The Geoponics has been attributed in the past to a number of compilers of different ages, but nowadays it is generally thought that an unknown compiler in the middle of the tenth century gave shape to the treatise. This argument is based on examination of its preface which can be considered as a dedication to Constantinus VII Porphyrogenitus. In the preface the emperor himself is described as the compiler and publisher. This curious statement for a dedication makes one assume, as to the preface at least, the presence of a writer other than the emperor. However, it should be noted that the preface and the introduction of Book I share some words and phrases bearing great resemblances to one another; that, according to certain manuscripts which do not transmit the preface in question, the introductions of Book VII-IX keep a dedication phrase to a son named Bassus whose father must be Cassianus Bassus, a name added to the title of the Geoponies; and that because of the same formula of the introduction to each Book the dedication to the son Bassus might be retained in the other seventeen Books. Accordingly Cassianus Bassus should be identified with a farmer in Bithynia who, compiling the treatise, supplements a lot of articles referred to by ancient authorities with remarks obtained from his own experience as a farmer. Then the two chapters, Chapter I of Book XII "Cultivation calender of vegetables in the climate of Constantinople" and Chapter I of Book XV "Sympathy and antipathy of the natural world" are, judged from their contents and method of quotation, lacking in harmony with the whole composition of the treatise. So they can hardly be ascribed to Cassianus Bassus, but should be regarded as interpolations by the writer of the preface. The Geoponics, therefore, owes its greatest part to Cassianus Bassus who, making use of Anatolius' agricultural treatise as framework of a new compilation, amplified it with supplements from other authorities as well as from his own experience. Later, in the middle of the tenth century, the Geoponics was found by an unknown compiler, who, attributing the work to his emperor Constantinus VII, fabricated a very unskillful preface and slightly touched the contents. It may be in this way that the Geoponics we have now came into being.
