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Byzantine Empire
Anonymous Class G
Bronze Follis 28mm (7.00 grams)
Struck during the reign of Romanus IV, Diogenes –
Byzantine Emperor: 1 January 1068 A.D. – 19 August 1071 A.D.
Reference: Sear 1867
Bust of Christ facing, wearing a nimbus crown, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; in left hand, scroll; to left, IC; to right, XC; border of large pellets.
Facing bust of the Virgin orans, nimbate and wearing pallium and maphorium; to left, MP; to right, ΘV; border of large pellets.
For more than a century, the production of Follis denomination Byzantine coins had religious Christian motifs which included included Jesus Christ, and even Virgin Mary. These coins were designed to honor Christ and recognize the subservient role of the Byzantine emperor, with many of the reverse inscriptions translating to “Jesus Christ King of Kings” and “May Jesus Christ Conquer”. The Follis denomination coins were the largest bronze denomination coins issued by the Byzantine empire, and their large size, along with the Christian motif make them a popular coin type for collectors. This series ran from the period of Byzantine emperors John I (969-976 A.D.) to Alexius I (1081-1118 A.D.). The accepted classification was originally devised by Miss Margaret Thompson with her study of these types of coins. World famous numismatic author, David R. Sear adopted this classification system for his book entitled, Byzantine Coins and Their Values. The references about this coin site Mr. Sear’s book by the number that they appear in that work. The class types of coins included Class A1, Class A2, Class B, Class C, Class D, Class E, Class F, Class G, Class H, Class I, Class J, Class K. Read more and see examples of these coins by reading the JESUS CHRIST Anonymous Class A-N Byzantine Follis Coins Reference.
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 Jesus (7-2 BC to AD 30-33), also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity, whom the teachings of most Christian denominations hold to be the Son of God. Christians believe Jesus is the awaited Messiah (or Christ, the Anointed One) of the Old Testament.
Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically, and historians consider the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) to be the best sources for investigating the historical Jesus. Most scholars agree that Jesus was a Galilean, Jewish rabbi who preached his message orally, was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate. In the current mainstream view, Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher and the founder of a renewal movement within Judaism, although some prominent scholars argue that he was not apocalyptic. After Jesus’ death, his followers believed he was resurrected, and the community they formed eventually became the Christian church. The widely used calendar era, abbreviated as “AD” from the Latin “Anno Domini” (“in the year of our Lord”) or sometimes as “CE”, is based on the birth of Jesus.
 Christians believe that Jesus has a “unique significance” in the world. Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, whence he will return. Most Christians believe Jesus enables humans to be reconciled to God, and will judge the dead either before or after their bodily resurrection, an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology; though some believe Jesus’s role as savior has more existential or societal concerns than the afterlife, and a few notable theologians have suggested that Jesus will bring about a universal reconciliation. The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of a Divine Trinity. A few Christian groups reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.
In Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God’s important prophets and the Messiah, second in importance only to Muhammad. To Muslims, Jesus was a bringer of scripture and was born of a virgin, but was not the Son of God. According to the Quran, Jesus was not crucified but was physically raised into Heaven by God. Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh.
 The Virgin Orans, Oranta (The Great Panagia) (Ukrainian: Оранта) is a well-known Orthodox Christian depiction of the Virgin Mary in prayer with extended arms. It is stored in the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev in Ukraine. The 6-meter-high mosaic is located in the vault of the chancel. The icon has been present in the cathedral since its foundation by Yaroslav I the Wise in the 12th century.
The Virgin’s solemn and static posture, the characteristic folds of her garments, and her pensive expression indicate the design was strongly influenced by Byzantine art.
The image is considered as one of the greatest sacred symbols in Ukraine, a palladion defending the people of the country. It has been called an “Indestructible Wall” or “Unmoveable Wall”. Legend says that as long as the Theotokos is extending Her arms over Kiev, the city will stand indestructible.
The embroidered handkerchief on the belt of the Mother of God is popularly thought to be for wiping away the tears of those who come before her with their problems and concerns.
In 1997, the National Bank of Ukraine issued commemorative coins “Orante” (“Oranta”) within the “Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine” series.
Romanos IV Diogenes or Romanus IV Diogenes (Greek: Ρωμανός Δ΄ Διογένης, Rōmanos IV Diogenēs) was a member of the Byzantine military aristocracy who, after his marriage to the widowed empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa was crowned Byzantine emperor and reigned from 1068 to 1071. During his reign he was determined to halt the decline of the Byzantine military and stop Turkish incursions into the Byzantine Empire, but in 1071 he was captured and his army routed at the Battle of Manzikert. Upon his capture he was overthrown in a palace coup, and when released he was quickly defeated and detained by members of the Doukas family. In 1072, he was blinded and sent to a monastery where he died of his wounds.
Accession to the throne
Romanos Diogenes was the son of Constantine Diogenes and a member of a prominent and powerful Cappadocian family, connected by birth to most of the great aristocratic nobles in Asia Minor. Courageous and generous, but also quite impetuous, his military talents had seen him rise with distinction in the army, but he was eventually convicted of attempting to usurp the throne of the sons of Constantine X Doukas in 1067. While waiting to receive his sentence from the regent Eudokia Makrembolitissa, he was summoned into her presence and advised that she had pardoned him and that furthermore she had chosen him to be her husband and the guardian of her sons as emperor. She took this course of action firstly due to her concern that unless she managed to find a powerful husband, she could easily lose the regency to any unscrupulous noble, and secondly because she was infatuated with the popular Romanus. Her decision was met with little protest as the Seljuk Turks had overrun much of Cappadocia and had even taken the important city of Caesarea, meaning that the army needed to be placed under the command of an able and energetic general.
The problem Romanus and Eudokia had in executing this plan was that Eudokia’s deceased husband, Constantine X, had made her swear an oath never to remarry. She approached the Patriarch John Xiphilinos and convinced him both to hand over the written oath she had signed to this effect, and to have him pronounce that he was in favour of a second marriage for the good of the state. The Senate agreed, and on January 1, 1068 Romanus married the empress and was crowned Emperor of the Romans.
Campaigns against the Turks
Romanus IV was now the senior emperor and guardian of his stepsons and junior co-emperors, Michael VII, Konstantios Doukas, and Andronikos Doukas. However, his elevation had antagonised not only the Doukas family, in particular the Caesar, John Doukas who led the opposition of the palace officials to Romanos’ authority, but also the Varangian Guard, who openly expressed their discontent at the marriage of Eudokia. Romanos therefore decided that he could only exercise his authority by placing himself at the head of the army in the field, thereby focusing the whole government’s attention on the war against the Turks.
By 1067, the Turks had been making incursions at will into Mesopotamia, Melitene, Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia, culminating with the sack of Caesarea and the plundering of the Church of St Basil. That winter they camped on the frontiers of the empire, and waited for the next year’s campaigning season. Romanos was confident of Byzantine superiority on the field of battle, looking on the Turks as little more than hordes of robbers who would melt away at the first encounter. He did not take into account the degraded state of the Byzantine forces which had suffered years of neglect from his predecessors, in particular Constantine X. His forces, mostly composed of Sclavonian, Armenian, Bulgarian, and Frankish mercenaries, were ill-disciplined, disorganised and uncoordinated, and he was not prepared to spend time in upgrading the arms, armour or tactics of the once feared Byzantine army.
Campaign of 1068
The first military operations of Romanos did achieve a measure of success, reinforcing his opinions about the outcome of the war. Antioch was exposed to the Saracens of Aleppo who, with help from Turkish troops, began an attempt to reconquer the Byzantine province of Syria. Romanos began marching to the southeastern frontier of the empire to deal with this threat, but as he was advancing towards Lykandos, he received word that a Seljuk army had made an incursion into Pontus and plundered Neocaesarea. Immediately he selected a small mobile force and quickly raced through Sebaste and the mountains of Tephrike to encounter the Turks on the road, forcing them to abandon their plunder and release their prisoners, though a large number of the Turkish troops managed to escape.
Returning south, Romanos rejoined the main army and they continued their advance through the passes of Mount Taurus to the north of Germanicia and proceeded to invade the Emirate of Aleppo. Romanos captured Hierapolis which he fortified in order to provide protection against further incursions into the south-eastern provinces of the empire. He then engaged in further fighting against the Saracens of Aleppo but neither side managed a decisive victory. With the campaigning season reaching its end, Romanos returned north via Alexandretta and the Cilician Gates to Podandos. Here he was advised of another Seljuk raid into Asia Minor which saw them sack Amorium, but they had returned to their base so fast that Romanos was in no position to give chase, and he eventually reached Constantinople by January 1069.
Campaign of 1069
Plans for the following year’s campaigning were initially thrown into chaos by a rebellion by one of Romanos’ Norman mercenaries, Crispin, who led a contingent of Frankish troops in the pay of the empire. Possibly due to Romanos not paying them on time, they began plundering the countryside near where they were stationed, and attacking the imperial tax collectors. Although Crispin was captured and exiled to Abydos, the Franks continued to ravage the Armeniac Theme for some time. In the meantime, the land around Caesarea was again overrun by the Turks, forcing Romanos to spend precious time and energy in expelling the Turks from Cappadocia. Desperate to begin his campaign proper, he ordered the execution of all prisoners, even a Seljuk chieftain who offered to pay an immense ransom for his life. Having brought a measure of peace to the province, Romanos marched towards the Euphrates via Melitene, and crossed the river at Romanopolis, hoping to take Akhlat on Lake Van and thus protect the Armenian frontier.
Romanos placed himself at the head of a substantial body of troops, and began his march towards Akhlat, leaving the bulk of the army under the command of Philaretos Brachamios with orders to defend the Mesopotamian frontier. Philaretos was soon defeated by the Turks, whose advance on Iconium forced Romanos to abandon his plans and return to Sebaste. He sent orders to the Dux of Antioch to secure the passes at Mopsuestia, while he attempted to run down the Turks at Heracleia. The Turks were soon hemmed in the mountains of Cilicia, but managed to escape to Aleppo after abandoning their plunder. Romanos once again returned to Constantinople without the great victory he was hoping for.
Affairs at Constantinople
The year 1070 saw Romanos detained at Constantinople while he dealt with many outstanding administrative issues, including the imminent fall of Bari into Norman hands. They had been besieging it since 1068, but it had taken Romanos two years to finally get around to doing anything about it. He ordered a relief fleet to set sail, containing sufficient provisions and troops to enable them to hold out for much longer. But the fleet was intercepted and defeated by a Norman squadron under the command of Roger, the younger brother of Robert Guiscard, forcing the final remaining outpost of Byzantine authority in Italy to surrender on April 15, 1071.
While this was playing out, Romanos was undertaking a number of unpopular reforms at home. He reduced a great deal of unnecessary public expenditure that was wasted on useless court ceremonials and beautifying the capital. He reduced the public salaries that were paid to much of the court nobility, as well as reducing the profits of tradesmen. His preoccupation with the military had also made him unpopular with the provincial governors and the military hierarchy, as he was determined to ensure they could not abuse their positions, especially through corrupt practices. He incurred the displease of the mercenaries by enforcing much need discipline. Romanos was also deeply unpopular with the common people, as he neglected to entertain them with games at the hippodrome, nor did he alleviate the burdens of the peasants in the provinces. All this animosity would help his enemies when the time came that they moved against him.
Nevertheless, he did not forget his principal target, the Turks. Being unable to go on campaign himself, he entrusted the imperial army to one of his generals, Manuel Komnenos, nephew of the former emperor Isaac I, and elder brother to the future emperor Alexios. He managed to engage the Turks in battle, but was defeated and taken prisoner by a Turkish general named Khroudj. Manuel convinced Khroudj to go to Constantinople and see Romanos in person in order to conclude an alliance, which was soon completed. This act motivated the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan to attack the Byzantine Empire, besieging and capturing the important Byzantine fortress of Manzikert.
Battle of Manzikert and capture by Alp Arslan
Early in the spring of 1071, Romanos marched at the head of a large army with the intent of recovering Manzikert. It was soon evident that the army had a serious discipline problem, with soldiers regularly pillaging the area around their nightly camps. When Romanos attempted to enforce some stricter discipline, a whole regiment of German mercenaries mutinied, which the emperor only managed to control with the greatest difficulty.
Believing that Alp Arslan was nowhere near Manzikert, he decided to divide his army. One part of the army he dispatched to attack Akhlat, at that time in possession of the Turks. Romanos himself advanced with the main body of the army on Manzikert, which he soon recaptured. At this point his advance guard met the Seljuk army which was rapidly approaching Manzikert. Romanos ordered the forces attacking Akhlat to rejoin the army, but their portion of the army unexpectedly came across another large Turkish army, forcing their retreat back into Mesopotamia. Already under strength, Romanos’ army was further weakened when his Uzes mercenaries deserted to the Turks.
Arslan had no desire to take on the Byzantine army, and so proposed a peace treaty with favourable terms for Romanos. The emperor, eager for a decisive military victory, rejected the offer, and both armies lined up for a battle that took place on August 26, 1071. The battle lasted all day without either side gaining any decisive advantage when the emperor ordered a part of his centre to return to camp but the order was misunderstood by the right wing. Andronikos Doukas, who commanded the reserves, was the son of Caesar John Doukas, and he took advantage of the confusion to betray Romanos by marching away from the battle with some 30,000 men instead of covering the emperor’s retreat, claiming that Romanos was dead. The Turks now began to press in on the Byzantine army.
When Romanos discovered what had happened, he tried to recover the situation by making a defiant stand. He fought valiantly when his horse was finally killed from under him. Receiving a wound in the hand which prevented him from wielding a sword, he was soon taken prisoner.
According to a number of Byzantine historians, including John Skylitzes, Arslan at first had difficulty believing the dusty and tattered warrior brought before him was the Roman Emperor. He then stepped down from his seat and placed his foot on Romanos’ neck. But after this sign of ritual humiliation, Arslan raised Romanos from the ground, and ordered him to be treated like a king. From then on he treated him with extreme kindness, never saying a cruel word to him in the Emperor’s eight-day stay in his camp, and who then released him in exchange for a treaty and the promise of a hefty ransom. At first Alp Arslan suggested a ransom of 10,000,000 nomismata to Romanos IV, but later reduced it to 1,500,000 nomismata with a further 360,000 nomismata annually.
Betrayal
In the meantime, the opposition faction scheming against Romanos IV decided to exploit the situation. The Caesar John Doukas and Michael Psellos forced Eudokia to retire to a monastery, and easily prevailed upon Michael VII to declare Romanos IV deposed. They then refused to honor the agreement made between Arslan and the former emperor. Romanos soon returned and he and the Doukas family gathered troops. A battle was fought at Doceia between Constantine and Andronikos Doukas and Romanos, in which the army of Romanos was defeated, forcing him to retreat to the fortress of Tyropoion, and from there to Adana in Cilicia. Pursued by Andronikos, he was eventually forced to surrender by the garrison at Adana upon receiving assurances of his personal safety. Before leaving the fortress, he collected all the money he could lay his hands on and sent it to the Sultan as proof of his good faith, along with a message: “As emperor, I promsed you a ransom of a million and a half. Dethroned, and about to become dependent upon others, I send you all I possess as proof of my gratitude.”
Andronikos stipulated that his life would be spared if he resigned the purple and retired into a monastery. Romanos agreed, and this agreement was ratified at Constantinople. However, John Doukas reneged on the agreement, and sent men to have Romanos cruelly blinded on (June 29, 1072), before sending him into exile to Kınalıada in the Sea of Marmara. Leaving him without an assistant, his wound became infected, and he was soon enduring a painfully lingering death. The final insult was given a few days before his death, when Romanos received a letter from John Doukas, congratulating him on the loss of his eyes. He finally died, praying for the forgiveness of his sins, and his wife Eudokia was permitted to honor his remains with a magnificent funeral.
Family
By his first wife Anna, a daughter of Alusian of Bulgaria, Romanos IV Diogenes had at least one son:
- Constantine Diogenes, who was married to Theodora, sister of Alexios I Komnenos. This marriage was arranged by Anna Dalassena after the death of Romanos IV, but it was shortlived, as Constantine perished under the walls of Antioch in 1073 while serving with his brother-in-law Isaac Komnenos.
By his second wife, the Empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa, he had:
- Nikephoros Diogenes
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