Biography

Theodore Prodromos lived in twelfth-century Constantinople, but the exact dates of his life are unknown (c. 1100-1156/1158 or c. 1170). Similarly, relatively little is known about the events of his life (Kazhdan 1984). In one of his poems, Prodromos reports that he was educated by his grandfather and uncle but he elsewhere names as ‘teachers’ his peers Stephen Scylitzes, metropolitan of Trebizond, and Michael Italicos, metropolitan of Philippopolis. His father had wanted him to become a soldier, but his fragile health obliged Prodromos to devote himself to scholarship and writing (Horandner 1974 XXXVIII:11-40). He eventually became a poet laureate at the court of Irene Doukaina and, after the latter’s death, at that of her son John II Komnenos (1118-1143), where he mainly composed poetic panegyrics to praise the military victories of the emperor and his noble generals. Prodromos also wrote prose and taught rhetoric and grammar, probably at one of the schools set under the patronage of the Patriarchate (Horandner 1974:2728). His career ended with the death of John II. Prodromos retired to the Church of the Holy Apostles, where he was occasionally writing verses for the Byzantine nobility, and died as a monk, having changed his name to Nicholas. As a poet and, more generally, as a man of letters, Prodromos enjoyed great popularity among his contemporaries, and his literary works were widely imitated by later generations (Horandner 1972). He was a less prolific writer in philosophy, though not necessarily deprived of any influence in later centuries.