Skip to Content

Basil (metropolitan) of Side (twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of three lines. Border of dots.

ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΑΣΣΦΡ/
ΓΙΖ

Σφραγὰς σφραγίζω

Reverse

Inscription of three lines. Border of dots.

ΤΣΙ
ΔΗΣΑ
ΣΙΛ

τοῦ Σίδης Βασιλείου

Obverse

Inscription of three lines. Border of dots.

ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΑΣΣΦΡ/
ΓΙΖ

Σφραγὰς σφραγίζω

Reverse

Inscription of three lines. Border of dots.

ΤΣΙ
ΔΗΣΑ
ΣΙΛ

τοῦ Σίδης Βασιλείου

Accession number BZS.1958.106.366
Diameter 17.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 78.2; Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 497.

Translation

Σφραγὰς σφραγίζω τοῦ Σίδης Βασιλείου.

I seal the letters of Basil (metropolitan) of Side.

Commentary

Poor craftsmanship. The inscription is dodecasyllabic. The first word, σφραγάς, is an error for γραφάς.

Side (today Selimiye, previously also called Eski Antalya, at 7 km from Manavgat) was a major late antique city, metropolis of Pamphylia first attested in 451, and appearing as such in all notitiae from the 7th century onward. The city declined after the 7th century and was seemingly abandoned in the 11th, probably in favor of Attaleia (which, from bishopric, became [1084] metropolis), but "titular" metropolitans of Side continued being appointed. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 293-94; Fedalto, 238; Brandes, Städte, 102-3; ODB III, 1892.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Die Städte Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)