Constantine Podopagouros ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Ποδοπάγουρος; died 25 August 766) was a high-ranking

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

official and, with his brother Strategios, leader of a conspiracy against Emperor

Constantine V Constantine V ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντῖνος, Kōnstantīnos; la, Constantinus; July 718 – 14 September 775), was Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775. His reign saw a consolidation of Byzantine security from external threats. As an able ...

(). "Podopagouros" is a

sobriquet A sobriquet ( ), or soubriquet, is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another, that is descriptive. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym, as it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name, without the need of expla ...

that means "crabfoot". Very little is known about his life and career other than his involvement in the conspiracy against the emperor, which came to light in the summer of 766. According to

Theophanes the Confessor Theophanes the Confessor ( el, Θεοφάνης Ὁμολογητής; c. 758/760 – 12 March 817/818) was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy who became a monk and chronicler. He served in the court of Emperor Leo IV the Khazar before taking u ...

, Constantine was then ''

patrikios The patricians (from la, patricius, Greek: πατρίκιος) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom, and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after ...

'' and ''

logothetes tou dromou The ( gr, λογοθέτης τοῦ δρόμου), in English usually rendered as Logothete of the Course/Drome/ or Postal Logothete, was the head of the department of the Public Post ( la, cursus publicus, gr, δημόσιος δρόμος, de ...

''. Constantine and his brother, who at the time was commander of the elite '' tagma'' of the Exkoubitores, were the leaders of the conspiracy which, according to Theophanes, included nineteen high-ranking officials in total, including several senior provincial governors (''

strategoi ''Strategos'', plural ''strategoi'', Latinized ''strategus'', ( el, στρατηγός, pl. στρατηγοί; Doric Greek: στραταγός, ''stratagos''; meaning "army leader") is used in Greek to mean military general. In the Hellenist ...

''). After the plot's discovery, the conspirators were publicly paraded and humiliated at the

Hippodrome of Constantinople Sultanahmet Square ( tr, Sultanahmet Meydanı) or the Hippodrome of Constantinople ( el, Ἱππόδρομος τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, Hippódromos tēs Kōnstantinoupóleōs; la, Circus Maximus Constantinopolitanus; t ...

on 25 August 766, following which Strategios and Constantine were beheaded at the Kynegion, while the others were blinded and exiled. A few days later, the Eparch of the City Prokopios was also dismissed, followed by the deposition and exile of Patriarch Constantine II, after he was implicated by some clergymen in the conspiracy. In his chronicle, Theophanes portrays the conspiracy as part of a reaction against Constantine V's iconoclast policies, stating that some of the conspirators were adherents of the

iconophile Iconodulism (also iconoduly or iconodulia) designates the religious service to icons (kissing and honourable veneration, incense, and candlelight). The term comes from Neoclassical Greek εἰκονόδουλος (''eikonodoulos'') (from el, ε ...

hermit

Stephen the Younger Saint Stephen the Younger ( el, , ''Hagios Stephanos ho neos''; 713/715 – 28 November 764 or 765) was a Byzantine monk from Constantinople who became one of the leading opponents of the Byzantine Iconoclasm, iconoclastic policies of Emperor Co ...

of Mount Auxentios, whom the emperor had had publicly humiliated and executed the previous November. Modern scholarship on the other hand is not as clear as to the motivations of the emperor, i.e. whether the death of Stephen, or the humiliation and blinding of seventeen of the nineteen officials and other acts of persecution was due to his hardening stance against iconophile sentiment, or had political motives as a reaction to plots against his life (in which Stephen too may have been implicated).

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Podopagouros, Constantine 766 deaths 8th-century Byzantine people Byzantine officials Executed Byzantine people Patricii Byzantine Iconoclasm 8th-century births 8th-century executions by the Byzantine Empire People executed by decapitation