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Constantine bishop of Bela (tenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. John the Baptist wearing a tunic and holding a long cross. Vertical inscription: .|..|.ΠΡ|ΔΡ|Ο: ὁ ἅγιος Ἰωάννης Πρόδρομος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

.ΚΕ,Θ,
.ΣΔ
.ΝΣΤΝ
.ΕΠΙΣΚ,
.ΕΛΑΣ

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Βελᾶς

Obverse

Bust of St. John the Baptist wearing a tunic and holding a long cross. Vertical inscription: .|..|.ΠΡ|ΔΡ|Ο: ὁ ἅγιος Ἰωάννης Πρόδρομος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

.ΚΕ,Θ,
.ΣΔ
.ΝΣΤΝ
.ΕΠΙΣΚ,
.ΕΛΑΣ

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Βελᾶς

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1811
Diameter 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 3.1.
Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 683.

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

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Βελᾶς.

Lord, help your servant Constantine, bishop of Bela.

Commentary

Bela (the modern village of Paliobella), some 18 miles northeast of Ionnina, became a bishopric mentioned for the first time as a dependent of Naupaktos in an early tenth century episcopal list (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 7, line 581) under the dual designation Φωτικῆς ἤτοι Βελλᾶς, which stood for centuries. Photike was the ancient name of a bishopric of Nikopolis, situated further to the south (close to Paramythia), attested in 451 but not appearing in the early notitiae (presumably because it was abandoned). Bela was the Slavic name of a place further to the north, where the see was transferred in the 10th century. Cf. Laurent, Corpus V/1, 516; Fedalto, 482; and Soustal, Nikopolis und Kephallenia, 123-24, 236-37.

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)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Nikopolis und Kephallenia (Open in Zotero)