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John imperial semeiophoros, kommerkiarios of Attaleia and Cyprus (tenth/eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. George holding the spear and the shield. Vertical inscription: |Γ|Ρ|Γ,: Ὁ ἅγιος Γεώργιος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

Ι̅ΣΗ
ΜΙΟΦΚ
ΜΚ,ΑΤΑΛ,
ΚΥΠΡ

Ἰωάννῃ βασιλικῷ σημιοφόρῳ, κουμερκιαρίῳ Ἀταλίας καὶ Κύπρου

Obverse

Bust of St. George holding the spear and the shield. Vertical inscription: |Γ|Ρ|Γ,: Ὁ ἅγιος Γεώργιος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

Ι̅ΣΗ
ΜΙΟΦΚ
ΜΚ,ΑΤΑΛ,
ΚΥΠΡ

Ἰωάννῃ βασιλικῷ σημιοφόρῳ, κουμερκιαρίῳ Ἀταλίας καὶ Κύπρου

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1912
Diameter 20.0 mm; field: 18.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 64.2.

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

Translation

Ἰωάννῃ βασιλικῷ σημιοφόρῳ, κουμερκιαρίῳ Ἀταλίας καὶ Κύπρου.

John imperial semeiophoros, koumerkiarios of Attaleia and Cyprus.

Commentary

Semeiophoros means an ensign-bearer; such officers are known to have existed in the "late" tagmata of the Vigla/Arithmos (first attested in 791) and of the Hikanatoi (created in 809), both intended to be the emperor's or his son's personal guard (Listes, 331, 332; J. F. Haldon, Byzantine Praetorians. An Administrative, Institutional and Social Survey of the Opsikion and the Tagmata, c. 580-900 [Bonn, 1984], 294). The expression βασιλικῷ σημειοφόρῳ may well indicate the personal standard bearer of the emperor, who (as a favor?) received leave and the lucrative rights to the kommerkion of Attaleia and Cyprus. In other words, the effective office of standard bearer had become, in this particular case, an honorific title.

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)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Praetorians: An Administrative, Institutional, and Social Survey of the Opsikion and Tagmata, c. 580-900 (Open in Zotero)
  • Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierosolymitikē Vivliothēkē, ētoi Katalogos tōn en tais vivliothēkais : tou hagiōtatou apostolikou te kai katholikou orthodoxou patriarchikou thronou tōn Hierosolymōn kai pasēs Palaistinēs apokeimenōn Hellēnikōn Kōdikōn (Open in Zotero)
  • Η Αττάλεια ως έδρα του βυζαντινού ναυτικού θέματος Καραβησιάνων/ Κιβυρραιωτών, μέσα 7ου-τέλη 11ου αι. (Open in Zotero)
  • Recueil des inscriptions grecques-chrétiennes d’Asie mineure (Open in Zotero)
  • Sur la route des saints byzantins (Open in Zotero)
  • Sceaux byzantins du Musée National de Varsovie (Open in Zotero)