**7. Conclusions**

Though John's dynastic project is marked in his portrait in both Hagia Sophia and the gospel book, neither of these was a public image in the same way as his coinage or seals. The proximity of his wife and son in these images may therefore have been emphasised to this highest of court audiences, which might have included some potential rivals from within the imperial family, but to the wider world it was only John and his personal iconography that was presented.

Turning to these coins, seals and perhaps other images that did have a wider audience, any emperor of the latter centuries of Byzantium had most of a millennium's worth of

iconography to choose from to emphasise his specific ideological program. John's use of the *labarum* and *globus cruciger* had been common in the iconography of his predecessors, but far less so was the *anexikakia*, the cross on steps, solar imagery, and indeed the hand of God in addition to the *Theotokos*, Christ, St. George, or St. Demetrios. This diversity in iconography is also marked, as is the progression on his gold coinage from emphasising John's piety, humility, and legitimacy to a more confident assertion of universal authority. It appears that in the earlier parts of John's reign, he was far more anxious to emphasise the former, and he drew on a grea<sup>t</sup> diversity of iconography to do so. This may reflect the challenge he received at his accession from his mother Eirene Doukaina and sister Anna Komnene, followed by the attempted coup of his brother, Isaac, in 1130. Far more secure in later years, John emphasised his claim to universal rule with his iconography as he conquered Cilicia and sought to do the same to Syria and the crusaders of the Levant. This confidence he handed on to his successor Manuel, whose iconography follows John's in many respects. It is also a testament to John's iconographical program that one of the first emperors who ruled from Nicaea after the fall of Constantinople, John III Vatatzes, minted gold coinage that directly copied the iconography of John II [15] (*DOC*, pp. 475–477; Papadopoulou, Coinage, p. 183). This, together with the possibility of the roundels being those of Theodore II Komnenos-Doukas, evidences the effectiveness and longevity of both John's reign and its accompanying iconography.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.

**Entry Link on the Encyclopedia Platform:** https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/21150.
