Basil bishop of Synaos (tenth/eleventh century)
Obverse
Bust of St. Basil blessing with his right hand and holding a book in his left hand. Inscription in two columns: |R|σι-λ|ι|ο : ὁ ἅ(γιος) Βασίλιο(ς). Border of dots.
Obverse
Bust of St. Basil blessing with his right hand and holding a book in his left hand. Inscription in two columns: |R|σι-λ|ι|ο : ὁ ἅ(γιος) Βασίλιο(ς). Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.
+Rασι
.ειε
.ισκοπ
σ.να
Βασι[λ]είῳ ἐ[π]ισκόπ(ῳ) Σ[υ]ναοῦ
Accession number | BZS.1951.31.5.294 |
---|---|
Diameter | 24.0 mm; field: 21.0 mm |
Previous Editions | DO Seals 3, no. 37.1. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 734. |
Credit Line | Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore. |
Translation
Βασιλείῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Συναοῦ.
Basil, bishop of Synaos.
Bibliography
- Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient (Open in Zotero)
- Phrygien und Pisidien (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
- Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
Laurent read the final line of the reverse inscription as σανα. But no letter is visible after the initial sigma and we do not accept Laurent's assertion that this specimen resolves the problem of the "true spelling of the name of the suffragan bishopric of Laodikeia." We restore the missing letter as upsilon because the bishopric of Sanaos is not attested after the fifth century whereas Synaos appears in many later sources.
Apart from Ankyrosynaos, we have (a) the bishopric of Sanaos, modenr Sarikavak at 40 km southwest of Apameia, attested only until the fifth century (Phrygien und Pisidien, 371), and (b) Synaos, today Simav on the south shore of Simav Göl, attested throughout the centures (Phrygien und Pisidien, 395-96) and appearing in the notitiae both under Laodikeia and under Hierapolis. Laurent (Corpus V/1, 559) and Darrouzès (Notitiae, 27) hypothesize that Synaos of Laodikeia could in fact be identical to Sanaos and that the name was corrupted by copyists, but there is no evidence to support this hypothesis.
Laurent attributed two seals of the DO Collection to Synaos, but we consider them too doubtful to list with the seal edited here (Laurent, Corpus V/3, nos. 1739, 1827-28 [= Zacos-Veglery, no. 926]).