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
strategosThe 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