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Constantine bishop of Sosandra (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

The Virgin standing, turning three quarters and raising hands up to her left. Faint remains of inscription: -.. : Μή(τη)ρ [Θ(εο)ῦ]. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

+κν
πνγνε
σσν,
σκεπ

Κων(σταντῖνον), Πάναγνε, Σωσάνδ(ρων) σκέπ(οις)

Obverse

The Virgin standing, turning three quarters and raising hands up to her left. Faint remains of inscription: -.. : Μή(τη)ρ [Θ(εο)ῦ]. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

+κν
πνγνε
σσν,
σκεπ

Κων(σταντῖνον), Πάναγνε, Σωσάνδ(ρων) σκέπ(οις)

Accession number BZS.1958.106.5302
Diameter 16.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 36.1. Cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 1195.

Translation

Κωνσταντῖνον, Πάναγνε, Σωσάνδρων σκέποις.

Holy Virgin, may you watch over Constantine (bishop) of Sosandra.

Commentary

Dodecasyllabic verse.

Sosandra has been identified with modern Emiralem, the ancient Herakleia of Sipylon, to the north of Smyrna in the Hermos valley. It was the see of a bishop suffragan of Smyrna, created after the promulgation of the notitia of Leo VI (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 7, lines 652, 702: it appears in later interpolations only) and before this seal in the eleventh century and the twelfth-century notitiae (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 10, lines 629, 632 and no. 13, line 674; cf. p. 114, 149). See Ahrweiler, Smyrne, 89-91, 94-95, 114.

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)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • L’histoire et la géographie de la région de Smyrne entre les deux occupations turques (1081-1317), particulièrement au XIIIe siècle (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)