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Peter (metropolitan) of Thebes (eleventh/twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

The Virgin, standing, holding Christ in front of her. On either side the inscription: ̅ΘΥ̅|ΗΕ|ΠΙΣΚΕ|ΠΨΙ|Σ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ ἡ ἐπίσκεπψις. Border of dots.

Reverse

inscription of four lines beginning with a cross. Border of dots.

ΜΕ̅ΡΘΥ̅
ΣΚΕΠΟΙΣΜΕ
ΤΟΝΟΗΝ
ΠΕΤΡΟΝ

Μήτερ Θεοῦ, σκέποις με τὸν Οηβῶν Πέτρον

Obverse

The Virgin, standing, holding Christ in front of her. On either side the inscription: ̅ΘΥ̅|ΗΕ|ΠΙΣΚΕ|ΠΨΙ|Σ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ ἡ ἐπίσκεπψις. Border of dots.

Reverse

inscription of four lines beginning with a cross. Border of dots.

ΜΕ̅ΡΘΥ̅
ΣΚΕΠΟΙΣΜΕ
ΤΟΝΟΗΝ
ΠΕΤΡΟΝ

Μήτερ Θεοῦ, σκέποις με τὸν Οηβῶν Πέτρον

Accession number BZS.1955.1.5000
Diameter 28.0 mm; field: 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 21.2; Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1785. Cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 1427.

Translation

Μήτερ Θεοῦ, σκέποις με τὸν Οηβῶν Πέτρον.

Mother of God, may you protect me, Peter (metropolitan) of Thebes.

Commentary

Dodecasyllabic; the engraver mistakenly carved an Ο instead of Θ (line 3 rev.) and added an unncecessary Π (obv.).

A different seal of a Peter of Thebes is published in Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 774. A metropolitan of Thebes named Peter signed an imperial document in 1079 (Byzantion, 29-30 [1959-60] 31, 34).

Thebes of Boeotia was an important administrative center, residence of the strategos of Hellas (early 10th century), and of an archon (Konstantopoulos, no. 63; Laurent, Orghidan, no. 236). Thebes became an autocephalous archbishopric (toward the end of the 8th century: Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 2, line 79; cf. Seyrig, no. 270) and was raised to a metropolis between 968 and 997. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 591; Koder-Hild, Hellas, 269-71; Fedalto, 523-25; ODB III, 2032; and J. Darrouzès in REB 47 (1989) 226-31.

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)
  • Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα τοῦ ἐν ἈΘήναις Ἐθνικοῦ Νομισματικοῦ Μουσείου (Open in Zotero)
  • Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Les sceaux byzantins de la Collection Henri Seyrig (Open in Zotero)
  • Hellas und Thessalia (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)