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Herakleios and Herakleios Constantine (629–31)

 
 

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, wearing a chiton and maphorion, and holding Christ before her. Her left leg is bent at the knee. A small cross potent at shoulder level at left and right. Border of dots.

Reverse

Isocephalic busts of Herakleios at left and Herakleios Constantine at right. Each wears a crown with a cross and a chlamys. Herakleios is shown with a long beard and mustache and Herakleios Constantine with a short beard. Herakleios wears his hair long at the sides; while the left sidelock is combed downward and curls outward, the right seems to curl inward. A cross above and between the two figures. A circular inscription beginning at left. Border of dots.

..NN.EPACLISEEPA..........

[D(omini)] n(ostri) [H]eraclius et Hera(clius) [Const(antinus) p(er)p(etui) aug(usti)].

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, wearing a chiton and maphorion, and holding Christ before her. Her left leg is bent at the knee. A small cross potent at shoulder level at left and right. Border of dots.

Reverse

Isocephalic busts of Herakleios at left and Herakleios Constantine at right. Each wears a crown with a cross and a chlamys. Herakleios is shown with a long beard and mustache and Herakleios Constantine with a short beard. Herakleios wears his hair long at the sides; while the left sidelock is combed downward and curls outward, the right seems to curl inward. A cross above and between the two figures. A circular inscription beginning at left. Border of dots.

..NN.EPACLISEEPA..........

[D(omini)] n(ostri) [H]eraclius et Hera(clius) [Const(antinus) p(er)p(etui) aug(usti)].

Accession number BZS.1947.2.351 (formerly DO 47.2.351)
Diameter 24.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 6, no. 16.1; Zacos–Veglery, no. 13b (slightly different reading of inscription on obverse). Illustrated and discussed in Morrisson, “Du consul à l’empereur,” 259, table 1, and 264, no. 7. For a similar specimen found at Lamboussa/Kyrenia in Cyprus see Byzantine Seals from Cyprus, no. 3. See also Seibt, Bleisiegel, no. 12.

Translation

Domini nostri Heraclius et Heraclius Constantinus perpetui augusti.

Our lords Herakleios and Herakleios Constantine, eternal augusti.

Commentary

On gold coins dated by Grierson to the years 629–31 Herakleios is depicted with a long beard and a mustache, while Herakleios Constantine is represented with a short beard and mustache (for example, see: DOC 2.1:26g; MIB 3: Prägetabelle 1, nos. 29–37). Herakleios’s bust with long beard and mustache first appears on dated copper issues of year 20 (629/30) (see Grierson, “Solidi of Phocas and Heraclius,” 143).

On this seal, Herakleios displays a long, full beard, but whether Herakleios Constantine has a moustache is unclear. In Morrisson’s view this type of seal was initiated in late 628 or the beginning of 629. Speck, Bleisiegel, no. 2, has published a specimen which is similar to Zacos–Veglery, no. 13a. On the Berlin specimen it is quite clear that the bust of Herakleios Constantine is taller than that of his father.

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)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Du consul à l’empereur: les sceaux d’Héraclius (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals from Cyprus (Open in Zotero)
  • Die byzantinischen Bleisiegel in Österreich, Vol. 1, Kaiserhof (Open in Zotero)
  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, Vol. 2, Phocas to Theodosius III (602–717) (Open in Zotero)
  • Moneta Imperii Byzantini: Rekonstruktion des Prägeaufbaues auf synoptisch-tabellarischer Grundlage (Open in Zotero)
  • Solidi of Phocas and Heraclius: The Chronological Framework (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantinische Bleisiegel in Berlin (West) (Open in Zotero)