Arsavir dioiketes of Mytilene (ninth century)
Obverse
Cruciform invocative monogram (type V). In the quarters: .Σ|ΔΛ. Wreath border.
Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of four lines. Wreath border.
ΡΣ.
ΒΗΡΔΙΟ.
ΚΙΤΗΗΤ
ΙΛΙΝΗΣ
Ἀρσαβὴρ διοικιτῇ Μητιλίνης
Obverse
Cruciform invocative monogram (type V). In the quarters: .Σ|ΔΛ. Wreath border.
Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of four lines. Wreath border.
ΡΣ.
ΒΗΡΔΙΟ.
ΚΙΤΗΗΤ
ΙΛΙΝΗΣ
Ἀρσαβὴρ διοικιτῇ Μητιλίνης
| Accession number | BZS.1955.1.689 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 26.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 2, no. 51.1. |
Translation
Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Ἀρσαβὴρ διοικιτῇ Μητιλίνης.
Theotokos, help your servant Arsavir dioiketes of Mytilene.
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)
- Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Alexiade: Règne de l’empereur Alexis I Comnène, 1081–1118 (Open in Zotero)
- Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
- Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
Zacos-Veglery published the DO seal 1955.1.688 under no. 1731b, but on this specimen the placename should be read as Μιλήτου. It is probable that the owner of both seals is the same person, who may also have become, at another moment, dioiketes of Stauroupolis (Zacos-Veglery, no. 1732, cf. DO Seals 2, 66.2).
The main city of the island of Lesbos, Mytilene, gave its name to the whole island before the 6th century, but the old name was also used concurrently. The second city of the island was Methmyna (see DO Seals 2, § 52).
In the ninth century, the island of Mytilene constituted a separate fiscal entity, with a separate dioiketes (nos. DO Seals 2, 51.1 and 51.2, and Zacos-Veglery, no. 3135); by the middle of the century it seems to have become the seat of a strategos (AnalBoll 18 [1899] 253, 258: undoubtedly of the Aigaion Pelagos), and from an archbishopric it became the seat of a metropolitan (in the second half of the 9th century: Laurent, Corpus V/1, 573). The existence of imperial domains constituting a kouratoreia can be deduced from our seals DO Seals 2, 51.4 and 51.5. In the 11th century, the kourator was a certain moment entrusted (temporarily?) with the administration and the defense of the island (Alexiade II, 110).
See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 573-74; Fedalto, 215-17; Malamut, Iles, passim, esp. 232-36, 274-75, 311, 321, 338, 367, 499-500; ODB II, 1219.