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John metropolitan of Smyrna (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of five lines, top line missing. No border visible.

....
ησμεν
αλλακα.
τησσφρα
γιδο

[Ἐκ τ]ῆς [γραφ]ῆς μέν, ἀλλὰ κα[ὶ] τῆς σφραγίδο[ς]

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. No border visible.

..μεν.
.μυρνη.
ιωαην
.ηκνυω

[ποι]μέν[α Σ]μύρνη[ς] Ἰωάννην [δ]ηκνύω

Obverse

Inscription of five lines, top line missing. No border visible.

....
ησμεν
αλλακα.
τησσφρα
γιδο

[Ἐκ τ]ῆς [γραφ]ῆς μέν, ἀλλὰ κα[ὶ] τῆς σφραγίδο[ς]

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. No border visible.

..μεν.
.μυρνη.
ιωαην
.ηκνυω

[ποι]μέν[α Σ]μύρνη[ς] Ἰωάννην [δ]ηκνύω

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.3706
Diameter 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 35.3.

Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 742 (read only in part); cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 722.

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

Translation

Ἐκ τῆς γραφῆς μέν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς σφραγίδος, ποιμένα Σμύρνης Ἰωάννην δηκνύω.

By the letter, and all the more so by the seal, I present John, metropolitan of Smyrna.

Commentary

Two dodecasyllabic verses. The owner of this seal should probably be identified as the John of Smyrna who attended the patriarchal synods in 1071 and 1072 (and perhaps the same John who was present in the Council of 1054): Oikonomidès, REB 18 (1960) 60.

Smyrna (modern Izmir) was an important city, port, and economic center of the province of Asia, and served in the tenth century as residence of the strategos of Samos (De Them., chap. XVI, line 16). It had a hinterland with extensive agricultural production that is illustrated by our seals of horreiarioi.

At first, Smyrna was a simple bishopric of Ephesos, but then (mid-fifth century) it became an autocephalous archbishopric. Finally it is attested as a metropolis from 869 onward. This evolution is reflected in the notitiae.

See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 563; Arhweiler, Smyrne, passim; Brandes, Städte, 126-26; ODB III, 1919-20.

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)
  • De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • L’histoire et la géographie de la région de Smyrne entre les deux occupations turques (1081-1317), particulièrement au XIIIe siècle (Open in Zotero)
  • Die Städte Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)