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(John) proedros (= metropolitan) of Side and hypertimos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Michael holding the labarum and the globus. On either side the inscription: Μ|ΙΧ|Α: Μιχα(ήλ). Border of dots.

Reverse

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


ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΠΡΟΕ
ΔΡΤΗΣΣΙ
ΔΗΣΥΠΕΡ
ΤΙΜ

σφραγὶς προέδρου τῆς Σίδης ὑπερτίμου

Obverse

Bust of St. Michael holding the labarum and the globus. On either side the inscription: Μ|ΙΧ|Α: Μιχα(ήλ). Border of dots.

Reverse

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


ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΠΡΟΕ
ΔΡΤΗΣΣΙ
ΔΗΣΥΠΕΡ
ΤΙΜ

σφραγὶς προέδρου τῆς Σίδης ὑπερτίμου

Accession number BZS.1958.106.3647
Diameter 24.0 mm; field: 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 78.4b. Note that Laurent (Corpus V/1, no. 408) edited two similar specimens issued by the same man, one in the Vienna Museum, the other in the Hermitage (= Pančenko, Katalog, no. 63).

Translation

σφραγὶς προέδρου τῆς Σίδης ὑπερτίμου.

Seal of the proedros of Side (and) hypertimos.

Commentary

Dodecasyllabic. This is the famous John of Side around 1079 (see commentary to BZS 1955.1.4845); he was the only hypertimos and did not need to spell out his name.

Side (today Selimiye, previously also called Eski Antalya, at 7 km from Manavgat) was a major late antique city, metropolis of Pamphylia first attested in 451, and appearing as such in all notitiae from the 7th century onward. The city declined after the 7th century and was seemingly abandoned in the 11th, probably in favor of Attaleia (which, from bishopric, became [1084] metropolis), but "titular" metropolitans of Side continued being appointed. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 293-94; Fedalto, 238; Brandes, Städte, 102-3; ODB III, 1892.

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)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Katalog molivdovulov (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Die Städte Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Open in Zotero)