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Theodore protospatharios, exaktor, chartoularios of the genikos logothetes, and kommerkiarios of Develtos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of five lines, decoration below. Border of dots.

ΘΚΕΘ
ΘΕΟΔΡ
ΑΣΠΑΘΑΡ
ΕΞΑΚΤΡΙ
ΧΤΛΑΡ
·

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Θεοδώρ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ, ἐξάκτωρι, χαρτουλαρίῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded by an ornament. Border of dots.


τγενι
κλογοθε
τκομερ
κιαριδε
βελτ

τοῦ γενικοῦ λογοθέτου καὶ κομερκιαρί Δεβελτοῦ

Obverse

Inscription of five lines, decoration below. Border of dots.

ΘΚΕΘ
ΘΕΟΔΡ
ΑΣΠΑΘΑΡ
ΕΞΑΚΤΡΙ
ΧΤΛΑΡ
·

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Θεοδώρ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ, ἐξάκτωρι, χαρτουλαρίῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded by an ornament. Border of dots.


τγενι
κλογοθε
τκομερ
κιαριδε
βελτ

τοῦ γενικοῦ λογοθέτου καὶ κομερκιαρί Δεβελτοῦ

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1786
Diameter 20.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 76.1.

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

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Θεοδώρῳ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ, ἐξάκτωρι, χαρτουλαρίῳ τοῦ γενικοῦ λογοθέτου καὶ κομερκιαρίῳ Δεβελτοῦ.

Theotokos, help Theodore protospatharios, exaktor, chartoularios of the genikos logothetes, and kommerkiarios of Develtos.

Commentary

Develtos (the Roman colony Flavia Deultum), modern Stari-Debelt, near the new city of Debelt, near Bourgas, was an important center from the ninth century on. It replaced Mesembria as the main place of commercial and diplomatic exchange between the Bulgars and the Byzantines. This developed when Krum conquered Mesembria (812): the frontier was brought much farther south, and the agglomeration of Develtos passed into the hands of the Bulgars, while the fortress, situated south of the river, remained Byzantine and was called Δεβελτὸς Ῥωμανίας, the Debeltos of Romania, as opposed to the Bulgarian Debelt to the north (communication by Bulgarian archaeologists at the fourth colloquium "Bulgaria Pontica Medii Aevi," Nessebǎr, 1988). It became the seat of Byzantine kommerkiarioi, known from seals, the earliest of which, a dated one, belongs to the imperial kommerkia of Develtos (832/3: Zacos-Veglery, no. 285). In later times and until the eleventh century, we find many imperial kommerkiarioi of the city. See N. Oikonomides, "Tribute of Trade? The Byzantine-Bulgarian Treaty of 716," Studia Slavico-Byzantina et Mediaevalia Europensia 1 (1988) 31; and Zacos, Seals II, no. 159bis. Develtos was also the seat of a bishop (Asdracha, Thrace orientale, 260-61, 300).

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)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Tribute or Trade?: The Byzantine-Bulgarian Treaty of 716 (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)