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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ValiantKnight, post: 4643593, member: 44210&quot;]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&#039;s final years as well. Unfortunately, Constantine XI wasn&#039;t going to be affordable for me anytime soon, so I was perfectly content with acquiring a coin of Constantine&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><u>John VIII Palaiologos</u>, Byzantine Empire</b></p><p>AR stavraton</p><p><b>Obv</b>: IC-XC, Facing bust of Christ, surrounded by eight dots</p><p><b>Rev</b>: IWANHC DECPOTIC O PALEOLOGOC QV XAPITI AVTOKPATOP in two lines around nimbate facing bust of the emperor, dot to left and right</p><p><b>Mint</b>: Constantinople</p><p><b>Date</b>: 1425-1448</p><p><b>Ref</b>: SB 2563</p><p><b>Size</b>: 6.66 gr.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1147469[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b><u>John VIII Palaiologos</u>, Byzantine Empire</b></p><p>AR half-stavraton</p><p><b>Obv</b>: IC-XC, Facing bust of Christ</p><p><b>Rev</b>: IWANHC DECPOTIC Q PALEOLOGOC, nimbate facing bust of the emperor</p><p><b>Mint</b>: Constantinople</p><p><b>Date</b>: 1425-1448</p><p><b>Ref</b>: SB 2565</p><p><b>Size</b>: 3.3 gr.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1147470[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>History:</b></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1147473[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;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&#039;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 &quot;empire&quot; was surrounded, with the Ottoman Empire being the main threat.</p><p><br /></p><p>(Byzantine Empire in 1410 - pink areas)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1147471[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1147474[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>(The Paleologan double-headed eagle, which became the imperial emblem of Byzantium during their rule, and which was later adopted by the Russians)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1147476[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>(Medal of John VIII by Renaissance artist Pisanello)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1147478[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Sources:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_VIII_Palaiologos" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_VIII_Palaiologos" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_VIII_Palaiologos</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-VIII-Palaeologus" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-VIII-Palaeologus" rel="nofollow">https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-VIII-Palaeologus</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://rear-view-mirror.com/2016/05/07/portrait-of-an-emperor-john-viii-palailogos/amp/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rear-view-mirror.com/2016/05/07/portrait-of-an-emperor-john-viii-palailogos/amp/" rel="nofollow">https://rear-view-mirror.com/2016/05/07/portrait-of-an-emperor-john-viii-palailogos/amp/</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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