Constantine

Intro ...

(780-797)

V

l

CONSTANTINOPLE

Constantine VI (780-797). AV Solidus. Constantinople mint. Sear 1591.

Obv: cᴏnsτᴀnτınᴏs cᴀ ь' Δ' or cᴏnsτᴀnτın . єc ⲑ' ʙ' Δ' (or similar; letters usually carelessly engraved and very small). Facing bust of Constantine VI, beardless (on left) and Irene (on right), both crowned and with cross between their heads; Constantine wears chlamys and holds globus cruciger in right; his mother wears loros and holds cruciform scepter on left; pellet in field between their faces;

Rev: s (or sᴠn) ıʀını ᴀᴠг' mıτʀı ᴀᴠ' (or similar). Leo III, Constantine V, and Leo IV seated facing, each wearing crown and chlamys.

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Constantine VI (780-797). AV Solidus. Constantinople mint. Sear 1592.

Obv: s ıʀını ᴀᴠг' mıτʀı (or similar). Facing bust of Constantine VI, beardless (on left) and Irene (on right), both crowned and with cross between their heads; Constantine wears chlamys and holds globus cruciger in right; his mother wears loros and holds cruciform scepter on left; pellet in field between their faces;

Rev: cᴏnsτᴀnτınᴏs c ь' ь' (or similar). Leo III, Constantine V, and Leo IV seated facing, each wearing crown and chlamys.

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Constantine VI (780-797). AV Solidus. Constantinople mint. Sear 1593.

Obv: s ıʀını ᴀᴠг' mıτʀı (or similar). Facing bust of Constantine VI, beardless (on left) and Irene (on right), both crowned and with cross between their heads; Constantine wears chlamys and holds globus cruciger in right; his mother wears loros and holds globus cruciger in right hand and cruciform scepter on left; pellet in field between their faces;

Rev: cᴏnsτᴀnτınᴏs c ь' ь' (or similar). Leo III, Constantine V, and Leo IV seated facing, each wearing crown and chlamys.

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Constantine VI (780-797). AV Solidus. Constantinople mint. Sear 1594.

Obv: ıʀınʜ ᴀгᴏᴠsτı or ʜʀʜnı ᴀᴠгчsτʜ (or similar). Bust of Irene facing, wearing crown and loros, holding globus cruciger and cruciform scepter;

Rev: cᴏnsτᴀnτınᴏs ьᴀs' (usually followed by ⲑ). Bust of Constantine VI facing, beardless, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globus cruciger and akakia.

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Constantine VI (780-797). AR Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Sear 1595.

Obv: ıhsчs xʀısτчs nıcᴀ. Cross potent on 3 steps; triple border;

Rev: cᴏns / τᴀnτınᴏ / s s ᴄ ıʀını є / ᴄ ⲑєч ьᴀ (or єᴄ ⲑєч ьᴀ) / ꜱıⳑıꜱ (sometimes followed by cross or pellet) in 5 lines; triple border.

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Constantine VI (780-797). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1596.

Obv: No legend. Facing bust of Constantine VI, beardless (on left) and Irene (on right), both crowned and with cross between their heads; Constantine wears chlamys and holds globus cruciger in right; his mother wears loros and holds cruciform scepter on left; pellet in field between their faces;

Rev: No legend. Facing busts of Leo III, Constantine V, and Leo IV each wearing crown and chlamys (usually with 2 pellets in field to left and to right); all above horizontal bar, beneath which large ᴍ between x and ɴ; beneath ᴍ, ᴀ.

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Constantine VI (780-797). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1597.

Obv: No legend. Facing bust of Constantine VI, beardless (on left) and Irene (on right), both crowned and with cross between their heads; Constantine wears chlamys and holds globus cruciger in right; his mother wears loros and holds globus cruciger in right hand and cruciform scepter on left; pellet in field between their faces;

Rev: No legend. Facing busts of Leo III, Constantine V, and Leo IV each wearing crown and chlamys (usually with 2 pellets in field to left and to right); all above horizontal bar, beneath which large ᴍ between x and ɴ; beneath ᴍ, ᴀ.

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Constantine VI (780-797). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1598.

Obv: No legend. Bust of Irene facing, wearing crown and loros, holding globus cruciger and cruciform scepter;

Rev: No legend. Facing bust of Constantine VI, beardless, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globus cruciger; in field to right, cross and pellet (sometimes 2 pellets); to left pellet; all above horizontal bar, beneath which large ᴍ between x and ɴ; beneath ᴍ, ᴀ.

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Constantine VI succeeded his father at the age of nine and reigned, in form at least, for seventeen years. Although our sources do not say it in so many words, he must have been weak-willed almost to the point of feeble mindedness, for he never succeeded in growing up or in emancipating himself from the influence of his strong-minded and unpleasant mother, the Empress Irene. It was she who summoned the Council of Nicaea and secured the condemnation of Iconoclasm in 787, when she had the satisfaction of hearing herself and her son solemnly acclaimed as the new Helena and the new Constantine respectively.

Only between the years 790 and 792 did her power undergo a partial eclipse. By 790 Constantine was nineteen years old, and impatient both of his mother’s tutelage and of the intolerable manner in which he was treated by her servants and confidants, in particular the Logothete Stauracius. In the spring of that year Irene discovered that he was plotting against her and took vigorous action, banishing his supporters and confining him to his quarters in the palace. In the autumn she demanded an oath from the army to the effect that they would not recognize him as effective emperor as long as she was alive. The soldiers of the Armeniac theme declined it (September), saying that they preferred their original oath of loyalty to Constantine and Irene, whereupon the rest of the troops reversed their position and proclaimed Constantine the sole emperor (μóνος βασιλεὐς). The formal ending of Irene’s regency seems to have taken place on 10 November. In December Stauracius was deposed, flogged, and banished, and the empress confined to her palace of Eleutherion. In January 792 Constantine was foolish enough to restore his mother to her previous position, and acclamations were again formally addressed to Constantine and Irene jointly. In the course of the next five years Constantine's popularity declined, til by the summer of 797 Irene decided that she could depose him with impunity and seize full power herself. An attempt to assassinate him during July was unsuccessful, but a month later he was seized by his mother's supporters, shut up in the purple chamber in the palace where he had been born, and blinded with such cruelty that it was generally reported that he had died as a result (19 August). In fact he was exiled to Prinkipo, and died some years afterwards (before 806).

The coinage of the reign reflects in some measure the vicissitudes in Constantine VI's relations with his mother as they are described in the written sources, but it also shows that in some respects the sources have exaggerated their constitutional significance. Theophanes implies that Irene was removed altogether from even nominal authority between December 790 and January 792; other writers give Constantine a second series of regnal years beginning in 790, when he was regarded as having belatedly come of age, so that the regency of Irene came to an end. It is clear from the coinage that Irene remained effective co-empress throughout; she figures on all denominations in all metals throughout the reign, and on most of them managed to secure some kind of precedence over her son. Only on the miliaresion is this last not the case: here the order of precedence is invariably Constantine first and Irene second. A very evident mark of the subordination in which Constantine was always held is the fact that he is never shown as bearded, though this would have been the conventional manner of indicating that he had arrived at man's estate. It was of course very unusual for a woman to appear on the coinage at all. It had not occurred since the time of Martina, wife of the Emperor Heraclius, and she had never been shown on the gold. The last empress to have gold coins struck in her name had been the Empress Ariadne, wife in turn to Zeno and Anastasius I.

There are two main classes of solidi, the first divided into two sub-classes. Class I has on the obverse the facing busts of Constantine and Irene, on the reverse the seated figures of Leo III, Constantine V, and Leo IV. Class II has on the obverse the bust of Irene and on the reverse that of Constantine, the ancestors of the later being dispensed with. The subdivisions of Class I depend upon whether or not the empress carries a globus cruciger, which had by now become a regular symbol of authority, as well as a cross scepter, and whether the inscription begins on the obverse or the reverse of the coins. Class Ia can be dated 780-90, Class Ib, which is much less common, 790-2, and Class II, 792-7. The events of 787, which saw the condemnation of Iconoclasm, did not affect the coinage, since while the doctrine and its chief ecclesiastical protagonists were anathematized the Council of Nicaea was careful not to include the names of the Iconoclast emperors, and indeed, at its sixth session, went out of its way to praise their great qualities.

The details of the classes of solidus are as follows:
Class Ia. Empress holds globus cruciger, inscription begins on the reverse. Since Irene was effectively in power during the years 780-90 and this series evidently continues that of the preceding reign, the dating is not open to serious doubt. The abnormal arrangement of the inscription was perhaps devised to ensure that Irene’s name came on the obverse of the coin, in what was technically the more honorable position, or which at least would have been so had the inscriptions been more legible than they generally are. They are in fact usually blundered, often incomplete, and not at all easy to construe. A legible and fairly typical example would run as folows: (Rev.) CONSTANTINOS C’ b’ Δ’ (Obv.) S IRINI AVΓ’ M’ AVTOЧ. The chief variants are (a) C’ b’ b’ or C’ R’ b’ or C’ b’ Δ’, (b) AΓ’ for AVΓ’, and (c) MITRI AV’ for MI’ AVTOЧ, though many intermediate forms also occur.

Class Ib. Empress without globus cruciger; inscription begins on the obverse. This class is best dated 790-92, since Irene has been deprived of the chief symbol of power and the inscription is properly arranged, with Constantine’s name occurring on the obverse of the coin. The inscription, once again often blundered and only partially legible, runs typically as follows: (Obv.) CONSTANTINOS CA’ b’ Δ’ (Rev.) SVN IRINI AVΓ’ M’ AVTOЧ. Once again there are many variants: instead of b’ Δ’ and SVN there may be bASIL’ and S, AVΓ may be reduced to AΓ, MITRI (or MITHR) may be written in full and AVTOЧ omitted.
The meaning of these inscriptions has been much discussed. It is clear that the sense of both, in general terms, is essentially the same: the name of Constantine, followed by his titles, followed by the phrase “with (or sometimes and) the Empress Irene his mother” (συν Eιρηνη αυγουστη μετρι αυτου). The variants go far toward explaining the words sometimes abbreviated to a single letter, and they show which suggested readings are impossible and which can be regarded as certain. The AΓ after Irene’s name cannot be αρια (Veglery and Zacos), since it is normally written AVΓ; the terminal AV’ cannot be αυγουστη (Veglery and Zacos), since it is sometimes completed as AVTOЧ; the C’ cannot be κυριε (Belinger) since it sometimes has the form CA’; b’Δ can only be βασιλεὐς δεσποτης since the b’ is sometimes extended to bAS’ or bASIL’. Some suggested interpretations are probably based on nothing more than faulty readings: e.g. a supposed ЄV (for ευσεβης) after Irene’s name or an S IR (for καὶ Iρηνη) after Constantine’s. Only the C’ in C’ b’ Δ’ remains uncertain, but since it sometimes becomes CA’ it is perhaps best interpreted as καισαρ. It is true that this word, taken by itself, implied a rank lower than that of basileus, but up to Heraclius’ time it had been a regular part of the imperial title and sovereigns, named Constantine were at any time likely to revert to the terminology of an earlier and more distinguished age.

Class II. The final coinage of the reign, which can best be dated from Irene's return to power in January 792, was entirely different. Constantine's ancestors were dispensed with; on one side there is a bust of Constantine VI, on the other one of Irene. The coins are in higher relief and much better executed than those of Class I, with inscriptions in large, bold letters. Irene has recovered her globus cruciger, and in three other respects her effective preeminence over her son is emphasized. Constantine is still shown as beardless; it is he who occupies the reverse of the coin, for it is his inscription and not that of Irene which is followed by the control letter; and while Constantine's name is in the nominative (CONSTANTINOS) Irene’s is in the dative (IRINI AΓOVSTI), as the object of some acclamation (e.g. “To the Empress Irene, many years”) whose precise terms are left to be understood. The coins are very uniform in appearance, the only noteworthy variant being one on which Irene’s names speled HRHNI, this being sometimes linked with the spelling AVΓЧSTH.

The silver coinage of the reign requires little comment. The obverse inscription is sometimes followed by a cross, very rarely by a pellet or a short bar. The module is usually small, the circle of the innermost dotted border having a diameter of about 17mm, but some specimens are large (c. 20mm). The coins were presumably struck throughout the reign, though there was no formal coronation during it at which they might have been distributed.

The classes of follis correspond to those of the gold, but have no inscription. On Class 2 the subordinate position of Constantine is even more evident than it is on the gold, since his bust is placed above the mark of value. The weight of the follis corresponds to that of the lighter issue of Leo IV.

No Sicilian or other provincial coinage of Constantine VI's reign is known.

(from DOC vol. lll)

Coinage