Byzantine - Anonymous Class D Bronze Follis 30mm (8.11
grams) -
Struck during the reign of Constantine IX 1042-1055 A.D.
Reference: Sear 1836
Christ seated facing on throne with back, wearing nimbus crown, pallium and
colobium, and holding book of Gospels with both hands; in field to left, IC; to
right, XC.
IS XS / bASILЄ / bASIL in three lines; above, + .
This type is often overstruck on folles of Class C. In the
Dumbarton Oaks Catalogue it is suggested that Class D was introduced by
Constantine IX following the death of Empress Zoe in 1050. It is further
suggested that the type remained in issue for about a decade, throughout the
three succeeding reigns, until finally superseded by Class E under Constantine
X, circa 1060.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
Constantine IX Monomachos (Greek:
Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX
Monomakhos), c. 1000–January 11, 1055, reigned as
Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen
by
Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for
conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor
Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
Life
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important
bureaucrat under
Basil II
and
Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy
and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after
he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor
Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was
exiled to the island of
Lesbos by her
second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was
appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine
was summoned to
Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June
11, 1042, without the participation of
Patriarch
Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage
(for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed
emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new
emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of
conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece
of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence
of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General
George Maniakes from his command in
Italy, and
Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his
troops into the
Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was
wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine
was attacked by a fleet from
Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the
Maniakes rebellion".[1]
They too were defeated, with the help of
Greek fire.
Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince
Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent
Yaroslav I
the Wise by
Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the
Armenian
kingdom of
Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046
the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the
Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in
Armenia in
1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly
disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern
frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have
been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty,
their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine
weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at
the
battle of
Manzikert in 1071.
In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew
Leo
Tornikios in
Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of
Thrace and
vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in
another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened
Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the
Pechenegs,
who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to
contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival
Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed
to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress
their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought
Hungarian
support.
Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the
nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major
landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the
pronoia
system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax
revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for
contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually
compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of
the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the
Greek and
Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from
Pope Leo
IX
excommunicated the
Patriarch of Constantinople
Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church
practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged
Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the
Normans, who
had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over
Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the
following year.
Theodora, the elderly daughter of
Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled
from her retirement and named empress.
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular,
the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed
to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of
Constantinople to the Muslim
Ottomans in 1453.
Architecture
and Art
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his
reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical
programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian
Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of
Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his
Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down
to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite
accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone
who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun
in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in
the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Immediately upon ascending to the throne in 1042, Constantine IX set about
restoring the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which had been substantially
destroyed in 1009 by
Calif
al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Permitted by a treaty with al-Hakim's son
Ali
az-Zahir and Byzantine Emperor
Romanus III, it was Constantine IX who finally funded the reconstruction of
the Church and other Christian establishments in the Holy Land.[2]
The reconstruction took place during the reign of the Caliph
Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah.
Familyly
Constantine Monomachos was married three times:
- to a wife of unknown identity.
- to Helena Skleraina, daughter of Basil Skleros, great-granddaughter of
Bardas Skleros,
and niece of Emperor
Romanus III.
- to the Empress Zoe
After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her first cousin
Maria Skleraina as his mistress.
He had no children with his first wife or with the aging Zoe. With either
Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married
Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046. Constantine's family name Monomachos
("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson,
Vladimir
II Monomakh.
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