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Symeon metropolitan of Rhodes (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding Christ. On either side the sigla: Μ̅ΘΥ̅: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines, a decoration above. Border of dots.


ΘΚΕ,Θ,
ΣΥΜΕΝ
Τ,ΕΛΑΧΙΣ
Τ,ΜΡΟΠΟ
ΛΙΤ,ΡΟ

Δ

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Συμεὼν τ ἐλαχίστ μητροπολίτ Ῥόδου

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding Christ. On either side the sigla: Μ̅ΘΥ̅: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines, a decoration above. Border of dots.


ΘΚΕ,Θ,
ΣΥΜΕΝ
Τ,ΕΛΑΧΙΣ
Τ,ΜΡΟΠΟ
ΛΙΤ,ΡΟ

Δ

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Συμεὼν τ ἐλαχίστ μητροπολίτ Ῥόδου

Accession number BZS.1958.106.62
Diameter 23.0 mm; field: 17.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 54.4.
Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 699 (slightly different reading).

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Συμεὼν τῷ ἐλαχίστῳ μητροπολίτῃ Ῥόδου.

Theotokos, help Symeon, most humble metropolitan of Rhodes.

Commentary

Symeon is listed in the Synodikon four positions before the first twelfth century Niketas (Gouillard, Synodikon, 113). This would place him in the second half of the eleventh century (Laurent placed him ca. 1050, but his reasoning was based on an erroneous date for the metropolitan of Rhodes John: see Era Vranoussi, in Patmos I, *11.

The metropolis of Rhodes kept its rank throughout the centuries, but the number of its suffragans varied. We have the list of the metropolitans of this see, the Synodikon. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 528; Fedalto, 203-5; Malamut, Iles, passim, esp. 242-44, 281-83, 300, 323, 325, 359, 365, 506; Gouillard, Synodikon, 113, 278-79; ODB III, 1791-92.

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)
  • Patmiakē Vivliothēkē: ētoi neos katalogos tōn cheirographōn kōdikōn tēs Hieras Monēs Hagiou Iōannou tou Theologou Patmou (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Synodikon de l’orthodoxie: Édition et commentaire (Open in Zotero)
  • Mélanges d’archéologie byzantine (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)