ABSTRACT
Manuel Philes’ oeuvre contains a large number of hitherto-neglected verse letters. Many of these have been treated as “begging poems.” This term, however, is not suitable as a genre name nor does it suffice to describe Philes’ epistolary poetry. In order to come to a better understanding of these texts, this essay offers a comparison with the prose letters of Philes’ contemporary Theodore Hyrtakenos. Hyrtakenos’ and Philes’ letters have several topics and addressees in common. Moreover, they both were members of the same social class: educated men with strong connections to the wealthy elite to which they themselves did not belong. This comparison raises questions such as: Is there a crucial difference between prose and verse? Which textual features must be understood as individual characteristics of the authors, and which are genre conventions? What are the (literary, social, pragmatic) functions of these letters?
