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The imperial kommerkia of Thrace (787/8)

 
 

Obverse

Two imperial busts: Constantine VI (left), beardless, wearing chlamys and crown with a cross, and his mother Irene, wearing crown with a cross and four triangular projections (details of dress indistinct). Between the figures, in the upper field, a cross. Wreath border.

νδικτιὼν ιαˊ

Reverse

Three imperial busts above an exergual line: Constantine V (left), Leo III (center), and Leo IV; all wear a chlamys and crown with a cross. At right, an indiction sign: ΙΑ. Below the exergual line, inscription of three lines. Wreath border.

Β/ΚΟΜΜΕΡ
ΤΗΣΘΡ
Σ

Τῶν βασιλικῶν κομμερκίων τῆς Θρᾴκης

Obverse

Two imperial busts: Constantine VI (left), beardless, wearing chlamys and crown with a cross, and his mother Irene, wearing crown with a cross and four triangular projections (details of dress indistinct). Between the figures, in the upper field, a cross. Wreath border.

νδικτιὼν ιαˊ

Reverse

Three imperial busts above an exergual line: Constantine V (left), Leo III (center), and Leo IV; all wear a chlamys and crown with a cross. At right, an indiction sign: ΙΑ. Below the exergual line, inscription of three lines. Wreath border.

Β/ΚΟΜΜΕΡ
ΤΗΣΘΡ
Σ

Τῶν βασιλικῶν κομμερκίων τῆς Θρᾴκης

Accession number BZS.1958.106.674
Diameter 31.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 71.19.
Zacos-Veglery, no. 276a. A second specimen from the Zacos collection (same boulloterion) is published ibid., no. 277b.

Translation

Ἰνδικτιὼν ιαˊ.   Τῶν βασιλικῶν κομμερκίων τῆς Θρᾴκης.

Indiction 11.   (Seal of) the imperial kommerkia of Thrace.

Commentary

On the reverse, outside the field at right, the letters Α, then a straight line, then ΕΡ, can be seen. These are remnants of a previous strike with the same matrices: end of the indiction sign, exergual line, end of line (rev.).

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
  • “Thrakien” und “Thrakesion” (Open in Zotero)
  • Die zweihundertjährige Reform (Zu den Anfängen der Themenorganisation im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert) (Open in Zotero)
  • Ανίχνευση τοπογραφική της ανατολικής Θράκης (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)
  • Constantini Porphyrogeniti De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae (Open in Zotero)