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George bishop of Adrianoupolis (tenth/eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of a beardless male saint; details indistinct. No legible remnants of inscription; no border visible.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. No visible border.

+ΓΕΡ
ΓΙΟΕΠΙΣ
ΚΟΠˋΑΔΡΙ
ΑΝΠ

Γεωργίο ἐπισκόπ Ἀδριανουπόλεως

Obverse

Bust of a beardless male saint; details indistinct. No legible remnants of inscription; no border visible.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. No visible border.

+ΓΕΡ
ΓΙΟΕΠΙΣ
ΚΟΠˋΑΔΡΙ
ΑΝΠ

Γεωργίο ἐπισκόπ Ἀδριανουπόλεως

Accession number BZS.1958.106.93
Diameter 21.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 100.1.
Laurent, Corpus V/2, no. 1593.

Translation

Γεωργίο ἐπισκόπῳ Ἀδριανουπόλεως.

George, bishop of Adrianoupolis.

Commentary

Since this seal and BZS.1958.106.51 date from the tenth century and were struck in the names of bishops of Adrianoupolis, they could not have been issued on behalf of the episcopal throne of Adrianoupolis of the Hemimont, a see which had been elevated to the rank of a metropolis by the end of the 4th century (cf. DOSeals 1.44). The exact identity of the Adrianoupolis mentioned in these seals is unclear. Three bishoprics of this name are known: Adrianoupolis of Epiros or Drynopolis, a suffragan of Nikopolis, situated close to the Albanian village of Safratika, near the coast, halfway between Avolna and Preveza; Adrianoupolis of Honorias, a suffragan of Klaudiopolis (Bolu), situated between Gerede and Saframbolu; and Adrianoupolis of Pisidia, a suffragan of Antioch, for which several tenuous identifications have been proposed, the most likely of which is with Kocas, ca. 38 km to the southeast of Antioch; then again there is the so-called Adrianopolis of Lycia (existence uncertain) which is unknown to the notitiae, while the three others are constantly mentioned therein (cf. Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 13, lines 240, 399, 589). One could add to them Ἀδριανοί (Ἀδρανοί) of Bithynia, whose bishops were also sometimes called (never in the notitiae) Ἀδριανουπόλεως. The seals published below could have belonged to anyone of them. Concerning the identifications of these bishoprics, see Laurent, Corpus V/2, 425; Phrygien und Pisidien, 171-72; DHGE fasc. 131 (1988), cols. 1437-42, 1466-79 (L. Stiernon).

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)
  • 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)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Phrygien und Pisidien (Open in Zotero)
  • Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)