Skip to Content

Theodore Tzantzes, synkellos and metropolitan of Herakleia (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin with hands upraised before her. Sigla: ̅Θ̅Υ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines, the final two letters between decorations. Border of dots.

ΘΚ̅Ε̅,Θ,
ΘΕΟΔ
ΡΣΥΓΚΕ
ΛΜ̅Ρ̅ΟΠΟ
Λ,Τ,ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙ
ΑΣΤΑΝ
Η

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Θεοδώρῳ συγκέλλῳ καὶ μητροπολίτ Ἡρακλείας τῷ Τζάντζῃ

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin with hands upraised before her. Sigla: ̅Θ̅Υ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines, the final two letters between decorations. Border of dots.

ΘΚ̅Ε̅,Θ,
ΘΕΟΔ
ΡΣΥΓΚΕ
ΛΜ̅Ρ̅ΟΠΟ
Λ,Τ,ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙ
ΑΣΤΑΝ
Η

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Θεοδώρῳ συγκέλλῳ καὶ μητροπολίτ Ἡρακλείας τῷ Τζάντζῃ

Accession number BZS.1958.106.436
Diameter 29.0 mm; field: 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 53.8.
Galavaris, "Seals of the Byzantine Empire," 268, pl. 8.
Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 306. Laurent illustrates the DO specimen but describes a similar seal in the Seyrig collection.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Θεοδώρῳ συγκέλλῳ καὶ μητροπολίτῃ Ἡρακλείας τῷ Τζάντζῃ.

Theotokos, help Theodore Tzantzes, synkellos and metropolitan of Herakleia.

Commentary

For prosopographical reasons, Laurent drew a brief, albeit irrelevant, sketch of the family's history (cf. also DO Seals 1, no. 43.14 = BZS 1958.106.4609) and placed the (otherwise unknown) metropolitan Theodore in the third quarter of the eleventh century; cf. Asdracha, Thrace orientale, 271.

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)
  • Seals of the Byzantine Empire (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Les sceaux byzantins de la Collection Henri Seyrig (Open in Zotero)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)