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Michael patrikios, imperial protospatharios and strategos of the Thrakesioi (eighth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type VIII); in the quarters: .σ|δλ. No visible border.

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. No visible border.

ι
ηλπατρ
β//σπ
στρτη
τνθρ
ησ

Μι[χα]ὴλ πατρ[ικί]ῳ, β(ασιλικῷ) (πρωτο)σπα[θ(αρίῳ) (καὶ)] στρατη[γῷ] τῶν Θρ[ᾳκ]ησ(ίων)

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type VIII); in the quarters: .σ|δλ. No visible border.

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. No visible border.

ι
ηλπατρ
β//σπ
στρτη
τνθρ
ησ

Μι[χα]ὴλ πατρ[ικί]ῳ, β(ασιλικῷ) (πρωτο)σπα[θ(αρίῳ) (καὶ)] στρατη[γῷ] τῶν Θρ[ᾳκ]ησ(ίων)

Accession number BZS.1947.2.181
Diameter 32.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 2.46. A similar seal is published in Sig., 730, no. 1; Schlumberger ascribed the seal to a strategos of Thrace, but Konstantopoulos (Ἡμερολόγιον τῆς Μεγ. Ἑλλάδος, 1927, 71-87, cf. Konstantopoulos, no. 125) rightly emended the reading and attributed the seal to Michael Lachanodrakon; cf. Laurent, Byzantion 5 (1929/30) 637, no. 9.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Μιχαὴλ πατρικίῳ, βασιλικῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ τῶν Θρᾳκησίων.

Lord, help your servant Michael patrikios, imperial protospatharios and strategos of the Thrakesioi.

Commentary

Despite the difference in quality, this seal and BZS.1958.106.2430 may well have belonged to the same person. It is difficult not to think of the famous Michael Lachanodrakon, who was appointed strategos of the Thrakesion in 766/767 (Theophanes I, 440; maybe earlier, according to the Life of St. Stephen the Younger); he savagely persecuted the iconophile monks; he held this position in 778 (Theophanes I, 451), later became magistros (and will therefore have been patrikios, as the owner of the present seal), and was killed by the Bulgars in 791 (Theophanes I, 468).

Bibliography

  • Theophanis Chronographia (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα. Ἡ συλλογὴ Ἀναστασίου Κ. Π. Σταμούλη (Open in Zotero)