Skip to Content

Peter archbishop of Thessalonica (eighth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Demetrios holding a martyr's cross before him and flanked by sigla on both sides: ΔΙ: ὁ ἅ(γιος) Δι(μήτριος). Between concentric borders of dots, a circular inscription beginning with a cross at twelve o'clock:

ΘΕΟΤΟΚΕΒΟΗΘΕΙ

Θεοτόκε βοήθει

Reverse

Cruciform monogram: ΑΕΙΚΟΠΡΣΤΥΧ. Between concentric borders of dots, a circular inscription beginning with a cross at twelve o'clock:

ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗΣ

Πέτρου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Θεσσαλονίκης

Obverse

Bust of St. Demetrios holding a martyr's cross before him and flanked by sigla on both sides: ΔΙ: ὁ ἅ(γιος) Δι(μήτριος). Between concentric borders of dots, a circular inscription beginning with a cross at twelve o'clock:

ΘΕΟΤΟΚΕΒΟΗΘΕΙ

Θεοτόκε βοήθει

Reverse

Cruciform monogram: ΑΕΙΚΟΠΡΣΤΥΧ. Between concentric borders of dots, a circular inscription beginning with a cross at twelve o'clock:

ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗΣ

Πέτρου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Θεσσαλονίκης

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1307
Diameter 31.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1 no. 18.86. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, 449. Oikonomides, Dated Seals, no. 35.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει. Πέτρου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Θεσσαλονίκης.

Mother of God, give Thy aid. (Seal of) Peter archbishop of Thessalonica.

Commentary

A metropolitan of Thessalonica named Peter is attested in 688/9 (Lemerle, St. Démétrius, 29). But this seal dates from the eighth century and may be reasonably assigned to the metropolitan Peter who appears first in the list of names in the Synodikon of Thessalonica (Gouillard, Synodikon, 114) and was succeeded by Anastasios, owner of DO Seals 1, no. 18.79. Peter's seal, which retains an iconic representation, would have been issued in the period before the Council of Hiereia in 754.

Bibliography

  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • 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)
  • Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de Saint Démétrius et la pénétration des Slaves dans les Balkans (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Synodikon de l’orthodoxie: Édition et commentaire (Open in Zotero)
  • A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (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)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (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)
  • L’éparque de Thessalonique: les origines d'une institution administrative (VIIIe-IXe siècles) (Open in Zotero)