Crossed off the list: The second-to-last Roman emperor

As someone who is very interested in the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, I had for a long time wanted coinage from Byzantium's final years as well. Unfortunately, Constantine XI wasn't going to be affordable for me anytime soon, so I was perfectly content with acquiring a coin of Constantine's brother and predecessor, the penultimate Roman/Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaiologos (ruled 1425-1448). Recently I acquired not one, but two coins of him, a stavraton and a half-stavraton. The fact that I have a Roman coin that’s only 600 years old is fascinating to me.

John VIII Palaiologos, Byzantine Empire
AR stavraton
Obv: IC-XC, Facing bust of Christ, surrounded by eight dots
Rev: IWANHC DECPOTIC O PALEOLOGOC QV XAPITI AVTOKPATOP in two lines around nimbate facing bust of the emperor, dot to left and right
Mint: Constantinople
Date: 1425-1448
Ref: SB 2563
Size: 6.66 gr.



John VIII Palaiologos, Byzantine Empire
AR half-stavraton
Obv: IC-XC, Facing bust of Christ
Rev: IWANHC DECPOTIC Q PALEOLOGOC, nimbate facing bust of the emperor
Mint: Constantinople
Date: 1425-1448
Ref: SB 2565
Size: 3.3 gr.



History:



John VIII Palaiologos (Ἰωάννης Παλαιολόγος) was born in 1392, the oldest son of Emperor Manuel II and his wife Helena Dragaš, a member of Serbia's royal family. By the time he became sole emperor in 1425, the Byzantine Empire had been in terminal decline for several decades, and only consisted of Constantinople, and small scattered territories in Thrace, Macedonia, and the Peloponnese (all governed by John VIII’s brothers). Thessalonica, long the second-most important city of the empire, had been sold to Venice in 1423 by John's brother Andronikos, while it was being besieged by the Ottomans. Constantinople itself endured a siege in 1422 by Sultan Murad II (father of the future conqueror of Constantinople, Mehmed II). The "empire" was surrounded, with the Ottoman Empire being the main threat.

(Byzantine Empire in 1410 - pink areas)


The looming threat of total conquest by the Ottomans led John VIII to visit Italy in 1437 to seek aid and protection from the Pope and the West (he has previously visited Rome for the same purpose in 1423; the first time in over 700 years a Roman emperor set foot in the city). In exchange, he offered to have the Orthodox church unite with the Roman Catholic Church. This union between the churches was ratified at the Council of Florence in 1439 but was refused and denounced by the officials in Constantinople. While his Italian trip ultimately proved unsuccessful in its objective, it was of great value to the emerging Italian Renaissance; providing painters and artists an opportunity to capture this event in their art, and for ideas and knowledge to be exchanged between East and West.



John VIII had no children, and so he named his younger brother Constantine to succeed him as emperor, which he did when John VIII passed away of natural causes in 1448. His empire outlasted him by only five years.

(The Paleologan double-headed eagle, which became the imperial emblem of Byzantium during their rule, and which was later adopted by the Russians)



(Medal of John VIII by Renaissance artist Pisanello)



Sources:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_VIII_Palaiologos

https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-VIII-Palaeologus

https://rear-view-mirror.com/2016/05/07/portrait-of-an-emperor-john-viii-palailogos/amp/

 

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great coins, congrats!

 

Excellent post, thanks.

 

Very nice write-up. My only objection (if you can call it that) is calling the empire 'Roman' when there was nothing 'Roman' about it by this point. This is probably why historians came up with the made-up term 'Byzantine'. As early as the 6th century it had become a slow and peacefull Greek take-over of the eastern half of the old Roman empire. Greek was the officiall language, and its people were mostly ethnically Greek even though it was a quite diverse empire with plenty of other local ethnicities in areas like Asia Minor. And of course the glue that kept it all together was the common religion of its people, the Eastern Orthodox Church. Yes, they regarded themselves as the continuation of the Roman Empire (after all they called themselves 'Ρωμαιοι'), but they were quite aware of their differences to the 'latins' of Rome. I think this association with the old Roman empire was mostly political and to make the emperors feel 'legit'. Relations of course took a turn for the worse after the religious schism of 1054, not to mention the 4th crusade and the sacking of Constantinople in 1204. Under these circumastances I can understand why the unification of the churches didn't really work out. Would it have made any difference if it had happened? That is one of the great IFs of history...

Coin-wise, I would love to have a coin of the last emperor. (I think my avatar is a good hint )I have heard that you can actually pinpoint if they were minted during the last siege of Constantinople. But they are very rare and usually in terrible condition.

 

And fascinating illustrations.

 

I always prefer these when, like your stavraton, the name John is clear. These are never full legend but it is nice when that part remains.

 

Very cool, great coins & writeup.

 

True, but perhaps a little harsh on the Byzantines. The Roman Empire had been decentralised back in the 280s by Diocletian (a Croatian who ruled from Nicomedia and deliberately avoided visiting Rome). There had been Emperors who weren't of 'Latin' descent since Philip I (of Syria) in 244. Even Constantine I was born in Serbia to an Albanian father and a Greek mother. Of course, it was Constantine I who founded Constantinople and adopted Christianity in the first place (resulting in Eastern Orthodoxy). He even popularised the use of the Greek letters 'Chi Rho' as a Christogram - much used on Byzantine coinage.

'Roman' was therefore already a much broader concept before Constantinople was even founded, while much of 'Byzantine' culture had Roman roots.

On the other hand, the last ruler to claim to be a continuation of the Roman Empire was probably Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, whose legitimacy was based on a claim to power inherited from ancient Rome. That really was a political association to give an air of legitimacy. He was minting lira in Italy just 200 years ago.

 

Nice write up, @ValiantKnight ... great coin!

 

Great coins & write up, @ValiantKnight! Those must have been very interesting times!

 

Great write-up and coins. I would argue that Anatolia and the Bosporus areas had long been Greek by the time the Roman Republic conquered these areas. So they struck their own bronze coinage (with Greek legends) down until the reign of Claudius Gothicus. Roman Egypt continued coinage with Greek legends until the time of Diocletian and Maximian. So when the West fell there was less need to continue to use the Latin tongue, though coins did have Latin inscriptions into the 7th century...

 

Wonderful post, ValientKnight - thank you! When I first saw its notice, I expected a 5th century penultimate personage like Glycerius or Julius Nepos, so I was pleased that you went to the true end of the Roman line. And congratulations on 2 very nice coins. Your stavraton and its half brother have pretty complete legends as these things go. Here are a few of my Palaeologans to keep yours company.

1. John V. Constantinople. 1379/91. Stavraton. 8.03 gr. 25.5 mm. hr. 6. Sear 2510; DO 1266-67.

2. Manuel II. Constantinople. 1391/95. Stavraton. 7.94 gr. 25.3 mm. hr. 4. Sear 2548; DO 1308-9.

3. Manuel II. Constantinople. 1391/95. Half Stavraton. 3.43 gr. 20.5 mm. hr. 7. Sear 2550; DO 1312. LHS Numismatics AG 97 (Despot Sale) May 10, 2006, lot 353.

4. John VIII. Constantinople. 1425/48. Stavraton. 7.09 gr. 25 mm. hr. 12. Sear 2564; DO 1636-8 var. Ed Gans Feb. 4, 1955.

5. Constantine XI. Constantinople. 1449/53. Eighth Stavraton. 0.63 gr. 12.7 mm. hr. 11. Sear -;DO 1789. Bendall, “The coinage of Constantine XI” (Revue Numismatique 1991, pp. 134-142), #110 (this coin).

6. Constantine XI. Constantinople. 1449/53. Eighth Stavraton. 0.63 gr. 13 mm. hr. 12. Sear -;DO 1789. Bendall, “The coinage of Constantine XI” (Revue Numismatique 1991, pp. 134-142), #129 (this coin).

 

They called themselves Romaioi and did very much see themselves as the Roman Empire. Although there was certainly a lot of changes over the years (just like the western empire), they were half of that empire and indeed during it's height Greek was an important language of the patrician ruling class and a big contributor to Roman culture.

 

Just look at language; kind of the cultural elephant in the room. Koine Greek was the dominant language of the entire eastern Mediterranean, effectively for the duration of the Roman period. In that part of the empire, the Romans themselves had the wit to know a good thing, and appropriate it. That was what made it the lingua franca, for instance for trade beyond the eastern borders, and the New Testament --despite there being an epistle "to the Romans." It wasn't till the 4th century that coins in Alexandria replaced Greek legends with Latin. In that context, the shift back to Greek in the 6th century could be seen as a return to earlier Roman norms, rather than a departure.

 

...Sorry, Ancient Coin Hunter, you beat me to it again! Just waking up here; didn't look at your reply.

 

Ultimately, one thing can be true on a predominantly political level, while another holds in the cultural sphere. The genius of the Romans, like the Hellenists they conquered, was that cultural appropriation was integral to their whole modus operandi. (Regarding current connotations of that term, maybe, in this context, we can keep that issue at arm's length.) That's how you can get Constantine and 'barracks emperors' before him issuing coins with Mithra on them, and a fresco with a Black priest of Isis in Herculaneum. With that as background, it makes that little bit more intuitive sense that the Byzantines were Just Fine, Thank You with calling themselves Romaioi.

 

Hi, Other Poor Old Man, ...As in the case of Ancient Coin Hunter, I'm still catching up with your very resonant reply to this thread. This will be redundant, only most especially to you, but it's worth emphasizing that as of the Great Schism of the 1050s, the church at Constantinople, in concert with the still older sees of Alexandria and Antioch, saw Rome as being the anomoly, precisely relative to earlier, broadly prevailing theology and ecclesiastical polity, going back to (semantics alert: ) ...the late Roman period. Adding one more dimension to the chess game that was happening between cultural and political dynamics.

 

Great representation of a coin I enjoyed the read thanks. Be safe all

 

I agree John VIII is a cool coin. His brother was left to do what he could. Lots of cool history. Given how Constantine XI is almost non-collectible, it's for our purposes the last coin of an empire stretching back almost 2000 years.

 

Let's not forget the "Greeks" only took up that identity, dropping Romaioi, in a successful effort to secure Western European support for independence.

The westwashed not-Roman argument is far from novel!