Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/857

Rh CONSTANTINUS. cient weight by the display of a formidable army in Italy ; for his troops were engaged in disastrous wars with the Arabs, who ravaged Pamphylia, Cilicia, and Isauria ; with the Slavonians, who conquered Greece ; and with the Bulgarians, who penetrated several times as far as the environs of Constantinople. The Bulgarian king, Paganus, however, suffered a severe defeat from Constantine in 765, in which he was treacherously killed, and Constantine entered his capital in triumph ; but in the following year he sustained a severe defeat from the Bulgarians, and was compelled to fly ingloriously, after losing his fleet and army. Constantine still flattered himself with reg-aining Ravenna, either by force or arms ; but after Charle- magne became king of the Franks he relinquished this hope, and united his dominions on the conti- nent of southern Italy with the island of Sicily, putting all those provinces under the authority of the Patricius or governor-general of Sicily. The continental part of the new province or Thema of Sicily was sometimes called Sicilia secunda, whence arose the name of both the Sicilies, which is still the regular designation of the kingdom of Naples. In 7/4, the empire was once more invaded by the Bulgarians under their king Telericus ; but Con- stantine checked his progress, and in the following year fitted out a powerful expedition to chastise the barbarian. Having resolved to take the com- mand of it in person, he set out for the Haemus ; but some ulcers on his legs, the consequence of his debaucheries, having suddenly burst, he stopped at Arcadiopolis, and finally went on board his fleet off Selembria, where he died from an inflammatory fever on the 14th of September, 775, Constantine V. was a cruel, profligate, and most fanatical man ; but he was, nevertheless, well adapted for the business of government. He was addicted to unnatural vices ; his passion for horses procured him the nickname of Caballinus. He was thrice married : viz. to Irene, daughter of the khagan or khan of the Khazars ; a lady called Maria; and Eudoxia Melissena. His successor was his eldest son, Leo IV., whom he had by Irene. During the reign of Constantine V. the beautiful aqueduct of Constantinople, built by the emperor Valens, which had been ruined by the barbarians in the time of the emperor Heraclius, was restored by order of Constantine. (Theophan. p. 346, &c., ed. Paris ; Cedren. p. 549, &c., ed. Paris ; Nicephor. Gregoras, p. 38, &c., ed. Paris ; Glycas, p. 283, ed. Paris; Zonar. vol. ii. p. 105, ed. Paris.) [W. P.] CONSTANTI'NUS VI., FLA'VIUS, emperor of the East, a. d. 780-797, the son of Leo IV. Chazarus Isaurus and Irene, was born in 771, and succeeded his father in 780, under the guardian- ship of his mother, a highly-gifted but ambitious and cruel woman, a native of Athens. The reign of Constantine VI. presents a hideous picture of wars, civil and religious troubles, and pitiless crimes. Elpidus, governor of the thema of Sicily, revolted in 781; and it seems that his intention was either to place himself or one of the four paternal uncles of the young emperor on the throne ; but the eunuch Theodore, an able general, defeated him in several engagements in 782, and Elpidus fled with his treasures to the Arabs in Africa, by whom he was treated till his death with the honours due to an emperor. The power of the Arabs grew every year more dangerous to the empire. In 781 they CONSTANTINUS. 839 suffered a severe defeat from the eunuch Joannes in Armenia, evacuated that countrj', and fled in confusion to Syria ; but in the following year, a powerful Arabian army, divided into three strong bodies, and commanded by Har6n-ar-Rashid, the son of the khalif Mahadi, penetrated as far as the Bosponis, and compelled Irene to pay an annual tribute of 60,000 pieces of gold. The peace, how- ever, was broken some years afterwards, and the new war lasted till the end of the reign of Con- stantine, who in 790 lost half of his fleet in the gulf of Attalia, but obtained several victories over the Arabs by land. He was likewise victorious in a war with the Slavonians, who had conquered all Greece, but were driven back by Stauracius in 784. At an early age, Constantine was betrothed to Rotrudis, daughter of Charlemagne ; but quarrels having broken out with that emperor on the sub- ject of the Greek dominions in Italy, the match was broken off, and Constantine married Maria, an Armenian lady, whom he repudiated three years afterwards, and married one Theodata. In 787, the sect of the Iconoclasts was condemned in the seventh general council held at Nicaea, and the worship of images was restored throughout the empire. When Constantine came of age, he was of course intrusted with the administration of the empire ; but Irene's influence was so great, that she remained the real sovereign. Tired of his vassalage, Constantine intrigued against her, and had already resolved to arrest her, when the plot was discovered ; his partisans were severely punished, and he himself received the chastisement of a boy from the hands of his mother. Infuriated by this outrage, the young emperor requested the assistance of his Armenian life-guard, and, hav- ing found them all devoted to him, seized upon his mother, and confined her in one of her palaces, where she was kindly treated, but was allowed to have no other company but that of her attendants. A reconciliation took place some time afterwards, but Irene finally contrived the ruin of her son. After succeeding in being recognized as the lawful master of the empire, Constantine put him- self at the head of his array, and set out to meet the Bulgarians, who were plundering all Thrace. He obtained some advantages over them, but lost a pitched battle, saw his army cut to pieces, and with difficulty escaped to Constantinople. There he received intelligence that a conspiracy against his life, formed by his four uncles and supported by the Armenian guard, was on the eve of breaking out. His measures were at once quick and energetic : he seized the conspirators, dis- armed the Armenians, whose commander, Alexis, had his eyes put out, and punished his uncles with equal severity : one of them was blinded, and the three others had their tongues cut off, and they were all forced to become ecclesiastics, in order to incapacitate them for reigning. They were after- wards banished, and died in obscurity. The reconciliation which had taken place be- tween Constantine and his mother was a hollow one ; Irene could not forget that she had once ruled, and during an expedition of her son against the Arabs she formed another conspiracy. On Con- stantine's return in 797, he was suddenly assailed by assassins while he was sitting in the Hippo- drome to look at the races. He escaped unhurt, fled from the city, and directed his course to Phrygia.