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Michael imperial spatharios, imperial notarios and anagrapheus of Lykandos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Michael, holding a long scepter and a globus. Remains of a vertical inscription: ι- : [Μ]ι[χα(ήλ)]. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.

Μ̣Ι̣
.σπαθ.ΡΙ̣
̣νοταρι

.αναγραφ
.λικανˊ
 -δ,-

Μιχ(αὴλ) [β(ασιλικῷ)] σπαθ[α]ρί(ῳ), β(ασιλικῷ) νοταρίῳ [(καὶ)] ἀναγραφ(εῖ) [τ]οῦ Λικανδ(οῦ)

Obverse

Bust of St. Michael, holding a long scepter and a globus. Remains of a vertical inscription: ι- : [Μ]ι[χα(ήλ)]. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.

Μ̣Ι̣
.σπαθ.ΡΙ̣
̣νοταρι

.αναγραφ
.λικανˊ
 -δ,-

Μιχ(αὴλ) [β(ασιλικῷ)] σπαθ[α]ρί(ῳ), β(ασιλικῷ) νοταρίῳ [(καὶ)] ἀναγραφ(εῖ) [τ]οῦ Λικανδ(οῦ)

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.27
Diameter 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 4, no. 53.1.

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

Translation

Μιχαὴλ βασιλικῷ σπαθαρίῳ, βασιλικῷ νοταρίῳ καὶ ἀναγραφεῖ τοῦ Λικανδοῦ.

Michael imperial spatharios, imperial notarios, and anagrapheus of Lykandos.

Commentary

The restitution of the name Michael is supported by the image on the obverse. Instead of βασιλικὸς σπαθάριος, Michael may have been a (πρωτο)σπαθάριος but there is no decisive evidence either way. The engraver has added a superfluous abbreviation sign at the end of line 5 of the obverse, probably because he expected to complete the sixth line with a decoration.

Lykandos or Likandos or Likandon (formerly Lapara), mentioned as a feminine name but sometimes also as a masculine, was situated in the region east of Caesarea; it was first a kleisoura created by the Armenian Melias. For a century and a half after 916 it was the seat of a strategos (whose authority extended also over neighboring Tzamandos, cf. De Adm. Imp. ch. 50, l. 157 and Canard, Hamdanides, 780 [954, mention of a “patrice de Lykandos et de Tzamandos"]) and later of a katepano. The seal of a katepano τῶν Λυκανδνῶν (Zacos, Seals II, no. 437) shows that this official was at the head of a military contingent. The theme is attested until the reign of Romanos IV Diogenes (Attaleiates, 105).  It had a normal administration including protonotarioi (two seals in Sig., 282, 283, another one in Pancenko, Katalog, no. 471 and Sandrovskaja, Sfragistika, no. 818). See Hild-Restle, Kappadokien, 224-226; Oikonomides, Listes, 350; G. Dédéyan, Mleh le Grand, Revue des Etudes Arméniennes 15 (1981) 73-102; Mikra Asia them., 307-313, 475-478 (T. Lounghis).

Bibliography