Asotas horreiarios of Kios (eleventh century)
Obverse
The Virgin orans standing to front. Sigla: ̅-θ̅υ : Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.
+κε
R,ηθια
σωταο
.ιαρ,κι
Κ(ύρι)ε β(ο)ήθι Ἀσώτᾳ ὁ[ρ]ιαρ(ίῳ) Κίου
Obverse
The Virgin orans standing to front. Sigla: ̅-θ̅υ : Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.
+κε
R,ηθια
σωταο
.ιαρ,κι
Κ(ύρι)ε β(ο)ήθι Ἀσώτᾳ ὁ[ρ]ιαρ(ίῳ) Κίου
| Accession number | BZS.1955.1.2206 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 22.0 mm; field: 18.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 3, no. 50.1. |
| Credit Line | Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore. |
Translation
Κύριε βοήθι Ἀσώτᾳ ὁριαρίῳ Κίου.
Lord, help Asotas, horreiarios of Kios.
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)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Kleinasiatische Ortsnamen (Open in Zotero)
- Studies in Byzantine Sigillography (Open in Zotero)
- Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
The seal of another horreiarios of Kios, Stephanos, which has turned up in the region of Srem in Serbia, has generated some discussion about contacts between the Bithynian town and (the Byzantine garrisons in) Serbia (Maksimović-Popvić, in SBS 3 [1993] 116-17, 126). For another seal attributed by Laurent (Orghidan, no. 11) to an horreiarios of Kios, see BZS.1951.31.5.1390.
Kios (modern Gemlik) is located in a gulf on the sea of Marmara; it was a place of concentration of agricultural produce. It is attested as a see as early as the Council of Nicaea (325) and is listed as an archbishopric in all notitiae until the fourteenth century. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 648; Zgusta, 266-67.