[1]: xviii Christopher was an important official: there is evidence that at different times he held the positions of patrikios, proconsul, protospatharios of the Chrystotriklinos, and krites (judge) of the themes of Armeniakon and Paphlagonia.
[citation needed] Various Verses (στίχοι διάφοροι) is the title of his collection of 145 poems, which covers a wide range of genres and topics.
In these poems Christopher makes fun of unsuccessful chariot drivers, cheated husbands, hypocritical monks, pseudo-intellectuals, etc.
Christopher composed also four calendars in four different metres (hexameter, dodecasyllables, stichera, and canones), commemorating all the saints and feasts of the Orthodox Christian liturgical year.
The mix of Christian and classical elements and the self-asserting intellectual elitism are distinguishing features which link him to other poets of the period, like John Mauropous and Michael Psellos, who also were responding to the cultural climate under Constantine IX.