CONSTANS II 647AD Carthage Half Follis Medieval Byzantine Ancient Coin i41530

Item: i41530

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Byzantine Empire

Constans II
– Byzantine Emperor: September 641-15 July 668

Bronze Half Follis 18mm (5.91 grams) Carthage mint. Struck 647-659 A.D.
Reference: DOC 144; MIB 198a; SB 1059
Crowned and draped facing bust, holding mappa and globus cruciger.
Large cross dividing C T/X X in two lines; •(star)• above.

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Authenticity.

Constans II (Greek:

Κώνστας Β’, Kōnstas II), also called

“Constantine the Bearded” (Kōnstantinos Pogonatos), (November

7, 630
–September

15, 668
)

was

Byzantine emperor

from 641 to 668. He also was the last emperor to become

consul in 642,

becoming the last

Roman

consul
in history.

Constans is a diminutive nickname given to the emperor, who

had been baptized Herakleios and reigned officially as Constantine. The nickname

established itself in Byzantine texts, and has become standard in modern

historiography.

//

 Biography

Constans was the son of

Constantine III

and

Gregoria
.

Due to the rumours that

Heraklonas

and Martina

had poisoned Constantine III he was named co-emperor in 641. Later that same

year his uncle was deposed and Constans II was left as sole emperor.

Constans owed his throne to a popular reaction against his

uncle and to the protection of the soldiers led by the general Valentinus.

Although the precocious emperor addressed the senate with a speech blaming

Heraklonas and Martina for eliminating his father, he reigned under a regency of

senators led by

Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople

. In 644 Valentinus attempted to seize

power for himself but failed.

Under Constans, the Byzantines completely withdrew from

Egypt

in 642, and

Caliph Uthman

launched numerous attacks on the islands of the

Mediterranean Sea

and

Aegean Sea
.

A Byzantine fleet under the admiral Manuel occupied

Alexandria

again in 645, but after a Muslim victory the following year this had to be

abandoned. The situation was complicated by the violent opposition to

Monothelitism

by the clergy in the west, and the related rebellion of the

Exarch of Carthage

, Gregory. The latter fell in battle against the army of Caliph

Uthman and the region remained a vassal state under

Caliphate
,

until the civil war broke out and the imperial rule was again restored.

Constans attempted to steer a middle line in the church

dispute between Orthodoxy and Monothelitism, by refusing to persecute either and

prohibiting further discussion of the natures of

Jesus

Christ
by

decree in 648. Naturally, this live-and-let-live compromise satisfied few

passionate participants in the dispute.

Meanwhile, the

Caliphate

advance continued unabated. In 647 they had entered into

Armenia
and

Cappadocia
,

and sacked

Caesarea Mazaca

. In 648 the Arabs raided into

Phrygia
and

in 649 launched their first maritime expedition against

Crete
. A major

Arab offensive into

Cilicia
and

Isauria
in

650–651 forced the emperor to enter into negotiations with

Caliph Uthman
‘s

governor of Syria
,

Muawiyah
.

The truce that followed allowed a short respite, and made it possible for

Constans to hold on to the western portions of Armenia.

In 654, however,

Muawiyah

renewed his raids by sea, and plundered

Rhodes
.

Constans led a fleet to attack the

Muslims

at Phoinike (off

Lycia
) in 655 at

the

Battle of the Masts

, but he was defeated: 500 Byzantine ships were destroyed

in the battle, and the emperor himself risked to be killed. Before the battle,

chronicler

Theophanes the Confessor

says, the emperor dreamt to be at Thessalonika,

this dream predicted his defeat against the Arabs because the word

Thessalonika

is similar to the sentence “thes allo niken”, that means “gave

victory to another (the enemy)”.^[3]

Caliph Uthman

was preparing to attack

Constantinople

, but did not carry out the plan when civil war between the

future

Sunni

and

Shi’a

factions broke out among them in 656.

With the eastern frontier under less pressure, in 658

Constans defeated the

Slavs

in the Balkans

, temporarily reasserting some notion of Byzantine rule over them. In

659 he campaigned far to the east, taking advantage of a rebellion against the

Caliphate in Media
.

The same year he concluded peace with the Arabs.

Now Constans could turn to church matters once again.

Pope

Martin I
had condemned both Monothelitism and Constans’ attempt to halt

debates over it (the

Type of Constans

) in the

Lateran Council of 649

. Now the emperor ordered his Exarch of

Ravenna
to

arrest the Pope. One Exarch excused himself from this task, but his successor

carried it out in 653. The Pope was brought to Constantinople and condemned as a

criminal, ultimately being exiled to

Cherson

, where he died in 655.

Constans grew increasingly fearful that his younger brother,

Theodosius, could oust him from the throne: he therefore obliged him first to

take holy orders, and later had Theodosius killed in 660. Constans’ sons

Constantine, Heraclius, and Tiberius had been associated on the throne since the

650s. However, having attracted the hatred of citizens of Constantinople,

Constans decided to leave the capital and to move to

Syracuse

in Sicily

.

From here, in 661, he launched an assault against the

Lombard

Duchy of Benevento

, which then occupied most of

Southern Italy

. Taking advantage of the fact that Lombard king

Grimoald I of Benevento

was engaged against Frankish forces from

Neustria
,

Constans II disembarked at

Taranto
and

besieged Lucera

and Benevento
.

However, the latter resisted and Constans withdrew to

Naples
. During

the travel from Benevento to Naples, Constans II was defeated by Mitolas, Count

of Capua, near Pugna. Constans ordered Saburrus, the commander of his army, to

attack again the Lombards but he was defeated by the Beneventani at

Forino
, between

Avellino

and Salerno
.

In 663 Constans visited

Rome for 12 days—no

emperor having set foot in Rome for two centuries—and was received with great

honor by

Pope

Vitalian
(657–672). Although on friendly terms with Vitalian, he stripped

buildings, including the

Pantheon

, of their ornaments and bronze to be carried back to

Constantinople, and declared the

Pope of Rome

to have no jurisdiction over the Archbishop of Ravenna, since

that city was the seat of the

exarch

, his immediate representative.

His subsequent moves in

Calabria

and Sardinia

were marked by further strippings and request of tributes that enraged his

Italian subjects. Rumours that he was going to move the capital of the empire to

Syracuse were probably fatal for Constans. On

September 15

, 668

he was assassinated in his bath by his

chamberlain

. His son Constantine succeeded him as

Constantine IV

, a brief usurpation in Sicily by

Mezezius

being quickly suppressed by the new emperor.

 Family

By his wife

Fausta

, a daughter of the patrician Valentinus, Constans II had three sons:

• Constantine IV

  , who succeeded as emperor

• Heraclius, co-emperor from 659 to 681

• Tiberius, co-emperor from 659 to 681