Leo

Intro ...

(775-780)

V

l

CONSTANTINOPLE

Leo IV (775-780). AV Solidus. Constantinople mint. Sear 1583.

Obv: ʟєᴏn ᴠs s єҁҁᴏn cᴏnsτᴀnτınᴏs (or cᴏnsτᴀnτ') ᴏ nєᴏs (sometimes followed by ⲑ). Facing busts of Leo IV, with short beard (on left) and Constantine VI, beardless (on right), each wearing crown and chlamys; between their heads, pellet; in field above, cross;

Rev: ʟєᴏn ᴘᴀᴘ' (or ᴘᴀ') cᴏnsτᴀnτınᴏs (or cᴏnsτᴀnτ') ᴘᴀτʜʀ (sometimes followed by ⲑ). Facing busts of Leo III (on left) and Constantine V (on right), both with short beards, each wearing crown and loros; between their heads, pellet; in field above, cross.

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Leo IV (775-780). AV Solidus. Constantinople mint. Sear 1584.

Obv: ʟєᴏn ᴠs s єҁҁᴏn cᴏnsτᴀnτınᴏs (or cᴏnsτᴀnτ') ᴏ nєᴏs (sometimes followed by ⲑ). Leo IV (left) and Constantine VI (right) seated facing on double throne, each wearing crown and chlamys; between their heads, cross; sometimes in field to left of throne, pellet; to right pellet and ʙ;

Rev: ʟєᴏn ᴘᴀᴘ' (or ᴘᴀ') cᴏnsτᴀnτınᴏs (or cᴏnsτᴀnτ') ᴘᴀτʜʀ (sometimes followed by ⲑ). Facing busts of Leo III (on left) and Constantine V (on right), both with short beards, each wearing crown and loros; between their heads, pellet; in field above, cross.

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Leo IV (775-780). AR Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Sear 1585.

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

Rev: ʟєᴏn / s cᴏnsτ / ᴀnτınє є / ᴄ ⲑєч (or ⲑєᖸ) ьᴀ / ꜱıⳑıꜱ + in 5 lines; triple border.

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Leo IV (775-780). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1586.

Obv: No legend. Facing busts of Leo IV, with short beard (on left) and Constantine VI, beardless (on right), each wearing crown and chlamys; between their heads, pellet; in field above, cross;

Rev: Facing busts of Leo III (on left) and Constantine V (on right), both with short beards, each wearing crown and loros; between their heads, cross; in field, ʙ—ᴀ; all above a horizontal bar, beneath which large ᴍ between x and ɴ; beneath ᴍ, ᴀ.

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Leo IV (775-780). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1587.

Obv: No legend. Leo IV (left) and Constantine VI (right) seated facing on double throne, each wearing crown and chlamys; between their heads, cross; sometimes in field to left and/or right of throne, pellet;

Rev: Facing busts of Leo III (on left) and Constantine V (on right), both with short beards, each wearing crown and loros; between their heads, cross; usually with 2 or 3 pellets on either side; all above a horizontal bar, beneath which large ᴍ between x and ɴ; beneath ᴍ, ᴀ.

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Leo IV (775-780). Æ Half follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1588. (c.17 mm and 2-3 g)

Obv: No legend. Facing busts of Leo IV, with short beard (on left) and Constantine VI, beardless (on right), each wearing crown and chlamys; between their heads, pellet; in field above, cross;

Rev: Facing busts of Leo III (on left) and Constantine V (on right), both with short beards, each wearing crown and loros; between their heads, cross; all above a horizontal bar, beneath which large ᴍ between x and ɴ; beneath ᴍ, ᴀ.

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Leo IV (775-780). Æ Half follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1589.

Obv: No legend. Leo IV (left) and Constantine VI (right) seated facing on double throne, each wearing crown and chlamys; between their heads, cross; sometimes in field to left and/or right of throne, pellet;

Rev: Facing busts of Leo III (on left) and Constantine V (on right), both with short beards, each wearing crown and loros; between their heads, cross; usually with 2 or 3 pellets on either side; all above a horizontal bar, beneath which large ᴍ between x and ɴ; beneath ᴍ, ᴀ.

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SYRACUSE

Leo IV (775-780). Æ Follis (?). Syracuse mint. Sear 1590.

Obv: No legend. Leo IV (left) and Constantine VI (right) seated facing on double throne, each wearing crown and chlamys; between their heads, cross;

Rev: Facing busts of Leo III (on left) and Constantine V (on right), both with short beards, each wearing crown and loros; between their heads, cross; all above a horizontal bar, beneath which cıᴋ· .

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ROME

Leo IV (775-780). AV Solidus (of debased metal, usually electrum). Rome mint. Sear 1590ᴀ.

Obv: ᴅɴᴏ ʟє . ᴘ . ᴀ . ᴍчʟ. Bust facing, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globus cruciger and akakia;

Rev: ᴅɴᴏ ʟє . ᴘ . ᴀ . ᴍчʟ. Bust facing, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globus cruciger and akakia; in field ʀ—ı.

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Leo IV (775-780). AV Tremissis (of debased metal, usually gilded bronze). Rome mint. Sear 1590ʙ.

Obv: ᴅɴᴏ ʟє . ᴘ . ᴀ . ᴍчʟ. Bust facing, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globus cruciger and akakia;

Rev: ᴅɴᴏ ʟє . ᴘ . ᴀ . ᴍчʟ. Bust facing, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globus cruciger and akakia; in field ʀ—ı.

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Since Leo IV had been born in 749 he was twenty-six years old when he became sole emperor on his father’s death in 775. He reigned exactly five years, dying of a fever on 8 September 780 at the early age of thirty-one. His son Constantine, a child only five years old, was crowned Emperor on Easter Day (14 April) 776, under conditions of quite exceptional splendor and publicity. Two days earlier, on Good Friday, members of the governing classes and representatives of the army and the guilds had taken an oath of allegiance to the child, and on Saturday their written oaths were deposited on the altar of Saint Sophia and the congregation proclaimed their acceptance of the promised sovereign. These elaborate and unusual guarantees were apparently a consequence of the fact that Leo’s two half-brothers Nicephorus and Christopher had been created Caesar in 769, and since this title had commonly been conferred on the heir apparent the Emperor wished to give precedence to his own son in the most public manner possible. The two brothers were in fact soon afterward found to be involved in a conspiracy, and though they themselves were pardoned their confederates were banished to Cherson.

There appear to be no Constantinopolitan coins of the first seven months of Leo's reign, before the association of his son Constantine as co-emperor in April 776. This is unusual, since a sovereign was normally anxious to show himself on the coinage as soon as possible, but Leo was in poor health and may have wished to postpone minting until he had associated his son with him on the throne. He may also have intended to crown Constantine earlier than he did,and had to postpone it til April for reasons of which we are ignorant. The gold and copper coins which were struck after 776 fall into two classes, one having the busts of Leo IV and Constantine VI and the other their seated figures. The second can be dated from 778, when a major victory over the Arabs was celebrated with exceptional splendor and the two emperors showed themselves seated side by side to a crowd.

The inscriptions on the solidi have only recently been satisfactorily explained. The coins have on the obverse the two figures of Leo IV and Constantine VI, on the reverse those of Leo III and Constantine V, each of these being identified by the part of the inscription above it. An incomplete interpretation was given by Wroth (p.393, note 1). The reverse inscription, LЄON PAP’ CONSTANTINOS PATHR, makes no difficulty; Leo III and Constantine V are described as παππος (grandfather) and πατἡρ (father), i.e. of Leo IV. The obverse inscription was customarily read LЄON VS SЄSSON CONSTANTINOS O NЄOS. The last part is Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ νέος (Constantine junior), and Friedländer long ago suggested that VS was υιος (son). This left SЄSSON still an enigma, til Veglery and Zacos pointed out that the S was the usual abbreviation for καὶ and that what had been read as ЄSSON was in fact ЄΓΓON—the S often has the form ςς or ΓΓ—i.e. ἔγγονος (grandson), so that Leo IV was simply being described as υιος καὶ ἔγγονος (“son and grandson”) of the two figures on the other side of the coin. The same solution was given independently by S. Maslev.

The silver and copper coinage of Constantinople requires little comment. The miliaresia are of the same type as those of Leo III and Constantine V, and since the inscriptions are identical the distinction between the coins of the two reigns is not always easy. Coins of LeoIV have shorter bars at the ends of the arms of the cross and sometimes have the ends of the steps joined, or almost joined, to each other and sloping upward in the form of a pyramid. The folles and half folles are almost identical with each other in type—on Class I the folles have on the reverse the letters BA, which are absent on the halves—but are quite distinct in size and weight. The M of the follis is now used for both denominations, the notion of its representing forty nummi having by now disappeared. If the two sizes of coin were found in a single class only one might attribute it simply to weight reduction in the follis, but their occurrence in both Classes 1 and 2 shows that the larger and the smaller coins must represent two distinct denominations. The BA on the folles of Class 1 presumably stand for βασιλεῖς (so Wroth), though it is difficult to see why the dead and not the living emperors should be characterized in this fashion.

No Sicilian gold coinage of Leo IV is known, and only a single type of follis, corresponding to Class 2 of Constantinople. Ricotti attributed to the early years of the reign two coins having on the reverse a beardless bust wearing a chlamys and accompanied by letters which were read as C(?)NЄOV, on the obverse either a bust wearing a chlamys (Ric. 198 = R. 1764) or a loros (Ric. 199 = R. 1763); Ratto had given them to Constantine V. The types, however, are notably different from others of this period, for Syracuse, when not copying some issue of Constantinople, favored standing figures for its folles. The coins in general seem to belong to the early ninth century, and I prefer to attribute Ric. 198 to Michael I and Theophylact (below, p. 370, No. 10) and Ric. 199 to Nicephorus I and Stauracius (below, p.361, No. 11).

No coins have up to the present been ascribed to the mint of Rome. There is in the British Museum, however, a solidus having on both obverse and reverse the name of Leo (below, No.9), and in the Whittemore Collection there is a corresponding tremisis (No.10). The busts are identical with those of one issue of Constantine V showing this emperor and Leo IV. Wroth assumed that the DNOLЄ PAMЧL on the obverse was simply an error of the die-cuter, and that the coin was one of Constantine V. The discovery of a similar tremisis makes this less likely, and since the style and the presence of RI in the reverse field link up the two coins with the latest issue of ConstantineV, it is reasonable to attribute them to the opening months of Leo IV's reign, i.e. to 775/6, or more precisely to the spring of 776, after Rome had received the news of Constantine V’s death. They represent the last coins struck by the mint of Rome in the name of a Byzantine emperor, for none are known of the joint reign of Leo IV and Constantine VI.

(from DOC vol. lll)

Coinage