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Niketas protospatharios epi tou koitonos, judge of the Hippodrome, and praitor of Adrianoupolis (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription preceded and followed by an ornament. Border of dots.

·
..
Ε,Θ,
..ΚΗΤΑ
..ΠΑΘΑΡ
..ΙΤΚΟΙ
..ΝΟΣ

 

[Κ(ύρι)]ε β(οή)θ(ει) [Νι]κήτᾳ [(πρωτο)]σπαθαρ(ίῳ) [ἐπ]ὶ τοῦ κοι[τῶ]νος

Reverse

Inscription preceded by an ornament. Border of dots.

·
ΚΡΙΤ.
ΕΠΙΤ...
.ΡΟΜ,ΠΡ..
ΤΡΙΑΔ..
ΑΝΟΥ.
...

κριτ[ῇ] ἐπὶ τοῦ [Ἱπποδ]ρόμ(ου) (καὶ) πρ[αί]τωρι Ἀδ[ρι]ανου[πόλεως]

Obverse

Inscription preceded and followed by an ornament. Border of dots.

·
..
Ε,Θ,
..ΚΗΤΑ
..ΠΑΘΑΡ
..ΙΤΚΟΙ
..ΝΟΣ

 

[Κ(ύρι)]ε β(οή)θ(ει) [Νι]κήτᾳ [(πρωτο)]σπαθαρ(ίῳ) [ἐπ]ὶ τοῦ κοι[τῶ]νος

Reverse

Inscription preceded by an ornament. Border of dots.

·
ΚΡΙΤ.
ΕΠΙΤ...
.ΡΟΜ,ΠΡ..
ΤΡΙΑΔ..
ΑΝΟΥ.
...

κριτ[ῇ] ἐπὶ τοῦ [Ἱπποδ]ρόμ(ου) (καὶ) πρ[αί]τωρι Ἀδ[ρι]ανου[πόλεως]

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1409
Diameter 28.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 44.7. A similar seal (perhaps from the same boulloterion), with the same name and titles and undoubtedly belonging to the same person, was published by Mordtmann, Ἑλλ. Φιλολ. Σύλλ. 13 (Suppl., 86-87 (=Sig., 111).

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

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει Νικήτᾳ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος, κριτῇ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἱπποδρόμου καὶ πραίτωρι Ἀδριανουπόλεως.

Lord, help Niketas protospatharios epi tou koitonos, judge of the Hippodrome, and praitor of Adrianoupolis.

Commentary

Schlumberger was inclined to attribute his specimen to the twelfth-century Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates, but Konstantopoulos (ΑΘΛΓΘ 2 [1935/36] 220-21 = 22 [1957], 267-68) corrected the date.

Bibliography

  • 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)
  • Plombs byzantins de la Grèce et du Péleponnèse (Open in Zotero)
  • Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Le kommerkion d’Abydos, Thessalonique et le commerce bulgare du 9e siècle (Open in Zotero)
  • Armenian Miniature Paintings of the Monastic Library at San Lazzaro (Open in Zotero)
  • Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis historiarum (Open in Zotero)
  • Μελέται περὶ τῆς διοικητικῆς διαιρέσεως καὶ τῆς ἐπαρχιακῆς διοικήσεως ἐν τῷ βυζαντινῷ κράτει (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)