Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 1113. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHILIPPICUS (Bardanes). 711-713 AD. AV Solidus (4.51 gm). Constantinople mint. D N FILIPICUS MUL TUS AN, facing bust with short beard, wearing crown and loros, holding globus cruciger and eagle-tipped sceptre / VICTORIA AVSU, cross potent on three steps; Q/CONOB. DOC II 1i; MIB III 1; SB 1447. Choice EF, sharp strike, scattered contact marks in fields. [See color enlargement on plate 20] ($1500)

From the Christopher Connell Collection.

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 he engaged in religious disputes. 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.