Romanos

Intro ...

(1028-1034)

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CONSTANTINOPLE

Romanus III Argyrus (1028-1034). AV Histamenon nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1819.

Obv: + ıҺs 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: ⲑcє ьᴏʜⲑ’ ʀωmᴀnω (or very similar). The Virgin, nimbate (right) and Romanos, bearded (left), both standing facing; the Virgin wears pallium and maphorium, and is crowning the emperor, who is wearing saccos and loros, and holding globus cruciger; between their heads ᴍⲑ; double border.

Notes: thin, spread fabric.

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Romanus III Argyrus (1028-1034). AV Histamenon nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1820.

Obv: + ıҺs 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: ⲑcє ьᴏʜⲑ’ ʀωmᴀnω (or very similar). The Virgin (right) and Romanos, bearded (left), both standing facing; the Virgin wears pallium and maphorium, and is crowning the emperor, who is wearing saccos and loros, and holding globus cruciger; between their heads ᴍⲑ; double border.

Notes: thin, spread fabric.

…

Romanus III Argyrus (1028-1034). AV Tetarteron nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1821.

Obv: + ⲑᴋє ʀᴏʜⲑ. Bust of the Virgin facing, wearing pallium and maphorium; holding before her the infant Christ (nimbate head facing); in field to left, ᴍᴘ; to right, ⲑᴠ [lines above ᴍᴘ ⲑᴠ].

Rev: ʀωmᴀɴ’ Δєcⲡᴏᴛ’. Bust facing, with short beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding globus cruciger and labarum.

Notes: small, thick fabric.

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Romanus III Argyrus (1028-1034). AR Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Sear 1822.

Obv: + ⲡᴀᴘⲑєɴє ᴄᴏı ⲡᴏᴧᴠᴀıɴє. The Virgin, nimbate, standing three-quarter face to right, on footstool, wearing pallium and maphorium; with her left arm she is holding the infant Christ (nimbate facing); in field to left, ᴍ; to right, ⲑ [lines above ᴍ ⲑ]; triple border ornamented with eight equally spaced globules.

Rev: ᴏᴄ ʜᴧⲡıᴋє ⲡᴀɴᴛᴀ ᴋᴀᴛᴏᴘⲑᴏı. Romanus, bearded, standing facing on footstool, wearing crown, saccos and loros, and holding long patriarchal cross in right hand, and globus surmounted by patriarchal cross in left hand; four pellets on the fold of robe hanging over left arm; triple border ornamented with eight equally spaced globules.

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Romanus III Argyrus (1028-1034). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1823.

Obv: + єᴍᴍᴀɴᴏᴠʜᴧ. Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and holding book of Gospels (ornamented with ⁙) with both hands; to left, ıc; to right, xc. [ıc and xc have lines above]

Rev: ıꜱ—xꜱ / ьᴀꜱ—ıⳑє / ьᴀꜱ—ıⳑє in three lines around angles of cross standing on 3 steps.

Notes: Anonymous Follis Class B.

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Romanus III's reign dated in theory from his coronation on 9 or 10 November 1028, but in practice from Constantine VIII's death on 12 November. He was murdered by his successor Michael IV on Holy Thursday, 1 April 1034.

The Emperor's gold and silver coinage is marked throughout by his devotion to the Virgin, which was commented upon, in not entirely approving terms, by Psellus. He founded and magnificently endowed the church and monastery of St. Mary Peribleptos, in the south western quarter of the city near the Psamathia gate in the sea wall, and in 1080 his restoration work in the church of Blachernae was rewarded by the discovery of a splendid icon of the Virgin suckling the Infant Jesus which was believed to have been plastered over in iconoclastic times and remained hidden for three hundred years. The Virgin is represented in one form or another on all his coins.

GOLD COINAGE. The histamenon, having on the obverse a seated Christ and on the reverse a representation of the Virgin crowning the emperor, requires no discussion. The fact that it is flat, not concave, and the good quality of its gold make it impossible that it should belong to Romanus IV. The type and inscription represent a return to those ofJohn Zimisces, though there are various small differences: both figures are shown full length, the emperor holds a globus cruciger instead of a long cross, and there is no Manus Dei above his head. No altogether satisfactory arrangement of the coins, which vary among themselves in many small details, can be devised. The Virgin is sometimes nimbate and sometimes not; her title may be rendered M Θ or M Θ; the two figures, particularly that of the Virgin, may be tall and slender or short and squat; the number of pellets in the hanging end of the loros varies from four to eight, and there is sometimes a pellet attached to its outer tip; Christ's hair sometimes follows closely the lines of his head and sometimes is fuller and curlier. The reign is so short that any breakdown into groups can have little chronological significance, and the details are not in themselves very consistent, since they seem to represent nothing more than the work of different die-sinkers and do not serve as evidence of mint organization. Bellinger divided the whole coinage into only two categories, based on the form of the M Θ abbreviation, but some of the other details seem to me of greater consequence. I would suggest that the variety having the Virgin without nimbus is amongst the earliest coins; that there follow the coins with slender figures and six to eight pellets on the loros; that the variety with five pellets forms a transitional group; and finally that the coinage of the later years has four pellets and squat figures. I have therefore arranged the coins on these lines, though I do not feel that too much significance should be attached to the details. The coinage must have been extensive, since despite the large number of specimens at Dumbarton Oaks I have noticed only one die-link.

The tetarteron of Romanus III is one commonly attributed to Romanus IV, but the high quality of its gold shows that it belongs to the early decades of the century, before debasement had begun. Its extreme rarity, coupled with the fact that Romanus’ successor Michael IV struck no tetartera at all,suggests that the issue was limited to the very beginning of the reign.

SILVER COINAGE. The only silver coin attributable to Romanus III is a large and very beautiful miliaresion more or less medallic in character, like that of Basil II with the image of the Virgin Nikopoios. The obverse shows the Virgin of the type known as Hodegetria, standing on a footstool, and holding on her left arm the Infant Jesus. The reverse has the emperor standing on a cushion holding a long patriarchal cross and a globus also sur- mounted by a patriarchal cross. The inscription is a hexameter line reading from one side of the coin to the other: Παρθενε σοι πολυαινε ος ηλιτικη παντα κατορθοι, i.e. “He who places his hope on thee, O Virgin all-glorious, will prosper in all he does.” Each side has a triple border of dots broken by eight larger pellets, a feature copied ultimately from the Abbasid dirhem. Specimens of the coin are usually 26-28 mm in diameter and have the figures of the Virgin and the emperor abnormally elongated and slender, but there exists a smaller variety of c. 24mm diameter on which the normal proportions of the figures are preserved.

When Count de Salis first published what is now the British Museum specimen of this coin, he attributed it to Romanus IV. This attribution was followed by subsequent scholars, though Hauberg pointed out in 1900 that it could not be correct. The type, which is quite characteristic, is imitated on Danish pennies of the mint of Lund which were struck by Sven Estrithsson during the civil war between himself and his predecessor Magnus the Good (1042-7). The dating of the Danish coins is based on abundant hoard evidence and cannot possibly be overthrown, and it is out of the question that the Byzantine coin could have been imitated from the Danish ones. The anonymous coin must therefore be attributed to some Byzantine emperor who reigned not too long before the middle 1040's. Constantine VIII can be eliminated, since his portrait with its long, divided beard is easily recognizable, and we have to choose between Romanus III (1028-34) and Michael IV (1034-41).

As between these two, no reasonable doubt is possible. Romanus III combined an intense devotion to the Virgin with delusions of military grandeur, fancying himself reliving the career of Alexander or Trajan and forcing war upon his Arab neighbors for no other reason than the gratification of his personal vanity. The associations of the Hodegetria were of a military character. It was the custom, as early as the ninth century, for a general leaving on a campaign to visit the icon on the eve of his departure and pray for success. When Romanus set out on his unlucky Syrian campaign of 1030 he must have performed such a ceremony, and in view of his peculiar temperament and combination of interests it is highly likely that he would have issued coins to mark the occasion. The hypothesis that he did so seems the only one which satisfactorily explains the type and inscription of the coin, and justifies us in ascribing it to the year 1030.

I was formerly of the opinion that a one-third miliaresion, catalogued below (p. 795, No. 7) under Romanus IV, was also a coin of Romanus III, but Romanus IV now seems to me more likely. The obverse type is a bust of the Virgin orans accompanied by the letters ΘR RΘ (i.e. Θεοτοκε βοηθει), while the reverse isa bust of the emperor holding a patriarchal cross and a globus cruciger, with PωM as inscription and four Δ’s in the outer margin. The “portraiture” of the emperor does not help either way, but in favor of Romanus III are his holding a patriarchal cross, like Romanus III on the miliaresion just discussed, and the fact that the Petes hoard of 1832 from Gotland contained only two Byzantine coins, a miliaresion of Basil II and a specimen of this one-third miliaresion, which might be presumed to be close together in date. This evidence is not conclusive, however, for the hoard contains a large number of non-Byzantine coins appreciably later in date—the burial can be placed c.1075-80—and three considerations point strongly in the other direction. One is the denomination: the one-third miliaresion is otherwise recorded only for Constantine X and Michael VII, i.e. for Romanus IV's predecessor and successor. The second is the formula ΘK RΘ for Θεοτοκε βοηθει, continued by the RωM ΔΔ on the other face of the coin, which is closely parallel to the C R P Δ (for Σταυρε βοηθει Ρωμανω Δεσποτη) of Romanus IV's follis but has no counterpart early in the century. The third is the four Δ’s in the margin, which could be thought of as referring to Romanus IV's family name of Diogenes as well as including the word despotes. The balance of probability is therefore in favor of attributing the coin to Romanus IV.

COPPER COINAGE. There is no copper coinage bearing the name of Romanus III, but Class A2 of the Anonymous Foles was probably still being issued during his reign.

(from DOC vol. lll)

Coinage