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Home ▸ Catalog ▸ |Byzantine Coins| ▸ |Dynasty of the Angeli||View Options:   | | | |
Isaac II debased the coinage, sold appointments to government posts, and was a spendthrift. He was overthrown, blinded and imprisoned by his brother, Alexios III in 1195. After eight years of captivity, Isaac II was raised from the dungeon to the throne once more after the arrival of the Fourth Crusade and the flight of Alexios III from the capital in July 1203. Both his mind and body had been enfeebled by confinement, and his son Alexios IV Angelos was associated on the throne as the effective monarch. Alexios IV was unable to meet his obligations and his vacillation caused him to lose the support of both his crusader allies and his subjects. At the end of January 1204 the influential court official Alexios Doukas took advantage of riots in the capital to imprison Alexios IV and seize the throne as Alexios V. At this point Isaac II died, allegedly of shock, while Alexios IV was strangled.BZ99287. Bronze tetarteron, DOC IV 4a; Hendy pl. 21, 8; Wroth BMC 38; Ratto 2196; Morrisson BnF 64/Cp/AE/1; SBCV 2004; Sommer 65.6, aVF, brown tone, light encrustations, weak strike areas, porous/grainy, struck on a cut flan, weight 3.496 g, maximum diameter 19.7 mm, die axis 180o, Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) mint, 12 Sep 1185 - 8 Apr 1195 A.D.; obverse the Virgin orans standing facing, nimbate, wearing pallium and maphorium, nimbate head of infant Christ on her chest, MP - ΘV (Greek abbreviation: Mητηρ Θεου - Mother of God) across field; reverse Isaac standing facing, scepter cruciger in right hand, anexikakia in left hand, being crowned by manus Dei upper right, IC/AA/KI/·C - ∆EC/Π·T/H/C (or similar, in two columns; Isaac, despotes); from the S. Lindner Collection; $140.00 (€133.00)
Byzantine Empire, Alexius III Angelus-Comnenus, 8 April 1195 - 17 July 1203
According to the Golden Legend, a plague-bearing dragon lived in a lake near a city called Silene, in Libya. To appease the dragon, the people fed it two sheep every day. When the sheep failed, they fed it their children, chosen by lottery. It happened that the lot fell on the king's daughter, Sabra. Sabra was sent out to the lake, dressed as a bride, to be fed to the dragon. Saint George was ridding past when dragon reared out of the lake. He fortified himself with the Sign of the Cross charged it on horseback with his lance, and gave it a grievous wound. He then called to the princess to throw him her girdle. After he put it around its neck, the dragon followed the girl like a meek beast on a leash. The princess and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene. It terrified the people at its approach, but Saint George called out to them, saying that if they consented to become Christians and be baptized, he would slay the dragon. The king and the people converted to Christianity and George slew the dragon. On the site where the dragon died, the king built a church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint George, and from its altar a spring arose whose waters cured all disease.BZ99288. Bronze tetarteron, DOC IV-1 5a.2; CLBC I 8.4.3; Morrison BnF 1; Hendy p. 152 & pl. 23, 9; Wroth BMC 39; Grierson 1138; Ratto 2214; SBCV 2015; Sommer 66.6, F, near black patina, tight square flan, some corrosion, weight 4.411 g, maximum diameter 19.3 mm, die axis 180o, Thessalonica (Salonika, Greece) mint, 8 Apr 1195 - 17 Jul 1203; obverse half-length facing bust of St. George, beardless and nimbate, wearing military attire: cuirass and sagion, transverse spear in right hand, left hand resting on hilt of sword, O / ΓE/WP-ΓI/OC (in columns in left and right fields); reverse AΛEΣIOC - ∆ECΠOTHC (or similar), half length figure of Alexius standing facing, wearing crown, divitision, and chlamys, labarum in right hand, globus cruciger in left hand; from the S. Lindner Collection; rare; $140.00 (€133.00)
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