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Nikephoros protokourator of Mesonakta (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Nicholas blessing and holding a book. Remnants of an inscription: |..|.|ΟΛ|ΑΟ|Σ: Ὁ ἅ(γιος) [Νικ]όλαος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded and followed by an ornament. Border of dots.


ΝΗΚΗ
ΦΟΡ,Κ
ΡΤΟΡ
ΜΣΟΝ
ΚΤΟΝ

 

Νηκηφόρ(ῳ) (πρωτο)κουράτορ[ι τ(ῶν)] Μεσονάκτον

Obverse

Bust of St. Nicholas blessing and holding a book. Remnants of an inscription: |..|.|ΟΛ|ΑΟ|Σ: Ὁ ἅ(γιος) [Νικ]όλαος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded and followed by an ornament. Border of dots.


ΝΗΚΗ
ΦΟΡ,Κ
ΡΤΟΡ
ΜΣΟΝ
ΚΤΟΝ

 

Νηκηφόρ(ῳ) (πρωτο)κουράτορ[ι τ(ῶν)] Μεσονάκτον

Accession number BZS.1958.106.3359
Diameter 24.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 58.2.

Translation

Νηκηφόρ(ῳ) (πρωτο)κουράτορ[ι τ(ῶν)] Μεσονάκτον.

Nikephoros, protokourator of Mesonakton.

Commentary

Mesonakta was also called Dipotamon and known to be an imperial domain (χωρίον βασιλικόν: Skylitzes, 320), hence the administrators are called protokourator and episkeptites: it was situated in the neighborhood of Dorylaion, Kotyaion, and Philomelion in Phrygia, on the military road to the East and on the shore of an otherwise unknown lake of the Forty Martyrs. The historians give the spelling Μεσάνακτα, which sounds more Greek. It would seep that Mesonakta had a special relationship with St. Nicholas, who is depicted on both our seals. See Phrygien und Pisidien, 338-339.

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)
  • Phrygien und Pisidien (Open in Zotero)