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Birth:          18 May  905 of Constantinople
Death:          9 Nov  959 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_VII
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" (that is, born 
in the purple marble slab-paneled imperial bed chambers; Greek: ???sta?t???? ?? 
???f????????t??, Konstantinos VII Porphyrogennetos; 17–18 May 905 – 9 November 
959), was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, 
reigning from 913 to 959. He was the son of the emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, 
Zoe Karbonopsina, and the nephew of his predecessor, the emperor Alexander.

Most of his reign was dominated by co-regents: from 913 until 919 he was under the 
regency of his mother, while from 920 until 945 he shared the throne with Romanos 
Lekapenos, whose daughter Helena he married, and his sons. Constantine VII is best 
known for his four books, De Administrando Imperio (bearing in Greek the heading 
???? t?? ?d??? ???? ??µa???), De Ceremoniis (?e?? t?? ?as??e??? ???e??), De 
Thematibus (?e?? ?eµ?t?? ??at???? ?a? ??se??), and Vita Basilii (???? ?as??e???).

His nickname alludes to the Purple Room of the imperial palace, decorated with 
porphyry, where legitimate children of reigning emperors were normally born. 
Constantine was also born in this room, although his mother Zoe had not been married 
to Leo at that time. Nevertheless, the epithet allowed him to underline his position as 
the legitimized son, as opposed to all others who claimed the throne during his 
lifetime. Sons born to a reigning Emperor held precedence in the Eastern Roman line 
of succession over elder sons not born "in the purple".
Reign[edit]

Further information: Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927

Constantine was born at Constantinople, an illegitimate son born before an 
uncanonical fourth marriage. To help legitimize him, his mother gave birth to him in the 
Purple Room of the imperial palace, hence his nickname Porphyrogennetos. He was 
symbolically elevated to the throne as a two-year-old child by his father and uncle on 
May 15, 908.

In June 913, as his uncle Alexander lay dying, he appointed a seven-man regency 
council for Constantine. It was headed by the Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos, the two 
magistroi John Eladas and Stephen, the rhaiktor John Lazanes, the otherwise obscure 
Euthymius and Alexander's henchmen Basilitzes and Gabrielopoulos.[2] Following 
Alexander's death, the new and shaky regime survived the attempted usurpation of 
Constantine Doukas,[3] and Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos quickly assumed a dominant 
position among the regents.[4]

Patriarch Nicholas was presently forced to make peace with Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria, 
whom he reluctantly recognized as Bulgarian emperor. Because of this unpopular 
concession, Patriarch Nicholas was driven out of the regency by Constantine's mother 
Zoe. She was no more successful with the Bulgarians, who defeated her main 
supporter, the general Leo Phokas, in 917. In 919 she was replaced as regent by the 
admiral Romanos Lekapenos, who married his daughter Helena Lekapene to 
Constantine. Romanos used his position to advance to the ranks of basileopator in 
May 919, to kaisar (Caesar) in September 920, and finally to co-emperor in December 
920. Thus, just short of reaching nominal majority, Constantine was eclipsed by a 
senior emperor.

Constantine's youth had been a sad one due to his unpleasant appearance, his 
taciturn nature, and his relegation to the third level of succession, behind Christopher 
Lekapenos, the eldest son of Romanos I Lekapenos. Nevertheless, he was a very 
intelligent young man with a large range of interests, and he dedicated those years to 
studying the court's ceremonial.

Romanos kept and maintained power until 944, when he was deposed by his sons, the 
co-emperors Stephen and Constantine. Romanos spent the last years of his life in exile 
on the Island of Prote as a monk and died on June 15, 948.[5] With the help of his 
wife, Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law, and on January 27, 
945, Constantine VII became sole emperor at the age of 39, after a life spent in the 
shadow. Several months later, Constantine VII crowned his own son Romanos II co-
emperor. Having never exercised executive authority, Constantine remained primarily 
devoted to his scholarly pursuits and relegated his authority to bureaucrats and 
generals, as well as to his energetic wife Helena Lekapene.

In 949 Constantine launched a new fleet of 100 ships (20 dromons, 64 chelandia, and 
10 galleys) against the Arab corsairs hiding in Crete, but like his father's attempt to 
retake the island in 911, this attempt also failed. On the Eastern frontier things went 
better, even if with alternate success. In 949 the Byzantines conquered Germanicea, 
repeatedly defeated the enemy armies, and in 952 they crossed the upper Euphrates. 
But in 953 the Hamdanid amir Sayf al-Daula retook Germanicea and entered the 
imperial territory. The land in the east was eventually recovered by Nikephoros 
Phokas, who conquered Hadath, in northern Syria, in 958, and by the Armenian 
general John Tzimiskes, who one year later captured Samosata, in northern 
Mesopotamia. An Arab fleet was also destroyed by Greek fire in 957. Constantine's 
efforts to retake themes lost to the Arabs were the first such efforts to have any real 
success.

Constantine had active diplomatic relationships with foreign courts, including those of 
the caliph of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III and of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. In the 
autumn of 957 Constantine was visited by Olga of Kiev, regent of the Kievan Rus'. 
The reasons for this voyage have never been clarified; but she was baptised a 
Christian with the name Helena, and sought Christian missionaries to encourage her 
people to adopt Christianity. According to legends, Constantine VII fell in love with 
Olga, however she found the way to refuse him by tricking him to become her 
godfather. When she was baptized, she said it was inappropriate for a godfather to 
marry his goddaughter.[6]

Constantine VII died at Constantinople in November 959 and was succeeded by his 
son Romanos II. It was rumored that Constantine had been poisoned by his son or his 
daughter-in-law Theophano.

Literary and political activity[edit]
 
Constantine VII was renowned for his abilities as a writer and scholar. He wrote, or 
had commissioned, the works De Ceremoniis ("On Ceremonies", in Greek, ?e?? t?? ?
as??e??? ???e??), describing the kinds of court ceremonies (also described later in a 
more negative light by Liutprand of Cremona); De Administrando Imperio ("On the 
Administration of the Empire", bearing in Greek the heading ???? t?? ?d??? ???? ??
µa???), giving advice on running the Empire internally and on fighting external 
enemies; a history of the Empire covering events following the death of the 
chronographer Theophanes the Confessor in 817; and Excerpta Historica ("Excerpts 
from the Histories"), a collection of excerpts from ancient historians (many of whose 
works are now lost) in four volumes (1. De legationibus. 2. De virtutibus et vitiis. 3. De 
insidiis. 4. De sententiis.) Also amongst his historical works is a history eulogizing the 
reign and achievements of his grandfather, Basil I (Vita Basilii, ???? ?as??e???). 
These books are insightful and of interest to the historian, sociologist, and 
anthropologist as a source of information about nations neighbouring the Empire. They 
also offer a fine insight into the Emperor himself.

In his book, A Short History of Byzantium, John Julius Norwich refers to Constantine 
VII as "The Scholar Emperor".[7] Norwich describes Constantine:


He was, we are told, a passionate collector—not only of books and manuscripts but 
works of art of every kind; more remarkable still for a man of his class, he seems to 
have been an excellent painter. He was the most generous of patrons—to writers and 
scholars, artists and craftsmen. Finally, he was an excellent Emperor: a competent, 
conscientious and hard-working administrator and an inspired picker of men, whose 
appointments to military, naval, ecclesiastical, civil and academic posts were both 
imaginative and successful. He did much to develop higher education and took a 
special interest in the administration of justice.[8]

In 947, Constantine VII ordered the immediate restitution of all peasant lands, without 
compensation; by the end of his reign, the condition of the landed peasantry, which 
formed the foundation of the whole economic and military strength of the Empire, was 
better off than it had been for a century.[9]

In The Manuscript Tradition of Polybius, John Michael Moore (CUP, 1965) provides a 
useful summary of the commission by Porphyrogenitus of the Constantine Excerpts:

He felt that the historical studies were being seriously neglected, mainly because of 
the bulk of the histories. He therefore decided that a selection under fifty-three titles 
should be made from all the important historians extant in Constantinople; thus he 
hoped to assemble in a more manageable compass the most valuable parts of each 
author. ... Of the fifty-three titles into which the excerpts were divided, only six have 
survived: de Virtutibus et Vitiis; de Sententiis; de Insidiis; de Strategematis; de 
Legationibus Gentium ad Romanos; de Legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes. The titles 
of only about half the remaining forty-seven sections are known.[10]

Family[edit]

By his wife Helena Lekapene, the daughter of Emperor Romanos I, Constantine VII 
had several children, including:
Leo, who died young.
Romanos II.
Zoe. Sent to a convent.
Theodora, who married Emperor John I Tzimiskes.
Agatha. Sent to a convent.
Theophano. Sent to a convent.
Anna. Sent to a convent.

Parents
____ Leo VI "the Philosopher" (1 Sep  866 - 12 May  912)
KARBONOPSINA Zoe ()

Siblings
____ Konstantinos VII (18 May  905 - 9 Nov  959)

Marriage To LEKAPENE Helena (Eleni) (ABT  906 - 19 Sep  961)
    m.  919 

Notes

Parents
LEKAPENOS Romanos I (ABT  869 - 15 Jun  948)
____ Theodora (ABT  874 - 20 Feb  923)

Children by LEKAPENE Helena (Eleni) ABT  906 - 19 Sep  961
____ Romanos II ( 938 - 15 Mar  963)

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