CONSTANS II & CONSTANTINE IV 654AD Syracuse Sicily Follis Byzantine Coin i53597

Description

Item:
i53597
Authentic Ancient Coin of:
Byzantine Empire
Constans II - Emperor: September 641-15 July 668 A.D.
with Constantine IV - Augustus from April 13, 654 A.D.
Bronze Follis 22mm (3.49 grams) Syracuse in Sicily mint
Reference: Sear 1109; DOC 180
No legend. Constans (on left), with long beard, and Constantine IV (on right), beardless, standing facing, each wearing crown; Constans wears military attire, and holds long staff; his son wears chlamys and holds globe cross.
Large M; above, monogram 35; beneath, SCL.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
Constantine IV
, (c. 652 – September 685), sometimes incorrectly called
Pogonatos
, "the Bearded", by confusion with his father;
was
Byzantine Emperor
from 668 to 685. His reign saw the first serious check to nearly 50 years of uninterrupted
Islamic
expansion, while his calling of the
Sixth Ecumenical Council
saw the end of the
monothelitism
controversy in the
Byzantine Empire
.
Early career
The eldest son of
Constans II
, Constantine IV had been named a co-emperor with his father in 654.
He had been given the responsibility of managing the affairs at
Constantinople
during his father’s extended absence in Italy and became senior Emperor when Constans was assassinated in 668. His mother was
Fausta
, daughter of patrician
Valentinus
.
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 7 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
, after receiving an invitation from
Saborios
, the commander of the troops in
Armenia
to help him overthrow the Emperor at Constantinople, sent an army under his son
Yazid
against the
Eastern Roman Empire
. Yazid reached as far as
Chalcedon
and took the important Byzantine center
Amorion
. Although 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. Finally, in 672, the Arabs sent a large fleet to attack
Constantinople
by sea. While Constantine was distracted by this, the
Slavs
unsuccessfully attacked
Thessalonika
.
The Siege of Constantinople: 674-678
Then, commencing in 674, the Arabs launched the long awaited siege of Constantinople. The great fleet that had been assembled set sail under the command of
Abdu'l-Rahman ibn Abu Bakr
before the end of the year; and during the winter months some of the ships anchored at
Smyrna
, the rest off the coast of
Cilicia
. Additional squadrons reinforced the forces of Abd ar-Rahman before they proceeded to the
Hellespont
, into which they sailed in about April 674. From April to September 674 the fleet lay moored from the promontory of Hebdomon, on the
Propontis
, as far as the promontory of
Kyklobion
, near the
Golden Gate
, and throughout those months continued to engage with the Byzantine fleet which defended the harbour continued from morning to evening.
Knowing that it was only a matter of time before Constantinople was under siege, Constantine had ensured that the city was well provisioned. He also constructed a large number of fireships and fast-sailing boats provided with tubes or siphons for squirting fire. This is the first known use of
Greek fire
in combat, which was one of the key advantages that the Byzantines possessed. In September, the Arabs having failed in their attempts to take the city, sailed to Cyzicus, which they made their winter quarters. Over the following five years, the Arabs would return each spring to continue the siege of Constantinople, but with the same results. The city survived and finally in 678, the Arabs were forced to raise the siege. The Arabs withdrew, and were almost simultaneously defeated on land in
Lycia
in
Anatolia
. This unexpected reverse forced Muawiyah I to seek a truce with Constantine. The terms of the concluded truce required the Arabs to evacuating those islands in the
Aegean
they had seized, as well as an annual tribute to the Emperor consisting of fifty slaves, fifty horses and 3,000 pounds of gold. The raising of the siege allowed Constantine to go to the relief of Thessalonika, still under siege from the Slavs.
Later Reign
With the temporary passing of the Arab threat, Constantine had to turn his attention to the Church, 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 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 concerns with the Arabs during the 670s, in the west, Constantine had been forced to conclude treaties with the
Lombards
, who had captured
Brindisi
and
Taranto
. As well, in 670 the
Bulgars
under
Asparukh
crossed the
Danube
into nominally Imperial territory and began to subject 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 allowed itself to panic and
be defeated
by the Bulgars. In 681, Constantine was forced to acknowledge the
Bulgar state
in
Moesia
and to pay 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 681 Constantine had them
mutilated
so they would be ineligible to rule. At the same time he associated on the throne his own young son
Justinian II
. Constantine died of
dysentery
in September 685.
Family
By his wife
Anastasia
, Constantine IV had at least two sons:
Justinian II
, who succeeded as emperor
Heraclius
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
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