Russian Federation
In 2021, the excavations of an early mediaeval street on the site of the palace of Mangup discovered an early Byzantine lead seal featuring an eagle on the front side and a cross-shaped monogram of Greek letters on the back side. The monogram reads Ἐλευθέριος, σκρίβονος; the seal dates from 550–650 AD, most likely from the late sixth to the first half of the seventh centuries. Skribonoi (scriboni) formed an elite unit of bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors, established under Justinian I (527–565) and existed to the mid-seventh century. Additionally to the function of palace guards and protectors of the emperor’s chambers at night, they carried out varied personal assignments for the rulers of the Byzantine Empire, acting as their ambassadors to the leaders of barbarian peoples, confidential envoys to Roman popes and high-ranking officials, military officers with special powers in remote and difficult imperial areas. There are many seals of skribonoi as personal representatives of Byzantine emperors published, particularly those featuring an eagle on the face side and a cross-shaped monogram on the back side. It is considered that the skribonoi were also formed a part of the staff or were senior officers of the imperial guard corps, the exkoubitoi. After the mid-seventh century, their position became fundamentally different. They ceased to exist as a detachment of imperial bodyguards, and the term itself became one of many honorary titles. Later on, following the reform of Constantine V (741–775) creating military tagmata, skribonoi became the commanders of banda, or divisions, of the tagma of exkoubitoi, to continue this service as late as the tenth century. However, the seals of the said military officers skribonoi are not known so far. Taking the account in possession of the history of the institute of skribonoi and the analysis of the iconography of the lead seal excavated at the palace on Mangup princes into consideration, there are enough reasons to suppose that the seal’s owner was skribonos Eleutherios, a bodyguard of the Byzantine emperors in the late sixth and the first half of the seventh centuries. It seems that the find of the seal of skribonos at the Mangup is not a case of private correspondence between an official of the imperial Palace in Constantinople and a local Byzantine official defending the northern border of the empire. Most likely, it is the case of a special mission entrusted by the basileus to his envoy. The idea of this mission will probably remain obscure forever. Still, this find is another evidence of the importance of Mangup-Doros for the Byzantine politics in the region in question and the emperors’ close personal attention to the events in this area.
Byzantine Empire, south-western Crimea, Mangup, Doros, palace, skribonos, sigillography, seals, molybdoboulla
1. Agathias. O carstvovanii Iustiniana [About the Reign of Justinian]. Transl. M.V. Levchenko. Moscow, Leningrad, Academy of Sciences of the USSR Publ., 1953, 222 p.
2. Arzhanov A.Yu. A Few Early Byzantine Molybdoboulla Excavated at the Southern Suburb of Chersonese. N.A. Alekseienko (ed.), ΧΕΡΣΩΝΟΣ ΘΕΜΑΤΑ: imperiia i polis. XV Mezhdunarodnyi Vizantiiskii seminar [15th international Byzantine workshop “Chersonos Themata: the empire and the polis”], Simferopol, Arial Publ., 2023, pp. 37-44.
3. Borodin O.R. Ravennskii ekzarhat. Vizantiitsy v Italii [Exarchate of Ravenna. Byzantines in Italy]. St. Petersburg, Aletheia Publ., 2001, 474 p.
4. Gertsen A.G., Alekseienko N.A. Byzantine seals from excavations of Mangup-Kale. Antichnaia drevnost’ i srednie veka [Antiquity and the Middle Ages], 2002, vol. 33, pp. 59-65.
5. Gratsianskii M.V. Imperator Iustinian Velikii i nasledie Khalkidonskogo sobora [Emperor Justinian the Great and the Legacy of the Council of Chalcedon]. Moscow, Moscow University Publ., 2016, 391 p.
6. Dushenko A.A. Byzantine Weights Excavated at Mangup. Materialy po arkheologii, istorii i etnografii Tavrii [Materials in archaeology, history and ethnography of Tauria], 2018, vol. 23, pp. 255-268.
7. Korolev A.A. Liber Pontificalis. Pravoslavnaya enciklopediya [Orthodox Encyclopedia], Moscow, 2020, vol. 40, pp. 698-704.
8. Mokhov A.S. Vizantiiskaia armiia v seredine VIII - seredine IX v.: razvitie voenno-administrativnykh struktur [The Byzantine Army in the Middle of 8th - Middle of 9th Centuries: Development of Military and Administrative Structures]. Ekaterinburg, Ural University Publ., 2013, 278 p.
9. Naumenko V.E. New Materials on History and Archeology of the Byzantine Mangup. Excavations of Street of VI-XI Centuries in the Central Part of Residential Development Fortress. Bosporskie issledovaniya [Bosporos Studies], 2023, vol. 46, pp. 185-227.
10. Naumenko V.E. The Medieval-period Development in the Central Area of Mangup-Doros: New Research Materials. A.I. Aibabin, E.A. Khairedinova (eds.), Imperium et Barbaricum: vzaimodeistvie tsivilizatsii: sbornik statei v chest’ 70-letiia Mikhaila Kazanskogo [Imperium et Barbaricum: Interaction of Civilizations: Papers Collected in Honour of Michel Kazanski’s 70th Birthday]. Simferopol, Antikva Publ., 2023, pp. 223-233.
11. Naumenko V.E. Written and Archaeological Sources About the Time of Construction of the Byzantine Fortress at Mahgup. V.N. Zin’ko, A.V. Zin’ko (eds.), XXIV Bosporskie chteniia. Bospor Kimmeriiskii i varvarskii mir v period antichnosti i srednevekov’ia. Arkheologicheskie i pis’mennye istochniki v istoricheskikh rekonstruktsiiakh [24th Bosporan Readings. Cimmerian Bosporus and the World of Barbarians in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Archaeological and Written Sources in Historical Reconstructions]. Simferopol, Kerch, 2023, pp. 224-233.
12. Naumenko V.E., Alekseienko N.A. A New Early Medieval Seal Excavated at Mangup-Doros. N.A. Alekseienko (ed.), ΧΕΡΣΩΝΟΣ ΘΕΜΑΤΑ: imperiia i polis. XV Mezhdunarodnyi Vizantiiskii seminar [15th international Byzantine workshop “Chersonos Themata: the empire and the polis”], Simferopol, Arial Publ., 2023, pp. 215-226.
13. Naumenko V.E., Gertsen A.G. Sasanian Pseudo-Signet-Ring Excavated at the Palace of Mangup: The Aspects of Its Attribution and Interpretation. Antichnaia drevnost’ i srednie veka [Antiquity and the Middle Ages], 2021, vol. 49, pp. 97-114.
14. Naumenko V.E., Gertsen A.G. The Main Results of the Archaeological Study of the Mangup Prince’s Palace in 2006-2021. E.I. Seidaliev, R.R. Kadyrov (eds.), I Solhatskie chteniia «Prichernomor’e v epokhu globalizatsii: Vostok i Zapad v kul’ture Kryma» [1st Solkhat Readings “The Black Sea Region in the Era of Globalization: East and West in the Culture of Crimea”], Simferopol, Arial Publ., 2022, pp. 45-53.
15. Naumenko V.E., Nabokov A.I. Early Byzantine Costume Details Excavated in the Palace of Mangup. N.A. Alekseienko (ed.), ΧΕΡΣΩΝΟΣ ΘΕΜΑΤΑ: imperiia i polis. XIII Mezhdunarodnyi Vizantiiskii seminar [13th international Byzantine workshop “Chersonos Themata: the empire and the polis”], Simferopol, Arial Publ., 2021, pp. 201-210.
16. Naumenko V.E., Yakushechkin A.V. The Byzantine Coins Excavated at the Palace of Mangup. A General Review of the Collection. N.A. Alekseienko (ed.), ΧΕΡΣΩΝΟΣ ΘΕΜΑΤΑ: imperiia i polis. IX Mezhdunarodnyi Vizantiiskii seminar [9th international Byzantine workshop “Chersonos Themata: the empire and the polis”], Simferopol, Arial Publ., 2022, pp. 167-182.
17. Stepanova E.V. Pechati s latinskimi i greko-latinskimi nadpisiami VI-VIII vv. iz sobraniia Ermitazha [Seals with Latin and Greco-Latin Inscriptions of the 6th-8th Centuries from the Hermitage Collection]. St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Publ., 2006, 171 p.
18. Theophylaktos Simokates. Istoriia [The History]. Transl. S.P. Kondrat’ev. Moscow, Academy of Sciences of the USSR Publ., 1957, 224 p.
19. Bury J.B. The Imperial Administrative System in the Ninth Century. London, Oxford University Press, 1911, 179 p.
20. Nesbitt J., Oikonomides N. (eds.). Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art. Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor. Washington, Dumbarton Oaks Center Publ., 1994, 233 p.
21. Cosentino S. Prosopografia dell’Italia Byzantina (493-804): T. I (A-F). Bologna, Editrice Lo Scarabeo, 1996, 547 p.
22. Cosentino S. Prosopografia dell’Italia Byzantina (493-804): T. II (G-O). Bologna, Editrice Lo Scarabeo, 2000, 547 p.
23. Duchesne L. Le Liber pontificalis: texte, introduction et commentaire. Vol. I. Paris, Ernest Thorin Publ., 1886, 536 p.
24. Gertsen A.G. A Vault with a Byzantine Seal in the Cemetery of Almalyk (Mangup). H. Ivakin, N. Khrapunov, W. Seibt (eds.), Byzantine and Rus’ Seals. Proceeding of the International Colloquium on Rus’ - Byzantine Sigillography (Kyiv, Ukraine, 13-16 September 2013), Kyiv, Sheremetievs’ Museum Publ., 2015, pp. 25-33.
25. Haldon J.F. Byzantine Praetorians. An administrative, institutional and social survey of the Opsikion and Tagmata, c. 580-900. Bonn, Dr. Rudolf Habelt GMBH, 1984, 669 p.
26. Jones A.H.M. The Later Roman Empire. 284-602. Vol. I. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press Publ., 1986, 766 p.
27. Laurent V. Les Sceaux byzantins du Médaillier Vatican. Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Publ., 1962, 288 p.
28. Metcalf D.M. Byzantine Lead Seals from Cyprus. Nicosia, Cyprus Research Centre Publ., 2004, 598 p.
29. Oikonomides N. Les Listes de Présénce Byzantines des IX et X siècles. Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Publ., 1972, 403 p.
30. Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit. Erste Abteilung (641-867). Bd. 4. Hrsg. von R.-J. Lilie, C. Ludwig, Th. Pratsch, I. Rochow, B. Zielke. Berlin, New York, Walter de Gruyter Publ., 2001, 687 p.
31. Seibt W. The Seal of a Chartoularios from Mangup. H. Ivakin, N. Khrapunov, W. Seibt (eds.), Byzantine and Rus’ Seals. Proceeding of the International Colloquium on Rus’ - Byzantine Sigillography (Kyiv, Ukraine, 13-16 September 2013), Kyiv, Sheremetievs’ Museum Publ., 2015, pp. 33-35.
32. Speck P. Byzantinische Bleisiegle in Berlin (West). Bonn, Dr. Rudolf Habelt GMBH, 1986, 261 s.
33. The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and New Eastern History, A.D. 284-813. Transl. C. Mango, R. Scott. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997, 744 p.
34. Treadgold W. Byzantium and Its Army. 284-1081. Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1995, 250 p.
35. Wassiliou A.-K., Seibt W. Die byzantinischen Bleisiegle in Österriech. 2. Teil: Zentral- und Provinzialverwaltung. Wein, Verlag der Österreichischen Academie der Wissenschaften, 2004, 404 p.
36. Zacos G., Veglery A. Byzantine Lead Seals. Vol. I. Part 1-3. Basel, Verlag J.J. Augustin-Glückstadt, 1972, 1965 p.
