Evidence ID
E00569Saint Name
Akakios, martyr in Byzantion : S00468
Alexandros, bishop of Constantinople, ob. 337 : S01789Saint Name in Source
Ἀκάκιος
ἈλέξανδροςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Inscribed objects
Literary - PoemsEvidence not before
550Evidence not after
1000Activity not before
550Activity not after
1000Place of Evidence - Region
Constantinople and regionPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
ConstantinoplePlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Constantinople
Constantinople
Κωνσταντινούπολις
Konstantinoupolis
Constantinopolis
Constantinople
IstanbulMajor author/Major anonymous work
Greek AnthologyCult activities - Places
Burial site of a saint - sarcophagus/coffinCult Activities - Relics
Bodily relic - unspecifiedSource
The Greek Anthology is a collection of Greek epigrams from dating from the Archaic period to the 9th century AD. It was initially compiled by Meleager of Megara (100-90 BC), whose collection was edited and expanded by Philip of Thessalonica (under Nero), Agathias of Myrina (AD 567/8) and finally by Konstantinos Kephalas (c. AD 900).
The word epigram literally means an inscription. Although most Greek inscriptions were in prose, the word came to be specifically connected to those written in verse, and eventually to include poetic texts which were not necessarily inscribed. From the earliest period of Greek literature, epigrams were mostly sepulchral or dedicatory: they either memorialised the dead or marked the dedication of an object to a god.
Book 1 of the Greek Anthology contains Christian epigrams from Late Antiquity to the 9th century. It was compiled c. 880-900, containing a considerable number of poems copied directly from monuments. The scholar responsible for the transcriptions may have been Gregorios Magistros, a colleague of Kephalas. Epigrams 1-17 and possibly others were taken down from inscriptions at Constantinople and two of them, namely No. 1 (inscription from the bema arch of St. Sophia) and No. 10 (inscription from the church of St. Polyeuktos) have been found in situ, thus confirming the accuracy of the entries in the Anthology.Discussion
This text appears within a set of epigrams in the Greek Anthology (epigrams 101-105), the first of which is ascribed to Menander Protector, one of the most notable historiographers of the 6th century, active in Constantinople under Maurice (582-602). Like his predecessor, Agathias, Menander seems to have written poems as well.
This epigram was apparently inscribed on the sarcophagus/reliquary of Akakios, the local martyr of Byzantium. The identity of the 'priest Alexandros' is less certain. He may be Alexander I, the first bishop of Constantinople after its elevation to imperial capital (c. 314-326). The shrine of Akakios appears to have been associated with the veneration of early bishops of Byzantion and Constantinople and it may have been located on the site of an ancient Christian cemetery of pre-Constantinian Byzantion. The Synaxarion of Constantinople records a feast of three patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexander, John IV the Faster (582-595), and Paul IV the New (780-784), held at the shrine of Akakios on 30 August. Near the shrine, there was also the basilica of Alexander's revered predecessor Metrophanes (d. 306-314). The veneration of Alexander and Metrophanes was closely linked together, given that they shared the same hagiography (BHG 1279) (see Janin 1969, 14-15).
The epigram seems to suggest that the relics of Akakios and Alexandros were accidentally (or miraculously) found and buried together in the same sarcophagus or reliquary.Bibliography
Edition and Translation:
Paton, W.R., rev. Tueller, M.A., The Greek Anthology, Books 1-5, 2nd ed. (Loeb Classical Library; London, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2014).
Other editions:
Beckby, H., Anthologia Graeca (Munich: Ernst Heimeran Verlag, 1957).
Conca, F., Marzi, M., and Zanetto, G., Antologia Palatina. 3 vols. Vol. 1 (Classici Greci; Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 2005).
Waltz, P., Anthologie Grecque (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1928).
Further reading:
Cameron, A., The Greek Anthology: From Meleager to Planudes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).
Janin, R. La géographie ecclésiastique de l' empire Byzantin I 3: Les eglises et les monastères de la ville de Constantinople. 2nd ed. Paris 1969.
