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Anastasios imperial spatharokandidatos and tourmarches of Adramyttion (tenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Patriarchal cross (x on crossings) on three steps with fleurons rising up to second arm. Along the border of dots, inscription:

+κεRοηθειτσ....

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθει τῷ σῷ [δούλῳ]

Reverse

Inscription of six lines preceded by a row of pellets. Indeterminate border.

···
+ανασ
.ασιRσ
..θκανˊ
...ρμαρχ
..ραμ
.τ,

Ἀνασ[τ]ασίῳ β(ασιλικῷ) σ[πα]θ(αρο)λανδ(ι)δ(άτῳ) [(καὶ) του]ρμάρχ(ῃ) [Ἀν]δραμ[υ]τ(τίου)

Obverse

Patriarchal cross (x on crossings) on three steps with fleurons rising up to second arm. Along the border of dots, inscription:

+κεRοηθειτσ....

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθει τῷ σῷ [δούλῳ]

Reverse

Inscription of six lines preceded by a row of pellets. Indeterminate border.

···
+ανασ
.ασιRσ
..θκανˊ
...ρμαρχ
..ραμ
.τ,

Ἀνασ[τ]ασίῳ β(ασιλικῷ) σ[πα]θ(αρο)λανδ(ι)δ(άτῳ) [(καὶ) του]ρμάρχ(ῃ) [Ἀν]δραμ[υ]τ(τίου)

Accession number BZS.1955.1.1352
Diameter 23.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 3.1.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Ἀναστασίῳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαρολανδιδάτῳ καὶ τουρμάρχῃ Ἀνδραμυττίου.

Lord, help your servant Anastasios, imperial spatharokandidatos and tourmarches of Adramyttion.

Commentary

The owner of this specimen appears to have been a naval tourmarches of Samos; but this is not certain.

Adramyttion or Atramyttion (modern Edremit) was an important naval base on the coast the Thrakesion theme; after the creation of the naval theme of Samos, between 843 and 899, Adramyttion with the littoral became the seat of one of its tourmai (De Them., chap. XVI, line 15) while the interior remained under the control of the strategos of the Thrakesion who still maintained, at least in the ninth century, a tourmarches at Adramyttion. The see, a suffragan of Ephesos, was first attested in 431 and appears in all the notitiae. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 190; Culerrier, Suffragants d'Ephèse, 153 (episcopal list); ODB I, 227.

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)
  • De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Les évêchés suffragants d’Ephèse aux 5e-13e siècles (Open in Zotero)