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Michael imperial strator and protonotarios of the metaton of Phrygia (ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type VIII). In the four quarters: Τ..|Δ.. A crosslet of dots () visible below each pair of letters in the lower quarters. Border of dots.

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines followed by tendril decoration. Border of dots.

+..ΧΑ
ΗΛ,,ΣΤΡΑΤ
ΑΝΟΤ,ΜΙΤ
ΑΤ,ΦΡΥΓ/Αˊ

Μιχαὴλ βασιλικῷ στράτορι καὶ πρωτονοταρίῳ μιτάτου Φρυγίας

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type VIII). In the four quarters: Τ..|Δ.. A crosslet of dots () visible below each pair of letters in the lower quarters. Border of dots.

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines followed by tendril decoration. Border of dots.

+..ΧΑ
ΗΛ,,ΣΤΡΑΤ
ΑΝΟΤ,ΜΙΤ
ΑΤ,ΦΡΥΓ/Αˊ

Μιχαὴλ βασιλικῷ στράτορι καὶ πρωτονοταρίῳ μιτάτου Φρυγίας

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.3151
Diameter 24.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 95.2.

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

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Μιχαὴλ βασιλικῷ στράτορι καὶ πρωτονοταρίῳ μιτάτου Φρυγίας.

Lord, help your servant Michael imperial strator and protonotarios of the metaton of Phrygia.

Commentary

The mountainous territory of Phrygia Salutaris and Phrygia Pactiana, famous since Antiquity for its horses (Phrygien und Pisidien, 63-64), mostly belonged to the theme of the Anatolikoi. During the mid-Byzantine period, a major state ranch for breeding horses and pack animals for the army was there; the metaton of Phrygia; it was administrated by a protonotarios (like those to whom our following seals belonged) and, being part of the major central service of the logothetes ton agelon, an official who may have been descended from the late Roman praepositus gregum and who controlled a second major metaton in the province of Asia with its own protonotarios (Zacos-Veglery, no 3077A). In the same service of the agelai were attached several episkeptitai, that is, administrators of domains from which the service gained revenue, such as Gregory (BZS.1947.2.138). See Listes, 117, 338. See also DO Seals 3, no. 27.1.

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)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)