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Peter patrikios, imperial protospatharios and strategos of the Anatolikoi (eighth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V). In the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Indeterminate border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription in five lines. Indeterminate border.

..ΤΡ
ΠΤΡΒ
ΣΠΣΤ.
ΤΙΓΤ
ΝΝΤ

[Πέ]τρ(ῳ) πατρ(ικίῳ) β(ασιλικῷ) (πρωτο)σπα(θαρίῳ) (καὶ) στ[ρ]ατιγῷ τῶν Ἀνατ(ολικῶν)

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V). In the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Indeterminate border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription in five lines. Indeterminate border.

..ΤΡ
ΠΤΡΒ
ΣΠΣΤ.
ΤΙΓΤ
ΝΝΤ

[Πέ]τρ(ῳ) πατρ(ικίῳ) β(ασιλικῷ) (πρωτο)σπα(θαρίῳ) (καὶ) στ[ρ]ατιγῷ τῶν Ἀνατ(ολικῶν)

Accession number BZS.1955.1.1291
Diameter 28.0 mm; field: 24.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 86.56.

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

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Πέτρῳ πατρικίῳ βασιλικῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ τῶν Ἀνατολικῶν.

Mother of God, help your servant Peter, patrikios, imperial protospatharios, and strategos of the Anatolikoi.

Commentary

The surviving traces of the first name are muddled, but the space available allows the restoration of the name Πέτρῳ provided that we assume, reasonably, that the inscription started with a cross.

The present seal, and BZS.1951.31.5.1477 (linked to this entry), although products of different boulloteria, must be very close in time because both were struck on blanks of similar dimensions and weight and shape, fabricated from the same mold.

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)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
  • Sceaux byzantins du Musée National de Varsovie (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)