Tmutarakan was a detached Rus' enclave on the Taman Peninsula, hemmed between the Black and Azov Seas, and its coinage reflects the awkward political position of a semi-autonomous prince trying to assert legitimacy far from Kyiv. Mstislav Volodimirovich — son of Vladimir the Great — ruled the principality from around 990 and defeated the Kasog prince Rededya in single combat in 1022, an episode recorded in the Primary Chronicle and remarkable enough that later princes referenced it as a dynastic boast.
The miliaresion format was borrowed directly from Byzantine practice, which is unsurprising given Tmutarakan's proximity to Cherson and the broader Byzantine commercial network in the northern Black Sea.
Tmutarakan was a detached Rus' enclave on the Taman Peninsula, hemmed between the Black and Azov Seas, and its coinage reflects the awkward political position of a semi-autonomous prince trying to assert legitimacy far from Kyiv. Mstislav Volodimirovich — son of Vladimir the Great — ruled the principality from around 990 and defeated the Kasog prince Rededya in single combat in 1022, an episode recorded in the Primary Chronicle and remarkable enough that later princes referenced it as a dynastic boast.
The miliaresion format was borrowed directly from Byzantine practice, which is unsurprising given Tmutarakan's proximity to Cherson and the broader Byzantine commercial network in the northern Black Sea.