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Sergios imperial spatharios and topoteretes of the Imperial Opsikion guarded by God (eighth/ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (a variant of type XIV, with a σ at right). In the quarters: τ-σ|δ-λ. No visible border.

Χριστὲ βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. No visible border.

+σεργι.
β/ σπαθ/Sτ
ποτ/τ
ουθ/β/ο
ψικι

Σεργί[ῳ] β(ασιλικῷ) σπαθ(αρίῳ) (καὶ) τωποτ(ηρητῇ) τοῦ θ(εοφυλάκτου) β(ασιλικοῦ) Ὀψικίου

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (a variant of type XIV, with a σ at right). In the quarters: τ-σ|δ-λ. No visible border.

Χριστὲ βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. No visible border.

+σεργι.
β/ σπαθ/Sτ
ποτ/τ
ουθ/β/ο
ψικι

Σεργί[ῳ] β(ασιλικῷ) σπαθ(αρίῳ) (καὶ) τωποτ(ηρητῇ) τοῦ θ(εοφυλάκτου) β(ασιλικοῦ) Ὀψικίου

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.295
Diameter 23.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 39.49a.

Zacos-Veglery, nos. 1762 (name read as Βάρδᾳ and dated 750-850); and 3176a (name read as Σεργίῳ and dated eighth century, first half).

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

Translation

Χριστὲ βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Σεργίῳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαρίῳ καὶ τωποτηρητῇ τοῦ θεοφυλάκτου βασιλικοῦ Ὀψικίου.

Christ, help your servant Sergios, imperial spatharios and topoteretes of the imperial Opsikion guarded by God.

Commentary

This seal and BZS.1947.2.123 come from the same boulloterion.

Laurent published a similar seal (Orghidan, no. 219), which could have belonged to the same person as ours.

Opsikion was one of the earliest themes of Byzantium; its name from the term obsequium (retinue), often called "imperial obsequium guarded by God." Its territory included many provinces and initially encompassed all northwestern Asia Minor; by the mid-eighth century it was subdivided, and the new themes of the Boukellarioi and of the Optimatoi appeared. All three names show that the origins of this theme are to be sought in the regiments of the imperial guard, and according to some scholars, to the milites praesentales of the fifth century.

The commander of Opsikion traditionally bore the titles of komes, probably because initially he was identical to the comes domesticorum. He is first attested in 626 (perhaps already in 615), and, because of his proximity to Constantinople (his residence was in Nicaea), he played an important role in imperial politics. As this happened regularly with all units of the imperial guard, the tagmata (Listes, 329), the second in command of the Opsikion was called for quite some time a topoteretes (cf. Zacos-Veglery, no. 1762). The province was organized as all other themes (with tourmarchai, anagrapheis, judges, protonotarioi, chartoularioi, strateutai [Laurent, Orghidan, no. 218], etc.), and, already in the ninth century, the commander was also called a strategos (see Listes, 264, footnote 23; Zacos, Seals II, no. 850; Seyrig, no. 191).

The littoral of the Opsikion was also part of the theme of Aigaion Pelagos.

See Pertusi, in De Them., 127-30; Winkelmann, Ämsterstruktur, 72-76, 119-20; ODB III, 1528-29; Haldon, Praetorians, passim, esp. 164 ff; T. Lounghis, "A Deo conservandum imperiale Obsequium," ByzSl 52 (1991) 54-60.

Bibliography