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Herakleios, Herakleios Constantine, and Heraklonas (638–41)

 
 

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, wearing a chiton and maphorion, and holding Christ, who is framed by an oval mandorla, before her. Her left leg is bent at the knee. A cross potent at left and right. Wreath border.

Reverse

Three emperors standing: in center, Herakleios, bearded; at left, Heraklonas (only partly visible); and at right, Herakleios Constantine, beardless. Each figure wears a crown with a cross and a chlamys and holds a globus cruciger in his right hand. Each emperor wears his hair long at the sides and curled. Their sidelocks are combed downward and outward. No inscription. Wreath border.

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, wearing a chiton and maphorion, and holding Christ, who is framed by an oval mandorla, before her. Her left leg is bent at the knee. A cross potent at left and right. Wreath border.

Reverse

Three emperors standing: in center, Herakleios, bearded; at left, Heraklonas (only partly visible); and at right, Herakleios Constantine, beardless. Each figure wears a crown with a cross and a chlamys and holds a globus cruciger in his right hand. Each emperor wears his hair long at the sides and curled. Their sidelocks are combed downward and outward. No inscription. Wreath border.

Accession number BZS.1958.106.513 (formerly DO 58.106.513)
Diameter 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 6, no. 17.14.

Commentary

The empress Martina’s eldest surviving son, Heraklonas, who was born in Lazica in 625 or 626, was raised to the rank of caesar on 1 January 632 and became an augustus in July of 638.  Early coins depict a diminutive Heraklonas wearing a cap with a cross above his head.  The transition from cap to crown with cross is generally considered as signalling Heraklonas’s rise to augustus.  The increasing size of Heraklonas relative to Herakleios Constantine marks the passage of years.

Heraklonas and Herakleios Constantine are the same size.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 6, Emperors, Patriarchs of Constantinople, Addenda (Open in Zotero)