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Peter bishop of Olenos (ninth/tenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding the medallion of Christ before her. No sigla visible. Within a border of dots the remains of a circular inscription.

ΘΕΟΤΟΚ..ΤΣΔ/

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

ΠΕ
ΤΡΕΠΙ
ΣΚΟΠ
ΛΕΝ

Πέτρῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Ωλένου

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding the medallion of Christ before her. No sigla visible. Within a border of dots the remains of a circular inscription.

ΘΕΟΤΟΚ..ΤΣΔ/

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

ΠΕ
ΤΡΕΠΙ
ΣΚΟΠ
ΛΕΝ

Πέτρῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Ωλένου

Accession number BZS.1947.2.120
Diameter 20.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 33.1.
Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 655.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Πέτρῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Ωλένου.

Theotokos, help your servant Peter bishop of Olenos.

Commentary

Olenos is a placename going back to Homeric times, today Ὠλένη, to the northeast of Pyrgos in Elis. The see, a suffragan of Patras, is first mentioned in a notitia of the early 10th century (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 7, line 553) under the name Βολαίνης (but the old name, without the initial Β, survived as well, cf. e.g., Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica 1 [1893] 167). In the 13th century the bishop moved to Andravida, then to Kaminitsa. See Bon, Péloponnèse, 107 and n. 3; Laurent, Corpus V/1, 491-92; Bon, Morée franque, 344-46; A. Basilikopoulou-Ioannidou. "Ἡ ἐπισκοπὴ Ὠλένης/Βολαίνης κατὰ τὴν Βυζαντινὴν περίοδον," Πρακτικὰ τοῦ Α′ Συνεδρίου Ἠλειακῶν Σπουδῶν [Πελοποννησιακά, Παράρτημα 7] (Athens, 1980), 250-60; Fedalto, 516.

Bibliography

  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)