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Lykastos hypatos, imperial spatharios and strategos of Cephalonia (eighth century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of five lines. Cross between tendrils above. Wreath border.


ΠΝ
ΓΙΤΡΙ
ΟΘΣ̅ΗΜΝ
.ΟΗΘΗΤ
ΣΔΟΥΛΟ

Παναγία Τριάς, ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλο

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines. Wreath border.

+ΛΥΚ
ΣΤΥΠ.
ΤΣΙΛ
ΗΚΣΠΘΡ
ΙΚΕΣΤΡΤ
ΗΓΚΕΦ
..ΝΙΣ

Λυκάστῳ ὑπάτῳ, βασιληκῷ σπαθαρίῳ κὲ στρατηγῷ Κεφαλωνίας

Obverse

Inscription of five lines. Cross between tendrils above. Wreath border.


ΠΝ
ΓΙΤΡΙ
ΟΘΣ̅ΗΜΝ
.ΟΗΘΗΤ
ΣΔΟΥΛΟ

Παναγία Τριάς, ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλο

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines. Wreath border.

+ΛΥΚ
ΣΤΥΠ.
ΤΣΙΛ
ΗΚΣΠΘΡ
ΙΚΕΣΤΡΤ
ΗΓΚΕΦ
..ΝΙΣ

Λυκάστῳ ὑπάτῳ, βασιληκῷ σπαθαρίῳ κὲ στρατηγῷ Κεφαλωνίας

Accession number BZS.1955.1.2049
Diameter 30.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 1.15f.
Zacos-Veglery, no. 919c.

Translation

Παναγία Τριάς, ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, βοήθη τῷ σῷ δούλο Λυκάστῳ ὑπάτῳ, βασιληκῷ σπαθαρίῳ κὲ στρατηγῷ Κεφαλωνίας.

All holy Trinity, our God, help your servant Lykastos, hypatos, imperial spatharios and strategos of Cephalonia.

Commentary

This seal is edited jointly with another from the same boulloterion: BZS 1955.1.2050.

The 8th-century date of both specimens is confirmed by the epigraphy. Also, on several related specimens (ours as well as the two that will be mentioned in what follows) a cross between tendrils can be clearly discerned on the reverse above the inscription, further evidence of an 8th-century date. Moreover, the combination of Lykastos' titles, with hypatos preceding spatharios, also points to an early date before the devaluation of the honorary hypatoi, which occured before the mid-9th century (cf. Zacos-Veglery, 629). The same combination, hypatos, imperial spatharios and strategos of Cephalonia, appears also on a seal of the museum at Istanbul (Ebersolt, Sceaux, no. 542): as the owner's name is not deciphered, we cannot determine whether it is a parallel specimen to ours.

Pančenko (Katalog, no. 408, pl. V, fig. 4) published the seal of a strategos of Cephalonia names Lykastos (name read correctly by Laurent, Vatican, 96), bearing the titles of hypatos and "[imperial] kou[bikoularios]." The latter reading is in need of emendation: what he took as a Κ followed by the ligature (unattested before the 11th century), should be read as an Α followed by an imperfectly inscribed Θ. The correct reading of the reverse is thus: Λυκάστ ὑπάτῳ, βασιλικῷ σπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ Κεφαληνίας. As for the inscription on the obverse, it appears that Pančenko correctly read it as: Κύριε ὁ Θεός, βοήθη τ δούλῳ σου. Since the Pančenko specimen is also dated because of its epigraphic traits to the 8th century and reproduces the same name and titles as the DO specimens, we may be reasonably certain that all belonged to the same official.

Another parallel specimen was published by Konstantopoulos (no. 111, cf. W. Seibt, in ByzSl 36 [1975] 211). It seems to start with an invocation to Ἁγία (and not Παναγία Τριάς, but is otherwise very close to our specimens (f) and (g) and has prompted us to restore the spelling Κεφαλωνίας. It also belonged to the same official. 

Zacos-Veglery (nos. 917, 918) have published further seals of the same Lykastos, hypatos, imperial spatharios (and strategos), all characteristically starting with an invocation to the Holy Trinity. Yet the Pančenko specimen shows that at a certain moment Lykastos decided to replace this invocation with something simpler and presumably less provocatively iconoclastic than the invocation to the Trinity. Would this indicate a change of regime? On the other hand, there is no reason to rule out the career of Lykastos coincided with the reign and the death (775) of Constantine V, the most radically iconoclastic emperor.

For the name of Lykastos, see C. Amantos, "Κεφαλληνιακὰ ἐπώνυμα," Hellenika 10 (1937/38) 117-18.

The theme of Cephalonia (Κεφαλληνία or Κεφαλονία, cf. nos. 1.15 and 1.16 below) included the Ionian islands ("ἤγουν τὰ νησία": De Adm. Imp. chap. 50, line 85; cf. Commentary, 188), with the possible exception of Kythera. The first mention in written sources of a strategos (praefectus) of Cephalonia is found under the year 809 (Annales of Eucherius: MGH SS, I, 196-97; cf. Pertusi, in De Them., 174); but Laurent (Vatican, 96 and note 1) rightly observed that Pančenkohad published (Katalog, no. 408, cf. pl. V, no. 4) the seal of Lykastos, strategos Cephalonia which can be reasonably assigned to the 8th century--a conclusion that is corroborated by our nos. 1.15, 1.17, 1.18 below (cf. also the seal M-501 of the Hermitage, reproduced by I. Sokolova, in VizVrem 42 [1981] table IVa). Thus it may be concluded that a strategeia of Cephalonia had been established already in the 8th century, with a view to reestablishing firm imperial control over the western coast of the Balkans, defending it against the Arabs, and preparing the Byzantine counterattack against Italy. In the 9th and early 10th century, close administrative relations, possibly of dependence, were established between Cephalonia and Longobardia, and in several instances the armies of the two provinces were placed under one commander (cf. N. Oikonomides, "Constantin VII et les thèmes de Céphalonie et de Longobardie," REB 23 [1965] 122 ff; Falkenhausen, Dominazione, 26-27; and DOSeals 1.3.2-1.3.4). There are also instances where the commander of Cephalonia is identical with the one of the neighboring theme of Nikopolis (see Seibt, Nikopolis, 334, and DOSeals 2, no 2.2).

The strategos, attested until the 10th century, presumably resided on the island of Cephalonia but also elsewhere, for example, on the important island of Corfou (see DOSeals 2, § 5). As is natural for an insular theme, Cephalonia had its own fleet (with a contingent of Mardaïtai: Cer., 665, cf. Malamut, Iles, 164), headed by a special tourmarches (τοῦ πλωίμου Κεφαλληνίας; Laurent, Vatican, no. 96), while other tourmarchai (including one of Cephalonia [?]: Sig., 208; and one of Corfou, cf. § 5 below) and their subordinates, such as the droungarioi, commanded the army. As a gateway to foreign countries, it had its own kommerkiarioi (e.g., no. 1.5 below), who may be identical with the kommerkiarioi of the West (see DOSeals 1.1 and 1.1.23-1.1.29; different hypothesis in Dunn, Kommerkiarios). We know of an 8th/9th century seal of Basil τῶν δεήσεων Κεφαλληνίας (Pančenko, Katalog, no. 292), indicating that at a certain moment around the year 800 an imperial emissary went to the theme to receive the presumably numerous requests or complaints of the population (R. Guilland, "Le maître des requêtes: ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν δεήσεων," Byzantion 35 [1965] 97-98 = Guilland, Titres, no. XXII; cf. also A. Kazhdan, "Hagiographical Notes," Byzantion 56 [1986] 149-150). We also know that an exarch represented in the 10th century, the interests of the patriarch in the whole theme of Cephalonia (Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 242 bis).

On the theme of Cephalonia, see the bibliography quoted in Listes, 352, note 364; Soustal, Nikopolis und Kephallenia, 175-77; Winkelmann, Ämterstruktur, 102-4, 125; Malamut, Iles, 186-88, 307-9, 485-87, 516-21, and passim; P. Niavis, in the Praktika of the Fifth International Panionian Congress (1986) I (Argostoli, 1989), 43-47; ODB II, 1122-23.

Bibliography