Zoe

Intro ...

(sole reign: Dec 1041)

(joint reign: 1042)

Zoe (1041). AV Histamenon nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1825ᴀ.

Obv: Three-quarter length figure of Christ Antiphonetes facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; in left hand, book of Gospels; to left, ᴏ ᴀɴᴛı; to right, ϕωɴʜᴛ’; in upper field, ıc—xc [with lines above ıc—xc].

Rev: + ᴢωʜ ᴀᴠгᴏᴠcᴛʜ. Bust facing, wearing crown and elaborate jewelled robe, and holding scepter and globus, each surmounted by trefoil device.

Notes: existing only as a pattern in bronze. What do you mean Sear ? WHAT do you mean ??

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Zoe (1041). AR Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Sear 1825ʙ.

Obv: ⲑᴋє ʙ’ ⲑ’. Facing bust of the Virgin orans, nimbate and wearing pallium and maphorium; in field to left, ᴍᴘ; to right, ⲑᴠ. [lines above ᴍᴘ ⲑᴠ]

Rev: + ᴢωʜ ᴀᴠгᴏᴠcᴛʜ. Bust facing, wearing crown and elaborate jewelled robe, and holding scepter and globus, each surmounted by trefoil device.

Notes: existing only as a pattern in bronze. What do you mean Sear ? WHAT do you mean ??

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ZOE AND MICHAEL V

The death of Michael IV left Zoe as Augusta, and after three days of consideration she decided to fulfil his plans and those of his family, and Michael V was acclaimed and crowned by the patriarch. His reign was a brief one. As soon as he felt able to do so he disgraced his uncle John the Orphanotrophos, who had raised him to power, and in April 1042 attempted to set aside Zoe also, sending her to the Princes Islands. He was promptly overthrown by a popular uprising. Zoe was restored to power, but with an unwelcome colleague, for her sister Theodora was unwillingly drawn out of seclusion in her convent and acclaimed Augusta as well (20 April). The next day Michael was blinded at Theodora’s orders and confined in a monastery. Nothing is known of his subsequent fate.

It has been argued above, in the Introduction to Michael IV's reign, that there are no known coins of Michael V, and that none are likely to have been struck. Coins previously attributed to him belong partly to Michael IV, partly to Michael VI. There are, however, what appear to be copper patterns for a histamenon and a tetarteron of Zoe alone which must have been prepared early in 1042, although, so far as we know, no corresponding gold coins were struck.

The pattern histamenon, known in a unique specimen in the numismatic collection of the Archeological Museum at Istanbul, was brought to my attention some years ago by Mr. Hendy. The obverse type is the half-length facing figure of the icon of Christ known as the Antiphonetes in the Church of the Virgin of the Chalkoprateia and recognizable by the curious gesture of benediction of Christ's right hand. This is held upright in front of the body, with the palm facing the spectator and only the third finger, instead of the third and fourth fingers, bent across the palm to touch the thumb. This icon, which is identified by the inscription on the pattern coin (O|AN|T|I Φ|ω|NH|T, , i.e. 'Aντιφωνητης) and also known from a mosaic formerly at Nicaea, was an object of special veneration to Zoe, who had a copy of it made for her private devotions and founded a church in its honor in which she was eventually buried. The reverse of the pattern shows

the bust of the empress, splendidly robed and holding a scepter and globus surmounted by a trefoil, with the simple inscription +ZωHA VΓ OVCTH.

What its size suggests must be a pattern for a tetarteron is a small copper “coin” at Dumbarton Oaks having on one side the bust of an empress whom I would identify as, Zoe and on the other the very characteristic bearded face of her father Constantine VIII. There is no inscription on the side with the bust of Constantine. The inscription surrounding the bust of the empress is partly illegible as the result of wear, and the letters still legible have defied all my efforts, and those of other scholars whom I have consulted, to make sense of them. The best reconstruction at which I can arrive is the following: ]INOΛCωNЄNIAAΓOI[. There are perhaps one or two letters missing at the beginning; the first four proposed are ambiguous, for the N might be H—it is a square letter with an upright stroke on the right—the O is a circular blob, the Λ might be A, and the C could be Є, but this is unlikely before ω. The letters ωN are clear, the next one could be C, and NIAAΓO—one would expect it to continue (AΓO)VCTH—are clear. These letters cannot be made to fit the name of Constantine's wife Helena, and though they equally do not fit that of Zoe, it is to her, since she was his daughter and reigned in her own right, that I believe the “coin” belongs. Although the design would make it into a kind of memorial issue, it has obvious analogies with the pattern tetarteron of Romanus IV and Eudocia at Paris (below, p. 792, No. 4). Even if my attribution turns out eventually to be unjustified, its iconographical interest justifies its publication here.

What might be a pattern for another class of histamenon, but is more likely to be a pattern for a miliaresion, was found atAntioch and was apparently in the collection of A. Toselli, a civil engineer there, when it was published by Victor Chabot in 1905. Since its present whereabouts is unknown, it is published here from the sketch in this author's article. A “coin” 34mm in diameter must have been intended for either a histamenon or a miliaresion, and the fact of the obverse type being a bust of the Virgin makes the later more likely. The bust of Zoe on the reverse shows the empress wearing a crown and robes corresponding closely to those of the later four-solidus gold bulla of Theodora, but she holds a trifid scepter instead of a labarum and a globus cruciger in- stead of a globus with a trefoil ornament.

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JOINT REIGN

Zoe had been promoted to the rank of Augusta two days before Constantine VIII's death in 1028, but a well-established Byzantine custom, which only a few strong-minded empresses managed to disregard, had relegated her to second place during the reigns of her successive husbands or protegés. Theodora, after having been accorded a slightly inferior rank more or less corresponding to that of Caesar at the beginning of Romanus III's reign, had as a result of Zoe’s enmity been confined in a convent since the early 1030's and emerged only on 20 April 1042 to be hailed by the Senate and people as Augusta. The joint reign of Zoe and Theodora without a male colleague lasted for less than two months. Neither of them, in Psellus’ blunt judgment, was in the least fitted to rule, but the fate of Michael V made ministers unwontedly cautious over appearing to trespass on their prerogatives. In the end it was Zoe who took the initiative. She married Constantine Monomachus on 11 June 1042 and his coronation as emperor compelled the sisters to take second place again in the imperial hierarchy. Zoe died in 1050, but Theodora survived to become sole ruler in 1055-6.

A few histamena of the brief joint reign first came to light in the Akcacoca hoard of 1953. The hoard must have been buried in the reign of Constantine IX, since it also contained some of his coins, but its exact size, and how many coins of Zoe and Theodora were in it, are unknown. The obverse type has the bust of the Virgin orans with a medallion of Christ on her breast, the inscription being +ΘKЄRΘTACRACIΛICIC, i.e. Θεοτοκε βοηθει τας βασιλισις (sic, for βασιλισσας). The reverse shows the crowned busts of the two empresses facing and holding between them a labarum, the legend continuing that of the obverse as +ZωHNSΘЄOΔω’, i.e. Σωην και Θεοδωρν. The empresses wear jewelled robes with deep collars and the traditional crowns with triangular plaques, but the prependulia are unusually short, ending above the level of the shoulder.

No other coins of the reign are known, and whether any were struck must be considered doubtful. The nomisma would for reasons of prestige be given precedence over the rest.

(from DOC vol. lll)

Coinage