Sicily presents to the ordinary tourist attractions which in number ...

156 ANTIQUITIES IN THE MUSEUM AT PALERMO.
He proceeds to argue that Eudocia here mentioned must
be the wife of Heraclius I, because the ring was discovered
in Syracuse, together with many gold coins of her grandson
Constans II, who, after an ineffectual attempt to
transfer the seat of empire from Constantinople to Rome,
took refuge in Sicily, resided there more than five years,
and was assassinated at Syracuse, A.D. 668. This view
calls for some remarks. In the first place it may be questioned
whether the ring was worn by any emperor or empress.
Many of the same pattern might have been made
to commemorate a marriage or coronation, or both events,
and presented to courtiers as marks of favour. Secondly,
the reasoning from the money found is by no means conclusive,
as a great number of coins were melted down by
the goldsmith Russo of Catania, so that, for all we know
to the contrary, they might have formed a series extending
over a long period. 1
While the cii-cumstances of the finding favour Salinas's
theory, an examination of the ring itself would rather lead
us to assign it to Eudocia Macrembolitissa. On the death
of Constantine XIII, A.D. 1067, she assumed the government
together with her sons Michael, Constantinus, and
Andronicus. Though her husband in his last illness had
bound her by a most solemn oath not to marry again,
when she found her provinces overrun by the Saracens,
and her capital distracted by rival generals, she raised
one of them, Romanus Diogenes, from a prison to a throne,
and their nuptials were celebrated with a haste which,
under ordinary circumstances, would have been indecent.
But Zonaras expressly informs us that Eudocia associated
him as a colleague with herself because he was a man of
great energy, of tried ability in war, and incomparable
strength, and she trusted in his vigorous arm to repel the
attacks of the barbarians. The historian's words seem like
a commentary on the motto of the ring, Ως δπλον 'Ευδοκίας
έστεφάνωσας -ημάς, Thou hast crowned us as a defence of
Eudocia. 2
1 Piu libbre di monete di oro, clie
l'orefice Russo di Catania mi assicura di
avere liquefatto, Salinas, Relazione sul
Museo di Palermo, p. 57: comp. Lettera
del P. Giuseppe Romano, p. 12, Archivio
Storico Sicil., loc. ; from the latter
authority I have chiefly derived the
arguments relating to the date of the
ring.
2 Zonaras, " Annales," torn, ii, 217 A,
'Εαυτή προσαρμόσαι τον Διογενην . . OJS
&νδρα βραστήρων, και τα πολέμια δόκιμον,
και την Ισχυν απαράμιλλοι> . . . 1ν 'η
βαρβαρική φορ& έπισχεθέιη ποσώς, άυτου
τύυτοις αντερείσαντος TOVS βραχίονας.