Constantine IV

Constantine IV (); 650 – 10 July 685), called the Younger () and often incorrectly the Bearded () out of confusion with his father, was Byzantine emperor from 668 to 685. His reign saw the first serious check to nearly 50 years of uninterrupted Arab expansion, most notably his successful defence of Constantinople, and the temporary stabilization of the Byzantine Empire after decades of war, defeats, and civil strife. 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.September 3/September 16
Orthodox Calendar (PRAVOSLAVIE.RU).

Early career

The eldest son of Constans II and Fausta, daughter of patrician Valentinus, Constantine IV had been named a co-emperor with his father in 654, almost certainly in Easter (13 April).'' PBW''
Konstantinos IV
. His year of birth is unknown, but often given as 650. He became emperor in September 668, when news arrived at Constantinople that Constans II had been assassinated in Sicily.

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. Within seven months of his accession, Constantine IV had dealt with the insurgency with the support of Pope Vitalian, 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. He sent an army under his son Yazid against the Byzantine Empire. Yazid reached Chalcedon and took the important Byzantine center Amorion. While the city was quickly recovered, the Arabs next attacked Carthage and Sicily in 669. In 670 the Arabs captured Cyzicus and set up a base from which to launch further attacks into the heart of the Empire. Their fleet captured Smyrna and other coastal cities in 672. Also, in 672, the Arabs sent a large fleet to attack Constantinople by sea. While Constantine was distracted by this, the Slavs laid siege to Thessalonica.

The First Arab Siege of Constantinople (667–669)

While modern historiography traditionally placed the first Arab siege of Constantinople in 674–678, a new reconstruction of the events has re-dated it to 667–669. In 663, Constantine's father, Constans II, had moved the imperial residence to Syracuse, during which a large portion of the military was relocated to Sicily. This move exposed Constantinople to the danger of the Arab forces. The Arab forays in Anatolia had started already by c. 662/3 in the frontier zone of Melitene shortly after Muʿāwiya had emerged victorious from the internal civil strife in the Caliphate. One of those raids led by Busr b. Abī Artāt reportedly reached Constantinople plundering its immediate vicinity. The weakened Byzantine armies in the meantime were unable to check the Arab incursions. The situation was propitious for the Byzantine patrician and general of the theme of Armeniakon, Saborios to revolt against the imperial government after having secured the backing of the Arabs. Muʿāwiya I saw in Saborios an unexpected ally and an opportune chance to invade further inland, taking advantage of the Byzantine armies' distress. Although the concerted plan never materialised as such due to the accidental death of Saborios, this did not hamper Muʿāwiya from advancing his plan to bring the Byzantine empire to heel. He launched the offensive in 667 with numerous forces that marched to Constantinople, while another number of his forces was sailing with the fleet to Constantinople. The command of the Arab armies marching to Constantinople had been entrusted by Muʿāwiya to his general and qādī of Damascus, Fadālah b. ῾Ubayd al-Ansarī.

The army invaded the Byzantine territories by summer of 667 and through a number of raids and plundering arrived by the end of 667 at Chalkedon where it spent the winter. Meanwhile, the Arab navy consisting of Egyptian and Syrian fleet units under the command of Muʿāwiya son, Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya was also sailing towards Constantinople which it reached by autumn 667. Among the comrades of Yazīd where four Companions of the Prophet and members of the Medinan aristocracy, to wit ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbbās paternal cousin of the Prophet and ancestor of the Abbasids, ʿAbdallāh b. ʿUmar the son of the second caliph and one of the most important transmitters of the hadith, ʿAbdallāh b. al-Zubayr, son a sister of the Prophet's wife ʿ Aʾisha, grandson of Abū Bakr and future caliph during the civil war of 680-692, and Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī who hosted the Prophet during his stay in Medīna according to the Arab historiographer al-Tabarī. The two contingents united after reaching the walls of Constantinople blockaded the capital, although no assault of importance took place until the end of winter of 667 but instead only plundering of the countryside. By spring of 668 the Arab forces strained their blockade and the capital was under siege for the whole of spring up to middle of June 668. However, the numerous Arab armies having wintered at camps were malnourished and soon they were suffering severe famine, whereas the outbreak of a smallpox epidemic decimated them in large numbers forcing Yasīd to lift the siege hurriedly. Nevertheless, the army and navy remained in Cyzicus from where they engaged in small scale battles and raids in the vicinity of Constantinople and its immediate countryside before they set sail back to Syria around 669/70.

Rise of Constantine IV to power, Mezezios the usurper, and the monetary reform of 668

The first Arab siege of Constantinople set in motion a number of developments. In the aftermath of the siege the victorious, albeit during the circumstances mostly rather than his prowess, Constantine emerged as leader of the city. The news of the lifting of the siege had not yet reached Suracuse due to the naval blockade of Constantinople and the fear for the worst possible scenario led a party of the emperor's closest high-ranking military office holders to unfold a plot to remove him out of, supposedly, concern for the continuation of the empire. Be that as it may, the assassination of the emperor Constans II took place on the 15th of July of 668. Upon the emperor's death that fraction of conspirators proclaimed Mezezios as emperor in Sicily. However, the rebel did not enjoy of pope Vitalian's acceptance and only one part of the army lent to him support, whereas the Byzantine navy under the command of the loyal dignitary named Severus returned to Constantinople. The arrival of the navy in Constantinople by late 668 was a salutary point for it offered to Constantine IV until then bereft of any substantial army and some ten ship to his disposal, to confront pari passu with the Arab navy which apparently desisted from besieging again Constantinople. Constantine IV with the control of the navy at his hands and Constantinople freed of the danger sent his two brothers and co-emperors to the West with a number of armies in a division of the front of the war between the three brothers. Meanwhile and from another warfront the Egyptian governor Maslama b. Mukhallad sent his fleet under the command of Muʿāwiyah b. Ḥudayj al-Kindī to attack Sicily in order to undermine the efforts of Constans II to reorganise the empire's position in the West. In doing so he launched some cursory incursions to the island, but in the meantime Mezezios had solicited the help of Constantine IV and in doing so he precipitated his own demise. Upon arrival of the fleet comprising some 600 ships the Arabs avoided going in naval battle and retreated. Constantine IV upon landing on Suracuse had Mezezios arrested and decapitated while the rest of his supporters were arrested and sent back to Constantinople chained.

In the wake of the Arab siege and his father's relocation to Suracuse where presumably the imperial treasury was also moved and possibly plundered after Constans II assassination, Constantine IV was faced with a surging economic crisis. The Arab raids of Asia Minor and the territorial losses in broader Syria meant also the loss of some important mines and shortage of precious metals for the higher value coinage. Other from devaluating the higher order issues the new emperor opted for reissuing the copper follis of Justinian which meant, the iconographic return aside, four times heavier coin. This increase in the metal's substance increased the monetary value of his copper follis and probably made redundant the solidi of Mezezios in order to strike his opponent by destabilising his currency's value. However, Constantine IV by the next year when his son's was born decided to undo his father's ecclesiastical policy and not only named his son Justinian II, but he furthered the restructuring of the rest of the monetary system to Justinian's issues in terms design and layout. The fostering of such a propaganda where he was likened himself to Justinian aimed at glossing his reign with a profound renovatio imperii which he essentially did as the Byzantines from 672 to 680 had gained the offensive and through a series of counterattacks to Egypt and to Syria attained to paralyse the Arab danger. This put an end to 15 years of successive raids and devastation and Muʿāwiya's death on 6 May of 680 sealed that end for good.

Later reign

With the temporary passing of the Arab threat, Constantine turned his attention to the Church, which was torn between Monothelitism and Orthodoxy. In November 680 Constantine convened the Sixth Ecumenical Council (also known as the Third Council of Constantinople). 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. The Council reaffirmed the Orthodox doctrines of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. This solved the controversy over monothelitism; conveniently for the Empire, most monothelites were now under the control of the Umayyad Caliphate. The council closed in September 681.

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. 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. In 680, Constantine IV led a combined land and sea operation against the invaders and besieged their fortified camp in Dobruja. Suffering from bad health, the Emperor had to leave the army, which panicked and was defeated by the Bulgars. 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. Consequently, Constantine created the Theme of Thrace.

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

Family

By his wife Anastasia, Constantine IV had at least two sons:
* Justinian II in 669, who succeeded him as emperor at the age of sixteen.
* Heraclius 670, known only from an episode in which his father sent locks of his and his brother's hair to Pope Benedict II.

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").

See also

*List of Byzantine emperors

Notes

References

Sources

Primary sources

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Secondary sources

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*Jankowiak, M. (2013). "The First Arab Siege of Constantinople", ''Travaux et Mémoires'' 17, 237-322.

External links

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7th-century Byzantine emperors
7th-century Christian saints
Heraclian dynasty
Byzantine people of the Arab–Byzantine wars
Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars
685 deaths
Deaths from dysentery
Porphyrogennetoi
660s in the Byzantine Empire
670s in the Byzantine Empire
680s in the Byzantine Empire
Burials at the Church of the Holy Apostles
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