Owner Comments:
Romanos IV Diogenes ruled just a few years until 1071 when he was captured and his army routed at the Battle of Manzikert by the forces of Alp Arslan. Now we call the place Turkey.
From a CNG E-Auction in 2023.
ex M&M fixed price list 222(5/1962),55
NGC says it has graded 171 of these in all conditions, with CH AU coins falling just barely in the top 45% by grade.
Heritage says about this issue in its auction descriptions: "A distinguished general from Cappadocia, Romanus IV was backed by the military caste against the aristocratic civilian faction that had driven the Empire close to ruin. In January 1068 he compelled the Empress Eudocia, widow of Constantine X, to marry him and thus secured the throne. From the beginning he saw his main task as reversing the advance of the Seljuq Turks, who were raiding Asia Minor at will. Over several years, he rebuilt the depleted Byzantine field army with mercenaries and raw recruits. In 1071 he led 40,000 men on a grand campaign into eastern Anatolia, where, almost by accident, he encountered a smaller force led by the brilliant Seljuq Sultan Arp Aslan. In the resulting battle of Manzikert, the polyglot Byzantine army disintegrated and the Seljuqs captured Romanus on the field. Arp Aslan treated him with civility and released him, but the aristocratic faction at Constantinople deposed and brutally blinded him, leading to his death a few months later.
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