Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
Obverse
Bust of St. Theodore, wearing chlamys and holding a spear in his right hand and a shield in his left. Vertical inscription at left and right: |ΘΕ|Ο – |Ω|Ρ,—Ὁ (ἅγιος) Θεόδωρ(ος). Inscription along the upper half of the circumference. Border of dots.
κεrοηθιτσλ
Κύριε βοήθι τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.
θεο
ρ,σπθ,
sστρτι,
τrερη
rοη
Θεοδώρῳ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ τῷ Βερηβόῃ
Obverse
Bust of St. Theodore, wearing chlamys and holding a spear in his right hand and a shield in his left. Vertical inscription at left and right: |ΘΕ|Ο – |Ω|Ρ,—Ὁ (ἅγιος) Θεόδωρ(ος). Inscription along the upper half of the circumference. Border of dots.
κεrοηθιτσλ
Κύριε βοήθι τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.
θεο
ρ,σπθ,
sστρτι,
τrερη
rοη
Θεοδώρῳ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ τῷ Βερηβόῃ
| Accession number | BZS.1958.106.2539 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 27.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | Oikonomides, “Usual Lead Seal,” 149–50, figs. 1a (obv.) and 2a (rev.) |
Translation
Κύριε βοήθι τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Θεοδώρῳ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ τῷ Βερηβόῃ.
Lord, help your servant Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos.
Bibliography
- The Usual Lead Seal (Open in Zotero)
Parallel Seals
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
- Theodore Beriboes, protospatharios and strategos (eleventh century)
Commentary
A certain Beriboes was strategos of Chios and defeated a party of Arab pirates in 1028; but as his first name is not attested, we cannot say whether he is identical with the owner of our seal; see Skylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 373. Another Beriboes, a seditious Vlach (no first name mentioned), lived in Larissa under the reign of Constantine X Doukas (1057–67), but he was certainly not a strategos; Litavrin, Sovety i rasskazy Kekavmena, 256 and 527, n. 937 (Slavic etymology of the name). Two other members of the same family, Manuel and Nikephoros, are attested in the letters of Michael Choniates: they belonged to the aristocracy of southern Greece at the beginning of the thirteenth century; Stadtmüller, Michael Choniaties, Metropolit von Athen, 193, 258, 262, 263, 266, 273.
This is one of eighteen specimens from the same boulleterion belonging to Theodore Beriboes in the Dumbarton Oaks and Fogg collections.