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Synetos bishop of Helenoupolis (ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V). In the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Double wreath border.

+ΣΥΝ
ετεπι
σκ/ ελεν
πολ/

Συνετῷ ἐπισκ(όπῳ) Ἑλενουπόλ(εως)

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V). In the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Double wreath border.

+ΣΥΝ
ετεπι
σκ/ ελεν
πολ/

Συνετῷ ἐπισκ(όπῳ) Ἑλενουπόλ(εως)

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.669
Diameter 28.0 mm; field: 24.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 80.1. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 386, and Zacos-Veglery, no. 3187.

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

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Συνετῷ ἐπισκόπῳ Ἑλενουπόλεως.

Mother of God, help your servant Synetos, bishop of Helenoupolis.

Commentary

Helenoupolis (modern Hersek) was located at the entrance to the gulf of Izmit. Its bishops are attested in ca. 400, in 553, and 680, yet the see is absent from the Ekthesis of Pseudo-Epiphanios and first appears in Notitia 2 (eighth century, certainly before the first quarter of the ninth: Darrouzès, Notitiae, 19; 221, line 194) and in all subsequent Notitiae until the thirteenth century (Laurent, Corpus V/1, 278).

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)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)