Konstantin Dukas (usurper)

Constantine Dukas ( Middle Greek Κωνσταντῖνος Δούκας , † July 913 in Constantinople ) was a Byzantine strategos and usurper against Emperor Constantine VII.

Life

Konstantin Dukas was the son of the general Andronikos Dukas , who defeated Emperor Leo VI around 906/907 . had rebelled. The background to this incident was an act of revenge by Parakoimomenos Samonas , whom Constantine had captured in the summer of 904 while trying to escape. Samonas then made sure that Constantine and his father with Leo VI. fell from grace and finally had to flee to Caliph al-Muktafi in Baghdad in 907 , where they were forcibly converted to Islam . While Andronikos died soon afterwards, Constantine managed to escape from the court of the caliphs some time later. After the overthrow of his enemy Samonas around 911, he returned to the Byzantine Empire, was by Emperor Leo VI. rehabilitated and appointed strategos of Charsianon .

A few days after the death of Emperor Alexander on July 6, 913, Konstantin Dukas, who at that time was Domestikos der Scholen (Supreme Commander of the Imperial troops) at the head of the Byzantine military hierarchy, attempted usurpation against the child Emperor Constantine VII and his mother Zoe Karbonopsina . Apparently he was instigated to do this by the patriarch Nikolaus Mystikos before he learned that he himself had been appointed guardian of the minor heir to the throne by the deceased emperor. With the support of some co-conspirators, including his father-in-law, Magistros Gregoras Iberitzes , Constantine came to the capital at night and was proclaimed emperor by his supporters at the Hippodrome . At the Chalke there was a fight with soldiers of the imperial bodyguard, who were led by the Magistros Johannes Eladas . Constantine fell from his horse in the fray and was killed, his head impaled on a lance, carried through the city and thrown into the sea. Many of his followers died or were executed.

Around 932 a pretender named Basilius Chalkocheir appeared in the area of ​​the Opsikion , who claimed to be Constantine Dukas.

swell

• Al-Masʿūdī , Kitāb at-Tanbīh wa-'l-ischrāf 174
• Konstantin Porphyrogennetos , De Administrando Imperio 50, 153
• Pseudo-Symeon 708-718
• Johannes Skylitzes , Leon 25-30; Constantine 2nd
• Symeon Logothetes 133
• Theophanes Continuatus 6, 22-33
• Vita Basilii iun. ( BHG 263) fol. 14v − 21r
• Vita Euthymii (BHG 651) 21, 131-131
• John Zonaras 16: 13-16

literature

• Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , p. 657.
• Ralph-Johannes Lilie , Claudia Ludwig, Thomas Pratsch, Beate Zielke, Harald Bichlmeier, Bettina Krönung, Daniel Föller, Alexander Beihammer , Günter Prinzing : Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period . 2nd department: (867-1025). Volume 3: Ignatios (# 22713) - Lampudios (# 24268). Created after preliminary work by F. Winkelmann . Published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-016668-2 , pp. 569-573 No. 23817.
• Alexander A. Vasiliev : Byzance et les Arabes. Department 2: La dynastie macédonienne (867–959). Volume 2: Extraits des sources arabes (= Corpus Bruxellense historiae Byzantinae. Dept. 2, Vol. 2, ZDB -ID 2197364-7 ), Édition française préparée par Henri Grégoire et Marius Canard, traduits par Marius Canard. Éditions de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves, Brussels 1950, pp. 398–399.

Web links

• Charles Cawley: Medieval Lands . In: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Byzantium 1057-1204 ; Doukas