Basileios, protoproedros and parakoimomenos (and doux of Edessa), 1060-1090. Seal (Lead, 24 mm, 12.22 g, 12 h). Θ / R/A/C-I/Λ/Є/I, Saint Basil standing facing, nimbate, raising his right hand in benediction and holding book of Gospels in his left.
Rev. AΠPOЄ/ΔP૪ RACI/ΛЄI૪ TPICMA/KAP ΓЄN૪ ROH/ΘOC T૪ ΠAPA/KOIMⲰMЄ/N૪ ('Thrice blessed one, become the help of Basileios, protoproedros and parakoimomenos') in seven lines. 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, figs. 3-4. An exceptional example of this historically important seal. 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 (Cheynet, Zacos Genève, 68 and Wassiliou-Seibt, fig. 1) does not mention his dignity of protoproedros.
