Nicholas Rhadenos, imperial protospatharios and judge of Lykandos (eleventh century)
Obverse
Bust of the Mother of God holding the Christ child on her left arm. Sigla: -θ̅υ : Μή(τη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.
Obverse
Bust of the Mother of God holding the Christ child on her left arm. Sigla: -θ̅υ : Μή(τη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of five lines, decorations above and below. Border of dots.
– –
+νικο
λο̅⸣ σπ
θρ,Sκριτ,
τολεικν
δορδιν
– –
Νικόλαο(ς) β(ασιλικὸς) (πρωτο)σπαθάρ(ιος) (καὶ) κριτ(ὴς) τοῦ Λεικανδ(οῦ) ὁ ῾Ραδιν(ός)
Accession number | BZS.1951.31.5.539 |
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Diameter | 25.0 mm |
Previous Editions | DO Seals 4, no. 53.3b. See also PBW : Nikolaos 20133. |
Credit Line | Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore. |
Translation
Νικόλαος βασιλικὸς πρωτοσπαθάριος καὶ κριτὴς τοῦ Λεικανδοῦ ὁ ῾Ραδινός.
Nicholas Rhadenos, imperial protospatharios and judge of Lykandos.
Bibliography
- Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 4: The East (Open in Zotero)
- De Administrando Imperio (Open in Zotero)
- Histoire de la dynastie des H’amdanides de Jazîra et de Syrie (Open in Zotero)
- Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
- Michaelis Attaliotae Historia (Open in Zotero)
- Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Katalog molivdovulov (Open in Zotero)
- Sfragistika (Open in Zotero)
- Kappadokien (Kappadokia, Charsianon, Sebasteia und Lykandos) (Open in Zotero)
- Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
- Mleh le Grand (Open in Zotero)
- Η Μικρά Ασία των θεμάτων. Ἐρευνες πάνω στην γεωγραφική φυσιογνωμία και προσωπογραφία των βυζαντινών θεμάτων της Μικράς Ασίας (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
This seal and BZS.1947.2.655 come from the same boulloterion.
Lykandos or Likandos or Likandon (formerly Lapara), mentioned as a feminine name but sometimes also as a masculine, was situated in the region east of Caesarea; it was first a kleisoura created by the Armenian Melias. From 916 until the 11th c. it was the seat first of a strategos (whose authority extended also over neighboring Tzamandos, cf. De Adm. Imp. ch. 50, l. 157 and Canard, Hamdanides, 780 [954, mention of a “patrice de Lykandos et de Tzamandos"]) and later of a katepano. The seal of a katepano τῶν Λυκανδνῶν (Zacos, Seals II, no. 437) shows that this official was at the head of a military contingent. The theme is attested until the reign of Romanos IV Diogenes (Attaleiates, 105). It had a normal administration including protonotarioi (two seals in Sig., 282, 283, another one in Pancenko, Katalog, no. 471 and Sandrovskaja, Sfragistika, no. 818). See Hild-Restle, Kappadokien, 224-226; Oikonomides, Listes, 350; G. Dédéyan, Mleh le Grand, Revue des Etudes Arméniennes 15 (1981) 73-102; Mikra Asia them., 307-313, 475-478 (T. Lounghis).