Justinian II and Tiberius: Gold Solidus of the Second Reign

Historical Context

Justinian II was the final ruling emperor of the Heraclian dynasty, initially acceding to sole power in 685 CE upon the death of his father, Constantine IV. His first decade of rule was defined by ambitious administrative reforms, heavy tax exactions, and major ecclesiastical initiatives, most prominently the Quinisext Council (Council in Trullo) convened in 691–692 CE. Canon 82 of this council declared that Christ should no longer be represented by symbolic allegories such as the Lamb of God, but rather portrayed directly in human form. In close alignment with this theological decree, Justinian introduced the iconic facing bust of Christ Pantokrator to the imperial gold coinage around 692 CE, relegating the emperor's portrait to the reverse.

Widespread aristocratic and civic discontent against Justinian's fiscal administration culminated in the military coup of 695 CE led by the general Leontios. To permanently disqualify Justinian from reigning under contemporary imperial custom, the conspirators slit his nose - giving rise to his historical sobriquet Rhinotmetos ('the slit-nosed') - mutilated his tongue, and banished him to the Crimean fortress of Cherson. Over the subsequent decade, Justinian managed a dramatic escape, sought political sanctuary among the Khazars, married the sister of the Khagan (who took the Christian name Theodora), and subsequently secured an alliance with Khan Tervel of Bulgaria. In the summer of 705 CE, Justinian marched upon Constantinople with an army of Bulgars and Slavs, penetrated the defenses through an unused aqueduct, and deposed his rivals Leontios and Tiberius III Apsimarus, reclaiming the throne in an extraordinary imperial restoration.

Shortly after establishing control over the capital, Justinian summoned Empress Theodora and their infant son Tiberius to Constantinople. In late 705 or early 706 CE, Tiberius was elevated to the rank of Augustus, establishing him as co-emperor and formal successor. This child co-ruler is historically distinct from earlier monarchs of the same name, including Tiberius II Constantine (reigned 578–582 CE), and from the usurper Tiberius III Apsimarus (reigned 698–705 CE). The joint reign of Justinian II and Tiberius persisted until late 711 CE, when a naval uprising centered in Cherson under Philippicus Bardanes sailed against the capital. Justinian was captured and executed in northern Anatolia, while the six-year-old Tiberius was forcibly taken from sanctuary at the Church of the Virgin in Blachernae and killed, terminating more than a century of Heraclian dynastic continuity.

Obverse Iconographic Composition

The obverse of the joint solidus is devoted exclusively to the sacred image of Jesus Christ Pantokrator, resuming the numismatic convention introduced during Justinian II's first reign, but deploying an entirely restructured visual composition.

Christ is depicted in a facing, half-length bust set within a beaded border. The cross of the Passion is positioned behind His head, with the horizontal arms emerging on either side of the neck and ears, while the vertical bar rises past the crown of the head. In sharp contrast to the flowing, Hellenistic portrayal favored between 692 and 695 CE, Christ's hair on this second-reign series consists of tightly arranged, compact curls that cling closely to the scalp and form an even horizontal row across the brow. The beard is similarly short, rounded, and trimmed closely along the jawline.

Christ is dressed in a classical pallium draped over an underlying colobium. His right hand is elevated before the center of the chest in the traditional gesture of Christian benediction, with fingers arranged to form the sacred monogram or sign of blessing. Supported in His left hand is a prominent, jeweled Book of the Gospels, rendered with an ornate binding featuring pellet or gem motifs along the margins. This distinct visual tradition is widely categorized in art-historical literature as the Syrian or Semitic type of Christ, signaling a clear stylistic departure from earlier classical models.

Obverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The obverse displays a complete peripheral inscription rendered in early medieval Byzantine hybrid uncial script:

• Epigraphic Transcription: d N IhS ChS REX REGNANTIUM
• Latin Transliteration: Dominus Noster Iesus Christus Rex Regnantium
• English Translation: 'Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of Kings' (literally, 'King of those who reign')

The legend begins at the upper left and proceeds clockwise along the interior beaded perimeter. On individual strikes, such as the specimen preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession 1968.57), the initial formulaic invocation d N I may be weakly struck or partially truncated by flan boundary displacement, leaving the core christological titles clearly visible as ...hS ChS REX REGNANTIUM.

The script exhibits the paleographic blend typical of early eighth-century imperial die engraving in Constantinople. Although Latin remained the administrative and numismatic language of state gold coinage, the letterforms incorporated pronounced uncial and Greek-influenced ductus, notably the minuscule-formed d and h, the lunate sigma rendered as C, the Latin E appearing as an uncial lunate epsilon, and the uncial form of U or V. The inscription affirms the subordinate status of the earthly monarchs beneath the supreme sovereignty of the heavenly King.

Reverse Iconographic Composition

The reverse composition represents the collegiate authority of the restored dynasty, portraying facing half-length busts of Justinian II on the viewer's left and his son Tiberius on the viewer's right.

Justinian II is represented as a mature, bearded ruler, with neatly curled hair at his temples and a trimmed beard framing his jaw. He wears a pearl-diademed imperial crown surmounted by a modest cross. Tiberius is depicted on the right as a youthful, beardless prince, wearing an identical cross-surmounted crown. Both rulers wear the ceremonial chlamys, fastened at the right shoulder by a jeweled fibula with pendilia, over an imperial tunic.

Centering the field between the two Augusti is a tall cross potent elevated on a stepped platform, typically featuring two or three distinct horizontal tiers. The father and son jointly hold the vertical shaft of this cross, visually expressing the shared exercise of imperial power and divine protection. Justinian's right hand grasps the higher portion of the cross staff, while Tiberius extends his left hand across his chest to support the lower shaft, visually denoting the junior emperor's subordinate collegiate status. This dual-ruler tableau stands in direct contrast to the short-lived sole-reign solidus of 705 CE (DOC Class 1), which portrayed Justinian alone holding a globus inscribed PAX alongside a cross potent.

Reverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The imperial title frames the perimeter of the reverse field:

• Epigraphic Transcription: d N IUSTINIANUS ET TIBERIUS PP A
• Latin Transliteration: Domini Nostri Iustinianus et Tiberius Perpetui Augusti
• English Translation: 'Our Lords Justinian and Tiberius, Perpetual Augusti'

The inscription commences at approximately the ten o'clock position and reads clockwise around the beaded rim. Typological variations across different die pairs display varied terminal abbreviations for the imperial title, including PP A, PP AVG, or P P A.

On the Cleveland Museum of Art specimen (accession 1968.57), the inscription runs completely around the peripheral margin, though the upper lettering above Justinian's crown exhibits die compaction and peripheral softening against the flan edge. Paleographically, the legend uses distinctive eighth-century imperial uncial forms, including uncial d for D, uncial b for B, and rounded uncial letterforms for U and V. The formulaic use of the plural title Domini Nostri and Perpetui Augusti emphasized the institutional unity and hereditary continuity of the restored imperial house.

Typology and Documented Variants

Gold solidi produced at the mint of Constantinople during Justinian II's second reign are divided by numismatists into three sequential typological issues:

1. Sole Reign of Justinian II (Autumn 705 CE)

   • Classification: DOC Class 1; Sear 1413; MIB III 1.
   • Obverse: Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator with tight curly hair and short beard.
   • Reverse: Justinian II alone, wearing the consular loros instead of the chlamys, holding a cross potent on three steps in his right hand and a globus cruciger inscribed PAX in his left; legend reading D N IUSTINIANUS MULTUS AN.
   • Context: Struck during the initial weeks following the recapture of Constantinople, prior to the arrival and imperial elevation of Tiberius.

2. Joint Reign, Subtype A: Small/Child Tiberius (c. 705/706–708 CE)

   • Classification: DOC Class 2a; Sear 1414; MIB III 2a.
   • Obverse: Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator with short beard and tight curls.
   • Reverse: Justinian II and Tiberius holding cross potent on steps. Tiberius is depicted with an exceptionally small, diminutive bust, reflecting his physical infancy following his coronation.

3. Joint Reign, Subtype B: Enlarged/Older Tiberius (c. 708–711 CE)

   • Classification: DOC Class 2b; Sear 1415; MIB III 2b.
   • Obverse: Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator.
   • Reverse: Tiberius is portrayed with an enlarged bust and head approaching the scale of Justinian II, recording the prince's maturation from toddler to early childhood before their overthrow in 711 CE.

Institutional Specimen Analysis (CMA 1968.57): The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogues its specimen (accession 1968.57) under the broad chronological bracket 705–711 CE without an assigned subtype. Examination of the coin's iconography shows a broad bust of Tiberius that approaches Justinian's scale, matching the diagnostic criteria recognized for DOC Class 2b / Sear 1415. In accordance with strict cataloguing methodology, this classification is treated as an attributed numismatic interpretation rather than an institutional determination.

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

1. Prototypes of the Christ Pantokrator

A foundational debate in Byzantine numismatics concerns the visual origins of the second-reign Christ bust. James Douglas Breckenridge proposed that while the first-reign portrait derived from classical Phidian representations of Zeus, the second-reign bust reflected an authentic Syrian or Palestinian visual tradition, possibly associated with relics such as the Mandylion of Edessa or early Syrian manuscript illuminations. Alfred R. Bellinger and Philip Grierson largely accepted this typological dichotomy between classical and Semitic models. Subsequent art historians, however, have questioned whether these two distinct treatments represented competing regional theological schools or simply coexisting iconographic traditions maintained within imperial scriptoria and court workshops. The sudden reintroduction of Christ's portrait in 705 CE demonstrated that Justinian viewed Christological imagery as an indispensable divine mandate for his restored regime.

2. Chronological Delimitation of Joint Issues

Although the distinction between DOC Class 2a (child bust) and Class 2b (enlarged bust) is standard in numismatic taxonomy, the dividing date of c. 708 CE remains an informed scholarly inference rather than an administratively attested benchmark. Solidus dies of this era do not record indiction numbers or explicit regnal years. Consequently, the transition in Tiberius's portrait scale reflects an evolutionary engraving convention tracing the co-emperor's physical growth rather than a discrete, documented monetary reform.

3. Institutional Weight Metrics and Condition

The nominal weight of an eighth-century Byzantine solidus was 1/72 of a Roman pound, or approximately 4.50 to 4.55 grams, with well-preserved circulating coins typically weighing between 4.10 and 4.45 grams. The specimen in the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession 1968.57) records an institutional weight of 3.95 grams (0.14 oz.) and a diameter of 2.0 cm. This places the flan approximately 0.5 grams below the theoretical standard. In the absence of published specific gravity assays, edge microscopy, or condition commentary in the museum's database, attributing this mass difference to flan clipping, edge trimming for jewelry mounting, or an underweight blank remains strictly unverified. Furthermore, the number of visible steps beneath the reverse cross platform varies between two and three tiers depending on die centering and lower flan beveling.

References

1. The Cleveland Museum of Art Online Collection: Solidus with Justinian II Rhinometus and His Son Tiberius (Accession 1968.57). Accession record 1968.57
2. Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, Volume 2, Part 2: Phocas to Theodosius III (602–717). pp. 644–653, nos. 1–2b
3. Byzantine Coins and Their Values (2nd ed.). nos. 1413–1415, pp. 278–280
4. Moneta Imperii Byzantini (MIB), Band III: Von Heraclius bis Leo III. / Alleinregierung (610–720). nos. 1–2b
5. The Numismatic Iconography of Justinian II (685–695, 705–711 A.D.). pp. 46–62
6. History of the Byzantine State. pp. 138–144
7. Justinian II of Byzantium. pp. 89–144
8. The Byzantine Coins of Justinian II. Further reading: Essays in Roman and Byzantine Coinage Presented to Jocelyn M. C. Toynbee, pp. 136–141