За страторската колегия във византийската провинциална администрация през X-XI в. (по данни на находки от североизточна България)

Abstract

In this article the author examines several archaeological findings from the second half of the 10th century and the beginning of the 11th, which he connects with the functioning of the byzantine administration in north-eastern Bulgaria after 971. These findings are bronze seals for stamping on wax (Fig. 1, 2, 3). On the faces is engraved a double “patriarch” cross and on the reverses – Greek texts or imitative inscriptions (pseudoinscriptions). The findings are 7 in total and they come from the Old Bulgarian capital Veliki Preslav, or are from the vicinities of Pliska and Durostorum. After the conquest campaign of John Tcimiskès, they become leading centers of the Byzantium province government of Lower Danube. These bronze seals, despite their similar design, fall into two categories. The first one includes 2 findings: one from the Vodno village in Silistra region and one from Veliki Preslav. They have Greek inscriptions, which clarifies their roles of insignia for the lower levels of the byzantine administration in Lower Danube. On the seal from Vodno is a circular inscription: TΩΝΣTΡΑTΟΡΩΝ+. It explains to whom the typical stamping symbol – The Cross belongs, so it should be translated as “The stratores’ crossseal”. So the seal from Vodno can be considered as a proof for the existence of a body of stratores in the byzantine administration. The author uses data from the Antiquity and the Late Antiquity to explain the character and the functions of this body. At that time the stratores form a structure (stratura, collegium stratorum) which is under the jurisdiction of the prеvice governor or strategus, and it has different functions. The supplying of the army or postal service with horses, the repairmen of roads and fortresses and collecting of different packages are the most important among them. Based on this data, the author reaches the conclusion, that the seal from Vodno belonged to a functioning (by roman model) stratura, and its staff (stratores) had seals to stamp the correspondence or the supplies for the provincial administration. The existence of a significant number of seals with pseudoinscriptions can be explained with the presence of local people, who did not know the Greek language, in the stratores’ body. They probably had the task of the immediate collection of the supplies for the provincial governor. To determine the time of creation of the low level administrative office of the stratores in Lower Danube, unknown by any other sources, the author uses sygilographic data, too. The most important is a molybdobul found in the Preslav strategy, issued by Leon Sarakinopoulos, who is famous for his numerous lead seals after 971. In the molybdobul, his position is “comes of the imperial stables” and protostrator. It is known that Leo had these functions at the end of his career, a little before, or after the death of John Tzimiskès (†976), when he gets a position in the palace and has the rank of a patricius. But in the years after 971 he occupies different positions in north-eastern Bulgaria: “strategus of Dorostolon (Durostorum)”, “strategus of Johanopolis (Preslav) and Dorostolon” and “strategus of Thrace and Johanopolis”. As the head of the byzantine administration in the newly conquered Bulgarian territories, Leon Sarakinopoulos should have been in the centre of the creation of the stratores’ office in Lower Danube. The seal of the protostrator Leon Sarakinopoulos, received in the Preslav strategy, allows the cautious statement, that around 976 (?) he had official contacts with the local stratura (?), maybe about supping the byzantine army with horses. Evidence about the interest of byzantine stratores’ bodies in the region of the Old Bulgarian capitals, are other molybdobuls or seals, like the one recently found near Pliska. They indirectly prove, that there, probably from the times of the independent Bulgarian state (the end of the VII century – 971), has been a significant horse breeding resource, which kept its importance for the byzantine administration, too.