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Niketas patrikios and strategos of the Peloponnesos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

The Virgin seated on a lyre-backed throne holding Christ on her lap. Sigla: .Θ: Μήτηρ Θεο. On either side of her halo, a circular inscription along a border of dots.

ΘΚΕΟΗΘΕΙΤΣΔΟΥΛˋ

Θ(εοτό)κε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλ(ῳ)

Reverse

Inscription of three lines preceded and followed by a decoration. A circular inscription within a border of dots completes the invocation:


ΝΙΚΗ
ΤΑΠΑΤΡ
ΙΚΙ.



Κ,ΣΤΡΑ..ΓΠΕΛΟΠΟΝΝΗΣ

 

Νικήτᾳ πατρικί[ῳ] κ(αὶ) στρα[τη]γῷ Πελοποννήσου

Obverse

The Virgin seated on a lyre-backed throne holding Christ on her lap. Sigla: .Θ: Μήτηρ Θεο. On either side of her halo, a circular inscription along a border of dots.

ΘΚΕΟΗΘΕΙΤΣΔΟΥΛˋ

Θ(εοτό)κε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλ(ῳ)

Reverse

Inscription of three lines preceded and followed by a decoration. A circular inscription within a border of dots completes the invocation:


ΝΙΚΗ
ΤΑΠΑΤΡ
ΙΚΙ.



Κ,ΣΤΡΑ..ΓΠΕΛΟΠΟΝΝΗΣ

 

Νικήτᾳ πατρικί[ῳ] κ(αὶ) στρα[τη]γῷ Πελοποννήσου

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1430
Diameter 25.0 mm; field: 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 22.34.

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

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Νικήτᾳ πατρικίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ Πελοποννήσου.

Mother of God, help your servant Niketas patrikios and strategos of the Peloponnesos.

Commentary

A remarkably well-crafted and beautifully rendered lead seal.

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)
  • La Morée franque: Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d’Achaïe (1205-1430) (Open in Zotero)
  • Die Skleroi: Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie (Open in Zotero)
  • Theophanis Chronographia (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Realities of Byzantine Provincial Government: Hellas and Peloponnesos, 1180-1205 (Open in Zotero)
  • Die byzantinische Armee im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Organisation der Tagmata (Open in Zotero)