Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 1120. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CONSTANTINE VII, Porphyrogenitus, and ROMANUS I, Lecapenus. 913-959 AD. AV Solidus (4.40 gm). Constantinople mint. Struck 921 AD. +IhS XPS REX REGNANTIUM*, Christ, nimbate, enthroned facing, raising hand in benediction and holding Gospels / ROMAN ET COnSTANT AUGG b, crowned facing busts of Romanus I, with short beard and loros, and Constantine VII, beardless and wearing chalmys, holding patriarchal cross between them. DOC III 4; BN 10; SB 1746. EF. ($1000)

Romanus Lecapenus came to the attention of the imperial court during a successful career in the navy. Both his accomplishments and his daughter caught the eye of the emperor Constantine VII, who married the daughter and made the father co-emperor in 920 AD. Within a few years, Constantine found himself surrounded by Lecapenoi, as Romanus concentrated power in his own hands, by raising his sons Christopher, Stephen, and Constantine to co-rulers and diluting the authority of the nominally senior emperor. Even Constantine VII's own son was named Romanus. Constantine finally outmaneuvered Romanus, turning the family's own ambitions against themselves, encouraging the sons to oust the father in 944, and then deposing the sons the following year. On this solidus from early in their joint reign, Romanus wears the loros, costume of the junior rank. On later bronze issues he is often found clad in the chlamys.