BYZANTINE COIN MAURICE TIBERIUS AE13 3.62g CATANIA MINT YEAR 1=582 AD SEAR580

Description

BYZANTINE COIN MAURICE TIBERIUS AE13 DECANUMMIUM 3.62g CATANIA MINT YEAR 1=582 AD SEAR 580
DN TIB MAVRIC PP AV   CROWNED & CUIR BUST FACING (SOME ANCIENT DAMAGE AT NOSE) HOLDING GLOBUS CRUCIGER & SHIELD
LARGE 1 BETWEEN ANNO & 1 (REPRESENTING YEAR ONE OF HIS REIGN)
COOL, THICK EARLY DATED ANCIENT COIN
I WILL SHIP OVERSEAS ONLY THROUGH THE GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM OR OTHER US BASED SHIPPING PROGRAMS
Maurice Tiberius was a prominent General who fought the Sassanids as a young man and who brought the war with Persia to a victorious end as the Byzantine Emperor by marrying his daughter to Khusraw II.  He was also successful in pushing the Avars back across the Danube in 599.  He was the last emperor of the Justinian Dynasty.  In 602, a dissatisfied general named Phocas, usurped the throne and had Maurice and his 6 sons murdered.  This sparked a war with Persia that devastated both Empires and left them helpless against the attacking Muslims.
Catania was founded in approximately 730 BC as a Greek colony, but the circumstances are unknown.  Hieron of Syracuse changed the name to Aetna, but when he died the inhabitants were expelled and the Chaldicians took over in 461 BC.  They soon got involved in the Peloponesian War and the city became the headquarters of the Athenian Army.  After the war it became the property of Dionysius of Syria who sold its people into slavery and gave up the city to plunder.  It briefly fell to Carthage but regained its independence as a Greek city.  They were the 1
st
people to combine dancing with flute music (pre-Jethro Tull). Catania submitted itself to the Roman Republic during the 1
st
Punic War in 263 BC and maintained friendly relations with Rome, becoming a colony under Augustus.  It was sacked by the Vandals of Gaiserl in 440 and then conquered by the Byzantines in 535.  It stayed Byzantine until the 9
th
century, when it fell to the Islamic Emerate of Sicily.  Roger I of Sicily became King when the Normans invaded in 1092.  It was then sacked by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, although there were several revolts against the empire in 1232 and 1282, it stayed part of the empire.  In 1860, Garabaldi conquered Sicily and Catania became part of Unified Italy.  Catania sustained heavy bombing during WWII.
Important events in the year 582 AD:  Byzantine Emperor Maurice Tiberius ascends the throne; Avars capture Sirmium after a 3 year siege;  Gundoald claims Poitiers and Toulouse and ursurps the Frankish throne; Visigoths capture Merida Spain; Persians fail in attack on Constantina Turkey; Chinese Emperor Wendi builds new capitol; Births: Arnulf of Metz; Deaths:  Eutychius of Constantinople, Ashino, Empress of Northern Zhou, Tiberius II Constantine, Byzantine Emperor, Xuan Di, Chen Dynasty Emperor