ABSTRACT
When the emperor of Nicaea, John III Vatatzes (1222–54), decided sometime in the late 1220s to resume the minting of gold coinage that had been suspended since 1204, he selected as his prototype the hyperpyron of his namesake, the twelfth-century emperor, John II Komnenos (1118–43) (Figure 12.1). 1 Vatatzes closely imitated not only the iconography of the coin, but its epigraphy as well. Thus, the porphyrogennetos epithet, to which he had no right, figures prominently on his hyperpyra. The emperor’s choice to imitate coins dating back more than a century was most probably dictated by the prestige of the Komnenos name and the desire to connect himself with the celebrated family, something characteristic of every thirteenth-century Byzantine ruler. 2 Through imitation, John Vatatzes aimed at creating a visual connection with the imperial past, and more particularly with John Komnenos, whose high-standing reputation as a ruler had earned him the nickname Kaloioannes (John the Good). 3
