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[German version] (Πλανούδης/ Planoúdēs, c. AD 1255 - c. AD 130…

[German version] School exercises, of various content and levels of difficulty, compiled by significant Byzantine scholars and simple teachers, used for teaching Greek grammar, spelling and syntax. Particularly favoured in the middle-Byzantine Period (12th century AD), a σχέδος/ schédos consisted of intentionally itacized (Itacism) malformations and incorrect combinations of syllables, and was constructed around the homonymy of the antístoicha ( e, o and i sounds). In this word-puzzle, which as a rule had edifying stories, fables, gnomai, lives of saints, e…

(Φώτιος/ Phṓtios). [German version] [1] Byzantine high-ranking military officer Stepson of Belisarius, son of his wife Antonina from an earlier marriage, born around AD 520, died AD 578/585. After AD 535, he accompanied Belisarius on campaigns in Italy, and after AD 541 in Persia . In a novelistic passage from the Historia arcana (1,31-35; 2,1-17; 3,2-5; 3,12f.; 3,21-29) Procopius relates that P. was incarcerated by the empress Theodora on Antonina’s orders because P. tried to thwart her affair with Theodosius, an adoptive son of her husband. How…

(see also Constantinus). [German version] [1] K. VII Porphyrogennetos Byzantine emperor (Byzantine emperor AD 905-959; sole ruler 945-959). Son of the Byzantine emperor Leon VI (886-912) and of Zoe Karbonopsina; for K. as a politician see Constantinus [9]. His literary activity was directed toward …

[German version] [1] Bishop of Laodicea Bishop of  Laodicea (died c. AD 360). The Alexandrine presbyter G., dismissed by his local bishop Alexander in c. 320 …

(Εὐστάθιος; Eustáthios). [German version] [1] from Caria Rhetor of the 4th cent. AD, imperial administrator, consularis Syriae Rhetor of the 4th cent. AD; studied in Athens and later settled in Tyre. He held many offices in the imperial administration, and used them to enrich himself (i.a.: rationalis summarum per orientem), in 388 he was …

[German version] I. Preliminary remark Originally sung poetry, often accompanied by dance, metric literature was obviously subject to other formative conditions than poetry intended from the outset for spoken presentation or for reading. Texts of such kinds still show traces of their earlier sound form ( Music). Accordingly the form ranged from simple ‘melodic lines of sound’, as can be presumed for the ancient Orient and Israel ( …

(Δημήτριος; Dēmḗtrios). Well-known personalities: the Macedonian King D. [2] Poliorketes; the politician and writer D. [4] of Phalerum; the Jewish-Hellenistic chronographer D. [29]. …