Michael Skleros, protoproedros and anagrapheus of Drougoubiteia (eleventh century)
Obverse
Bust of the Virgin orans with medallion of Christ on her breast. Sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Circular inscription along border of dots.
ΘΚΕΟΗΘ
Θεοτόκε βοήθει
Obverse
Bust of the Virgin orans with medallion of Christ on her breast. Sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Circular inscription along border of dots.
ΘΚΕΟΗΘ
Θεοτόκε βοήθει
Reverse
Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.
ΜΙΧΑΗΛ
Α ΠΡΟΕΔΡ
ΚΑΙΑΝΑΓΡΑ
ΦΕΥΣΔΡ
ΙΤΙΑΣΤ
ΣΚΛΗΡ
Μιχαὴλ πρωτοπροέδρῳ καὶ ἀναγραφεὺς Δρουγουβιτίας τῷ Σκληρῷ
Accession number | BZS.1958.106.2360 |
---|---|
Diameter | 26.0 mm; field: 21.0 mm |
Previous Editions | DO Seals 1, no. 21.1b. |
Credit Line | Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore. |
Translation
Θεοτόκε βοήθει Μιχαὴλ πρωτοπροέδρῳ καὶ ἀναγραφεὺς Δρουγουβιτίας τῷ Σκληρῷ.
Theotokos, help Michael Skleros protoproedros and anagrapheus of Drougoubiteia.
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)
- Vesti Dimitrija Homatijana o vlasti Druguvita (Open in Zotero)
- Die Skleroi: Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie (Open in Zotero)
- Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
- Actes d’Iviron (Open in Zotero)
- A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (Open in Zotero)
- De expugnatione Thessalonicae (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
This specimen comes from the same boulloterion as BZS.1955.1.3313 and BZS.1951.31.5.1503.
Note the incoherent dative-nominative-dative in the formulation of the inscription. Michael Skleros is known from several other sources: while he was a protoproedros, he also became ἐξισωτὴς τῆς Δύσεως, judge of Thrace and Macedonia (1082; cf. DO Seals 1, no. 1.22), and later became kouropalates (1094/5); see the comments of Seibt, Skleroi, no. 24.
The title "strategos of Drougoubiteia" is mentioned in the Escorial Taktikon (971-975: ὁ στρατηγὸς Δρουγουβιτείας̣: Listes, 267, line 6). Since we have (1) the seal and two documents of judge Nicholas (of 995 and 996: Iviron, nos. 9-10; cf. Oikonomides, Dated Seals, no. 72) showing that the strategeia of Drougoubiteia was located north of Thessalonica and bordered on the theme of the Strymon; (2) information about a (suffragan) bishopric of Drougoubiteia, attested from 879 on, with the bishop's seat situated west of Thessalonica, near Pella (village Hagioi Apostoloi: cf. R. Janin, DHGE 14 [1960] 782-83); (3) a Slavic tribe of the Drougoubitai who lived in the tenth century somewhere between Berroia and Thessalonica (Ioannes Cameniates, 8; cf. G. Tsaras, in Βυζαντινά 13/1 [1985] 177-200); and (4) the text of Chomatianos speaking of the Drougoubitike exousia over Berroia and up to Skoplje (cf. F. Barišić and B. Ferjančić, "Vesti Dimitrija Homatijana o vlasti Druguvita," Zbor. Rad. 20 [1981] 41-58), Oikonomides (Listes, 357-58) argued that the term Drougoubiteia indicates a large zone surrounding Thessalonica from west to east and inhabited mainly by Slavs, who were eventually placed under the command of an archon (DO Seals 1, no. 21.2).