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Aetios protospatharios and strategos of Preslav (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Theodore holding spear. Vertical inscription at left: |ΘΕ|Ο: Ὁ ἅγιος Θεόδωρος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines followed by decoration. Traces of a decoration above. Border of dots.


ΕΤΙΟ,
ΣΠΑΘ,Σ
ΡΑΤ,ΠΕ
ΣΘΛ,,

έτιος (πρωτο)σπαθάριος καὶ στρατηγὸς Περσθλάβας

Obverse

Bust of St. Theodore holding spear. Vertical inscription at left: |ΘΕ|Ο: Ὁ ἅγιος Θεόδωρος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines followed by decoration. Traces of a decoration above. Border of dots.


ΕΤΙΟ,
ΣΠΑΘ,Σ
ΡΑΤ,ΠΕ
ΣΘΛ,,

έτιος (πρωτο)σπαθάριος καὶ στρατηγὸς Περσθλάβας

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.2284
Diameter 23.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 69.1.
Mentioned in Oikonomides, "Presthlavitza, the Little Preslav," 5 note 13. Four parallel seals (though all from the same different boulloterion) are published by Jordanov, Corpus III/1, no. 1387-90.

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

Translation

Ἀέτιος πρωτοσπαθάριος καὶ στρατηγὸς Περσθλάβας.

Aetios protospatharios and strategos of Preslav.

Commentary

The four parallel seals published by Jordanov likely belonged to the same person. In addition to these, Jordanov published two seals with the same iconography, name, and titles, but differeing in that this Aetios held his post at "Little Preslav," i.e. Πρεσθλαβίτζα (Corpus III/1, no. 1385-86). It was probably one and the same person, Aetios, who was strategos at one time of Preslav and at another at Presthlavitza.

Preslav is situated along the Tiča River, south of the modern city of the same name. Founded by Tsar Symeon toward the end of the ninth century, it served as the second capital of Bulgaria. Captured by Svjatoslav in 969, the city then fell to John Tzimiskes in 971. He maintained it as an administrative center by installing a strategos (and a tourmarches, heading the local contingent) and renamed it Ἰωαννούπολις, the name it went by until recaptured by Samuel ca. 986. The city was reconquered by the Byzantines in 1000, became once again the seat of a strategos, and after this date is referred to in the sources and on seals as Πρεσθλάβα. See I. Jordanov, "La stratégie de Preslav aux XIe-XIe siècles selon les données de la sigillographie," in SBS 1 (1987) 89-96; and "Novi danni za Preslav v kraja na X vek," Preslav III (Varna, 1983) 104-14.

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)
  • La stratégie de Preslav aux Xe-XIe siècles selon les donées de la sigillographie (Open in Zotero)
  • Presthlavitza, the Little Preslav (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus of Byzantine Seals from Bulgaria (Open in Zotero)