page_title: Dioscorus of Aphrodito
section_title: Constantinople
hierarchical_section_title: Dioscorus of Aphrodito / Biography / Constantinople
context_page_description: Flavius Dioscorus lived during the 6th century A.D. in the village of Aphrodito, Egypt, and therefore is called by modern scholars Dioscorus of Aphrodito. Although he was an Egyptian, he composed poetry in Greek, the cultural language of the Byzantine Era. His poems are the oldest surviving poems written by the hand of a known poet. The manuscripts, which contain his corrections and revisions, were discovered on papyrus in 1905, and are now held in museums and libraries around the world. Dioscorus was also occupied in legal work, and legal documents and drafts involving him, his family, Aphroditans, and others were discovered along with his poetry. As an administrator of the village of Aphrodito, he composed petitions on behalf of its citizens, which are unique for their poetic and religious qualities. Dioscorus was a Christian and lived in a religiously active environment. The collection of Greek and Coptic papyri associated with Dioscorus and Aphrodito is one of the most important finds in the history of papyrology and has shed considerable light on the law and society of Byzantine Egypt.
context_section_description: Dioscorus also became engaged in legal work. In 546/7, after his father Apollos died, Dioscorus wrote a formal petition to Emperor Justinian and a formal explanation to Empress Theodora about tax conflicts affecting Aphrodito. The village was under the special patronage of the Empress, and had been granted the status of autopragia. This meant that the village could collect its own public taxes and deliver them directly to the imperial treasury. Aphrodito was not under the jurisdiction of the pagarch, stationed in Antaeopolis, who handled the public taxes for the rest of the nome. Dioscorus's petition and explanation to the imperial palace described the pagarch's violations of their special tax status, including theft of the collected tax money.
  The communications to Constantinople seem to have had little effect, and in 551 (three years after the death of Theodora), Dioscorus travelled with a contingency of Aphroditans to Constantinople to present the problem to the Emperor directly. Dioscorus may have spent three years in the capital of the Byzantine Empire. In poetry, the city was very active. Not only was Agathias now writing there, but also Paul the Silentiary and Romanus the Melodist. In respect to the Aphroditans' tax problems, Dioscorus was able to obtain an imperial rescript, three copies of which have survived in his archive. The Emperor instructs the Duke of the Thebaid to investigate and, if justified, to stop the aggressions of the pagarch. There is no evidence of further tax violations by the pagarch until after the death of Justinian in 565.
caption: Empress Theodora. Mosaic. San Vitale, Ravenna.
  6th century representation of the Empress Theodora.
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