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Sophronios archbishop of Cyprus (after 1191)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of five lines, a cross above. Border of dots.


ΕΝΤΑΥ
ΘΑΣΦΡΑΓΙΣ
ΓΡΑΦΝΑ
ΣΦΑΛΕΑ
ΤΗ

ἐνταῦθα σφραγὶς γραφῶν ἀσφαλεστάτη

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, preceded and followed by a cross. Border of dots.


ΤΠΟΙΜΕ
ΝΑΡΧΚΥ
ΙΝΣ
ΦΡΟΝΙ 

τοῦ ποιμενάρχου Κυπρίων Σωφρονίου

Obverse

Inscription of five lines, a cross above. Border of dots.


ΕΝΤΑΥ
ΘΑΣΦΡΑΓΙΣ
ΓΡΑΦΝΑ
ΣΦΑΛΕΑ
ΤΗ

ἐνταῦθα σφραγὶς γραφῶν ἀσφαλεστάτη

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, preceded and followed by a cross. Border of dots.


ΤΠΟΙΜΕ
ΝΑΡΧΚΥ
ΙΝΣ
ΦΡΟΝΙ 

τοῦ ποιμενάρχου Κυπρίων Σωφρονίου

Accession number BZS.1958.106.4
Diameter 31.0 mm; field: 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 38.14a; Laurent, Corpus V/2, no. 1487 (slightly different reading). See also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 745.

Translation

ἐνταῦθα σφραγὶς γραφῶν ἀσφαλεστάτη τοῦ ποιμενάρχου Κυπρίων Σωφρονίου.

Herewith the most secure seal of the correspondence of Sophronios, archbishop of Cyprus.

Commentary

Two dodecasyllabic verses. Sophronios, mentioned as archbishop in the chronicle of Machairas, was in office in 1191 when Richard the Lionhearted took the island; he remained on the archiepiscopal throne for a few years more (V. Laurent, Les regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople I/4 [Paris, 1974], no. 1210). No other archbishop of this name occupied the see of Cyprus from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries.

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)
  • Les regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople, Vol. 1, Les regestes de 381 à 715 (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantium and Islam in Cyprus in the Early Middle Ages (Open in Zotero)
  • The Nature of the Arab-Byzantine Relations in Cyprus from the Middle of the 7th to the Middle of the 10th Century A.D. (Open in Zotero)
  • The Church of Cyprus during the Period of the Arab Wars, 649-965 (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Synodikon de l’orthodoxie: Édition et commentaire (Open in Zotero)
  • Ἡ Κύπρος καὶ οἱ Ἄραβες (Open in Zotero)
  • Σημειώσεις Ἀναφερόμεναι Εἰς Τῆν Ἱστορίαν Τῆς Βυζαντινῆς Κύπρου (Open in Zotero)
  • Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Die byzantinische Armee im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Organisation der Tagmata (Open in Zotero)