Accession number | BZS.1951.31.5.1498 |
---|---|
Diameter | 32 mm |
Field diameter | 26 mm |
Condition | Oxidated. |
Previous Editions | DO Seals 3, no. 99.5. |
Obverse
Inscription in six lines preceded by a decoration. Border of dots.
ΚΕΟ
ΗΘΕΙΤ
ΣΔΛ
ΚΝΣΤΑΝ
Τ,ΠΑΤΡΙ
ΚΙ
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ πατρικίῳ
Reverse
Inscription in six lines preceded by an ornament. Border of dots.
ΠΡΑΙΠΟ
ΣΙΤΕΣ
ΤΑΡΧ,ΔΟ
ΜΕΣΤΙΚ
.ΗΣΑΝΑ
ΤΟΛ,
πραιποσίτῳ, βεστάρχῃ. καὶ δομεστίκῳ τῆς Ἀνατολῆς
Translation
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ πατρικίῳ, πραιποσίτῳ, βεστάρχῃ. καὶ δομεστίκῳ τῆς Ἀνατολῆς.
Lord, help your servant Constantine patrikios, praipositios, vestarches, and domestikos of the East.
Accession number | BZS.1951.31.5.1498 |
---|---|
Diameter | 32 mm |
Field diameter | 26 mm |
Condition | Oxidated. |
Previous Editions | DO Seals 3, no. 99.5. |
Bibliography
- Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient
- Recherches sur les institutions byzantines
- Die byzantinischen Bleisiegel in Österreich, vol. 1, Kaiserhof
- Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles
- L’évolution de l’organisation administrative de l’empire byzantin au XIe siècle (1025–1118)
- Byzantine Lead Seals, vol. 1
- Molivdovuly Grecheskogo Vostoka
- Les sceaux byzantins de la Collection Henri Seyrig
- Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung
Commentary
The owner of the present seal was a eunuch (praipositos); he could thus be identical to the eunuch Constantine, brother of Michael IV, who was appointed domestikos of the Schools of the East in 1037 and who kept the position until 1041. Cf. Guilland, Recherches I, 450; Seibt, Bleisiegel, no. 35 (Constantine proedros, domestikos of the Schools of the East and of Antioch: a latter seal of the same person).
From an administrative point of view, the term Anatole was used until the 10th century to indicate (a) the territories that had previously belonged to the praefectura praetorio per Orientem that is, essentially, all the themes of Asia Minor together with those of Thrace and Macedonia; or, more realistically, (b) the territories situated to the east of Constantinople, that is, Asia Minor. In the 10th century the army command of the East was separated from that of the West (that is, Europe), Listes, 329, 341-42; cf. Oikonomides, Évolution, 141-42 and AP 35 [1978] 300, 328-29. The seals published here (and some others, such as the one of the stratopedarches of the East: Zacos-Veglery, no. 2780; Lihačev, Molivdovuly, 104, pl. LXIII,9; Seyrig, no. 159; or the hikanatoi of the East: Seyrig, no. 154) show that in the 10th and eleventh centuries the entity called the East comprised only military commands.
It should be noted, however, that in some cases the term Anatole seems to have been used to indicate a strategos of the Anatolikoi (cf. Winkelmann, Ämterstruktur, 78-79); and several civilian officials defined as ton Anatolikon could well wave authority over territories covering the East, well beyond the boundaries of the theme (see DO Seals 3, § 86, nos. 86.9, 86.17, 86.34).