Basileios, parakoimomenos (doux of Edessa), 1060-1090. Seal (Lead, 26 mm, 18.24 g, 11 h). O / A/ΓI/O/C - R/A/CI/Λ/Є Saint Basil, standing facing, nimbate, raising his right hand in benediction and holding a book of Gospels in his left hand. Rev. OMⲰN[V]/MⲰ CⲰ TⲰ / ΠAPAKOIM[Є]/NⲰ NIKAC K[A]/T ЄXΘPW ΠP[V]/TANЄVCOI[C] / TPICMAK/AP in eight lines, decorations flanking the last line (“Trice blessed [Saint Basil], may you guide your namesake the parakoimonenos to victory against his enemies”). Cheynet, Antioche 161 (incomplete reading); Wassiliou-Seibt, Corpus 1686. A historically important seal with an interesting metric legend. Very fine.

The double twelve-syllable verse on the reverse of this seal only mentions the high court dignity of "parakoimomenos", which was reserved for eunuchs. As Wassiliou-Seibt observes, however, the second part of the legend implies that our seal's owner had some kind of military command. He may be the nameless parakoimomenos mentioned by Matthew of Edessa as doux of the city in the year 1086, appointed by Philaretos Brachamios before his campaign against the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah. The eunuch Basileios was almost immediately murdered by another of Brachamios' officers, who succeeded him as doux