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<p>[QUOTE="Marsyas Mike, post: 8066379, member: 85693"]I've only skimmed the linked article, but did you see this?</p><p><br /></p><p>"The bubonic plague seems to have exacerbated the East Roman Empire’s existing fiscal and administrative difficulties, which Justinian had hitherto attempted to address via his provincial reforms. This fiscal instability, as noted earlier, also appears to have been reflected in the coinage.72 A series of light-weight gold coins (<i>solidi</i>) were issued at around this time, seemingly in either 542–3 or 547–50 (the first such reduction in the gold currency since its introduction in the fourth century CE), and the weight of the heavy copper coinage (<i>follis</i>) of Constantinople was also reduced significantly in the spring of 542 (hence at around the same time as the emperor’s emergency banking legislation, which refers explicitly to the disease).73 Whilst neither policy was <i>necessarily</i> a response to the plague, it remains plausible to argue that they were.74 <b>Perhaps potentially most visually striking, however, as an <i>éminence grise</i> of Byzantine numismatics has suggested, is the fact that the Emperor Justinian, who (Procopius tells us) caught but then recovered from the plague, seems to have issued a series of coins in 542–3, on which he may have been depicted with either a bubo in his neck or under his chin, or, on one of the coins, possibly wearing a mask covering such a bubo. The feature disappears from the coinage thereafter. The emperor’s recovery, these coins may have been meant to signal to the population of Constantinople, would also be the empire’s (although this reading of the coinage is highly speculative)</b>.<b>75 </b></p><p>(this footnote is: 75 Henri Pottier, ‘L’empereur Justinien survivant à la peste bubonique (542)’, Travaux et Mémoires, xvi (2010). For further discussion of the numismatic evidence, see also Preiser-Kapeller, Der Lange Sommer und die Kleine Eiszeit, 57–8.)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Does anybody have a coin of Justinian with a bubo on his neck? Or a mask? I'd really like to see one! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie42" alt=":doctor:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie96" alt=":vomit:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie68" alt=":nurse:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie40" alt=":dead:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Marsyas Mike, post: 8066379, member: 85693"]I've only skimmed the linked article, but did you see this? "The bubonic plague seems to have exacerbated the East Roman Empire’s existing fiscal and administrative difficulties, which Justinian had hitherto attempted to address via his provincial reforms. This fiscal instability, as noted earlier, also appears to have been reflected in the coinage.72 A series of light-weight gold coins ([I]solidi[/I]) were issued at around this time, seemingly in either 542–3 or 547–50 (the first such reduction in the gold currency since its introduction in the fourth century CE), and the weight of the heavy copper coinage ([I]follis[/I]) of Constantinople was also reduced significantly in the spring of 542 (hence at around the same time as the emperor’s emergency banking legislation, which refers explicitly to the disease).73 Whilst neither policy was [I]necessarily[/I] a response to the plague, it remains plausible to argue that they were.74 [B]Perhaps potentially most visually striking, however, as an [I]éminence grise[/I] of Byzantine numismatics has suggested, is the fact that the Emperor Justinian, who (Procopius tells us) caught but then recovered from the plague, seems to have issued a series of coins in 542–3, on which he may have been depicted with either a bubo in his neck or under his chin, or, on one of the coins, possibly wearing a mask covering such a bubo. The feature disappears from the coinage thereafter. The emperor’s recovery, these coins may have been meant to signal to the population of Constantinople, would also be the empire’s (although this reading of the coinage is highly speculative)[/B].[B]75 [/B] (this footnote is: 75 Henri Pottier, ‘L’empereur Justinien survivant à la peste bubonique (542)’, Travaux et Mémoires, xvi (2010). For further discussion of the numismatic evidence, see also Preiser-Kapeller, Der Lange Sommer und die Kleine Eiszeit, 57–8.) Does anybody have a coin of Justinian with a bubo on his neck? Or a mask? I'd really like to see one! :doctor::vomit::nurse::dead:[/QUOTE]
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