Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 1798. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BASILISCUS and MARCUS. 475-476 AD. AV Solidus (4.48 gm, 6h). Constantinople mint. Pearl-diademed, helmeted, and cuirassed bust facing slightly right, holding spear and shield / Victory standing left, holding long jeweled cross; star in right field; G//CONOB. RIC X 1024; Depeyrot 105/4. EF, a few scufsf and scratches. Rare. ($1500)

Little is known of Marcus, the eldest son of the usurper Basiliscus who lost the 1,100-ship armada of Leo I to the Vandals. The accession of Zeno in 474 AD was not met with universal joy; it was comparatively easy for Basiliscus, the brother of Aelia Verina (who had arranged Zeno’s rise to power), to plot for the throne himself. Through a series of clever schemes, Basiliscus won the title of Augustus after Zeno had been tricked into fleeing Constantinople. Basiliscus hailed his wife Aelia Zenonis Augusta, and late in the summer of 475 AD, raised his eldest son Marcus to the rank of Caesar. A few weeks later he raised him to Augustus. Basiliscus’ duplicitous actions along the way, however, made both Zeno and Aelia Verina his enemies, and his reign lasted barely a year before he and his unfortunate son were deposed by Zeno.