Amazon Audible Gift Memberships


Create an Amazon Wedding Registry



A Byzantine Plaque of Saint Theodore, 11th century.



Description: A gilt-bronze plaque; cast in low relief with the standing figure of St Theodore, with nimbus, bearded, and in military costume; the latter consists of a cuirass, military skirt, officer's sash and a knee-length mantle. The saint, who wears a sword, holds a spear in his right hand and an imbricated shield in his left. Inscribed on either side of the saint's head. At bottom, a broken tang.
Inscription Transliteration: A THEO DORO (Saint Theodore)
Dimensions: Height: 125 mm. Width: 67 mm.
Published: D. Buckton, Byzantium: Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture, London, 1994, no 160. Purchased in Smyrna.

Source: British Museum AN265591001.



Referenced on p45 EH 033. J.Haldon - Byzantium at War AD 600-1453



Referenced on p12, MAA 89 Byzantine Armies 886-1118 by Ian Heath & Angus McBride:
Gilt bronze plaque of the 11th century depicting a military saint (Theodore) in the guise of a dismounted Byzantine cavalryman. His equipment comprises leather-fringed lamellar klibanion, sword suspended from a baldric, lance (shortened to fit the plaque) and decorated circular shield. The sash tied round his chest occurs in a number of sources and is probably an indication of rank. Most dismounted horsemen wear cloaks in the pictorial sources.



See also Byzantine Mosaic depicting the soldier, Longinus, in the Nea Moni Church, Chios, Greece, c.1050AD
A Naval battle in The Cynegetica of Pseudo-Oppian, Byzantine, 11th century
Other Byzantine Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers
11th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers