• Source: English Wikipedia, original upload by Panairjdde
• Description: Michael III, 'the Drunkard', with Theodora and Thecla. 842-867 AD. AV Solidus (4.40 gm, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck 842-843 AD.

+QEOdO RA dESPVn'A, facing bust of Theodora, wearing crown and loros, holding patriarchal globus and cruciform sceptre

•MIXAHL S QECLA, half-length figures of Michael, holding globus cruciger in right hand, and Thecla, holding patriarchal cross and akakia.

DOC III 1d.3; SB 1686.

Michael was a child of two years when his father Theophilus died in 842 AD. His mother Theodora was effective ruler of the empire, and the first coinage of his reign gives her prominence of position. Michael was generally kept in the background, even overshadowed on the coins by his sister Thecla. In a typical example of Byzantine family intrigue, Bardas, brother of Theodora, conspired with the young emperor in 856 AD to remove the regent. Conspiracies continued to brew, and in 865 AD Bardas was murdered by Basil, an ambitious courtier who soon became co-emperor and eliminated Michael shortly thereafter. Although Michael was termed the "Drunkard", this smear on his name was perpetuated by Basil to justify his seizure of power. Michael appears as a conscientious ruler and able military leader, his only (fatal) failing being that he was too easily swayed by unscrupulous associates.

Classical Numismatic Group, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publishes it under the following licenses:

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htmlGFDLGNU Free Documentation Licensetruetrue

	This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
	Attribution: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com
	You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.
	This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/CC BY-SA 3.0Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0truetrue

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

Attribution: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com

You are free:

• to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to remix – to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

• attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5CC BY-SA 2.5 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 truetrue

You may select the license of your choice.

This work is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. If you wish to use this content, you do not need to request permission as long as you follow any licensing requirements mentioned on this page. The Wikimedia Foundation has received an e-mail confirming that the copyright holder has approved publication under the terms mentioned on this page. This correspondence has been reviewed by a Volunteer Response Team (VRT) member and stored in our permission archive. The correspondence is available to trusted volunteers as ticket #2006092710009217. If you have questions about the archived correspondence, please use the VRT noticeboard. Ticket link: https://ticket.wikimedia.org/otrs/index.pl?Action=AgentTicketZoom&TicketNumber=2006092710009217 Find other files from the same ticket:

derivative works

Derivative works of this file:  Solidus-Michael III-sb1686 (cropped).jpg

This file has been extracted from another file : Solidus-Michael III-sb1686.jpg