Money Monday - Constantine X Doukas (1059-1067CE); Gold Histamenon Nomisma

Obverse: +IhS IXS REX REGNANTINM [Jesus Christ King of Kings]

Reverse: +KWN RAC Λ O ∆OVKAC

The Byzantine Empire was once more popularly known as the Roman Empire, but is now known as the former to avoid confusion with the western Roman Empire which fell in c.476CE. Why there were two Roman Empires is a complicated story, involving the splitting of Imperial power between different emperors, tribal invasions and the setting up of two capitals: one in Rome, and one in Constantinople.

It is another Constantine who is the subject of this Money Monday though: Constantine X , Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 1059-1067. He came to the throne in the most Byzantine of ways, by intriguing against an aging emperor with the help of court bureaucrats and marrying into political influence.

He was not, however, as good at ruling as he was at intrigue. His dismantling of the previous Emperor Isaac I’s reforms proved catastrophic, and in particular his weakening of the military allowed the Seljuk Turks to make important strides in their long conquest of Asia Minor and, in 1453, Constantinople itself (now Istanbul). In the West, also, the Hungarians were stepping on Constantine’s toes, and the Normans were mopping up what was left of Byzantine possessions in Italy.

You wouldn’t know it from this week’s coin, though. It depicts the Emperor standing full-length on a footstool wearing a sakkos and loros, holding a labaraum and globus cruciger. On the reverse, Jesus Christ is shown enthroned holding gospels. The Byzantine style has by this point come to roost in coinage, one part of the shift from classical Roman realism to the looser Byzantine style.

Coins featured in Money Monday are a part of the University of Reading’s Stenton Coin Collection. For more information or to view the collection, please contact us: specialcollections@reading.ac.uk



This week is also Global Money Week!