been possible to the place of warrior saints in the tradition of peoples who, while influenced by Byzantine culture, nevertheless had their own specificity: Copts, Ethiopians, Armenians, Georgians and, above all, Russians. Byzantine models were also copied in Carolingian art. One outstanding example is the lost Arch of Eginhard, known from the excellent drawing in Paris fr. 10440, f. 45 (plate 70).3 On the lowest level, there is an echelon of ten warrior saints, all wearing a chlamys over their cuirass. Two are on horseback trampling a dragon; a third is standing on a dragon. Four of the eight standing figures hold spears; four hold a standard. Although the Arch of Eginhard has been studied in detail, the ramifications of military iconography in Western medieval art are not well known. There remain therefore many themes associated with Byzantine warrior saints which I, for the present, have had to leave aside.

2 Walter, ‘“Latter-Day Saints” and the Image of Christ’, p. 209, fig. l. The scholion to this Psalm verse by Nicephorus Blemmydes in the Chludov Psalter, f. 58v, transcribed in my n. 14, is significant. 3 B. de Montesquiou-Fezenac, ‘L’arc de triomphe d’Einhardus’, CA 4, 1949, pp. 79–102; Idem, ‘L’arc d’Eginhard’, CA 8, 1956, pp. 147–57; A. Grabar, ‘Observations sur l’arc de triomphe de la Croix, dit arc d’Eginhard et sur d’autres bases de la Croix’, CA 27, pp. 61– 83; Das Einhardkreuz, Vorträge und Studien der Münsteraner Diskussion zum arcus Einhardi, ed. H. Hauck, Göttingen, 1974.

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Bibliography Abbreviated titles used in footnotes are indicated in bold type.

Basic works of reference Acta apostolorum apocrypha (1891) (BHG, 1710–13), ed. R.A. Lipsius and M. Bonnet, Leipzig; reprinted, New York/Hildesheim, 1972. Acta Sanctorum; cited as AA SS, with month and number of volume. Bibliographica hagiographica graeca with Auctarium; cited as BHG. Bibliographica Hagiographica Latina cited as BHL. Bibliotheca sanctorum, Rome 1961–70; cited as BS. Bonner, C. (1950), Studies in Magical Amulets, Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian, Ann Arbor/Oxford. Cross, F.L. (1957), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, London. Dalton, O.M. (1901), Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum, London. Delatte, A. and Derchain, Ph. (1954), Les intailles magiques gréco-egyptiennes, Paris. Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie; cited as DACL. Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques; cited as DHGE. Dorival, G., Harl, M. and Munich, O. (1988), La Bible grecque des Septante. Du judaïsme hellénistique au christianisme ancien, Paris. Harl, M. (1994), Y a-t-il une influence du ‘Grec Biblique’ sur la langue spirituelle des chrétiens? Exemples tirés du psaume 118 et de ces commentateurs d’Origène à Théodoret. La langue de Japhet, Paris. Lampe, G.H.B. (1961), A Patristic Greek Lexicon, Oxford. Laurent, V. (1963), Le corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin Vol. 1, L’église de Constantinople, Paris. Lexikon der byzantinischer Ikonographie; cited as LBI. Lexikon der byzantinischer Kunst; cited as LBK. Martyrologium Hieronymianum (1894), ed. G.B. de Rossi and L. Duchesne, AA SS November II 1, Brussels; Commentarium perpetuum, ed. H. Quentin and H. Delehaye, AA SS November II 2, Brussels, 1931. Mateos, J. (1962), Le Typikon de la Grande Eglise, Rome. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha I (1983), Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, ed. J.H. Charlesworth, New York. 295

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Ousterhout, R. (1990), ‘The Temple, the Sepulchre and the Martirion of the Saviour’, Gesta, vol. 29, pp. 44–53. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium; cited as ODB. Peterson, E. (1926), Eú˜ £Âfi˜, epigraphische, formgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, Göttingen. Pseudo-Kodinos (1966), Traité des offices, ed. J. Verpeaux, Paris. Porphyrogenitus, C. (1935), De cerimoniis, ed. Bonn = Le livre des ceremonies; ed. A. Vogt, Paris. Schlumberger, C. (1892), Amulettes byzantines anciennes, Paris. Septuagint (1950), ed. A. Rahlfs, Stuttgart. Synaxarium ecclesiae constantopolitanae, ed. H. Delehaye, AA SS Propylaeum Novembris; cited as Syn CP. Vikan, G. (1984), ‘Art, Medicine and Magic in Early Byzantium’, DOP, vol. 38, pp. 65–86. Zacos, G. and Verglery, A. (1982, 1984) Byzantine Lead Seals, Basel/Berne.

Reviews Analecta Bollandiana; cited as An. Boll. Antiquité tardive. Archaeologia. Bulletin de l’Institut historique belge de Rome. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies; cited as BMGS. Byzantinische Forschungen. Byzantinische Zeitschrift; cited as BZ. Byzantion. Cahiers archéologiques; cited as CA. ¢ÂÏÙ›ÔÓ Ùɘ XÚÈÛÙÈ·ÓÈÎɘ ^AÚ¯·ÈÔÏÔÁÈÎɘ ^EÙ·ÈÚ›·˜; cited as ¢XAE. Dumbarton Oaks Papers; cited as DOP. \EÂÙ‹ÚȘ Ùɘ ^EÙ·ÈÚ›·˜ B˘˙·ÓÙÈÓáÓ ™Ô˘‰áÓ; cited as EEB™. Gesta. Harvard Theological Review. Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik; cited as JÖB. Journal of Early Christian Studies. Le Muséon. Monuments et Mémoires. Oriens christianus. Perkins Journal. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Res orientales. Revue de l’histoire des religions. Revue des études anciennes.

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Revue des études byzantines; cited as REB. St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly. £ËÛ·˘ÚÈÛÌ¿Ù·. Travaux and Mémoires; cited as TM. Vigiliae christianae. Zbornik radova vizantinolosˇkog instituta; cited as ZRVI. Zograf.

Catalogues of exhibitions Affreschi e icone dalla Grecia (X–XVII secolo) (1986), Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, Athens. L’art copte en Egypte (2000), ed. E. Delpont, Paris. Byzance (1991), L’art byzantin dans les collections publiques françaises, ed. J. Durand et al., Paris; cited as Byzance. Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art (1985), Athens. Byzantine Art (1964), Ninth Exhibition of the Council of Europe, Athens; cited as Byzantine Art. Byzantine Treasures of Art and Culture (1994), ed. D. Buckton, London; cited as Byzantine Treasures. EåÎfiÓ˜ Ùɘ KÚËÙÈÎɘ ™¯ÔÏɘ (1993), ed. M. Chatzidakis, Herakleion. From Byzantium to El Greco. Greek Frescoes and Icons (1987), ed. M. Acheimastou-Potamianou, Athens. Gates of Mystery. Treasures of Orthodoxy from Holy Russia (no date), ed. M. Bourboudakis, St Petersbourg. Glory of Byzantium. Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843– 1261 (1997), New York; cited as Glory of Byzantium. Ikone iz Makedonije (1987), ed. K. Balabanov, Zagreb. Sinaï: Treasures of the Monastery of St Catherine (1990), ed. K.A. Manafis, Athens. Splendeur de Byzance (1982), ed. J. Lafontaine-Dosogne, Brussels; cited as Splendeur de Byzance. The Treasury of San Marco Venice (1982), ed. D. Buckton, Milan. Trésors médiévaux de la République de Macédoine (1999), Paris.

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Index For warrior saints included in the repertory, the number of their entry in Roman characters is indicated without a page reference, which may be readily found in the Contents. Only the page references to them outside their entry are given. Abraham 11 Adamnan (Adomnán) 112, 120 adelphopoiia 237, 288–90 Aegina 114 Aght ‘Amar 128–9 Alabasdria, female demon 241 Alexander (XXX) 239 n. 20, 245, 268, 286 altar 74 Alypius the Stylite 57 Amaseia 41, 56 Ambrose, bishop of Milan 200 Amphilocius, Pseudo- 105 ampulla 185–6, 189 vid. eulogia amulet 33–7, 47, 50 n. 36, 241 Anastasius Bibliothecarius 68 Anastasius I, emperor 57, 150, 192 Anazarbus 181, 284 Andrew Stratelates (XXI) 133, 191, 245–6, 264, 279 Andrew of Crete, theologian 111 n. 7 Andronicus II, emperor 133 angel 11, 29, 21, 33, 41, 47, 95, 114, 148, 162, 177, 180, 194, 235, 244, 262, 266, 277, 278, 282 Anicetus (XXXII) 264, 273 Antioch 28, 37, 51, 61, 95, 224, 225, 234, 241, 255, 268 Antiochus, governor 146–8, 150, 235 Antony of Novgorod, pilgrim 117 Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh, plaque 94, 228 Apamea 95 Apollonia 244 Apostolic Constitutions 34 apotropaic 37, 41, 42, 81, 91, 99, 100, 178, 189, 191, 214, 215, 273, 284 apparition 47, 78, 115, 118, 189, 192, 236, 239, 244, 252, 271 vid. vision

Arabs 48, 49, 151, 185, 251, 264, 278, 279, 282 Araurka, Armenia 268 Arcadius, emperor 184, 185 Arethas (XII) 118, 206, 210, 263, 265, 270, 273, 286 Arians 54, 268 Arles, synod of 204 Armenia 5, 54, 260, 269, 279 army celestial 2, 3, 13, 15, 32, 41, 65, 68, 79, 90, 91, 93, 100, 103, 107, 154, 162, 167, 225, 253, 257, 263, 277, 280, 283 terrestrial 2, 3, 15, 20, 32, 41, 225, 253, 279, 280, 283 Artemius (XI) 118, 210, 231, 232, 270, 273, 283 astrology 33, 34 Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria 191, 202 n. 4, 288 n. 84 Athanasius of Clysma (XXXIII) Athens Andreadi collection 209 Benaki Museum 36 Byzantine Museum 137, 215, 221 Private collection 209 athlete 2, 14, 25, 57, 63, 162 Athos, Mount Dochiariou, portrait of Christopher 216 Great Lavra, icon of Mercurius 108 painting of Eustathius 166 of Christopher 216 Hilandar, icons 135, 228 Josaphion, manuscript 11 Lavra, reliquary 84 Protaton, portraits 158, 232 Vatopedi, reliquary 84–5

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INDEX

Augustine, bishop of Hippo 27–8 Aurelius Probus, emperor 255 Avars 69, 279 Babylas, bishop of Antioch 28, 267 Baldwin, James, novelist 287 Baltimore Art Gallery 156, 236 Barbalissus, Augusta Euphratensis 147, 150 Basil, bishop of Caesarea 33, 106, 108, 170–4, 182, 232, 262, 267, 268 Basil, bishop of Emesa 287 Basil, bishop of Euchaïta 58 Basil I, emperor 181, 288 n. 84 Basil II, emperor 79, 88, 131, 180, vid. manuscripts illuminated Basiliscus, Eutropius, Cleonicus (XXXIV) 48–9, 264, 275, 277–9 Bawît, Egypt, chapel XVII 37, 123, 235, 241, 271 north church 173 beauty, spiritual 287–8 Beirut 141 n. 199 Bonosus & Maximilianus (XXXV) Bosra 152 Boulgaroktonos 278, 287 bracelet 152, 270 brother 237, 243, 289 Bulgarians 5, 106, 121, 222, 265 Caesarea, Cappadocia 96, 172, 174, 226, 251, 268, 272 Caesarea, Palestine 94, 95, 99, 108, 268, 272 calendar vid. commemoration Callinicus (XXVI) 273 Callistratus (XXXVII) camararderie 66, 149, 162, 254, 262, 289, 290 Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Museum 51 n. 40, 56 cameo 155 Cappadocia 3, 4, 55–6, 61, 65, 77, 78, 102, 103, 106, 112, 117, 118, 121 n. 80, 125–31, 135, 155–7, 158, 164, 165, 172, 174–175, 177, 178–9, 187, 193, 197, 215, 217, 228, 231, 241, 246, 248, 250, 254, 268, 271, 272 Çavus¸in, Pigeon House 174, 176, 178, 272, 282, 283, 293 Tokalı I 178, 215, 246, 282

Tokalı II 187, 278 Capua, San Prisco 274 Carolingian art 293 Carpus of Pergamon, martyr 236 Castor & Pollux vid. Dioscuri Catherine of Alexandria, martyr 139 n. 20 Chalcedon 238 Chios, Nea Moni 158, 188 n. 58, 220, 229 chlamys 22, 55, 69, 71, 102, 117, 119, 125 n. 99, 126 n. 103, 150, 186, 187, 188 n. 50, 193 n. 13, 200, 215, 231, 232, 236, 241, 262, 270, 273, 274, 275, 276 Choniates, Nicolas 44 Choricius of Gaza 152 Chosroes 151 Christopher (XV) 21, 46 n. 9, 52, 125, 138, 245, 265, 268–9, 271, 273, 286 Christopher of Mytilene 49, 239–40, 248 Chrysippus of Jeerusalem 48 Chrysostom, John 142, 178 n. 5, 204 n. 51, 224, 225 ciborium 67, 71–6, 79, 84, 229 Clement of Alexandria 25 Clement of Ohrid 90 commemoration, liturgical 3, 4, 25, 60, 62, 64, 70 n. 10, 94, 107, 207, 209 Comnena, Anna, Alexiad 44 Comnenus, family 124 n. 97, 133 confessor of the faith 205 Constantine, bishop of Euchaïta 58 Constantine I, emperor 21, 23, 30–1, 96, 113, 120, 122 n. 81, 140, 251, 266–7, 278, 283–4, 293 Edict of 19 Constantine V, emperor 47, 48 n. 15 Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, emperor De administrando imperii 133 n. 153 De cerimoniis 79 n. 48, 153–4, 274 n. 29, 277, 279 De thematibus 49 n. 30 Constantine X Doukas, emperor 74 Constantinople 10, 41, 47 n.11, 50, 53, 74, 79, 94, 95, 99, 107, 113, 118, 152, 169, 172, 191, 196, 197, 200, 204, 233, 236, 238, 241, 263, 264, 267, 268, 269, 279

INDEX

Akoimetoi, church of 183 Bathys Ryax 44, 50, 59 Cyprianos, church of 63 John of Oxeia, church of 192, 194 Kariye Camii 55 n. 2, 66, 99, 158, 168, 189, 240 Menas, church of 94, 183 Odolar Camii 44 n. 23 Sergius & Bacchus, church of 152 Sphorakios, church of 50, 52, 63 Museum 21 n. 40 Constantius I, emperor 202 Constantius II, emperor 264 Copts 5, 62 n. 93, 105, 119, 121 n. 80, 183, 234, 235 Corfou, icon of Demetrius 83 n. 60, 100 n. 46, 237 n. 9 Cornelius (XVI) 14, 20, 223, 226, 265 Cosmas & Damian 50, 55, 115 couple vid. twinning Crete 134, 136, 206, 207 Cretan painters 107 Angelos Akoktantos 208, 287 Michael Polychronius 209 Cross 31, 36, 85, 91, 95, 124, 158, 187, 205, 215, 232, 234, 235, 239, 246, 250, 251, 252, 267, 270, 280, 282, 283 crown 14 n. 11, 22, 30, 66, 204 n. 17, 235, 277, 278, 282 Crusaders 134, 142 crypt 73 C´ucˇer, Macedonia, St Nikita 232 cycles, biographical 84, 85, 136, 128 n. 112, 130–1, 134–38, 174–5, 186, 219 cynocephali 214, 265 Cyprian, theologian 31 Cyprian, bishop of Thenai 72, 75, 76, 270 Cyril & Methodius 24, 90 Cyprus Arpera 216 Avdou Pediados 209, 218 Moutoullas 129, 215 Dalisandos, Isauria, church 49, 50 Damascene, John 105, 108 n. 120, 172 n. 18 Daphni 158, 220, 229 Dasius (XXXVIII) 264

309

David, king 10–11, 41, 247, 248, 285, 289 and Jonathan 279 David, New 11, 41, 278 deacon 209, 240 Decˇani 66, 86, 92, 104, 132, 134, 158, 168, 189, 198, 213, 229, 230, 232, 248 Decius, emperor 19, 101, 236 Demetrius (II) 61, 64, 97, 98, 109, 130, 133, 134, 151, 158, 168, 176, 194, 207, 209, 227, 228, 229, 249, 250, 261, 268, 270, 272, 279–81, 283, 284–6 Demetrius Palaeologus, despot of Thessaloniki 82 n. 59, 85 Demetrius of Sozopol, painter 244 demon 13, 24, 29, 31, 33, 34, 41, 51 n. 39, 114, 115, 117, 118, 128 n. 120, 232, 266, 271, 284 devil vid. demon Digenes Akrites 63 Diocletian, emperor 19, 21, 31, 53, 61, 95, 105, 115, 120, 129, 177, 182, 286, 246, 248, 249, 254, 264, 266, 281, 284, 292 Dionysius the Areopagite 143, 144 Dioscuri, Castor & Pollux 133, 243, 255, 285, 289 Diospolis vid. Lydda Djurdjevi Stupovi, Serbia 132 donativum 30, 31, 202, 204 doux augustalios of Alexandria 95, 191– 2, 263 Dragalevci, Bulgaria 106 dragon 13, 21, 37, 47, 48, 50, 51, 55, 61, 64, 65, 127, 128, 142, 209, 215, 232, 234, 241, 272, 281, 282 dream 12, 17, 44, 106, 114, 118 Drusipara, Europa 238 echelon 97, 132, 176, 180, 193, 198, 209, 210, 211, 221, 229, 230, 232, 238, 245, 251, 264, 269, 273, 275, 276, 277 Edessa, Syria 151 Egeria, pilgrim 27, 267 Eginhard, arch of 293 Egypt 27, 36, 37, 60, 181, 182, 183, 189, 191, 194, 211, 232, 235, 249, 256, 259, 263, 268, 269, 271

310

INDEX

Eitha, Hit, Syria 151 El Bagawat, Egypt, mausoleum 27 Emeterius (XXXIX) 91, n. 99 emperor 54, 94, 115, 149, 177, 178, 195, 203, 209, 278, 279; 282 vid. sub nominibus encolpion 82, 93 enthronement 80, 130, 209, 228, 230, 232, 272, 281 Ephesus, council of 149, 151 n. 22 Ephrem of Syria 170 epic genre 4, 31 epoptis 25 Ethiopia 119, 121, 183, 196, 249, 279 Euboea, church of Thecla, icon of, Eustathius 166 Euchaïta 46, 47, 49, 51, 53, 56–9, 62–5, 72 Euchaneia 56–9, 62, 63, 65 Eudocimus (XL) Eugraphus, martyr 183, 184, 187 Euitius, martyr 112 n. 10 eulogia 80, 92, 99 Euphemia 118, 192, 194 Europa, province 269 Eusebius, bishop of Thessaloniki 75 Eusebius of Caesarea 20, 23, 25, 53, 112, 167 Eusignius (XLI) 264 Eustathius (VII) 97, 102, 103, 104, 106, 132, 138, 178, 209, 210, 232, 262, 266, 270, 272, 286 Eustratius (XVII) 159 n. 67, 204 n. 17, 219, 220, 221, 229, 268, 276, 283, vid. Holy Five evil eye 33 Ezra 114, 122 faith 12, 13, 14 Faustus of Byzantium 54, 105 feast, liturgical vid. commemoration flask vid. eulogia Florence, Bargello, coffer 58 Fulminata, legio 20, 171, 176, 236, 262 Gabriel, archangel vid. angel Galerius, emperor 19–21 Gallienus, emperor 19 Gallus, caesar 28 Gauls 156, 186, 203

Gaza, XL Defenders of (XLII) 264 Gelasian decree 2, 34, 111 genre, literary 3, 16 n. 16, 17, 18, 205 George (V) 4, 21, 25, 32 n. 93, 37, 49, 51, 52, 61, 64, 67, 75, 80, 83 n. 60, 88, 89, 91, 93, 97, 99, 105–7, 155, 176, 178, 207, 209, 215, 225, 244, 264, 266, 268, 269, 271, 272, 279, 281, 282, 284, 286 George, bishop of Alexandria 122 George the Hagiorite 57 George the Monk, Theophanes Continuatus 288 n. 84 Georgia 37, 120, 129, 140, 142, 164, 176, 271 Kutaissi 129 Martvili 129 Mestia 136, 137 n. 17 Nakipari 129 Nikordzminda 129 Tbilissi, Museum of Fine Arts 134 Timotesubani 142 Ubisi 134 Ucˇguli 37 Gerasa 94 Ghour, Syria, barracks, 49 god, pagan 15 Gordius of Caesarea (XLIII) 173 n. 20, 239 Goth 231, 239, 265, 268 Gracˇanica 104, 107 Gratian, emperor 200, 202 Gregoras, Nicephorus 105 Gregory Decapolites 183 Gregory of Nazianzus 27, 34, 54, 105 Gregory of Nyssa 27, 29, 36, 44, 59, 118, 170, 171, 173, 201, 267 Gregory of Tours 28, 113, 151, 200 Gyllou, female demon 241 hagiography 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 43, 48, 59, 60, 94, 102, 110, 112, 205, 265 handsomeness 66, 102, 147, 155, 171, 176, 192, 215, 219, 222, 224 n. 6, 246, 287 Harith vid. Arethas Harpocrates vid. Horus Helena, mother of Constantine 237, 283, 293 Hellenisation 16, 17 Heraclius, emperor 117, 185, 192, 278

INDEX

Herakleia, metochion of St Catherine, icons 209 Hercules 44, 50, 288 Hermeneia 197, 231 Hermogenes, martyr 183, 184, 187, 188 Hero, Thracian god 36 n. 123 Hesychius, martyr 252 Hippo, synod of 205 Historicity 3, 4 Holy Face 118 Holy Five of Sebasteia (XVII) 264, 268, 273 Testament of 219 Holy Rider 37–8 homosexuality 160, 288–9 Hosios Loukas 99, 132, 188 n. 56, 220, 229, 246, 276 Iconoclasm 22, 47, 68, 75, 126, 155, 222, 250, 272 IC XC NI KA 282, 283 idol 81, 114 Ignatius of Antioch 29 Ignatius the deacon 23, 26, 172, 175 intaglio vid. amulet intercession 12, 15, 26, 28, 47, 82, 117, 118, 175, 283 funerary 165, 175 intervention in battle 45 investiture 53, 281 Ioannes Diomedes, magistrate & founder 114 Irenaeus of Lyon 19, 23 Isidore of Seville 24 Islam 142 Israelites 2, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 21, 24, 31, 33, 34, 210, 214, 263, 278 Jacob of Sarug 149 Jehovah vid. Yahveh Jerome, theologian 31, 112, 203 Jerusalem 19, 94, 113, 116, 172, 251, 267 monastery of St Sabbas 113 Jews vid. Israelites John & Paul (XLIV) 23 n. 41, 225, 264, 281 John, bishop of Euchaneia 58 John, bishop of Thessaloniki 70, 71, 74, 75, 76, 79, 91, 227, 250 John I Tzimisces, emperor 58, 62, 65, 131, 174, 273, 282, 283, 292

311

John III Vatatzes, emperor 64 John Italos 68 Josephus 34 Joshua 283 Jovian, emperor 106, 108 Julian the Apostate, emperor 17, 28, 54, 104, 105, 106, 107, 120, 133, 138, 146, 149, 150, 175, 191, 195, 204, 224, 226, 247, 252, 253, 266, 281, 284, 292 Justin, emperor 196 Justinian I, emperor 57, 79, 94, 150, 152, 185, 196, 261, 279 Justinian II Salt pan edict 79 Justus (XLV) Juventinus & Maximinus (XIX) 143, 148, 252, 264, 268 kallinikos 109, 115 Kalojan, Bulgarian vojvod 80, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 105, 130, 284 Kaminiates, John, author 81 n. 54, 91 Karm Abu Mena, Egypt 184, 185, 187 Kastoria 104, 245, 276 Anargyroi 99, 132, 135, 142, 216, 229 kephalophoros 143–4, 225, 244 Kerkyra vid. Corfou Kiev icons of Sergius & Bacchus 154, 160 Museum of Ukrainian Art 136 St Sophia 132 Kitta, Mani, paintings of Sergius & Bacchus 159 Kodinos, Pseudo-, De officiis 154, 279 Kremikovski, Bulgaria 104, 136, 281 Krokeia, Laconia, painting of Demetrius 87 n. 76, 88 Kyrion 107–8, 171, 175–6, 262, 270 vid. (VIII) XL Martyrs of Sebasteia Lactantius 31–2, 53, 112 Lampsacus, soldier of 30, 204 n. 21 Laodicea, synod of 34 Lazarus, monk of Mount Gelasius 58 Leo, bishop of Euchaneia 58 Leo the Deacon, author 280 n. 56 Leo III, emperor 52, 282 Leo VI, emperor Tactica 280

312

INDEX

Leo, prefect of Thessaloniki 76 Leontius, eparch of Illyricum 69, 249 Licinius, emperor 2, 21, 59 literary genre vid. genre London, British Museum Borradaile triptych 97, 108, 167, 175, 187 bowl with Sergius & Bacchus 155 cameos of Demetrius 83 eulogia and pyx of Menas 186 Longinus (XX) 14, 49, 265, 268, 269 Lord of hosts vid. Yahweh Lupus (XXI) 69, 74, 84, 286 Lyaeus, gladiator 69, 85–7, 91, 227, 228, 230 Lydda, sanctuary of St George 23 n. 44, 111 n. 7, 119–22, 234, 268 Maccabees 11, 12, 25, 28, 29, 139, 140, 204 magic 22, 34, 36 n. 127 magister militum 279, vid. stratelates Malalas, John 105 n. 36, 224 Malaxos, Nicolas 209 Manastras, Bulgarian vojvod 88 Mandylion vid. Holy Face maniakion 97, 148, 150, 152, 158, 160, 162, 186, 270, 272 Manuel I Comnenus, emperor 53 Manuel Philes, poet 63–4, 82, 91 manuscripts, illuminated Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus Athos, Panteleimon 6 54, 106 Paris graec. 510 102, 104, 106, 270 Menologia Basil II, Vatican graec 1613 28, 65, 97, 98, 102, 142, 157 n. 63, 160, 167, 179, 187, 192, 196, 197, 201, 205, 217, 219, 220, 221, 225, 227, 243, 256, 273 Demetrius Palaeologus, Bodleian graec. th. fol.1 162, 179 Jerusalem, Sabbas 208 175 Mosq graec. 183 175 Metaphrastic Lives Alexandria, Greek patriarchate 35 98 Athos, Dochiariou 5 53 Athos, Esphigmenou 17 14, 166, 178, 190 Florence, Laurenziana XI 11 221

London Add. 11870 28, 139 n. 188, 165, 167, 219, 232, 255 Messina, San Salvatore 27 127 n. 109, 176 Milan, Ambrosiana graec. 1017 221 Mosq. graec. 9 139, 140, 258 Mosq.graec. 175 143–4, 157, 192 n. 18, 198, 254 Paris graec. 580 103 Paris graec. 1528 98 Sinaï graec. 500 179, 188, 223 n. 9 Sinaï graec. 508 53 Sinaï graec. 512 237 Venice Marc. graec. Z 351 53, 167, 223 n. 9 Venice Marc. graec. Z 586 218, 232, 237, 256 Vatican graec. 1679 32, 53, 157, 160, 193 n. 15, 194 Psalters Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery W 521 173 n. 28 Berlin Staatliche Museum, Kupferstichkabinett 78 A 9, Hamilton 165 n.14, 173 n. 28 London Add. 19352, Theodore, 85, 139, 173, 217, 226 n 3, 227 St Petersburg, State Public Library 1252 F VI, Kiev 173 Moscow 129 D, Chludov 13, 131, 138, 139, 174 Vatican Barberini graec. 372 90, 173, 226 n. 3 Venice Marc.graec. 17, Basil II 90, 97, 103, 104, 132, 277 Portraits Manchester, Rylands Library Copt S 33, Menas (X) 186 New York Pierpont Morgan Library 144, Theodore Orientalis 60 n. 93 Turin graec. 89, Orestes (XVII) 220 manuscript unilluminated, Ekphrasis, Marc.graec. 524 173 n. 26 Marcellus of Tangier (XLVI) 32 n. 99 Marina of Antioch, martyr 51 Marianus, exarch of Thessaloniki 75, 85–7 Marianus, friend of Nicetas (XXII) 231, 268

INDEX

Marmariton cohors 46, 211 Martin of Tours (XIII) 32 n. 99, 129 n. 122, 210, 218, 223, 225–6, 263, 266, 273 martyrdom 2, 13, 15, 18, 19, 23, 43, 61, 65, 79, 91, 126, 148, 166, 172, 175, 196, 211, 213, 250, 255, 263, 273, 279, 289 martyrium 13 n. 8, 23, 24, 41, 49, 73, 74, 94, 115, 116, 192 n. 9, 195 n. 1, 197, 204, 205, 224, 235, 239 XL Martyrs (VIII) 97, 106, 107, 158 n. 67, 177, 210, 262, 267, 268, 270, 272, 275, 282, 286 Testament of 170, 175, 189, 219 Mateicˇ, Macedonia 245 Maurice of Agaunum (XLVII) Maurice, emperor 79, 116 Mauropous, John, bishop 47, 57, 60 n. 92, 267 Maxentius, emperor 63 Maximian, emperor 19–20, 53, 69, 86, 146, 184, 235 Maximinus Daia, emperor 19, 61, 146, 177 Melitene 268 Melnik 64 Menas of Egypt (X) 210, 252, 258, 262, 263, 264, 270, 272 Menas, abbot 181 Menas of Cotyaeum 181, 182, 183, 263 Menas Kallikelados 181, 183–4, 187–9, 263, 273, 276 Mercurius (IV) 32 n. 93, 54, 61, 89, 93, 99, 120, 132, 133, 172, 176, 239, 262, 264, 266, 270, 272, 280, 283, 286 Mercurius of Aeclanum 101 n. 5 Mesembrius, theologian 124 Methodius of Olympia 26 Meteora, St Barlaam, icons of Demetrius & Nestor 80, 228 Michael, archangel 11, 34, 61, 91, 95, 103, 115, 120, 133, 134, 228, 229, 230, 237, 277, 278, 282, 283, 293 Michael of Sabbas, martyr 287 Michael III, emperor 124 Michael IV, emperor 214 miles Christi 2, 15, 31, 180, 203, 236, 253 Mihaeas, prophet 11 miliaresion, coin 22

313

Milutin, king of Serbia 132, 133, 281 miracle 67, 68, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 79, 91, 93, 119–121, 138, 192, 194, 201, 202, 206, 207, 232 miracle worker 17, 116, 201, 222, 263, 265 Mistra, church of St Demetrius 86 Mithra 20, 122 Monophysite 152 n. 30, 196 Monothelete 195, 196 Mopsuestia 231, 232 Moschus, John, pilgrim 151 Moscow Kremlin, steatite of Demetrius 83 n. 62 Patriarchal Treasury, ciborium of Demetrius 74, 84, 229 Moslem 197, vid. Arab, Turk myron 64, 67, 73, 75, 80–4, 91, 93, 272, 281 Mytilene, youth of 120, 138 Neanias 95, 96, 262 vid. Procopius (III) Nea Moni vid. Chios Nearchus vid. Polyeuctus (XXV) Nestor (XXI) 69, 74, 84, 85, 86, 87, 91, 92, 97, 159, 278, 283, 286 Nevksy, Alexander 134 New York, Cloisters ivory of Demetrius, 83 vid. manuscripts, illuminated Nicaea First council of 54 Second council of 96 Nicephorus, patriarch 111 n. 9 Nicephorus II Phocas, emperor 113, 133, 279, 280, 282, 283 Nicephorus Callixtus, author 105, 162 n. 89 Nicephorus Gregoras, Historia byzantina 133 n. 157 Nicetas (XXII) 158 n. 67, 229, 265, 268, 273, 281, 282, 289 Nicolas, Bishop of Myra 18, 53, 109 Nikopolis, Epirus 78 Nikita vid. Nicetas Normans 75, 92 Novgorod, icon of Nicetas 232 nude 288

314

INDEX

Obyzouth, female demon 34, 36 Ohrid Peribleptos, portrait of Alexander (XXX) 245 St Nicolas Bolnica, portrait of Mercurius (IV) 107 St Sophia cycle of XL Martyrs (VIII) 174 oracle 33 orarion 69, 249 Orestes 158 n. 67, 264, 273, vid. Holy Five (XVII) Orestes of Tyana, doctor and martyr 220, 221 Origen 12, 28, 28–30, 265, 292 Ouranos Magister, author 46, 48 Pacte civil de solidarité 288 n. 84 pagan 15–22, 29–33, 91, 121, 168, 169, 191, 203, 204 n. 21, 211, 214, 224, 230, 235, 236, 237, 243, 257, 262, 263, 265, 271, 280, 283 Palilia, feast of, 122–3, 126 Palestinian martyrs 27, 94 Pantocrator 16 Paphlagonia, youth of 120 Papylus of Pergamon, martyr 24 Paris 143 Cabinet des médailles cross with George 124, 271 plate with Hercules 288 Louvre Harbaville triptych 97, 103, 167, 192 pencase 232, 271 steatite of Demetrius 83 n. 51, 92 steatite of Hetoimasia 61, 97 Patmos, icons 166, 193, 207 n. 11, 209 Patrauti vid. Romania Paulinus of Nola 267 Pec´ 180, 189 Pec´pal, George 132, 134, 140–2 Pergamon, church 63 persecution 19, 33 Perseus 121–2, 140 Persians 60–1, 117, 133, 153, 177, 192, 246, 279 Peter the Fuller, patriarch of Antioch 57 Peter, bishop of Sebasteia 171 n. 11 Peter, bishop of Thessaloniki 78

phial vid. eulogia Phanourios (XIV) 263, 264, 273, 281, 287 Philistines 10, 11, 41, 266 Philotheos of Antioch (XXIII) 264, 269, 271 Philotheos Kokkinos, patriarch 132 Phocas, emperor 70, 117, 133 Phoibammon (XXIV) 241, 271 Photius, patriarch 70 Phrygia 181, 182, 268 phylakterion vid. amulet Pilgrim of Piacenza 95, 112, 150, 161 n. 86 Plotinus 17, 22 n. 33 Plovdiv, Museum, icon of the Theodores 66 n. 123, 161, 290 Plutarch, Moralia 33 Polycarp, martyr 239 n.7 Polyeuctus & Nearchus (XXV) 21, 173 n. 20, 236–8, 243, 268, 269 n. 20, 289 Praecepta militaria 280 princess, rescue of 120, 121, 131, 135, 138, 264 Prizren, Kosovo, Bogorodica Ljevisˇka, Demetrius cycle 86 Probus, Tarachus & Andronicus (XLVIII) 53, 94 n. 52 Procopius (III) 61, 88 n. 30, 102, 104, 132, 138, 163, 165, 173 n. 20, 228, 239, 252, 260, 268, 269 n. 20, 270, 272, 278, 279, 282 Procopius of Caesarea, author 49 Promised Land 10 prophet 11, 17, 18, 106 prostatis, protector 122, 126, 131, 132, 196 proteptikos vid. prostatis Prudentius 249 Psacˇa, Macedonia 198 pseudepigrapha 9, 139 n.188 Ramaca, Serbia 28 n. 18 Raphaël vid. angels Ravenna Orthodox Baptistery 254 Sant’Apollinare Nuovo 78, 202 San Vitale 154 Recˇani, Kosovo 135, 229, 230 Reichenau 113

INDEX

relic 15, 25, 48, 65, 73, 74, 75, 79, 80, 81, 113–15, 117, 119, 171, 177, 182, 191, 197, 206, 210, 229, 236, 249, 287 reliquary 74, 84, 85, 194, 229 Resava, Serbia 199 Resurrection 12, 268, 269 Rhodes 206 Rochehaut, France, St Firmin, portrait of Menas 186 Romania 5, 134, 136 Patrauti, Holy Cross 284–5, 293 St Nicola d’Arges 228 n. 11, 230, 232 Romanus, bishop of Thessaloniki 78 Romanus the Melode 181 Rome 99, 200, 201, 203, 239, 245, 248, 252, 271, 289 Biblioteca angelica, cod. 46 142 catacomb of Domitilla 23 churches Sts Cosmas & Damian 50, 55 St George in Velabro 113 Sts John & Paul 23, 252 Sta Maria Antiqua 78, 174 Sta Maria Lata 253 St Menas 183 Colonna Antonina 22 Palazzo Venezia, triptych 98, 167–8 Porta San Sebastiano 113 Termi, Museum 22 vid. Vatican Rusafa, Augusta Euphratensis 147, 148, 150, 151, 152 Sabbas Stralilates (XXVI) 62, 173 n. 20, 265, 279 Sabbas the Goth, martyr 62, 235 sacrifice 15, 94, 146 Salamis, Greece, icon of Eustathius 166 sanctuary 15, 17, 25, 42, 55, 57, 58, 59, 64, 65, 70, 72, 94, 102, 117, 120, 148, 151, 177, 182, 184, 185, 189, 193, 211, 231, 257, 267 Saracen 95, 121, 150, 151 Sassanian 130, 165 Sassoferrato, mosaic icon of Demetrius 82 n. 59, 92 Satan vid. demon schola gentium 146, 148

315

seal 9, 55, 58, 78, 124 n. 97, 153, 232, 270, 281 Sebasteia, Cappadocia 171, 268 Sebastian (XLIX) 286 Septuagint 2, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22, 34, 279, 291 Sergiopolis 150 Sergius & Bacchus (VI) 32 n. 73, 43, 54, 57, 66, 67, 73, 82 n. 58, 93, 97 n.32, 98, 102, 105, 115, 120, 176, 209, 210, 225, 237, 261, 268, 269, 270, 272, 289 serpent vid. dragon Serres 63, 64 Severus, bishop of Antioch 149 shrine vid. sanctuary Sicily 65 Martorana 193, 278 Sinaï, St Catherine, icons Catherine 139 n. 180 Demetrius 83 n. 60 George 137 Mercurius killing Julian the Apostate 104–5 Nestor 97, 228 n. 10 Procopius 83 n. 60, 98, 159 n. 73 Sergius & Bacchus 159, 161 n. 85 Theodore 55 Sion, New 10 Sirmium, Sr(ij)emska Mitrovica 67, 69, 70, 76, 88, 91, 94, 250 Sisinnius of Antioch (XXVI) 37, 271 Skopje, Macedonian museum, icon of Theodore 282 Skylitzes, George 133 Sofia church, St Sophia 274 national art gallery, icon, Demetrius & George 124 Solomon 33 n. 101, 34, 36, 241, 271 Sozomenus, Historia ecclesiastica 105, 200 Sozopol vid. Apollonia Speusippus, Elesippus & Melesippus (XXVII) 289 sport vid. athletic Stara Lagoda, Russia 142 Staro Nagoricˇino, Macedonia 99, 132, 133, 134, 188, 228, 229, 230, 245, 281 steatite 83

316

INDEX

Stefan cel Mare, Romanian king 283–4 Stephen, protomartyr 24, 26, 27–8 Stephen, governor of Palestine 152 St Petersburg Hermitage icon of George 137 icon of Theodore 44 ivory of XL Martyrs 92, 167, 275 Strasbourg, museum 37 Stratelates 42, 61, 101, 200, 202, 239, 246, 277, 279, 280, 282, vid. sub nominibus Studenica, Serbia, King’s church 198, 239, 250 Sulpicius Severus, biographer of Martin of Tours 201–5, 225, 266 Sura, Augusta Euphratensis 147, 150 Symeon, bishop of Beth Arsâm 195 Tarachus vid. Probus (XLVIII) 254, 286 Tarasios, patriarch 26, 172 Ten Commandments 31 Tertullian 19, 26, 29–31, 32, 203–4, 265, 292 Tetrapyrgium, Augusta Euphratensis 147, 150 Thebes, sacred battalion of 289, 290 Thecla, protomartyr 26–8, 54, 57, 75, 271 Theodore Tyron & Stratelates (I) 2, 20, 21, 26, 29, 32 n. 93, 37, 67, 70, 72, 77, 83 n. 60, 88, 89, 91, 93, 97, 100, 105, 109, 113, 118, 120, 125, 127, 128, 129, 132, 133, 140, 151, 155, 158 n. 67, 162, n. 88, 176, 194, 208, 209, 231, 261, 264, 268, 269, 270, 271, 273, 278, 279, 280, 282, 283, 289 Theodore Orientalis 60–1, 65 Theodore of Sabbas, bishop of Edessa 287 Theodore II Lascaris, emperor 60 Theodore Pediasmos author 64 Theodore Studite 173, 174 n. 30, 175 Theodore of Sykeon 24, 115–20, 125, 128–9, 264, 271, 288 n. 84 Theodoret of Cyrus, theologian 20, 28, 133 n. 152, 151, 191, 225–6 Theodosian code 69 Theodosioupolis 172

Theodosius, emperor 133, 249 Theodosius, pilgrim 57, 101 n. 5, 112 n. 14 theophany 23, 24 Theophilus, emperor 250 Theotokos 27, 105, 115, 277 Thessaloniki 67, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 85, 88, 91, 92, 93 churches St Demetrius, 47, 55, 73–6, 153, 286, 281; hagiasma 73, 75, 81 St George, Rotunda of 270, 274, 275, 284 St Menas 183 Panagia Chalkeon 220 Golden Gate 277 House of Sikountios 53 Thracian horseman 33 n. 100, 88 n. 80 torture 147, 148, vid. wheel Trajan, emperor 244 Trebizond 95 Treska, Macedonia, church of St Andrew 229, 280 Treskavac, Macedonia 49, 240, 246 triptych 83 n. 61, 97, 103, 108, 157, 167, 176, 187, 197, 221, 275 Triumph of Orthodoxy 3, 4, 111 n. 7, 272 tropaiophoros 109, 127, 138, 144 Trophimus & Companions (L) 268, 275, 286 Turk 92, 93, 208, 230, 284 twinning, 190, 228, 237, 239, 240, 243, 288, 289 Typasius (LI) 264 Typika Great Church 44, 63 n. 101, 173 n. 25, 197 Jerusalem Holy Cross 40 63 Patmos 88 63 typology 10, 91 Valens, emperor 54, 105, 120, 162 n. 86 Valentinian, emperor 200, 202, 235 Valerian, emperor 19, 20, 101, 234, 236 Varus (LII) 32 n.97 n. 99, 53, 54 n. 52 Vatican, Museo cristiano 97, 103, 107, 187, 197, 281 Venice, San Marco bas relief of Demetrius & George 80, 281

INDEX

icon of archangel Michael 91, 103, 228 Pala d’Oro, Orestes 221 Verria, icon, Mercurius killing Julian the Apostate 106 n. 46 Vesprèm, Hungary, relic of George 114 Victor & Vicentius (LIII) 111, 184, 187, 188, 264, 268, 273 Victory, angel of 20, 278 n. 44 Vinica, Macedonia 51, 52, 55, 125, 215, 271 vision 96, 97, 99, 100, 162, 169, 210, 217, 227, 251, 262, 270, 272 277, vid. apparition Volos, Slav god 123

317

war 29–31, 41 Washington, Dumbarton Oaks mosaic icon of XL Martyrs 108, 176 reliquary of Demetrius 84 n. 64, 158 wheel torture 131, 135, 138–40 Yahweh 10, 11, 16 youthful, vid. handsomeness youth, rescue of 120, 130 Zeno, emperor 94, 184, 185 Zorava vid. Ezra Zosimus (XXIX) 225 n. 9, 264 Zrze, Macedonia, painting of Theodores 290