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Constantine archbishop (= metropolitan) of Herakleia (eighth/ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: ΤΩΣΩ|ΔΛΩ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a cross between fleurons above. Wreath border.

  
ΚΩΝΣΤ
ΤΙΝΩΡΧ
ΗΕΠΙΣΚΩ
ΠΟΗΡΚ
ΛΙΣ

Κωνστα<ν>τίνῳ ἀρχηεπισκώπο Ἡρακλίας

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: ΤΩΣΩ|ΔΛΩ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a cross between fleurons above. Wreath border.

  
ΚΩΝΣΤ
ΤΙΝΩΡΧ
ΗΕΠΙΣΚΩ
ΠΟΗΡΚ
ΛΙΣ

Κωνστα<ν>τίνῳ ἀρχηεπισκώπο Ἡρακλίας

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1269
Diameter 33.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 53.4; Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 301.

Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωσνταντίνῳ ἀρχηεπισκώπο Ἡρακλίας.

Mother of God, help your servant Constantine archbishop of Herakleia.

Commentary

The title archbishop is sometimes used for the highest metropolitans (Laurent, Corpus V/1, XXVIII-XXX). Another seal (BZS.1951.31.5.160) of the same period published by Laurent (Corpus V/1, no. 302) belonged in fact to Constantine bishop of Ἡρακλείας Πό(ντου) which in fact was then a bishopric) and not of Ἡρακλείας πό(λεως), as Laurent erroneously proposed (cf. Zacos-Veglery, no. 1331 and Asdracha, Thrace orientale, 268).

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)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)