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George bishop of Arkadia (tenth/eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Nicholas holding book and blessing. On either side the inscription: |Ν|ΙΚ|.|Λ: ὁ ἅγιος Νικόλαος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, decoration above, two pellets below. Border of dots.


ΓΕΡΓ,
Ε..ΣΚΟ
ΠΟΑΡΚΑ
ΔΙΑΣ

Γεωργίῳπισκόπο Ἀρκαδίας

Obverse

Bust of St. Nicholas holding book and blessing. On either side the inscription: |Ν|ΙΚ|.|Λ: ὁ ἅγιος Νικόλαος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, decoration above, two pellets below. Border of dots.


ΓΕΡΓ,
Ε..ΣΚΟ
ΠΟΑΡΚΑ
ΔΙΑΣ

Γεωργίῳπισκόπο Ἀρκαδίας

Accession number BZS.1958.106.5215
Diameter 20.0 mm; field: 17.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 37.1.
A similar specimen (from a different boulloterion) in Sig., 733 = Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 626. Cf. SBS 2 (1990) 145, no. 6.

Translation

Γεωργίῳ ἐπισκόπο Ἀρκαδίας.

George bishop of Arkadia.

Commentary

Arkadia has been identified with Mikri Episkopi of the eparchia Pediados in Crete. Beyond the following seal, we know of only one bishop, George, who attended the Council of 787 (Mansi, XIII, 154); the bishopric appears in the iconoclastic notitiae and again in those posterior to the reconquest of Crete by the Byzantines (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 2, line 211; no. 3, line 240; no. 10, line 468; no. 13, lines 470, 482).

See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 470; Fedalto, 538-39; and Tsougarakis, Crete, 231 and map on p. 384.

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)
  • Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Crete, from the 5th Century to the Venetian Conquest (Open in Zotero)