Basileios, parakoimomenos (and doux of Edessa), 1060-1090. Seal (Lead, 27 mm, 15.92 g, 12 h). [O AΓIOC] - R/A/CH/Λ/Є Saint Basil, standing facing, nimbate, raising his right hand in benediction and holding a book of Gospels in his left hand.
Rev. OMⲰNV/MⲰ CⲰ TⲰ / ΠAPAKOIMЄ/NⲰ NIKAC KA/T ЄXΘP[Ⲱ ΠPV]/TANЄVCO[IC] / TPICMA[K]/AP in eight lines (“Trice blessed [Saint Basil], may you guide your namesake the parakoimonenos to victory against his enemies”). Campagnolo/Cheynet, Zacos Genève 68. A. Wassiliou-Seibt (2023): Basileios Parakoimomenos: Ein dem Philaretos Brachamios nachgeordneter Kommandant und seine Siegel (ca. 1078–1085/1086), in: I. Grimm-Stadelmann, A. Riehle, R. Tocci and M. M. Vučetić, Anekdota Byzantina. Studien zur byzantinischen Geschichte und Kultur. Festschrift für Albrecht Berger anlässlich seines 65. Geburtstags, Berlin & Boston 2023, p. 829-839, fig. 1. A seal of great historical interest, with an interesting and bellicose verse in the reverse legend. Some striking weakness
, otherwise, good very fine.
From an important collection of Roman and Byzantine seals, tesserae and amulets, formed before 2021.
As Wassiliou-Seibt demonstrates, this seal likely belongs to the unnamed parakoimomenos referred to by Matthew of Edessa as the doux of Edessa in 1086, appointed by Philaretos Brachamios before his campaign against the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah. Basileios, a eunuch, was almost immediately murdered by another officer of Brachamios, who then succeeded him as doux. Another seal type also attests to his rank as protoproedros (Cheynet, Antioche, p. 161, and Wassiliou-Seibt, figs. 2-4).
