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The bishop of Agrai (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin with medallion. Sigla: ΜΡ.. :  Μήτηρ Θεο. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

+ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΕΠΙΣ
ΚΟΠΟΥΑ
ΓΡΟΝ

Σφραγὶς ἐπισκόπου Ἀγρόν

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin with medallion. Sigla: ΜΡ.. :  Μήτηρ Θεο. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

+ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΕΠΙΣ
ΚΟΠΟΥΑ
ΓΡΟΝ

Σφραγὶς ἐπισκόπου Ἀγρόν

Accession number BZS.1958.106.106
Diameter 17.0 mm; field: 13.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 87.1.
Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 543.

Translation

Σφραγὶς ἐπισκόπου Ἀγρόν.

Seal of the bishop of Agron.

Commentary

Agrai (or Agroi), Agros during the Ottoman times (modern Atabey), is located at 61 km southwest of Pisidian Antioch, of which it was a suffragan. It is attested for the first time in 869/870, and was later united with the neighboring see of Seleukeia Ferrea (Sidera). This union of the two sees continued according to the notitiae episcopatuum (which sometimes confuse Seleukeia Sidera with Laodikeia Sidera). See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 403; Phyrgien und Pisidien, 172.

The three DO specimens from Agrai reproduce the same anonymous inscription but come from three different boulloteria, dating from different periods of the eleventh century. The same inscription is reproduced on a fourth seal (Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 544) which adds that the owner was also a raiktor, that is, an imperial official. The anonymity of these seals may have been due to the union of this see with Seleukeia and to the absenteeism of its bishop (cf. SBS 4 [1995] 75 ff).

Three out of four known seals of the bishopric of Agrai are decorated with the bust of St. Demetrios. It is safe to assume that the episcopal church was dedicated to this saint. Cf. C. Morrison and J.-Cl. Cheynet, SBS 4 (1995) 22.

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)
  • Phrygien und Pisidien (Open in Zotero)