Isaac

Intro ...

(1057-1059)

l

CONSTANTINOPLE

Isaac I Comnenus (1057-1059). AV Histamenon nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1843.

Obv: + ıᖹs xıs ʀєx ʀєςɴᴀɴᴛınm. Christ enthroned facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; in left hand, book of Gospels; double border.

Rev: + ıᴄᴀᴀᴋıᴏᴄ ʀᴀᴄıᴧєᴠᴄ ᴘωm (or very similar). Isaac, bearded, standing facing, wearing crown and military attire (cuirass, tunic, cloak and high boots); in right hand, drawn sword, his left hand resting on sheath; double border.

Notes: thin, spread fabric; usually, but not always, scyphate.

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Isaac I Comnenus (1057-1059). AV Histamenon nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1844.

Obv: + ıᖹs xıs ʀєx ʀєςɴᴀɴᴛınm. Christ enthroned facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; in left hand, book of Gospels; double border.

Rev: + ıᴄᴀᴀᴋıᴏᴄ ʀᴀᴄıᴧєᴠᴄ ᴘωm (or very similar). Isaac, bearded, standing facing, wearing crown and military attire (cuirass, tunic, cloak and high boots); in right hand, holding labarum, his left hand resting on sword in sheath; double border.

Notes: thin, spread fabric; usually, but not always, scyphate.

…

Isaac I Comnenus (1057-1059). AV Tetarteron nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1845.

Obv: + ıᖹs xıs ʀєx ʀєςɴᴀɴᴛınm. Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; holding book of Gospels in left hand.

Rev: + ıᴄᴀᴀᴋıᴏᴄ ʀᴀᴄıᴧєᴠᴄ ᴘᴍ (or very similar). Isaac, bearded, standing facing, wearing crown and military attire (cuirass, tunic, cloak and high boots); in right hand, holding globus cruciger, his left hand resting on sword in sheath; single border.

Notes: small, thick fabric.

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Isaac I Comnenus (1057-1059). AR ⅔ Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Sear 1846.

Obv: Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; holding book of Gospels in left hand; to left, ıc; to right, xc. [ıc and xc have lines above]; double border.

Rev: ᴋє ʀᴏʜⲑ / ıᴄᴀᴀᴋıω / ᴏᴘⲑᴏΔᴏıω / Δєcⲡᴏᴛʜ / ᴛω ᴋᴏᴍɴʜ / —ɴω— in six lines; — + — above; double border.

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Isaac was acclaimed emperor in June 1057, but he no doubt dated his reign from his occupation of Constantinople and his coronation by the patriarch on 1 September. He was a vigorous reformer, and soon made himself unpopular by abolishing useless offices at court, cancelling alienations from the imperial domain, curtailing the incomes of the monks, and finally deposing that most arrogant of Byzantine clerics, Michael Cerularius. But he was no longer a young man, and a narrow escape from death in September 1059 when a tree, against which he had been leaning a few minutes before, was struck by lightning, seems to have shaken his nerve. A critical illness almost immediately afterward forced him to take thought for the future. His son Manuel had died before him and his brother John refused the throne, whereupon he passed over his other relations and chose Constantine Ducas as his successor, though without formally naming him emperor or abdicating himself. This created an extremely awkward situation, and after much hesitation Constantine was persuaded to clothe himself in the imperial vestments and was accepted as emperor by the Senate. Isaac thereupon abdicated and retired to the monastery of Studion, where he died exactly a year later. The date of the abdication is not recorded by any of our major authorities, but a recently discovered chronological note in MS Athenensis graecus 1429, fol. 45, gives it precisely as Monday, 22 November, in the thirteenth indiction, i.e. in 1059. There is no authority for the date 25 December given in most modern works.

The gold coinage of Isaac was unfavorably commented upon by contemporaries because of its ostentatiously military character. There are two types of histamenon. On one (Class I) the emperor holds a labarum with his right hand and rests his left hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword, while on the other (Class II) there is no labarum and he holds his drawn sword over his right shoulder. The first type corresponds fairly closely to that used by Constantine IX for his large silver coins, but the second type, with a naked sword, was wholly new. It was this which particularly caused offense, for it seemed to imply that the emperor believed he owed his throne to his military qualities, not to divine decree.

There is no definite evidence to determine the order of issue. Wroth rather tentatively put Class I after Class II, on the ground that its reverse type might have suggested that of one issue of Constantine X. It could also be reasonably argued that the type with the drawn sword would have come first, the other being introduced later as a concession to public feeling. One detail of the obverse type, however, points strongly the other way. Both classes have what is essentially the same representation of a seated Christ, but on coins of Class I the Gospel Book held by Christ is invariably, at least as far as my records go, decorated ⚄, while on Class II it is normally decorated ⚄. Some coins of Class II, however, have ⚄, and the simplest way of accounting for them is to assume that when this class was introduced, the mint decided to use up old dies with ⚄ before going over to those approved for the new one. To this argument may be added the fact that the inscriptions on Class I are usually a little more correct than those on Class II. Although these considerations are not decisive, and may perhaps be outweighed by other evidence (e.g. that of hoards) still to be discovered, they seem for the present to justify a reversal of the accepted order.

There was only a single issue of tetartera, showing the emperor holding a globus cruciger and sheathed sword. Specimens are rather rare, perhaps in consequence of the large issues under Theodora and Michael VI.

The silver is extremely rare; only two specimens at Paris and the one at Dumbarton Oaks seem to be known. It is of the usual module for a two-thirds miliaresion, and has on the obverse the facing bust of Christ and on the reverse an inscription in six lines across the field. Like the similar coin of Michael VI, it is remarkable in that it gives the emperor the title “orthodox”.

No copper coinage bearing Isaac's name is known. The rather rare Anonymous Folles of Class E were assigned to his reign by both Wroth and Miss Thompson, but the subsequent discovery of a specimen overstruck on a signed coin of Constantine X puts them a few years later.

(from DOC vol. lll)

Coinage