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Upon hearing of his father’s death, Konstantinos rallied his armies and marched on the capital. He entered into the city in mid-March, when many of the dynatoi are gathered in the city for the yearly awarding of titles and offices. Konstantinos, seeing a brilliant opportunity to cement his power over the rural regions, gives a series of massive donatives to the nobles gathered in the city and offers them a great deal of privilege in exchange for their loyalty. After the thinly-veiled bribes are dispersed, the dynatoi return to their estates, most mollified by the donatives. However, the kleisouron of the minor (as in the smallest theme) province of Seleukeia, one Alexandros, takes it as a sign of weakness and declares himself the basileus. His rebellion is minor enough that any responding force is quickly redirected to service in the Brother’s War.

And a Brother’s War it has become. In April Khristophoros had declared himself basileus, gathering support from the douxoi of Khaldeia, Mesopotamia, Koloneia, Sebasteia, Lykandos, Armeniakon, Kharsianon and Kappadokia. However, before he could link his forces Alexandros intercepted the Kharsianon detachment and put them to flight. Khristophoros attempted to run down Alexandrors but was ultimately unable to do so, wasting several valuable weeks in southern Anatolia. This delay gave Konstantinos the time he needed to transfer the European armies into Anatolia and raise the western themata. By the time that Khristophoros had reached and laid siege to Ikonion with a force of some 30,000, his half-brother had reached Amorion with 40,000. Knowing that he was severely outnumbered, Khristophoros pulled back in an attempt to draw Konstantinos after him. The emperor took the bait and the two forces raced east, with many scholars believing that Khristophoros was attempting to gain the support of the newly-established Zaydid Caliphate. There is no hard evidence that this what he intended, but it does seem that it would’ve been a valid or even likely course of action for an outnumbered usurper. However, if there was any Arab aid coming it came too late, because in August Khristophoros was brought to battle at Nyssa and defeated. However, Konstantinos proved to be a very poor general and as a result of his lackluster leadership he lost half his army and seriously injured, having to spend several weeks in Central Anatolia to make good his losses.

Word of this action soon spread and the third brother, Tobias the Younger, seized the moment. He declared himself emperor and, taking ship from Kherson, rushed to the capital and took it by treachery. He was then properly crowned as emperor Tobias II and assigned to the Imperial fleet to guard the Bosporos and Propontis, thus preventing his brother from crossing back over into Europe. He distributed another round of donatives to the European dynatoi, further increasing their powers and privileges. His long term plan seems to have been to cut off Konstantinos in Anatolia and let the stresses caused by the needs of an army to make his faction collapse in a storm of miffed dynatoi.

Upon learning of his other half-brother’s usurpation, Konstantinos rallied his exhausted army and marched west yet again. In September he arrived on the eastern side of the Bosporos and began trying to negotiate with the Megas Doux to allow him to cross. This continued for several months until finally, feeling desperate, he resorted to assassination. In December, when Tobias was leading a procession during a feast day, he was brought down by arrows fired from multiple directions. In the panic all but one of the assassins, a Varangian named Leah Oswaldsen, escaped. With Tobias II dead after less than half a year on the throne, the people of Konstantinoupoli invited Konstantinos to retake the throne.

Konstantinos does so, and then immediately begins a purge of anyone who he suspected of supporting his half-brother. Most heinously, he drags out Adrianos and all of his children and has them publicly executed as traitors. However, that very night he gets roaringly drunk, trips on some stairs and cracks his head against a wall, killing him in what many believe is punishment for his fratricides (Blaming Oswaldsen as a ‘lone bowman’ convinced exactly no one). He is succeeded by his two-year old son, also named Konstantinos, with his lieutenant Nikephoros acting as regent.


As soon as news of the regency reaches the east, Alexandros of Seleukeia receives a flood of support, as most of the eastern nobility and a good deal of the peasantry, wanting a strong leader after the period of chaos. Alexandros marches west with his newly invigorated force, taking a string of fortresses and cities over the course of 914 and 915. Nikephoros is initially hesitant to wager the fate of the young emperor--and thus his own--on the battlefield, but as the situation steadily deteriorates he realizes that he will have to fight or be defeated by inaction. He gathers an army from the European themes and, in early 916, lands at Nikomedeia. He moves southwest and successfully picks off two smaller Alexandrian armies. However, the latter proves to be a trap and he is ambushed by the Alexandrians at Melangina. Nikephoros and most of his army are killed, leaving the road to the capital open for Alexandros.

He exploited it, crossing the Propontis with a small force in an even smaller force of galleys and landing at Eudoxioupoli before marching on the capital. The gates of the city are thrown open and the last retainers loyal to the boy emperor make their stand in the palace. They are eventually overrun and Konstantinos is seized and blinded, ending the House of Persia’s tenure on the thrown. Alexandros is crowned as Alexandros Seleukos, beginning the history of the Seleukid Dynasty.

Konstantinos IX died from his wounds a few days later, the last surviving member of the House of Persia.

FIN