AP 15.15: Constantine at Lindos

On the Cross he erected at Lindos

The son of John and of Eudocia

Wrought me here famous: he was Constantine,

Whom vaunting Lindos bore, the foremost man

Of all the generation that has gone,

And sceptred Leo’s trusty adjutant.

His brother, Alexander, and his son,

Also a Constantine, both carried forth

The kingdom’s sceptres warranted by God.

Lindos is a historic town of Rhodes. Alan Cameron has argued strongly that Constantine of Rhodes oversaw the production of the manuscript of the Palatine Anthology in the generation after Cephalas, and suggests that Book 15 was added by him. Leo VI died in 912, and was succeeded by his brother Alexander (emperor 912-13) and his son, Constantine VII ‘Porphyrogenitus’, sired out of wedlock but ‘born in the purple’ of the Imperial bedroom suite (913-959).