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Leo archbishop of Neapolis (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

..Ε
ΟΗΘ,ΤΟ
ΣΛ
.ΕΟΝ

Θεοτόκε βοήθει το σ δούλ Λέοντι

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

Α...
ΕΠΙΣΚ..
ΝΕΑΠΟ
...

ρχιεπισκόπ Νεαπόλεως

Obverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

..Ε
ΟΗΘ,ΤΟ
ΣΛ
.ΕΟΝ

Θεοτόκε βοήθει το σ δούλ Λέοντι

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

Α...
ΕΠΙΣΚ..
ΝΕΑΠΟ
...

ρχιεπισκόπ Νεαπόλεως

Accession number BZS.1958.106.297
Diameter 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 94.1.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει το σῷ δούλῳ Λέοντι ἀρχιεπισκόπῳ Νεαπόλεως.

Mother of God, help your servant Leo, archbishop of Neapolis.

Commentary

The attribution of the present seal to Neapolis of Pisidia seems secure because it is the only archbishopric of this name inside the Byzantine empire. Naples of Italy is another archbishopric with the same name, but no one would expect its archbishop to have a Greek seal in the eleventh century. We note that Laurent (Corpus V/1, no. 920) published a 10th century Greek seal of a Stephanos archbishop of Neapolis, assigning it to Naples of Italy, without even considering Neapolis of Pisidia, which is in our view, a much more likely candidate.

Neapolis of Pisidiea (uncertain location: sought around Karağaç) appears in the Ekthesis of Pseudo-Epiphanios as a suffragan bishopric of Antioch of Pisidia, but in the early ninth century and in all subsequent notitiae it is listed as an autocephalous archbishopric (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 1, line 379; no. 4, line 78). Its first known bishop attended the Council of Nicaea (325), its first known archbishop, the Council of 879. See Phrygien und Pisidien, 347.

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)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Phrygien und Pisidien (Open in Zotero)