★ Sisinnios, the city prefect of Constantinopolis and oikonomos of Hagia Sophia ★

Sisinnios, magistros and eparchos (city prefect of Constantinopolis), circa 950-1050. Seal (Lead, 29 mm, 17.10 g, 12 h). APXICTP,THΓ R Tω Cω Δ, - M/I-X/A ("Chief General, help your servant") Nimbate facing bust of St. Michael, holding scepter in his right hand. Rev. +CICIN/NIω MAΓIC/TPω KAI Є/ΠA[PX]ω ("Sisinnios, magistros and eparch") in four lines, decorations above and below. Unpublished in the standard references, but cf. DO V 42.37. Very fine.

A contemporaneous seal in Dumbarton Oaks also names a Sisinnios, who was magistros and oikonomos of the Hagia Sophia. As both seals attest the court rank of magistros and have a remarkably similar obverse design with identical iconography and the rare invocation of Michael as 'archestrategos' in a circular legend, it is likely that they belong to the same official. While our seal does not appear to have 'of the City' in its legend, the similarities indicate that Sisinnios probably was the prefect of Constantinopolis. The Dumbarton Oaks seal mentions another major office in the capital: as oikonomos of Hagia Sophia, he was the chief official of the Great Church and must have been one of the most influential figures in the Byzantine capital.