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George imperial spatharokandidatos and anagrapheus of Thrace and Macedonia (tenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Patriarchal cross on four steps. Along the circumference, between two borders of dots, inscription.

ΚΕΟΗΘΗΤΣΔΟΥΛ

Κύριε βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded by row of dots. Border of dots.

····
ΓΕΡΓ
ΙΣΠΘΡ
ΟΚΝΓΡ
Φ,ΘΡΚ,
ΜΚΕ.

Γεωργίῳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαροκανδάτῳ καὶ ἀναγραφεῖ Θρᾴκης καὶ Μακεδονίας

Obverse

Patriarchal cross on four steps. Along the circumference, between two borders of dots, inscription.

ΚΕΟΗΘΗΤΣΔΟΥΛ

Κύριε βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded by row of dots. Border of dots.

····
ΓΕΡΓ
ΙΣΠΘΡ
ΟΚΝΓΡ
Φ,ΘΡΚ,
ΜΚΕ.

Γεωργίῳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαροκανδάτῳ καὶ ἀναγραφεῖ Θρᾴκης καὶ Μακεδονίας

Accession number BZS.1958.106.3626
Diameter 24.0 mm; field: 18.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 43.1.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Γεωργίῳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαροκανδάτῳ καὶ ἀναγραφεῖ Θρᾴκης καὶ Μακεδονίας.

Lord, help your servant George imperial spatharokandidatos and anagrapheus of Thrace and Macedonia.

Commentary

Another seal of an anagrapheus of Thrace and Macedonia from the eleventh century is published by Lihačev, IZIGI, pl. VII, no. 20.

According to Lemerle (Philippes, 122-23), this theme was established between 789 and 802 (first mention of a strategos in 813). It was situated in present-day Greek Thrace and the western part of Turkish Thrace, with the city of Adrianoupolis as its capital (Listes, 349). Among known seals, no specimen appears to contradict the chronology that Lemerle espoused (cf. Winkelmann, Ämterstruktur, 101-2, 124-25). Although Laurent asserted that a seal published by Mordtmann (Ἐλλ. Φιλολ. Σύλλ. 13, Suppl. [1880] 85) and struck in the name of a Gregory, imperial spatharios and strategos of Macedonia, belonged to the eighth century (V. Laurent, "La Macédoine orientale à l'époque byzantine," REB6 [1948] 77; cf. K. Konstantopoulos, ΑΘΛΓΘ 4 [1937] 189-91), there is good reason to believe that it belongs to the ninth century, as its obverse has a cruciform monogram similar to that on the bulla of the ninth century, as its obverse has a cruciform monogram similar to that on the bulla of Antonios I Kassimatas, patriarch of Constantinople 821-837. Another (or several other) very early seal(s), attributed to the eighth-ninth century, belonged to a certain Sergios strategos of Macedonia (Sig., 111; EO 9 [1906] 215; Byzantion 6 [1931] 802). Another seal, of a komes tes kortes of Macedonia (Zacos-Veglery, no. 1530a), has been dated to the second half of the eighth century, but its reading and dating seem questionable.

The theme of Macedonia is mentioned in all taktika except the Escorial Taktikon (971-975), where a doux of Adrianoupolis appears instead (see DO Seals 1, § 44). We know that the theme of Macedonia existed in 962 (Theophanes Cont., 480) and was still functioning in 1006/7, as we learn from an inscription of that year (see Listes, 355). On occasion, the administrative functions of Macedonia and Thrace were combined, as, for example, in the case of a mid-tenth-century protonotarios of Macedonia and Thrace named Stephanos (Zacos, Seals II, no. 894) or of the anagrapheus of Thrace and Macedonia George (this seal).

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)
  • Istoriceskoe znacenie italo-greceskoj ikonopisi: Izobra zenija Bogomatera v prozvedenijah italo-greceskih ikonopiscev i ih vlijanie na kompozicii nekotoryh proslavlennyh russkih ikon (Open in Zotero)
  • Philippes et la Macédoine orientale à l’époque chrétienne et byzantine; recherches d’histoire et d’archéologie (Open in Zotero)
  • Plombs byzantins de la Grèce et du Péleponnèse (Open in Zotero)
  • La Macédoine orientale à l’époque byzantine: à propos d'un livre récent (Open in Zotero)
  • Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Theophanes Continuatus, Ioannes Cameniata, Symeon Magister, Georgius Monachus (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)