Two notes: 1. Логофет дрома, бичевавший св. Евфимия. 2. Канон св. Евфимию, написанный св. Феофаном Начертанным.
2006-10-06

Tatiana A. Senina (Nun Kassia). Dialogue between Theophilus and Kassia: literary fiction or reality? - The paper deals with the story of the bride-show for the Emperor Theophilus and the possible role in this story of the hymnographer Cassia. L. Rydén’s opinion that such bride-shows for the royal sons in the 9th century are fictions is revised. It is most likely that such stories told by the chroniclers have some real facts behind them. In this connection, a new hypothesis of the reasons of composition of the Vita of Philarete the Merciful is put forward. The chronology of the life of the Emperor Theophilus in general and the date of his bride-show in particular are revised as well. It was shown that the dates of his life proposed by W. Treadgold are accepted by many scholars rather uncritically while, in fact, they are far from being well-founded. According to the present analysis of the sources, including the numismatic data and the hymnography, Theophilus’ bride-show is to be dated by 821 and Cassia’s participation is to be admitted. The fact that dialogue between Theophilus and Cassia, as reported by Symeon Logothetus, contains a verbatim quote from the Homily on Annunciation by John Chrysostome, is not an argument to take the whole story as fiction (pace D. Afinogenov and Yu. Kazachkov) because this homily was widely known in this time and is quoted, for instance, in an anti-iconoclast treatise of the Patriarch Nicephorus and, that is most important, by Cassia herself in her sticheira on Annunciation. Finally, it was attempted to reveal the meaning of the interchange between Theophilus and Cassia that was traditionally interpreted as an attempt of an orthodox girl to hurt the iconoclastic emperor.
2006-10-06