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Stephanos asekretis and judge of Lykandos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding a medallion before her. Sigla: ̅-θ̅υ : Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Tongues of fire. Border of pellets between two borders of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a decoration below. Border of dots.

θκεR,θ,
τεφανο
ασηκρητ,
Sκριτ,λι
κανδ
– + –

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) [Σ]τεφάνο ἀσηκρήτ(ις) (καὶ) κριτ(ῇ) Λικανδοῦ.

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding a medallion before her. Sigla: ̅-θ̅υ : Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Tongues of fire. Border of pellets between two borders of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a decoration below. Border of dots.

θκεR,θ,
τεφανο
ασηκρητ,
Sκριτ,λι
κανδ
– + –

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) [Σ]τεφάνο ἀσηκρήτ(ις) (καὶ) κριτ(ῇ) Λικανδοῦ.

Accession number BZS.1958.106.2926
Diameter 27.0 mm; field: 24.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 4, no. 53.4.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Στεφάνο ἀσηκρήτις καὶ κριτῇ Λικανδοῦ.

Mother of God, help Stephanos, asekretis and judge of Lykandos.

Commentary

Lykandos or Likandos or Likandon (formerly Lapara), mentioned as a feminine name but sometimes also as a masculine, was situated in the region east of Caesarea; it was first a kleisoura created by the Armenian Melias. From 916 until the 11th c. it was the seat first of a strategos (whose authority extended also over neighboring Tzamandos, cf. De Adm. Imp. ch. 50, l. 157 and Canard, Hamdanides, 780 [954, mention of a “patrice de Lykandos et de Tzamandos"]) and later of a katepano. The seal of a katepano τῶν Λυκανδνῶν (Zacos, Seals II, no. 437) shows that this official was at the head of a military contingent. The theme is attested until the reign of Romanos IV Diogenes (Attaleiates, 105).  It had a normal administration including protonotarioi (two seals in Sig., 282, 283, another one in Pancenko, Katalog, no. 471 and Sandrovskaja, Sfragistika, no. 818). See Hild-Restle, Kappadokien, 224-226; Oikonomides, Listes, 350; G. Dédéyan, Mleh le Grand, Revue des Etudes Arméniennes 15 (1981) 73-102; Mikra Asia them., 307-313, 475-478 (T. Lounghis).


Bibliography