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Symeon metropolitan of Laodikea (tenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God holding the medallion of Christ before her. On either side crosslets of dots (). Within a border of dots, circular inscription:

+υπεραγια.....ηθει

Ὑπεραγία [Θ(εοτό)κε βο]ήθει

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, ending with a tendril. Border of dots.

+συμε
ωνμητρ
οπολιτ /λα
οδικειασ
.μην

Συμεὼν μητροπολίτ(ῃ) Λαοδικείας, [ἀ]μήν

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God holding the medallion of Christ before her. On either side crosslets of dots (). Within a border of dots, circular inscription:

+υπεραγια.....ηθει

Ὑπεραγία [Θ(εοτό)κε βο]ήθει

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, ending with a tendril. Border of dots.

+συμε
ωνμητρ
οπολιτ /λα
οδικειασ
.μην

Συμεὼν μητροπολίτ(ῃ) Λαοδικείας, [ἀ]μήν

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.844
Diameter 26.0 mm; field: 17.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 21.3. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 529. A similar seal (different alignment of letters) is published by Konstantopoulos, 133α, and another by Zacos, Seals II, no. 897.

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

Translation

Ὑπεραγία Θεοτόκε βοήθει Συμεὼν μητροπολίτῃ Λαοδικείας, ἀμήν

Holy Mother of God, help Symeon, metropolitan of Laodikea, Amen

Commentary

Laurent dated this specimen to the tenth/eleventh centuries but it must be placed at least one century earlier. Note the use of the formula Ὑπεραγία [Θεοτόκε], the absence of the sigla, Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ, the almost feather-like cloak of the Virgin, all elements that reappear on the seal of Patriarch Photios (Dated Seals, no. 53). This specimen may well have belonged to Metropolitan Symeon, attested in 869 and 879 (PG 119, 905C; Mansi XVI, 257A; XVII, 373B).

Laodikeia (near modern Denizli), a center of tax levying (cf. the seal of a dioiketes: Zacos-Veglery, no. 1748) and one of the oldest metropoleis of Asia Minor, appears in all notitiae at the head of the province of Phrygia Pakatiane – a province that underwent a major restructuring during the "Dark Ages." It has to be carefully distinguished from Laodikeia of Syria. See Brandes, Städte, 94-95; Laurent, Corpus V/1, 387l; Darrouzès, Notitiae, 25-27, 77; Phrygien und Pisidien, 323-26. Further seals of metropolitans in SBS 3 (1993) 131-32, 165, 192.

Bibliography