Skip to Content

Niketas patrikios, praipositos epi tou koitonos, vestarches and strategos of Kama (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding Christ on her left arm. Inscription at left: θ̅υ : [Μ(ήτη)ρ] Θ(εο)ῦ. Traces of a circular inscription within a border of dots:

...........σδ,

[Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ] σῷ δ(ούλῳ).

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.

νιΚηπ̅ρι
πραιποσ,τ
επιτ,κοιτ
..σταρ
..τρατ
καμα

Νικήτ(ᾳ) π(ατ)ρι(κίῳ), πραιποσ(ί)τ(ῳ) ἐπὶ τ(οῦ) κοιτ(ῶνος), [βε]στάρ[χ(ῃ) (καὶ) σ]τρατ(ηγῷ) Κάμα[ς].

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding Christ on her left arm. Inscription at left: θ̅υ : [Μ(ήτη)ρ] Θ(εο)ῦ. Traces of a circular inscription within a border of dots:

...........σδ,

[Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ] σῷ δ(ούλῳ).

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.

νιΚηπ̅ρι
πραιποσ,τ
επιτ,κοιτ
..σταρ
..τρατ
καμα

Νικήτ(ᾳ) π(ατ)ρι(κίῳ), πραιποσ(ί)τ(ῳ) ἐπὶ τ(οῦ) κοιτ(ῶνος), [βε]στάρ[χ(ῃ) (καὶ) σ]τρατ(ηγῷ) Κάμα[ς].

Accession number BZS.1958.106.828
Diameter 30.0 mm; field: 24.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 4, no. 64.1b.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Νικήτᾳ πατρικίῳ, πραιποσίτῳ ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος, βεστάρχῃ καὶ στρατηγῷ Κάμας.

Mother of God, help your servant Niketas patrikios, praipositos epi tou koitonos, vestarches and strategos of Kama.

Commentary

This seal and BZS.1958.106.827 come from the same boulloterion. Their readings have been combined.

It is possible that the final line on the reverse could be read as Καμά[χ(ου)], but we have retained Κάμα on the strength of its attestation as a strategis in the Escorial Taktikon (which is not the case of Kamachos).

Kama (Κάμα), which could be identical to the Paulician fortress of Κάμεια, is attested as the seat of a strategos in the Escorial Taktikon, but its exact location remains uncertain. It is most probably to be identified with the village of Kaman lying south of Derzene in the region of Mananali. It possessed also a monastery. See Oikonomides, Listes, 267, 360; and “Organisation,” 292.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 4: The East (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • L’organisation de la frontière orientale de Byzance aux Xe-XIe siècles et Le Taktikon de l’Escorial (Open in Zotero)