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Bardas imperial spatharios and strategos of Thrace (ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Wreath border.

Β...
ΒΣΠΘ..
ΣΤΡΤ...
ΘΡΚ..

Βάρδᾳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ τῆς Θρᾴκις

Obverse

Cruciform invocative monogram (type V); in the quarters: ΤΣ|ΔΛ. Wreath border.

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Wreath border.

Β...
ΒΣΠΘ..
ΣΤΡΤ...
ΘΡΚ..

Βάρδᾳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ τῆς Θρᾴκις

Accession number BZS.1960.2.2
Diameter 24.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 71.23c.
Cf. Nesbitt, "Overstruck Seals," 81 and Zacos-Veglery, no. 1761.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Βάρδᾳ βασιλικῷ σπαθαρίῳ καὶ στρατιγῷ τῆς Θρᾴκις.

Theotokos, help your servant Bardas imperial spatharios and strategos of Thrace.

Commentary

The reading of this seal has been restored on the basis of its two better preserved parallels from the same boulloterion; see BZS 1955.1.718 and 1955.1.719, and the commentary to the former.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea (Open in Zotero)
  • De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
  • “Thrakien” und “Thrakesion” (Open in Zotero)
  • Die zweihundertjährige Reform (Zu den Anfängen der Themenorganisation im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert) (Open in Zotero)
  • Ανίχνευση τοπογραφική της ανατολικής Θράκης (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Rang- und Ämterstruktur im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert: Faktoren und Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung (Open in Zotero)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Constantini Porphyrogeniti De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae (Open in Zotero)
  • Overstruck Seals in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection (Open in Zotero)