Constantine dioiketes of the Lykian Myra (ninth century)
Obverse
Cruciform invocative monogram (type VIII); in the quarters: ΤΣ|..Λ. Wreath border.
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of four lines. Wreath border.
ΚΝΣ
ΤΑΝΤΙΝ
ΔΙΥΚ/ΛΥΚ/
ΜΥΡΟ/
Κωνσταντίνῳ διυκητῇ Λυκίων Μύρον
Obverse
Cruciform invocative monogram (type VIII); in the quarters: ΤΣ|..Λ. Wreath border.
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of four lines. Wreath border.
ΚΝΣ
ΤΑΝΤΙΝ
ΔΙΥΚ/ΛΥΚ/
ΜΥΡΟ/
Κωνσταντίνῳ διυκητῇ Λυκίων Μύρον
| Accession number | BZS.1958.106.4460 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 27.0 mm; field: 23.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 2, no. 72.1. |
Translation
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ διυκητῇ Λυκίων Μύρον.
Lord, help your servant Constantine dioiketes of the Lykian Myra.
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)
- Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
- De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
- Sceaux byzantins inédits (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
- Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
- Sur les variations numériques des évêchés byzantins (Open in Zotero)
- Kleinasiatische Ortsnamen (Open in Zotero)
- Die Städte Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
Despite the odd word order that this creates, Zacos-Veglery transcribed Λυκίας Μύρων. This phrasing (Lykia placed before Myra) invites one to understand dioiketes of Lykia, Myra, or Lykia and Myra. The necessary καί is not there. Thus we prefer the adjective Λύκιος (of Lykia, cf. Λυκίων πόλιν in De Them., chap. XIV, line 18); we use it here to specify the region where Constantine was authorized to collect taxes and to avoid any confusion with taxes on μῦρα, that is, perfumes, in a region where this trade was certainly very active (cf. DO Seals 2, § 64), not to speak of the μῦρον exhumed by St. Nicholas' grave. Another dioiketes of Myra appears at a later date on a seal the reading of which is not secure (G. Schlumberger, "Sceaux byzantins inédits," RN 9 [1905] 324, no. 209).
Myra (ruins close to Demre) was famous for the relics of St. Nicholas; it was also a major metropolis mentioned in all notitiae and whose metropolitans attended the major councils and the patriarchal synod from the 4th century onward. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 370; Zacos, Seals II, no. 380; Fedalto, 225-26; J. Darrouzès, in REB 44 (1986) 17-19; ODB II, 1428; Zgusta, 410-11; Brandes, Städte, 96-98. Our first seal shows that in the 9th century it was also a center of fiscal administration.