Solidus (Coin) Portraying Heraclius and His Son Heraclius Constantine

Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

613-616

Byzantine; minted in Constantinople (now Istanbul)

After Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine emperors adopted Christian themes and symbols, most notably the cross, to stand for both the religion and the political state on their coinage. The previously ubiquitous profile portrait head was replaced by frontal or full-body depictions. Christ dominated the iconography, and Greek titles and phrases came to replace the Latin ones.

On the front (obverse) of this coin, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius is shown alongside his son, Heraclius Constantine; there is a cross between them. On the back (reverse) a Greek cross stands on a set of steps.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

Artist: Byzantine
Title: Solidus (Coin) Portraying Heraclius and His Son Heraclius Constantine
Place: Byzantine Empire (Minted in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Struck 613 CE–616 CE
Medium: Gold
Inscriptions: Obverse: ddNNhESACNuseth(?)ACONStPPAV Reverse: CONO[B] VICTORIA AVƸh
Dimensions: Diam.: 2.1 cm (7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Emily Crane Chadbourne
Reference Number: 1940.13
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/36629/manifest.json

Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago, by Karen Manchester (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2012), p. 29.

Emily Crane Chadbourne (1871- 1964), Paris, London, and Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1940.

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Solidus (Coin) Portraying Heraclius and His Son Heraclius Constantine

Currently Off View

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.