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N., .... of the Five Klimata (ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (of indeterminate type); visible in the quarters: ΔΛ.. Border of dots.

Κύριε or Θεοτόκε βοήθει [τῷ σῷ] δούλ[ῳ]

Reverse

Inscription. No visible border.

.......
ΤΟΝΠΕΝΤΕ
ΚΛΙΜΤ

...α.... τὸν Πέντε Κλιμάτων

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (of indeterminate type); visible in the quarters: ΔΛ.. Border of dots.

Κύριε or Θεοτόκε βοήθει [τῷ σῷ] δούλ[ῳ]

Reverse

Inscription. No visible border.

.......
ΤΟΝΠΕΝΤΕ
ΚΛΙΜΤ

...α.... τὸν Πέντε Κλιμάτων

Accession number BZS.1947.2.1234
Diameter 30.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 81.1.

Translation

Κύριε or Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ ...α.... τὸν Πέντε Κλιμάτων.

Lord or Theotokos, help your servant N.. . . of the Five Klimata.

Commentary

The term klimata normally designates the slope, then the region in general; geographers divided the world into seven klimata (H. Honigmann, Die Sieben Klimata und die πόλεις ἐπίσημοι [Heidelberg, 1929]). The term was then used for the southern part of the Crimea, extending from Cherson (in the west) to Bosphorus (to the east). See De Adm Imp., chap. 42, line 72; De Them., chap. 12, line 3; and the detailed bibliography rprovided by M. Nystazopoulou in BCH 86 (1962) 327 note 7, and I. Božilov, Anonimŭt na Haze. Bŭlgarija i Vizantija na Dolni Dunav v kraja na X vek (Sofia, 1979) 146-58. The region maintained close contacts with Byzantium in the early ninth century, to the point that Theodore Stoudites and Patriarch Nikephoros I felt free to intervene there in order to criticize the marital choices of the local lords (PG 99, col. 1013A: Nikephoros, Opuscula, 160 = Grumel, Regestes, no. 386 of 811-814).

In the Uspenskij Taktikon (composed ca. 842-43), a strategos ton Klimaton appears at the end of the list of strategoi (Listes, 49, line 19). Since we know from other sources (Theophanes Cont., 122-24; De Adm. Imp., chap. 42, lines 23-55) that about ten years earlier Emperor Theophilos had for the first time sent a strategos to Cherson and since in these texts, the exact title of the strategos is not mentioned (στρατηγὸν εἰς Χερσῶνα, not στρατηγὸν Χερσῶνος), one tends to assume that initially the imperial military governor of the region was named στρατηγὸς τῶν Κλιμάτων although stationed in the city of Cherson. This same strategos was later officially called στρατηγὸς Χερσῶνος (Listes, 353; DO Seals 1, § 82).

The toponym Κλίματα appears on at least two seals, both partly preserved and dating from the first half of the ninth century: this seal, which informst us that there were five klimata, and a seal of which there are three specimens, which reads σπαθαροκανδιδάτῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ (?) τῶν Κλιμάτων Χερσῶνος (I. Sokolova, Zbor. Rad. 18 [1978] 93 note 65 and idem, Monetyno. 14; republished in Alekseyenko, L'administration Byzantine de Cherson, no. 27). It is possible, but by no means certain, that these two seals belonged to strategoi of Klimata.

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)
  • Die sieben Klimata und die "Poleis episēmoi": Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte der Geographie und Astrologie im Altertum und Mittelalter (Open in Zotero)
  • De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
  • De Administrando Imperio (Open in Zotero)
  • Anonimŭt na Khaze: Bŭlgarii︠a︡ i Vizantii︠a︡ na dolni Dunav v krai︠a︡ na X vek (Open in Zotero)
  • Nicephori archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani Opuscula historica (Open in Zotero)
  • Les regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople, Vol. 1, Les regestes de 381 à 715 (Open in Zotero)
  • Theophanes Continuatus, Ioannes Cameniata, Symeon Magister, Georgius Monachus (Open in Zotero)
  • L’administration byzantine de Cherson: catalogue des sceaux (Open in Zotero)
  • Monety i pečati vizantijskogo Hersona (Open in Zotero)