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The metropolitan of Crete (twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

St. Titos standing. On either side, the inscription: Ο|Α|ΓΙ|Ο|ΣΤ|Ι|Τ|Ο|Σ: ὁ ἅγιος Τίτος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, beginning and ending with a cross. Border of dots.

ΤΟΝ
ΠΟΙΜΕΝΑ
ΣΚΕΠΟΙΣΜΕ
ΤΗΣΚΡΙΤΗΣ
ΤΙΤΕ

τὸν ποιμένα σκέποις με τῆς Κρίτης, Τίτε

Obverse

St. Titos standing. On either side, the inscription: Ο|Α|ΓΙ|Ο|ΣΤ|Ι|Τ|Ο|Σ: ὁ ἅγιος Τίτος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, beginning and ending with a cross. Border of dots.

ΤΟΝ
ΠΟΙΜΕΝΑ
ΣΚΕΠΟΙΣΜΕ
ΤΗΣΚΡΙΤΗΣ
ΤΙΤΕ

τὸν ποιμένα σκέποις με τῆς Κρίτης, Τίτε

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.105
Diameter 27.0 mm; field: 23.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 36.13b; Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 622. Cf. SBS 2 (1990) 144-45, no. 13.

Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore.

Translation

τὸν ποιμένα σκέποις με τῆς Κρίτης, Τίτε.

Titos, may you protect me, the metropolitan of Crete.

Commentary

Dodecasyllabic. If the explanation proposed above (DO Seals 2, no. 30.4) for the anonymous seals of bishops is accepted, it might be interesting to mention that in the early 12th century a metropolitan of Crete and famous author, Elias (Tsougarakis, Crete, 211, 215), was sent into exile for unknown reasons. As he could not be replaced before he died (or was deposed, but this does not seem to have been the case), an anonymous seal, such as the present one, may have been used by the clergy of Crete for sealing their current affairs in his absence.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Crete, from the 5th Century to the Venetian Conquest (Open in Zotero)
  • Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Die byzantinische Armee im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Organisation der Tagmata (Open in Zotero)
  • A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (Open in Zotero)
  • Ὁ Ταξίαρχης Κρήτης (Open in Zotero)
  • Crete in the Conflicts of the Eighth Century (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • The Conquest of Crete by the Arabs (ca. 824): A Turning Point in the Struggle between Byzantium and Islam (Open in Zotero)