ABSTRACT
Late in the thirteenth century Konstantinos Akropolites, hagiographer and prominent courtier, addressed an epistle to an unnamed friend, in which he discussed a twelfth-century satirical text known to us as the Timarion. 1 Akropolites reluctantly recognized the competence and literary training of the anonymous erudite but more significantly detected in his writings the seeds, and even worse, the active pursuit of impiety. 2 He saw a neo-pagan behind the Timarion’s Christian smokescreen. 3 In his opinion the writer of the Timarion sought to renew the wisdom of the Greeks. 4 The paper before you expands Akropolites’ argument, suggesting that careful reading of this text exposes an oblique, yet potent, attack on the Komnenian political, religious and more broadly cultural arrangement. More to the point, while on the one hand articulating a critique of the Komnenian aristocracy, the Timarion may also be arguing for the impossibility of open philosophical enquiry and critique under a Christian regime. 5
