This would obviously pose political difficulties if a half-Byzantine German prince turned up, with an army, and claimed the Byzantine throne. This is the basis of his writing quoted here.Īlso there was at the time a good deal of pressure from westerners for marriage into the Byzantine imperial family. This history, of being the son of an emperor, then having a whole bunch of parvenues usurp your rightful inheritance must have informed Constantine's attitude to marriage and exogamy. However, Constantine was well liked by the populace of Constantinople and he managed to turn on his brothers-in-law and had them deposed in their turn. Eventually, Romanos's sons revolted against him and had him deposed. Eventually, Romanos elevated his own sons to the rank of co-emperor and placed them above Constantine in precedence. Romanos forced Constantine to marry his daughter. As a child his position was usurped by an admiral, Romanos Lekapenos, who became senior emperor. Leo had married too many times for the clergy to unanimously recognise his late marriage to Constantine's mother. You have to know the history behind the period to understand it.Ĭonstantine was the semi-legitimate heir of Leo the Wise. But different customs and divergent laws give birth rather to dislikes and conflicts and hatreds and civil wars, which do not bring about friendship and intercourse, but enmity and dissent. Because, herein grows sameness of mind, and intercourse, and friendly discourse, and cohabitation. As every animal mixes with those of the same genus, so has it been established as a just thing for every nation to form marriage partnerships not with people of a different race and language, but of the same genus and speech. 13īecause each nation has different customs and divergent laws and institutions, it must hold its own things, and perform the associations necessary for the continuation of life from the same nation. Byzantine Emperor.Ĭonstantinus Porphyrogenitus, De administrando imperio, Ch.