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Leo domestikos of the Church of Syracuse (eighth/ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Indeterminate border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Indeterminate border.

ΛΕΟΝ
ΤΙΔΟΜΕΣΤ/
.ΚΚΛΗΣΙ
ΣΥΡΚ/

Λέοντι δομεστ(ίκῳ) [Ἐ]κκλησία(ς) Συρακ(ουσῶν)

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Indeterminate border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Indeterminate border.

ΛΕΟΝ
ΤΙΔΟΜΕΣΤ/
.ΚΚΛΗΣΙ
ΣΥΡΚ/

Λέοντι δομεστ(ίκῳ) [Ἐ]κκλησία(ς) Συρακ(ουσῶν)

Accession number BZS.1947.2.161
Diameter 30.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 10.2.
Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 890.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Λέοντι δομεστίκῳ Ἐκκλησίας Συρακουσῶν.

Theotokos, help your servant Leo domestikos of the Church of Syracuse.

Commentary

Domestikoi were chanters or conductors of church choirs (see Darrouzès, Offikia, 119 and 273; and Oikonomides, Listes, 176 and note 165). As Laurent supposes, Leo would have exercised this function at the cathedral of Syracuse.

Syracuse (modern Siracusa) is located in eastern Sicily. Initially seat of a bishop subordinate to Rome, it was attached to Constantinople in the eighth century and elevated by the patriarch to the rank of archbishopric, then of metropolis (of Sicily) around the year 800. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 691.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)