The sixteen-year-old Justinian II, son of Constantine IV, ascended to the throne in 685 following his father's premature death. However, after only ten years of rule, he was dethroned during a fierce popular revolt due to his anti-aristocratic policies. During this uprising, he was brutally disfigured by having his nose cut off and was then sent into exile in a monastery in Cherson, on the Black Sea. The emperor found himself having lost not only his throne... but also his nose. What might seem like a mere act of mutilation and an outrageous defacement of an unpopular sovereign actually carried significant ideological implications. In Byzantium, any injury to the emperor's body was considered sacrilegious because the sovereign was viewed as the embodiment of the State, representing its power. He was seen as a terrestrial deity, and his person was sacred, as was everything surrounding him. The emperor was never on the same level as other people but was always in an elevated position. Moreover, during official ceremonies, he sat on a two-seated throne, while on feast days, a cross symbolizing Christ was placed next to him. And like a deity, he could not be seen as physically imperfect. This explains why such a mutilation of the emperor was shocking to his subjects and why it seemed unimaginable that an emperor "missing a piece" could sit on the sacred throne of Constantinople. Yet, that is precisely what our sovereign would do. In the darkness of his cell in Cherson, Justinian II continuously plotted his return to the throne. His suspicious activities eventually reached the court, prompting an order to bring him back to the capital quickly, as he had become too dangerous. Forewarned by an accomplice, the emperor managed to escape and prepare for his return to Constantinople. Indeed, Justinian II would return from exile and reclaim the throne in 705, once again "whole" with a golden prosthetic nose replacing the one he had lost—an accessory as golden as the Empire’s throne itself.