Skip to Content

Herakleios, Herakleios Constantine, and Heraklonas (638–41)

 
 

Obverse

Faint outline of the Mother of God standing, holding Christ before her. A small cross potent is visible at left. Wreath border.

Reverse

Three emperors standing: in center, Herakleios; at left, Heraklonas; and at right, Herakleios Constantine. Details indistinct. Indeterminate border.

Obverse

Faint outline of the Mother of God standing, holding Christ before her. A small cross potent is visible at left. Wreath border.

Reverse

Three emperors standing: in center, Herakleios; at left, Heraklonas; and at right, Herakleios Constantine. Details indistinct. Indeterminate border.

Accession number BZS.1958.106.553 (formerly DO 58.106.553)
Diameter 29.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 6, no. 17.2.

Commentary

The empress Martina’s eldest surviving son, Heraklonas, who was born in Lazica in 625 or 626, was raised to the rank of caesar on 1 January 632 and became an augustus in July of 638.  Early coins depict a diminutive Heraklonas wearing a cap with a cross above his head.  The transition from cap to crown with cross is generally considered as signalling Heraklonas’s rise to augustus.  The increasing size of Heraklonas relative to Herakleios Constantine marks the passage of years.

Heraklonas is considerably shorter than Herakleios Constantine. It is not possible to say if there is a cross above Heraklonas’s head.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 6, Emperors, Patriarchs of Constantinople, Addenda (Open in Zotero)