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Nikephoros Lykaon (or Lalakon), protospatharios and strategos of Nisos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin with both hands open before her. Crudely engraved sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΝΙΚΗΦ,
ΑΣΠΑΘ,
ΣΤΡ,ΤΗΓ,Τ,
ΝΗΣΟΥΟ
Λ,Α

Νικηφόρος πρωτοσπαθάριος καὶ στρατηγὸς τῆς Νήσου ὁ Λυκάωναλάκων

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin with both hands open before her. Crudely engraved sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΝΙΚΗΦ,
ΑΣΠΑΘ,
ΣΤΡ,ΤΗΓ,Τ,
ΝΗΣΟΥΟ
Λ,Α

Νικηφόρος πρωτοσπαθάριος καὶ στρατηγὸς τῆς Νήσου ὁ Λυκάωναλάκων

Accession number BZS.1958.106.1562
Diameter 23.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 32.2.

Translation

Νικηφόρος πρωτοσπαθάριος καὶ στρατηγὸς τῆς Νήσου ὁ Λυκάων (or Λαλάκων).

Nikephoros Lykaon (or Lalakon), protospatharios and strategos of Nisos.

Commentary

The family name at the end is unclear: the final abbreviation sign seems to be that of (ων). Also, there is a comma after Λ, indicating that letters have been omitted there. The proposed readings Λυκάων and Λαλάκων (the latter suggested by A. Kazhdan) take into consideration all the above. Note the remarkable difference in quality between the engraving of the obverse (especially the sigla) and of the reverse. Was the obverse replaced in the province? Cf. SBS 1 (1987) 98.

Modern Niš in Serbia. The ancient city of Naissus, retaken by the Byzantines in the early eleventh century and called ὁ Νίσος, became the seat of a strategos and gave its name to a theme known, inter alia, from Alexiade III, 178. It had been an episcopal see from the time of Samuel and continued as such under the Byzantines. It became a metropolis only in the late twelfth century. See Zakythinos, létai 17 (1941) 228-29 and V. Laurent in Byzantion 31 (1961) 43-56 and Corpus V/2, no. 1510.

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)
  • Alexiade: Règne de l’empereur Alexis I Comnène, 1081–1118 (Open in Zotero)
  • Μελέται περὶ τῆς διοικητικῆς διαιρέσεως καὶ τῆς ἐπαρχιακῆς διοικήσεως ἐν τῷ βυζαντινῷ κράτει (Open in Zotero)
  • Une métropole serbe éphémère sur le rôle du patriarcat oecuménique: Nisos-Nis, au temps d’Isaac II Ange (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)