Constantine the African 195See also DIOCLETIAN;DONATION OF CONSTANTINE;
EUSEBIOS OF CAESAREA; PAPACY;PAPAL STATES;VALLA,
LORENZO.
Further reading:Eusebius, Life of Constantine,ed.
Averil Cameron and Stuart G. Hall (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1999); Eusebius, The History of the Church from
Christ to Constantine,trans. G. A. Williamson (Baltimore:
Penguin Books, 1965); Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecu-
torum,ed. and trans. J. L. Creed (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1984), 24–48; A. H. M. Jones, Constantine and the
Conversion of Europe (1948; rev. ed. 1962; reprint,
Toronto: The Medieval Academy of America, 1978);
Timothy D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981); Timothy
D. Barnes, The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982);
Ramsay MacMullan, Constantine(New York; The Dial
Press, 1969); Hans Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine
(New York: Routledge, 1996).
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos (905–959)Byzan-
tine emperor, promoter of artistic and scholarly projects
Born May 17/18, 905, Constantine VII, at first coem-
peror with Leo VI (r. 870–912) in 908, was not allowed
actually to rule for almost 40 years. At first, because of
his illegitimacy and youth, his uncle, Alexander (d. 913),
handled affairs of state. Subsequently the regency was
headed by Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos (r. 901–907,
912–925), then by the dowager empress Zoë Kar-
bonopsina (d. after 920), who was forced to yield to
Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944).
Romanos’s term as sole ruler was dominated by
WARFAREwith the ARABS, with mixed results. His attempt
in 949 to dislodge the Arabs from CRETE failed. Ger-
manikeia in SYRIAwas captured in the same year, only to
be recaptured in 953 by Sayf al-Dawla (916–967), the
lord of Aleppo. The generals and future emperors
Nikephoros II Phokas (ca. 912–969) and John I
Tzimiskes (ca. 925–976) won numerous victories from
954 to 958.
Constantine VII did not modify Romanos I’s attempts
at agrarian reform. He tried unsuccessfully to require the
powerful officials of the state to restore peasant lands
acquired since 945 without compensation. He also
ordered that soldiers’ properties not be alienated. For
land sales made between 934 and 945, peasants had to
pay again the purchase price, a concession to the mag-
nates. He made diplomatic contact with Olga (d. 969),
princess of Kiev. Embassies were exchanged with the
court of OTTOI THEGREATand with the Muslim court at
CÓRDOBA.
LITERARY ACCOMPLISHMENTSConstantine VII is best known for his own literary
works, which include On Imperial Administration, On the
Themes,and On Ceremonies.His support of the minor
arts lead to fine manuscript illustration, carved ivories,
scholarly treatises, and encyclopedias such as the Geo-
ponik,a fulfillment of his chief interest, the cataloguing
of information. His own court poet and encyclopedist
Constantine of Rhodes (ca. 870–ca. 931) described the
Church of the Holy Apostles in CONSTANTINOPLE by
carefully cataloguing its features and contents. In the
realm of historical writing, which had declined during
the preceding century, he sponsored enduring results. He
appointed intellectuals as state officials and as professors
in the revived palace school. Constantine VII remains
Byzantium’s most accomplished scholar-emperor, as well
as one of its great patrons of learning. He died on
November 9, 959.
See alsoMACEDONIAN DYNASTY.
Further reading:Arnold Joseph Toynbee, Constantine
Porphyrogenitos and His World(London: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1973).Constantine the African (ca. 1020–ca. 1087)Muslim
convert to Christianity, translator of medical treatises,
physician
He was probably born at Carthage or North Africa about
1020 and made numerous journeys in his youth, perhaps
as a merchant, but also for training in various disciplines
such as medicine to CAIRO, India, and ABYSSINIA. Arriving
in Italy he aroused jealousy among some by his learning
and opinions and had to flee to Salerno in southern Italy.
Tradition also has it that he arrived in Italy with impor-
tant manuscripts. He converted to Christianity and soon
entered the monastery of Monte Cassino, probably to
work as a translator. He lived in the monastery under the
abbacy of DESIDERIUSwhen it was an important center of
learning and near the medical school at Salerno.TRANSLATIONS
Constantine’s translations were loosely adapted into Latin
from Arabic models and texts. These were based on the
medicine practiced at AL-QAYRAWANfrom the ninth and
10th centuries and the doctrines of Galen, an important
Greek physician and writer, who lived at Rome in the sec-
ond century C.E.
Among the Arabic works translated by Constantine
was the Royal Bookof the Persian scholar Ali ibn al-
Abbas al-Majasi or Haly Abbas (d. 994). It was a compila-
tion of Galen’s thought as it had been revised in the fifth
and sixth centuries at ALEXANDRIA. Dedicated to Abbot
Desiderius, under the title of Pantegnior The Whole Art,
this work was much read and cited by diverse authors in
the 12th and 13th centuries. It treated medicine as a part
of natural philosophy and divided it into the theoretical
and practical. Medicine was intended to be understood
and practiced rationally. Constantine himself seems to
have translated only the theoretical part and some of the