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The imperial kommerkia of Mesembria (747/8)

 
 

Obverse

Busts of Leo III (left) and Constantine V; both are bearded and wear chlamys and crown with a cross. Linear border.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Linear border.

....ΑΣ
.ΛΙΚΩΝΚΟ
ΜΜΕΡΚΙΩ
ΝΜΕΣΕΜΒ
ΡΙΑΣΑ

Τῶν βασιλικῶν κομμερκίων Μεσεμβρίας.  Ἰνδικτιὼν αˊ

 

Obverse

Busts of Leo III (left) and Constantine V; both are bearded and wear chlamys and crown with a cross. Linear border.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Linear border.

....ΑΣ
.ΛΙΚΩΝΚΟ
ΜΜΕΡΚΙΩ
ΝΜΕΣΕΜΒ
ΡΙΑΣΑ

Τῶν βασιλικῶν κομμερκίων Μεσεμβρίας.  Ἰνδικτιὼν αˊ

 

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1739
Diameter 40.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 77.8a.
Zacos-Veglery, no. 265a. Oikonomides, Dated Seals, no. 36.

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

Translation

Τῶν βασιλικῶν κομμερκίων Μεσεμβρίας.   Ἰνδικτιὼν αˊ.

(Seal of) the imperial kommerkia of Mesembria.   Indiction 1.

Commentary

All other indiction dates of the eighth century may be excluded on the basis that either one or three emperors would be represented. The specimens above are very similar to one another, but we are not in a position to ascertain if they are from the same boulloterion. The indiction sign is barely legible on specimen (d) and not legible on (c), but we restored it because of the resemblances on all other points.

Bibliography

  • 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)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (Open in Zotero)
  • Tribute or Trade?: The Byzantine-Bulgarian Treaty of 716 (Open in Zotero)
  • Mesembria in the Ninth Century: Epigraphical Evidence (Open in Zotero)
  • Sceaux byzantins du musée de Constantinople (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
  • Ἡ συνέχεια τῆς Χρονογραφίας τοῦ Ἰωάννου Σκυλίτση (Open in Zotero)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)