Constantine Lakapenos

Miliaresion Romanos I with the names of his co-emperors Constantine VII, Stephanos Lakapenos and Konstantin Lakapenos on the lapel . Minted between 931 and 944

Konstantin Lakapenos (also Lekapenos , Middle Greek Κωνσταντῖνος Λακαπηνός ; * late 921 / early 922 in Constantinople ; † between 946 and July 948 on Samothrace ) was a Byzantine co-emperor from 923/24 to 945 .

Life

Constantine was the youngest son of Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos (920-944) and his second wife Theodora , who died on February 20, 922 - possibly in childbed . He had an older and a younger half-brother, the co-emperor Christophoros and the later Parakoimomenos Basileios , as well as two older brothers, the later patriarch Theophylactus and the co-emperor Stephanos . His older sister Helena Lakapene had been married to Constantine VII since 919 , who was ousted as main emperor ( basileus ) by his father-in-law the following year . Konstantin Lakapenus was married twice, to Helene and Theophanu ; a son from his first marriage was called Romanos .

On December 25, 923 (or 924) Constantine was crowned co-emperor (Symbasileus) together with his brother Stephanos as a small child . He took fifth and last place in the hierarchy of the imperial college behind Romanos I, Constantine VII, Christophoros and Stephanos; Christophoros' son Romanos , who was also raised to co-emperor at the same time or shortly thereafter , died as a toddler before April 927. Constantine took part in the celebrations held in the summer of 944 on the occasion of the transfer of the Mandylion from Edessa to Constantinople.

In the winter of 944 Constantine's brother Stephanos instigated a revolt against her father Romanos, who was dethroned on December 20, 944, brought to the island of Proti and shaved off as a monk . After that, however, Constantine VII was able to assert himself as main emperor, who deposed his two brothers-in-law as co-emperor on January 27, 945 and banished them to the Prince Islands , where they were also dressed in clerical robes. Constantine was later brought to Tenedos and finally to Samothrace. There he tried to start a conspiracy, but was killed by a guard. Allegedly, his severed head was sent to the emperor.

swell

• Al-Masʿūdī , Kitāb at-Tanbīh wa-'l-ischrāf 173
• Bar Hebrews 161
• Liutprand of Cremona , Antapodosis 5, 20-23
• Pseudo-Symeon 739-754
• Johannes Skylitzes , Romanos Lakapenos 13–28, Konstantinos (2) 1–2
• Symeon Logothetes 136
• Theophanes Continuatus 6, 17-53
• Vita Basilii iun. ( BHG 263) fol. 22r
• John Zonaras 16: 18-20

literature

• Franz Dölger : Regest of the imperial documents of the Eastern Roman Empire from 565-1453. Part 1, half volume 2: Regesten from 867-1025 (= corpus of Greek documents from the Middle Ages and modern times. Row A: Regesten. Dept. 1, Part 1, half volume 2). 2nd edition revised by Andreas E. Müller . CH Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-51351-4 , No. 628, 655a.
• Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , pp. 1203-1204.
• Otto Kresten , Andreas E. Müller : Samtherrschaft, legitimation principle and imperial document title in Byzantium in the first half of the 10th century (= session reports Austrian Academy of Sciences, philosophical-historical class. Volume 630). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-70-012226-8 .
• 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. 589-594 No. 23831.
• 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. 397–398.