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Michael vestarches and katepano of Mesopotamia (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

.κεRο
ηθειτο
σοδουΜΙ
Rεσταρ
..

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθει το σο δού(λῳ) Μιχ(αὴλ) βεστάρ[χου]

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, a decoration above. Border of dots.


κεκατε
πανομε
σοποτ
αμ..σ

κὲ κατεπάνο Μεσοποταμ[ία]ς.

Obverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

.κεRο
ηθειτο
σοδουΜΙ
Rεσταρ
..

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθει το σο δού(λῳ) Μιχ(αὴλ) βεστάρ[χου]

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, a decoration above. Border of dots.


κεκατε
πανομε
σοποτ
αμ..σ

κὲ κατεπάνο Μεσοποταμ[ία]ς.

Accession number BZS.1958.106.2022
Diameter 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 4, no. 55.9.

A similar seal, now in the Ermitage (M-8397) was published by G. Schlumberger, "Sceaux," RN [1905], 325, no. 213; cf. Šandrovskaja, "Sfragistika," no. 711. Another one, possibly from the same boulloterion, was discovered in Preslav: Jordanov, Preslav, no. 282.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει το σο δούλῳ Μιχαὴλ βεστάρχου κὲ κατεπάνο Μεσοποταμίας.

Lord, help your servant Michael, vestarches and katepano of Mesopotamia.

Commentary

We know of another katepano of Mesopotamia, Theognostos Melissenos, who bore the title of vestarches. D. Theocharides, “Theognostos Melissenos, katepan von Mesopotamia,” BZ 78 (1985) 363.

Its epigraphy puts the present specimen in the late eleventh century. It cannot be placed in late tenth-century Mesopotamia "of the West" even though another specimen from the same boulloterion was discovered in Bulgaria.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 4: The East (Open in Zotero)
  • De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
  • De Administrando Imperio (Open in Zotero)
  • Constantini Porphyrogeniti De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae (Open in Zotero)
  • Überlegungen zur Vorgeschichte des Thema Mesopotamien (Open in Zotero)
  • Silk Trade and Production in Byzantium from the Sixth to the Ninth Century: The Seals of Kommerkiarioi (Open in Zotero)
  • Η Μικρά Ασία των θεμάτων. Ἐρευνες πάνω στην γεωγραφική φυσιογνωμία και προσωπογραφία των βυζαντινών θεμάτων της Μικράς Ασίας (Open in Zotero)
  • Molivdovuli na Damjan Dobromirduk na Trakija i Mesopotamija (Open in Zotero)
  • Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Sfragistika (Open in Zotero)
  • Pechatite ot strategii︠a︡ta v Preslav, 971-1088 (Open in Zotero)
  • Sceaux (Open in Zotero)