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Niketas Chalkoutzes, protospatharios and episkeptites of Maiandros (eleventh/twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of four lines followed by an ornament, or an inscription of five lines, the letters of the last line being placed between two dashes. Border of dots.

+κ̅εR.
τσ..
νικη..
α̅σπ..
-

Κ(ύρι)ε β[οήθει] τῷ σῷ [δούλῳ] Νική[τᾳ] (πρωτο)σπ[αθ(αρίῳ) καὶ]

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

...ι
..επτιτ
..μεαν
...χαλ
..τ,-

[ἐπ]ι[σκ]επτίτ[ῃ τοῦ] Μεάν[δρου τῷ] Χαλ[κού]τ(ζῃ)

Obverse

Inscription of four lines followed by an ornament, or an inscription of five lines, the letters of the last line being placed between two dashes. Border of dots.

+κ̅εR.
τσ..
νικη..
α̅σπ..
-

Κ(ύρι)ε β[οήθει] τῷ σῷ [δούλῳ] Νική[τᾳ] (πρωτο)σπ[αθ(αρίῳ) καὶ]

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

...ι
..επτιτ
..μεαν
...χαλ
..τ,-

[ἐπ]ι[σκ]επτίτ[ῃ τοῦ] Μεάν[δρου τῷ] Χαλ[κού]τ(ζῃ)

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.2509
Diameter 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 25.1.

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

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Νικήτᾳ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ ἐπισκεπτίτῃ τοῦ Μεάνδρου τῷ Χαλκούτζῃ.

Lord, help your servant Niketas Chalkoutzes, protospatharios and episkeptites of Maiandros.

Commentary

Niketas Chalkoutzes, protospatharios and episkeptites of Maiandros, signed a praktikon of the monastery of Xerochoraphion: N. Wilson and J. Darrouzès, "Restes du cartulaire de Hiéra–Xérochoraphion," REB 26 (1968) 19, lines 32-33. Other members of the Chalkoutzes family held administrative positions in several Constantinopolitan bureaux by the late eleventh century (for example, DO Seals 2, no. 54.1). Niketas is not included in the article on the Chalkoutzai by A. Savvides, in Ἀρχεῖον Εὐβοϊκῶν Μελετῶν 28 (1988/89) 63-73.

The episkepsis of Maiandros might well be identical with that of Alopekai in the Maeander valley.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient (Open in Zotero)
  • Restes du cartulaire de Hiéra–Xérochoraphion (Open in Zotero)
  • 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)