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Agapetos bishop of Akmoneia (tenth/eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Monogram composed of letters arranged in a vertical column. Reading from top to bottom: γ|π|α|τ : Ἀγαπιτ(ῷ). On either side a six pointed star () with tongues of fire above and below. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots:

επισ
κοπ
ακμ
νει
ασ.

Ἀγαπιτ(ῷ) ἐπισκόπῳ Ἀκμωνείας.

Obverse

Monogram composed of letters arranged in a vertical column. Reading from top to bottom: γ|π|α|τ : Ἀγαπιτ(ῷ). On either side a six pointed star () with tongues of fire above and below. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots:

επισ
κοπ
ακμ
νει
ασ.

Ἀγαπιτ(ῷ) ἐπισκόπῳ Ἀκμωνείας.

Accession number BZS.1955.1.4634
Diameter 20.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 4.1.

Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1736 (name read as Ἀγαπίῳ).

Translation

Ἀγαπιτῷ ἐπισκόπῳ Ἀκμωνείας.

Agapetos, bishop of Akmoneia.

Commentary

Laurent dated the specimen to the seventh/eighth centuries; but an eleventh-century date is indicated by the presence of the tongues of fire, a decorative element which appears only around the year 1000. See J. Cotsonis, "The Virgin with the 'Tongues of Fire' on Byzantine Lead Seals," DOP 48 (1994) 221-27.

The see, a suffragan bishopric of Laodikeia of Phyrgia, was located at modern Ahat köy. Bishops are attested in documentary sources from the fourth to the eleventh centuries. Curiously, the bishopric does not appear in the notitiae before the eighth century. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 393; Phyrgien und Pisidien, 175-76.

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)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Phrygien und Pisidien (Open in Zotero)
  • The Virgin with the "Tongues of Fire" on Byzantine Lead Seals (Open in Zotero)