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| | (141) Constantine V and Leo IV (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02) |
 | | Constantine had been co-emperor with his father Leo III until he was made sole emperor upon Leo's death in A.D. Ten years later he made his own son, Leo IV, co-emperor. |
 | | The heads are almost identical, with the exception of Leo IV's clean-shaven face, and the conventions of rank obscure even their most well-known features; over the objections of the Church, Constantine wore no beard, but he is depicted with a beard on the coin to indicate his seniority. |
 | | Constantine's father, Leo III, had forbidden the veneration of icons, which had become widespread in the East, and this began an internal struggle between the iconoclasts, or destroyers of icons, and the iconodules, or worshippers of icons, which lasted for over a century. |
| www.lawrence.edu /dept/art/buerger/catalogue/141.html (300 words) |
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