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Peter monk and kathegetes of Mount Latros (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

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

– – –
+κ̅ε̅R,
τσδ,
πετρ
μον,χ,
·

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οήθει) τῷ σῷ δ(όυλῳ) Πέτρῳ μον(α)χ(ῷ)

Reverse

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

·
Sκ
θιγητι
ορστ
λτρ
–σ–

(καὶ) καθιγητῖ ὄρους τοῦ Λάτρους

Obverse

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

– – –
+κ̅ε̅R,
τσδ,
πετρ
μον,χ,
·

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οήθει) τῷ σῷ δ(όυλῳ) Πέτρῳ μον(α)χ(ῷ)

Reverse

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

·
Sκ
θιγητι
ορστ
λτρ
–σ–

(καὶ) καθιγητῖ ὄρους τοῦ Λάτρους

Accession number BZS.1958.106.404
Diameter 25.0 mm; field: 21.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 22.1.

Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1932.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δόυλῳ Πέτρῳ μοναχῷ καὶ καθιγητῖ ὄρους τοῦ Λάτρους.

Lord, help your servant Peter, monk and kathegetes of (the whole community of) Mount Latros.

Commentary

Laurent (Corpus V/2, no. 1235) published from a private collection the seal of a Peter kouboukleisios and higoumenos of Latros (ca. 1050); he attributed the seal published here to the same individual. Yet no such Peter is mentioned at a time reasonably close to that of our seal in the list of the higoumenoi of Stylos (Janin, Grands centres, 235). We believe that our seal at least must have belonged to an "archimandrites" of the whole monastic community, who was not necessarily identical to the higoumenos of Stylos (he could as well have come from the monastery of Kellibara and in some cases appears to have been elected by the whole monastic community).

The monastic community of Mt. Latros was situated near Milet in Caria. The first secure traces of the community date from the year 787. The community benefited from the largess on the part of Romanos I Lakapenos, suffered considerably from the Turks, starting with the late 70s of the eleventh century, flourished anew in the twelfth century, and survived until the fourteenth century. It contained several monasteries, the most important of which were the ones of Stylos (or St. Paul) and of Kellibara. The whole monastic community formed a kind of confederation with an archimandrites at its head. See Laurent, Corpus V/2, 156; Janin, Grands centres, 215-40; ODB II, 1188-89; and D. Stiernon in DHGE, fasc. 143 (1993) 1399-1403.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantin, vol. 2, Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins (Open in Zotero)
  • Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Open in Zotero)