Skip to Content

Phokas (602–610)

 
 

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, wearing a chiton and maphorion, and holding Christ before her. A large cross potent with an elongated vertical shaft to left and right. Wreath border.

Reverse

Bust of Phokas. Details indistinct. A circular inscription beginning at left. Wreath border.

..F.CAS-PERPAVI

[D(ominus) n(oster)] F[o]cas perp(etuus) aug(ustus)

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, wearing a chiton and maphorion, and holding Christ before her. A large cross potent with an elongated vertical shaft to left and right. Wreath border.

Reverse

Bust of Phokas. Details indistinct. A circular inscription beginning at left. Wreath border.

..F.CAS-PERPAVI

[D(ominus) n(oster)] F[o]cas perp(etuus) aug(ustus)

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1622
Diameter 28.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 6, no. 11.2.

Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore.

Translation

Dominus noster Focas perpetuus augustus.

Our Lord Phokas, eternal Augustus.

Commentary

The seals of the emperor Phokas are remarkable as the first attempt to present distinctive facial features. The details are inspired by the coins (for example, DOC 2.1:5a.1 [pl. 1]; MIB 2: Prägetabelle X). On the obverse of Phokas’s solidus, the emperor is depicted with a pointed beard, and strands of hair, sharply defined, frame the face. He wears a crown with a cross on circlet, and, in coins struck between 603 and 607, pendilia are absent. O often replaces D as the initial letter of the reverse inscription in coins struck between 602 and 607. For a detailed discussion of the criteria that Grierson followed in dating Phokas’s eastern solidi, see his “Solidi of Phocas and Heraclius,” 131–38.

Unlike BZS.1951.31.5.7 and BZS.1951.31.5.1623, and like BZS.1951.31.5.1621, here the lower portion of the cross potent's shaft is more elongated than the upper.

On the reverse the final letter of AVC has been carved as an upright bar. Whether he is bearded is uncertain, and he seems to be holding a globus cruciger in his right hand.

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)
  • 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)