Tiberius to the Rescue!

Your write-ups are always great! Thanks. Congrats on the Goldie! Nice!

 

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Thanks Magnus. These monogram coins are actually quite scarce. Have only found four specimens in any of the auction archives and it is not listed by DOC. I have two of the four now and my first one trumps them all .

It is not just CNG that he is active, but also several other auction sites too. I lost so many good byzantine coins over the past year due to him ...

 

@Eduard Agreed! Ancient Numismatics on their own are meaningless to me, it's only when history and context are brought in that the coin "comes alive".

 

Most Tremissii and Semissii struck after Justinian's reign show very poor craftsmanship. The dies were usually poorly engraved and make the Emperors look super cartoonish.
Here are some random examples I found on google images.





I'd like to think that my example shows much better craftsmenship when it comes to Tiberius's bust.

 

I admit to being fascinated by the small portion of the eastern empire where Latin was still the native language of the populace from the time of Justinian and just afterwards. At this time Latin was rapidly evolving into the Romance languages elsewhere and the lack of written records in the vernacular of the people makes it difficult to document the changes. Do you, or any readers, know of any sources of this late vernacular Balkan's Latin before it disappeared beneath a wave of Slavic speakers?

 

Impressive post, and awesome coin,kudos.

 

I'm not very familiar with Thrace and Illyria, so I don't have a definitive answer for you. If I see something on the topic I'll send it your way.

 

Nice, i still don't have a Tiberius II coin, i found out that the boring cross on the steps design that stuck around for about 100 years was supposedly his idea too.

“ And further he also made a public profession of being a Christian; for Justin had introduced in the coinage of his darics a female figure, which was generally compared to Venus, and this Tiberius discontinued, and had a cross struck upon the reverse of his coins: and this act, as he himself said, was dictated to him in a vision.


I think he was referring to replacing Constantinopolis reverse of Justin II with his "vision" of the cross on the steps.



http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/ephesus_3_book3.htm




Also I think you are overrating him as an emperor a little bit

 

@kevin McGonigal
Here is a book I found on Vulgar Latin in the provinces, the author mentions the Balkans a few times. Might be worth a read.
https://books.google.com/books?id=RJco4ioXigYC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=vulgar latin in the balkans&source=bl&ots=I58-uQpU6x&sig=gB_Hbo09a3uN45AuXlGDhDdQ2cg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOwdnDwvfQAhXMyFQKHRhnCX8Q6AEIcDAR#v=onepage&q=vulgar latin in the balkans&f=false
It should also be stated that Emperor Justinian I is the last confirmed native Latin speaking Emperor of the Roman Empire. Though Tiberius Constantine was probably the last actual one, due to the fact he was born and raised in the Latin speaking part of Thrace

 

Awesome coin and write up MM. Almost makes me want to collect that era, but not quite. But you don't need the competition

 

Cool new gold coin (congrats)

Mag-Max, I didn't make it all the way through your write-up ...

How is school treatin' ya?

 

Thanks @Pishpash

If I remember correctly, @panzerman has a tremissis of Tiberius Constantine. Right?

 

Thank you. The article was quite interesting.