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Constantinople, 4th officina. D TIBЄRI-ЧS PЄ AV, crowned and cuirassed bust of Tiberius facing, holding spear in right hand and shield with horseman motif on left shoulder / VICTORIA AVΣЧ, cross potent set on three steps; Δ//CONOB. Sear 1360. DOC 1c. MIB 1. Faint hairlines in reverse fields, otherwise uncommonly well struck and lustrous. In hand, this coin is struck in really high relief, this guy's cheeks and nose pop off the coin.
Tiberius was a Germanic naval officer from the region of Pamphylia and originally named Apsimar (Αψίμαρος, Apsímaros), who participated in the failed campaign to regain Carthage in 698. As admiral John the Patrician retreated from Carthage to Crete, the fleet rebelled, deposed and murdered their commander, and chose Apsimaros as his replacement. Changing his name to Tiberius, Apsimaros sailed on Constantinople which was suffering from a plague and proceeded to besiege it. Basically, this guy was the pirate captain of a pirate fleet. Tiberius wasn't from Constantinople or really loyal to it, and neither was most of his crew.
His revolution attracted the support of the Green faction of Chariot racing fans, as well as detachments from the field army and the imperial guard, and officers loyal to him opened the gates of the city and proclaimed him emperor. Then his troops then proceeded to pillage the city! What an emperor.
When he was firmly established on the throne, he commanded that the nose of deposed Emperor Leontius be cut off, and ordered him to enter the monastery of Psamathion. Leontios had also mutilated his predecessor Justinian II in the same fashion three years earlier. Coins of Justinian II, from his first reign, are the first numismatic representation of Jesus that we know of. Justinian himself was not dead, but was also exiled in a monastery, really mad.
In 704 Justinian II escaped from exile seeking the aid of the Khazars and leading an army with them to Constantinople. For three days, Justinian tried to convince the citizens of Constantinople to open the gates, but to no avail. After opening the gates to the last guy, and getting pillaged, who could blame them? In the meantime, his troops had discovered a long abandoned water conduit beneath the city walls, through which Justinian and some of his supporters managed to enter the city on 21 August 705. Tiberius managed to escape the capital to Sozopolis, where he joined the army of his brother (who had been entrusted with military rule over a large territory). Their soldiers, however, began deserting them, and Tiberius and Heraclius were captured by Justinian's troops. Can't trust pirates.
Heraclius and many of his senior officers were then hanged from the city walls, while Tiberius and Leontius were paraded in chains through the capital before being presented before Justinian in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. There, before a jeering populace, Tiberius's nose was cut off. Justinian placed his feet on the necks of Tiberius and Leontios in a symbolic gesture of subjugation before they were brought to the Kynegion for their execution by beheading. This was kind of unfair, since both Leontius and Tiberius had just been nose slicers, not head choppers.