Constantine III (Byzantium)

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Solidus of Herakleios (left) and Constantine III. (right)

Constantine III ( Medium Greek Κωνσταντίνος Γ' , actually Flavios Herakleios o Neos Konstantinos, Φλάβιος Ἡράκλειος ὁ Νέος Κωνσταντίνος , Latin Flavius Heraclius Novus Constantinus * May 3 612 , † 641 ) was briefly in 641 Emperor of Byzantium .

Constantine III was the eldest son of the emperor Herakleios and his first wife Eudokia and - especially since he was raised to co-emperor as early as 613 - he was actually the one who was destined to succeed his father. He had been married to Gregoria , a second cousin, since 629/630 . But Martina , Herakleios' second wife, did everything to ensure that her son Heraklonas - apparently a son who was born earlier, who was also called Constantine , died at a young age - sole heir to the throne and Constantine III. should be excluded from the line of succession. She persuaded Herakleios to appoint Heraklonas on June 4, 638 (he had just turned 12) as co-emperor and his younger brothers David and Martinos as Caesars during his lifetime . When Herakleios died on February 11, 641, Martina became the de facto regent, without being able to prevent Constantine III from now also. ascended the throne. However, he had obviously been ill for a long time before and died at the end of April or the end of May 641. As a result, the people soon suspected that the imperial widow was significantly involved in his death.

Before that, however, Constantine had raised his 11-year-old son Constantine II , who was named after his grandfather Flavius ​​Heraclius, to the rank of Caesar and made him his heir and successor. Apparently extremely suspicious of Martina himself, Constantine III had. instructed the army to protect his son from her. On September 14, 641 an angry crowd, who wanted to end their rule for good, stormed the palace, mutilated Martina and Heraklonas (her tongue was cut off, his nose) and banished them to the island of Rhodes. Heraklonas died shortly afterwards of his serious injuries. This enabled Herakleios the Younger, who in the meantime had become co-emperor under pressure from Valentino, to ascend the throne as Constans II. The months of internal unrest had weakened the empire militarily and certainly contributed to the fact that the advance of the Arabs in Egypt could no longer be stopped.

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Commons : Constantine III.  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Herakleios Emperor of Byzantium
641
Heraklonas