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Michael bishop of Kamouliana (tenth/eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

St. Michael standing, holding a labarum in his right hand and a globus in his left hand. Circular inscription, beginning at seven o'clock. Border of dots.

.α.χ...-...τσοδ.

Ἀ[ρ]χ[ηστράτ(ηγε) β(οήθει)] τῷ σο δ(ούλῳ)

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ηλελεο
θυεπισκο
πκαμου
λιανν

[Μιχα]ὴλ ἐλέο Θ(εο)ῦ ἐπισκόπῳ Καμουλανῶν

Obverse

St. Michael standing, holding a labarum in his right hand and a globus in his left hand. Circular inscription, beginning at seven o'clock. Border of dots.

.α.χ...-...τσοδ.

Ἀ[ρ]χ[ηστράτ(ηγε) β(οήθει)] τῷ σο δ(ούλῳ)

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ηλελεο
θυεπισκο
πκαμου
λιανν

[Μιχα]ὴλ ἐλέο Θ(εο)ῦ ἐπισκόπῳ Καμουλανῶν

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1282
Diameter 22.0 mm; field: 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 4, no. 42.1.

Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 251. A similar specimen is published from the Athens Collection in Konstantopoulos, no. 154. The two specimens may be from the same boulloterion, since both have the same alignment of letters and the same orthographical peculiarities. The restoration of the inscription on the obverse is based on the seal preserved in Athens.

Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore.

Translation

Ἀρχηστράτηγε βοήθει τῷ σο δούλῳ Μιχαὴλ ἐλέο Θεοῦ ἐπισκόπῳ Καμουλανῶν.

Commander of the heavenly hosts, help your servant Michael, by the grace of God bishop of Kamouliana.

Commentary

Kamouliana's location is uncertain. It is tentatively identified with modern Kemer, about 20 km north of Caesarea. It may have been identical to Kymbalaios, which was a tourma of Charsianon in the tenth century before becoming the seat of a strategos (Listes, 361). The town is listed in all notitiae as a suffragan bishopric of Caesarea in Cappadocia I. See ODB II, 1099; Zgusta, 218-220; Hild-Restle, Kappadokien, 197-98; Laurent, Corpus V/1, 175-176. List of bishops in Fedalto, HEO I, 26.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 4: The East (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα τοῦ ἐν ἈΘήναις Ἐθνικοῦ Νομισματικοῦ Μουσείου (Open in Zotero)