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John (bishop) of Atramyttion (twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

St. Athanasios standing, blessing with his right hand and holding a book in his left. On either side the inscription: |α|θ|α-ν|α|σι|οσ : ὁ ἅ(γιος) Ἀθανάσιος. Border of dots. To be seen on each of the saint's shoulders is a cross decoration, indicating that the person presented is a bishop. The saint could be the famous St. Athanasios of Alexandria, but, as Laurent has observed, he might also be Athanasios, bishop-saint of Adramyttion, whose cult is known from a panegyric of Constantine Akropolites (BHG, no. 192).

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, cross above. Border of dots.

+
σφραγισ
ευτελουσ
ι̅ω̅ατρα
μητι

σφραγὶς εὐτελοῦς Ἰω(άννου) Ἀτραμητίου

Obverse

St. Athanasios standing, blessing with his right hand and holding a book in his left. On either side the inscription: |α|θ|α-ν|α|σι|οσ : ὁ ἅ(γιος) Ἀθανάσιος. Border of dots. To be seen on each of the saint's shoulders is a cross decoration, indicating that the person presented is a bishop. The saint could be the famous St. Athanasios of Alexandria, but, as Laurent has observed, he might also be Athanasios, bishop-saint of Adramyttion, whose cult is known from a panegyric of Constantine Akropolites (BHG, no. 192).

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, cross above. Border of dots.

+
σφραγισ
ευτελουσ
ι̅ω̅ατρα
μητι

σφραγὶς εὐτελοῦς Ἰω(άννου) Ἀτραμητίου

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.991
Diameter 24.0 mm; field: 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 3.4. Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 276. See also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2440.

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

Translation

σφραγὶς εὐτελοῦς Ἰωάννου Ἀτραμητίου.

Seal of John, humble (bishop) of Atramyttion.

Commentary

The inscription is metrical provided that one reads the abridged name as Io, without the syllables implicit in the abbreviation -άννου.

Adramyttion or Atramyttion (modern Edremit) was an important naval base, part of the Thrakesion; after the creation of the theme of Samos, between 843 and 899, Adramyttion with the littoral became the seat of one of its tourmai (De Them., chap. XVI, line 15) while the interior belonged to the strategos of the Thrakesion, who also had, at least in the ninth century, a tourmarches at Adramyttion. The see, a suffragan of Ephesos, was first attested in 431 and appears in all the notitiae.See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 190; Culerrier, Suffragants d'Ephèse, 153 (episcopal list); ODB I, 227.

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 (Open in Zotero)
  • De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Les évêchés suffragants d’Ephèse aux 5e-13e siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)