Skip to Content

Theodore bishop of Methone (tenth/eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. John the Theologian blessing and holding book. Inscription in two columns: |ΙΩ|ΟΘ|ΕΟ|Λ,: Ὁ ἅγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Θεολόγος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.


ΚΕ,Θ,
ΘΕΟΔΡ,
.Π,ΚΟΠ
ΜΕΘ,

Κύριε βοήθει Θεοδώρ πισκόπῳ Μεθώνης

Obverse

Bust of St. John the Theologian blessing and holding book. Inscription in two columns: |ΙΩ|ΟΘ|ΕΟ|Λ,: Ὁ ἅγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Θεολόγος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.


ΚΕ,Θ,
ΘΕΟΔΡ,
.Π,ΚΟΠ
ΜΕΘ,

Κύριε βοήθει Θεοδώρ πισκόπῳ Μεθώνης

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1877
Diameter 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 30.2b.
Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 1747. Parallel specimens in Athens (Konstantopoulos, nos. 92, 93) and British Museum (Sig., 186), cf. Birch, no. 17814, where the seal is erroneously assigned to a komes of Methone; on the other hand, Schlumberger mentions two more specimens in his own collection, bur their fate is not known); one in the IFEB Collection (Paris); and two in the Vienna Collection.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει Θεοδώρῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Μεθώνης.

Lord, help Theodore bishop of Methone.

Commentary

The reading of this seal has been established with reference to two parallels from the same boulloterion. See BZS 1955.1.4679 and 1951.31.5.3025.

Today Methone, in the southwestern tip of the Peloponnesos. The ancient city is still attested in the 6th century; the bishopric may have already existed in the 4th century, but it (re?)appears in the early 9th as a suffragan of the newly created metropolis of Patras. It is mentioned in the controversial iconoclastic notitia (as a suffragan of Corinth) and then in all notitiae, starting with that of Leo VI, under Patras (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 3, line 762; no. 7, line 551). See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 482; Fedalto, 510; ODB II, 1356. The cathedral of Methone being dedicated to St. John the Theologian (NE 7 [1910] 156-57), this saint appears on most seals of its bishops.

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)
  • Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα τοῦ ἐν ἈΘήναις Ἐθνικοῦ Νομισματικοῦ Μουσείου (Open in Zotero)
  • Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)