The aim of this paper is to present for the first time 51 Byzantine coins housed in the Coin Cabinet of the Tire Museum. The museum acquired this group of coins, which consists entirely of billon trachea, on 1st September 1989 from (†) Hasan Beden, a coin dealer who at that time was living in…
Charlemagne’s coronation in Rome in 800 as imperator had serious implications for Byzantine imperial ideology and was initially met with suspicion in Constantinople. However, in 812, a Byzantine embassy recognised the Frankish suzerain as imperatorem et basileum. As a consequence of this, many scholars agree that the emperor Michael I (r. 811-813) introduced the word…
With the coin series of the Macedonian dynasty (857–1056) as a point of reference, two case studies are subjected to scrutiny. In the first case study, the focus is on Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (913–959), who—after a long co-regency and as the fortunes of the Lekapenoi waned—managed to emerge as sole ruler in early 945. This…
Symbols function as schematic pictorial forms and synoptic versions of concepts, facilitating the transmission of beliefs and messages through mass communication in societies over the ages. Quite often, with the passage of time, the loss of context leads to the lack of an appropriate meaning for a particular symbol, which was entirely understandable within the…
Beyond their financial and economic role, coins function as material agents laden with layered meanings. Their physical and communicative properties often reflect and reinforce dominant ideologies, collective identities, and social imaginaries. Yet coins are not exclusively confined to their original contexts; they may also be repurposed, revalued, and reinterpreted across temporal and cultural boundaries. This…
Located within the region historically known as mountainous Phrygia, and as Phrygia Salutaris during the Early Byzantine period, modern-day Eskişehir was referred to as Dorylaion (Dorlion) in Greek during antiquity and the Middle Ages. Positioned along the strategic route between Constantinople and the Cilician Gates, the city served as an important assembly point for military…