An unpublished seal of Konstantinos Philosophos, his family, and the thema of the islands

Abstract

In the Barber collection of Fine Arts (University of Birmingham) a seal issued by Konstantinos Philosophos, krites and strategos of the Islands dated to the 1070s or 1080s has been preserved. With this seal as a starting point, I examine the historical circumstances of the appointment of Konstantinos Philosophos in the Islands and particularly the devaluation of the dignities and the fusion of the civil with the military administration. Furthermore, the members of the rather obscure family of Philosophoi from the 11th to the 13th centuries are identified. Finally, the administrative area where Konstantinos Philosophos exercised his duties is located territorially in the Southern Aegean, with Kos as its capital, and its administrative structure is analyzed. This contribution closes with a short prosopography of the officials who served in the region between the late 10th and the late 13th centuries.