Little is known with certainty about the life of Romanos the Melodist (or “Melode”; b. late 5th cent., d. after 555 CE, probably before 562 CE); the earliest biographical details come from 9th–11th-century liturgical texts (collected in Grosdidier de Matons, 1977, 160–162). These texts agree that Romanos was born in Emesa in Syria and that he was a deacon at the Church of the Resurrection in Berytus bef…