Dea Moneta
login

Main

home auctions shops past results Book Store

Not yet registered? Sign up now

Did you forget your username or password?

Banner Artemide LV
Lot # 648
Constantine IX, Monomachus (1042-1055 AD). AV Histamenon Nomisma, Constantinople mint. Obv. +IҺS XIS RЄX RCςNANTIҺm. Christ Pantokrator enthroned facing, wearing pallium and colobium, raising right hand in benediction and holding book of Gospels. Rev. +CωҺSτAhτh BASILЄЧS Rm. Crowned bust facing, wearing loros, holding labarum in right hand and globus cruciger in left. D.O. 2a; Sear 1829. AV. 4.34 g. 28.00 mm. Choice, brilliant and lightly toned. Good VF/ EF. Michael V had succeeded his uncle Michael IV as emperor. His first actions were to banish his uncle, John the Eunuch and to imprison the Empress Zoe in a nunnery. This led to the population’s demand for an ousting of the emperor and he was deposed, blinded and Zoe and Theodora ruled jointly for 7 weeks. Zoe then chose Constantinus as her third husband. He was interested in learning and the arts and less in statesmanship. In 1046 he had a first encounter with the Seljuk Turks in Armenia which resulted in a truce. Foolishly he then disbanded the Armenian forces at a time when they should have been strengthened. In 1054 the Great Schism between the churches of the West and East was caused when the Patriarch refused to adopt Western church practices. He was excommunicated by a Papal legation and he in turn excommunicated them. This rift was never to heal. In all, Constantinus IX did more damage to the state than many an emperor before him.
(Sincona 3,2011,3529 note).