The dung-named

A depiction of Byzantine soldiers at the tomb of Constantine V (reigned 741-775), another of the fascinating eastern emperors. Constantine was an Iconoclast, which triggered a revolt among the Roman clergy. His response was brutal in the extreme: a number of clergymen were executed or tortured to death, while others were forced to marry nuns in the Hippodrome, in public mockery of their vows.

This savagery aside, Constantine was one of the more successful emperors. He defeated the Bulgarians to the west, and exploited a civil war among the Arabs to recover lost Roman territory to the east. In this latter conflict he adopted a form of 'colonialism' by forcing groups of Christians to resettle in the reconquered territories. The emperor's reputation was such that, in 775, an Arab army retreated at the mere mention of his name.

His legacy is, unsurprisingly, mixed. Orthodox histiorians referred to Constantine as Kopronymos, meaning 'the dung-named', along with epithets such as 'a precursor to Antichrist', 'a monster athirst for blood', 'an unclean and bloodstained magician taking pleasure in evoking demons', and so forth.

The Byzantine army, however, remembered him as a hero. After a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Pliska in 811, Byzantine soldiers broke open Constantine's tomb and begged him to lead them again. Some interesting parallels with Arthur, another military hero who was also demonised by early Christian writers. 
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