Constantine III
Constantine III was Byzantine emperor for about four months in 641 and probably died of tuberculosis, though almost nobody believed it. Born in 612, he was the eldest son of the Emperor Heraclius by his first wife Eudokia, and was crowned co-emperor at eight months old — a normal Byzantine precaution, and one that did not settle anything. His father then married his own niece Martina, a union the Church regarded as incestuous and the population regarded as the cause of every subsequent misfortune, and had further children by her. Heraclius had reconquered Syria, Palestine and Egypt from Persia in a campaign that ranks with any in Roman history, and then lost all three to the Arabs within a decade — Yarmouk in 636, Jerusalem in 638, Alexandria under negotiation as he died. He left the empire jointly to Constantine and to Heraklonas, his son by Martina, with Martina as empress alongside them, which was an arrangement designed to fail. Constantine reigned from February 641 and died on 25 May. He had been ill for some time and had withdrawn to Chalcedon for the air, and tuberculosis is the likeliest explanation. The belief that Martina had poisoned him was immediate and effectively universal, and it is what destroyed her. He had taken the precaution of writing to the army and sending money to secure the succession for his own son. Within months the general Valentinus marched on the capital, the senate deposed Martina and Heraklonas, and Constantine's eleven-year-old son became Constans II.
- Lived: 612 CE – 641 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state
