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Constantine Karkaronymos, (metropolitan) of Lakedaimonia (twelfth century, second half)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding Christ. On either side, the sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a cross above. Border of dots.


ΣΦΡΑΓΙΣ
Κ̅ΝΛΑΚΕ
ΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΑΣ
ΤΟΥΚΑΡΚΑ
ΡΟΝΜ

Σφραγὶς Κωνσταντίνου Λακεδαιμονίας τοῦ Καρκαρονύμου

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding Christ. On either side, the sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a cross above. Border of dots.


ΣΦΡΑΓΙΣ
Κ̅ΝΛΑΚΕ
ΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΑΣ
ΤΟΥΚΑΡΚΑ
ΡΟΝΜ

Σφραγὶς Κωνσταντίνου Λακεδαιμονίας τοῦ Καρκαρονύμου

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.2893
Diameter 30.0 mm; field: 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 29.1.
Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 808; see also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2513.

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

Translation

Σφραγὶς Κωνσταντίνου Λακεδαιμονίας τοῦ Καρκαρονύμου.

Seal of Constantine Karkaronymos (metropolitan) of Lakedaimonia.

Commentary

The inscription reads oddly but plausibly as a metrical verse consisting of three six-syllable parts.

Laurent did not read all the letters on the last line and proposed Κερκούρων as the name, which must be rejected. No Constantine is mentioned in the synodikon of Lakedaimonia. The family name seems to come from κάρκαρον (prison fence, low quality land: Demetrakos, 3635; Koukoules, Vios V, 253) or from the placename Καρκαρέα (in the neighbourhood of Thessaloniki: Arsenij, Žitie i podvigi sv. Feodory Solunskoj [Jurjev, 1899], 35). Cf. also the names Καρκαρέλλος, Καρκαρηνός, Καρκαριώτης (PLP 11198-11202).

Lakedaimonia (modern Sparta) functioned as a bishopric by the middle of the 5th century; it became the suffragan first in order of Patras sometime between 802 and 806 and exercised authority in Arcadia. It was established as a metropolis in 1082/83. We have the list of the bishops (synodikon) of Lakedaimonia from the mid-9th to the late 12th centuries, published and discussed by R. J. H. Jenkins and C. Mango (DOP 15 [1961] 235-42) and by V. Laurent (REB 19 [1961] 208-26); cf. Gouillard, Synodikon, 112-13, 277-78.

See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 478, 624; Fedaalto, 505-7; Philippidis-Braat, no. 42; ODB II, 1169-70.

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)
  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea (Open in Zotero)
  • Μέγα λεξικὸν ὅλης τῆς ἑλληνικῆς γλώσσης (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Synodikon de l’orthodoxie: Édition et commentaire (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Inventaires en vue d’un recueil des in- scriptions historiques de Byzance. III. Inscriptions du Péloponnèse (à l’exception de Mistra) (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)