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John bishop of Hexamilion (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Patriarchal cross (X at the lower crossing) on three steps with fleurons rising from base (to first horizontal bar). Along the circumference, circular inscription. Border of dots.

ΚΕΟΗΘΕΙΤ..ΔΛ,

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλ

Reverse

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

·
..̅ΕΠΙ
Σ.ΠΟ
.ΑΜˋ
ΛΙ,

ωάννῃ ἐπισκόπῳ ξαμιλίου

Obverse

Patriarchal cross (X at the lower crossing) on three steps with fleurons rising from base (to first horizontal bar). Along the circumference, circular inscription. Border of dots.

ΚΕΟΗΘΕΙΤ..ΔΛ,

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλ

Reverse

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

·
..̅ΕΠΙ
Σ.ΠΟ
.ΑΜˋ
ΛΙ,

ωάννῃ ἐπισκόπῳ ξαμιλίου

Accession number BZS.1958.106.3383
Diameter 21.0 mm; field: 16.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 54.3.
Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1701.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Ἰωάννῃ ἐπισκόπῳ Ἑξαμιλίου.

Lord, help your servant John bishop of Hexamilion.

Commentary

The owner of this seal has nothing to do with another John who occupied the see in the second half of the eleventh century (Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 324; cf. Asdracha, Thrace orientale, 295).

Hexamilion (modern Bulayir) must have had significant economic activities, as is shown by our seals from there.

The see, a suffragan bishopric of Herakleia, was located at the site of ancient Lysimachia in the middle of the Dardanelles along the Thracian coast; it remained a bishopric until the fourteenth century when it was raised to the status of an archbishopric and metropolis (Laurent, Corpus V/1, 229; Asdracha, Thrace orientale, 249-50, 294-95). In a tenth-century notitia (cf. Darrouzès, Notitiae, 64), Hexamilion is equated with neighboring Chersonesos.

Bibliography

  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • 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)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)