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Hyperpyron
The ''hyperpyron'' ( ''nómisma hypérpyron'') was a Byzantine coin in use during the late Middle Ages, replacing the ''solidus'' as the Byzantine Empire's gold coinage. History The traditional gold currency of the Byzantine Empire had been the ''solidus'' or ''nomisma'', whose gold content had remained steady at 24 carats for seven centuries and was consequently highly prized. From the 1030s, however, the coin was increasingly debased, until in the 1080s, following the military disasters and civil wars of the previous decade, its gold content was reduced to almost zero. Consequently, in 1092, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos ( 1081–1118) undertook a drastic overhaul of the Byzantine coinage system and introduced a new gold coin, the ''hyperpyron'' (meaning "super-refined"). This was of the same standard weight (4.45 grams) as the ''solidus'', but only 20.5 carat purity instead of 24, resulting in a reduced gold content of only 4.1 grams instead of 4.8 grams. The lower purity was due ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael VIII Palaiologos
Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Μιχαὴλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος, Mikhaēl Doukas Angelos Komnēnos Palaiologos; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as the co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 to 1261, and as Byzantine emperor from 1261 until his death in 1282. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. He recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire. His reign saw considerable recovery of Byzantine power, including the enlargement of the Byzantine army and navy. It would also include the reconstruction of the city of Constantinople, and the increase of its population. Additionally, he re-established the University of Constantinople, which led to what is regarded as the Palaiologan Renaissance between the 13th and 15th centuries. It was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andronikos II Palaiologos
, image = Andronikos II Palaiologos2.jpg , caption = Miniature from the manuscript of George Pachymeres' ''Historia'' , succession = Byzantine emperor , reign = 11 December 1282 –24 May 1328 , coronation = 8 November 1272 , cor-type1 = Coronation , regent = Michael IX Palaiologos , reg-type = Co-emperor , predecessor = Michael VIII Palaiologos (alone) , successor = Andronikos III Palaiologos , spouse = Anna of HungaryYolande of Montferrat , issue = Michael IX PalaiologosConstantine Palaiologos John PalaiologosTheodore I, Marquis of MontferratDemetrios Palaiologos Simonis (Simonida Nemanjić), Queen of SerbiaIrene Palaiologina (wife of John II Doukas), Sebastokratorissa of Thessaly , issue-link = #Family , issue-pipe = more... , dynasty = Palaiologos , father = Michael VIII Palaiologos , mother = Theodora Palaiologina , birth_date = 25 March 1259 , birth_place = Nicaea, Empire of Nicaea( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power and initiated a hereditary succession to the throne. Inheriting a collapsing empire and faced with constant warfare during his reign against both the Seljuq Turks in Asia Minor and the Normans in the western Balkans, Alexios was able to curb the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the Komnenian restoration. His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Turks was the catalyst that sparked the First Crusade. Biography Alexios was the son of John Komnenos and Anna Dalassene,Kazhdan 1991, p. 63 and the nephew of Isaac I Komnenos (emperor 1057–1059). Alexios' father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was thu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empire Of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhouse (1967), p. 55: "There in the prosperous city of Nicaea, Theodoros Laskaris, the son in law of a former Byzantine Emperor, establish a court that soon become the Small but reviving Greek empire." rump states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine/Roman Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian armed forces during the Fourth Crusade, a military event known as the Sack of Constantinople. Like other Byzantine rump states that formed after the 1204 fracturing of the empire, such as the Empire of Trebizond and the Empire of Thessalonica, it was a continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire that survived well into the medieval period. A fourth state, known in historiography as the Latin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trachy (currency)
The term ''trachy'' ( el, τραχύ), plural ''trachea'' (τραχέα), meaning "rough" or "uneven", was used to describe the cup-shaped (incorrectly often called "scyphate") Byzantine coins struck in the 11th–14th centuries. The term was properly applied to coins of electrum, billon, or copper, and not to the gold ''hyperpyra The ''hyperpyron'' ( ''nómisma hypérpyron'') was a Byzantine coin in use during the late Middle Ages, replacing the ''solidus'' as the Byzantine Empire's gold coinage. History The traditional gold currency of the Byzantine Empire had been the '' ...''. References Sources * Coins of the Byzantine Empire Numismatic terminology {{Byzantine-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billon (alloy)
Billon () is an alloy of a precious metal (most commonly silver, but also gold) with a majority base metal content (such as copper). It is used chiefly for making coins, medals, and token coins. The word comes from the French ''bille'', which means "log". History The use of billon coins dates from ancient Greece and continued through the Middle Ages. During the sixth and fifth centuries BC, some cities on Lesbos used coins made of 60% copper and 40% silver. In both ancient times and the Middle Ages, leaner mixtures were adopted, with less than 2% silver content. Billon coins are perhaps best known from the Roman Empire, where progressive debasements of the Roman ''denarius'' and the Roman provincial ''tetradrachm'' in the second century AD led to declining silver and increasing bronze content in these denominations of coins. Eventually, by the third quarter of the second century AD, these coins were almost entirely bronze, with only a thin coating or even a wash of silver. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement. Copper is one of the few metals that can occur in nature in a directly usable metallic form ( native metals). This led to very early human use in several regions, from circa 8000 BC. Thousands of years later, it was the first metal to be smelted from sulfide ores, circa 5000 BC; the first metal to be cast into a shape in a mold, c. 4000 BC; and the first metal to be purposely alloyed with another metal, tin, to create ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetarteron
The ''tetarteron'' ( el, όμισματεταρτηρόν, "quarter oin) was a Byzantine term applied to two different coins, one gold circulating from the 960s to 1092 in parallel to the ''histamenon'', and one copper used from 1092 to the second half of the 13th century. Gold coin Ever since Emperor Constantine I (r. 306–337), the Byzantine Empire's main coinage had been the high-quality ''solidus'' or ''nomisma'', which had remained standard in weight and gold content through the centuries. The Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969), however, introduced a new coin which was a 2 carats (i.e. about 1⁄12, despite its name) lighter than the original ''nomisma'', which now became known as the ''histamenon''... The exact reason for the introduction of the ''tetarteron'' is unclear. According to the historian Zonaras, this was done to increase state revenues: the taxes were to be paid as before in the ''histamenon'', while the state paid its own expenses in the less valuabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basilikon
The ''basilikon'' ( el, βασιλικόν όμισμα}, "imperial oin), commonly also referred to as the (Greek: δουκάτον), was a widely circulated Byzantine silver coin of the first half of the 14th century. Its introduction marked the return to a wide-scale use of silver coinage in the Byzantine Empire, and presaged the total abandonment of the gold coins around the middle of the century. History The ''basilikon'' was introduced shortly before 1304 by Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328), in direct imitation of the Venetian silver ducat or '' grosso'', chiefly to pay the mercenaries of the Catalan Company... The Byzantine coin closely followed the iconography of the Venetian model, with a seated Christ on the obverse and the two standing figures of Andronikos II and his son and co-emperor Michael IX Palaiologos (r. 1294–1320) replacing St. Mark and the Doge of Venice on the reverse. The similarity was reinforced by the name of the new coin: the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komnenian Period
The Byzantine Empire was ruled by emperors of the Komnenos dynasty for a period of 104 years, from 1081 to about 1185. The ''Komnenian'' (also spelled ''Comnenian'') period comprises the reigns of five emperors, Alexios I Komnenos, Alexios I, John II Komnenos, John II, Manuel I Komnenos, Manuel I, Alexios II Komnenos, Alexios II and Andronikos I Komnenos, Andronikos I. It was a period of sustained, though ultimately incomplete, restoration of the military, territorial, economic and political position of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium under the Komnenoi played a key role in the history of the Crusades in the Holy Land, while also exerting enormous cultural and political influence in Europe, the Near East, and the lands around the Mediterranean Sea. The Komnenian emperors, particularly John and Manuel, exerted great influence over the Crusader states of Outremer, whilst Alexios I played a key role in the course of the First Crusade, which he helped bring about. Moreover, it was d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tornese
The tornesel, tornesol, or was a silver coin of Europe in the Late Middle Ages and the early modern era. It took its name from the ', the of Tours. Marco Polo referred to the tornesel in recounts of his travels to East Asia when describing the currencies of the Yuan Empire.Henry Yule''The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition'' Third edition (1903), revised and updated by Henri Cordier. Plain Label Books. p. 1226-27. () His descriptions were based on the conversion of 1 bezant = 20 groats = tornesel. The ' was a subunit of the Neapolitan, Sicilian, and Two Sicilies ducat The ducat was the main currency of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies between 1816 and 1860. When the Congress of Vienna created the kingdom merging the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily, the ducat became at par a continuation of the Neapol ...s. References Medieval Italy Medieval currencies Coins of Italy Silver coins {{coin-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
