Podcast episode

March 25, 2026

Episode 215: Gerasimos Merianos on East Roman Alchemy in Late Antiquity and Beyond, Part I

In this episode we are guided by researcher Gerasimos Merianos through the labyrinth of pseudonyms, esoteric books, mysterious dates, and even more mysterious praxeis that make up the East Roman alchemical tradition. We have made it a two-parter, because there’s so much here. Among other topics discussed in Part I, are:

• The movement of location from the Græco-Egyptian milieu of Zosimos and the Alexandrian alchemical authors to the new location of Constantinople, at least partly under the impetus of the Arab conquest of Egypt,
• Some historiographical considerations to do with how, by classifying our alchemists as, for example, ‘late-antique’ or ‘Byzantine’, we run the risk of vitiating our interpretations of the evidence,
• Discussion of the East Roman alchemical tradition which comes after Stephanos of Alexandria, including the ‘four alchemical poets’, the philosopher Christianos, and the ‘Anonymous Philosopher’, and current attempts to re-date these authors, and
• Some of the major developments of East Roman alchemy in late antiquity, including its adoption as a ‘quasi-official’ realm of knowledge, and its reframing as a ‘donum Dei’ in a Christian context.

Interview Bio:

Gerasimos Merianos is Senior Researcher in Byzantine History and the History of Byzantine Science at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens. He coordinates the research project Alchemy in Byzantium at the IHR and has published extensively on Byzantine alchemy. His work includes the forthcoming edited volume Alchemy in Byzantium (De Gruyter, 2026), the first collection dedicated exclusively to the ‘sacred art’ in the Byzantine world. His academia page is full of wonders.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Primary:

Marcianus Graecus 299, the main alchemical compilation under discussion in this episode, is available online! You can find it here and browse its wonders for yourself in digital form. Pinakes, the online database of Greek manuscripts, gives a breakdown of the `table of contents’ here.

Parisinus Graecus 2327, another important compilation, can be accessed in digitised form here.

The Chronikon Paschale on Herakleios’ new, debased silver currency:

• Ludwig Dindorf (ed.), Chronicon Paschale, vol. 1 (Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae). Bonn: Weber, 1832, p. 706,9–11; transl. Michael Whitby and Mary Whitby, Chronicon Paschale, 284–628 AD (Translated Texts for Historians 7). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1989, p. 158.

Theophanes the Confessor on Herakleios’ ‘borrowing’ church vessels to make currency:

• Carl de Boor (ed.), Theophanis Chronographia, vol. 1. Leipzig: Teubner 1883, pp. 302,34–303,3; transl. Cyril Mango and Roger Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284–813. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997, p. 435.

Secondary:

Marc D. Lauxtermann. Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres. Texts and Contexts, Vol. II, volume 24.2 of Wiener Byzantinistische Studien. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna, 2019; we cite pp. 205–7.

Paul Magdalino. L’Orthodoxie des astrologues: La science entre le dogme et la divination à Byzance (VIIe-XIVe siècle). Number 12 in Réalités Byzantines. Lethielleux, Paris, 2006.

Maria Papathanassiou argues that the four alchemical poets were all a single student of Stephanos: the attribution of the poems to a single author goes back beyond Papathanassiou. However, she argues that “[they] belonged to Stephanos’ close environment including his disciples”, here:

• Maria K. Papathanassiou, “The Occult Sciences in Byzantium”, in Stavros Lazaris (ed.), A Companion to Byzantine Science (Brill’s Companions to the Byzantine World 6). Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2020, pp. 464–495, on 492–493.

In more detail and more assertively (e.g.: “In this case, whoever the author may have been – likely one among the four poets – belonged to Stephanus’ intellectual environment in Constantinople and was one of his close disciples”), here:

• Maria K. Papathanassiou, “The Poet-Alchemists and Their Relation to Stephanus of Alexandria”, in Gerasimos Merianos (ed.), Alchemy in Byzantium (Medical Traditions), Berlin and Boston, MA: De Gruyter 2026 (forthcoming).

Recommended Reading:

SHWEP Episode 215-216 Recommended Reading

Themes

Alchemy, Asceticism, Astral Influences, Astrology, East Rome, Interview, Olympiodorus, Stephanos of Alexandria