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Constantine metropolitan of Myra and synkellos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Nicholas blessing and holding the book. On either side, inscription: |ΝΙ|Κ,Λ|Α|Ο,: ὁ ἅγιος Νικόλαος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

Κ̅Ε̅,Θ,
Κ̅̅Ν̅Μ̅Ρ̅Ο̅
ΠΟΜΥΡΟΝ
ΣΥΚΕΛ
Λ

Κύριε βοήθει Κωνσταντίνῳ μητροπολίτῃ Μύρον καὶ συγκέλλῳ

Obverse

Bust of St. Nicholas blessing and holding the book. On either side, inscription: |ΝΙ|Κ,Λ|Α|Ο,: ὁ ἅγιος Νικόλαος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

Κ̅Ε̅,Θ,
Κ̅̅Ν̅Μ̅Ρ̅Ο̅
ΠΟΜΥΡΟΝ
ΣΥΚΕΛ
Λ

Κύριε βοήθει Κωνσταντίνῳ μητροπολίτῃ Μύρον καὶ συγκέλλῳ

Accession number BZS.1958.106.364
Diameter 16.0 mm; field: 13.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 72.2.
Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1755 (misread as Πατρῶν); similar seals, correctly read, published by Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 507: two specimens from Vienna and one from the American Numismatic Society; two are reproduced in the album. Of these, the small one comes from the same boulloterion as our specimen; the larger one comes from a different boulloterion, but of the same time period.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει Κωνσταντίνῳ μητροπολίτῃ Μύρον καὶ συγκέλλῳ.

Lord, help Constantine metropolitan of Myra and synkellos.

Commentary

Note the rare ligature ΥΓ.

Myra (ruins close to Demre) was famous for the relics of St. Nicholas; it was also a major metropolis mentioned in all notitiae and whose metropolitans attended the major councils and the patriarchal synod from the 4th century onward. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 370; Zacos, Seals II, no. 380; Fedalto, 225-26; J. Darrouzès, in REB 44 (1986) 17-19; ODB II, 1428; Zgusta, 410-11; Brandes, Städte, 96-98.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Sur les variations numériques des évêchés byzantins (Open in Zotero)
  • Kleinasiatische Ortsnamen (Open in Zotero)
  • Die Städte Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Open in Zotero)