Leo VI AV Solidus. 908-912 AD.
Leo VI AV Solidus.
908(911?)-912 AD.
Constantinople mint.
4.41 g, 6h.
Obverse: Christ with cross-nimbus behind head, seated facing on lyre-backed throne, lyre-backed throne, raising right hand in blessing and holding Gospel in left; + IhS(VS) XP(ISTO)S REX REGNANTIVM: Jesus Christ, King of those who rule.
Reverse: Standing facing figures of Leo VI (l.) and Constantine VII (r.), each wearing loros and crown with cross and holding globus cruciger in outer hand and patriarchal cross between them; LEON ET CONSTANT(INVS) AVGG (AVGVSTI abbreviated) ROM(AION): Leo and Constantine, Augusti of the Romans.
It's rather interesting that the image of lyre-backed throne seems to be the same as in previous mosaic of Hagia Sophia with the Emperor Leo VI, the Wise (886-912), prostrated before Christ seated facing on lyre-backed throne.
For reasons not yet clearly understood, Leo VI apparently did not mint solidi for the first twenty years of his reign. The solidi from his last years continue with an improved version of the Christ enthroned introduced by his father, Basil I, on the obverse and with standing portraits of Leo and his son Constantine VII, co-emperor after A.D. 908, on the reverse. The portraits are interesting for their depiction of the complex wrapping of the loros. The figures continue the convention of showing the senior emperor in larger scale on the left, but Constantine is depicted as nearly grown, while he was in fact a small child.
The future Constantine VII was the illegitimate son born before Leo’s uncanonical fourth marriage to Zoe Karbonopsina. Leo VI married her only after she had given birth to a son in 905, but incurred the opposition of the patriarch Nicholas, his former own imperial secretary (mystikos). He was eventually barred from attending St. Sophia. Leo replaced Nicholas Mystikos with his spiritual father Euthymios in 907. To strengthen his son's position as heir, Leo had him crowned as co-emperor on May 15, 908, when he was only two years old (on June 11, 911. - Jenkins Л., Grierson Ph. The Date of Constantine VII Coronation // Byz. 1962. Vol. 32. P. 135 ff.).
Leo VI died on May 11, 912 A.D.
To be continued...