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Basil imperial kandidatos and dioiketes of Sarde (ninth/tenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Patriarchal cross on two steps, the lower bar being of the potent type, ending in pellets. In the lower quarters, crosslets of dots; in the upper quarters, remnants of what appears to be a crescent at left and the sun at right. Along the circumference, between two borders of dots, a circular inscription starting at 12 o'clock:

κεRοηθητσδουλ

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

+Rσιλ
ειR,κν
Sιοικσ
ρισ+

Βασιλειῳ β(ασιλικῷ) καν(διδάτῳ) (καὶ) διοικ(ητῇ) Σάρδις

Obverse

Patriarchal cross on two steps, the lower bar being of the potent type, ending in pellets. In the lower quarters, crosslets of dots; in the upper quarters, remnants of what appears to be a crescent at left and the sun at right. Along the circumference, between two borders of dots, a circular inscription starting at 12 o'clock:

κεRοηθητσδουλ

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

+Rσιλ
ειR,κν
Sιοικσ
ρισ+

Βασιλειῳ β(ασιλικῷ) καν(διδάτῳ) (καὶ) διοικ(ητῇ) Σάρδις

Accession number BZS.1977.34.10
Diameter 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 32.2.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Βασιλειῳ βασιλικῷ κανδιδάτιω καὶ διοικητῇ Σάρδις.

Lord, help your servant Basil, imperial kandidatos and dioiketes of Sarde.

Commentary

Sardeis (modern Sart), was capital of Lydia and seat of a metropolitan, attested since 325. The non-hellenic name appears on seals as well as in the notitiae in two main forms, the classical Σάρδεις, -εων, and the popular Σάρδη, ἦς, or non-declined Σάρδης (whenever in doubt, we have restored the classical form). From the seals we learn that it was also a fiscal center. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 260-61 (add Zacos, Seals II, nos. 670, 869); Zgusta, 541-42; C. Foss, Byzantine and Turkish Sardis (Cambridge, Mass., 1976); Brandes, Städte, 86-88; ODB III, 1843.

Bibliography