Anthemios spatharokandidatos and dioiketes of Stauropolis (tenth century)
Obverse
Traces of a cross on steps with fleurons and a circular inscription. No visible border.
ΔΟΥΛ,
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of five lines. No visible border.
ΑΝΘΕΜ
ΣΠΑΘˋΚΑ.
ΙΔˋΚΑΙΔΙ..
ΕΙΤΙΣΤ..
ΡΟΠΟΛ
Ἀνθεμίῳ σπαθαροκανδιδάτῳ καὶ διυκειτῖ Σταυροπόλεως
Obverse
Traces of a cross on steps with fleurons and a circular inscription. No visible border.
ΔΟΥΛ,
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of five lines. No visible border.
ΑΝΘΕΜ
ΣΠΑΘˋΚΑ.
ΙΔˋΚΑΙΔΙ..
ΕΙΤΙΣΤ..
ΡΟΠΟΛ
Ἀνθεμίῳ σπαθαροκανδιδάτῳ καὶ διυκειτῖ Σταυροπόλεως
| Accession number | BZS.1955.1.1360 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 21.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 2, no. 66.1. |
Translation
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Ἀνθεμίῳ σπαθαροκανδιδάτῳ καὶ διυκειτῖ Σταυροπόλεως.
Lord, help your servant Anthemios spatharokandidatos and dioiketes of Stauropolis.
Bibliography
- Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
- Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
- Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
- Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
- Byzantine Lead Seals from Aphrodisias (Open in Zotero)
- Sur les variations numériques des évêchés byzantins (Open in Zotero)
- Die Städte Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
Karia was the name of the southwestern part of Asia Minor, a Roman province (ODB I, 381); it survives also in the Turkish placename Geyre, the village next to the ruins of ancient Aphrodisias, obviously because this was the name of the village before the arrival of the Turks.
The city was known successively under three different names. In Late Roman times, it was called Aphrodisias; after the upheavals of the 6th and 7th centuries, a new "Christian" name, Stauroupolis, appears in the notitiae starting with Pseudo-Epiphanios of ca. 640 (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 1, line 25) and continuing in later ones, although in some cases it is mentioned only as Karia (e.g. Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 11, line 22; no. 12, line 21). In fact the name Stauroupolis is found on one 8th-century seal of metropolitan Eustathios (Zacos-Veglery, no. 1351), while on the one of metropolitan Sergios of the 8th/9th century it appears as Karia (DO Seals 2, no. 66.5). This is the third name. In the Council of 787, the see is defined by the old and the new name, as Stauropolis, that is, (ἤτοι), Karia (cf. REB 33 [1975] 45-46). From then on, the name Karia prevails on the seals of the metropolitans. The name Stauroupolis reappears in the 14th century.
Stauroupolis survives on seals of the civil administration, at least for as long as the city continued to be the center of an independent fiscal unit (dioikesis); see DO Seals 2, nos. 66.1. and 66.2.
See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 377-78; Fedalto, 191-92; Zacos-Veglery, no 1351; Zacos, Seals II, nos. 536, 554; J. Nesbitt, "Byzantine Lead Seals from Aphrodisias," DOP 37 (1983) 159-64; J. Darrouzès, in REB 44 (1986) 19; Brandes, Städte, 93-94.