The gold hyperpyron of Isaac II Angelos (1185-1195, 1203-1204) shows the emperor and the Archangel Michael holding together a sword, as the evidence of the divine gift of military power to the ruler. Numismatic studies and most of the art historical scholarship usually stress the warlike connotation of such a scene and insist on the…
After the victorious campaign against the emirate of Crete in 960-961, Nikephoros Phokas, the future emperor (963-69), received a new post of domestikos of the East from Emperor Romanos II (959-963). He was soon engaged in a new military campaign against Aleppo, the capital city of the Hamdanid emirate under Abuʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī I Sayf al-Dawla…
The word “tyrant” was often applied in Byzantine texts. Since ancient times, it was almost synonymous with the Greek term “basileus” (king), but it later started to designate a usurper, a monarch who became a ruler illegitimately. In the Roman times when the Greek term for the emperor was “basileus”, “tyrannos” still denoted a monarchical…