The Story Behind the Strike
Constantine V’s reign combined military success with fierce religious conflict. This solidus looks backward as well as forward. Leo III, founder of the dynasty, remains present on one face, while Constantine occupies the other as living ruler. The paired structure makes legitimacy hereditary and commemorative: the deceased founder continues to authorize his successor. The William Oldknow provenance adds a modern collecting history to an object already concerned with memory. Rather than treating the two portraits as repetitive, the catalogue presents them as a deliberate conversation between founder and heir.