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provided by RERO DOC Digital Library 1 Constantine VII policy. His army had little success against the encroaching Arabs. The expedition to Porphyrogenitus Crete in 949 was a failure, and although in MANUELA STUDER-KARLEN 952 Constantine conquered Germanikeia and crossed the Euphrates, the following Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (lived year the Arab Amir Saif ad-Dawla seized 905–59 CE) was a Byzantine emperor of the that city and entered imperial territory. Macedonian Dynasty (crowned co-emperor Constantine maintained intense diplomatic probably May 15, 908). His nickname relationships with foreign courts, including alludes to the purple room of the imperial the Caliph of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III palace where legitimate children of reigning and Otto I of Germany. Despite the baptism emperors were born. Constantine was the and the visit of Olga, princess of the Kievan son of Leo VI and his concubine Zoe Rus’, to Constantinople in the autumn of 957, Karbonopsina, whom Leo married as his Constantine VII was unable to establish fourth wife shortly after the birth of Constan- a strong alliance with the Rus’ (Ripoche tine. This illegal union provoked the contro- 1977: 1–12). versy known as the Tetragamy of Leo VI Constantine is significant for his abilities as (Oikonomide`s 1963: 46–52). In 912 Leo died a writer and a scholar. He is recorded as a and was succeeded by his brother Alexander, natural-born scholar and a competent self- with Constantine VII as the nominal taught painter (Theophanes Continuatus 6. co-emperor. Alexander deposed Euthymios, 22), with interests in encyclopedic and histor- the patriarch who had condoned Leo’s fourth ical writings. He worked on, or had commis- marriage, and reinstated Nicholas Mystikos, sioned, several books on the empire’s the patriarch who had been deposed by administrative system and foreign relations: Leo for condemning the marriage. The impli- De administrando imperio, De thematibus, cation of this act was that the marriage De ceremoniis aulae byzantinae (see Toynbee was illegal and that Constantine was illegiti- 1973: 575–605), the latter describing mate. Nevertheless, on the sudden death the ceremonies mentioned later in a more of Alexander on June 6, 913, Constantine negative light by the western envoy, Liutprand succeeded to the throne at the age of seven. of Cremona. The encyclopedia of ancient His reign was interrupted by the rule of the and medieval historians preserves many admiral of the imperial fleet and usurper otherwise lost authors (see CONSTANTINIAN Romanos I Lecapenos (920–44), who married EXCERPTS). his daughter Helena to Constantine in May 919 An ivory plaque in Moscow (State Pushkin and was crowned on December 17, 920. Museum of Fine Arts) of the tenth century Romanos was dethroned by his own sons portrays Constantine crowned by Christ. On Stephen and Constantine on December 20, an icon at Sinai, also from the tenth century 944 and exiled to the island Protos. On and illustrating the story of the Mandylion January 27, 945 Constantine VII expelled (brought in triumph to Constantinople in Romanos’ sons and began his personal rule 944), the facial features of king Abgar are (Toynbee 1973: 1–14). Constantine died in those of Constantine. November 959 and was succeeded by his son, Romanos II (959–63). SEE ALSO: Byzantium, political structure; Dynasty, Constantine’s main political interests lay in idea of, Byzantine; Legal literature, Byzantine; legal reform and the fair redistribution of Legislation, Byzantine; Letters, letter writing, land among the peasants; he proclaimed Byzantine; Literature and poetry, Byzantine; a complete rupture with his father-in-law’s Marriage, Byzantine.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 1731–1732. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah03057 2

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS Ripoche, J. (1977) “Constantin VII Porphyroge´ne`te et sa politique hongroise au Kazhdan, A. (1991) “Constantine VII milieu du Xe sie`cle.” Su¨dost-Forschungen 36: Porphyrogennetos.” In Oxford Dictionary of 1–12. Byzantium, vol. 1: 502–3. Oxford. Toynbee, A. (1973) Constantine Porphyrogenitus Lemerle, P. (1986) Byzantine humanism, trans. and his world. London. H. Lindsay and A. Moffatt. Canberra. Oikonomide`s, N. (1963) “La dernie`re volonte´ de Le´on VII au sujet de la Te´tragamie.” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 56: 46–52.