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Theodore Chryselios, protospatharios and domestikos of the Optimatoi (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of five lines, the final two letters between horizontal bars. Border of dots.

+ΚΕ̅Ο
ΗΘΕΙΤ
ΣΔΛ
ΘΕΟΔ
Ρ

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Θεοδώρῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, the final five letters between horizontal bars. Border of dots.

ΑΣΠΑ
ΘΑΡ,ΔΟ
ΜΕΣΤΙΚΤ
ΟΠΤ
ΣΗΛΙ

(πρωτο)σπαθαρ(ίῳ) (καὶ) δομεστίκ(ῳ) τ(ῶν) Ὀπ(τιμάτων) τῷ Χρ(υ)σηλί(ῳ)

Obverse

Inscription of five lines, the final two letters between horizontal bars. Border of dots.

+ΚΕ̅Ο
ΗΘΕΙΤ
ΣΔΛ
ΘΕΟΔ
Ρ

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Θεοδώρῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, the final five letters between horizontal bars. Border of dots.

ΑΣΠΑ
ΘΑΡ,ΔΟ
ΜΕΣΤΙΚΤ
ΟΠΤ
ΣΗΛΙ

(πρωτο)σπαθαρ(ίῳ) (καὶ) δομεστίκ(ῳ) τ(ῶν) Ὀπ(τιμάτων) τῷ Χρ(υ)σηλί(ῳ)

Accession number BZS.1955.1.3461
Diameter 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 71.12.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Θεοδώρῳ πρωτωσπαθαρίῳ καὶ δομεστίκῳ τῶν Ὀπτιμάτων τῷ Χρυσηλίῳ.

Lord, help your servant Theodore Chryselios, protospatharios and domestikos of the Optimatoi.

Commentary

A Theodore Chryselios, patrician, is mentioned among the supporters of Isaakios Komnenos in 1057 (Skylitzes, 498). The present seal may have belonged to him at an earlier stage of his career. Another Theodore Chryselios appears in a letter of Theophylact of Bulgaria dated ca. 1094; Theophylacti, Epistulae, no. 127, lines 44, 82, 115.

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)
  • Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Praetorians: An Administrative, Institutional, and Social Survey of the Opsikion and Tagmata, c. 580-900 (Open in Zotero)
  • Die byzantinische Armee im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Organisation der Tagmata (Open in Zotero)