★ Michael Iasites, the unsuccessful besieger of Dvin ★

Michael Iasites, magistros and doux of Antioch, mid 11th century. Seal (Lead, 32 mm, 24.22 g, 12 h). ...-H[T]/PI/OC Nimbate facing bust of Saint Demetrios, holding a spear over his right shoulder, and resting a shield on his left arm. Rev. [KЄ R,Θ,] / TⲰ CⲰ Δ, / MIX[A]H[Λ / M]AΓ[IC]TPⲰ / S Δ૪K' ANT/[I]OXHAC T, / [I]ACITH in seven lines. Jordanov, Corpus II, 240. Zacos Sale I (Spink 127), 40. An impressive seal of an important Byzantine general and of great historical interest. Scrapes on obverse and surface roughness, otherwise, good fine.

From an important collection of Roman and Byzantine seals, tesserae and amulets, formed before 2021.

Michael Iasites was an illustrious Byzantine general in the mid-11th century. As katepano of the Armenian province of Iberia, he led a Byzantine army allied with Armenian forces in an attempt to capture Dvin. However, the Emir of Dvin countered the Byzantine forces by flooding the fields and raining down a barrage of arrows on the attackers. Iasites' highest known rank was doux of Antioch, making him the second most powerful man in the east, after the domestikos of the regiments.