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Manuel Barsakes, imperial protospatharios and strategos of Hellas (tenth/eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin with the medallion of Christ before her. Sigla (without the expected abbreviation marks): ΜΡΘΥ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Along a border of dots, on either side of the head of the Virgin, inscription.

....ΘΚΕˊΤΟΣΔ,

Ἁγία? Θεοτόκε βοήθει το σ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.

ΜΑΝ
ΟΥΗΛ̀Α
ΣΠ,Θ,SΣΤ
ΡΑΤΙΓΕ
ΛΑΔΑΣΟ
ΑΡΣΑΚ

Μανουὴλ βασιλικῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ Ἑλάδας ὁ Βαρσάκης

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin with the medallion of Christ before her. Sigla (without the expected abbreviation marks): ΜΡΘΥ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Along a border of dots, on either side of the head of the Virgin, inscription.

....ΘΚΕˊΤΟΣΔ,

Ἁγία? Θεοτόκε βοήθει το σ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.

ΜΑΝ
ΟΥΗΛ̀Α
ΣΠ,Θ,SΣΤ
ΡΑΤΙΓΕ
ΛΑΔΑΣΟ
ΑΡΣΑΚ

Μανουὴλ βασιλικῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ Ἑλάδας ὁ Βαρσάκης

Accession number BZS.1955.1.2941
Diameter 26.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 8.49a.

Translation

Ἁγία Θεοτόκε βοήθει το σῷ δούλῳ Μανουὴλ βασιλικῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ Ἑλάδας ὁ Βαρσάκης.

Holy Mother of God, help your servant Manuel Barsakes imperial protospatharios and strategos of Hellas.

Commentary

The last letter of the reverse seems to be a Κ. Βαρσάκης is an Armenian first name (cf. DO Seals 2, nos. 1.8 and 8.41) which could easily become a family name. But Βαρσάκιδες (sing. Βαρσάκης) is also the name of a Turkish tribe of Pisidia, attested in the 14th and 15th centuries (Moravcsik, Byzantinoturcica II, 87).

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)
  • Byzantinoturcica (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Peloponnese byzantin jusqu’en 1204 (Open in Zotero)
  • Du stratège de thème au duc: chronologie de l’évolution au cours du XIe siècle (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Hellas und Thessalia (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • Die byzantinische Armee im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Organisation der Tagmata (Open in Zotero)