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Constantine Katakalon, protonobelissimos and doux of Cyprus (ca. 1102-4)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΓΡΑ
ΦΝΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΚΑΤΑ
ΚΑΛΝ
Κ̅Ν̅

Γραφῶν σφραγὶς Κατακαλὼν Κωνσταντίνου

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

ΔΚΟΣ
ΚΥΠΡΙΝ
ΆΝ̀ΕΛ
ΛΗΣΙΜ

δουκὸς Κυπρίων, πρωτονωβελλησίμου

Obverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΓΡΑ
ΦΝΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΚΑΤΑ
ΚΑΛΝ
Κ̅Ν̅

Γραφῶν σφραγὶς Κατακαλὼν Κωνσταντίνου

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

ΔΚΟΣ
ΚΥΠΡΙΝ
ΆΝ̀ΕΛ
ΛΗΣΙΜ

δουκὸς Κυπρίων, πρωτονωβελλησίμου

Accession number BZS.1958.106.2927
Diameter 24.0 mm; field: 20.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 38.6a. Cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 553.
A similar seal (not illustrated) was published (with errors) in Sig., 633 (=Laurent, Bulles métriques, no. 92).

Translation

Γραφῶν σφραγὶς Κατακαλὼν Κωνσταντίνου δουκὸς Κυπρίων, πρωτονωβελλησίμου.

Seal of the correspondence of Constantine Katakalon, doux of the Cypriots and protonobelissimos.

Commentary

This is one of ten seals of Constantine Katakalon in the DO collection. They fall into two groups: the first has an obverse with shallow engraving of poor quality, what we might term "provincial." This clumsy obverse was produced by a boulloterion that replaced the one used for the second group, imprinted on blanks too small, obviously coming from one stock and all very light (one subgroup, (DO Seals 2,38.6d-g), weighing ca. 5.5 g., the other (DO Seals 2,38.6h-j, ca. 4.5 g.); all these specimens must have originated from one place, where only these blanks were available.

Two twelve-syllable verses. There is a serious metrical mistake in the first line, where the caesura falls after the fourth syllable. See the parallels listed below.

The biography of Constantine Euphorbenos Katakalon has been studied recently by Skoulatos, Personnages, 62-65, and by Malamut, Iles, 508-9. He is attested from 1078 to 1108. He became doux of Cyprus twice: once at an unspecified moment before 1094, when he was still kouropalates (Laurent, Orghidan, no. 205), and again in ca. 1102-4, while protonobelissimos (our seals).

Bibliography

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