Byzantine Emperor. Baptized with the name Heraklios, he took Constantine as his official name, but is known to history by his diminutive nickname, Constans. In Ad 641 he was made co-emperor with Heraklonas, who had been accused of murdering Constans' father, the Emperor Constantine III. He became sole ruler soon afterwards when Heraklonas was deposed. He initially benefited from his predecessor's unpopularity and also owed his position to the support he received from the army, although in reality he ruled under a regency of senators controlled by the Patriarch Paul II. His reign saw the Byzantine withdrawal from Egypt in AD 642 and the fall of Alexandria to the Muslim Caliphate in AD 645D. By AD 647, the Caliphate had advanced into Armenia and Cappadocia and taken Caearea Mazaca. In 651 the Arabs launched an offensive against Cilicia and Isauria and forced him into a truce in order to retain control of Western Armenia. The truce was broken in AD 645 and he was defeated in the Battle of the Masts in 655 with the loss of five hundred Byzantine ships. The threat to Constantinople only ceased when a civil war broke out in the Caliphate in AD 656. As attacks from the East subsided, he began a campaign in the Balkans and briefly restored Byzantine power there. He was moderate in his religious views and resisted calls to persecute the Monotheists. In AD 653 he ordered the arrest and exile of Pope Martin I for condemning his attempts to reach a compromise at the Lateran Council of AD 649. Suspecting a coup, he ordered his younger brother, Theodosius, to take holy orders and then had him murdered in AD 660. He later left the capital for Syracuse to escape popular unrest. After an unsuccessful campaign against the Lombards, he visited Rome in AD 663, where he stripped the Pantheon and other buildings of ornaments and declared that the Pope had no authority over the Archbishop of Ravenna. He was murdered by his chamberlain in AD 668 following rumours that he intended to move the capital of the Empire to Syracuse and was succeeded by his son, Constantine IV.
Byzantine Emperor. Baptized with the name Heraklios, he took Constantine as his official name, but is known to history by his diminutive nickname, Constans. In Ad 641 he was made co-emperor with Heraklonas, who had been accused of murdering Constans' father, the Emperor Constantine III. He became sole ruler soon afterwards when Heraklonas was deposed. He initially benefited from his predecessor's unpopularity and also owed his position to the support he received from the army, although in reality he ruled under a regency of senators controlled by the Patriarch Paul II. His reign saw the Byzantine withdrawal from Egypt in AD 642 and the fall of Alexandria to the Muslim Caliphate in AD 645D. By AD 647, the Caliphate had advanced into Armenia and Cappadocia and taken Caearea Mazaca. In 651 the Arabs launched an offensive against Cilicia and Isauria and forced him into a truce in order to retain control of Western Armenia. The truce was broken in AD 645 and he was defeated in the Battle of the Masts in 655 with the loss of five hundred Byzantine ships. The threat to Constantinople only ceased when a civil war broke out in the Caliphate in AD 656. As attacks from the East subsided, he began a campaign in the Balkans and briefly restored Byzantine power there. He was moderate in his religious views and resisted calls to persecute the Monotheists. In AD 653 he ordered the arrest and exile of Pope Martin I for condemning his attempts to reach a compromise at the Lateran Council of AD 649. Suspecting a coup, he ordered his younger brother, Theodosius, to take holy orders and then had him murdered in AD 660. He later left the capital for Syracuse to escape popular unrest. After an unsuccessful campaign against the Lombards, he visited Rome in AD 663, where he stripped the Pantheon and other buildings of ornaments and declared that the Pope had no authority over the Archbishop of Ravenna. He was murdered by his chamberlain in AD 668 following rumours that he intended to move the capital of the Empire to Syracuse and was succeeded by his son, Constantine IV.
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