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Ruler: Constans II Pogonatus, with his 3 sons: Constantine IV (crowned prince), Heraclius, and Tiberius, 641-668 AD
Obverse: VICTORIA [AVζЧ] S Crowned and draped bust of Constans II facing, with long beard and moustache, holding globus cruciger in his right hand.
Reverse: Constantine IV (in center), Heraclius (on right), and Tiberius (on left), all standing facing, wearing chlamys and crown surmounted by cross, globus cruciger in right hand; CONOB in exergue.
Mint: Constantinople, circa 663-668 (last Solidus issue)
Reference: Sear 974
Note: A fascinating and rare type, showing the emperor Constans II (AD 641-668 on the obverse, with his three sons on the reverse. This fascinating type, which formed the last solidus issue of the long reign of Constans II, breaks away from the standard types seen previously by bringing the reverse legend onto the obverse (in doing so dispensing with the imperial names and titles) and relegating the crown prince Constantine IV to the reverse with the other princes, his portrait having featured on the obverse for earlier issues.
In other words, this is the last issue of the reign of Constans II, characterized by the transfer of the reverse legend from the reverse to the obverse and the absence of the emperor's name. The type of the reverse, depicting the emperor's three sons, is reminiscent of Heraclius issues, where they appeared on the obverse, however.
The emperor came to the throne as co-emperor at just 11 years old. He wasn't entirely successful as a military leader, he was defeated at the battle of Phoenix in 655 AD and was forced to accept treaties from the Arab general Mu'awiya. He was more successful against the Slavs, but was rather unpopular within the kingdom, as he increased taxation. He was also unpopular ecclesiastically, as he confiscated church property and issued his Typos in 648. In this, he forbade arguments about the longstanding controversial questions of the divine and human natures of Christ. The Pope condemned this, an act which resulted in Constans II exiling the Pope.
Sporting the longest beard of all Byzantine emperors, Constans II ruled at the twilight of the ancient world and the dawn of the medieval. Under his grandfather Heraclius, Latin was discarded as the official language of the empire in favor of the more prevalent Greek, and the Roman provincia became the Byzantine theme. Constans continued to implement these changes, creating several more themes. With his empire under assault from the Arabs in both Asia Minor and Africa, Constans abandoned the struggle and Constantinople itself, moving his capital to Syracuse, Sicily in AD 663.
Constans' brief time in Italy was strange and otherworldly. In AD 663, the emperor visited Rome for twelve days. The Pope received him with honor; Constans was the first emperor to visit Rome in two centuries, as the last Western rulers rarely left Ravenna. Conversely, it was also the final time an emperor set foot in the old capital. Professor Paul Freedman of Yale called the visit "eerie... like a ghost emperor visiting a ghost city." By the AD 660s, Rome was all but deserted. Only several centuries earlier the capital of the most powerful state in the world, the city lay in ruins. From its second century apogee of 1.5 million people, by the time of Constans' visit only 50,000-60,000 remained, concentrated in a few isolated neighborhoods of the once-sprawling metropolis.
If the mostly poor inhabitants of Rome living in the once-majestic marble ruins thought an imperial visit would increase their fortunes, they were sorely mistaken. Hoping to finance the wars against the Arabs, Constans stripped many of the buildings and statues of Rome of their precious metal, leading to unknown cultural destruction. It was the greatest disaster that had befallen the city since the Gothic War; some estimate that the destruction of artifacts by Constans' looting was greater than in the far more famous Visigoth sack of the city in AD 410. Base metals were not spared the looting - Constans also gutted buildings of their copper and other metals to make weapons. Having decimated the old capital, Constans proceeded to implement the same policies in the rest of Byzantine Italy, destroying countless treasures. His Italian and Sicilian subjects, initially proud that Constans had chosen the West for his capital, grew to hate him. He was assassinated while in his bath in Syracuse in AD 668, allegedly struck on the head with a bucket by his chamberlain.
Collezione : 19 Byzantine solidi