Tiberius to the Rescue!

The man who would become Flavius Tiberius Constantinus Augustus was born in the Latin speaking part of Thrace sometime in the mid-6th century. We don’t know much about Tiberius’s early life except that he came to Constantinople during the last years of Emperor Justinian’s reign and joined that Emperor’s body guard, the Excubitors. He quickly rose through the ranks to become the commander of the guard, the Comes Excubiti and became good friends with the Emperor’s nephew, Justin. When Justinian died, it was Tiberius with his influence at court that helped provide a stable transfer of power to Justin.


After Justin refused to pay the avars, a nomadic barbarian tribe, subsides to remain peaceful they began raiding Illyria and Thrace. In response, Justin sent a large army under Tiberius’s command to deal with the nomads; amazingly Tiberius managed to inflict a severe defeat on the Avars without losing many of his own. Tiberius tried to follow up this victory and ended up losing, the defeat wasn’t decisive, though Tiberius himself was almost killed in the retreat, and Tiberius suggested to Justin that paying off the Raiders would be much easier than fighting another pitched battle. A short time later, when the avar chiefs travelled to Constantinople to negotiate peace with the Emperor, local brigands robbed them. Ever dutiful, Tiberius personally retrieved the stolen goods, much to his chagrin.

Things in the Middle Empire may have been going well for the time, but the Eastern Empire was going to hell in a handbasket. At the same time Tiberius was fighting the avars, the Persians led by Khosrow I were rampaging in Roman Mesopotamia, and had even sacked the fortified city of Dara. The sack of Dara broke Justin; he reportedly had to be rolled in a mobile throne, and attendants had to play loud organ music to sooth his frenzied nerves. Justin allegedly snapped and bit anyone who approached him, and rumour has it that he ate two of his servants. Whatever was ailing Justin, it wasn’t the same type of illness that had plagued earlier Emperors, as in one of his rare lucid moments he appointed Tiberius to the rank of Caesar in 574 and gave him all administrative and military responsibilities of the Roman Empire.

The first thing Tiberius and Sophia, Justin’s wife, did was to negotiate a temporary one year truce with the Persians for 45,000 Solidii. The deal didn’t cover Roman Armenia, and so fighting there continued in 575. The second thing the new Emperor did was to throw lavish games in the hippodrome and give liberally to the people in the streets. For all his faults, Justin had accumulated a significant amount of money in the treasury. Tiberius would put this money to good use.


Tiberius realized that protecting the eastern Empire was the most important objective, so he slowly began drawing down the number of troops stationed on the Danube. To fill this void in manpower he paid the avars a large lump sum of money to guard the boarder. This bribe may have been a smart choice at the moment, but the Romans would regret this in a few years. Tiberius Constantine was cut from the same cloth as the Roman Emperors of old, he believed that the Empire should not accept defeat in the east and should send a large army to crush the Persians. So Emperor Tiberius began a heavy recruiting campaign of males in the Empire, and then put out a call that the Roman Empire was in need of men beyond the Danube. Men as far as Scandinavia and the interior of Germany took up his offer and joined the ranks of the Comitatensis. While the truce with the Persians held up, Tiberius amazingly found enough men to send West to stop the Lombard encroachment in Italy. The men had some success in that they retook a major port town in northern Italy, and even saved the city of Rome from a barbarian siege.


In 576 the Persians broke the truce and began raiding Roman Mesopotamia, but Tiberius was ready. His army swept deep into Persia and sacked numerous cities. The next five years would see indecisive battles between the Romans and Persians that would drain the resources of both Empires.

In 578 Justin II died peacefully in his sleep, allowing Tiberius to get rid of Sophia and become Augustus, he celebrated by throwing even larger games than the ones when he was acclaimed Caesar and remitted a quarter of the taxes for the citizenry of the entire Empire.

In 580 the avars broke their treaty with Tiberius and put the key fortress city of Sirmium under siege. With his hands tied down in the east, Tiberius reluctantly made peace with the avars and paid them a solidus for every citizen trapped in the city to be given safe passage to Constantinople. After the evacuation was complete, the avars sacked the city.

Even worse news reached Tiberius’s ears in 580 though: a massive hoard of slavs had crossed the defenseless Danube river and were driving Roman farmers off their land and resettling it. Tiberius could only buy off the avars to attack the slavs, which had only limited success.

By 582 the Persians had grown tired of the stalemate with the Romans and sent a large army to attack Roman Mesopotamia. The opposing army led by Maurice, yes that one, annihilated them. Maurice couldn’t follow up his decisive win and sack ctesiphon because shortly after the victory he received word that Tiberius was in failing health. He rushed to Constantinople in just the nick of time; Tiberius had allegedly eaten some ill prepared food and by this point was dying. Tiberius bestowed Maurice with his daughter Constantina and said “Let my sovereignty be delivered to thee with this girl. Be happy in the use of it, mindful always to love equity and justice” He died shortly afterwords, having ruled the Eastern Roman Empire for a total of eight years.


Tiberius Constantine is one of my favorite Emperors of all time, his generosity and kindness are even liberal by today's standards. For example, when Sophia and a man tried to have Tiberius killed, Tiberius pardoned the man and exiled Sophia to a lovely estate across the Bosporus where she lived out the remainder of her natural life. He also refrained from persecuting the Monophysite Christians in Egypt.

Tiberius did his best to fix the screw ups of Justin II, and though he left the Treasury deep in the red, he is the Emperor the Roman state and people needed at that moment in time. Tiberius and Justin should also both be praised for choosing competent successors instead of keeping it in the family an picking an unqualified cousin or nephew.

I just won this lil "goldie" at the latest CNG auction.
The style is superior to most other Tremissii and Semissii that I've come across, especially when it comes to Tiberius's features.

Tiberius II Constantine. 578-582. AV Tremissis (17mm, 1.48 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Cross potent. DOC 7; MIBE 9b; SB 425. VF, traces of deposits in devices, scrapes and scratches, hints of die rust, slightly wavy flan.

A mosaic of a saint that is based off of Tiberius II, this is probably what he looked liked.


The Roman Empire in the reign of Tiberius II(574-582)




Sources
https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/2013/08/16/episode-34-overbalancing/

O'Rourke, Michael, THE ROME THAT ALMOST FELL:THE LONG SEVENTH CENTURY (An Encyclopaedic Chronology of the Christian Roman Empire of Constantinople, AD 578-718)

http://www.roman-emperors.org/ticonii.htm

 

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@Magnus Maximus

That coin is a real winner. I love the portrait and the simplicity of the reverse. I also really appreciate your great writeup. I did not know anything about this ruler before but you told his story very well. I am now going to look up some more information on him and might even consider adding him to my historical figures collection.

Thanks very much and congrats on a great purchase.

 

Thanks @Orfew.

 

Great coin and really nice work on the historical synopsis - just the sort of post I love to read!

 

Thanks JA.

 

A scarce Ravenna mint bronze of this emperor:

Tiberius II Constantine, Byzantine Empire
AE decanummium
Obv: D M TIb CONSTANT P P AVG, crowned and cuirassed bust facing, holding cross on globe
Rev: Large I, cross to left, cross to right, all within wreath
Mint: Ravenna
Date: 578-582 AD
Ref: SB 472

 

Nice

 

That's a terrific coin and a fascinating write-up!!!

Dammit!! Now you got me thinking about adding Byzantine coins again!!

 

What a beauty! Awesome write-up too!

 

fantastic post and coin yet again MM!

here's my only TC coin....

 

Thanks guys.
Feel free to post your coins of Tiberius. Constantine.

 

Great coin and thanks for the history lesson.

 

Congrats on a great gold coin, and terrific write up.

 

By the time the Byzantines section came, I was nearly broke. However, I got CLIO'd even when I placed some absurd bids on a few coins. He paid heavy for some of the overstruck follis.

Congrats on a great pickup. Here is a few new TC coins I picked up a few days ago:

Byzantine Empire: Tiberius II Constantine (578–582 CE) Æ Pentanummium, Antioch/Theoupolis (Sear-459; MIBE 61)

Obv: Sear Monogram 18 of Tiberius II Constantine
Rev: Large Ч; cross above

 

The fact that he is in the "Byzantine" section does not bode well for me.
Nice pentanummii, small bronze coins of Tiberius in that condition are few and far between.

 

Right now I don't really care that he/she is dabbling into Byzantines, or late Roman and barbarian (if they are buying ftom there too), but I'd prefer that Clio move back to other pastures once I start buying stuff from CNG

 

Excellent rite up and coin

 

@Magnus Maximus
Love the coin, and (always) a treat to read the 'write-up'.
Congratulations on the buy. I think that you did well.
(Sorry, no Tiberius II Constantines here.)

 

The OP writeup is very interesting and well done. Thanks!

Here is a large follis of Tiberius II.

37 mm (That's large!). 16.30 grams. 6:00.
Crowned bust facing, wearing consular robes, holding mappa in right and eagle-tipped scepter in left.
Year 5 = 578/9 AD.
Sear 430. DO I 11, plate LX. MIBE 25.

 

I'll congratulate you first on your great write-up on the Roman Empire of the east in the 6th. century, and then on the coin. Both are great!

It think it is great when a love of history is combined with a love for coins of a particular era. That is the way it is for me too. Numismatics and history complement each other in a unique way and provide so much satisfaction.