"Royal riders" on medieval Mediterranean coins: a unifying and enduring theme across the Byzantine Commonwealth

The sovereign on horseback is one of the commonest image in ancient and medieval royal art, both in the East and in the West. After late antique works depicting the supremacy of the ruler on the enemy, Constantinopolitan examples show an interest more and more focused on ceremonial aspects to the detriment of military leanings. Even if Byzantine numismatics just offers few chances of comparison, these immediately suggest an ideological and celebrative aim, developing a sacral meaning during the late period. Issues of the so-called Byzantine Commonwealth and other rival reigns present the subject more frequently, revealing multiple influences, thanks also to the mediation of Crusader imagery. Norman Italy’s examples express Western roots, as Turkoman issues hark back to antiquity preserving own traditions; Armenian solutions combine Eastern and Western features, whereas Bulgarian and Serbian ones turn out to be closer counterparts to Byzantine models. Trebizond Empire restated the remote and manifold origins of this iconography, consolidated up to the fall of the last “Greek State”. This legacy was later never abandoned both in the East and in the West, although through different interpretations.