Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos - born in the purple - was among the most intellectually remarkable of all Byzantine emperors. Son of Leo VI and Zoe Karbonopsina, his legitimacy was disputed from birth because of the Tetragamy Controversy. He became nominal emperor at age seven in 913 but spent most of the next four decades under regents and co-emperors, most significantly the admiral Romanos Lekapenos, who seized the regency in 919 and progressively sidelined the legitimate Macedonian heir. Constantine endured this with patience and apparent scholarly contentment. He wrote or commissioned an extraordinary range of works: the De Administrando Imperio, a confidential manual for his son on how to manage foreign peoples; the De Ceremoniis, a meticulous account of Byzantine court ceremonial; and the De Thematibus, on the empire's administrative divisions. When the sons of Romanos overreached and deposed their own father in 944, Constantine was finally able to assert himself. He died in 959, possibly poisoned.
- Lived: 905 CE – 959 CE
- Nationality: byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, scholar, author
