There are about 40 monasteries in Mt. Athos.
None (note none) of them (
any of the monastery's that did come forward) in either 1863...
Or today, have
officially said that
the Emperor's Bible myth of Simonides, either, really happened, or,
hypothetically (which is over your head) could have happened (Cf. 1863, Russian Orthodox Review letter from the Mt. Athos quoted by Cjab)
It would help if you list all the letters discussing Simonides.
None of the letters that we do have access to, have ever been proved publicly to have been forged by Simonides,
as the Kallinikos letters were proven to be forgeries at
the Royal Society of Literature meeting in February 1863. ?
Therefore they are a million times more trustworthy than Simonides version.
It sounds like you are saying that Simonides could do something nefarious like take manuscripts from Mt. Athos, and bring them to Constantius, act as if Sinaiticus is old, and receive 25,000 piastres. That would upset the monastery!
You (Steven)? You have, in all your investigative expertise, 100% verified that a record of the payment of the 25,000 piastres to the said Simonides,
is for a fact in the Constantinople archives?
Such an expense would not go unnoticed, nor unrecorded, nor undated in the Constantinoplian Church archives.
You're
bluffing speculation and bravado, that will inevitably follow, will be (I have no doubt) proven wrong one day.
You see Steven, you've got to remember that you're
imagination is not considered evidence or proof in scholarly circles (the speculations of a lunatic are simply not worth much these days).
So is the discovery of an ancient manuscript among thousands of other ancient manuscripts at St. Catherine's. ?