Only One Cited in MIBE

Triton XIX, Lot: 701. Estimate $5000. Sold for $7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Theodosius III of Adramytium. 715-717. AV Solidus (21mm, 3.44 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck 716-717. ∂ N TҺЄO–DOSIS AVς, crowned bust facing, wearing loros, holding globus cruciger in right hand, akakia in left / VICTORI AVς, cross potent set on three steps; L to left, star to right; (cross of four pellets)//CONOB. Cf. DOC 11 (A officina in place of pellets); MIB N8 (same dies); SB 1498. Good VF, graffito (“X”) in obverse field. Extremely rare, only one cited in MIBE.

Little is known about Theodosius III. He was a tax-gatherer from Adramytium who reluctantly accepted the purple when the troops in Opsikion revolting against Anastasius II. He appears to have had little appetite for governing and abdicated in 717 to become a monk. He has been identified with the bishop “Theodosius of Ephesus, son of Apsimar,” who was spiritual advisor to Leo III in the 720s and presided over Constantine V’s Iconoclastic Council in 754.

Only one other Rome mint solidus of Theodoisus is in CoinArchives (CNG 61 [25 Septemnber 2002], lot 2176), which hammered at $8250. That coin was the slightly more common variant with the officina at the end of the reverse legend.