Demetrios Karykes

1. Biography

Demetrios Karykes was possibly born in the last quarter of the 12th century. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1204 he escaped, just like several scholars, to the court of Theodore I Laskaris in Nicaea. He then excelled as a scholar and official. Information about his life and activities is provided mainly by the autobiographical work of Nikephoros Blemmydes Curriculum vitae et carmina (Περί των κατ’ αυτόν διήγησις μερική). Towards the late 1214 Karykes possibly replaced Theodore Eirenikos, who had been elected patriarch, as a hypatos ton philosophon, thus undertaking the supervision of higher education in Nicaea.1 Among his first duties was to teach philosophy and rhetoric. In the second half of the 1220s, when he was quite old, he taught Nikephoros Blemmydes, who clearly remembers his teacher of logic. Well-educated Karykes was highly regarded among the scholars and was particularly esteemed and trusted by Emperor John III Vatatzes. He was one of the most pre-eminent figures in the administration of Nicaea in the 1220s and 1230s. He served as a krites and grand logariastes, while he was also appointed as an exisotes responsible for determining and inspecting taxes, “exisoseis” (more frequently) and the land inventory in the district of Ephesus, although it is not indicated that those responsibilities had a directly economic character.

Around 1223 in Smyrna, where the imperial court was temporarily living, Karykes, as hypatos ton philosophon, was ordered by the emperor to examine in public young Nikephoros Blemmydes, who had just completed his studies by Prodromos Skamandrenos. Τhe incident was described by Blemmydes, who arrogantly tries to degrade his former teacher’s knowledge and background.2 There must have been a dispute between the two men, as evidenced by the fact that Karykes had taken sides with some priests and scholars against the election of Blemmydes as a logothetes (December 1223-January 1234) by Patriarch Germanos II Anaplous (1222-1240). In general, he was against the quick ascent of the young student in the political scene of Nicaea.

In 1234 Karykes participated in the discussions held in Nicaea and Nymphaeum with the four delegates of Pope Gregory IX over the approach of the two Churches. In the sessions that dealt with the question of the procession of the Holy Spirit, John III Vatatzes decided that the hypatos ton philosophon, “magnus philosophus” according to Latin sources,3 was the most suitable person to answer the Latin enunciation of the filioque and the exegesis that the Holy Spirit is called “the Son’s Spirit” in the Bible. But Karykes was not able to provide an explanation for the phrase and confute the Latin argument; he walked out asking for a written report on the following discussions. It was then that Blemmydes was given permission by the emperor and the patriarch to defend the Orthodox doctrine; he grounded the Orthodox point on the fact that as God creates in the course of time but is an everlasting creator, in the same way the Son grants the Spirit in the course of time but is its everlasting grantor. He counter-proposed the expression “by the Father through the Son”. After the incident of 1234 Karykes must have been deprived of the responsibilities of the hypatos ton philosophon and his name was no more reported by the sources.

2. Hypatos ton Philosophon

The survival of the title of hypatos ton philosophon in the Empire of Nicaea after 1204 and the fact that this official was directly appointed by the emperor indicates an attempt towards the reorganisation of the educational system and the flourishing of letters as well as the dedication of the Laskarid dynasty to the administrative structures and titles of the Byzantine Empire. It also indicates their desire to be recognised as the legitimate heirs to the Empire over against the usurpers to the throne in the Principality of Epirus and the Empire of Trebizond.4 Quite unluckily, there is little and vague information about the responsibilities of the hypatos ton philosophon in Nicaea. However, it is clear that after Karykes the above official started to undertake administrative duties as well. Four hypatoi ton philosophon became famous in the 13th century: Theodore Eirenikos (head of the School of Constantinople before 1204), Demetrios Karykes and, after 1261, John Pediasimos and Niketas Kyprianos.5

1. According to Fuchs, F., Die höheren Schulen von Konstantinopel im Mittelalter (Byzantinische Archiv 8, Leipzig - Berlin 1926), p. 55, Karykes’ school was in Smyrna. Constantinides, C.N., Higher education in Byzantium in the Thirteenth and early Fourteenth centuries (1204- c.1310) (Nicosia 1982), p. 7, challenges this opinion and counter-proposes Nicaea, based on the fact that Blemmydes does not report Smyrna as the place where he had studied. The existence of the school is evidence that letters slourished and Theodore Hexapterygos, Nikephoros Blemmydes and George Babouscomites moved there, as it happened with the Church of St. Tryphon, which led to the foundation of the School of Philosophy and the Patriarchal School.

2. Karykes asked for an answer and an interpretation of the phrase “ὃς οὐκ ἐπορεύθη ἐν βουλῇ ἀσεβῶν μακάριος ἀνὴρ ἐστὶ” (“blessed be he who did not head for a gathering of impious people”). Blemmydes commented extensively on the syntaxis mistake and the ambiguous use of the pronoun, which, according to him, may as well have been attributed to male animals. After correcting the expression to “ὁ ἀνήρ, ὅστις δὲν πορεύεται ἐν βουλῇ ἀσεβῶν, μακάριός ἐστι” (“blessed be the man who did not head for a gathering of impious people”), he proceeded to the interpretation of the psalm of David. See Nicephori Blemmydae, Curriculum vitae et carmina (Περὶ τῶν κατ’ αὐτόν διήγησις μερική), publ. A. Heisenberg (Leipzig 1896), pp. 55-56.

3. See Μηλιαράκης, Α., Ιστορία του βασιλείου της Νίκαιας (Athens 1898), pp. 311-312.

4. As regards the duties of the hypatos ton philosophon, Constantinides supposed that in the case of the people appointed by Theodore I Laskaris, namely Theodore Eirenikos and Demetrios Karykes, it is possible that the title did no longer entail the same responsibilities as before. See Constantinides, C.N., Higher education in Byzantium in the Thirteenth and early Fourteenth centuries (1204-c.1310) (Nicosia 1982), pp. 115-116.

5. About the office of hypatos ton philosophon, its history and title, see Fuchs, F., Die höheren Schulen von Konstantinopel im Mittelalter (Byzantinische Archiv 8, Leipzig - Berlin 1926), p. 55 ff.