Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1203. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHILIPPICUS. 711-713 AD. AV Solidus (4.44 gm). Constantinople mint. D N FILIPICUS MUL TUS AN, crowned bust facing, wearing loros and holding globus cruciger and eagle-tipped sceptre / VICTORIA AVSU, cross potent on base and three steps; E/CONOB. DOC II 1e; MIB III 1; BN 1 var. (officina); SB 1447. Superb EF. (See color enlargement on plate 19.) ($1500) 

Philippicus Bardanes was the scion of a prominent Armenian family from Pergamum. Placed in command of the expedition to ravage Cherson, Justinian II's former place of exile, he instead followed in Justinian's footsteps and led a revolt that toppled the brutal emperor. Once established in Constantinople he neglected military affairs, allowing the Bulgars and Arabs to raid Byzantine territory, while engaging in religious disputes with Catholics and Orthodox alike. Philippicus deposed the Patriarch of Constantinople, interfered in church councils, and showed iconoclastic tendencies. Frustrated officers in the Opsikion theme finally overthrew the ineffectual emperor after less than two years, blinding him and exiling him to a monastery.