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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; $125.00 (€126.25)
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