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Demetrios metropolitan of Kyzikos (tenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Demetrios holding a martyr's cross. On either side the inscription: Γ|Η|ΗΤΡΙ|ΕΟΗΘ. Border of dots.

[῞Α]γ[(ιε) Δ]η[μ]ήτριε βοήθ(ει)

Reverse

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

ΔΗΜ.
ΤΡΙΩΜΗ
ΤΡΟΠΟΛˊ
ΤΗΚΥΖ

Κ

Δημ[η]τρίῳ μητροπολ(ί)τῃ Κυζ[ί]κ(ου)

Obverse

Bust of St. Demetrios holding a martyr's cross. On either side the inscription: Γ|Η|ΗΤΡΙ|ΕΟΗΘ. Border of dots.

[῞Α]γ[(ιε) Δ]η[μ]ήτριε βοήθ(ει)

Reverse

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

ΔΗΜ.
ΤΡΙΩΜΗ
ΤΡΟΠΟΛˊ
ΤΗΚΥΖ

Κ

Δημ[η]τρίῳ μητροπολ(ί)τῃ Κυζ[ί]κ(ου)

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1832
Diameter 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 53.3.
Laurent, Corpus, V/1, no. 350.

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

Translation

῞Αγιε Δημήτριε βοήθει Δημητρίῳ μητροπολίτῃ Κυζίκου.

St. Demetrios, help Demetrios, metropolitan of Kyzikos.

Commentary

This prelate might be, as Laurent notes, the Demetrios of Kyzikos to whom Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos addressed a letter in 920/925 (Nicholas I, Letters, 584). It is unusual for an invocation to appear in the form of a vertical inscription; it is ordinarily added as a circular inscription.

Kyzikos (modern Balkız) was originally a bishopric of the eparchia of Asia, but in the second half of the IVth century it became the metropolis of the Hellespont. It is listed in all the notitiae until the XVth century. In 688-689 Cypriots were brought to inhabit the peninsula together with their archbishop (cf. DOSeals 2.38). See Laurent, Corpus, V/1, 246-47; Zgusta, 310; Brandes, Städte, 115-18; ODB II, 1164-65.

In addition the seals of this see published by Laurent, see also the bulla of Leo of Kyzikos published in Zacos, Seals II, no. 552; cf. also SBS 3 [1993] 186.

Bibliography