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N. symponos and nosokomos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Eustratios. Details indistinct. Faint but legible traces of sigla on either side: |ευ|στρα|τ : ὁ ἅ(γιος) Εὐστράτ(ιος). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines beginning with a cross. Bottom line missing. Border of dots.

ο.ν̣
..ραγιδ,
υ̣μπΌν
ν̣οσοκ/ ορο̣
φΎλαττε̣
ρυτΆ
Ν̀́̣
....

ὁ[ρ]ῶν [σφ]ραγῖδ(α) [σ]υμπόνου, νοσοκό(μου) ὅρο(ν) φύλαττε [τ]ρυτάν(ην) (καὶ) [σταθ(μία)?]

Obverse

Bust of St. Eustratios. Details indistinct. Faint but legible traces of sigla on either side: |ευ|στρα|τ : ὁ ἅ(γιος) Εὐστράτ(ιος). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines beginning with a cross. Bottom line missing. Border of dots.

ο.ν̣
..ραγιδ,
υ̣μπΌν
ν̣οσοκ/ ορο̣
φΎλαττε̣
ρυτΆ
Ν̀́̣
....

ὁ[ρ]ῶν [σφ]ραγῖδ(α) [σ]υμπόνου, νοσοκό(μου) ὅρο(ν) φύλαττε [τ]ρυτάν(ην) (καὶ) [σταθ(μία)?]

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.3643
Diameter 28.0 mm
Previous Editions

Cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 1689 (whose reading is discussed below).

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

Translation

ὁρῶν σφραγῖδα συμπόνου, νοσοκόμου ὅρον φύλαττε τρυτάνην καὶ σταθμία.

When you see the seal of the symponos and nosokomos, abide by his ruling as to the scale and weights.

Commentary

The poor state of preservation of this seal (and its parallels) and the absence of the final line of the reverse have led to two very different readings of an inscription consisting of two twelve-syllable verses. Wassiliou-Seibt has reconstructed it as follows: ὁρῶν σφραγῖδα συμπόνου, νοσοκόμου | ὅρους φύλαττε, τοῦ πρυτάνεως μάρτυς (or θύτα), a not implausible reading which makes the inscription an invocation to the saint shown on the obverse, imploring him to safeguard the decisions of the (anonymous) official in his twin capacities as symponos and nosokomos. But in our view, this reading is not supported by the lettering visible in the last extant lines. We have preferred to follow Cheynet's reading of the parallel specimen (Collection Seyrig, no. 135), where he fills the missing ending with the metrically accurate (καὶ) σταθ(μία). Since the duties of the symponos (a subordinate of the Eparch of the City) included supervision of the weights and measures used by merchants in their transactions, while those of the nosokomos included the provisioning and maintenance of the City's hospitals, an inscription stating that the seal of this official guaranteed the integrity of the scale and weights would be in keeping with these responsibilities.

Note the use of accent marks in the inscription, and the parallelism of the first words of each dodecasyllable (ὁρῶν-ὅρον).

Bibliography

  • Les sceaux byzantins de la Collection Henri Seyrig (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)