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Basil bishop of Berroia and synkellos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Faint outline of two figures, most likely an Annunciation scene. No inscription visible. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΣΦΡΑΓ,
ΑΣ.ΛΕ.
ΣΥΓΚΕΛΛ..
ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠ,
ΕΡΙΑΣ

Σφραγὶς Βασιλείῳ συγκέλλκαὶ ἐπισκόπ Βερίας

Obverse

Faint outline of two figures, most likely an Annunciation scene. No inscription visible. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΣΦΡΑΓ,
ΑΣ.ΛΕ.
ΣΥΓΚΕΛΛ..
ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠ,
ΕΡΙΑΣ

Σφραγὶς Βασιλείῳ συγκέλλκαὶ ἐπισκόπ Βερίας

Accession number BZS.1947.2.960
Diameter 14.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 19.2.
Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 468.

Translation

Σφραγὶς Βασιλείῳ συγκέλλῳ καὶ ἐπισκόπῳ Βερίας.

Seal of Basil synkellos and bishop of Berroia.

Commentary

The strategeia of Berroia is mentioned in the Escorial Taktikon (971-975; Listes, 265, line 32: ὁ Βεροίας). The river Axios/Vardar separated its territory from that of Thessalonica (Alexiade I, 29-30; Nikephoros Bryennios, Bonn, 148). The city, located southwest of Thessalonica, was conquered by the Bulgarians in 986 (or 989) but was retaken by the Byzantines in 10001 (ibid., 260). A tourmarches of Beroia is attested on a lead seal from Berli: Speck, Bleisiegel, no. 146; another specimen (Zacos, Seals II, no. 240) could have belonged to a tourmarches of Beroia or to one of Beroe; the same uncertainty prevails with this DO Seals 1, no. 19.1. Late in the eleventh century, Berroia became the seat of a doux (cf. Zakythinos, Mélétai 17 [1941] 237-38).

Berroia was a suffragan bishopric of Thessalonica (Darrouzès, Notitiae, 278, line 298) until the reign of Michael VIII, when it was raised to the ran of an archbishopric shortly after 1261 (Laurent, Corpus V/1, 342). The name of the see is not found in episcopal lists prior to the tenth century, but a bishop Ἰωσήφ...ἐπίσκοπος Βερροίας is known to have attended the synod of 879 (G. Chionides, Ἱστορία τῆς Βεροίας II [Thessalonica, 1970] 164; see ibid., 162-68 for a list of the city's prelates).

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)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Silk Trade and Production in Byzantium from the Sixth to the Ninth Century: The Seals of Kommerkiarioi (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Bleisiegel in Berlin (West) (Open in Zotero)
  • Le kommerkion d’Abydos, Thessalonique et le commerce bulgare du 9e siècle (Open in Zotero)
  • Recherches sur les douanes à Byzance: L’octava, le "kommerkion" et les commerciares (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de Saint Démétrius et la pénétration des Slaves dans les Balkans (Open in Zotero)
  • L’éparque de Thessalonique: les origines d'une institution administrative (VIIIe-IXe siècles) (Open in Zotero)