A gold coin of the Byzantine Empire; widely circulated in Europe in the Middle Ages.
1Africanus und die byzant.
2I looked down and saw that he had given me a solid gold byzant, gleaming dull and heavy in my hand.
3The yellow gleam of gold byzants met his wondering gaze.
4If it be less than a thousand byzants, let him have jewels to make it up.
5The others looked on breathlessly as the friar arranged the golden byzants in neat little towers of ten.
6"Each," replied the priest, handing the byzant back to him.
7"So how much for a byzant?" asked Siarles.
8She was a Champernoun, proudest of Norman squires, and could probably boast of having in her veins the blood of Courtneys, Emperors of Byzant.
9And old Narses died at Rome, at a great age; and they wrapt him in lead, and sent him to Byzant with all his wealth.
10His mother was a Champernoun of purest Norman descent, and "could probably boast of having in her veins the blood of Courtneys, Emperors of Byzant."
11"I know the armour well; it is that which the Venetian commissary offered your highness, just ere you became ill, for five hundred byzants."