Constantine VII
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Constantine and his mother Zoë. |
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or
Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" (
Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Ζ΄ Πορφυρογέννητος,
Kōnstantinos VII Porphyrogenn"tos), (
Constantinople,
905 –
November 9,
959 in Constantinople) was the son of the
Byzantine emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife
Zoe Karbonopsina. He was also the nephew of the Emperor
Alexander. He is famous for his two descriptive books,
De Administrando Imperio and
De Ceremoniis.
His
nickname alludes to the Purple Room of the imperial palace, where legitimate children of reigning emperors were normally born. Constantine was also born in this room, although his mother Zoe had not been married to Leo at that time. Nevertheless, the epithet allowed him to underline his position as the legitimized son, as opposed to all others who claimed the throne during his lifetime.
Constantine was an illegitimate son born before an uncanonical fourth marriage. To help legitimize him, he had been born in the Purple Room of the imperial palace, and he had been associated on the throne by his father and uncle on
May 15,
908. After the death of his uncle Alexander in 913, he succeeded to the throne at the age of seven, under the regency of the Patriarch
Nicholas Mystikos. His regent was presently forced to make peace with
Tsar Simeon of
Bulgaria, whom he reluctantly recognized as Bulgarian emperor. Because of this unpopular concession, Nicholas was driven out of the regency by Constantine's mother
Zoe.
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Christ Crowning Constantine VII (945). |
Zoe was no more successful with the Bulgarians, by whom her main supporter, the general Leo Phokas, was defeated in 917, and in 919 she was replaced by the admiral
Romanos Lekapenos, who married his daughter Helena to Constantine. Romanos used his position to advance to the ranks of
basileopatōr in May 919,
kaisar (
Caesar) in September 920, and finally co-emperor in December of the same year. Thus, just short of reaching nominal majority, Constantine was again eclipsed by a senior emperor.
Constantine's youth had been a sad one for his unpleasant appearance, his taciturn nature and his relegation at the third level of succession behind the eldest son of Romanos I Lekapenos. Neverthless, he was a very intelligent young man with a large range of interests, and dedicated those years to study the court's ceremonial.
Romanos kept power for himself and mantained it until 944, when he was deposed by his sons Stephen and Constantine. With the help of his wife, Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law and on
January 27,
945, Constantine VII was once again sole emperor at the age of 39, after a life spent in the shadow. Several months later, Constantine VII crowned his own son
Romanos II co-emperor. Having never exercised executive authority, Constantine remained primarily devoted to his scholarly pursuits and relegated his authority to bureacrats and generals, as well as his energetic wife Helena Lekapene.
In 949 Constantine launched a new attack against the
Arab corsairs hiding in
Crete, but like his father's attempt to retake the island in 911, this attempt also failed. On the Eastern frontier things went better, even if with alternate success: in 949 the Byzantines conquered
Germanicea, repeatedly defeated the enemy armies and in 952 crossed the upper
Euphrates. But in 953 the
Arab amir Saif ad-Dawla retook Germanicea and entered the imperial territory. The land in the east was eventually recovered by
Nikephoros Phokas, who conquered
Hadath, in northern
Syria, in 958, and by the
Armenian general
John Tzimiskes, who one year later captured
Samosata, in northern
Mesopotamia. An Arab fleet was also destroyed by
Greek fire in 957. Constantine's efforts to retake themes lost to the Arabs were the first such efforts to have any real success.
Constantine had intense diplomatic relationships with foreign courts, including the
caliph of
Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III and
Otto I,
King of Germany. In the autumn of 957 Constantine was visited by
Olga, princess of the
Kievan Rus'. The reasons for this voyage have never been clarified: in any case, she was baptised with the name Helena, and began to convert her people to
Christianity.
Constantine VII died in November 959 and was succeeded by his son
Romanos II. It was rumored that Constantine had been poisoned by his son or his daughter-in-law
Theophano.
Although he was a satisfactory emperor, Constantine is more renowned for his abilities as a writer and scholar. He wrote, or had others write in his name, the works
De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae ("On Ceremonies"), describing the kinds of court ceremonies also described later in a more negative light by
Liutprand of Cremona;
De Administrando Imperio ("On the Administration of the Empire"), giving advice on running the empire internally and also how to fight external enemies; and a history of the Empire covering events following the death of the chronographer
Theophanes the Confessor in 817. Though these books are not as insightful as Constantine believed them to be, they nevertheless are a most useful source of information about nations neighbouring with Byzantium, and a good insight into the Emperor himself. Constantine was a great collector of books, manuscripts and art works in general, and was indeed a good painter.
By his wife Helena Lekapene, the daughter of Emperor
Romanos I, Constantine VII had several children, including:
* Leo, who died young.
*
Romanos II* Theodora, who married Emperor
John I Tzimiskes.
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.
*
Runciman, Steven.
The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his Reign. Cambridge: University Press, 1990. (Originally published 1929.) ISBN 0-521-35722-5
*
Toynbee, Arnold.
Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his world. Oxford, 1973. ISBN 0-19-215253-X. 768pp.
