Watch List notes:

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, with Romanus I and Christopher, 913-959. Seal (Lead, 32 mm, 14.18 g, 12 h), 929-931. [+IhSЧSX-RISTЧS*] Bust of Christ facing, cross behind his head, raising his right hand in benediction and holding a book of Gospels in his left. Rev. +RO[MAn' XRIST]OF,...CONSTANT b R, ('Romanus, Chistropher and Constantine, emperors of the Romans') In center, large crowned bust of Romanus I, holding akakia in his right hand before his chest and a globus cruciger in his left hand; behind him, two crowned, smaller figures of Chistopher (on left) and Constantine VII (on right). DO VI 60 (dated circa 929-931). Seibt/Zarnitz 1.1.4. Zacos/Veglery 66d. A highly interesting and very impressive imperial dynastic seal. Some surface flaking on the obverse and with a part broken off on the edge. Very fine.


Constantine VII had been emperor since he was a child, but it was the Armenian admiral Romanus Lecapenus who exercised the real power in the empire and became Constantine's co-regent in 920. Romanus strengthened his position by elevating his eldest son Christopher to co-emperor in 921, followed by his other two sons in 924. Even though Constantine VII, whose epithet Porphyrogenitus ('born in purple') refers to his imperial descent as the son of Leo VI, was the nominal 'senior' emperor, dynastic seals such as ours prove that Romanus' son Christopher in fact enjoyed a higher status, as Constantine's name is preceded by those of Romanus and Christopher. The seal can be dated to 929-931 and it is the latest and finest sphragistic rendering of this unusual imperial constellation.