Skip to Content

Eustathios metropolitan of Laodikeia (eighth century)

 
 

Obverse

A cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: τ-.|δ-λ. Indeterminate border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ [σ]ῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Indeterminate border.

+ευσ
τθη
μητροπο
ληˊλδ
ηκησ

Εὐσταθήῳ μητροπολή(τῃ) Λαωδηκήας

Obverse

A cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: τ-.|δ-λ. Indeterminate border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ [σ]ῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Indeterminate border.

+ευσ
τθη
μητροπο
ληˊλδ
ηκησ

Εὐσταθήῳ μητροπολή(τῃ) Λαωδηκήας

Accession number BZS.1947.2.96
Diameter 26.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 21.2.

Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 526 (slightly different reading).

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Εὐσταθήῳ μητροπολήτῃ Λαωδηκήας.

Mother of God, help your servant Eustathios, metropolitan of Laodikeia.

Commentary

Laurent is probably correct in identifying the owner of this specimen with Eustathios of Laodikeia, who participated in the Council of 787 (Mansi XII, 994, 1091; XIII, 351).

Laodikeia (near modern Denizli), a center of tax levying (cf. the seal of a dioiketes: Zacos-Veglery, no. 1748) and one of the oldest metropoleis of Asia Minor, appears in all notitiae at the head of the province of Phrygia Pakatiane – a province that underwent a major restructuring during the "Dark Ages." It has to be carefully distinguished from Laodikeia of Syria. See Brandes, Städte, 94-95; Laurent, Corpus V/1, 387l; Darrouzès, Notitiae, 25-27, 77; Phrygien und Pisidien, 323-26. Further seals of metropolitans in SBS 3 (1993) 131-32, 165, 192.

Bibliography