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Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118)

 
 

Obverse

Christ seated on a high-back throne and holding the right hand in blessing. He has a nimbus cruciger. Sigla visible at left: Ἰ(ησοῦ)ς [Χ(ριστό)ς]. Border of dots.

Reverse

The emperor Alexios I bearded standing on a dais, wearing a loros, an end of which is draped over the left wrist and is decorated with four dots. He holds a labarum (not visible) in the right hand and a globus cruciger in the left. Remains of a circular inscripion at right. Border of dots.

.............τωκ.νω

[Ἀλεξίῳ δεσπότῃ] τῷ Κ[ο]μνηνῷ

Obverse

Christ seated on a high-back throne and holding the right hand in blessing. He has a nimbus cruciger. Sigla visible at left: Ἰ(ησοῦ)ς [Χ(ριστό)ς]. Border of dots.

Reverse

The emperor Alexios I bearded standing on a dais, wearing a loros, an end of which is draped over the left wrist and is decorated with four dots. He holds a labarum (not visible) in the right hand and a globus cruciger in the left. Remains of a circular inscripion at right. Border of dots.

.............τωκ.νω

[Ἀλεξίῳ δεσπότῃ] τῷ Κ[ο]μνηνῷ

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1692
Diameter 29.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 6, no. 88.32.

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

Translation

Ἀλεξίῳ δεσπότῃ τῷ Κομνηνῷ.

Alexios Komnenos, despotes.

Commentary

The specimen differs from most others in our series in that it displays a small field with relatively diminutive figures. Note the use of ligatures in the spelling of the emperor’s name, an indication perhaps that the specimen dates from the late years of Alexios’s reign.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 6, Emperors, Patriarchs of Constantinople, Addenda (Open in Zotero)