Skip to Content

Euphrosynos (?) imperial protospatharios and strategos of the Peloponnesos (tenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Patriarchal cross on three steps with fleurons arising from base (up to lower arm). Circular inscription between two borders of dots.

ΚΕΟΗΘΕΙ....ΔΟΥΛ,

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

.....
.ΣΙΝΑ,
ΣΠΑΘ,ΤΡ
ΑΤΗΓ,ΠΕΛ
ΟΠΟΝ,

Εὐφροσίνῳ βασιλικῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατηγ Πελοποννήσου

Obverse

Patriarchal cross on three steps with fleurons arising from base (up to lower arm). Circular inscription between two borders of dots.

ΚΕΟΗΘΕΙ....ΔΟΥΛ,

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

.....
.ΣΙΝΑ,
ΣΠΑΘ,ΤΡ
ΑΤΗΓ,ΠΕΛ
ΟΠΟΝ,

Εὐφροσίνῳ βασιλικῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατηγ Πελοποννήσου

Accession number BZS.1958.106.4224
Diameter 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 22.23.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Εὐφροσίνῳ βασιλικῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ Πελοποννήσου.

Lord, help your servant Euphrosynos (?) imperial protospatharios and strategos of the Peloponnesos.

Commentary

The reading of the first name is not secure because the last two letters of line 1 and the first of line 2 are muddled. Before ΣΙΝΩ, one can see an Ο (or Α) and at the end of line two consecutive ΑΑ, the first of which could also be a Κ or Χ, the second, a Ρ. Εὐφρόσυνος is the most probably reading, but Δαλασσηνός could be another one (it is also attested in Antiquity as a first name, cf. Cheynet- Vannier, 76, note 91) or even Θαλασσινός, a demotic form for Θαλάσσιος. Note also the omission of the initial σ in στρατηγός (cf. DO Seals 2, nos. 1.15, 22.37).

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)
  • La Morée franque: Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d’Achaïe (1205-1430) (Open in Zotero)
  • Études prosopographiques (Open in Zotero)
  • Die Skleroi: Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie (Open in Zotero)
  • Theophanis Chronographia (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Realities of Byzantine Provincial Government: Hellas and Peloponnesos, 1180-1205 (Open in Zotero)
  • Die byzantinische Armee im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Organisation der Tagmata (Open in Zotero)