George of Pisidia on the Emperor Heraclius and His Deputies

CHAPTER TEN

DEFENDER OF THE CROSS: GEORGE OF PISIDIA ON THE EMPEROR HERACLIUS AND HIS DEPUTIES

Mary Whitby (Royal Holloway, University of London)

I The poet, his work and its setting

George of Pisidia is best known as panegyrist of the Emperor Hera• clius (AD 610-41). Although of provincial origin,1 we encounter him only in Constantinople, where he was one of many deacons of St Sophia. The various titles attached to his name in the manu• scripts of his poems indicate an administrative career in the service of the Patriarch Sergius: he was at one time patriarchal referendarius, responsible for communications with the emperor.2 This sparse evidence suggests that, like the poets of Agathias' circle half a century earlier, George did not survive by his pen. He had a successful administrative career in an ecclesiastical environment. Nor was panegyric his only literary interest: poems still await• ing re-edition are often passed over.3 These works have a strong religious focus: a massive Hexaemeron celebrating God's Creation and an introspective piece On the Vanity of Life, concerned with the problem of personal sin, are among the most important.4 There is also a prose encomium on the Persian martyr Anastasius (an elaboration of the saint's martyr Acts) ,5 and a poem Against Severus,

1 Perhaps from Antioch in Pisidia (Psellus, Essay, 48.l00f. Dyck). 2 Pertusi 1960, 11-13. According to the lOth-c. Suda Lexicon (I 517 Adler), George rose to the position of chartophylax, head of the patriarchal secretariat and keeper of the archives. 3 PG 92.1161-1676, 1729-54; Sternbach 1891, 1892. Pertusi published only the first volume of his projected edition of George's work; the remainder is now the subject of a collaborative Austro-Italian project. Dr James Howard• Johnston first directed my own attention to the importance of the poems not included in Pertusi's volume. 4 The Hexaemeron has a political framework, but its core celebrates God's cosmos: see Olster 1991, Ludwig 1991, esp. 74, 104-28, Mary Whitby 1995. 5 Ed. with French trans. by Flusin 1992, I 189-259. 248 MARY WHITBY promoting Heraclius' moves to counter Monophysitism.6 In addi• tion a number of brief epigrams survive, again often dealing with religious themes, sacred objects, figures or buildings. All the longer works are addressed to prominent figures, the majority either to Heraclius or Sergius. Even the panegyrics include a pro• minent religious element, which gives George's poetry a consist• ent posture, regardless of addressee, analogous to the philosophical persona sustained by Themistius in his panegyrics for successive fourth-century emperors. 7 George demonstrates considerable classical as well as biblical learning, which may have won him his role as Heraclius' court• poet. The usurping emperor was eager to validate his position by promoting cultural revival in Constantinople. This is elaborately stated in the Dialogue between History and Philosophy with which George's contemporary Theophylact Simocatta prefaced his classicizing history,8 and is attested by the Constantinopolitan liter• ary productions of the period which survive-not only Theophy• lact and George, and perhaps an anonymous poem on Heracles,9 but the less elevated Paschal Chronicle and sermons by Theodore Syncellus-as well as others that do not, for example, comment• aries by the philosopher and polymath Stephen of Alexandria.Io The prominence of the Patriarch Sergius in the dedications of many works indicates that the Church too now had an important role in promoting literature, one of many signs that the early seventh century stood at the turning-point between a classical and a mediaeval age. I I

6 PG92.1621-76. 7 The majority of George's poems (On Heraclius' Return, Persian Expedition, On the Resurrection, Avar War, Heraclias, Restoration of the Cross) open with a reli• gious theme. For Themistius see Russell (sec. 8) and Heather in this volume. 8 Trans. Whitby and Whitby 3-5; cf. Frendo 1988. -9 B. Knos, 'Ein spatgriechisches Gedicht tiber die Arbeiten des Herakles', BZ 17 (1908) 397-429; M.L. West, Greek Metre (Oxford, 1982) 184. 10 Stephen was brought to Constantinople from Alexandria by Heraclius: see Lermerle 1971, 80f., Wilson 1983, 46f. and esp. Wolska-Comus 1989 (who notes that only two of his many commentaries survive complete, Bf.). For an excellent survey of intellectual activity under Heraclius see Bernhard Bischoff and Michael Lapidge, Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 10 (Cambridge, 1994) 47-64. 11 An epigram of George (46 Sternbach) commemorates Sergius' establish• ment of a library, but views differ as to whether or not he presided over or revived a formal teaching institution, e.g. Lemerle 1971, 79, 87; Wilson 1983, 59f.; Wolska-Comus 1989, 16f. For this period as a turning-point see (e.g.)