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Byzantine - TIBERIUS II CONSTANTINE - Emperor 26 September 578
- 14 August 582 -
Bronze Follis 35mm (16.00 grams) Struck at the mint of Constantinople 578-582
A.D.
Reference: Sear 430 -
Οm . Tib . CONSTANT . PP . AVI . Crowned bust facing, wearing consular robes,
and holding mappa and eagle-tipped sceper; above eagle, cross.
Large m between A / N /N / O and numerals repressing the regnal year; above,
cross; in exergue CONΔ.
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Flavius Tiberius Constantinus
Augustus
or Tiberius II Constantine, known in Greek as Tiberios Konstantinos
(ca 520/ca 535 - August 14, 582) was a
Byzantine emperor (574 - 582) of the
Justinian Dynasty.
During his reign, Tiberius II Constantine gave away 7,200
pounds of gold each year for four years.[1]
He was a friend of
Justin II,
who appointed Tiberius
Comes of the
Excubitors.
He took control of the empire when Justin II went insane in 574, and to increase
his popularity, he immediately began spending money that Justin had reserved in
his treasury.[2]
The Empress Sophia, Justin's wife, reproached Tiberius for having reduced the
state to poverty, saying:[3]
What I have been collecting through many years you are
scattering prodigally in a short time
Tiberius replied:[4]
I trust to the Lord that money will not be lacking in our
treasury so long as the poor receive charity and captives are ransomed. For
this is the great treasure, since the Lord says, 'Lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where
thieves do not break through nor steal.' Therefore of these things which God
has furnished us let us gather treasures in heaven, and God will deign to
give us increase in this world.
Justin II,
Tiberius's predecessor, had been made infirm by disease; the faculties of his
mind were impaired and he subsequently lost the use of his feet. Confined to his
palace, he became a stranger to the complaints of the people and the vices of
the government. Conscious of his infirmity, he honorably chose to seek a
successor to the
Imperial throne. On the advice of his wife
Sophia, he handed the
diadem to one
of his
Excubitors, Tiberius.
“You behold,” said the emperor, “the ensigns of supreme
power. You are about to receive them, not from my hand, but from the hand of
God. Honor them, and from them you will derive honor. Respect the empress
your mother: you are now her son; before, you were her servant. Delight not
in blood; abstain from revenge; avoid those actions by which I have incurred
the public hatred; and consult the experience, rather than the example, of
your predecessor. As a man, I have sinned; as a sinner, even in this life, I
have been severely punished: but these servants, (and we pointed to his
ministers,) who have abused my confidence, and inflamed my passions, will
appear with me before the tribunal of Christ. I have been dazzled by the
splendor of the diadem: be thou wise and modest; remember what you have
been, remember what you are. You see around us your slaves, and your
children: with the authority, assume the tenderness, of a parent. Love your
people like yourself; cultivate the affections, maintain the discipline, of
the army; protect the fortunes of the rich, relieve the necessities of the
poor.”[5]
While Justin was still alive, Tiberius' general
Justinian fought and defeated the
Persians in the
East. Tiberius sent reinforcements to Italy in order to fight Lombards. He
saved Rome from Lombards and allied with
Childepertus, the King of the Franks, in order to defeat them, but his army,
under the command of Baduarius, was defeated by the enemy and the Lombards
continued their conquests in Italy.
When Tiberius became full emperor upon Justin's death in 578,
he extended his military activities into the remnants of the Western Empire,
where he made peace with the
Visigoths
in Spain and
defeated the
Berbers in
North
Africa. He may have been the Emperor
Lucius Tiberius of Arthurian legend, sending envoys to former Roman
provinces after a long period without Imperial presence. Meanwhile, the
Slavs began to migrate into the
Balkans in
579; unfortunately, Tiberius needed the army to defend against Persian
invasions, and was unable to stop the Slavic migrations.
Sophia, Justin's wife, was persuaded that she should preserve
her station and influence by marrying the new emperor Tiberius. But he refused
her proposal of marriage because he was already married to Anastasia. Sophia
seek revenge: a secret alliance was concluded between the dowager empress and
the general Justinian. They conspired to overthrow the emperor: if the plot had
been successful, Justinian would have become the new emperor. However the
conspiration failed and Sophia was reduced to a modest allowance. Justinian was
forgiven by Tiberius II.
In 582, Tiberius fell ill, and Maurice was named his heir.
Maurice became emperor when Tiberius died in August - poisoned, it was rumored.
His last words were spoken to his successor, Maurice:[6]
Let my sovereignty be delivered to thee with this girl.
Be happy in the use of it, mindful always to love equity and justice.
According to Edward Gibbon, Tiberius II was a good emperor:
With the odious name of Tiberius, he assumed the more
popular appellation of Constantine, and imitated the purer virtues of the
Antonines. After recording the vice or folly of so many Roman princes, it is
pleasing to repose, for a moment, on a character conspicuous by the
qualities of humanity, justice, temperance, and fortitude; to contemplate a
sovereign affable in his palace, pious in the church, impartial on the seat
of judgment, and victorious, at least by his generals, in the Persian war.
The most glorious trophy of his victory consisted in a multitude of
captives, whom Tiberius entertained, redeemed, and dismissed to their native
homes with the charitable spirit of a Christian hero. The merit or
misfortunes of his own subjects had a dearer claim to his beneficence, and
he measured his bounty not so much by their expectations as by his own
dignity. This maxim, however dangerous in a trustee of the public wealth,
was balanced by a principle of humanity and justice, which taught him to
abhor, as of the basest alloy, the gold that was extracted from the tears of
the people. For their relief, as often as they had suffered by natural or
hostile calamities, he was impatient to remit the arrears of the past, or
the demands of future taxes: he sternly rejected the servile offerings of
his ministers, which were compensated by tenfold oppression; and the wise
and equitable laws of Tiberius excited the praise and regret of succeeding
times. Constantinople believed that the emperor had discovered a treasure:
but his genuine treasure consisted in the practice of liberal economy, and
the contempt of all vain and superfluous expense. The Romans of the East
would have been happy, if the best gift of Heaven, a patriot king, had been
confirmed as a proper and permanent blessing. But in less than four years
after the death of Justin, his worthy successor sunk into a mortal disease,
which left him only sufficient time to restore the diadem, according to the
tenure by which he held it, to the most deserving of his fellow-citizens.[7]
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