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Constantine patrikios, praipositos, vestarches and domestikos of the East (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription in six lines preceded by a decoration. Border of dots.

 
ΚΕΟ
ΗΘΕΙΤ
ΣΔΛ
ΚΝΣΤΑΝ
Τ,ΠΑΤΡΙ
ΚΙ

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ πατρικίῳ

Reverse

Inscription in six lines preceded by an ornament. Border of dots.

 
ΠΡΑΙΠΟ
ΣΙΤΕΣ
ΤΑΡΧ,ΔΟ
ΜΕΣΤΙΚ
.ΗΣΑΝΑ
ΤΟΛ,

πραιποσίτῳ, βεστάρχ. καὶ δομεστίκ τῆς Ἀνατολῆς

Obverse

Inscription in six lines preceded by a decoration. Border of dots.

 
ΚΕΟ
ΗΘΕΙΤ
ΣΔΛ
ΚΝΣΤΑΝ
Τ,ΠΑΤΡΙ
ΚΙ

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ πατρικίῳ

Reverse

Inscription in six lines preceded by an ornament. Border of dots.

 
ΠΡΑΙΠΟ
ΣΙΤΕΣ
ΤΑΡΧ,ΔΟ
ΜΕΣΤΙΚ
.ΗΣΑΝΑ
ΤΟΛ,

πραιποσίτῳ, βεστάρχ. καὶ δομεστίκ τῆς Ἀνατολῆς

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1498
Diameter 32.0 mm; field: 26.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 99.5.

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

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ πατρικίῳ, πραιποσίτῳ, βεστάρχῃ. καὶ δομεστίκῳ τῆς Ἀνατολῆς.

Lord, help your servant Constantine patrikios, praipositios, vestarches, and domestikos of the East.

Commentary

The owner of the present seal was a eunuch (praipositos); he could thus be identical to the eunuch Constantine, brother of Michael IV, who was appointed domestikos of the Schools of the East in 1037 and who kept the position until 1041. Cf. Guilland, Recherches I, 450; Seibt, Bleisiegel, no. 35 (Constantine proedros, domestikos of the Schools of the East and of Antioch: a latter seal of the same person).

From an administrative point of view, the term Anatole was used until the 10th century to indicate (a) the territories that had previously belonged to the praefectura praetorio per Orientem that is, essentially, all the themes of Asia Minor together with those of Thrace and Macedonia; or, more realistically, (b) the territories situated to the east of Constantinople, that is, Asia Minor. In the 10th century the army command of the East was separated from that of the West (that is, Europe), Listes, 329, 341-42; cf. Oikonomides, Évolution, 141-42 and AP 35 [1978] 300, 328-29. The seals published here (and some others, such as the one of the stratopedarches of the East: Zacos-Veglery, no. 2780; Lihačev, Molivdovuly, 104, pl. LXIII,9; Seyrig, no. 159; or the hikanatoi of the East: Seyrig, no. 154) show that in the 10th and eleventh centuries the entity called the East comprised only military commands.

It should be noted, however, that in some cases the term Anatole seems to have been used to indicate a strategos of the Anatolikoi (cf. Winkelmann, Ämterstruktur, 78-79); and several civilian officials defined as ton Anatolikon could well wave authority over territories covering the East, well beyond the boundaries of the theme (see DO Seals 3, § 86, nos. 86.9, 86.17, 86.34).

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient (Open in Zotero)
  • Recherches sur les institutions byzantines (Open in Zotero)
  • Die byzantinischen Bleisiegel in Österreich, Vol. 1, Kaiserhof (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • L’évolution de l’organisation administrative de l’empire byzantin au XIe siècle (1025–1118) (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Molivdovuly grečeskogo Vostoka (Open in Zotero)
  • Les sceaux byzantins de la Collection Henri Seyrig (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)