1. Artemide Aste
  2. Artemide LXI (4-5 May 2024)
  3. The Byzantine Empire
Lotto 773:
Leontius (695-698). AV Solidus, Constantinople mint. Obv. D LЄO-N PЄ AV. Bearded bust facing, wearing crown with cross on circlet and lozenge pattern loros, akakia in raised right hand, globus cruciger in left. Rev. VICTORIA-AVϚЧ Θ . Cross potent with base on three steps; CONOB below. D.O. 1a; MIB 1; Sear 1330. AV. 4.50 g. 20.00 mm. RR. Very rare and choice, with intense portrait. Areas of flat strike, otherwise. good EF.
Ex Nomos 19, 2019, 420.
Of Isaurian origin, Leontius was a very efficient military leader and served capably under several emperors. Constantine IV appointed him strategos of Anatolikon. Justinian II sent him to campaign against the Arabs in Armenia and Georgia, in 686. Defeating the Arab raiders, Leontius campaigned successfully into Azerbaijan and Albania, gathering loot and gaining a reputation for cruelty. This campaign convinced the Caliph Abd al-Malik to renew his treaty with the Byzantines, originally signed during the reign of Constantine IV, with more favorable terms for the Byzantine Empire. The Caliph agreed to share the income from Armenia, Iberia, and Cyprus and increased the amount of yearly tribute paid to the Byzantines. In 692, after a Byzantine defeat at the battle of Sebastopolis due to the desertion of a large contingent of Slavs, Justinian II, holding Leontius responsible, imprisoned him in Constantinople. In 695, after further setbacks against the Arabs, Justinian II released Leontius and appointed him strategos of Hellas. Leontius, once freed from prison, quickly organized a rebellion against the emperor. With support from the Blue faction and the patriarch Callinicus, Leontius and his followers seized Justinian II and proclaimed Leontius as emperor. Leontius had Justinian's nose and tongue slit and him exiled to Cherson in the Crimea.
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