Constans II

Heraclius died an February 641 and was succeeded by Constantine III and Heraclonas, his younger half-brother through Heraclius' second marriage to Martina. Constans was most likely elevated to caesar by his father in order to secure his succession to the throne against Martina and her sons.^[13] Constantine died suddenly after 3 months of rule, leaving the 15-year old Heraclonas as senior emperor.

In September 641, the 10-year old Constans II was crowned co-emperor due to rumors that Heraclonas and Martina poisoned Constantine III. Later that same year, on or around 5 November, Heraclonas was deposed by

Under Constans, the Byzantines completely withdrew from

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

• Heraclius
  610–641
• with Constantine III (Heraclius)
  613–641
• Constantine III
  641
• with Heraclonas
  641
• Heraclonas
  641
• with Tiberius (David)
  641
• with Constans II
  641
• Constans II
  641–668
• with Constantine IV
  654–668
• with Heraclius
  659–668
• with Tiberius
  659–668
• Constantine IV
  668–685
• with Heraclius
  668–681
• with Tiberius
  668–681
• Justinian II
  685–695
• 705–711
  
  
• with Tiberius
  706–711

Meanwhile, the advance of the

In 654, however, Mu'awiya 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. The sea battle was so devastating that the emperor escaped only by trading clothes with one of his men.^[19] Before the battle, chronicler Theophanes the Confessor says, the Emperor dreamed of being at Thessalonica; 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)".^[20] Caliph Uthman was preparing to attack Constantinople, but he did not carry out the plan, as the first Fitna broke out in 656.

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 (c. 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.

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 the citizens of Constantinople, Constans decided to leave the capital and to move to Syracuse in Sicily.

On his way, he stopped in Macedonia and fought the Slavs at Thessalonica with success. Then, in the winter of 662–663, he made his camp at Athens.^[21]

From there, in 663, he continued to Italy. He launched an assault against 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.^[22] However, John Haldon states that this idea is not supported by a "a shred of evidence", although redistribution of the armies across the Anatolian provinces did take place, and likely resulted in administrative changes.^[23]

Death and succession

On 15 July 668,

Mezezius

was quickly suppressed by the new emperor.

Assessments and legacy

Tang China. The subject of negotiations was cargo delays on the Silk Road due to tribal conflict in the Western Turkic Khaganate, which was responsible for the safety of goods on the Silk Road. To restore order, Taizong supported the election of the head of the khaganate to Irbis and it was necessary to inform the authorities of the Byzantium Empire, which was the main recipient of the goods. Illustration from the early 20th century.^[27]

The historian Robert Hoyland asserts that Mu'awiya was a significant Islamic challenge for Constans to "deny [the divinity of] Jesus and turn to the Great God who I worship, the God of our father Abraham" and speculates that Mu'awiya's tour of Christian sites in Jerusalem was done to demonstrate "the fact that he, and not the Byzantine emperor, was now God's representative on earth".^[28]

Record in Chinese sources

Further information: Sino-Roman relations and Europeans in Medieval China

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 (the Roman Empire).^[29] These are recorded as having begun in the year 643 with an embassy sent by the king Boduoli (波多力, Constans II Pogonatos) to Emperor Taizong of Tang, bearing gifts such as red glass and green gemstones.^[29] Other contacts are reported taking place in 667, 701, and perhaps 719, sometimes through Central Asian intermediaries.^{[30][verification needed]} 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.^[29]

This Arab commander "Mo-yi" was identified by historian

two warring nations.^[31]

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

Coinage gallery

• 
  Coin of the Rashidun Caliphate with figure of Constans II standing facing, holding cross-tipped staff and globus cruciger. Pseudo-Byzantine types. Struck circa 647–670.
• 
  A solidus of Constans II that was minted in Carthage.
• 
  Hexagram of Constans II

Ancestry

Ancestors of Constans II
8. Constantine III 10. Rogas 5. Fabia Eudokia 1. Constans II 12. Gregoras (brother of Heraclius the Elder) 6. Niketas 3. Gregoria

See also

• List of Byzantine emperors

Notes

1. ^ Recorded under the Armenian form and word order as Ogostos Kostandin (i.e. Constantine Augustus) in Movses Kaghankatvatsi II.20.
2. Constans I, but has also sometimes been enumerated as Constans III, also counting the fifth century co-emperor Constans II.^[2][3][4] Constans is a nickname given to the Emperor, who had been baptized Heraclius (Herakleios) and reigned officially as "Constantine". The nickname established itself in Byzantine texts and has become standard in modern historiography. The emperor has also rarely been designated Constantine III, a name typically instead used for his father Heraclius Constantine.^[1]
3. Constantine the Bearded". The nickname was previously attributed to his son Constantine IV, who was known by his contemporaries as "Constantine the Younger".^[5]
4. ^ His inauguration as consul is sometimes dated to 632, but this is likely a mistake, as the consular inauguration was usually celebrated on January of the first regnal year.^[8][9]
5. ^ Some sources, such as the PBW, date the deposition of Heraclonas on 9 November.^[14] The date is unsourced and unexplained, but it's probably a mistake for 5 November.^[15]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Foss 2005, pp. 93–94.
2. ^ Biermann 2009, p. 537.
3. ^ Moosa 2008.
4. ^ Widdowson 2009.
5. ^ Grumel, Venance (1996). "Quel est l'empereur Constantin le nouveau commémoré dans le Synaxaire au 3 septembre?." Analecta Bollandiana 84: 254–260.
6. ^ Shahi̇d, I. (1972). The Iranian Factor in Byzantium during the Reign of Heraclius. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 26: 293–320.
7. ^ Cameron, A., & Schauer, D. (1982). The Last Consul: Basilius and His Diptych. The Journal of Roman Studies 72: 126–145.
8. ISBN 9781316582275
   .
9. ISBN 9781107111424
   .
10. ISBN 9781107053076
    .
11. ^ ^{a b} Grierson 1968, p. 402.
12. ^ Bury 1889, p. vi.
13. ^ Zuckerman, Constantin (2010): "On the title and the office of the Byzantine basileus." Travaux et Mémoires du Centre de recherche d'Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance 16: pp. 869–874. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
14. ^ PmbZ, Konstans II. (#3691/corr.).
15. S2CID 194092611
    .
16. ^ Treadgold, Warren. (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press. p. 312
17. ^ Browning 1992, p. 45.
18. ^ Pringle 1981, p. 47.
19. ISBN 9780073385501
    .
20. ISBN 1-4021-8368-2
21. ^ Cheetham, Nicolas. Mediaeval Greece. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.
22. ^ Treadgold, Warren. Byzantium and Its Army: 284–1081. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995. pp. 23-25, 72-73.
23. ISBN 978-0-674-08877-1
    .
24. JSTOR 1291157
    .
25. OCLC 34704963
    .
26. ^ ODB, "Constans II", p. 496
27. ^ Hutchinson's Story of the Nations. London: Hutchinson & Co. n.d. p. 94.
28. ^ Hoyland 2015, p. 135–136, 266 n. 30..
29. ^ ^{a b c d e} 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. Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
30. ^ Mutsaers, Inge (2009). Marlia Mundell Mango (ed.). Byzantine Trade, 4th–12th Centuries. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
31. ^ 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, vol. 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

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Constans II.

• Biermann, Felix (2009). "Byzantine Coin Finds from the 6th to the 8th Century Between Elbe and Oder and their Meaning for Settlement History". In Wołoszyn, M. (ed.). Byzantine Coins in Central Europe between the 5th and 10th Century. Kraków: Institute of Archaeology University of Rzeszów.
  ISBN 978-8376760087
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• Browning, Robert (1992). The Byzantine Empire. The Catholic University of America Press.
• Bury, John Bagnell (1889). A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene (395 A. D. to 800 A.D.). Vol. II. Macmillan and Co.
• Foss, Clive (2005). "Emperors named Constantine". Revue numismatique (in French). 6 (161): 93–102.
  doi:10.3406/numi.2005.2594
  .
• Grierson, Philip (1968). Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection. Vol. 2.
  ISBN 9780884020240
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• ISBN 978-0-19-991636-8
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• Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• ISBN 978-0-88-141056-3
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• Moosa, Matti (2008). "Islam and Christianity: Jihad and Holy War". The Crusades: Conflict Between Christendom and Islam. Piscataway: Gorgias Press. pp. 33–54.
  ISBN 978-1463211158
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• ISBN 0-86054-119-3
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• Widdowson, Marc (2009). "The early Christian insurgency in Islamic Spain". Small Wars & Insurgencies. 20 (3–4): 478–506.
  S2CID 144989232
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• ISSN 0577-1471
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• ISBN 0-19-504652-8
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• Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). "Konstans II". Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
• Liber Pontificalis
• Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, Book V

Constans II Heraclian dynasty Born: 7 November 630 Died: 15 July 668
Regnal titles
Preceded by Heraclonas	David Tiberius (641) Constantine IV (654–685) Heraclius (659–681) Tiberius (659–681)	Succeeded by Constantine IV
Political offices
Vacant Title last held by Heraclius	Roman consul 642	Vacant Title next held by Constantine IV