Authors and their public in ancient times

by George Haven Putnam

By the ninth century there are indications of the existence of a literary class, and there is evidence of the work of a few first-class writers such as the patriarch Photius, 857-69, whose library catalogue is the envy of modern scholars.[296] This catalogue, composed while its author was an exile in Bagdad, comprises a review or analysis of the works of two hundred and eight writers. Gibbon points out, in connection with this catalogue of Photius, that the students and writers of that period enjoyed the use of many works of Greek literature which have since perished in whole or in part. He cites, among other authors, Theopompus, Menander, Alcæus, Hyperides, and Sappho.

In 867, under the direction of Basil II., were written the Basilics, or code of laws. The Emperor himself was the author of a comprehensive history of Greece and Rome, of which but fragments have been preserved.

Early in the tenth century, the exact date is uncertain, Suidas compiled his famous lexicon. According to Gibbon, Suidas was also the author of some fifty plays, some of which were based upon Aristophanes. In the latter part of the eleventh century Eudocia (wife of Romanus and the second literary empress of the name), having been imprisoned in a convent by her son, wrote, while in confinement, a treatise on the genealogies of the gods and heroes.

During the first years of the twelfth century Anna Comnena, daughter of Alexius Comnenus I., wrote, in fifteen books, under the title of Alexias, a life of her father. Gibbon speaks of the style of the history as being turgid and inflated, but says that it contains some interesting accounts of the first Crusaders.

In the twelfth century, a name of distinction is that of Eustathius I., Archbishop of Thessalonica, who published, about 1150, commentaries on Homer and on Dionysius the Geographer. Gibbon says that in the former he refers to no less than four hundred authors. At about the same time appeared the Chiliads of Tsetzes.

Oman is of opinion that the most interesting development of Byzantine literature were the Epics or Romances of Chivalry, written at the close of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries. He names as one of the best representatives of these romances, the epic of Diogenes Akritas, a mighty hunter, a slayer of dragons, and a persistent and successful lover.

I have referred to the work of but a few of the more representative of the Byzantine writers. It would be foreign to the purposes of this sketch to undertake to present any comprehensive bibliography of Byzantine literature, even if I had available the material for such a bibliography. Of many of the authors whose names have been preserved, very little except their names is known, while of the entire literature of the Byzantine period it may, I judge, fairly be said that it possesses but slight interest or value for later generations. The fact that literary undertakings of importance at the time and of interest for the readers of the day continued from generation to generation to be presented to the public, undertakings which in not a few cases must have involved the labor of many years, gives us the right to conclude that some means or machinery must have existed for reaching this public. As far, however, as my present information goes, there are absolutely no data concerning the existence in Constantinople of any publishing or bookselling trade, and we have no means of knowing by what means the books of Byzantium were manifolded and distributed.

It is to be noted that a very large number of the writers named belonged to the Court, or held high official station. The fact that so many books were the work of the emperors themselves and of the members of the imperial families, is exceptional both in the history of literature and in the history of royalty. It is probable that for the transcribing of these books and for the books of officials generally, the services of official scribes were utilized. Authors outside of official circles may have gone to the convent, or may also have employed private scribes. It is fair to assume, notwithstanding the absence of any specific mention of such establishments, that some organization of scribes, or of work-rooms for the manifolding of books, existed in the city.

In closing this chapter, I venture to recall to my readers the well-known summary by Gibbon of the literature of the Byzantine Empire.

“The Empire of the Cæsars undoubtedly checked the activity and the progress of the human mind. Its magnitude might indeed allow some scope for domestic competition; but when it was gradually reduced, at first to the East, and at last to Greece and Constantinople, the Byzantine subjects were degraded to an abject and languid temper, the natural effect of their solitary and insulated state. Alone in the universe, the self-satisfied pride of the Greeks was not disturbed by the comparison of foreign merit.... Their prose is soaring to the vicious affectation of poetry; their poetry is sinking below the flatness and insipidity of prose. The tragic, epic, and lyric muses were silent and inglorious. The bards of Constantinople seldom rose above a riddle or an epigram, a panegyric or a tale. They forgot even the rules of prosody, and with the melody of Homer still ringing in their ears, they confound all measures of feet and syllables in the impotent strains which have received the name of ‘political’ or city verses.”