Romanos

Intro ...

(1068-1071)

l

V

CONSTANTINOPLE

Romanus IV (1068 1071). AV Histamenon nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1859.

Obv: + ᴘωᴍᴀɴ’ єᴠΔᴏᴋıᴀ (or similar, sometimes slightly blundered). Christ standing facing on footstool, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and crowning Romanos (left) and Eudocia (right), both standing facing; each wearing saccos and loros, and holding globus cruciger; on either side of Christ’s head, ıc—xc; double border.

Rev: ᴋωɴ mx ᴀɴΔ (sometimes slightly blundered). Michael (center), Constantius (left) and Andronicos (right) all standing facing on footstools, beardless and wearing crown, saccos and loros; Michael is holding labarum and akakia; the two little brothers holding globus cruciger and akakia; double border.

…

Romanus IV (1068 1071). AV Histamenon nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1860.

Obv: + ᴘωᴍᴀɴ’ єᴠΔᴏᴋıᴀ (or similar, sometimes slightly blundered). Christ standing facing on footstool, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and crowning Romanos (left) and Eudocia (right), both standing facing; each wearing saccos and loros, and holding globus cruciger; on either side of Christ’s head, ıc—xc; double border.

Rev: ᴋωɴ mx ᴀɴΔ (sometimes slightly blundered). Michael (center), Constantius (left) and Andronicos (right) all standing facing on footstools (dotted exergual band beneath), all are beardless and wearing crown, saccos and loros; Michael is holding labarum and akakia; the two little brothers holding globus cruciger and akakia; double border.

…

Romanus IV (1068 1071). AV Histamenon nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1861.

Obv: + ᴘωᴍᴀɴ’ єᴠΔᴏᴋıᴀ (or similar, sometimes slightly blundered). Christ standing facing on footstool, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and crowning Romanos (left) and Eudocia (right), both standing facing; each wearing saccos and loros, and holding globus cruciger; on either side of Christ’s head, ıc—xc; double border.

Rev: ᴋωɴ mx ᴀɴΔ (sometimes slightly blundered). Michael (center), Constantius (left) and Andronicos (right) all standing on dotted exergual band, beardless and wearing crown, saccos and loros; Michael is holding labarum and akakia; the two little brothers holding globus cruciger and akakia; double border.

…

Romanus IV (1068 1071). AV Tetarteron nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1862.

Obv: + ⲑᴋє ʀᴏʜⲑ. Bust of the Virgin facing, wearing pallium and maphorium, and holding before her the infant Christ (nimbate head facing); on either side, ᴍᴘ—ⲑᴠ.

Rev: + ᴘωᴍᴀɴ ꜱ єᴠΔᴋ (or similar, often blundered). Facing busts of Romanos, bearded (left) and Eudocia (right), both crowned, holding between them globus surmounted by tall cross; the emperor is wearing loros, the empress a jewelled robe with broad collar.

…

Romanus IV (1068 1071). AV Tetarteron nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1863.

Obv: + ᴘωᴍᴀɴ’ Δєcⲡ. Bust facing, bearded, wearing crown and loros, and holding akakia and globus cruciger.

Rev: + єᴠΔᴏ ʀᴀcıᴧ. Bust of Eudocia facing, wearing crown and jewelled robe with broad collar, holding labarum (?) and globus cruciger.

…

Romanus IV (1068 1071). AR ⅔ Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Sear 1864.

Obv: No legend. Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, raising right hand in benediction, holding the book of Gospels in left; in field on either side, ıc—xc [ıc and xc have lines above].

Rev: — + ᴋє — (or · + ᴋє ·) / ʀⲑ ᴘωᴍᴀ / ɴω Δєcⲡᴏ / ᴛʜ ᴛω Δıᴏ / гєɴєı in five lines; — · — or — x — beneath.

…

Romanus IV (1068 1071). AR ⅔ Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Sear 1865.

Obv: No legend. Bust of the Virgin nimbate facing, wearing pallium and maphorium, and holding before her the infant Christ (nimbate head facing); on either side, ᴍᴘ—ⲑᴠ.

Rev: + ⲑᴋє / ʀⲑ ᴘωᴍᴀ / ɴω Δєcⲡᴏ / ᴛʜ ᴛω Δıᴏ / гєɴєı in five lines; — · — or · · · beneath.

…

Romanus IV (1068 1071). AR ⅓ Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Sear 1865ᴀ.

Obv: Facing bust of the Virgin orans, nimbate and wearing pallium and maphorium; in field, ᴍ—ⲑ / ⲑᴋ—ʀⲑ; triple border.

Rev: Bust of Romanus facing, bearded, wearing crown and loros, and holding patriarchal cross and globus cruciger; to right, ᴘωᴍ; triple border ornamented with four equally spaced Δ’s.

…

Romanus IV (1068 1071). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1866.

Obv: No legend. Bust of Christ facing, dotted cross behind head, wearing pallium and colobium, and holding book of Gospels with both hands; in field, ıc—xc / ɴı—ᴋᴀ.

Rev: Cross with globus and two pellets at each extremity, and X at center; in the angles, c—ʀ / ᴘ—Δ.

…

Romanus IV (1068 1071). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1867.

Obv: No legend. Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, raising right hand in benediction, holding scroll in left; in field to left, ıc; to right, xc [ıc and xc have lines above]; border of large pellets.

Rev: Facing bust of the Virgin orans, nimbate and wearing palium and maphorium; in field to left, ᴍᴘ; to right, ⲑᴠ [ᴍᴘ and ⲑᴠ have lines above]; border of large pellets.

Notes: Anonymous Follis Class G.

…

The reign of Romanus IV dated from his marriage to Eudocia and his coronation on 1 January 1068. It ended effectively with his defeat at Manzikert on 26 August 1071, though the mint of Constantinople probably continued to strike coins in his name during September and perhaps even October, while Romanus must have regarded himself as emperor until his surrender and abdication in the spring of 1072. His position as emperor was, as his coinage shows, an ambiguous one, for while his age and experience inevitably gave him first place in the government and his name precedes those of his colleagues in official acts, Eudocia and Michael took the view that he was only regent on behalf of the children of Constantine X. The empress was anxious to guard against what had occurred during the reigns of Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces exactly a century before, when Basil and Constantine, the rightful emperors, were pushed completely into the background and, if either Nicephorus or John had had children, would have been in serious danger of being eliminated entirely from the succession. Her task was simplified by Romanus’ talent for making himself unpopular. He followed, with only indifferent success, the policies of Isaac I. Further, he lacked the patience, organizing ability, and authority to carry through the necessary military reforms, and in the end it was his rash leadership of inadequately trained forces that resulted in the greatest disaster sustained by any Roman army since the battle of Adrianople.

Romanus inherited as colleagues two of the sons of Constantine X, and added to them, for reasons that are unknown, their brother Andronicus. The date clauses of Italian charters placeAndronicus’ name, when they insert it at all, after that of Constantius, but in fact he was given rank above the latter. This is apparent from the order of precedence on the histamena of Romanus IV's reign (Pl. LXV 1, 2) and is confirmed by the order in which the three brothers signed the marriage contract between Michael’s son Constantine and Helena, daughter of Robert Guiscard, in 1074. The influence of Constantine X’s family dominates the whole of Romanus’ coinage in gold. His histamena, indeed, are technically not his at all, but ones of Michael and his brothers, for it is they who occupy the obverse—the convex face—and the representation of Christ blessing Romanus’ marriage to Eudocia is simply the reverse type. His tetartera, both those actually struck and a second type of which a pattern is known, are shared with Eudocia. Only the silver andcopperarestruckinhisname alone.

Two classes of histamena were struck during the reign, differing so slightly between themselves that it is difficult to imagine why one was replaced by the other. One is naturally tempted to assign them to separate mints, on the assumption that the instructions regarding the type were differently understood by two minting authorities, but stylistically they are very uniform. Both belong, so far as type is concerned, to the class of marriage solidi, a form of coin that had not been seen since the end of the fifth century, though examples of that period had been ceremonial issues struck in minute quantities while their eleventh-century counterpart formed the main coinage of Romanus IV’s reign. Since the coins depict a total of six figures, three on one side and three on the other, they were nicknamed “six-headers” by contemporaries.

The obverse of the histamenon shows the standing figures of Michael VII and his brothers, Michael in the center, Andronicus on the right, and Constantius on the left, the order of precedence implied being Michael, Andronicus, Constantius. The reverse shows Christ blessing the union of Romanus and Eudocia. Christ stands on a square footstool, represented as a parallelogram delineated by dotted lines, but there is nothing beneath the feet of the emperor and empress, presumably because they are in the presence of Christ. On the obverse of Class I the three children stand on separate cushions, which are shown as linear crescents beneath their feet. These elements in the furniture of the imperial court are discussed elsewhere. On the obverse of Class II the three children stand on a single dais, indicated by a row of pellets between two horizontal lines. This represents a decorated wooden platform such as we find, for example, supporting the Empress Eudocia, wife of Basil I, and her sons Leo (VI) and Alexander in a miniature in the late ninth-century manuscript of St. Gregory of Nazianzus in the Bibliothèque Nationale. The costume of the imperial princes reproduces that already used on the histamena of Eudocia’s regency, with the same early use of the decorated “loros waist”.

There are two clues to the order of issue. One is the contents of a small pot hoard, found in 1959 in the Dobrudja, which contained nine histamena of Michael VII and was evidently buried early in his reign. It also contained six histamena of Romanus IV, all of the type showing the three brothers on a dais. This suggests either that these were the closest in date to the coins of Michael VII, and therefore the last issue of Romanus’ reign, or, alternatively, that the mint which produced the coins with separate cushions was different from that which produced those with a dais. The second clue is the design of the globus crucigers held by the two youngest emperors and by Romanus and Eudocia. On coins of Class I the cross on the globus crucigers invariably takes the form of a pyramid of three pellets. On coins of Class II this uniformity disappears; the crosses of the two junior emperors are often solid and those of Romanus and Eudocia often formed by four pellets. On the coins of Eudocia’s regency, however, the crosses are always three pellets, and this was evidently the design carried over to Class I of the next reign. These considerations seem decisive for the order of issue.

There is only one type of tetarteron known, having on the obverse the bust of the Virgin holding a medallion of Christ and on the reverse the half-figures of the emperor and empress holding a globus with a long cross. Wroth followed Sabatier in attributing a second series to the reign, but these belong to Romanus III. A pattern for another type exists in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It has on the obverse the facing bust of Eudocia holding a labarum and a globus cruciger, with the title of Basil(issa); on the reverse is the bust of Romanus, holding an akakia and globus cruciger, with the title of Desp(otes). The pattern is of copper, with a large frame giving it a diameter of 32 mm, but there can be no doubt that it was intended for a tetarteron.

With regard to the silver, it has been argued elsewhere that Wroth’s Type 1 should be assigned to Romanus III, but that his Type 4, a one-third miliaresion which Mme Morrison wished to transfer to Romanus III, is in fact a coin of Romanus IV. It was for the first time correctly published by Zacos and Veglery, Wroth having misread the ΘK RΘ in the field (i.e. Θεοτοκε βοηθει) as CK-PΔ and failed to notice the four Δs in the margin. These continue the PωM in the field and in turn carry on from the ΘK RΘ of the obverse, so that the entire inscription reads Θεοτοκε βοηθει ‘Ρωμανω Διογενει Δεσποτη, the Δ's being twice repeated in the margin for the sake of symmetry. There remain the two classes of two-thirds miliaresion on which Romanus IV uses his family name of Diogenes, so that their attribution is not in doubt. Several minor varieties of both exist. Their order of issue is unknown.

Romanus continued Constantine X's practice of issuing signed folles at the same time as Anonymous Folles, but his coins are themselves almost anonymous in character. Instead of having a bust or a standing figure of himself with an appropriate inscription, they have on one face a bust of Christ and on the other across, like so many of the Anonymous Follis types, and the personal element goes no further than the letters CRPΔ, replacing a religious formula, in the angles of the cross. That these stand for an invocation, on the model of similar formulae used on seals, reliquaries, and the like, is beyond doubt, and the final two must stand for either Romanos Diogenes or Romanos Despotes, it impossible to say which. The R is the usual eleventh-century form of a B, standing for βοηθει. On the C there have long been two schools of thought. Marchant interpreted it as a sigma, standing for Σταυρε, de Sauley as a kappa, standing for Kυριε. This gave two alternative interpretations, either “O Cross, preserve Emperor Romanus” or “O Lord, preserve Emperor Romanus.” Sabatier and Wroth followed de Saulcy; Svoronos revived Marchant’s interpretation, though in a slightly different form; and finally Zacos, and Veglery, after a careful study of the inscriptions on eleventh-century coinage, have shown that the reading Σταυρε is to be preferred. Though Kyrie, to a person familiar with Byzantine inscriptions, seems the more natural interpretation, Latin lettering was going out of use very rapidly in the capital in the middle years of the century, and coin inscriptions of the period 1042-1118 show that after 1057 C was always used as the equivalent of Σ, never as that of K. Seal inscriptions also reveal a number of cases in which the cross is invoked, the word being spelled out in such a fashion that no doubt is possible (CTPЄ ΘVΛATTЄ KVPIAKON OI KЄTHN, “O Cross, protect Cyriacus the servant” CKЄΠOIC MЄ CTAVPЄ MANOVHΛ AIOΓЄNH, “O Cross, protect me Manuel Diogenes"). Although many users of Romanus’ roles would probably interpret the C as Kyrie, there can be little doubt that the other meaning was that intended by the mint and that the inscription should be understood as Σταυρε βοηθει ‘Ρωμανω Δεσποτη.

Class G of the Anonymous Folles is found overstruck on signed folles of both Constantine X and Romanus IV, and must have been issued at about this period. Wroth attributed it to Constantine IX, which is much too early.

(from DOC vol. lll)

Coinage