Constantine and his mother Zoë.

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Ζ΄ Πορφυρογέννητος, Kōnstantinos VII Porphyrogennētos), (Constantinople, September 905 – November 9, 959 in Constantinople) was the son of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife Zoe Karbonopsina. He was also the nephew of the Emperor Alexander. He is famous for his two descriptive books, De Administrando Imperio and De Ceremoniis. Image File history File links Follis-Constantine_VII_and_Zoe-sb1758. ... Image File history File links Follis-Constantine_VII_and_Zoe-sb1758. ... Zoe and her son, emperor Constantine VII. Zoe Karvounopsina, or Carbonopsina (Coal-Eyes), was fourth wife of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI and mother of Constantine VII. Leo had caused a controversy in the Orthodox church by marrying for a third time. ... Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos (the Purple-born) (905 - November 9, 959) was the son of Byzantine emperor Leo VI and nephew of Alexander III. He earned his nickname as the legitimate (or more accurately legitimized) son of Leo, as opposed to the others who claimed the throne during his lifetime. ... Map of Constantinople. ... Alternate meaning: Area code 905 Events Births Deaths Categories: 905 ... November 9 is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 52 days remaining. ... Events October 1 - Edwy, king of England dies and is succeeded by his brother Edgar. ... This is a list of Byzantine Emperors. ... This follis by Leo VI bears the Byzantine Emperors official title, BASILEOS ROMAION, Emperor of the Romans. ... Zoe and her son, emperor Constantine VII. Zoe Karbonopsina, also Karvounopsina or Carbonopsina, i. ... A Byzantine Mosaic portrait of Emperor Alexander (870 - 913) which was completed in the Emperors short reign. ... De Administrando Imperio is the commonly used title of a scholarly work from ca. ... De Ceremoniis (full title: De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae) is a book written by Constantine VII, emperor of the Byzantine Empire. ...

His nickname alludes to the Purple Room of the imperial palace, decorated with the rare stone 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. It has been suggested that Nicknames of European Royalty and Nobility be merged into this article or section. ... Porphyry (Greek Πορφύριος purple-clad) may refer to: Porphyry of Tyros (c. ...

Reign

Constantine was an illegitimate son born before an uncanonical fourth marriage. To help legitimize him, he had been born in the Purple Room of the imperial palace, and he had been associated on the throne by his father and uncle on May 15, 908. After the death of his uncle Alexander in 913, he succeeded to the throne at the age of seven, under the regency of the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos. His regent was presently forced to make peace with Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria, whom he reluctantly recognized as Bulgarian emperor. Because of this unpopular concession, Nicholas was driven out of the regency by Constantine's mother Zoe. May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (136th in leap years). ... Events Battle of Belach Mugna Births Deaths Categories: 908 ... Nicholas I Mystikos or Nicholas I Mysticus (Greek: Νικόλαος Α΄ Μυστικός, Nikolaos I Mystikos), (852–May 15, 925) was the Patriarch of Constantinople from March 901 to February 906 and from May 912 to his death in 925. ... Simeon (also Symeon)[1] I the Great (Bulgarian: , transliterated Simeon I Veliki;[2] IPA: ) ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927,[3] during the First Bulgarian Empire. ... Zoe and her son, emperor Constantine VII. Zoe Karbonopsina, also Karvounopsina or Carbonopsina, i. ...

Christ Crowning Constantine VII (945).

Zoe was no more successful with the Bulgarians, by whom her main supporter, the general Leo Phokas, was defeated in 917, and in 919 she was replaced by the admiral Romanos Lekapenos, who married his daughter Helena to Constantine. Romanos used his position to advance to the ranks of basileopatōr in May 919, kaisar (Caesar) in September 920, and finally co-emperor in December of the same year. Thus, just short of reaching nominal majority, Constantine was again eclipsed by a senior emperor. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (605x1091, 144 KB)A piece of carved ivory from the Pushkin Museum representing Christ blessing Emperor Constantine VII. Dated back to 945, the piece passed from the treasury at Echmiadzin to the collection of Count Sergey Uvarov in the mid-19th... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (605x1091, 144 KB)A piece of carved ivory from the Pushkin Museum representing Christ blessing Emperor Constantine VII. Dated back to 945, the piece passed from the treasury at Echmiadzin to the collection of Count Sergey Uvarov in the mid-19th... Contemporary coin of Romanus I. Romanus I Lecapenus (Romanos I Lakapenos, 870 - 948), who shared the throne of the Byzantine Empire with Constantine VII and exercised all the real power from 919 to 944, was admiral of the Byzantine fleet on the Danube River when, hearing of the defeat of... Caesar (plural Caesars), Latin: Cæsar (plural Cæsares), is a title of imperial character. ...

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

Romanos kept power for himself and maintained it until 944, when he was deposed by his sons Stephen and Constantine. With the help of his wife, Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law and on January 27, 945, Constantine VII was once again 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 his energetic wife Helena Lekapene. January 27 is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Buwayhid dynasty takes control of Baghdad. ... Romanus II (939 - 963) succeeded his father Constantine VII as Byzantine emperor in 959 at the age of twenty-one, and died, poisoned, it was believed, by his wife, Theophanu in 963. ...

In 949 Constantine launched a new attack 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 crossed the upper Euphrates. But in 953 the Arab amir Saif ad-Dawla 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. Languages Arabic other minority languages Religions Predomiantly Sunni Islam, as well as Shia Islam, Greek Orthodoxy, Greek Catholicism, Maronite, Alawite Islam, Druze, Ibadi Islam, and Judaism An Arab (Arabic: ) is any member of the Semitic group of people whose cultural, linguistic, and in certain cases, ancestral origins trace back to... For the famous World War II battle, see: Battle of Crete For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... Kahramanmaraş is the capital city of Kahramanmaraş Province in southeastern Turkey. ... Surfer Rosa The Euphrates (IPA: /juːˈfreɪtiːz/; Greek: Euphrátēs; Akkadian: Pu-rat-tu; Hebrew: פְּרָת Pĕrāth; Syriac: Prâth; Arabic: الفرات Al-Furāt; Turkish: Fırat; Kurdish: فرهات, Firhat, Ferhat, Azeri: Fərat) is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia (the other... Languages Arabic other minority languages Religions Predomiantly Sunni Islam, as well as Shia Islam, Greek Orthodoxy, Greek Catholicism, Maronite, Alawite Islam, Druze, Ibadi Islam, and Judaism An Arab (Arabic: ) is any member of the Semitic group of people whose cultural, linguistic, and in certain cases, ancestral origins trace back to... Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas Nikephoros II Phokas or Nicephorus II Phocas (Greek: Νικηφόρος Β΄ Φωκάς, Nikēphoros II Phōkas), (c. ... Ioannes, protected by God and the Virgin Mary. ... Samosata, meaning sun, was an ancient city whose ruins still exist at the modern Turkish city of Samsat. ... Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and Southwest Iran. ... Greek fire was a burning-liquid weapon used by the Byzantine Greeks, typically in naval battles to great effect as it could continue burning even on water. ...

Constantine had intense diplomatic relationships with foreign courts, including the caliph of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III and Otto I, King of Germany. In the autumn of 957 Constantine was visited by Olga, princess of the Kievan Rus'. The reasons for this voyage have never been clarified: in any case, she was baptised with the name Helena, and began to convert her people to Christianity. For main article see: Caliphate Khalif is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, or global Islamic nation. ... Location Coordinates : Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer: CEST (GMT +2) General information Native name Córdoba (Spanish) Spanish name Córdoba Founded 8th century BC Postal code 140xx Website http://www. ... Abd-ar-Rahman III, Emir and Caliph of Cordoba (912 - 961) was the greatest and the most successful of the princes of the Ummayad dynasty in Spain. ... For others with the same name, see Otto I (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Baptism of Princess Olga. ... Kievan Rus′ was an early, mostly East Slavic[1] state dominated by the city of Kiev from about 880 to the middle of the 12th century. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ...

Constantine VII died 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. Romanus II (939 - 963) succeeded his father Constantine VII as Byzantine emperor in 959 at the age of twenty-one, and died, poisoned, it was believed, by his wife, Theophanu in 963. ... Theophano was a Byzantine empress. ...

Literary activity

Although he was a satisfactory emperor, Constantine is more renowned for his abilities as a writer and scholar. He wrote, or had others write in his name, the works De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae ("On Ceremonies"), 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"), giving advice on running the empire internally and also how to fight external enemies; and a history of the Empire covering events following the death of the chronographer Theophanes the Confessor in 817. Though these books are not as insightful as Constantine believed them to be, they nevertheless are a most useful source of information about nations neighbouring with Byzantium, and a good insight into the Emperor himself. Constantine was a great collector of books, manuscripts and art works in general, and was indeed a good painter. De Ceremoniis (full title: De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae) is a book written by Constantine VII, emperor of the Byzantine Empire. ... Liutprand (Liudprand, Luitprand) (c. ... De Administrando Imperio is the commonly used title of a scholarly work from ca. ... Saint Theophanes the Confessor (about 758/760, Constantinople - March 17, 817 or 818, Samothrace) was an aristocratic but ascetic Byzantine monk and chronicler. ...

Family

By his wife Helena Lekapene, the daughter of Emperor Romanos I, Constantine VII had several children, including: Contemporary coin of Romanus I. Romanos I Lekapenos or Romanus I Lecapenus (Greek: Ρωμανός Α΄ Λακαπήνος, Rōmanos I Lakapēnos) (c. ...

• Leo, who died young.
• Romanos II
• Theodora, who married Emperor John I Tzimiskes.

Romanus II (939 - 963) succeeded his father Constantine VII as Byzantine emperor in 959 at the age of twenty-one, and died, poisoned, it was believed, by his wife, Theophanu in 963. ... Ioannes, protected by God and the Virgin Mary. ...

References

• The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. by Alexander Kazhdan, Oxford University Press, 1991.
• Runciman, Steven. The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his Reign. Cambridge: University Press, 1990. (Originally published 1929.) ISBN 0-521-35722-5
• Toynbee, Arnold. Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his world. Oxford, 1973. ISBN 0-19-215253-X. 768pp.

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (often abbreviated to ODB) is a three volume book by the Oxford University Press. ... Alexander Petrovich Kazhdan (born September 3, 1922, Moscow; died May 29, 1997, Washington, D.C.; Russian: ) was the one of the foremost Byzantinists of the late 20th century. ... Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman (7 July 1903 - 1 November 2000) was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages. ... Arnold Joseph Toynbee (April 14, 1889 - October 22, 1975) was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934-1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline. ...

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Constantine VII

• Media on Constantine VII in the Wikicommons.