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Theodore bishop of Kos (?) (seventh century)

 
 

Obverse

A partially preserved cruciform invocative monogram (type V). No border visible.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Wreath border.

...
ΔΡΟΕ
ΠΙΣΚΟΠ
Κ

Θεοδώρο ἐπισκόπῳ Κώου

Obverse

A partially preserved cruciform invocative monogram (type V). No border visible.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Wreath border.

...
ΔΡΟΕ
ΠΙΣΚΟΠ
Κ

Θεοδώρο ἐπισκόπῳ Κώου

Accession number BZS.1955.1.4677
Diameter 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 49.3.
Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1814 (misread as Κίου).
Zacos-Veglery, no. 1626.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Θεοδώρο ἐπισκόπῳ Κώου.

Theotokos, help Theodore bishop of Kos.

Commentary

Zacos-Veglery correctly published the specimen as a seal of Kos, suggesting that it might, however, refer to the bishopric of Kokkos, a suffragan of Neokaisareia. But as this bishopric only appears in 10th century notitiae (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 10, line 243), it can be safely excluded. On the contrary, one cannot exclude the bishoprics of Κόμανα (of Pontos or of Armenia) or of Κόμβα (of Pissinou in Galatia). Without definitely excluding the other possibilities, we attribute this seal to Kos because the lost line 5 could not contain more than two letters and because the lost line 5 could not contain more than two letters and because of the Ω, which is very clearly legible at the end of line 4.

The island of Kos, a bishopric as early as the 4th century, was a suffragan of Rhodes, and seems to have had a normal succession of bishops (one of them, Constantine, attended the Council of 879: Mansi XVII, 374–78) until the 14th century when it achieved the rank of archbishopric under Michael VIII or Andronikos II. See Laurent, Corpus V/3, 121; Fedalto, 510-11; Malamut, Iles, 322, 503–4; ODB II, 150.

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)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)