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Anastasius I: A Solidus between Rome and Byzantium
An armoured emperor and a cross-bearing Victory reveal how Constantinople renewed an inherited Roman gold language rather than abandoning it.
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Byzantine Empire
Read Ancient Gold Journal essays filed under Byzantine Empire, connecting historical interpretation with objects preserved in the collection.
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Heraclius and the Cross on Steps
Across four related solidi, a monumental cross answers changing portraits of emperor, son and dynasty during one of Byzantium’s most turbulent reigns.
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Justinian I: The Frontal Portrait and an Empire Restored
A facing gold portrait and a cross-bearing angel condense Justinian’s programme of law, sacred monarchy and Roman restoration.
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Theophilus: Dynasty without a Sacred Portrait
A capital solidus and a Syracuse semissis show how an iconoclast emperor made ancestry and the ruler’s body carry the burden of legitimacy.
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The Hyperpyron: Alexius I and a Reformed Gold Currency
Alexius I answered a weakened monetary system with the hyperpyron, a concave gold denomination whose sacred imagery carried renewed fiscal authority.
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Constantinople: Mint of Empire
How the imperial mint at Constantinople used stable gold, changing portraits and carefully placed marks to make authority portable.
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From Victory to Angel
A winged figure did not change meaning overnight: late Roman Victory and the Christian angel overlap before the new reading becomes explicit.
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Mothers, Sons and Co-rule in Byzantine Gold
Byzantine gold turned family hierarchy into public government through placement, scale, regalia and the division of the two faces.
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What CONOB Means on Byzantine Gold
CONOB is a compact late Roman and Byzantine mint formula: Constantinople plus a claim of refined gold, not a decorative signature.
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Irene and Constantine VI: Authority Divided in Gold
A rare Constantinopolitan solidus places Irene before her son, turning a restored partnership into a carefully ordered image of authority.
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Isaac II Angelos: Empire and Archangel on the Hyperpyron
The first-reign hyperpyron of Isaac II makes celestial protection visible at the troubled end of the Komnenian political order.
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The Sacred Imagery of Constantine VII’s Gold Histamenon Nomisma
A gold coin on which theology, ceremony and succession become inseparable.
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Journal Article
Justinian II, Second Reign: Restoration in Gold
Christ the King, a mutilated ruler and the uncompromising imagery of the years AD 705–711.
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