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Michael archbishop of Ainos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of four lines preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.

 · 
ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΕ
ΑΙΑΜΙ
ΧΑΗΛ

 · 

σφραγὶς βεβαία Μιχαὴλ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.

 · 
ΑΡΧΙ
ΕΠΙΣΚΟ
ΠΟΥΑΙ
ΝΟΥ
 · 

ἀρχιεπισκόπου Αἴνου

Obverse

Inscription of four lines preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.

 · 
ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΕ
ΑΙΑΜΙ
ΧΑΗΛ

 · 

σφραγὶς βεβαία Μιχαὴλ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.

 · 
ΑΡΧΙ
ΕΠΙΣΚΟ
ΠΟΥΑΙ
ΝΟΥ
 · 

ἀρχιεπισκόπου Αἴνου

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.545
Diameter 26.0 mm; field: 20.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 45.1. Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 856. See also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2355.

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

Translation

σφραγὶς βεβαία Μιχαὴλ ἀρχιεπισκόπου Αἴνου.

The secure seal of Michael, archbishop of Ainos.

Commentary

This is a metrical seal with a fifteen-syllable verse, provided that there is synizesis of the vowels ι and ε in ἀρχιεπισκόπου. Since, as Laurent notes, Michael identifies himself as "archbishop," he appears to have occupied the throne of Ainos in the early decades of the eleventh century, the period immediately preceding the elevation of the see to a metropolis.

Ainos, modern Enez in Turkish Thrace, was originally a suffragan bishopric of Traïanoupolis. It is mentioned in the ekthesis of Pseudo-Epiphanios as an archbishopric and became a metropolitan see by 1032. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 614-15; Asdracha, Thrace orientale, 242-243 and 288-89; Asdracha, in REB 31 (1973) 291 and in BNJ 23 (1979) 44-51. Since the publication of the third volume of Laurent's corpus of ecclesiastical seals, the excavations at Pernik (Pernik [Sophia, 1983] 129) have yielded the late eleventh/early twelfth century seal of another unknown prelate of Ainos, the metropolitan Andronikos. The city has been the object of extensive excavations: A. Erzen, "Enez (Ainos) Araştırmaları," Güney-Doğu Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi (Istanbul Univ., Edebiyat Fak.) 1 (1972) 235-48; A. Erzen, "Enez (Ainos) Kazıları," ibid. 2-3 (1974) 217-238; K. Göçmen, "Enez limanının değişen öneminde deltasının Etkileri," ibid. 253-266.

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)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)
  • Les Rhodopes dans la deuxième moitié du XIIIe s: prosopographie (Open in Zotero)
  • Pernik (Open in Zotero)
  • Enez (Ainos) Araştırmaları (Open in Zotero)
  • Enez (Ainos) Kazıları (Open in Zotero)
  • Enez Limanının Değişen Öneminde Deltasının (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)