Constantine V and Leo IV, Gold Solidus, Byzantine

Historical Context

Following the death of Leo III the Isaurian on 18 June 741 CE, imperial authority passed to his son, Constantine V. Constantine's early reign was immediately disrupted by internal strife: his brother-in-law, the kouropalates Artabasdos, mounted an armed rebellion and held Constantinople between mid-742 and November 743 CE with the backing of iconodule factions. After suppressing the revolt and regaining control of the capital, Constantine undertook an active campaign to secure hereditary dynastic succession.

On 6 June 751 CE, Constantine elevated his infant son Leo IV - later nicknamed 'the Khazar,' born in 750 CE to Empress Tzitzak - to the rank of Augustus. To broadcast and legitimize this imperial succession across the empire, the metropolitan mint at Constantinople revamped the design of the gold solidus (nomisma chrysoun). In place of a single reigning ruler or the bust of Christ Pantokrator introduced earlier under Justinian II, the new coinage presented an ancestral triptych spanning three generations: the living senior emperor Constantine V, the junior co-emperor Leo IV, and their deceased dynastic forebear, Leo III.

Solidi of this design were struck at Constantinople throughout the joint reign until Constantine's death while on campaign on 14 September 775 CE. An example of this series is preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession number 1968.59, gift of William Mathewson Milliken in memory of Thomas Kennedy Milliken). Institutional documentation records a diameter of 2.0 cm (13/16 in.) and an institutional reported weight of 4.45 g, dated by the museum to c. 751–775 CE.

Obverse Iconographic Composition

In the cataloguing tradition established by Philip Grierson for the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and followed in the accession registers of the Cleveland Museum of Art (sub-accession 1968.59.a), the face displaying the single bust of the deceased dynastic founder is designated as the obverse. Other cataloguing systems, such as David Sear's handbook and various commercial publications, invert this order by assigning obverse status to the living Augusti.

This face depicts the solitary, facing bust of Leo III, founder of the Isaurian dynasty, who died in 741 CE. He is portrayed with a short, neatly trimmed beard and mustache. He wears an imperial crown surmounted by a cross on the circlet. Distinguishing him from the living co-rulers on the opposite face, Leo III is clad in the imperial loros, an ancient ceremonial consular scarf adorned with raised diamond patterning, pearls, and pellets. In his right hand, held upright before his chest, he grasps a vertical staff terminating in a cross potent. The entire composition is enclosed within an outer linear or dotted border.

Obverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The inscription accompanying the single bust reflects traditional Byzantine Latin imperial acclamations rendered in eighth-century epigraphic uncials.

• Observed Legend: C LЄON P A MЧL (with die variants reading G LЄ - ON P A MЧL), followed on many dies by an isolated terminal letter.
• Specific Specimen Reading: On the Cleveland specimen, the legend begins at the lower left perimeter with C LЄ, is divided at the apex by the cross atop Leo's crown, and proceeds down the right field as ON P A MЧL, concluding with a distinct terminal letter resembling a Greek theta (Θ).
• Language: Latin.
• Script: Mixed Byzantine epigraphic uncial with cursive and lunate forms, including lunate epsilon (Є), standard Latin P, and the character Ч representing Latin V.
• Transliteration: [Dominus / Augustus] Leo per annos multos [Theta].
• English Translation: '[Lord / Augustus] Leo, [may he reign] for many years! [Officina / Emission Mark 9]'.
• Placement: Marginal circular legend running clockwise, interrupted at the top by the imperial crown.

Reverse Iconographic Composition

Designated as the reverse in the Dumbarton Oaks arrangement and Cleveland Museum accession data (sub-accession 1968.59.b), this face depicts the two living co-emperors shown side by side as half-length facing busts.

To the viewer's left stands the senior Augustus, Constantine V, portrayed with a short, squared or rounded beard and mustache. To the viewer's right stands his young son and junior co-emperor, Leo IV, shown beardless. Both figures wear imperial crowns surmounted by a cross and are dressed in the imperial chlamys (military cloak), fastened at the right shoulder by a round fibula. In the field between their heads sits a raised pellet, while directly above, in the upper field between the two crowns, rests an isolated cross pattée. The composition is encircled by a dotted border.

Reverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The reverse inscription identifies the living co-rulers in the Greek vernacular, contrasting with the Latin formula preserved on the ancestral face.

• General Series Legend: COnSτAnτInOS S LEOh O hEOS (frequently cut as COhSƮAҺƮIҺOS S LЄOҺ O ҺЄOS).
• Specific Specimen Reading: The Cleveland specimen exhibits partial striking weakness along the left perimeter, showing COhS... at the left before continuing clockwise along the upper right perimeter with S LЄOh O hЄOS.
• Language: Greek (Κωνσταντῖνος καὶ Λέων ὁ νέος).
• Script: Mixed Byzantine Greek-Latin uncial script. Engravers utilized the Latin letter S as an abbreviation for the Greek conjunction kai (καὶ, 'and'), Latin C for Greek lunate sigma, and minuscule/uncial forms such as h for Greek eta.
• Transliteration: Kōnstantīnos kai Leōn ho neos.
• English Translation: 'Constantine and Leo the younger'.
• Placement: Continuous circular marginal inscription bordering the imperial portraits.

Typology and Documented Variants

Under the classification established by Philip Grierson, the Constantinopolitan gold solidi of Constantine V are divided into two principal typological classes:

1. Class 1 (DOC 1; Sear 1550; c. 741–751 CE): Struck prior to the elevation of Leo IV. This class features Constantine V alone on one face and Leo III on the other, both emperors holding a cross potent and an akakia.
2. Class 2 (DOC 2; Sear 1551; c. 751–775 CE): The dynastic three-figure issue pairing the living co-emperors Constantine V and Leo IV with the posthumous bust of Leo III.

Within Class 2 struck at Constantinople, several varieties are differentiated by punctuation, portrait proportion, and terminal letters on the single-bust legend:

• Unmarked Issues: Subtype 2a terminates cleanly after the acclamation (P A MЧL) without an appended character.
• Marked Issues: Subtypes 2b through 2e append a Greek letter or numeral, specifically A (DOC 2b), B (DOC 2c), Γ (DOC 2d), or Θ (DOC 2e; Füeg Series 6.B / 7.A). Subtype 2g terminates with the letter Φ (DOC 2g; Füeg Series 6.A.2). The Cleveland specimen exhibits the terminal letter Θ, aligning its diagnostic features with these recorded emissions.
• Portrait Evolution: Franz Füeg's die study demonstrates that issues produced immediately after 751 CE depict Leo IV noticeably smaller than his father to reflect his status as an infant co-ruler. In later emissions struck towards the end of Constantine's reign (c. 764–775 CE), the two busts are engraved at equal height as Leo reached adulthood.
• Provincial Comparisons: Solidi struck at the western mint of Syracuse in Sicily (DOC 15; Sear 1565) differ markedly from the metropolitan series. Sicilian strikes are characterized by smaller, thicker flans, lower average weights (~3.80–3.95 g), cruder stylistic execution, and blundered legends (such as CONTAN LЄON).

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

Numismatic scholarship on Class 2 solidi centers on three primary interpretative questions:

1. Initial Letter Epigraphy (C vs. G vs. d): The opening character on the single-bust legend has generated long-standing debate. Warwick Wroth transcribed the character as G, interpreting it as an abbreviation for Augustus. Philip Grierson argued that the letter represents a rounded cursive Latin d, continuing the traditional imperial title Dominus (Dominus Leo per annos multos). He observed that eighth-century die cutters frequently curved or omitted the upright ascender of the uncial d. Cécile Morrisson emphasized that the period was marked by extensive orthographic hybridization, during which engravers combined Latin and Greek characters without strict mechanical consistency.

2. Terminal Characters and Mint Organization: In earlier Roman and Byzantine coinage, terminal letters on solidi indicated the individual workshop (officina) responsible for production, running from A through I for workshops 1 to 10. Grierson and Füeg demonstrated that by the mid-eighth century, the gold mint in Constantinople operated only two or three active workshops. Consequently, isolated characters such as Θ (9) or Φ (phi) are understood by modern numismatists not as literal physical workshops, but as internal emission marks, cyclic sequence codes, or alloy batch indicators.

3. Posthumous Acclamation and Iconoclasm: The formula per annos multos ('for many years!') was historically a living acclamation chanted by the Senate and circus factions for a reigning ruler. Its application to Leo III a decade or more after his death indicates that the phrase had become an immobilized, formulaic title of legitimation. While early scholarship often treated the absence of Christ's portrait as an exclusive byproduct of the Council of Hiereia in 754 CE, modern numismatists view the design as an instrument of dynastic survival. Following the usurpation of Artabasdos, the display of three unbroken generations provided essential political validation that operated in tandem with imperial religious policy.

References

1. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Solidus with Leo IV the Khazar and His Father Constantine V Copronymus (Acc. 1968.59). Accession record 1968.59 (sub-records 1968.59.a and 1968.59.b)
2. Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, Volume Three: Leo III to Nicephorus III, 717–1081. Part 1: Leo III to Michael III (717–867). pp. 62–64, 80–82, 229–230, 297–303 (Class 1 and 2, nos. 1–2g, 15)
3. Byzantine Coins and Their Values (2nd rev. ed.). Sear nos. 1550, 1551, 1565
4. Catalogue of the Imperial Byzantine Coins in the British Museum, Volume II. pp. 378–380, pl. XLIV
5. Corpus of the Nomismata from Anastasius II to John I in Constantinople 713–976. Constantine V and Leo IV, Series 4–7