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Constantine Euoranites, spatharokandidatos, asekretis, and grand kourator of Mytilene (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

..Ε,Θ,
..ΣΔ,
..̅Ν̅ΣΠΑ
..ΚΑΝ

[Κ(ύρι)]ε β(οή)θ(ει) [τῷ] σῷ δού(λῳ) [Κω]ν(σταντίνῳ) σπα[θ(α)ρ(ο)]καν(διδάτῳ)

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

ΑΣΗ...
Τ,Κ..
ΗΤΥΛ..
ΤΕ

ἀση[κρῆ]τ(ις) (καὶ) μ(ε)γ(άλῳ) κου[ράτορι] Μητυλ[ήν(ης)] τῷ Εὐ[ωρανίτ(ῃ)]

Obverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

..Ε,Θ,
..ΣΔ,
..̅Ν̅ΣΠΑ
..ΚΑΝ

[Κ(ύρι)]ε β(οή)θ(ει) [τῷ] σῷ δού(λῳ) [Κω]ν(σταντίνῳ) σπα[θ(α)ρ(ο)]καν(διδάτῳ)

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

ΑΣΗ...
Τ,Κ..
ΗΤΥΛ..
ΤΕ

ἀση[κρῆ]τ(ις) (καὶ) μ(ε)γ(άλῳ) κου[ράτορι] Μητυλ[ήν(ης)] τῷ Εὐ[ωρανίτ(ῃ)]

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1076
Diameter 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 51.4 (with the family name left incomplete).

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ σπαθαροκανδιδάτῳ, ἀσηκρῆτις καὶ μεγάλῳ κουράτορι Μητυλήνης τῷ Εὐωρανίτῃ.

Lord, help your servant Constantine Euoranites, spatharokandidatos, asekretis, and grand kourator of Mytilene.

Commentary

The reading of the owner's family name has been restored with reference to other seals belonging to the same man; see the entries linked below and PBW : Konstantinos 20261.

The main city of the island of Lesbos, Mytilene, gave its name to the whole island before the 6th century, but the old name was also used concurrently. The second city of the island was Methmyna (see DO Seals 2, § 52). In the 9th century, the island of Mytilene constituted a separate fiscal entity, with a separate dioiketes (nos. DO Seals 2, 51.1 and 51.2, and Zacos-Veglery, no. 3135); by the middle of the century it seems to have become the seat of a strategos (AnalBoll 18 [1899] 253, 258: undoubtedly of the Aigaion Pelagos), and from an archbishopric it became the seat of a metropolitan (in the second half of the 9th century: Laurent, Corpus V/1, 573). The existence of imperial domains constituting a kouratoreia can be deduced from our seals DO Seals 2, 51.4 and 51.5. In the 11th century, the kourator was a certain moment entrusted (temporarily?) with the administration and the defense of the island (Alexiade II, 110).

See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 573-74; Fedalto, 215-17; Malamut, Iles, passim, esp. 232-36, 274-75, 311, 321, 338, 367, 499-500; ODB II, 1219.  Zacos, Seals II, no. 252, published the seal of another megas kourator of Mytilene named Nikephoros.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Alexiade: Règne de l’empereur Alexis I Comnène, 1081–1118 (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)