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Eustathios imperial spatharokandidatos and anthypatos of the Anatolikoi (ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V). In the quarters: Τ..|ΔΛ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines followed by tendril decoration. Wreath border.

+ΕΥΣΤ
ΘΙΒ/ΣΠΘ
ΡΟΚΝΔΙΔˊ
ΝΘΥΠ/Τ.
ΝΝΤΟ.

Εὐσταθίῳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαροκανδιδάτῳ καὶ ἀνθυπάτῳ τν Ἀνατολικῶν

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V). In the quarters: Τ..|ΔΛ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines followed by tendril decoration. Wreath border.

+ΕΥΣΤ
ΘΙΒ/ΣΠΘ
ΡΟΚΝΔΙΔˊ
ΝΘΥΠ/Τ.
ΝΝΤΟ.

Εὐσταθίῳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαροκανδιδάτῳ καὶ ἀνθυπάτῳ τν Ἀνατολικῶν

Accession number BZS.1958.106.2959
Diameter 28.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 86.4.
Zacos-Veglery, no. 1901.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Εὐσταθίῳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαροκανδιδάτῳ καὶ ἀνθυπάτῳ τῶν Ἀνατολικῶν.

Mother of God, help your servant Eustathios, imperial spatharokandidatos and anthypatos of the Anatolikoi.

Commentary

Another ninth-century seal of an anthypatos of the Anatolikoi was published by Zacos-Veglery, no. 2049. The ἀνθύπατοι of the themes appear in the Taktikon Uspenkij (842-43: see Listes, 51, line 25) but not in Philotheos' treatise of 899. They seem to have been the civil administrators of the themes, and were eventually replaced by the protonotarioi (Listes, 343). The office has been recently studied again by Haldon, Seventh Century, 202-6 (with the unconvincing hypothesis that the provincial anthypatos may be at the origin of the high honorific title of the same name that appears in the ninth century).

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)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture (Open in Zotero)
  • Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
  • Sceaux byzantins du Musée National de Varsovie (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)