Extremely Rare Solidus of Leo VI, the Wise

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 455. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $11000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Leo VI the Wise. 886-912. AV Nomisma (4.14 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck AD 886-908. + mARIA +, half-length facing bust of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) orans; MR ΘЧ, each surmounted by macron, across field / LEOh Eh CRIS(τ retrograde)O bASILEЧS ROmEOh, crowned facing bust, wearing jeweled chlamys and holding patriarchal globus cruciger in right hand. DOC 1b; Füeg 2; SB 1724; Glendining (16 November 1950), 2277 (description of obv. and rev. transposed; same rev. die). Near VF. Extremely rare.

The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty, Leo VI, surnamed the Wise or the Philosopher, was of Armenian descent. During his reign, the Byzantine renaissance of literature which had begun under his predecessor Basil I continued. At the same time, however, the empire experienced several military defeats in the Balkans against Bulgaria and against the Arabs in Sicily and the Aegean.

Leo was born to Eudokia Ingerina, the then-mistress of Emperor Michael III and wife of Basil I. Basil, who succeeded Michael after the latter’s assassination in 867, legally acknowledged Leo as his son. Leo was then acknowledged as direct heir on the death of his older half-brother Constantine in 879. There was little love lost between father and son, and before Basil died as the result of a hunting accident in 886, he made a deathbed claim that implicated Leo in his death.

Although Leo sought to seek political reconciliation among all parties by securing the support of court officials and capable bureaucrats, he was unable to be as successful as his predecessor. His failure led to a number of serious conflicts with the powerful Byzantine families as well as the Church, and resulted in a number of wars with the Bulgarians, Russians, and Muslims. His numerous marriages failed to produce a legitimate heir; his successor, Constantine VII, was the offspring of his mistress, Zoe Karvonopsina, whom Leo subsequently made his fourth wife.