Constantine Doukas (usurper)

Constantine Doukas
Died	9 June 913 Constantinople
Allegiance	Byzantine Empire
Rank	Domestic of the Schools
Relations	Andronikos Doukas (father)

Constantine Doukas (or Doux) (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Δούκας/Δούξ) (died 913) was a prominent Byzantine general. In 904, he stopped the influential eunuch court official Samonas from defecting to the Arabs. In return, Samonas manipulated his father, Andronikos Doukas, into rebelling and fleeing to the Abbasid court in 906/7. Constantine followed his father to Baghdad , but soon escaped and returned to Byzantium, where he was restored by Leo VI the Wise to favour and entrusted with high military offices. Upon the death of the Emperor Alexander, Constantine with the support of several aristocrats unsuccessfully tried to usurp the throne from the young Constantine VII, but was killed in a clash with supporters of the legitimate emperor.

Constantine Doukas was the son of Andronikos Doukas, a prominent general under Emperor Leo VI the Wise (reigned 886–912) and the first prominent member of the Doukas family. Constantine first appears in the sources in 904, during the attempted flight of the Arab-born eunuch Samonas, one of the emperor's most trusted aides, to Syria. Constantine captured Samonas at the Monastery of the Holy Cross at Siricha, near the river Halys, and escorted him back to Constantinople, where an enquiry into the matter was held before the Senate. Leo, who was still attached to his servant, enjoined Constantine to maintain that Samonas had in fact been making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Siricha, and not the Arab frontier. When the senators however asked Constantine to verify the truth of this claim by swearing on "God and the emperor's head", he refused to hide the truth. Samonas was punished by house arrest, and although he was pardoned by Leo after only four months and restored to his offices, he had conceived a deep enmity towards the Doukai.

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