John Tzetzes and His Patron: The Puzzle of Isaac Komnenos

This article clarifies the identity of one of the correspondents of the twelfth-century Byzantine intellectual John Tzetzes. Among the addressees of his epistles was Isaac Komnenos, whose identification has caused controversy among the researchers. Some scholars considered him to be the brother of Emperor John II. Later, this point of view was disputed by other scholars, who suggested he was Isaac, the son of the megas droungarios tes viglas Constantine Komnenos, who once was the chief of Tzetzes and is mentioned in the latter’s poem After Homer. The contents of the epistle, prosopographical studies on the Komnenoi family, and the most recent scholarship on the life and work of John Tzetzes became the background to suppose that the addressee was Isaac Porphyrogennetos, a son of Emperor Alexios I, and not Isaac Komnenos, a son of the megas droungarios tes viglas Constantine Komnenos. The author concludes that the connections with Isaac Porphyrogennetos makes it possible to bring John Tzetzes and Theodore Prodromos closer as intellectuals who sympathized with the political ambitions of their patrons. Moreover, unlike Prodromos, relationships with the rebellious relatives of Emperors John II and Manuel I had a negative impact on Tzetzes’ career, since it blocked the way to participate in the rhetorical theatron, which was one of the reasons for his invectives against capital rhetorician’s milieu.