Byzantine Seal of Marinos Patrikios & Strategos of the Anatolikoi? Zacos 2152A?

[pogh_poor]

This handsome Byzantine seal measures 30.92 mm and weighs 19.52 g.  I purchased this interesting  seal from a favorite dealer as an early Christmas present for myself. 

Obverse: Cruciform monogram ΘEOTOKE BOHΘEI; In fields clockwise TW - ΔU - LW - CU
Reverse: Cross MA
              IANWΠA
              TPIKIW
              CTPAT
              ΓW Cross
The dealer  interpreted the seal as that of Marinos Patrikios & Strategos 8th Century with reference to Zacos 2152A.  After looking at Zacos, it appears to be a quite similar seal.  So this would be a seal of Marinos Patrikios & Strategos of the Anatolikoi? He is reported to have been an important Byzantine military commander.  Does the attribution appear correct?  Pogh_poor

[pogh_poor]

Here is the envelope and description of the seal from the dealer.  Pogh_poor

[Gert]

I don't think you can link this Marianos to any specific command. Your seal resembles Zacos 2152A, but is from a different boulloterion. Zacos 2153 belonging to a Marianos with the same titles with the added 'of Anatolikon' is different in style. DO 18.68 belongs to a Marianos, imp. spath. and strategos of Thessalonica, and is the ex Zacos seal no. 2155 (!), and differs epigraphically, so probably not the same individual. 18.69 belongs to Marinos, and is from the 10th century, so that ref. is useless.

I don't know which important commander you mean, but I'd say there are no compelling reasons to connect your seal with any of the other seals mentioned above.
Regards
Gert

[pogh_poor]

I thought it might be because of something that I read.  In “NINE SEALS WORTH NINETY”: SIGILLOGRAPHIC FINDS
FROM POLIS CHRYSOCHOUS, CYPRUS , Olga Karagiorgou wrote about a similar seal found in Cyprus.  She described it as the following:

Obverse: Cruciform invocative monogram of Θεοτόκε βοήθει, Laurent, Orghidan, pl. LXX, type V, with TV-DW LV-SW in the quarters. Border not visible.
Reverse: Inscription in 5 lines, starting and ending with a crosslet. Border not visible.
+MAR IANVPA TRHKIV= STRATH . V+
+  Θεοτόκε  βοήθει  τῷ  δούλῳ  σου  Μαριανῷ  πατρηκίῳ  (καὶ)  στρατη[γ]ῷ +
Theotokos help the servant of yours Marianos, patrikios and strategos


The author wrote: "Zacos and Veglery published a seal (no. 2152A) with the exact same obverse and a very similar reverse (the only difference being that on the Cyprus specimen the “I” of the owner’s  first name is placed at the beginning of the second line, while on the Zacos – Veglery specimen it appears at the end of the  rst line).14 Zacos – Veglery proposed to identify the owner of  their specimen no. 2152A with the homonymous owner of three more seals within their collection, i.e. nos. 2153 (Marianos, patrikios and strategos of the Anatolikoi, also with a cruciform invocative monogram on its obverse of the type Laurent, Orghidan, pl. LXX, type V) and 923a-b (Marianos, patrikios and strategos, with an invocation in  five lines to the Holy Trinity on the obverse), as well as with a seal at the Athens Numismatic Museum published by Konstantopoulos (no. 452b), which is identical to the specimens Zacos – Veglery, nos. 923a-b.15 If the identification proposed by Zacos – Veglery is correct, then the owner of the Cyprus seal held at some point the prestigious office of the highest military commander of the largest administrative unit of the Byzantine Empire and used a t least six different boulloteria during his career.

Didn't you have a similar seal at one time?

Pogh_poor