Byzantine Seals. Seal (Lead, 28 mm, 11.93 g, 12 h), Theophilos, bishop of Basilaion, first half of the 11th century. [Θ K]Є ROHΘЄI / MHP - ΘY Nimbate facing bust of the Virgin holding bust of infant Christ with cross-nimbus on her left arm. Rev. ΘЄOΦI/Λω ЄΠIC/KOΠω RA/CIΛAI૪ in five lines. DOC 4, 3.1. Very well centered and with a charming rendering of the Virgin. Some stress marks on the reverse, otherwise, good very fine.

Basilaion was a small Galatian settlement originally named Gordiou kome and renamed Juliopolis by the 1st century BC dynast Kleon of Gordiou kome in honor of his benefactor Augustus. In Byzantine times, the city bore the name Basilaion-Ioulioupolis and must have been of some importance, as its episcopal see was - to the great protest of the nearby metropolitans of Ankyra - elevated to a metropolis without suffragans under Constantine X Ducas (1059-1067)