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Constantine IV, Herakleios, and Tiberios (668–81)

 
 

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, wearing a chiton and maphorion, and holding Christ, who is framed by an oval mandorla, before her. Her left leg is bent at the knee. A cross potent at right. Wreath border.

Reverse

Three emperors standing: in center, Constantine IV, bearded; at left, Tiberios, beardless; and at right, Herakleios, beardless. Each figure wears a crown with a large cross and a chlamys, and holds a globus cruciger in his right hand. Constantine IV’s chlamys is fastened with a large fibula. Each emperor wears his hair long at the sides and curled, and his sidelocks are combed downward and outward. No inscription. Wreath border.

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, wearing a chiton and maphorion, and holding Christ, who is framed by an oval mandorla, before her. Her left leg is bent at the knee. A cross potent at right. Wreath border.

Reverse

Three emperors standing: in center, Constantine IV, bearded; at left, Tiberios, beardless; and at right, Herakleios, beardless. Each figure wears a crown with a large cross and a chlamys, and holds a globus cruciger in his right hand. Constantine IV’s chlamys is fastened with a large fibula. Each emperor wears his hair long at the sides and curled, and his sidelocks are combed downward and outward. No inscription. Wreath border.

Accession number BZS.1955.1.4260 (formerly DO 55.1.4260)
Diameter 28.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 6, no. 22.1; Zacos–Veglery, no. 14c (reign of Herakleios). Illustrated and discussed in Morrisson, “Du consul à l’empereur,” 259, table 1, and 264, no. 9. Illustrated by W. Seibt, “Die Darstellung der Theotokos,” 37, no. 2, and attributed to Constantine IV and his brothers Herakleios and Tiberios (668–81). See also Seibt, Bleisiegel, 77 and note 1.

Commentary

One could argue that the seal belongs to the period of Herakleios’s reign and that the figures depicted are Herakleios, Herakleios Constantine, and a relatively mature Heraklonas (as with BZS.1955.1.4259 and BZS.199.1.4261). But there are important differences. The beard hairs on the central figure are sharply defined. His face is large and oblong. For those reasons, this entry follows Morrisson and Seibt in assigning the seal to 668–81 (and similarly for a seal published by Likhachev: “Nekotorye,” 512, fig. 35).

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 6, Emperors, Patriarchs of Constantinople, Addenda (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Du consul à l’empereur: les sceaux d’Héraclius (Open in Zotero)
  • Die Darstellung der Theotokos auf byzantinischen Bleisiegeln, besonders im 11. Jahrhundert (Open in Zotero)
  • Die byzantinischen Bleisiegel in Österreich, Vol. 1, Kaiserhof (Open in Zotero)
  • Nekotorye stareishie tipy pechati vizantijskich imperatorov (Open in Zotero)