Nomos 24

BYZANTINE SEALS, Ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople. Photios, 858-867, 877-886. Seal or Bulla (Lead, 30 mm, 17.29 g, 12 h). ΥΠΕΡΑΓΙΑ ΘΕ / OTOKE BOH (=Most Holy Theotokos, help) The Virgin Hodegetria, nimbate and wearing a chiton and a metaphorion, the hem of which hangs down from her left arm, standing three quarters facing and holding, on her left arm with the support of her right hand, the infant Christ, with cross nimbus, chiton and himation, his right hand extended in benediction; double dotted border. Rev. + ΦΩΤΙΩ / ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙCΚΟΠ /KΩΝCTANTINΟΥ / ΠΟΛΕΩC ΝΕΑC / PΩΜΗC + (= Photios Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome) in five lines, within double dotted border. Laurent, Vatican, 152. Oinonomides, Dated Lead Seals, 54. Zacos II, 7. Very rare. An exciting and tremendously important seal belonging to the great Iconodule Patriarch of the 9th century. With an attractive brown-grey patina. Some roughness, otherwise, good very fine.

For a detailed discussion of the ecclesiastical struggles between the Patriarch Photios and his rival and religious opponent, the Patriarch Ignatios (847-858 and 867-877), see the important article by S. Simmons, "The Seal of Approval: Visualizing Patriarchal Power and Legitimacy in Ninth-Century Constantinople", ATHANOR XXXII, 2014, pp. 17-23. What is intriguing is that while Ignatios's seals bore an image of Christ similar to those on the solidi of Michael III, Photios's seals showed the Hodegetria, harking back to the patriarch who had ended iconoclasm and demoted or expelled iconoclast priests: Methodios (843-847). In other words, the seals of the two Patriarchs - Photios and Ignatios - effectively waged a form of theological war with each other, one that Photios ended up winning.