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Konstantinos VII (838-853)
Mikhael II had been an usurper, plain and simple. In 820 several of his friends and allies had burst into the Imperial chapel during the Christmas mass and hacked the basileus to pieces, even as he defended himself with a bloody crucifix. He then had Leon V’s sons castrated and exiled, then proclaimed himself emperor, clinging onto power for the next decade in spite of multiple uprisings and civil wars, and by the time of his death in 829 he had secured his power enough for his son to survive a brief regency with his eyes intact.
However, this fundamental illegitimacy made his aforementioned son, Theophilos, eager to prove himself as both a general and emperor. As such, in 831 he led an army east against the Abbasid Caliphate and raided the borderlands and Upper Mesopotamia for several years in a row. However, he proved to be far less of a general and emperor than he thought himself to be, and his army was routed in its first set-piece battle at Anzen in July 838. Indeed, he himself was struck down during the desperate final action, an arrow passing cleanly through his leg and causing him to bleed out*. Thus ended the House of Amorium.
However, in spite of this disastrous defeat all was not lost. One of Theophilos’ lieutenants, a Persian convert named Theophobos, was able to extricate 30,000 hardened veterans and withdraw north to Sinope, then further on to Konstantinoupoli. He was proclaimed emperor, and, with no-one in a position to oppose him, he was thus undisputedly crowned as Emperor of the Romans, whence he took the regnal name of Konstantinos. He installed favorites and allies into the Imperial chancellery, then marched out of the city yet again. He reached Dorylaion in September 838, after the Arabs had sacked Amorion, and rallied the soldiers there to join his own force and marched to confront the Arabs again. He drew them into a pursuit onto his chosen ground and defeated a sizeable portion of the army at Kotyaion. The rest of the Arabs camped at Polybotos, but because of constant harassment the Caliph departed after several months and attempted to retreat back to Mesopotamia; However, the unusually cold winter caused many of the Arabs to freeze, and of the 40,000 who had crossed the Tauruses that spring only a quarter returned.
With the enemy army thus reduced Konstantinos was able to successfully negotiate a peace with the Arabs the next spring, in which the Romans would pay a tribute of 5,000 nomismata per year to the Caliph, in exchange for peace and a cession of government-endorsed raiding. With both military and diplomatic victories under his belt, in late 839 he convened the Eighth Ecumenical Council in the capital in which the icons were restored yet again. This was received much more warmly in the west than in the east, but the themata tolerated it because of the peace.
In 840, the Doge of Venice petitioned Konstantinos, wishing to provide aid in a war against the Sicilian Arabs, who had launched yet another campaign into Rome’s Italian territory. The Emperor assented, and the next year he lead a combined force of 15,000 soldiers and 60 galleys into the Peninsula. Taras/Taranto was taken by deceit after a siege of less than a week, and in early 841 they landed in Messana/Messina and drove off Arab besiegers. The Romano-Venetian force then continued west along the northern coast of the island, laying siege to Panormos in May 841. The emir of Ifriqiya, Abu Iqal al-Aghlab, sailed from Tunis with the largest army he could muster when news of the siege reached him, landing at Trapani and moving to defend the city. However, Konstantinos remained adamantly focused on the city and refused to be drawn off, ultimately forcing the garrison’s surrender in early 842. He then marched on Marsala, defeating al-Aghlab at Mara u-Zaq on the western plains. The emir was captured and Konstantinos forced him to order all Arabs to withdraw from the island, renounce all claims to the land and pay tribute to the Romans. Konstantinos then retired back to the empire, leaving his nephew Nikephoros to mop up any resistance on the island
After reconquering Sicily, Konstantinos extracted a sizeable yearly tribute from Benevento before returning to the capital. However, he only had a few months to relax and run the civilian administration before conflict flared up in the Balkans. However, this time it was the Serbs and not the Bulgars who were parading outside of Dyrrakhion; The Serbs had won a surprise victory over the Bulgars in 839, and their prince, Vlastimir, had become cocky. This pride led him to a sudden and sharp fall, as Konstantinos defeated him in battle in 846, then arranged for him to be assassinated. Vlastimir’s death sparked a civil war in Serbia and after strengthening the Dalmatian themes he returned to the capital.
For the rest of the 840s, Konstantinos held a long correspondence with the Bulgar Khan Presian, trying to convince him to convert to Christianity. While he did make some headway, he was never able to get a definitive promise of conversion, and in 852 the correspondences stopped upon the ascension of Boris-Mihail to the Bulgar throne. Konstantinos disliked the Bulgarian monarch, and as he was hostile to the Duke of Great Moravia and the King of East Francia, Konstantinos began preparations to war against the Bulgars. However, he never lived to see it.
On 14 March, 853, while Konstantinos was out hunting, he was shot from afar by an Iconoclast die-hard. The arrow didn’t kill him--it pierced his shoulder, missing any major veins--but the force caused him to fall from his horse and strike his head on a rock, killing him instantly. He reigned for fourteen years, and was fifty-two upon his death.
The Persian Dynasty of Byzantium
Konstantinos VII Theophobos
(838-853)
Konstantinos VII Theophobos
(838-853)
Mikhael II had been an usurper, plain and simple. In 820 several of his friends and allies had burst into the Imperial chapel during the Christmas mass and hacked the basileus to pieces, even as he defended himself with a bloody crucifix. He then had Leon V’s sons castrated and exiled, then proclaimed himself emperor, clinging onto power for the next decade in spite of multiple uprisings and civil wars, and by the time of his death in 829 he had secured his power enough for his son to survive a brief regency with his eyes intact.
However, this fundamental illegitimacy made his aforementioned son, Theophilos, eager to prove himself as both a general and emperor. As such, in 831 he led an army east against the Abbasid Caliphate and raided the borderlands and Upper Mesopotamia for several years in a row. However, he proved to be far less of a general and emperor than he thought himself to be, and his army was routed in its first set-piece battle at Anzen in July 838. Indeed, he himself was struck down during the desperate final action, an arrow passing cleanly through his leg and causing him to bleed out*. Thus ended the House of Amorium.
However, in spite of this disastrous defeat all was not lost. One of Theophilos’ lieutenants, a Persian convert named Theophobos, was able to extricate 30,000 hardened veterans and withdraw north to Sinope, then further on to Konstantinoupoli. He was proclaimed emperor, and, with no-one in a position to oppose him, he was thus undisputedly crowned as Emperor of the Romans, whence he took the regnal name of Konstantinos. He installed favorites and allies into the Imperial chancellery, then marched out of the city yet again. He reached Dorylaion in September 838, after the Arabs had sacked Amorion, and rallied the soldiers there to join his own force and marched to confront the Arabs again. He drew them into a pursuit onto his chosen ground and defeated a sizeable portion of the army at Kotyaion. The rest of the Arabs camped at Polybotos, but because of constant harassment the Caliph departed after several months and attempted to retreat back to Mesopotamia; However, the unusually cold winter caused many of the Arabs to freeze, and of the 40,000 who had crossed the Tauruses that spring only a quarter returned.
With the enemy army thus reduced Konstantinos was able to successfully negotiate a peace with the Arabs the next spring, in which the Romans would pay a tribute of 5,000 nomismata per year to the Caliph, in exchange for peace and a cession of government-endorsed raiding. With both military and diplomatic victories under his belt, in late 839 he convened the Eighth Ecumenical Council in the capital in which the icons were restored yet again. This was received much more warmly in the west than in the east, but the themata tolerated it because of the peace.
In 840, the Doge of Venice petitioned Konstantinos, wishing to provide aid in a war against the Sicilian Arabs, who had launched yet another campaign into Rome’s Italian territory. The Emperor assented, and the next year he lead a combined force of 15,000 soldiers and 60 galleys into the Peninsula. Taras/Taranto was taken by deceit after a siege of less than a week, and in early 841 they landed in Messana/Messina and drove off Arab besiegers. The Romano-Venetian force then continued west along the northern coast of the island, laying siege to Panormos in May 841. The emir of Ifriqiya, Abu Iqal al-Aghlab, sailed from Tunis with the largest army he could muster when news of the siege reached him, landing at Trapani and moving to defend the city. However, Konstantinos remained adamantly focused on the city and refused to be drawn off, ultimately forcing the garrison’s surrender in early 842. He then marched on Marsala, defeating al-Aghlab at Mara u-Zaq on the western plains. The emir was captured and Konstantinos forced him to order all Arabs to withdraw from the island, renounce all claims to the land and pay tribute to the Romans. Konstantinos then retired back to the empire, leaving his nephew Nikephoros to mop up any resistance on the island
After reconquering Sicily, Konstantinos extracted a sizeable yearly tribute from Benevento before returning to the capital. However, he only had a few months to relax and run the civilian administration before conflict flared up in the Balkans. However, this time it was the Serbs and not the Bulgars who were parading outside of Dyrrakhion; The Serbs had won a surprise victory over the Bulgars in 839, and their prince, Vlastimir, had become cocky. This pride led him to a sudden and sharp fall, as Konstantinos defeated him in battle in 846, then arranged for him to be assassinated. Vlastimir’s death sparked a civil war in Serbia and after strengthening the Dalmatian themes he returned to the capital.
For the rest of the 840s, Konstantinos held a long correspondence with the Bulgar Khan Presian, trying to convince him to convert to Christianity. While he did make some headway, he was never able to get a definitive promise of conversion, and in 852 the correspondences stopped upon the ascension of Boris-Mihail to the Bulgar throne. Konstantinos disliked the Bulgarian monarch, and as he was hostile to the Duke of Great Moravia and the King of East Francia, Konstantinos began preparations to war against the Bulgars. However, he never lived to see it.
On 14 March, 853, while Konstantinos was out hunting, he was shot from afar by an Iconoclast die-hard. The arrow didn’t kill him--it pierced his shoulder, missing any major veins--but the force caused him to fall from his horse and strike his head on a rock, killing him instantly. He reigned for fourteen years, and was fifty-two upon his death.
- Eparkhos
- Word Count: 1k