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Niketas patrikios and strategos of Sicily (eighth/ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. No visible border.

ΝΙΚΗΤ
ΠΤΡΗΚ/
Κ/ΣΤΡ/Τ
ΣΙΚ

Νικήτᾳ πατρηκίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ τῆς Σικελίας

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. No visible border.

ΝΙΚΗΤ
ΠΤΡΗΚ/
Κ/ΣΤΡ/Τ
ΣΙΚ

Νικήτᾳ πατρηκίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ τῆς Σικελίας

Accession number BZS.1955.1.1102
Diameter 28.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 5.20a.
Zacos-Veglery, no. 2256.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Νικήτᾳ πατρηκίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ τῆς Σικελίας.

Theotokos, help your servant Niketas patrikios and strategos of Sicily.

Commentary

This seal is edited jointly with its counterpart from the same boulloterion: BZS 1958.106.5291.

Niketas patrikios, who was strategos of Sicily in 797 (TM 3 [1968] 316, 325; cf. Winkelmann, Ämterstruktur, 86-87), could well be the owner of the present seal. One should exclude, for obvious chronological reasons, Niketas Bothyrites, who served in the late 880s (Falkenhausen, Dominazione, 101, no. 64a). Seals with the same name and titles: Salinas, Notizie degli Scavi [1894] 416-17 (cf. TM 3 [1968] 316); Borsari, Amministrazione, app. II, no. 6; and DO Seals 1, no. 5.21.

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)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • La dominazione bizantina nell’Italia meridionale dal IX al XI secolo (Open in Zotero)
  • L’amministrazione del tema de Sicilia (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Storia della Sicilia, Vol. 3, La Sicilia fra Roma e Bisanzio (Open in Zotero)
  • La Sicile byzantine: État de recherches (Open in Zotero)
  • Une liste arabe des stratèges du thème de Sicile (Open in Zotero)
  • Une source peu étudiée de l’histoire de la Sicile au haut Moyen-Age: La sigillographie byzantine (Open in Zotero)
  • Theophanes Continuatus, Ioannes Cameniata, Symeon Magister, Georgius Monachus (Open in Zotero)