Constantine Lekapenos

Constantine Lekapenos
Co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Miliaresion from 931–944, showing Romanos I's bust on a cross on the obverse and listing the names of Romanos and his co-emperors, Constantine VII, Stephen Lekapenos and Constantine Lekapenos, on the reverse.
Reign	924–945
Died	946–948
Dynasty	Lekapenos
Father	Romanos Lekapenos
Mother	Theodora

Constantine Lekapenos or Lecapenus (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Λακαπηνός) was the third son of the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944), and co-emperor from 924 to 945. With his elder brother Stephen, he deposed Romanos I in December 944, but was overthrown and exiled by the legitimate emperor Constantine VII (r. 913–959) a few weeks later. Constantine was exiled to the island of Samothrace, where he was killed while attempting to escape sometime between 946 and 948.

Constantine was one of the youngest sons of Romanos I and his wife Theodora. Theophanes Continuatus mentions him as the youngest son of the imperial couple, while the 11th-century chronicler George Kedrenos mentions him as the third of four known sons. His older brothers were Christopher Lekapenos (co-emperor 921–931) and Stephen Lekapenos (co-emperor 924-945). It is unclear if Theophylact (Patriarch of Constantinople in 933–956) was his younger brother or slightly older than he was. His sisters included Helena, who married Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (r. 913–959), and Agatha, who married Romanos Argyros. He probably also had at least two unnamed sisters, known only because of their marriages to the magistroi Romanos Mosele and Romanos Saronites.

Romanos Lekapenos had risen to power in 919, when he had managed to appoint himself regent over the young Constantine VII and marry his daughter Helena to him. Within a year, he successively rose from basileopator to Caesar, and was eventually crowned senior emperor on 17 December 920. To consolidate his hold on power, and with a view of supplanting the ruling Macedonian dynasty with his own family, he raised his eldest son Christopher to co-emperor in May 921, while Stephen and Constantine were proclaimed co-emperors on 25 December 924.