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Gregory bishop of Chairetopa (eleventh/twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin orans, the medallion of Christ before her. On either side the sigla: μ̅-θ̅ : Μ(ήτηρ) Θ(εοῦ). Within concentric circles of dots, a circular inscription beginning at the top:

.......ελπιδαμει....αν,τ,θημ,

Τὴν πᾶσαν ἐλπίδα μ(ου) εἰς σὲ ἀν(α)τ(ί)θημ(ι)

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

+θ̅κ̅εR,θ,
ρηρορι
σκοπ
χαιρετο
·πν·

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) Γρηγορίῳ πησκόπῳ Χαιρετόπων

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin orans, the medallion of Christ before her. On either side the sigla: μ̅-θ̅ : Μ(ήτηρ) Θ(εοῦ). Within concentric circles of dots, a circular inscription beginning at the top:

.......ελπιδαμει....αν,τ,θημ,

Τὴν πᾶσαν ἐλπίδα μ(ου) εἰς σὲ ἀν(α)τ(ί)θημ(ι)

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

+θ̅κ̅εR,θ,
ρηρορι
σκοπ
χαιρετο
·πν·

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) Γρηγορίῳ πησκόπῳ Χαιρετόπων

Accession number BZS.1958.106.267
Diameter 17.0 mm; field: 15.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 11.1a.

Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 533.

Translation

Τὴν πᾶσαν ἐλπίδα μου εἰς σὲ ἀνατίθημι. Θεοτόκε βοήθει Γρηγορίῳ ἐπησκόπῳ Χαιρετόπων. 


All my hope I place in you. Mother of God, help Gregory, bishop of Chairetopa.

Commentary

This seal and BZS.1958.106.272 are from the same boulloterion.

Laurent omitted μ(ου) in the inscription on the obverse.

Chairetora (ancient Κερετάπα) has been tentatively indentified by L. Robert either to Diokaisareia (modern Kayser/Yesilova), or to Kayadibi, in the vicinity of Colossai and Chonae, in south-eastern Phrygia. A bishop is first attested in 359; the bishopric first appears as a suffragan of Laodikeia, in the controversial iconoclastic notitia and then in all notitiae from the tenth-century onward (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 3, line 415; no. 7, 392). See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 393; Robert, Villes, 107-21, 337-38; Zgusta, 250.

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)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Kleinasiatische Ortsnamen (Open in Zotero)