Basil imperial kandidatos and dioiketes of Sarde (ninth/tenth century)
Obverse
Patriarchal cross on two steps, the lower bar being of the potent type, ending in pellets. In the lower quarters, crosslets of dots; in the upper quarters, remnants of what appears to be a crescent at left and the sun at right. Along the circumference, between two borders of dots, a circular inscription starting at 12 o'clock:
κεRοηθητσδουλ
Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Obverse
Patriarchal cross on two steps, the lower bar being of the potent type, ending in pellets. In the lower quarters, crosslets of dots; in the upper quarters, remnants of what appears to be a crescent at left and the sun at right. Along the circumference, between two borders of dots, a circular inscription starting at 12 o'clock:
κεRοηθητσδουλ
Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.
+Rσιλ
ειR,κν
Sιοικσ
ρισ+
Βασιλειῳ β(ασιλικῷ) καν(διδάτῳ) (καὶ) διοικ(ητῇ) Σάρδις
Accession number | BZS.1977.34.10 |
---|---|
Diameter | 22.0 mm |
Previous Editions | DO Seals 3, no. 32.2. |
Translation
Κύριε βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Βασιλειῳ βασιλικῷ κανδιδάτιω καὶ διοικητῇ Σάρδις.
Lord, help your servant Basil, imperial kandidatos and dioiketes of Sarde.
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)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
- Kleinasiatische Ortsnamen (Open in Zotero)
- Byzantine and Turkish Sardis (Open in Zotero)
- Die Städte Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
Sardeis (modern Sart), was capital of Lydia and seat of a metropolitan, attested since 325. The non-hellenic name appears on seals as well as in the notitiae in two main forms, the classical Σάρδεις, -εων, and the popular Σάρδη, ἦς, or non-declined Σάρδης (whenever in doubt, we have restored the classical form). From the seals we learn that it was also a fiscal center. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 260-61 (add Zacos, Seals II, nos. 670, 869); Zgusta, 541-42; C. Foss, Byzantine and Turkish Sardis (Cambridge, Mass., 1976); Brandes, Städte, 86-88; ODB III, 1843.