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Constantine Triphyllios, asekretis and judge of Thrace (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding her hands before her, palm outward. Sigla: ̅Υ̅: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Tongues of fire. Border of dots.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of six lines, decoration below. Border of dots.

ΘΚΕ,Θ,
ΤΣ
.̅Ν,ΑΣΗ
.ΡΗΤ,ΚΡ,
.ΘΡΑΚ,Τ
ΤΡ,ΦΥΛΛ,
·

Κωνσνταντίνῳ ἀσηκρῆτις καὶ κριτῇ τῆς Θρᾴκης τῷ Τριφυλλίῳ

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding her hands before her, palm outward. Sigla: ̅Υ̅: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Tongues of fire. Border of dots.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of six lines, decoration below. Border of dots.

ΘΚΕ,Θ,
ΤΣ
.̅Ν,ΑΣΗ
.ΡΗΤ,ΚΡ,
.ΘΡΑΚ,Τ
ΤΡ,ΦΥΛΛ,
·

Κωνσνταντίνῳ ἀσηκρῆτις καὶ κριτῇ τῆς Θρᾴκης τῷ Τριφυλλίῳ

Accession number BZS.1958.106.1855
Diameter 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 71.10a.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσνταντίνῳ ἀσηκρῆτις καὶ κριτῇ τῆς Θρᾴκης τῷ Τριφυλλίῳ.

Theotokos, help your servant Constantine Triphyllios, asekretis and judge of Thrace.

Commentary

This specimen is from the same boulloterion as BZS.1958.106.5696.

The Dumbarton Oaks Collection contains no less than five eleventh-century seals attesting a Constantine Triphyllios, asekretis and judge, belonging to the same period in which this specimen was struck. On this particular iconography of the Virgin, see Cotsonis, "Virgin with the 'Tongues of Fire,'" 221-227.

The theme of Thrace appears around 680 as the Byzantine response to the crossing of the Danube by the Bulgars. It encompassed the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula and seems to have had a considerable silk production. Important exchanges with the new neighbors took place there, as shown by the numerous seals of imperial kommerkia (list in Zacos-Veglery, I, 188-89); these exchanges were largely centered in the city of Mesembria. Around the year 800, its western part was rescinded and became the theme of Macedonia, while in the eastern part, geopraphically reduced because of the Bulgarian expansion, the strategos of Thrace resided in Arkadioupolis; he had uner his command at least three tourmarchai, one called "of Thrace" (i.e., of Arkadioupolis?), one at Bizye, and one at Sozopolis (DO Seals 1, nos. 71.39, 74.1, 79.1). In the tenth century, four tagmata of scholarioi were stationed in Thrace (Cer., 652, 655, 660, 666, 668); and in the eleventh we find several judges with authority over the united themes of Thrace and Macedonia. See De Them., 156-60; Zakythinos, Mélétai 18 (1948) 80; R.-J. Lilie, "Thrakien und Thrakesion. Zur byzantinischen Provinzorganisation am Ende des 7. Jh.," JÖB 26 (1977) 27-47; idem, "Die zweihundertjährige Reform," ByzSl 45 (1984) 36-39. See also Th. Papazotos, 'Ανίχνευση τοπογραφικὴ τῆς Ἀνατολικῆς Θρᾴκης, Byzantinische Forschungen 14/1 (1985) 543-56; Winkelmann, Ämterstruktur, 90-92; and, for the ecclesiastical organization, Asdracha, Thrace orientale.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea (Open in Zotero)
  • De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
  • “Thrakien” und “Thrakesion” (Open in Zotero)
  • Die zweihundertjährige Reform (Zu den Anfängen der Themenorganisation im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert) (Open in Zotero)
  • Ανίχνευση τοπογραφική της ανατολικής Θράκης (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Constantini Porphyrogeniti De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae (Open in Zotero)