The Roman Empire, once a bastion of power and wealth, was crumbling by the time Emperor Diocletian came to power. His reign was marked by economic mismanagement, rampant inflation, and the debasement of Rome’s currency — a once-proud system reduced to chaos. Yet, the story of Rome didn’t end with its decline. It pivoted eastward, where a new empire would rise, carrying forward the torch of sound money and economic stability.
Enter Constantine the Great, a leader who not only reformed the Roman economy but set the stage for a golden age of Byzantine prosperity. His legacy, cemented in the creation of the solidus coin, would echo across centuries, outlasting empires and inspiring monetary systems that endure to this day.
Constantine’s Golden Reform
In 312 AD, Constantine, the first Christian emperor of Rome, introduced a bold new policy: the minting of the solidus, a gold coin weighing 4.5 grams. Unlike the debased and unreliable coins of his predecessors, Constantine committed to maintaining the solidus’s integrity. No clipping, no reduction in gold content — just a stable, honest currency.
This decision had transformative effects. By restoring trust in money, Constantine laid the foundation for economic stability. He further ensured Byzantium’s success by moving the empire’s capital east to Constantinople, a city strategically positioned at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. While Rome fell into chaos, Byzantium, built on sound monetary policy and fiscal discipline, thrived.
The solidus became the gold standard of its era — literally and figuratively. Over time, it earned the name bezant and was recognized worldwide as a reliable, widely accepted currency. From merchants in Europe to traders in the Islamic world, the bezant symbolized stability in an age of uncertainty.
The Fall of Rome, the Rise of Byzantium
While the Western Roman Empire succumbed to invasions, economic collapse, and internal decay — finally falling in 476 AD — Byzantium stood tall for another thousand years. The solidus was key to this resilience. It enabled trade, supported a thriving economy, and paid for a powerful military that kept the empire safe from external threats.
While Rome burned under emperors who could no longer afford to pay their soldiers or fund their cities, Constantinople prospered. Its markets bustled with goods from across the known world, and its walls remained unbreached for centuries. The Vandals and Visigoths that tore through the West had no such luck against the fortified and wealthy Byzantium.
But like all great things, the golden age of Byzantium couldn’t last forever. The first cracks appeared under Constantine IX Monomachos (1042–1055), when the emperors began debasing the solidus. Reducing its gold content provided temporary financial relief but set the stage for long-term decline. With each successive debasement, trust in the currency eroded, trade faltered, and Byzantium’s once-thriving economy began to unravel.
By the time Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the empire had long been a shadow of its former self. As with Rome, the fall of Byzantium was deeply tied to the collapse of its money.
The Bezant’s Lasting Legacy
Even after Byzantium’s fall, the bezant’s influence endured. Its design and integrity inspired the Islamic dinar, a gold coin that emerged during the golden age of Islam.
When the Umayyad Caliph Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan introduced the dinar in 697 AD, he modeled it on the bezant’s weight and size. Unlike other empires that succumbed to the temptation of currency debasement, Islamic civilizations maintained the dinar’s purity for centuries. This sound money policy played a key role in the flourishing of the Islamic world, enabling vast trade networks and cultural achievements that spanned from Spain to India.
Even today, the dinar continues to circulate in some Islamic regions, not as official currency but as a symbol of wealth and tradition. It is used in dowries, religious rituals, and gifts, a testament to the enduring salability of gold across time.
Seventeen Centuries of Stability
The story of the solidus, bezant, and dinar highlights an essential truth about money: integrity matters. When money holds its value, it enables trade, fosters trust, and supports the growth of civilizations. When it is debased, the consequences are dire — economic collapse, social unrest, and, often, the fall of empires.
From Constantine’s reform in 312 AD to the continued use of gold coins today, the solidus’s legacy reminds us of the importance of sound money. Over 1,700 years, its principles have outlived empires, adapted to new cultures, and inspired modern monetary systems.
In a world where currencies are increasingly untethered from tangible value, the story of the solidus offers a timeless lesson: the hardest money is the most enduring, and the most enduring money builds the strongest societies.
Byzantium, the Bezant, and the Legacy of Sound Money was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.