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Constantine (bishop or metropolitan) of Tiberioupolis (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Faint outline of a bust of St. Michael. No epigraphy visible. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded and followed by decoration.

 
ΣΦΡΑΓ,
ΕΕΑ
ΤΝΛΟΓ,
Κ̅̅ΝΤΙ
,Ρ,ΠΟΛ

 

Σφραγὶς βεβέα τῶν λόγων Κωνσταντίνου Τιβεριουπόλεως

Obverse

Faint outline of a bust of St. Michael. No epigraphy visible. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded and followed by decoration.

 
ΣΦΡΑΓ,
ΕΕΑ
ΤΝΛΟΓ,
Κ̅̅ΝΤΙ
,Ρ,ΠΟΛ

 

Σφραγὶς βεβέα τῶν λόγων Κωνσταντίνου Τιβεριουπόλεως

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.2049
Diameter 20.0 mm; field: 15.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 109.1; Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 881. See also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2358.

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

Translation

Σφραγὶς βεβέα τῶν λόγων Κωνσταντίνου Τιβεριουπόλεως.

The secure seal of the words of Constantine (bishop or metropolitan) of Tiberioupolis.

Commentary

It is obvious that Constantine, a bishop or a metropolitan (the title proedros may indicate either), had used a metrical seal while still a layman. When ordained, he kept the same inscription but added the name of his see to the inscription with no attempt to incorporate the toponym into the metre. Similar examples in SBS 4 (1995) 75 ff.

With the name Tiberioupolis we know from the notitiae one bishopric, suffragan of Laodikeia, then of Hierapolis, and a metropolis situated in Bithynia (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 1, line 313; no. 13, line 658; and no. 13, 773; for the metropolis, see also Zacos, Seals II, no. 420). Moreover, the bishopric of Stroumitza, a suffragan of Ohrid, was also officially called Tiberioupolis. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 688-89; add Zacos-Veglery, no. 1473 (VII/VIII-century seal of a bishop of T.).

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)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)