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Eustratios bishop of Ikaria (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Michael orans, holding a sceptre and globus cruciger. On either side, the inscription: ΜΧ: Μ(ι)χ(αήλ). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines beginning with a cross. Border of dots.

ΚΕ /
ΕΥΣΤΡΑ
Τ,ΕΠΙΣΚˋ
ΙΚΑΡΙΑ
Σ

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οήθει) Εὐστρατ(ίῳ) ἐπισκ(όπῳ) Ἰκαρίας

Obverse

Bust of St. Michael orans, holding a sceptre and globus cruciger. On either side, the inscription: ΜΧ: Μ(ι)χ(αήλ). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines beginning with a cross. Border of dots.

ΚΕ /
ΕΥΣΤΡΑ
Τ,ΕΠΙΣΚˋ
ΙΚΑΡΙΑ
Σ

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οήθει) Εὐστρατ(ίῳ) ἐπισκ(όπῳ) Ἰκαρίας

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1585
Diameter 21.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 47.1. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 519 (reading bishop [=metropolitan] of Karia).

Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει Εὐστρατίῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Ἰκαρίας.

Lord, help Eustratios bishop of Ikaria.

Commentary

The upper end of the initial Ι on line 4 is barely visible, but it exists; moreover, there is space for it, by analogy with line 4 which has to be equal in length with line 2 and its six letters. For this reason, and because Eustratios is called a bishop, not a metropolitan, we attribute this seal to the bishopric of Ikaria, contrary to Laurent, who entertained this possibility but ended up attributing it to the metropolis of Karia.

The island of Ikaria appears in the notitiae as the bishopric suffragan to Rhodes in the late tenth or eleventh century (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 9. line 485). In the mid-twelfth century, one of its bishops, Constantine, managed to have his authority recognized by the monastery of Patmos, but this state of affairs did not last. See Patmos I, 64*-66* (with bibliography); Malamut, Iles, 239, 349.

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)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Patmiakē Vivliothēkē: ētoi neos katalogos tōn cheirographōn kōdikōn tēs Hieras Monēs Hagiou Iōannou tou Theologou Patmou (Open in Zotero)
  • Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)