Paul the Silentiary

Paul the Silentiary, also known as Paulus Silentiarius (Greek: Παῦλος ὁ Σιλεντιάριος, d. Constantinople, 575-580 AD), was a Greek poet. His contemporary, the historian and poet Agathias, describes him as a rich man and a 'Silentiary' or palace official of Justinian I at Constantinople. (This title has been taken to indicate that he was responsible for silence in the palace.)

Interior of the Hagia Sophia (2008)

Paul is best known and most admired for his short poems in the classical tradition, about 80 of which have been preserved in the Greek Anthology. Forty of these are love poems. Two are replies to poems by Agathias; in another Paul laments the death of Damocharis of Cos, Agathias's favorite pupil. These short poems also contain interesting social information.

He also composed in verse an ecphrasis or evocative account of Justinian's cathedral of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), describing its architecture and decoration after the reconstruction of the dome in 562. Paul sees the church as a 'meadow' of many-coloured marbles, and helps us to imagine the church before its many subsequent remodellings. The poem was probably commissioned by Justinian himself, and Paul had to read verses to the emperor through the inauguration. It consists of 1029 verses in Greek, starting with 134 lines of iambic trimeter, with the remainder in the classical meter of epic, dactylic hexameter.

He also wrote a poem about the hot springs at Pythia.

Paul died some time between 575 and 580.

Works of Paul the Silentiary

Ecphrases

• Silentiarius, Paulus (2011). Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae. Descriptio Ambonis. Berlin: De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110239072. ISBN 978-3-11-023907-2. [Greek texts]
• Bell, Peter Neville, ed. (2009). Three political voices from the age of Justinian: Agapetus, 'Advice to the Emperor'; Dialogue on political science; Paul the Silentiary: 'Description of Hagia Sophia'. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-84631-209-0. OCLC 318874086. [English translations only]

Epigrams

• Epigrammi di Paolo Silenziario: Testo, traduzione e commento. Biblioteca loescheriana. Translated by Viansino, Giovanni. Turin: Loescher. 1963. [Greek texts with Italian translation]
• Paul the Silentiary (2015). Sex and the Civil Servant: Poems by Paul the Silentiary. Translated by Wheeler, Graham John. Felicla Books. [English translations only]

Further reading

• Whitby, Mary (1985). "The Occasion of Paul the Silentiary's Ekphrasis of S. Sophia". The Classical Quarterly. 35 (1): 215–228. doi:10.1017/S0009838800014695.
• Macrides, Ruth; Magdalino, Paul (1988). "The architecture of ekphrasis: construction and context of Paul the Silentiary's poem on Hagia Sophia". Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. 12 (1): 47–82. doi:10.1179/byz.1988.12.1.47. ISSN 0307-0131.
• Kostenec, Jan; Dark, Ken (2011). "Paul the Silentiary's description of Hagia Sophia in the light of new archaeological evidence". Byzantinoslavica. LXIX (3 supplementum): 88–105.

External links

• Paul the Silentiary: The Magnificence of Hagia Sophia at The Internet Medieval Sourcebook
• Extracts of his eulogy of the Hagia Sophia