Skip to Content

Pantherios imperial protospatharios and strategos of the Thrakesioi (tenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Patriarchal cross on three steps with fleurons arising from base (up to the lower traverse bar). Circular inscription along a border of dots:

..Rοηθ,τσδ..

[Κ(ύρι)ε] βοήθ(ει) τῷ σῷ δ[ούλ(ῳ)]

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.

+πν
υρηR
πθρ,S
τρτηγ,
νθρ
κισ

Παν[θ]ύρῃ β(ασιλικῷ) (πρωτο)[σ]παθαρ(ίῳ) (καὶ) [σ]τρατηγ(ῷ) [το]ν Θρᾳκισίων

Obverse

Patriarchal cross on three steps with fleurons arising from base (up to the lower traverse bar). Circular inscription along a border of dots:

..Rοηθ,τσδ..

[Κ(ύρι)ε] βοήθ(ει) τῷ σῷ δ[ούλ(ῳ)]

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.

+πν
υρηR
πθρ,S
τρτηγ,
νθρ
κισ

Παν[θ]ύρῃ β(ασιλικῷ) (πρωτο)[σ]παθαρ(ίῳ) (καὶ) [σ]τρατηγ(ῷ) [το]ν Θρᾳκισίων

Accession number BZS.1958.106.4164
Diameter 21.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 2.48b.

Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Πανθύρῃ βασιλικῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ τον Θρᾳκισίων.

Lord, help your servant Pantherios, imperial protospatharios and strategos of the Thrakesioi.

Commentary

This seal, BZS.1955.1.1601, and BZS.1951.31.5.374 appear to have come from the same boulloterion, which may have been retooled; otherwise, they may come from boulloteria meant to be exact copies of each other.

The owner's name is Πανθήριος, misspelt on this and other seals in an unexpected way. It is not impossible that he was also the owner of BZS.1951.31.5.2861, a roughly contemporary seal with the same name, titles, and iconography but the work of a more sophisticated engraver.

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)
  • Constantini Porphyrogeniti De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Praetorians: An Administrative, Institutional, and Social Survey of the Opsikion and Tagmata, c. 580-900 (Open in Zotero)
  • Theophanis Chronographia (Open in Zotero)
  • L’histoire et la géographie de la région de Smyrne entre les deux occupations turques (1081-1317), particulièrement au XIIIe siècle (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • “Thrakien” und “Thrakesion” (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)