Basil chartoularios and imperial episkeptites of the Peloponnesos (eleventh century)
Obverse
Bust of bearded bishop-saint (St. Basil ?) blessing and holding book. No epigraphy or border visible
Reverse
Inscription of six lines, the final two letters between horizontal bars. Border of dots.
.Ε,Θ,
..ΣΙΛΕΙ
..ΑΡΤ
..⸣ΕΠΙ
.ΚΕΠΤΙΤ,
ΠΕΛΟΠ,
Ν
Κύριε βοήθει Βασιλείῳ χαρτουλαρίῳ καὶ βασιλικῷ ἐπισκεπτίτῃ Πελοποννήσου
Obverse
Bust of bearded bishop-saint (St. Basil ?) blessing and holding book. No epigraphy or border visible
Reverse
Inscription of six lines, the final two letters between horizontal bars. Border of dots.
.Ε,Θ,
..ΣΙΛΕΙ
..ΑΡΤ
..⸣ΕΠΙ
.ΚΕΠΤΙΤ,
ΠΕΛΟΠ,
Ν
Κύριε βοήθει Βασιλείῳ χαρτουλαρίῳ καὶ βασιλικῷ ἐπισκεπτίτῃ Πελοποννήσου
| Accession number | BZS.1955.1.2223 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 27.0 mm |
Translation
Κύριε βοήθει Βασιλείῳ χαρτουλαρίῳ καὶ βασιλικῷ ἐπισκεπτίτῃ Πελοποννήσου.
Lord, help Basil chartoularios and imperial episkeptites of the Peloponnesos.
Bibliography
- Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
- Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Le Peloponnese byzantin jusqu’en 1204 (Open in Zotero)
- Μελέται περὶ τῆς διοικητικῆς διαιρέσεως καὶ τῆς ἐπαρχιακῆς διοικήσεως ἐν τῷ βυζαντινῷ κράτει (Open in Zotero)
- La Morée franque: Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d’Achaïe (1205-1430) (Open in Zotero)
- Die Skleroi: Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie (Open in Zotero)
- Theophanis Chronographia (Open in Zotero)
- Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
- Realities of Byzantine Provincial Government: Hellas and Peloponnesos, 1180-1205 (Open in Zotero)
- Die byzantinische Armee im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Organisation der Tagmata (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
Another episkeptites of the κτήματα (the imperial domains?) of the Peloponnesos is known from a seal (Sig., 180, no. 4). The owner of our seal was certainly attached to the imperial episkepseis of the Peloponnesos (hence the adjective βασιλικός). In the Partitio Romaniae, a text written by the Crusaders in 1204 on the basis of Byzantine fiscal documents, several episkepseis are mentioned in the Peloponnesos, some belonging to aristocrats or members of the imperial family or to imperial monasteries of Constantinople, others with no owner's name, situated near Lakedaimonia and defined as megali et micra episkepsis, i.e. parva et magna pertinentia. Cf. Bon, Péloponnèse, 101-2; Zakythinos, Meletai 21, 184-88. We assume that these domains, the owner of which is not mentioned, probably continued to belong to the emperor.