Byzantine currency
The Byzantine currency , i.e. the money that was used in the Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476) until the conquest of Constantinople (1453) , essentially consisted of the golden solidus and a variety of bronze coins in the early Byzantine phase . Silver coins were rarely struck in the early Byzantine phase and only played an important role in the late Byzantine phase.
The subject Byzantine Numismatics traditionally begins with the currency reform of the Eastern Roman-Byzantine Emperor Anastasios I in 498, who reformed the coin system of the late Roman Empire , which consisted of the gold solidus and the bronze numism .
Gold coins
The gold standard was not affected by the reform of Anastasius I. The solidus (plural: solidi) introduced at the beginning of the 4th century under Constantine the Great with a target weight of 4.55 grams and a target purity of 24 carats remains the standard for international trade . In practice, the solidus weighed between 4.48 and 4.6 grams.
In the 6th and 7th centuries, reduced solids were also issued with special identification. They are only 20, 22 or 23 siliquae in weight, with one siliqua being around 0.18 grams. Their original purpose is controversial. Research associates them with tribute payments, with foreign trade or with changing technical requirements for bronze money reforms.
Parallel to the solidus, half and third solidi ( semissis / plural: semisses and tremissis / plural: tremisses) were coined. The semisses and tremisses were minted in Constantinople under Emperor Michael I (811 to 813) and in Syracuse under Emperor Basil I (867 to 886).
Under Emperor Nikephoros II. Phokas (ruled 963 to 969), a gold coin with only 11/12 of the usual weight, but the same gold content, was issued in addition to the solidus .
There are different opinions about the reason for the introduction of this coin, which is 1/12 lighter. According to the Byzantine historian Johannes Zonaras , the point of this change was in the (failed) attempt to get the market to accept the underweight coins at the value of the old solidus . The lighter coin was tetarteron called the full weight solidus was from this point ἱστάμενον νόμισμα (Hi) stamenon nomisma or short Histamenon called. The histamenone weighed between 4.4 and 4.5 g, the gold coin 1/12 lighter, the Tetarteron nomisma , about 4.05 g. In numismatics, it is often argued that the Tetarteron with the Fatimid dinar became convertible by a 1/12 weight reduction and should thus facilitate trade.
Originally looking the same, the two types of coinage later also differed externally. Under Emperor Basil II (976-1025) the Tetarteron became smaller and thicker, while the Histamenon became larger and thinner. Under the reign of Emperor Constantine VIII (1025-1028), the two types of coins began to differ iconographically.
In the middle of the 11th century the tetarteron only had an average diameter of 18 mm and an average weight of only 3.98 g, while the histamenone at that time had an average diameter of 25 mm (the original solidus had 20 mm) and subsequently developed into a bowl-shaped, domed coin.
Such bowl-shaped, domed coins are also commonly referred to as skyphates (derived from skyphos , the ancient Greek drinking bowl). There are a number of hypotheses about the cause of this skypatic development, which is also characteristic of the Byzantine electron and trillion coins of the Middle Byzantine period.
The solidus or histamenon and the tetarteron were of relatively constant purity until the beginning of the 11th century. The gold content was consistently between 955 and 980 thousandths (23 to 23.5 carats ). From Emperor Michael IV (ruled 1034 to 1041), who came from a humble background and was a money changer before his coronation, the slow devaluation of the Byzantine gold standard began by gradually reducing the gold content.
The devaluation was slow at first and then accelerated rapidly: approx. 21 carats (87.5% purity) during the reign of Emperor Constantine IX. (1042-1055), 18 carats (75%) under Emperor Constantine X. (1059-1067), 16 carats (66.7%) under Emperor Romanos IV. (1068-1071), 14 carats (58%) under Michael VII. (1071-1078), 8 carats (33%) under Nikephoros III. (1078–1081) and 0 to 8 carats during the first eleven years of the reign of Emperor Alexios I (1081–1118).
Under Alexios I, the already completely devalued histamenon and tetarteron were abolished as part of the coin reform of 1092 and a new gold coin with a gold content of initially 900 to 950 thousandths (21.6–22.8 carats) was introduced. This new coin was called Hyperpyron , weighed 4.5 g like the solidus and later had a fineness of 21 carats (alloy ratio of 21 parts gold to 3 parts other metal or 875/1000). Despite the lower gold content, the hyperpyron is classified as a late Byzantine solidus.
The hyperpyron remained in circulation until the conquest of Constantinople (1453) , but lost its value due to the falling gold content. Under the dual rule of John V and John VI. (1347-1353) the hyperpyron was struck for the last time. This ended the Roman-Byzantine gold currency of the solidus, which had existed for over a millennium since its introduction under Constantine the Great .
Silver coins
For a long time, silver only played a minor role in Byzantine coinage. In addition to the siliquae and semi-siliquae, the very rarely minted miliarensia (singular: miliarense ), which are double siliquae, are to be mentioned as nominal values . Under Emperor Herakleios (610 - 641) a heavier silver coin, the hexagram (plural: Hexagrammata) was created, which was minted in larger quantities as a double miliarense, but disappeared again after a few decades. Leo III. (717–741) introduced the miliaresion (plural: miliaresia), which weighed around 2 grams and was able to hold its own until the coin reform of Emperor Alexios I (1081–1118) in 1092. From the coin reform in 1092 to around 1300, coin silver was only available in the form of alloys of the bowl-shaped electron-aspron-trachy gold-silver coins or trillion-aspron-trachy silver-copper coins. It was not until the fourteenth century that pure silver coins were minted again. From around 1300 onwards , Emperor Andronikos II introduced the so-called basilicon (plural: basilica), a thin silver coin with a high silver content based on the model of the Venetian grosso . Under Emperor John V (1341-1391) the 7.4 to 8.5 gram heavy Stavraton (plural: Stavrata) finally replaced the late Byzantine gold standard (Hyperpyron).
Copper coins
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Emperor Anastasios I reformed the Roman currency system in 498. He took up a reform that the Vandal King Gunthamund had recently successfully implemented. The old Nummi (singular: Nummus ) were extremely small bronze coins 8 to 10 millimeters in diameter, which were inconvenient to handle because a large number of them were needed for smaller transactions. The new bronze coins had the denominations of 40 Nummi , 20 Nummi , 10 Nummi and 5 Nummi (other values were also produced at times). The face of these coins contained a highly stylized portrait of the emperor, the reverse the indication of the value according to the Greek numerals : M = 40, K = 20, I = 10, E = 5.
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The Byzantine monetary system was changed during the 7th century when the 40 nummi ( follis ), now significantly smaller, became the only bronze coin that was still issued regularly. Although Justinian II (ruled 695 and 705-711) tried to restore the size of the follis from the time of Justinian I , it got smaller and smaller over time. In the 10th century, so-called "anonymous folles" were minted instead of the earlier coins that showed the image of the emperor. The "anonymous Folles" showed the bust of Jesus and the inscription XRISTUS / BASILEU / BASILE "(Christ, King of Kings) (see also: Iconoclasm ( Iconoclasm )).
Later, chalice-shaped coins, called trachi , were minted from both electrum (deteriorated gold) and billon (deteriorated silver). The exact reason why such coins were issued is not known, but it is believed that they were simply easier to stack. See also: Roman currency
Brief historical overview
In 330 AD the Roman Emperor Constantine I (306–337) had chosen the previously insignificant port town of Byzantion on the Bosporus as his new capital. This created the basis for an independent state in Eastern Europe. In addition, Christianity was elevated to the status of an imperial religion in 392 AD by Emperor Theodosius I (379–395). Constantinople , as Byzantion was now called, was a primarily Christian metropolis from the beginning of its capital city existence. Theodosius had also decreed the organizational division of the Roman Empire; 395 fell to one son Honorius the western half with Rome and the other son Arcadius the eastern half with Constantinople. This caesura was probably due to administrative reasons, because the huge state could hardly be controlled centrally with the increasing incursions of "barbaric" peoples . In 476 the Western Roman Empire went under in the turmoil of the Great Migration, whereas the Eastern Empire was able to defy all threats.
In the 6th century the Byzantine , Eastern Roman or Rhomaic empires (the terms can be used synonymously) experienced a new heyday. For that drew not least Justinian I (527-565) is responsible, the builder of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople Opel and initiator of the law collection of the Corpus Juris Civilis . Under his aegis, large areas of the former Roman Empire were recaptured in the west. Incidentally, many of the famous mosaics in Ravenna ( Sant'Apollinare in Classe , San Vitale etc.) also go back to Justinian . Nevertheless, the balance sheet of Justinian's government was ambivalent, especially domestically, if one wants to believe Prokopios of Caesarea , who was perhaps the first historian to practice double-entry bookkeeping: his secret story, the anecdota, never tires of accusing the same emperor and especially his power-conscious wife Theodora of mismanagement.
After military setbacks and a shrinking of the territory, the empire under Herakleios (610–641) seemed to regain its former glory. This emperor gave it a new administration, the thematic constitution. The country was divided into provinces, called "subjects," which were subordinate to military governors rather than civilians. Herakleios was also able to record foreign policy successes; he practically wiped out the Sassanid empire through his military campaigns in 627/28 and successfully defended his against the Avars and Arabs.
The 8th and first half of the 9th century, however, were shaken by internal, religious struggles. It was the era of the iconoclasm, iconoclasm (726–843). Influenced by the Islamic hostility to images with which the Byzantines in the oriental provinces now came into contact, and based on the Old Testament ban on images, many educated townspeople and the military began to take offense at the richness of images of the religious cult. The first emperor hostile to images, Leo III. (717–741) - moreover a great statesman - was typically from Syria. The struggle for or against the holy images was undecided for a long time: an iconodular ruler solemnly renewed those images that his predecessor had destroyed and his successor was supposed to destroy again. The break with Rome was also inevitable on several occasions, as the Pope tended to be on the side of picture lovers and banned some emperors and patriarchs, who ran Eastern Christianity quite independently. Quarrels between the Eastern and Western Churches, mostly motivated by (church) politics rather than dogmatically, occurred more often in later times. The final schism broke out in 1054 and continues to this day between the Orthodox churches and the various Western churches, despite numerous efforts towards union.
In 843 picture lovers finally gained the upper hand. In the so-called picture edict of Emperor Michael III. (842–867) and his mother Theodora , service to and with the icons was expressly required. This brought posterity a wealth of incomparable works of art, even if posterity sometimes found it difficult theologically. The following centuries were marked by a certain continuity. The empire was increasingly limited to the eastern half of the Mediterranean with today's Greece and Turkey as the center. Confrontations with Slavs and Arabs shaped the foreign policy scene. Under Basil II of the Macedonian family, who ruled for almost 50 years (976-1025), the situation also consolidated at the imperial borders. Because of his successes against the Bulgarians, he was given the nickname “Bulgaroktonos”, which translates as “Bulgarian slayer”. After Basil's death, however, the picture clouded over: properties were lost, only a few others were gained. In 1071 the Byzantines suffered a devastating defeat in the battle of Manzikert against the Seljuks , which permanently weakened their position in Asia Minor. The empire reached one of the last major political climaxes under the Comnenen dynasty , especially under Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118) and his immediate successors. They secured the borders and carried out domestic reforms.
In the course of the inglorious Fourth Crusade , the empire fell into the hands of crusaders in 1204, who hardly deserved the name. According to the testimony of Byzantine chroniclers, they carried out a bloodbath in Constantinople and the other cities. The empire fell apart; In addition to other vassal states under Venetian dominance, the so-called Latin Empire was founded. The Greek-Byzantine noble families went into exile and established themselves there with their own small provincial empires, for example in Nicaea and Trebizond (autonomous until 1461), later (after 1224) in Thessaloniki. In 1261 a general who had seized power in Nikäa and Thessaloniki succeeded in driving the "Latins" out of Constantinople and as Michael VIII Palaeologus (1261–1282) to ascend the throne of a reunited empire. Byzantium would now be ruled by the family of palaeologists until its fall . It took on more and more the character of a feudal state and had finally become politically secondary in the concert of the powers, constantly besieged by external enemies and limited to a few areas of Turkey and Greece. Instead, at the end of the 13th century, art and science experienced another great boom. In 1453 the once so important empire finally had to give way to the onrushing Ottomans. The Byzantine artists and scholars who fled to Western Europe when Constantinople fell , had a decisive influence on the beginning of the Renaissance .
See also
literature
- Wolfgang Hahn : Moneta Imperii Byzantini 1: From Anastasius to Justinianus I (491-565). Including the Ostrogothic and Vandal coinage . Vienna 1973. ISBN 978-3-7001-0400-1
- Wolfgang Hahn: Moneta Imperii Byzantini 2: From Justinus II. To Phocas (565–610). Including the issues of the Heraclius revolt and with supplements to the 1st volume . Vienna 1975.
- Wolfgang Hahn: Moneta Imperii Byzantini 3: From Heraclius to Leo III./Alleregierung (610-720) . Vienna 1981.
- Andreas Urs Sommer : The coins of the Byzantine Empire 491-1453. With an appendix: The coins of the kingdom of Trebizond. Battenberg Verlag, Regenstauf 2010, ISBN 978-3-86646-061-4 .
Web links
- Philip Grierson: Byzantine Coinage (Dumbarton Oaks, PDF; 720 kB)
- Andreas Urs Sommer: Catalog of the Byzantine coins in the coin collection of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . Universitätsverlag Göttingen, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-930457-30-X , p. 180 ( online [PDF; 1.6 MB ; accessed on March 9, 2017]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Philip Grierson Byzantine Coinage , Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection Publications, 1999, ISBN 978-0-88402-274-9 , p. 10
- ↑ David R. Sear, Byzantine Coins and Their Values, 1987, ISBN 978-0-900652-71-4 , Sear No 2526
- ^ Andreas Urs Sommer , The Coins of the Byzantine Empire 491-1453. With an appendix: The coins of the kingdom of Trebizond. Regenstauf: Battenberg Verlag, 2010, coin description 84.1.