Subject
Coin, Weight, Byzantine, 5century, Late_Roman, Early_Byzantine
Description
A bronze coin weight with the busts of three emperors, this is an example of the currency produced and used by early Byzantium. It follows their tradition of carving their current emperor's likeness on their coins, but more interestingly it follows the rarer tradition of carving his co-emperors (his most trusted advisors) alongside him, which can give us a sense of their political culture. The figure on the opposing side, though not obviously religious, does not have to be secular, and so we can get a taste of the rise of religiosity through the way they chose to decorate their coins. This level of detail hints at the sophistication of their metal industry, and at the structural integrity of their empire through the strong state mining operation that controlled it. It thus also leads into a discussion of the Byzantine economy and its complexity (how were the coins distributed? What was their purchasing power? What was the income disparity? Etc.).