Lot 283
283
Romanus Diogenes, patrician and strategos (mid 11th century), bust of Saint Demetrios, in military dress, holding shield ornamented with a circle of pearls, vertical inscriptions in field to left and right, ***, rev. in six lines, ***, 10.70g. (unpublished; for another example see Fogg 1396), extremely fine
Romanus Diogenes, patrician and strategos (mid 11th century), bust of Saint Demetrios, in military dress, holding shield ornamented with a circle of pearls, vertical inscriptions in field to left and right, ***, rev. in six lines, ***, 10.70g. (unpublished; for another example see Fogg 1396), extremely fine

Details
Romanus Diogenes, patrician and strategos (mid 11th century), bust of Saint Demetrios, in military dress, holding shield ornamented with a circle of pearls, vertical inscriptions in field to left and right, ***, rev. in six lines, ***, 10.70g. (unpublished; for another example see Fogg 1396), extremely fine

Lot Essay

This is a seal of the future emperor Romanus IV, here at the very beginning of his career. Son of the general Constantine, who served Basil II, Romanus followed a distinguished military career. His success against the Petchenegs convinced Eudocia Makrembolitissa, widow of Constantine X, to take Romanus as her third husband in order to strengthen the empire against the growing menace of the Seljuk Turks. This was to no avail. The new emperor was defeated and captured by the Turks at the famous battle of Mantzikert in 1071. The next year he returned to Constantinople where he found he had been deposed, his wife had died, and he was seized by the new emperor Michael VII, blinded, and died soon afterwards.