Constantine IX Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 1042 to January 1055. A member of the urban aristocracy, Constantine became emperor through marriage to the ruling empress Zoë Porphyrogenita in 1042. The couple shared the throne with Zoë's sister Theodora Porphyrogenita. Constantine's energetic rule was one of the most consequential in the Byzantine Empire's tumultuous 11th century.
Fiscally, Constantine's reign was marked by prodigality, and he depleted the abundant imperial treasury he had inherited from Basil II and his successors. For reasons that remain obscure Constantine debased the gold currency of the empire, the first permanent debasement of the coinage since its introduction by Constantine the Great. In Constantinople Constantine spent lavishly on both personal gifts and religious projects. Presiding over a period of economic expansion, Constantine encumbered the state by his massive expansion of the aristocracy.
In matters of provincial administration, Constantine attempted a series of reforms to varying levels of success. In the power struggle between the urban elite and the Dynatoi which was waged throughout the 11th century, Constantine made overtures towards both. He granted tax exemptions to the Dynatoi through an early form of the pronoia system and freely granted titles, privileges, and gifts of money to the civil elite. In response to the rising importance of civil judges over theme commanders Constantine created the office of the Epi ton kriseon. Constantine attempted to reform the empire's legal system, centering on the creation of a law school headed by a nomophylax, but had limited success.
Constantine was victorious in two civil wars, foiled several coup attempts and successfully fought off a raid by the Kievan Rus', but was humiliated by the Pechenegs in the West and failed to stop the rising Seljuq Turks in the East. Though the Byzantine Empire largely retained the borders established after the conquests of Basil II — even expanding eastwards through the annexation of the Armenian kingdom of Ani — Constantine is often blamed for the poor state of the army in the years leading up to Manzikert.
In 1054 Constantine oversaw the decisive events of the Great Schism between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. His treatment of the papal legates of Leo IX exacerbated tensions between the legates and the patriarch Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople. He died one year later of an infection related to his chronic arthritis.
Traditionally, Constantine Monomachos has been viewed as an incapable, militarily inept emperor and one of the architects of the Byzantine decline of the late 11th and 12th centuries. However, recent scholarship has done much to rehabilitate his reputation as a civil administrator and reformer. He was perhaps the only emperor between Basil II and the Battle of Manzikert to attempt a coherent program of reform, even if this program was flawed and unsuccessfully carried out. Constantine accordingly may be considered the last effective emperor of the Macedonian Renaissance.
Early life
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII, of the famous and noble Monomachos family. His mother and her name are unknown. Constantine was born around 980 or 1000 in Antioch. At some point Constantine's father Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy, and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married his second wife, sometimes called Helena or Pulcheria, a daughter of Basil Skleros, and niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of Empress Zoë Porphyrogenita, he was exiled to Mytilene on the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Emperor Michael IV.The death of Michael IV and the overthrow of Michael V in 1042 led to Constantine being recalled from his place of exile and appointed as a judge in Greece. However, before he could commence his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople, where the fragile working relationship between Michael V's successors, Empresses Zoë and Theodora Porphyrogenita, was breaking down. After two months of increasing acrimony between the two, Zoë decided to search for a new husband, thereby hoping to prevent her sister from increasing her popularity and authority.
After her first preference displayed contempt for the empress and her second died under mysterious circumstances, Zoë remembered the handsome and urbane Constantine. The pair were married on 11 June, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage. Constantine was crowned on the following day.
Appearance and personality
Constantine was said to rival Achilles and Nireus in terms of beauty. He was described by Michael Psellos as "a marvel of beauty that Nature brought into being in the person of this man, so justly proportioned, so harmoniously fashioned, that there was no one in our time to compare to him". Psellos described "the symmetry of the emperor's body, his perfect analogies, his ruddy hair which shone like rays of sunlight, his white body which appeared like clear and translucent crystal".His personality has been described as good-natured; he was easily amused and loved to laugh. He charmed practically everyone who knew him, especially Zoë, whom he enthralled immediately. Constantine spent money without restraints and liked to make luxurious gifts to his associates. For example, he gave to the Church many objects of great value, including precious sacred vessels, "that surpassed by far all the others as to dimensions, beauty and price". Constantine also showed clemency and mercy, even in cases of treason. On the other hand, he was described by contemporaries as pleasure-loving, with a temperament unsuitable to his office. He was prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy.
Reign
Upon assuming imperial office, Constantine continued the purge instituted by Zoë and Theodora, removing the relatives of Michael V from the court. He opened the treasury to Zoë and Theodora, made large gifts to potential supporters to secure their loyalty, and initiated a round of senatorial promotions. He retained his mistress from his years in exile — a relative of his second wife — named Maria Skleraina. Eventually this arrangement was made official by means of a palace ceremony, and Sklerania was awarded the honorific Sebastē.Early conflicts
By 1040 the situation in Byzantine Italy had become precarious. The permanent settlement of Normans in Southern Italy threatened Byzantine holdings, and a complicated series of diplomatic maneuvers to secure Byzantine control transpired between 1040 and 1042. These centered on Argyros, a prominent Italian from Bari, and culminated in the recall of the Byzantine general George Maniakes from his command in Italy. Fearing enemies at court, Maniakes had himself acclaimed emperor by his troops in September 1042. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and won several battles against imperial armies as he marched towards Constantinople, but in late 1043 he was struck by a projectile and killed in battle.Immediately after the victory, Constantinople was attacked by a fleet from the Kievan Rus'. There is no direct evidence that the Rus' had colluded with Maniakes, but scholarly opinion remains divided. The Rus' raiders were defeated in a naval confrontation in the Bosporus by admiral Basil Theodorokanos by means of Greek fire. As part of the peace negotiations, Constantine married his daughter, Anastasia, to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the son of his opponent Yaroslav I the Wise. Constantine's family name Monomachos was inherited by Vsevolod and Anastasia's son, Vladimir II Monomakh.Constantine's preferential treatment of Maria Skleraina in the early part of his reign led to rumors that she was planning to murder Zoë and Theodora. This led to a popular uprising by the citizens of Constantinople in 1044, which came dangerously close to harming Constantine as he participated in a religious procession. The mob was only quieted by the appearance at a balcony of Zoë and Theodora, who reassured the people that they were not in any danger of regicide.
In 1045, Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely removed a key border state between the empire and its enemies. Faced with the challenge of integrating a new people into the Byzantine polity, Constantine chose to persecute the Armenian Church in an attempt to force it into union with the Orthodox Church. In 1046 the Byzantines first came into contact with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048 and settled a truce the following year. In 1046, Constantine concluded a treaty with the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir Billah. The Book of Gifts and Rarities records that on this occasion Constantine gave the caliph a gift of 500,000 gold coins, over two tons of gold.
The Pecheneg disaster and civil war
By the time of Constantine's reign the Pecheneg people occupying the Bulgarian steppe had served as a buffer between the Byzantines and the Rus' for decades. In the 1040s however, under external pressure from the Oguz Turks, tens of thousands of Pechenegs migrated South of the Danube. After a period of crisis, raids, and Pecheneg civil war, these Southern Pechenegs were settled by the Byzantine administration in the North Balkans in 1046. This settlement proved controversial with the Macedonians.That winter, Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios, an officer in Adrianople. The reason for his rebellion is uncertain — possibly ultimately a family dispute — but the Macedonian tagmata under his command had become disaffected following their demobilization after the conflict with the Pechenegs, and Tornikos was able to draw in anti-government elements from across the empire. He was proclaimed emperor by the army in the summer of 1047. Constantine assembled an army from the jails of Constantinople but this was quickly defeated and Tornikios put the city under siege. Tornikios was on the verge of taking the city but declined to press his advantage and Constantine was able to re-man the walls. Eventually, Tornikios's army was won over by bribes and the rebellion was put down. Tornikios was blinded.
The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans, and in 1048, the area was raided by those Pechenegs still North of the Danube. The same year, Constantine raised a force of 15,000 Pechenegs for his war against the Seljuks in the East, but they mutinied, raided back across the Bosporus, and by 1050 the Northern and Southern Pechenegs had regrouped South of the Danube in open revolt. The Pechenegs plundered the Balkans until 1053, defeating several Byzantine armies. Historian Anthony Kaldellis calls this "the worst string of Roman defeats in more than a century."