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Nikephoros (bishop) of Makre (eleventh/twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

The Virgin seated on a high-backed throne; details obscure. Sigla: ΜΘ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. No visible border.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, cross above. No visible border.

ΑΓΝ,ΣΚΕ
ΠΟΙΣΜΕ
ΤΟΝΜΑΚ.
ΗΣΝΙΚΗ
ΦΟΡΟΝ

Ἁγν σκέποις με τὸν Μάκρης Νικηφόρον

Obverse

The Virgin seated on a high-backed throne; details obscure. Sigla: ΜΘ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. No visible border.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, cross above. No visible border.

ΑΓΝ,ΣΚΕ
ΠΟΙΣΜΕ
ΤΟΝΜΑΚ.
ΗΣΝΙΚΗ
ΦΟΡΟΝ

Ἁγν σκέποις με τὸν Μάκρης Νικηφόρον

Accession number BZS.1958.106.1584
Diameter 22.0 mm; field: 17.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 56.1.
Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1769. Cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden , no. 29.

Translation

Ἁγνὴ σκέποις με τὸν Μάκρης Νικηφόρον.

Pure one, protect me, Nikephoros (bishop) of Makre.

Commentary

This is a twelve-syllable verse. Laurent mistakenly read the beginning of line 1 of the inscription as Κόρη.

Makre of the Rhodopes is located about eight miles west of Alexandroupolis, opposite the island of Samothrace. The town was a bishopric at least as early as 879 and appears in Darrouzès, Notitiae, 285, line 597, and in subsequent lists until the thirteenth century, as a suffragan of Traïanoupolis. It became a metropolis for a short time in the fourteenth century: Laurent, Corpus V/1, 526; Asdracha, Rhodopes, 117-18, 194, 238; BNJ 23 (1979) 30-31.

A homonym was Makre of Lykia, a suffragan of Myra. Since both were simple bishoprics it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. We note, however, that our seals of Niketas and Nikephoros appear to be of the late eleventh-twelfth century and so should belong to bishops of Makre of the Rhodopes.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • La région des Rhodopes aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles: étude de géographie historique (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)