SEAR 1551 CONSTANTIN V with LEO III and LEO IV

Ruler: Constantine V Copronymus (741-775)

Obverse: CONSTANTINOS S LEON O NEOS, crowned facing busts of Constantine V, with short beard, on left and Leo IV, unbearded, on right, each wearing crown and chlamys, dot between heads, cross above

Reverse: G LE ON PA MU Q, crowned facing bust of bearded Leo III the Isaurian, wearing loros and holding cross potent.

Mint: Constantinople

Reference: Sear 1551

Note: 

The loros (Greek: λῶρος, romanized: lôros) was a long, narrow and embroidered cloth, which was wrapped around the torso and dropped over the left hand. It was one of the most important and distinctive parts of the most formal and ceremonial type of imperial Byzantine costume, worn only by the Imperial family and a few of the most senior officials. It developed out of the trabea triumphalis of the Roman consuls. There were different male and female versions. Byzantine sources speak of the "loros costume" as the loros dictated the rest of the imperial outfit. The slightly less formal, and more secular, imperial costume, which was also that normally worn by high officials on official occasions, was the chlamys costume. Underneath either the loros or the chlamys were worn the divetesion (διβητήσιον), a long silk robe, and a tunic. The first representations of the loros are on coins from the reign of Justinian II (r. 685–695 and 705–711)

The chlamys was a type of an ancient Greek cloak.By the time of the Byzantine Empire it was, although in a much larger form, part of the state costume of the emperor and high officials. It survived as such until at least the 12th century AD.

The chlamys continued into the Byzantine period, when it was often much larger and usually worn sideways, at least by emperors, and likely made of silk. It was held on with a fibula brooch at the wearer's right shoulder and nearly reached the ground at front and back. With the even grander loros costume, the "chlamys costume" was the ceremonial wear of Byzantine emperors and the only option for high officials on very formal occasions. It is generally less common in surviving imperial portraits than the loros shown on coins, though the large numbers of Byzantine coins that survive provide many examples, with the fibula often the main indication in bust-length depictions.

Collezione : 19 Byzantine solidi