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Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Theodore, wearing a chlamys and holding a spear in his right hand and a shield in his left. Vertical inscription at left and right: .|ΘΕ|Ο – Ρ̣, : [ὁ ἅ(γιος)] Θεό[δω]ρ(ος). Circular inscription along the circumference, beginning at seven o’clock. Border of dots.

ΚΕ̣............

Κ(ύρι)ε [βοήθι τῷ σῷ δούλ(ῳ)]

Reverse

Inscription of five lines (four preserved). Border of dots.

σπ
στρτι
τrερη
rοη

[Θεοδώρ(ῳ)] (πρωτο)σπα[θ(αρίῳ) (καὶ)] στρατι(γῷ) τῷ Βερηβόῃ

Obverse

Bust of St. Theodore, wearing a chlamys and holding a spear in his right hand and a shield in his left. Vertical inscription at left and right: .|ΘΕ|Ο – Ρ̣, : [ὁ ἅ(γιος)] Θεό[δω]ρ(ος). Circular inscription along the circumference, beginning at seven o’clock. Border of dots.

ΚΕ̣............

Κ(ύρι)ε [βοήθι τῷ σῷ δούλ(ῳ)]

Reverse

Inscription of five lines (four preserved). Border of dots.

σπ
στρτι
τrερη
rοη

[Θεοδώρ(ῳ)] (πρωτο)σπα[θ(αρίῳ) (καὶ)] στρατι(γῷ) τῷ Βερηβόῃ

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1448
Diameter 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

Oikonomides, “Usual Lead Seal,” 149–50, figs. 1p (obv.) and 2p (rev.)

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

Translation

Κύριε βοήθι τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Θεοδώρῳ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ τῷ Βερηβόῃ.

Lord, help your servant Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos.

Commentary

A certain Beriboes was strategos of Chios and defeated a party of Arab pirates in 1028; but as his first name is not attested, we cannot say whether he is identical with the owner of our seal; see Skylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 373. Another Beriboes, a seditious Vlach (no first name mentioned), lived in Larissa under the reign of Constantine X Doukas (1057–67), but he was certainly not a strategos; Litavrin, Sovety i rasskazy Kekavmena, 256 and 527, n. 937 (Slavic etymology of the name). Two other members of the same family, Manuel and Nikephoros, are attested in the letters of Michael Choniates: they belonged to the aristocracy of southern Greece at the beginning of the thirteenth century; Stadtmüller, Michael Choniaties, Metropolit von Athen, 193, 258, 262, 263, 266, 273.

This is one of eighteen specimens from the same boulleterion belonging to Theodore Beriboes in the Dumbarton Oaks and Fogg collections. The better preserved specimens among them have been used to confirm the readings of each one.

Bibliography