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Theophilos monk and bishop of Ankyra (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin, head slightly turned toward Christ held on left arm. Sigla preserved at right: θ̅υ : [Μ(ήτη)ρ] Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

θ̅κ̅εR,θ,
.εοφιλ
.χεπισκ
αγ.υρ

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) [Θ]εοφίλ(ῳ) [(μον)α]χ(ῷ), ἐπισκ(όπῳ) Ἀγ[κ]ύρ(ας)

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin, head slightly turned toward Christ held on left arm. Sigla preserved at right: θ̅υ : [Μ(ήτη)ρ] Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

θ̅κ̅εR,θ,
.εοφιλ
.χεπισκ
αγ.υρ

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) [Θ]εοφίλ(ῳ) [(μον)α]χ(ῷ), ἐπισκ(όπῳ) Ἀγ[κ]ύρ(ας)

Accession number BZS.1947.2.37
Diameter 23.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 7.2. Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 338 (the specimen is listed as Shaw Collection, no. 1118: different reading).

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Θεοφίλῳ μοναχῷ, ἐπισκόπῳ Ἀγκύρας.

Mother of God, help Theophilos, monk and bishop of Ankyra.

Commentary

The placename is not in doubt; but it is not clear whether Theophilos was a monk and bishop of Ankyra of Phrygia or an archbishop (as Laurent saw it: [ἀρ]χ(ι)επισκ<ό>[πῷ]) of Ankyra of Galatia. Laurent's reading seems difficult to accept because there is not space for more than one letter at the beginning of line 3 of the reverse.

Ankyra of Phrygia, probably identical to Bogaz Köy (former Kilise Köy) on the western shore of Simav Göl (71 km northwest of Usak), was a bishopric suffragan to Laodikeia and appears in the early notitiae (Darrouzès, Notitiae, nos. 1-4) under the name Ankyrosynaos. In the course of the eighth century it came under the metropolis of Hierapolis and appears in all further notitiae as Ankyra, followed by the bishopric of Synaos (Darrouzès, Notitiae, nos. 7-13). See Hirschfeld in RE 1 (1894) 2222; Laurent, Corpus V/1, 557; Phyrgien und Pisidien, 184-85.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Phrygien und Pisidien (Open in Zotero)