Constans II

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

Constans II (Greek: Κώνστας Β', Kōnstas II Latin: Heraclius Constantinus Augustus or Flavius Constantinus Augustus); 7 November 630 – 15 September 668), also called Constantine the Bearded (Kōnstantinos Pogonatos), was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 641 to 668. He was the last emperor to serve as consul, in 642.^[1]^[2] Constans is a diminutive nickname given to the Emperor, who had been baptized Herakleios and reigned officially as Constantine. The nickname established itself in Byzantine texts and has become standard in modern historiography.

Life

Early life and reign as co-emperor

Constans was the son of Constantine III and Gregoria. Due to the rumours that Heraklonas and Martina had poisoned Constantine III, he was named co-emperor in 641. Later that same year his uncle was deposed, and Constans II was left as sole emperor.

Constans owed his rise to the throne to a popular reaction against his uncle and to the protection of the soldiers led by the general Valentinus. Although the precocious emperor addressed the senate with a speech blaming Heraklonas and Martina for eliminating his father, he reigned under a regency of senators led by Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople. In 644 Valentinus attempted to seize power for himself but failed.

As sole emperor

Under Constans, the Byzantines completely withdrew from Egypt in 642, and Caliph Uthman launched numerous attacks on the islands of the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Sea. A Byzantine fleet under the admiral Manuel occupied Alexandria again in 645, but after a Muslim victory the following year this had to be abandoned. The situation was complicated by the violent opposition to Monothelitism by the clergy in the west and the related rebellion of the Exarch of Carthage, Gregory the Patrician. The latter fell in battle against the army of Caliph Uthman, and the region remained a vassal state under the Caliphate until civil war broke out and imperial rule was again restored.

Byzantine Empire in 650 under Constans II

Hexagram of Constans II

Constans attempted to steer a middle line in the church dispute between Orthodoxy and Monothelitism by refusing to persecute either and prohibiting further discussion of the natures of Jesus Christ by decree in 648. Naturally, this live-and-let-live compromise satisfied few passionate participants in the dispute.

Meanwhile, the advance of the Caliphate continued unabated. In 647 they had entered Armenia and Cappadocia and sacked Caesarea Mazaca. In the same year, they raided Africa and killed Gregory. In 648 the Arabs raided into Phrygia, and in 649 they launched their first maritime expedition against Crete. A major Arab offensive into Cilicia and Isauria in 650–651 forced the Emperor to enter into negotiations with Caliph Uthman's governor of Syria, Muawiyah. The truce that followed allowed a short respite and made it possible for Constans to hold on to the western portions of Armenia.

In 654, however, Muawiyah renewed his raids by sea, plundering Rhodes. Constans led a fleet to attack the Muslims at Phoinike (off Lycia) in 655 at the Battle of the Masts, but he was defeated: 500 Byzantine ships were destroyed in the battle, and the Emperor himself was almost killed. Before the battle, chronicler Theophanes the Confessor says, the Emperor dreamed of being at Thessalonika; this dream predicted his defeat against the Arabs because the word Thessalonika is similar to the sentence "thes allo niken", which means "gave victory to another (the enemy)".^[3] Caliph Uthman was preparing to attack Constantinople, but he did not carry out the plan when the first Fitna broke out in 656.

A tremissis coin of Constans II Pogonatos

In 658, with the eastern frontier under less pressure, Constans defeated the Slavs in the Balkans, temporarily reasserting some notion of Byzantine rule over them and resettled some of them in Anatolia (ca. 649 or 667). In 659 he campaigned far to the east, taking advantage of a rebellion against the Caliphate in Media. The same year he concluded peace with the Arabs.

Now Constans could turn to church matters once again. Pope Martin I had condemned both Monothelitism and Constans' attempt to halt debates over it (the Type of Constans) in the Lateran Council of 649. Now the Emperor ordered his Exarch of Ravenna to arrest the Pope. Exarch Olympius excused himself from this task, but his successor, Theodore I Calliopas, carried it out in 653. Pope Martin was brought to Constantinople and condemned as a criminal, ultimately being exiled to Cherson, where he died in 655.

Constans grew increasingly fearful that his younger brother, Theodosius, could oust him from the throne; he therefore obliged Theodosius to take holy orders and later had him killed in 660. Constans' sons Constantine, Heraclius, and Tiberius had been associated on the throne since the 650s. However, having attracted the hatred of citizens of Constantinople, Constans decided to leave the capital and to move to Syracuse in Sicily.

From there, in 663, he launched an assault against the Lombard Duchy of Benevento, which then encompassed most of Southern Italy. Taking advantage of the fact that Lombard king Grimoald I of Benevento was engaged against Frankish forces from Neustria, Constans disembarked at Taranto and besieged Lucera and Benevento. However, the latter resisted and Constans withdrew to Naples. During the journey from Benevento to Naples, Constans II was defeated by Mitolas, Count of Capua, near Pugna. Constans ordered Saburrus, the commander of his army, to attack again the Lombards, but he was defeated by the Beneventani at Forino, between Avellino and Salerno.

In 663 Constans visited Rome for twelve days—the only emperor to set foot in Rome for two centuries—and was received with great honor by Pope Vitalian (657–672). Although on friendly terms with Vitalian, he stripped buildings, including the Pantheon, of their ornaments and bronze to be carried back to Constantinople, and in 666 declared the Pope of Rome to have no jurisdiction over the Archbishop of Ravenna, since that city was the seat of the exarch, his immediate representative. His subsequent moves in Calabria and Sardinia were marked by further strippings and request of tributes that enraged his Italian subjects.

According to Warren Treadgold, the first themes were created between 659 and 661, during the reign of Constans II.^[4]

Death and succession

Rumours that he was going to move the capital of the Empire to Syracuse were probably fatal for Constans. On September 15, 668, he was assassinated in his bath by his chamberlain, according to Theophilus of Edessa, with a bucket.

His son Constantine succeeded him as Constantine IV. A brief usurpation in Sicily by Mezezius was quickly suppressed by the new emperor.

Record in Chinese sources

A solidus (coin) of Constans II that was minted in Carthage

The Chinese dynastic histories of the Old Book of Tang and New Book of Tang mention several embassies made by Fu lin (拂菻), which they equated with Daqin (i.e. the Roman Empire).^[5] These are recorded as having begun in the year 643 with an embassy sent by the king Boduoli (波多力, i.e. Constans II Pogonatos) to Emperor Taizong of Tang, bearing gifts such as red glass and green gemstones.^[5] Other contacts are reported taking place in 667, 701, and perhaps 719, sometimes through Central Asian intermediaries.^[6] These histories also record that the Arabs (Da shi 大食) sent their commander "Mo-yi" (Chinese: 摩拽伐之, Pinyin: Mó zhuāi fá zhī), to besiege the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, and forced the Byzantines to pay them tribute.^[5] This Arab commander "Mo-yi" was identified by historian Friedrich Hirth as Muawiyah I (r. 661-680), the governor of Syria before becoming the Umayyad caliph.^[5] The same books also described Constantinople in some detail as having massive granite walls and a water clock mounted with a golden statue of man.^[5] The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta, writing during the reign of Heraclius (r. 610–641), relayed information about China's geography, its capital city Khubdan (Old Turkic: Khumdan, i.e. Chang'an), its current ruler Taisson whose name meant "Son of God" (Chinese: Tianzi, although this could be derived from the name of Emperor Taizong of Tang), and correctly pointed to its reunification by the Sui Dynasty (581-618) as occurring during the reign of Maurice, noting that China had previously been divided politically along the Yangzi River by two warring nations.^[7]

Family

By his wife Fausta, a daughter of the patrician Valentinus, Constans II had three sons:

Constantine IV, who succeeded him as Emperor
Heraclius, co-emperor from 659 to 681
Tiberius, co-emperor from 659 to 681

References

↑ JSTOR: The Last Consul: Basilius and His Diptych
↑ JSTOR: The Iranian Factor in Byzantium during the Reign of Heraclius
↑ «θὲς ἄλλῳ νὶκην», see Bury, John Bagnell (1889), A history of the later Roman empire from Arcadius to Irene, Adamant Media Corporation, 2005, p.290. ISBN 1-4021-8368-2
↑ Warren Treadgold, Byzantium and Its Army 284-1081 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995). pp. 23-25;72-3.
1 2 3 4 5 Hirth, Friedrich (2000) [1885]. Jerome S. Arkenberg, ed. "East Asian History Sourcebook: Chinese Accounts of Rome, Byzantium and the Middle East, c. 91 B.C.E. - 1643 C.E.". Fordham.edu. Fordham University. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
↑ Mutsaers, Inge. "Ashgate Joins Routledge - Routledge" (PDF). Gowerpublishing.com. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
↑ Yule, Henry (1915), Henri Cordier, ed., Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Vol I: Preliminary Essay on the Intercourse Between China and the Western Nations Previous to the Discovery of the Cape Route, 1, London: London: Hakluyt Society, pp. 29–31; see also footnote #4 on p. 29; footnote #2 on p. 30; and footnote #3 on page 31., retrieved 21 September 2016

Literature

Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Meyendorff, John (1989). Imperial unity and Christian divisions: The Church 450-680 A.D. The Church in history. 2. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. ISBN 978-0-88-141056-3.
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.
Liber Pontificalis
Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, Book V

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Constans II.

Regnal titles
Constans II Heraclian Dynasty Born: 7 November 630 Died: 15 September 668
Preceded by Heraklonas	Byzantine Emperor 641–668 with Constantine IV (654–685) Heraclius (659–681) Tiberius (659–681)	Succeeded by Constantine IV
Political offices
Vacant Title last held by Heraclius	Consul of the Roman Empire 642	Vacant Title next held by Justinian II

Roman and Byzantine emperors
Principate 27 BC – 235 AD	Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasian Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus Commodus Pertinax Didius Julianus (Pescennius Niger) (Clodius Albinus) Septimius Severus Caracalla with Geta Macrinus with Diadumenian Elagabalus Severus Alexander
Crisis 235–284	Maximinus Thrax Gordian I and Gordian II Pupienus and Balbinus Gordian III Philip the Arab with Philippus II Decius with Herennius Etruscus Hostilian Trebonianus Gallus with Volusianus Aemilianus Valerian Gallienus with Saloninus and Valerian II Claudius Gothicus Quintillus Aurelian Tacitus Florian Probus Carus Carinus and Numerian Gallic Emperors: Postumus (Laelianus) Marius Victorinus (Domitianus II) Tetricus I with Tetricus II as Caesar
Dominate 284–395	Diocletian (whole empire) Diocletian (East) and Maximian (West) Diocletian (East) and Maximian (West) with Galerius (East) and Constantius Chlorus (West) as Caesares Galerius (East) and Constantius Chlorus (West) with Severus (West) and Maximinus Daia (East) as Caesares Galerius (East) and Severus (West) with Constantine the Great (West) and Maximinus Daia (East) as Caesares Galerius (East) and Maxentius (West) with Constantine the Great (West) and Maximinus Daia (East) as Caesares Galerius (East) and Licinius I (West) with Constantine the Great (West) and Maximinus Daia (East) as Caesares Maxentius (alone) Licinius I (West) and Maximinus Daia (East) with Constantine the Great (Self-proclaimed Augustus) and Valerius Valens Licinius I (East) and Constantine the Great (West) with Licinius II, Constantine II, and Crispus as Caesares (Martinian) Constantine the Great (whole empire) with son Crispus as Caesar Constantine II Constans I Magnentius with Decentius as Caesar Constantius II with Vetranio Julian Jovian Valentinian the Great Valens Gratian Valentinian II Magnus Maximus with Flavius Victor Theodosius the Great
Western Empire 395–480	Honorius (Constantine III with son Constans II) Constantius III Joannes as Western usurper in Ravenna Valentinian III Petronius Maximus with Palladius Avitus Majorian then Libius Severus then Anthemius then Olybrius Glycerius Julius Nepos (de jure) Romulus Augustulus (Usurper)
Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 395–1204	Arcadius Theodosius II Pulcheria Marcian Leo I the Thracian Leo II Zeno (first reign) Basiliscus with son Marcus as co-emperor Zeno (second reign) Anastasius I Dicorus Justin I Justinian the Great Justin II Tiberius II Constantine Maurice with son Theodosius as co-emperor Phocas Heraclius Constantine III Heraklonas Constans II Constantine IV with brothers Heraclius and Tiberius and then Justinian II as co-emperors Justinian II (first reign) Leontios Tiberios III Justinian II (second reign) with son Tiberius as co-emperor Philippikos Anastasios II Theodosius III Leo III the Isaurian Constantine V Artabasdos Leo IV the Khazar Constantine VI Irene Nikephoros I Staurakios Michael I Rangabe with son Theophylact as co-emperor Leo V the Armenian with Symbatios-Constantine as junior emperor Michael II the Amorian Theophilos Michael III Basil I the Macedonian Leo VI the Wise Alexander Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos Romanos I Lekapenos with sons Christopher, Stephen and Constantine as junior co-emperors Romanos II Nikephoros II Phokas John I Tzimiskes Basil II Constantine VIII Zoe (first reign) and Romanos III Argyros Zoe (first reign) and Michael IV the Paphlagonian Michael V Kalaphates Zoe (second reign) with Theodora Zoe (second reign) and Constantine IX Monomachos Constantine IX Monomachos (sole emperor) Theodora Michael VI Bringas Isaac I Komnenos Constantine X Doukas Romanos IV Diogenes Michael VII Doukas with brothers Andronikos and Konstantios and son Constantine Nikephoros III Botaneiates Alexios I Komnenos John II Komnenos with Alexios Komnenos as co-emperor Manuel I Komnenos Alexios II Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos Isaac II Angelos Alexios III Angelos Alexios IV Angelos Nicholas Kanabos as usurper chosen by the Senate Alexios V Doukas
Empire of Nicaea 1204–1261	Constantine Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris John III Doukas Vatatzes Theodore II Laskaris John IV Laskaris
Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 1261–1453	Michael VIII Palaiologos Andronikos II Palaiologos with Michael IX Palaiologos as co-emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos John V Palaiologos John VI Kantakouzenos with John V Palaiologos and Matthew Kantakouzenos as co-emperors John V Palaiologos Andronikos IV Palaiologos John VII Palaiologos Andronikos V Palaiologos Manuel II Palaiologos John VIII Palaiologos Constantine XI Palaiologos
Italics usually indicate an usurper or co-emperor.

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 267303429 LCCN: nb2010016663 GND: 124745938 SUDOC: 109248430 BNF: cb12001839x (data)

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