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(The monastery or diaconate of) St. Constantine of Germanikeia (seventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of an emperor, no doubt St. Constantine, wearing a crown surmounted by a small cross and holding a globus (right hand) with the Christogram on top. No epigraphy visible. Wreath border.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Wreath border.

ΤΑ
ΓΙΚΩΝ
ΣΤΑΝΤΙΝ
ΓΕΡΜΑ
ΝΙΚΙΑ 

Τοῦ ἁγίου Κωνσταντίνου Γερμανικία(ς).

Obverse

Bust of an emperor, no doubt St. Constantine, wearing a crown surmounted by a small cross and holding a globus (right hand) with the Christogram on top. No epigraphy visible. Wreath border.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Wreath border.

ΤΑ
ΓΙΚΩΝ
ΣΤΑΝΤΙΝ
ΓΕΡΜΑ
ΝΙΚΙΑ 

Τοῦ ἁγίου Κωνσταντίνου Γερμανικία(ς).

Accession number BZS 1958.106.362
Diameter 25.0 mm; field: 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 5 no. 2.1; Laurent, Corpus 5.3: no. 1922 (with a different reading; see commentary).

Translation

Τοῦ ἁγίου Κωνσταντίνου Γερμανικία(ς).

(Seal of the diaconate of) St. Constantine of Germanikeia.

Commentary

Germanikeia (today Maraş) is located in the Antitaurus range northeast of Tarsos and Adana. Its strategic position on the eastern approaches to Cilicia made the town a prime target in the Arab-Byzantine wars. Taken and destroyed by the Arabs during the first wave of invasions (possibly in 637, no later than 656), Germanikeia was recovered by the Byzantines in 683, and thereafter changed hands several times before being conquered by Nikephoros Phokas in 962. See DHGE 20, cols. 943–60; ODB 2:845.

Laurent proposed a different (erroneous) reading, Κωνσταντ(ίνου) [τ]οῦ Γερμ[α]νικίου, as he interpreted the last word as the epithet Γερμανικός used by Roman emperors. He dated the seal to the seventh/eighth centuries, and listed it under the diaconates of Constantinople.

The editors of DO Seals 5 argue, however, based on a secure reading, that this seal represents the sole attestation of a monastery or diaconate of St. Constantine of Germanikeia. For purposes of dating, features of the portrait on the obverse invite comparison with contemporary coins, particularly with a solidus issued by Heraclius (type IV A[d], in DOC 2.1:259, illustrated on Plate IX). The hairstyle, with the sides curling upwards, and the globus cruciger held in his right hand, correspond with the same hairstyle and globus cruciger displayed by our seal. If Grierson’s proposed dating of the coin (636/37?) is correct, then our seal would have been struck shortly before Germanikeia fell to the Arabs in the mid-seventh century. On the relationship of this seal to the cult of St. Constantine, see J. W. Nesbitt, “Alexander the Monk’s text of Helena’s discovery of the Cross (BHG 410),” 39.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Volume 5: The East (continued), Constantinople and Environs, Unknown Locations, Addenda, Uncertain Readings (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Open in Zotero)
  • Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Open in Zotero)
  • Alexander the Monk’s Text of Helena’s Discovery of the Cross (BHG 410) (Open in Zotero)
  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, Vol. 2, Phocas to Theodosius III (602–717) (Open in Zotero)