Konstantinos Xantas, tagmatophylax, mid 11th century. Seal (Lead, 32 mm, 22.52 g, 12 h). Θ / [ΓЄⲰP]-Γ/IO/C Nimbate bust of Saint George facing, holding spear over his right shoulder and resting shield on his left arm. Rev. KⲰN / ACΠAΘ, S / TAΓMAT[O]/ΦVΛAΞ [O] / ΞANTA/C in six lines, decorations flanking the last line. Apparently unpublished. A wonderful seal of a Byzantine military official. Minor flatness and with an edge crack, otherwise, extremely fine.


The office of tagmatophylax is unknown from written sources. It must refer to an officer in a tagma, a military unit, which was under the command of a domestikos. A person named Konstantinos Xantas is known from a seal published by Jordanov (Corpus II 525). It mentions him being a strategos, with the rank of patrikios and it is dated to the 1050s. Both seal types may belong to the same individual.