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Perdikes chartoularios of the Arithmoi of the East (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

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


.ΧΡ
ΤΛΡΗ
ΟΣΤΗΣ
ΝΤΟΛ

Ὁ χαρτουλάρηος τῆς Ἀνατολῆς

Reverse

Inscription of four lines preceded by an ornament. Border of dots.


ΤΟΝ
ΡΗΘΜΟΝ
ΟΠΕΡΔ.
ΚΗΣ

τον ἀριθμον ὁ Περδίκης

Obverse

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


.ΧΡ
ΤΛΡΗ
ΟΣΤΗΣ
ΝΤΟΛ

Ὁ χαρτουλάρηος τῆς Ἀνατολῆς

Reverse

Inscription of four lines preceded by an ornament. Border of dots.


ΤΟΝ
ΡΗΘΜΟΝ
ΟΠΕΡΔ.
ΚΗΣ

τον ἀριθμον ὁ Περδίκης

Accession number BZS 1958.106.3466
Diameter 27.0 mm; field: 17.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 99.2.

Translation

Ὁ χαρτουλάρηος τῆς Ἀνατολῆς τον ἀριθμον ὁ Περδίκης.

Perdikes the chartoularios of the Arithmoi of the East.

Commentary

The formulation of this seal is uncommon. We understand Perdikes to be an accounting officer (chartoularios) of the regiments (arithmoi) of the East (Listes, 310, 364), but it is unclear if these arithmoi had anything to do with the Constantinopolitan tagma of vigla or arithmos (Listes, 331-32), the commanding officer of which became in the 11th century the head of an imperial tribunal (Oikonomides, Évoluion, 132-33). As all tagmata, the vigla/arithmos had its own chartoularios (Listes, 331). Another 8th-century seal of the chartoularioi of the Arithmos (which Arithmos?) is published by Laurent, Orghidan, no. 32

From an administrative point of view, the term Anatole was used until the 10th century to indicate (a) the territories that had previously belonged to the praefectura praetorio per Orientem that is, essentially, all the themes of Asia Minor together with those of Thrace and Macedonia; or, more realistically, (b) the territories situated to the east of Constantinople, that is, Asia Minor. In the 10th century the army command of the East was separated from that of the West (that is, Europe), Listes, 329, 341-42; cf. Oikonomides, Évolution, 141-42 and AP 35 [1978] 300, 328-29. The seals published here (and some others, such as the one of the stratopedarches of the East: Zacos-Veglery, no. 2780; Lihačev, Molivdovuly, 104, pl. LXIII,9; Seyrig, no. 159; or the hikanatoi of the East: Seyrig, no. 154) show that in the 10th and eleventh centuries the entity called the East comprised only military commands.

It should be noted, however, that in some cases the term Anatole seems to have been used to indicate a strategos of the Anatolikoi (cf. Winkelmann, Ämterstruktur, 78-79); and several civilian officials defined as ton Anatolikon could well wave authority over territories covering the East, well beyond the boundaries of the theme (see DO Seals 3, § 86, nos. 86.9, 86.17, 86.34).

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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)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • L’évolution de l’organisation administrative de l’empire byzantin au XIe siècle (1025–1118) (Open in Zotero)
  • Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Molivdovuly grečeskogo Vostoka (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • Les sceaux byzantins de la Collection Henri Seyrig (Open in Zotero)