Maria (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
: Μαρία; died 751) was the second empress consort of
Constantine V
Constantine V (; 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 military leader, Constantine took advantage of Third Fitna, civil war ...
of the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
.
Empress
Constantine was Emperor since 741. His first wife
Tzitzak
Tzitzak (; died 750), baptised Irene (), was a Khazar princess, the daughter of ''khagan'' Bihar, who became empress by marriage to Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine V (r. 741–775).
Etymology
According to Gyula Moravcsik, ''Tzitzak'' is most ...
disappears from the historical record after the birth of their son
Leo IV the Khazar
Leo IV the Khazar (; 25 January 750 – 8 September 780) was Byzantine emperor from 775 to 780 AD. He was born to Emperor Constantine V and Empress Tzitzak in 750. He was elevated to co-emperor in the next year, in 751, and married to Irene of ...
on 25 January 750, and Lynda Garland has suggested that she died in childbirth.
"Irene, wife of Constantine V" (2000)
/ref>
Maria married Constantine between 750 and 751 and died soon afterwards of unknown causes. According to the ''Chronographikon syntomon'' of Ecumenical Patriarch Nikephoros I of Constantinople, her untimely death occurred at about the same time her stepson Leo IV was crowned co-emperor (6 June 751) and her husband recovered Melitene.
Constantine and Maria had no children. She was succeeded as empress by Eudokia.
References
External links
A short article on her by Lynda Garland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria, Wife Of Constantine V
8th-century births
751 deaths
Isaurian dynasty
8th-century Byzantine empresses