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Euphemios tourmarches and kleisourarches of Taron (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. George holding a spear in his right hand. Inscription in two columns: |γε||ρ-γ.|ο. : ὁ ἅ(γιος) Γεώργ[ι]ο[ς]. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, decorations above and below. Border of dots.


+κεR,θ,
ευφ,μ,τ,
μαρχ,Sκλ
..ραρχι
.αρο
– 

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οή)θ(ει) Εὐφ(η)μ(ίῳ) τ(ουρ)μάρχ(ῃ) (καὶ) κλ[εισου]ράρχι [Τ]αρό(ν)

Obverse

Bust of St. George holding a spear in his right hand. Inscription in two columns: |γε||ρ-γ.|ο. : ὁ ἅ(γιος) Γεώργ[ι]ο[ς]. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, decorations above and below. Border of dots.


+κεR,θ,
ευφ,μ,τ,
μαρχ,Sκλ
..ραρχι
.αρο
– 

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οή)θ(ει) Εὐφ(η)μ(ίῳ) τ(ουρ)μάρχ(ῃ) (καὶ) κλ[εισου]ράρχι [Τ]αρό(ν)

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.839
Diameter 26.0 mm; field: 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 4, no. 76.4.

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

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει Εὐφημίῳ τουρμάρχῃ καὶ κλεισουράρχι Ταρόν.

Lord, help Euphemios, tourmarches and kleisourarches of Taron.

Commentary

This is a very curious seal, with one person accumulating the offices of tourmarches and of kleisourarches for a region that was probably a theme and had its own strategos. This must have been an ad hoc arrangement invented for the sake of a local chieftain.

Taron embraces the region west of Lake Van. During the first half of the Xth century, the principality of Taron maintained a semi-independent status on the periphery of the Byzantine empire (De Adm. Imp., chapter 43, and Commentary, 156-67). During the reigns of Leo VI and Romanos I, Taronite princes received the title of strategos, but Taron did not become a proper theme until absorbed by the empire in 966-967 (cf. Oikonomides, Listes, 355-56). Taron was lost to the Turks after Manzikert. See Yuzbashian, “Administration byzantine,” 140-54.

Bibliography