Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 1746. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TREBIZOND. Theodora. Circa 1285. AR Asper (2.71 gm). St. Eugenius standing facing, holding long cross / Theodora standing facing, holding globus cruciger, the Hand of God crowns her. Retowski 1; SB 2618. VF, weak strike on the periphery. Rare. ($500)

Theodora, the older sister of John II, ruled in her own name for a brief period in the middle of his reign. The details of her usurpation, if that is what it was, are unclear. The only reference is by a chronicler, who remarks that Theodora "fled suddenly to Kyria." The miniature empire of Trebizond was established in 1204, or possibly slightly earlier, by Alexius, a prince of the royal Comnenus line which had been deposed by the Angeloi in 1185. The chaos that ensued after the Crusader sack of Constantinople in 1204 allowed the Trebizonds to establish secure borders between the Black Sea and the Pontic mountains, develop a profitable trade network, and negotiate favorable diplomatic marriages with the Byzantines, Georgians, and Turks. The Trebizond princesses were renowned for their intelligence and beauty, and were valuable commodities for the royal house. Three of them--Theodora, Irene, and Anna--ruled in their own right for brief periods. Theodora is the only one for whom coins were struck. The Trebizonds did well with their limited resources, but were always in a precarious position, isolated from their natural Christian allies and existing only on the sufferance of their powerful neighbors, the Seljuks, Mongols and Ottomans. In 1461 the Ottomans finally eliminated this last remnant of Byzantine autonomy.