Niketas archon of Skyros (ninth/tenth century)
Obverse
Cruciform invocative monogram (type VIII); in each quarter: . Indeterminate border.
Κύριε βοήθει
Obverse
Cruciform invocative monogram (type VIII); in each quarter: . Indeterminate border.
Κύριε βοήθει
Reverse
Inscription of four lines followed by a row of three pellets. Indeterminate border.
ΤΣ
ΔΟΥΛΝΙΚΗ
ΤΑΑΡΧΟΝ
Τ/ ΣΚΥΡ
τῷ σῷ δούλ(ῳ) Νικήτᾳ ἄρχοντ(ι) Σκύρου
Accession number | BZS.1951.31.5.1546 |
---|---|
Diameter | 27.0 mm |
Previous Editions | DO Seals 2, no. 56.1. |
Credit Line | Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore. |
Translation
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Νικήτᾳ ἄρχοντι Σκύρου.
Lord, help your servant Niketas archon of Skyros.
Bibliography
- Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
- Actes de Lavra, Vol. 1, Des origines à 1204 (Open in Zotero)
- Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
- Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
An ex-archon of Skyros is mentioned in 1016 in a document of the monastery of the Lavra (Lavra, no. 20, line 81). This text shows that being an archon was not an honorific title but a real office held in succession.
The bishopric of Skyros, an island of the Sporades, was probably in existence in the late ninth century (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 7, line 502) as a suffragan of Athens. The island was governed by an archon (DO Seals 2, no. 56.1). See Laurent, Corpus V/3, 104; Malamut, Iles, 228-30, 272-73, 300, 311-12, 366, 498.