Constantine IV

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For other uses, see Constantine IV (disambiguation).
Constantine IV
Emperor of the Romans
File:Constantine IV mosaic.png
Constantine IV, mosaic in basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna.
Byzantine emperor
Reign September 668 – July 685
Coronation 13 April 654
Predecessor Constans II
Successor Justinian II
Co-emperors <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Born c. 650
Constantinople
(now Istanbul, Turkey)
Died 10 July 685 (aged c. 35)
Constantinople
Burial Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople
Spouse Anastasia
Issue <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Dynasty Heraclian
Father Constans II
Mother Fausta
Religion Chalcedonian Christianity
Constantine the New
Holy and Right-Believing Emperor of the Romans
Venerated in Eastern Orthodoxy[1]
Major shrine Church of the Holy Apostles
Feast 3 September
Attributes Imperial attire
Heraclian dynasty
Chronology
Heraclius 610–641
with Constantine III as co-emperor, 613–641
Constantine III 641
with Heraklonas as co-emperor
Heraklonas 641
Constans II 641–668
with Constantine IV (654–668), Heraclius and Tiberius (659–668) as co-emperors
Constantine IV 668–685
with Heraclius and Tiberius (668–681), and Justinian II (681–685) as co-emperors
Justinian II 685–695, 705–711
with Tiberius as co-emperor, 706–711
Succession
Preceded by
Justinian dynasty and Phocas		 Followed by
Twenty Years' Anarchy


Constantine IV (Latin: Constantinus; Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Kōnstantînos; c. 650 – 10 July 685), called the Younger (Latin: iunior; Greek: ὁ νέος ho néos)[2][3] and sometimes incorrectly the Bearded (Latin: Pogonatus; Greek: Πωγωνᾶτος Pōgōnãtos) out of confusion with his father,[4] was Byzantine emperor from 668 to 685. His reign saw the first serious check to nearly 50 years of uninterrupted Islamic expansion, most notably when he successfully defended Constantinople from the Arabs. His calling of the Sixth Ecumenical Council saw the end of the monothelitism controversy in the Byzantine Empire; for this, he is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with his feast day on September 3.[1]

Early career

The eldest son of Constans II and Fausta, daughter of patrician Valentinus,[5] Constantine IV had been named a co-emperor with his father in 654, almost certainly in Easter (13 April).[6]. His year of birth is unknown,[7] but it's often given as c. 650.[8][lower-alpha 1] He became emperor in September 668, when news arrived at Constantinople that Constans II had been assassinated in Sicily.[9]

The first task before the new Emperor was the suppression of the military revolt in Sicily under Mezezius which had led to his father's death.[10] Within seven months of his accession, Constantine IV had dealt with the insurgency with the support of Pope Vitalian,[11] but this success was overshadowed by troubles in the east.

As early as 668 the Caliph Muawiyah I received an invitation from Saborios, the commander of the troops in Armenia, to help overthrow the Emperor at Constantinople.[12] He sent an army under his son Yazid against the Byzantine Empire. Yazid reached Chalcedon and took the important Byzantine center Amorion.[13] While the city was quickly recovered, the Arabs next attacked Carthage and Sicily in 669.[14] In 670 the Arabs captured Cyzicus and set up a base from which to launch further attacks into the heart of the Empire.[15] Their fleet captured Smyrna and other coastal cities in 672.[16] Finally, in 672, the Arabs sent a large fleet to attack Constantinople by sea.[16] While Constantine was distracted by this, the Slavs laid siege to Thessalonica.[17]

The Siege of Constantinople (674–678)

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Main article: Siege of Constantinople (674–678)

Commencing in 674, the Arabs launched the long-awaited siege of Constantinople. The great fleet that had been assembled set sail under the command of Abdul-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr[14] before the end of the year; during the winter months some of the ships anchored at Smyrna, the rest off the coast of Cilicia.[14] Additional squadrons reinforced the forces of Abd ar-Rahman before they proceeded to the Hellespont, into which they sailed in about April 674.[14] From April to September 674 the fleet lay moored from the promontory of Hebdomon, on the Propontis, as far as the promontory of Kyklobion, near the Golden Gate, and throughout those months continued to engage with the Byzantine fleet which defended the harbour from morning to evening.[14]

Knowing that it was only a matter of time before Constantinople was under siege, Constantine had ensured that the city was well provisioned.[14] He also constructed a large number of fireships and fast-sailing boats provided with tubes or siphons for squirting fire. This is the first known use of Greek fire in combat,[16] which was one of the key advantages that the Byzantines possessed. In September, the Arabs, having failed in their attempts to take the city, sailed to Cyzicus, which they made their winter quarters.[16] Over the following five years, the Arabs returned each spring to continue the siege of Constantinople, but with the same results.[14] The city survived, and finally in 678 the Arabs were forced to raise the siege. The Arabs withdrew and were almost simultaneously defeated on land in Lycia in Anatolia.[18] This unexpected reverse forced Muawiyah I to seek a truce with Constantine. The terms of the concluded truce required the Arabs to evacuate the islands they had seized in the Aegean, and for the Byzantines to pay an annual tribute to the Caliphate consisting of fifty slaves, fifty horses, and 300,000 nomismata.[16] The raising of the siege allowed Constantine to go to the relief of Thessalonica, still under siege from the Sclaveni.[19]

Later reign

File:Solidus of Constantine IV.png
Solidus of Constantine IV, c. 681–685

With the temporary passing of the Arab threat, Constantine turned his attention to the Church, which was torn between Monothelitism and Orthodoxy.[20] In November 680 Constantine convened the Sixth Ecumenical Council (also known as the Third Council of Constantinople).[21] Constantine presided in person during the formal aspects of the proceedings (the first eleven sittings and then the eighteenth), surrounded by his court officials, but he took no active role in the theological discussions.[22] The Council reaffirmed the Orthodox doctrines of the Council of Chalcedon in 451.[citation needed] This solved the controversy over monothelitism; conveniently for the Empire, most monothelites were now under the control of the Umayyad Caliphate.[23] The council closed in September 681.[24]

Due to the ongoing conflicts with the Arabs during the 670s, Constantine had been forced to conclude treaties in the west with the Lombards, who had captured Brindisi and Taranto.[8] Also in 680, the Bulgars under Khan Asparukh crossed the Danube into nominally Imperial territory and began to subjugate the local communities and Slavic tribes.[25] In 680, Constantine IV led a combined land and sea operation against the invaders and besieged their fortified camp in Dobruja.[26] Suffering from bad health, the Emperor had to leave the army, which panicked and was defeated by the Bulgars.[27] In 681, Constantine was forced to acknowledge the Bulgar state in Moesia and to pay tribute/protection money to avoid further inroads into Byzantine Thrace.[20] Consequently, Constantine created the Theme of Thrace.[8]

File:The concession of privileges mosaic.jpg
Mosaic of Constantine IV with his family and imperial figures. The upper legend reads: constantinus maior imperator - heraclii et tiberii imperator.[lower-alpha 2]

His brothers Heraclius and Tiberius had been crowned with him as augusti during the reign of their father,[7] and this was confirmed by the demand of the populace,[28] but in late 681 Constantine had them mutilated by slitting their noses so they would be considered ineligible to rule.[29] Some argue that he then associated Justinian II to the throne,[8] but all contemporary evidence indicates that he became emperor only after Constantine's death on 10 July 685.[7][lower-alpha 3]

Family

By his wife Anastasia, Constantine IV had at least two sons:

In art and popular culture

  • Constantine IV was portrayed by Iossif Surchadzhiev in the 1981 Bulgarian movie Aszparuh, directed by Ludmil Staikov.
  • Constantine IV is the subject of the song "Imperator" ("Emperor"), released by the Bulgarian heavy metal band Epizod in their 2012 album Moyata molitva ("My prayer").

Notes

  1. ↑ Probably on the basis that most co-emperors were crowned as children. Honorius (384) was 9 years old, Theodosius II (401) was 1 year old, Valentinian III (425) was 6 years old, Leo II (473) was 6 years old, Theodosius (590) was 7 years old, and Constantine III (613) was 1 year old. Tiberius and Constans II (641), were both 11 years old.
  2. ↑ The mosaic must have been made shortly before Heraclius and Tiberius' deposition in 681. Justinian II (far left) is depicted as being slightly taller than them, but this is impossible given that he was at least a decade younger.
  3. ↑ "Constantine's death is usually placed in September 685 on the ground that the sources attribute to him a reign of 17 years... Since such a figure can be taken only as a round number, there is no objection to accepting the date 10 July given the Catalogus."[9]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 September 3/September 16[permanent dead link]. Orthodox Calendar (PRAVOSLAVIE.RU).
  2. ↑ Zuckerman (1995)
  3. ↑ Grumel (1968)
  4. ↑ Norwich (1990), p. 316
  5. ↑ Kazhdan (1991), "Constans II", p. 496
  6. ↑ PBW "Konstantinos IV".
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Grierson (1968), pp. 512–514
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Kazhdan (1991), "Constantine IV", pp. 500–501
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Grierson (1962), p. 50
  10. ↑ Bury (1889), p. 330
  11. ↑ Bury (1889), p. 315
  12. ↑ Bury (1889), p. 306
  13. ↑ Bury (1889), p. 307
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 Bury (1889), p. 310
  15. ↑ Moore (1997)
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 Norwich (1990), pp. 323–324
  17. ↑ Moore (1997)
  18. ↑ Moore (1997)
  19. ↑ Moore (1997)
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Norwich (1990), p. 326
  21. ↑ Moore (1997)
  22. ↑ Bury (1889), p. 317
  23. ↑ Moore (1997)
  24. ↑ Bury (1889), p. 316
  25. ↑ Moore (1997)
  26. ↑ Bury (1889), p. 333–334
  27. ↑ Norwich (1990), p. 325
  28. ↑ Bury (1889), p. 308
  29. ↑ Moore (1997)
  30. ↑ Grierson (1968), p. 568
  31. ↑ Garland (2000)
  32. ↑ Gibbon (1827), p. 99

Sources

Primary sources

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Secondary sources

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See also

External links

Constantine IV
Born: 650 Died: 685
Regnal titles
Preceded by Byzantine emperor
668–685
with Constans II, 654–668
Heraclius and Tiberius, 659–681		 Succeeded by
Justinian II
Political offices
Preceded by
Constans II in 642,
then lapsed
 Roman consul
668		 Succeeded by
Lapsed,
Justinian II in 686

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