The Immortal Emperor by Donald M Nicol

Author:Donald M Nicol [Nicol, Donald M]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Biography
ISBN: 9780521894098
Amazon: B002ACPILM
Goodreads: 89214
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1992-04-01T21:00:00+00:00

The Emperor Constantine ... died fighting. He was a wise and moderate man in his private life and diligent to the highest degree in prudence and virtue, sagacious as the most disciplined of men. In political affairs and in matters of government he yielded to no one of the Emperors before him in preeminence. Quick to perceive his duty, and quicker still to do it, he was eloquent in speech, clever in thought, and very accomplished in public speaking. He was exact in his judgements of the present, as someone said of Pericles, and usually correct in regard to the future - a splendid worker, who chose to do and to suffer everything for his fatherland and for his subjects.29

Later Greek historians were convinced that Constantine died as a hero and a martyr. Their conviction has never been questioned in the Greek-speaking world. His tragic reign lasted for only four years, four months and twenty-four days. In that short time he acted as an emperor should. Only some western sources suggest that he ever shirked his duty. Of his dignity, courage and strength of character there can be no doubt. Of his physical appearance, on the other hand, we know almost nothing. One of the duties of an emperor was to set his seal on documents of state, often bearing his own effigy. Constantine issued several such documents; but only two of his seals survive. The grander of the two is that once appended to the golden bull which he sent to the Commune of Ragusa in June 1451 and is now in Dubrovnik.30 The other was set on a letter which he wrote to the Marquis of Ferrara, Borso d'Este, on the occasion of the mission of Andronikos Leontaris to Pope Nicholas V in April of the same year.31 Both seals bear Constantine's portrait as Emperor on one side and the figure of Christ on the other. They depict him in his late forties, for he never attained his fiftieth year. They are, however, stylised and far from realistic. Like most of their kind they display the symbol rather than the person of imperial majesty. Both show a bearded Emperor standing with the Cross in his right hand and a book or scroll in his left. Each is inscribed, with minor variations, with the name of Constantine Palaiologos in Christ Autokrator; and in each he wears an imperial crown, a fact which seems to emphasise the symbolism, since he was never officially crowned.

Another duty of an Emperor was to mint coins bearing his own effigy. It was customary for such coins to be distributed at his coronation ceremony. Constantine never had the chance to do so. But he certainly issued some coins of his own, however limited in quantity. Two witnesses of the siege of Constantinople, Nicolo Barbaro and Leonardo of Chios, testify that in the months of crisis Constantine ordered sacred vessels to be removed from churches and melted down to produce coins to pay his soldiers, sappers and masons working on the repair of the walls.

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