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John II Komnenos (1118–1143)

 
 

Obverse

Christ seated on a high-back throne (details indistinct). No visible border.

Reverse

John II standing, wearing a loros, an end of which is draped over his left wrist. He holds in the right hand a labarum and a globus cruciger (weakly imprinted) in the left. Traces of a circular inscription at left. No visible border.

. . .σπο . . .

[Ἰω(άννῃ) δε]σπό[τ(ῃ) τῷ πορφυρογεννήτῳ]?

Obverse

Christ seated on a high-back throne (details indistinct). No visible border.

Reverse

John II standing, wearing a loros, an end of which is draped over his left wrist. He holds in the right hand a labarum and a globus cruciger (weakly imprinted) in the left. Traces of a circular inscription at left. No visible border.

. . .σπο . . .

[Ἰω(άννῃ) δε]σπό[τ(ῃ) τῷ πορφυρογεννήτῳ]?

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.2782
Diameter 27.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 6, no. 91.5.

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

Translation

[Ἰωάννῃ δεσπότῃ τῷ πορφυρογεννήτῳ

John porphyrogennetos, despotes.

Commentary

The use of the dative case is unusual as there is no invocation accompanying the inscription. For coins of John II with a similar dative inscription see DOC 4.1: no. 12a.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 6, Emperors, Patriarchs of Constantinople, Addenda (Open in Zotero)
  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, Vol. 4, Alexius I to Michael VIII (1081–1261) (Open in Zotero)