The Coinage of the Late Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium, and their Successor States FROM THE Germanic Invasions to the Russian Empire

January 12, 2009 New York City

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The Coinage of the Late Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium, and their Successor States FROM THE Germanic Invasions to the Russian Empire

Stack's Auction Gallery

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Monday, January 12, 2009

Approximately 10:30 am Lots 3001-3640

Starting at 9:00 am sharp and immediately preceding Moneta Imperii Romani Byzantini will be Ancient Coins (Lots 2001-2392), offered in the separate catalogue of The Golden Horn Collection.

Immediately following Moneta Imperii Romani Byzantini will be World Coins and Medals (lots 3641-4606), also in the separate catalogue of the Golden Horn Collection.

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OUR STAFF

Lawrence R. Stack: Executive Director of Numismatics Christine Karstedt: President Q. David Bowers: Co-Chairman Harvey G. Stack: Co-Chairman Laurance Solomon: Chief Administrative Officer

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MoMim

The Coinage of the Late Roman, Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium, and their Successor States from the Germanic Invasions to the Russian Empire

The coinage of the later Roman and Byzantine Empires has its origins in the administrative, social, military and economic reforms of Diocletian (284-305), reforms which were a response to the chaos of the 3rd century when the Roman Empire had nearly disintegrated under the attacks of Germanic migrant tribes and the Sassanian Persian Empire. Defense became the primary concern and in consequence a good general was the best emperor. In 293, a new tetrarchal form of government for the empire was devised whereby rule was shared by two August!, for the East and West respectively, each of whom had a Caesar to help him and to suc- ceed him after twenty years, being also married into the Augustus' family. The Principate became a Dominate with elaborate oriental court ceremony which emphasized the distinction between simple mortals who prostrated themselves before semi-divine emperors wearing diadems and purple robes. The old Republican institutions lost their functions and the Roman Senate became the council of the city of Rome. A new coinage was introduced in 294 and the whole economy was frozen and taxed to the extreme in order to provide for an increasingly demanding army.

Under Constantine I the Great (307-337), the empire was once again unified and acquired a new Christian ideology, as well as a new monetary system with the Solidus, Miliarensis, and Follis replacing the Aureus, Denarius, and Sestertius. Every effort was made to preserve the weight and purity of the gold Solidus at one seventy-second of a Roman pound, equivalent to 24 silver siliquae or carats (4.55 grams). The function of the argentiferous so-called Folles or 'Nummi' and successive bronze issues down to the tiny Nummus of the late fifth century have never been fully under- stood by numismatists.

While the imperial city of Rome was becoming the privileged See of St. Peter, the capital city of the future was rising on the shores of the western side of the Bospo- rus at the cross-roads of the Latin-speaking western and Greek-speaking eastern parts of the Roman Empire Constantinople was built on the site of the already existing Greek city of Byzantion and dedicated on 11 May 330. Although the city was essentially Greek speaking, Latin was the language of govern- ment. Depending on the background of its rulers, it often had several different names at any given time; among the most common were Byzantium,

Byzantion, Nova Roma and Constantinopolis after its founder Constantine I. It is likely that Constantine had not originally thought of superseding Rome, but was simply building his own tetr archie capital for the eastern part of empire. The 'New Rome' motif took on a new significance after Alaric's sack of Rome in 410 and the disappearance of the Western Empire in 476. The term Byzantium for the medieval Roman Empire was

introduced by humanist scholarship in the 16th century. The Byz- antines called their state the Roman Empire (basileia ton Rhomaion), applying the name Byzantion only to their capital.

The fourth century saw the triumph of the Christian Church over paganism, with its militant and well organized clergy, popu- lar social message and clear superiority in prodigy and miracle. Armenia became the first Christian state in 301, followed by Iberia (later called Georgia) in 327 and the Roman Empire in 337 with the baptism of Constantine on his deathbed. Having survived the massacres and intrigues of the family of Constantine, the apostate Julian II (361-363) disestablished and disavowed Christianity in favor of the ancient beliefs. His main reforms were directed more to the founding of a Neoplatonist 'pagan Church' which had lacked a mass following, rather than the restoration of the more popular traditional Graeco-Roman polytheism. Christians were also of- fended when the Jews were allowed to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem.

The unsuccessful expedition of Julian in 363 against the Sassanian Shapur II (309-379) was an unmitigated disaster resulting in the eastern part of Mesopotamia, Georgia, and Armenia becoming Persian vassals. His successors, Valentinian I (364-375) and Valens (364- 378) divided the empire East and West respectively between them and immediately restored the Chris- tian Church to its previous position. Following the death of Valentinian in 375, his son Gratian (367-383) inherited the western division of the empire. In the same year, Ostrogoths and Greutingi appeared on the Danube frontier, pushed from their home in southern Russia by the Huns, driven on in their turn by the hordes of central Asia. In 376, Valens authorized the starving masses to enter Thrace, but their appalling mistreatment by Roman officials incited open revolt which threatened Constantinople itself. Valens sent for aid from the West, but then without waiting for its arrival he joined battle and was killed at Adrianople in 378, which many critics believe foreshadowed the approaching fall of the Roman Empire.

After the catastrophe of 378, Gratian called upon the talented general Theodosius to become co-em- peror of the East. Theodosius I the Great (379-395), one of the last emperors to rule both the East and the West, immediately set about ending the Gothic wars by integrating the barbarians into the army and letting many settle in Thrace. Faced with religious dissention be- tween rival Christian groups, Theodosius established the creed of the Council of Nicaea (325) as the universal norm of orthodoxy and directed the convening of the second general council at Con- stantinople to clarify the Creed in 388. After the demise of Theodo- sius I the Empire was divided, the eastern part with its capital at

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Constantinople governed by his elder son Arcadius (395-408) and the western part with its capital initially at Milan and from 406 at the more strategically secure Ravenna, governed by his younger son Honorius (395-423). In practice, the emperor in the East was regarded the senior partner, and indeed the much richer Eastern Empire succeeded in maintaining its territorial integrity in the face of the continuous barbarian onslaught.

In the West the beginning of the end was heralded by the political and military disasters of the Fifth Century. On the last day of 406, a horde of mostly Vandals, Alans, and Suevi crossed the frozen Rhine at Mainz into a now defense- less Gaul, almost reaching the Channel, and the Pyrenees into Spain. The treacherous murder of the great general Stilocho in 408 opened the way for the inva- sion of Italy by Alaric, king of the Visigoths, and the taking of Rome in 410. Although the subsequent sack was mild and almost respectful by the standards of the time, the great churches St.

Peter and St. Paul were spared, but the prestige of Rome was mortally wounded. Swarms of Germanic tribes now crossed the Rhine, often in imperial service. The new Vandalic, Ostrogothic, Suevic, Visigothic, Burgundian, and Frankish kingdoms all initially issued coins in the name of the ruling Roman emperors. The Empire had lasted for so long that no one could imagine an alternative and the barbarians were still sufficiently impressed by the Roman civilization which they held at their mercy to preserve it. As early as 411, Honorius had informed the Britons that they must look to their own defenses and Britain slowly slipped out of the Roman orbit into Celtic anarchy and Arthurian legend under pressure from Anglo-Saxon invasions with their final settlement in southern Britain from about 450.

After the death of Ruga in 433/ 434, Attila and his brother Bleda inherited the vast Hunnish kingdom on the Danube and made full use of its strength and the weakness of both halves of the empire. In the early years of Attila's reign he was kept at bay in his capital of Buda by bribes from both Theodosius II (402-450) in the East and Valentinian III (425-455) in the West. In 441 the Huns and their German auxiliaries crossed the Danube and took Viminacium, usherig in a series of "'Hunnic Wars." They were bought off by Theodosius II with enormous tributes over the next number of years. In 450 Theodosius II was succeeded by Marcian (450- 457), who together with Valentinian III refused to continue the tribute to Attila the "Scourge of God."

At this point the Augusta Honoria, sister of Valentin- ian, having been banished for misconduct by her brother, sent a ring and a plea for help to Attila - who pretended to take the ring as a proposal of marriage and demanded half the empire. After ravaging Gaul and Italy, Attila was bought off at Milan by Valentinian, who had lost the wise council of his deceased mother Galla Placidia in 450, and having fled from Ravenna to Rome, sent Pope Leo I the Great (440-461) to parley in 452. Leo prevailed, Attila returned to his capital and died peacefully in his own bed in 453. The Hunnish threat was finally eliminated by the revolt of their Ger-

manic subjects, which ended in 454 with the battle at Nedao. Rome was again attacked in 455 by the Vandals who, taking advantage of the chaos created through the murder of Valentinian by Avitus (455-456), looted Rome. Fortunately Pope Leo was able to obtain a promise not to massacre or set fire to the city. History remembers the Vandal sack of Rome as extremely brutal, making the word vandalism a term for any wantonly destructive act. In actuality the Vandals did not wreak great destruction on the city; they did, however, take gold, silver and many other things of value, which according to Procopius included the golden vessels from the Temple of Zion held in the Roman Temple of Peace among other military trophies. Geiseric also abducted, along with other important people, the Empress Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters, Eudocia and Placidia. Eudocia married Geiseric' s son Huneric after arriving in Carthage.

In 475, Odovacar was appointed Magister militum and patrician by the west- ern emperor Julius Nepos. That same year, the Roman general Orestes promised Odovacar and his foederati a third of the Italian peninsula if they would lead a revolt against the emperor Nepos. After the success of the revolt, Orestes rescinded his pledge and elevated his son Romulus to the rank of Augustus. This resulted in Odovacar leading his tribesmen in a revolt against Orestes, who was captured and executed at Placentia and the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was compelled to abdicate on 4 September 476. In order to avoid conflict with the eastern emperor Zeno (474-491) and keep the administration of Italy, Odovacar renounced the meaningless title of emperor by sending the impe- rial insignia to Zeno and declared himself Patrician of the western half of the empire. With Odovacar as the first effective Germanic King of Italy, the old Roman empire was extinguished and a new era began with the support of the Senate and general consent of the Roman citizens of the West.

Following the close of the troubled reign of Zeno in 491 his widow Ariadne selected as his successor his competent usher Anastasius, whose main achievements were in the realms of finance. In the course of the severe economic crisis of the Fifth Century much of the reformed mon- etary system of Constantine disappeared; the Solidus and its fractions survived, but silver passed out of normal use and the bronze coinage was reduced to the humble Nummus. Continuing the example set by the Roman Senate, which under the rule of Odovacar revived its ancient prerogative of striking large copper in the name of Zeno (474-491), Anastasius introduced three denomina- tions in 498, the Follis of 40 Nummi and its half and quarter. This now became the standard currency of Late Antiquity until the 11th century, and it is with this radical change that the monetary system which we call Byzantine is generally held to commence.

The growing threat of invasion into the Balkans by the restless Ostrogoths, in their turn pressed by the Slavic expansion into the territory left vacant by the Huns, coupled with Odovacar 's success in

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Italy, led Zeno in 488 to encourage Theoderic the Great (493-526), king of the Ostrogoths, to invade Italy on behalf of the empire. Theoderic was successful and after his treacherous murder of Odovacar, become king of Italy nominally under imperial rule. The illiterate Justin I (518-527) was succeeded by Justinian I (527-565), who after violently putting down the Nika rebellion of the Green and Blue factions in 532, dedicated himself and the eastern empire to the reconquest of the West. He started by negotiating an expensive appeasement with the Sassanians and commenced the military venture with a success- ful attack by his general Belisarius on the Vandals in North Africa in 533/ 4. Sicily was taken in 535 and Gothic Italy invaded in 536, but not totally conquered until 563.

In 554 a Visigothic civil war offered an easy occupation of the southern third of Spain. The restoration of Roman hegemony in the Mediterranean increased the power and prestige of the empire. The consecrations of Ha- gia Sophia in 537 and San Vitale in Ravenna with its celebrated mosaics in 548, became the physical sym- bols of Constantinople's claim to 'rule the world.'

The 7th century was dominated by the many military disasters which befell the Empire. The first was the ar- rival from the north of the Avars, a multi-ethnic tribal confederation with a Turkic core, which besieged the Empire during 598/ 600. While fighting the Avars in 602 the Ro- man army revolted, marched on Constantinople and murdered the Emperor Maurice. The new emperor Phocas (602-610) sick- ened the Byzantines with his cru- elty, torturing and murdering the widow and children of Maurice.

The Avars went on to devastate the defenseless Balkans and were at the gates of Constantinople by 620 forcing Heraclius (610-641) to sue for peace.

From the East the Persians moved on Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Anatolia. Egypt fell in 616 to the Persians and would have been fol- lowed by all of the East, but for the timely counterattack by Heraclius deep into Persian territory in 623-4. The Persians reacted by attempt- ing to besiege the well fortified Constantinople in alliance with the Avars in 626. The siege failed when their forces were prevented from uniting. The Sassanian Shahinshah Khusrau II (590-628) was deposed in 628 and the old frontiers were restored and the True Cross was returned to Jerusalem in 630. In order to confront the challenges of his reign, the bronze monetary system created by Anastasius was reduced by Heraclius to repeatedly overstruck miserably reduced folles. Heraclius proceeded to completely overhaul the administra- tion of the empire, the character of which had become increasingly Greek and took on its medieval aspect when the provinces were divided into themata (singular: theme), military zones governed by a governor (strategos) directly answerable to the emperor. Local peasant farmers provided and equipped soldiers in return for inalienable right to land. Although the ideology of the emperor's power came from Rome, refashioned by Christian and Hellenistic concepts, the divinely promoted emperor was considered to be an elected com-

mander-in-chief, whether it was by the army. Senate or citizens that acted as God's agents by acclamation. From the 7th century on the new social order fostered the gradual appearance of a legitimacy of birth {porphygennetos) and lineage. The providential ruler chosen by God and conceived as God's representative on earth was above the law and had unique liturgical and executive privileges within the church. In recognition of these innovations, the Empire is from this point defined as Byzantine by modern historians, Byzantion being the old Greek name of the city.

While the Byzantine and Persian Empires had been engaged in their fruitless and costly war, the Arabs had been spiritually and politically united by the Prophet Muhammad, whose military successors after his death in 632 exploded on to the world scene. The intention of Islam, the \ 'surrender' to Allah, and his followers Muslimin, 'surrendering ones' was to replace Christianity in i the same way that Christianity had replaced Juda- ism and all occupied populations were urged to convert to the final revelation by the last prophet. Heraclius watched helplessly as, in a single decade, Muslim Arab armies occupied Syria, Palestine and the richest province of Egypt, including the Christian holy places of Jerusa- lem and Bethlehem.

Arabs proceeded to conquer about two-thirds of imperial ter- ritory and clearly intended to take the rest, as they pressed on with their expansion across North Africa to Spain in the West and through the Persian Empire to Afghanistan in the East. Follow- ing the consolidation of the new Islamic Empire, the fifth Caliph 'Abd al-Malik (685-705) made peace with Byzantium and introduced a thorough program of 'Arabization' of state institutions which saw the replacement of Syriac, Coptic, Greek, and Latin by Arabic as the official language of government, patronage of Islamic art, architecture and a reform of the coinage which saw the abandonment of the Byzantine coin types for the celebrated 'shahadah' Standing Caliph issue. These experimental coins did not circulate widely, but they represent the important first steps in the development of an acceptable Islamic coinage which culminated in the ubiquitous epigraphic coinage introduced with the monetary reform of the hijra year 77 (AD 697). It was at this time that the Slavs also descended from the north and settled in the Balkans and Greece itself, driving a wedge through the middle of the ancient world with Constantinople and its re- maining territories impoverished and cut off from the West. The last possessions in Spain were lost to the Visigoths in 631 and the key port of Genoa to the Lombards in 640.

Constantinople's refortified walls and the redefined Byzantine state withstood the challenge of two sieges in 674-678 and in 717, when the new emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741) came forward to save Byzantium from a simultaneous three-sided invasion from the Arabs, Avars, and Bulgarians. The Byzantines triumphed by diplomacy, sheer force of arms, and using new techniques such as

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Greek fire, a sort of medieval equivalent of napalm. To some extent the Isaurian period (717-820) was a time of internal reconstruction in the East, but the new puritanism in the form of Iconoclasm which decreed that true religion had no need of visual aids, deepened the rift between eastern and western Christians, who considered it heretical. Many links with the old Roman Empire were now broken, Ravenna was lost to the Lombards in 751 and Rome in 776 or 781. The final break with northern Italy came on Christmas day 800 when Pope Leo III revived the title of Emperor of the West with the coronation of Charlemagne. The traditional formulae CONOB and COMOB indicating the mints' gold purity (obryza) on the reverse of gold coinage was abandoned and Greek replaced Latin legends. The Anastasian copper denominations were formally brought to an end and the silver Miliaresion reintroduced in 720. Imperial bust representations became schematic and many issues often represented deceased ancestors. |

The cross disappeared as a normal reverse type, | now replaced by the effigy of a junior emperor or the repetition of the ruler.

A high point was reached by the Macedonian dynasty (867-1056) which reinforced the myth of its di- vinely ordained superiority and permanence of Byzantium, at the time enjoying political and cultural superiority over its western and eastern enemies. Western Europe stag- gered under the blows dealt by the Saracens, Vikings, and Magyars. But the Arabs lost the momentum that had car- ried them forward for two centuries and Constantinople enjoyed relative calm and wealth through trade. Some of the finest products of Byzantine art and architecture; learning, and literature flourished under the patronage of such men as the Patriarch Photeus (858-886) and the Emperor Constantine VII (913-959). The sol- dier-emperors, Nicephorus II (963-969) and John I (969-976), pushed the frontiers further east than ever before. Basil II (976-1025), surnamed 'the Bulgar-slayer ', settled the long-standing problem of his northern neighbors by ruthlessly annexing Bulgaria. He also personally supervised the an- nexation of Georgia to the empire and maintained good relations with the growing powers of Venice in the west and the lands of the Varangians in the north-east. According to the Kievan Rus' Primary Chronicle compiled in about 1113 groups of Varangians included Swedes, Rus, Normans, Angles, and Gotlanders. Engaging in trade, piracy and mercenary activities, they roamed the river systems and portages of Gardariki, reached the Caspian Sea and Constantinople and transmitted Byzantine culture and art so evident in the regalia, crowns, and pendilia worn by the kings on the coinage of Sweden, Denmark, and England. However, during the reign of Nicephorus II the break-up of the Byzantine No- misma began with the introduction of the lighter gold coin known as Tetarteron, in contrast to traditional full weight which in due course came to be called Histamenon ('standard').

The Christian missionaries from Byzantium had set out from the mid 9th century to convert the Bulgarian and other Slavic peoples and in the process organized their language, laws, aesthetics, politi- cal patterns and religion. The most influential of these missionaries were the Thessalonican brothers Cyril and Methodius, who went

north to teach the faith in the vernacular Slavic language. Cyril devised an alphabet for the Slavs and translated the liturgy and many religious books into Slavonic, which profoundly affected future Slavic cultural and spiritual development. When in 988-9, Basil II gave his sister Anna in marriage to Vladimir of Kiev it prompted the conversion of the whole Principality of Russia to Orthodox Christianity.

Decline set in after the death of Basil II in 1025; the theme system was undermined by the growth of a new class of hereditary land- owning aristocracy able to buy out the free peasant farmers, and centralized authority began to break down. This coincided with the revival of western Europe. Westerners went to the East first as pilgrims to the Holy Land, and later as crusaders, whose pres- ence and actions strengthened Byzantine prejudice against them. An uprising in Duklja in about 1040 withdrew Serbia from Byzantine rule. The schism between the churches of Rome and Constantinople was dramatically proclaimed with mutual excommunications in 1054, a symptom of a deeper ideological divergence.

On August 19, 1071 Alp Arslan (1029-1072), the second sultan of the Seljuk dynasty, inflicted a crushing de- feat on the Byzantine army of Romanus IV (1068- 1071) at the battle of Manzikert in Armenia and proceeded to advance and capture most of Asia Minor, which they called Rum (Roman). After , the disaster of Manzikert there was no shortage y of pretenders for the throne of Constantinople, and in 1081 one of the military aristocracy at last came to the fore in the person of Alexius I Com- nenus (1081-1118). The economy was in disarray forcing the devaluation of the former gold Histamenon Nomisma, which now was either an electrum or silver coin. The empire was once again beset by enemies on all sides; the Normans had captured Bari 1071 and soon after invaded the mainland opposite Italy; the Pechenegs ravaged the northern frontier; the Seljuqs continued to advance westward along with other Turkic groups such as the Danishmendids, Artuqids, and Zengids. With help from the West, Alexius could have resisted but for the unexpected descent of hordes of armed western pilgrims committed not to the defense of Constantinople but to the liberation of distant Jerusalem. The First Crusade burst upon Byzantium in 1096, the Second in 1147 and the Third in 1187. In all these cases the mostly French crusaders proceeded to carve out their own estates and princi- palities. The crusaders were always followed by Venetian and Genoese merchants that had acquired an appetite for the wealth of Byzantium and were eager to profit from the new markets in the Levant. They were collectively called Latins, whom the Byzantines found to be rude and arrogant, and there were many violent incidents. There were those in the western world who believed that there existed sound and moral reasons for putting Constantinople under western management and it was widely believed that the Byzantines had sabotaged the sacred cause of the crusades because of their opposition to the Roman Catholic version of Christianity.

In the 12th century the Emperor Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1180) sank imperial pride by recognizing the new Christian powers. It was a policy that failed with the western Emperor Frederick Bar-

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barossa (1122-1190) who disrespectfully called him simply King of the Greeks. The final humiliation came in 1171 when Manuel attempting to conquer the Danishmendid Turks , was trapped and his army destroyed at Myriocephalum. During the reign of Isaac II (First Reign, 1185-1195) events continued to work against the empire: William of Sicily took Corfu and Durazzo in his invasion of the empire; Theodore (now named Peter) was crowned as Tsar of the breakaway Bulgarian empire. The Third Crusade proclaimed in 1187 included Frederick Barbarossa, who created havoc by taking the overland route only to die in 1190 while crossing the Saleph River in Cilicia, and Richard, Coeur de Lion, who in 1191 lost Je- rusalem to Saladin but helped to take Cyprus from the Byzantine usurper Isaac Comnenus . Following the Selquk invasion, the king of Armenia Levon II (1187-1219) gave material help to the First Crusade, swore fealty to the western emperor Henry VI (1190-1197) and reformed the Armenian administration on western models.

Worse was to come at the beginning of the 13th century. Under the feeble rule of Alexius III (1195-1203) the forces of dissolution gathered momentum.

Serbia seceded from the empire and the Ger- man emperor Henry VI threatened to conquer Constantinople. The Fourth Crusade was ini- tiated in 1202 ostensibly to recover the Holy Land through Egypt, but as crusaders lacked the funds to pay for the fleet and provisions contracted from the Venetians, Doge Enrico Dandolo enlisted them to take the Christian city of Zara from the kingdom of Hungary.

Subsequently, as they were ill supplied with provisions and time on their vessels leases, the leaders decided to go to Constantinople.

When Alexius III (1195-1203) failed to pay them off, the Latins at- tempted to replace him with the now blind and exiled Isaac II and his son Alexius IV. Alexius was then elected to the throne with the Crusader army beneath the walls of the City.

After a series of misunderstandings and outbreaks of violence, the Latins sacked the city in 1204 in the name of God and Mammon and committed an unprecedented crime of massacre, pillage, and destruction. A Frenchman, Baldwin of Flanders, became Emperor and a Venetian became Patriarch. The crusaders then occupied much of mainland Greece, while the Venetians commandeered the ports and islands of the empire. Byzantium never fully recovered from the shock of the Fourth Crusade or the loss of the fabulous booty which still graces the treasury of St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. Those who escaped from Constantinople gathered together in three fragments of the Empire in three exiles; Epirus, Trebizond, and Nicaea. The Latins were finally expelled in 1261 by the last of the emperors in exile in Nicaea, Michael VIII Palaeologus (1261-1282).

The 14th century saw the relentless advance of the Ottoman Turks through Anatolia, Thrace and the Balkans, dislodged in their turn by the Mongols from Central Asia. The Empire's economy was beyond repair with the standard gold coin, now called Hyperpyron, hope- lessly devalued and replaced by the Venetian ducat for international commerce. Much of mainland Greece remained under foreign oc- cupation; the Greek islands were Italian colonies; the wealth of Crete went to Venice and that of Chios to Genoa. Not withstanding these setbacks, the period witnessed a remarkable renaissance in the arts, monasticism, and scholarship with the rediscovery of ancient Greek

literature and philosophy in Constantinople and Thessalonica, where there was still much wealth in public hands. Many of these scholars, clerics, and artists would go on to enrich the renaissance in western Europe, especially Italy. While the authority of the state declined, that of the church increased. Along with the religious revival, lat- ter-day patriarchs of Constantinople commanded more respect than emperors among all Orthodox Christians, Slavs as well as Greeks, for they preached that God and the Theotokos would not forsake their chosen people if they kept their faith.

Constantinople and its hinterland was by 1400 almost all that was left of the empire with its structure, economy, and defenses shattered; it could offer little resistance to the new vigorous force of the Ottoman Turks when they broke into Asia Minor. Gold was no more part of its monetary system now based on a silver coinage of a standard similar to the Italian Grosso and Tornese. Appeals for help from the West evoked little response; the popes would not come to the rescue of Christians who were in schism from Rome. In 1439, at the Council of Florence, the emperor John VIII (1423-1448) sank his pride, abjured alleged heresies, and a union of the Greek and Roman churches was proclaimed. Most of its subjects denounced it as a betrayal of their Orthodox faith, and when help did come it was too late, for the Turks had already conquered most of Eastern south- east Europe and defeated a Western army, the reward for the Emperor's treachery, at Varna in 1444. Constantinople was now completely isolated but for a contingent of Genoese. On 29 May 1453, after a long and heroic resistance, the walls of the city which had for a thousand years protected the eastern flank of Christen- dom were broken by the new technology of heavy artillery. The last emperor Constantine XI (1448-1453) died fighting as he had desired and Byzantine Constantinople became Turkish Islamboul (Istanbul), capital of the Ottoman empire.

The Sultan Mehmet II went on to eliminate pockets of resis- tance at Athens in 1456, Mistra in 1460, and Trebizond in 1461. The nephew of the last Emperor, Andreas Palaeologos inherited the defunct title of Byzantine Emperor in 1465 until his death in 1503, but by the end of the 15th century, the Ottoman empire had established its firm rule over Asia Minor and a large part of the Balkan peninsula.

After the fall of Constantinople, Eastern Orthodoxy was inclined to regard the Grand Princes of Moscow as the successors of the Byzantine emperors. Ivan III himself appeared to welcome the idea, and styled himself Tsar or Czar (the Slavonic equivalent of hasilius or Caesar) in foreign correspondence. His marriage in 1472 to the niece of last two Byzantine emperors and granddaughter of Manual II, Zoe-Sophia Paleologina, was clearly intended to make an eventual claim to the Byzantine throne. The title tsar, as yet unofficial, was formally assumed by his grandson Ivan IV with a Byzantine coronation rite in 1547. Official sanction was asked for and received from the Eastern Patriarchs, captives of the Turks, which formulated the idea of Moscow as 'the Third Rome', an idea that was kept alive until its demise with the Russian Revolution of 1917 along with the Julian calendar, still used on Mount Athos and by many national Orthodox Churches.

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THE COLLECTION OF A CONNOISSEUR

The connoisseur who assembled this remarkable collection of outstanding coins from the period spanning Late Antiquity to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, did so through the agency of all the major dealers and auction houses of the last half-century Among named sales, it suffices to mention: Adelson, Cahn, de Wit, Des- pot, Donald, Gaettens, Garrett, Goodacre, Hede, Hunt, Jameson, Lacam, Lerche, Ley, Lindpaitner, Martinori, Mazzini, Niggeler, NK, Simonetti, Slocum, Spahr, Subjack, and Weiser.

The principal aim of the collection was to illustrate the influence Byzantium, the historically maligned but increasingly appreciated empire, exerted over the culture of its successor and neighboring states from the British Isles to Caucasia. It also brings to light the evolution of the coinages of the tribes and rulers from the migration period through the new domains of the Middle Ages down to the nation states of the time of revival of learning in the West.

Amid this rich treasury of coins attention is particularly drawn to the following lots:

From the foundation of Constantinople in 330 to the fall the Western Empire: the heaven-gazing Solidus of Constantine (lot 3002), the extremely rare Solidus of Fausta from the Jameson collec- tion (3003), the spectacular facing bust Solidus of Licinia Eudoxia from the Naville sale of 1925 (3028) and the extremely rare Marcian IVi Solidus from the Goodacre collection (3030).

From Anastasius to the end of the dynasty of Justinian notable coins are: the consular Solidus of Anastasius from the Hunt Col- lection (3045), and the extremely rare consular and ceremonial Miliaresia of Justin II (3091 and 3092).

The Heraclian dynasty includes a fine revolt Solidus depicting Heraclius as exarch at Alexandria in 610 (3130), the extraordinary 40 Nummi of Jerusalem (3138), the inauguration issue of the reign of Contans II (3150), and the extremely rare usurper Mezezios Solidus of Syracuse (3159).

The period of the Isaurian dynasty is highlighted by the unique Solidus of the usurper Tiberius Petasius (3179) in central Italy and the very rare Solidus of the usurper Artavasdus (3183).

The Golden Age of Byzantine art in general and numismatics in particular under the Amorian and Macedonian dynasty is repre- sented with distinction by the superbly modeled Basil I, Basil I with Eudocia Ingerina, and Basil I with Alexander Solid! (3212, 3213, and 3216), the Leo VI and Alexander Solid! (3219, 3220), the Romanus

I, Gonstantine VII with Ghristopher Solidus (3228), the Michael IV Histamenon of Thessalonica (3252), and the Histamenon of the rival emperor Michael VI (3259).

The rulers of the Despotate of Epirus and Empires of Nicaea, Thessalonica, and Trebizond are well represented with most of their rulers. Highlights of the Palaeologan period are the extre- mely rare Matthew Asen Gantacuzenus V2 Basilikon possibly struck at Adrianople in about 1354 (3352) and the Stavraton of the recently identified last Byzantine emperor Gonstantine XI Palaeologus (3368).

The Germanic migration period is flush with many inte- resting coins, the most noteworthy of which are the Solidus of Theodebert I struck at Reims (3405) and the Solidus of Sigis- mund struck at Lugdunum, from the NK collection (3409).

The Kingdom of Axum is followed by a comprehensive group of Lombardic issues from Northern and Southern and Papal Rome, the Duchy of Naples, and a fine group of Norman issues of southern Italy and Sicily.

Umayyad Syrian, Palestinian, North African and Spanish Arab-Byzantine issues are followed by a fine group of coinages from the Christian kingdoms of Georgia, Armenia, and the Latin East Crusader states, including many interesting and rare types. The Turkomans are represented by coins of the Danishmendid, Artuqid, Zengid, Menkujakid, and Seljuq dynasties in Syria and Asia Minor.

There are comprehensive groupings of the Slavonic northern neighbors of Byzantium: the First and Second empires of Bulgaria, the Kingdom and Empire of Serbia and the Kingdom of Bosnia. More distant states where the coinages were strongly influenced by Byzantium via the Viking trade routes in the Baltic and North Sea include Anglo-Saxon Britain (notably the 'oath taking' type thrymsa (3573), and the Empress Matilda Penny of Bristol (3581), Denmark, Sweden, and the Ottonian, Salian, and Hohenstaufen kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.

The collection closes with examples of the issues of the Rus- sian principalities of Tmutarakan, Mozhaisk, Novgorod, and Pskov; areas which from the 9th century had begun to adopt Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, formally doing so in 988 and so beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defines Russian culture for the next millennium.

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ORDER OF SALE

Roman Empire: Constantinian Era 3001-3013

Western and Eastern Roman Empires 3014-3044

Byzantine Empire 3045-3299

The Latin Empire in Constantinople 3300-3302

The Empire of Nicaea 3303-3311

The Empire of Thessalonica 3312-3318

The Despotate of Epirius 3319

The Restored Byzantine Empire at Constantinople 3320-3368

The Empire of Trebizond 3369-3388

The Germanic Migration Period 3389-3410

Avars 3389

Odovacar and the Ostrogoths 3390-3400

Visigoths 3401-3403

Merovingians 3404-3407

Burgundians 3408-3410

The Axumite Kingdom 3411-3420

Lombards 3421-3431

The Papal State 3424

Duchy of Naples 3425-3427

Lombardic Duchy of Benevento 3428-3429

Lombardic Principality of Salerno 3430-3431

Normans in Southern Italy 3432-3445

The Umayyad Caliphate 3446-3459

Bagratid Kingdom of Georgia 3460-3466

Armenia, Principality of Lori 3467

Cilician Armenia, The Principate (1080-1095) 3468-3472

Cilician Armenia, The Kingdom (1199-1375) 3473-3493

Crusaders: The Latin East 3494-3502

Kingdom of Cyprus 3503-3505

Turkoman Dynasties in Anatolia and the Southern Border Area 3506-3532

The Bulgarian Empires 3533-3548

Eirst Bulgarian Empire 3533-3534

Second Bulgarian Empire 3535-3548

Kingdom and Empire of Serbia 3549-3561

Kingdom of Bosnia 3562

Doges of Venice 3563

Patriarchate of Aquileia 3564-3567

Bishopric of Trieste 3568

Kingdom of Hungary 3569-3572

Early Anglo-Saxon Britain 3573-3575

Norman and Plantagenet Kings of England 3576-3582

Denmark 3583-3593

Sweden 3594

The Ottomans, Salians and Hohenstaufens Kings and Emperors 3595-3624

Kingdom of Bohemia 3625-3632

Poland 3633-3635

Russia 3636-3640

Moneta Imperii Romani Byzantini

January 12, 2009 Approximately 10:30 am

Lots 3001-3640

Stack's Auction Gallery 110 W. 57th Street

Enlargements are 2x unless indicated otherwise.

ROMAN EMPIRE: CONSTANTINIAN ERA

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT (307-337)

Re-evaluation in modern times has confirmed that the Emperor Constantine was one of the few world figures to actually merit his title "the Great." He was born either in the early 270s or early 280s AD to Constantins Chlorus and his wife Helena, daughter of an inn keeper. He rose to ultimate power in the confused years after the May 1,

3005 abdication of Diocletian, the Emperor whose heroic efforts to restructure the