About this ebook
Constantine V ruled the Byzantine Empire for thirty-four years (741-775 CE), crushed nine Bulgarian invasions, and secured Roman frontiers. Yet monastic chroniclers ensured he would be remembered as Copronymus—the Name of Dung.
Why did the Church work so tirelessly to destroy his reputation?
This meticulously researched biography cuts through centuries of propaganda to reveal an emperor who fought on three fronts: Bulgarian khans, Arab raiders, and monks defending the religious images he believed constituted idolatry.
Discover:
The scatological nickname that haunted him
• A two-year civil war for the throne
• The Council of Hieria where 338 bishops declared icon veneration heretical
• Systematic persecution of monasteries
• Nine campaigns that broke Bulgarian military power
• His death in a military tent at fifty-six, still fighting
Drawing on primary sources and modern scholarship, this account presents Constantine V as neither villain nor hero but as a capable commander whose religious convictions led him to wage war against his own subjects' devotional practices.
The monks won the propaganda war. But was Constantine truly the monster they portrayed, or an effective emperor whose greatest crime was threatening monastic interests?
