Editing Constans II (section)

==Reign as emperor==
[[File:Europe around 650.jpg|left|thumb|350x350px|Byzantine Empire in 650 under Constans II]]
Under Constans, the Byzantines completely withdrew from [[Roman Egypt|Egypt]] in 642, and the third [[Rashidun]] caliph [[Uthman]] ({{Reign|644|656}}) launched numerous attacks on the islands of the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] and [[Aegean Sea]]s. A Byzantine fleet under the admiral Manuel occupied [[Alexandria]] again in 645, and the Alexandrians hailed him as a liberator, since the caliphate levied heavier taxes and showed less respect for their religion. However, Manuel squandered his time and popularity in plundering the countryside, and eventually the Arab army managed to force him to embark for home.<ref>Treadgold, Warren. (1997). ''A History of the Byzantine State and Society''. Stanford University Press. p. 312</ref> The situation was complicated by the violent opposition to [[Monothelitism]] by the clergy in the west and the related rebellion of the [[Exarch of Carthage]], [[Gregory the Patrician]]. The latter fell in [[Battle of Sufetula (647)|battle]] against the army of caliph Uthman, and the region remained a vassal state under the [[Caliphate]] until [[First Fitna|civil war]] broke out and imperial rule was again restored.
[[File:44-manasses-chronicle.jpg|thumb|Torture of [[Maximus the Confessor]] under the orders of emperor Constans II, miniature from the 12th century [[Constantine Manasses|Manasses Chronicle]]]]
Constans attempted to steer a middle line in the church dispute between Orthodoxy and Monothelitism by refusing to persecute either and prohibiting further discussion of the natures of [[Jesus Christ]] by decree in 648 (the [[Type of Constans]]). Naturally, this live-and-let-live compromise satisfied few passionate participants in the dispute.{{Heraclian dynasty}}

Meanwhile, the advance of the [[Rashidun Caliphate]] continued unabated. In 647 they entered [[Armenia]] and [[Cappadocia]] and sacked [[Caesarea Mazaca]].{{sfn|Browning|1992|p=45}} In the same year, they raided Africa and killed Gregory.{{sfn|Pringle|1981|p=47}} In 648, the Arabs raided into [[Phrygia]], and in 649 they launched their first maritime expedition against [[Crete]]. A major Arab offensive into [[Cilicia]] and [[Isauria]] in 650–651 forced the Emperor to enter into negotiations with Caliph Uthman's governor of [[Syria]], [[Mu'awiya I]] ({{Reign|656|661}}), who later reigned as the first [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] caliph. The truce that followed allowed a short respite and made it possible for Constans to hold on to the western portions of Armenia.
[[File:Tarikhuna bi-uslub qasasi-Battle of Dhāt al-Ṣawārī.jpg|thumb|The Roman fleet engaging the Arabs at the Battle of the Masts off the Lycian coast]]
In 654, however, Mu'awiya renewed his raids by sea, plundering [[Rhodes]]. Constans led a fleet to attack the Muslims at [[Finike|Phoinike]] (off [[Lycia]]) in 655 at the [[Battle of the Masts]], but he was defeated: 500 Byzantine ships were destroyed in the battle, and the Emperor himself was almost killed. The sea battle was so devastating that the emperor escaped only by trading clothes with one of his men.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=Judith M. |title=Medieval Europe: a short history |date=20 January 2010 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=9780073385501 |pages=70 |edition=11th}}</ref> Before the battle, chronicler [[Theophanes the Confessor]] says, the Emperor dreamed of being at [[Thessaloniki|Thessalonica]]; this dream predicted his defeat against the Arabs because the word Thessalonika is similar to the sentence "thes allo niken", which means "gave victory to another (the enemy)".<ref>"θὲς ἄλλῳ νὶκην", see Bury, John Bagnell (1889), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4dAJrLB8xh4C&pg=PA290 A history of the later Roman empire from Arcadius to Irene]'', Adamant Media Corporation, 2005, p.290. {{ISBN|1-4021-8368-2}}</ref>  Caliph Uthman was preparing to attack [[Constantinople]], but he did not carry out the plan, as the [[first Fitna]] broke out in 656.

In 658, with the eastern frontier under less pressure, Constans defeated the [[Slavs]] in the [[Balkans]], temporarily reasserting some notion of Byzantine rule over them and [[Asia Minor Slavs|resettled some of them in Anatolia]] ({{Circa|649}} or 667). In 659 he campaigned far to the east, taking advantage of a rebellion against the Caliphate in [[Medes|Media]]. The same year he concluded peace with the Arabs.
[[File:Арест византийцами папы Мартина I в Риме в июне 653 года по приказу Константа II.jpg|thumb|By order of Constans II, the exarch of Ravenna Theodore Calliopas (right) arrests Pope Martin I in Rome.]]
Now Constans could turn to church matters once again. [[Pope Martin I]] had condemned both [[Monothelitism]] and Constans' attempt to halt debates over it in the [[Lateran Council of 649]]. The Emperor ordered the [[Exarchate of Ravenna|Exarch of Ravenna]] to arrest the Pope. Exarch [[Olympius (exarch)|Olympius]] excused himself from this task, but his successor, [[Theodore I Calliopas]], carried it out in 653. Pope Martin was brought to Constantinople and condemned as a criminal, ultimately being exiled to [[Chersonesus Taurica|Cherson]], where he died in 655.

Constans grew increasingly fearful that his younger brother, Theodosius, could oust him from the throne; he therefore obliged Theodosius to take holy orders and later had him killed in 660. Constans' sons Constantine, Heraclius, and Tiberius had been associated on the throne since the 650s. However, having attracted the hatred of the citizens of Constantinople, Constans decided to leave the capital and to move to [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] in [[Sicily]].

On his way, he stopped in Macedonia and fought the Slavs at Thessalonica with success. Then, in the winter of 662–663, he made his camp at Athens.<ref>Cheetham, Nicolas. ''Mediaeval Greece''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.</ref>

From there, in 663, he continued to Italy. He launched an assault against the [[Lombards|Lombard]] [[Duchy of Benevento]], which then encompassed most of [[Southern Italy]]. Taking advantage of the fact that Lombard king [[Grimoald I of Benevento]] was engaged against Frankish forces from [[Neustria]], Constans disembarked at [[Taranto]] and besieged [[Lucera]] and [[Benevento]]. However, the latter resisted and Constans withdrew to [[Naples]]. During the journey from Benevento to Naples, Constans II was defeated by Mitolas, Count of Capua, near Pugna. Constans ordered [[Saburrus]], the commander of his army, to attack the Lombards again, but [[:it:Battaglia di Forino|he was defeated]] by the Beneventani at [[Forino]], between [[Avellino]] and [[Salerno]].

In 663 Constans visited [[Rome]] for twelve days—the first emperor since the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]] in 476 and, along with [[John V Palaiologos]], one of only two Eastern Roman emperors since the division of the Roman empire in 395 to set foot in Rome—and was received with great honor by [[Pope Vitalian]] (657–672). Although on friendly terms with Vitalian, he stripped buildings (including the [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]]) of their ornaments and bronze to be carried back to Constantinople, and in 666 declared the Pope to have no jurisdiction over the [[Archbishop of Ravenna]], since that city was the seat of the Exarch, his immediate representative.  His subsequent moves in [[Calabria]] and [[Sardinia]] were marked by further strippings and request of tributes that enraged his Italian subjects.

According to [[Warren Treadgold]], the first ''[[Theme (Byzantine district)|themes]]'' were created between 659 and 661, during the reign of Constans II.<ref>Treadgold, Warren. ''Byzantium and Its Army: 284–1081''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995. pp. 23-25, 72-73.</ref>  However, [[John Haldon]] states that this idea is not supported by a "a shred of evidence", although redistribution of the armies across the Anatolian provinces did take place, and likely resulted in administrative changes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Haldon |first=John |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.4159/9780674969193/html |title=The Empire That Would Not Die: The Paradox of Eastern Roman Survival, 640–740 |date=2016 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-08877-1 |pages=35|doi=10.4159/9780674969193 }}</ref>