Niketas metropolitan of Athens (tenth century, first half)
Obverse
Effaced. We may assume from the part of the inscription preserved on the reverse that the obverse presented the usual invocation to the Lord or Mother of God.
Reverse
Inscription of four lines, followed by a row of pellets. Border of dots.
ΚΗ
ΜΗΤΡ
ΠΟΛΙΤ
ΘΗΝ
[Νι]κή[τᾳ] μητρ[ο]πολίτ(ῃ) Ἀθηνῶ(ν)
Obverse
Effaced. We may assume from the part of the inscription preserved on the reverse that the obverse presented the usual invocation to the Lord or Mother of God.
Reverse
Inscription of four lines, followed by a row of pellets. Border of dots.
ΚΗ
ΜΗΤΡ
ΠΟΛΙΤ
ΘΗΝ
[Νι]κή[τᾳ] μητρ[ο]πολίτ(ῃ) Ἀθηνῶ(ν)
| Accession number | BZS.1951.31.5.1101 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 26.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 591. Laurent reproduces our specimen on plate 80, but the description of the adornment of the obverse and the restoration of the name on the reverse derive from a similar specimen (found in Nikopolis: SBS 2 [1990] 248) published (without illustration) by Konstantopoulos in JIAN 16 (1914) 32. The DO and Athens specimens come, however, from different boulloteria. |
Translation
... Νικήτᾳ μητροπολίτῃ Ἀθηνῶν.
... Niketas, metropolitan of Athens.
Bibliography
- Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα τοῦ ἐν ἈΘήναις Ἐθνικοῦ Νομισματικοῦ Μουσείου (Open in Zotero)
- Le Synodikon de l’orthodoxie: Édition et commentaire (Open in Zotero)
- Tὰ χαράγματα τοῦ Παρθενῶς (Open in Zotero)
- Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
- Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
- Die Tarchaneiotai: Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie (Open in Zotero)
- Hellas und Thessalia (Open in Zotero)
- Realities of Byzantine Provincial Government: Hellas and Peloponnesos, 1180-1205 (Open in Zotero)
- La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantin, vol. 2, Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins (Open in Zotero)
- Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
- Athen in Byzanz: Traum und Realität (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
Line 1 (rev.): the traces of Κ are very clear, allowing us to restore with certainty the metropolitan's name. The owner of our seal seems to have been the Niketas who succeeded Sabas (d. 913; cf. BZS 1955.1.4831 and 1958.106.5012, and Gouillard, Synodikon, 108) and is known to have died in November 926 (Orlandos-Branouses, no. 63).
Laurent ascribed two more seals to this same Niketas (Corpus V/1, nos. 592, 593), but we feel that these ascriptions are not secure, especially since no. 592 seems to belong to a type much older than the early tenth century.