Constantine X - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CONSTANTINE X. Ducas, emperor 1059-1067, succeeded Isaac I. Comnenus. But the choice was not justified, for Constantine, who as the friend and minister of Isaac had shown himself a capable statesman and financier, proved incompetent as an emperor. He devoted himself to philosophical trifling, petty administrative and judicial details, while his craze for economy developed into avarice. He reduced the army, cut down the soldiers' pay, failed to keep up the supply of war material, and neglected the frontier fortresses at a time when the Seljuk Turks were pressing hard upon the eastern portion of the empire. Alp Arslan, the successor of Toghrul Beg, overran Armenia in 1064, and destroyed its capital Ani. The Magyars occupied Belgrade, the Petchenegs (Patzinaks) continued their inroads, and in 1065 the Uzes (called by the Greeks Comani), a Turkish tribe from the shores of the Euxine, crossed the Danube in vast numbers, ravaged Thrace and Macedonia, and penetrated as far as Thessalonica. The empire was only saved by an outbreak of plague amongst the invaders and the bravery of the Bulgarian peasants. In the year before Constantine's death the remnant of the Byzantine possessions in Italy was finally lost to the empire, and the chief town, Bari, taken by the Normans.

For the later Constantines references to general authorities will be found under Later Roman Empire; see also Caliphate and SELJUxs for the wars of the period.