ANASTASIUS THE QUAESTOR OR THE STAMMERER. - Original hymnographer and melodist of the 10th century. Of him it is known only that in 907 he held the office of quaestor at Constantinople. A celebrated Funeral Canticle of his served to restore to vogue a poetic genre then almost overwhelmed by the canons. In the canons composed by him, departing from the common Byzantine versification, he adopts in an original manner the second ode, not in rhythmic verses, but in iambic meters.

He cultivated melody with success, as the Hymns or typical Stanzas he left us demonstrate; he also wrote a Panegyric or Encomium for St. Agathonicus the martyr, published in the Analecta Bollandiana, 5 (1886), p. 396.

As a probable author of epigrammatic verses, there has been attributed to him the epigram that goes under the name of Anastasius the Balbus from the Anthology (XV, 28; ed. F. Didot, II, Paris, p. 512) in 14 dactylic hexameter verses on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: E. Bouvy, Le cantique funèbre d'Anastase, in Echos d'Orient, 1 (1898), p. 262 ff.; S. Pétridès, Les deux mélodies du nom d'Anastase, in Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, 6 (1901), p. 444 ff.; C. Hémérus, Hymnographi Byzantini, in Echos d'Orient, 21 (1922), p. 264.

@incollection{ec1_anastasio_il_questore_o_il_bal, author = {Redazione}, title = {Anastasio Il Questore O Il Balbo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1156--1157}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/anastasio-il-questore-o-il-balbo} }

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Anastasius the Quaestor or the Stammerer

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