750-850 AD., Byzantine lead seal, Konstantinos, Hypatos.

Byzantine lead seal, Konstantinos, Hypatos, ca. 750-850 AD.,
lead seal (25-29 mm / 16,12 g),
Obv.: ΘEOTOKE BOHΘEI , Theotoke boethei , ( = 'Godbearer, aid ...' ), in a cruciform monogram.
Rev.: KWNCTANTINOWS (K (left) - {NC} (r.) - {WA} (below) -T (above), ... ) , in a cruciform monogram, in 4 fields: Y - nA / T - W , Konstantinos Hypatos , "Konstantinos the consul".
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Hypatos (Greek: hyατος, pl. hypatoi) was a Byzantine court dignity, originally the Greek translation of Latin consul (the literal meaning of hypatos is "the supreme one"). The dignity arose from the honorary consulships awarded in the late Roman Empire, and survived until the early 12th century. Conferred among others to the rulers of the south Italian principalities, in Italian documents the term was sometimes Latinised as hypatus or ypatus, and in Italian historiography one finds ipato.

The creation of ordinary consuls in late Antiquity was irregular, although the East and the West tended to divide the two consulships; the office, which had become both effectively honorary and quite expensive, sometimes lay vacant for years. The Emperors were often ordinary consuls; after 541, with the exception of the emperor, who assumed the office on his accession, no ordinary consuls were appointed. From that point on, only honorary consulships were granted, and the title declined much in prestige. Throughout the 6th-9th centuries there is ample sigillographic evidence of functionaries bearing the title, usually attached to mid-level administrative and fiscal posts. In the late 9th-century hierarchy however, as related by the Klētorologion of Philotheos, it was one of the lower dignities, ranking between the spatharios and the stratōr. Its badge of office, whose award also conferred the dignity, was a diploma. In the Taktikon of Escorial, written ca. 975, the hypatos appears to be a regular office instead of an honorary dignity, endowed with judicial duties according to Nicolas Oikonomides. In the 11th century, the title rose again in importance, apparently outranking the prōtospatharios, but disappeared entirely by the mid-12th century.