Constans was the son of
Constantine III, and due to the rumours that
Heraklonas and
Martina had poisoned Constantine III he was named co-emperor in 641. Later that same year his uncle was deposed and Constans II was left as sole emperor.
Constans owed his throne to a popular reaction against his uncle and to the protection of the soldiers led by the general Valentinus. Although the precocious emperor addressed the senate with a speech blaming Heraklonas and Martina for eliminating his father, he reigned under a regency of senators led by
Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople. In 644 Valentinus attempted to seize power for himself but failed.
Under Constans, the Byzantines completely withdrew from
Egypt in 642, and
Caliph Uthman launched numerous attacks on the islands of the
Mediterranean Sea and
Aegean Sea. A Byzantine fleet under the admiral Manuel occupied
Alexandria again in 645, but after a
Rashidun Caliphate's victory the following year this had to be abandoned. The situation was complicated by the violent opposition to
Monothelitism by the clergy in the west, and the related rebellion of the exarch of
Carthage, Gregory. The latter fell in battle against the army of Caliph Uthman and the region remianed the vessel state under
Rashidun Caliphate, until the civil war broke out and the imperial rule was again restored.
Constans attempted to steer a middle line in the church dispute between Orthodoxy and Monothelitism, by refusing to persecute either and prohibiting further discussion of the natures of
Jesus Christ by decree in 648. Naturally, this live-and-let-live compromise satisfied few passionate participants in the dispute.
Meanwhile, the
Rashidun Caliphate advance continued unabated. In 647 they had entered into
Armenia and
Cappadocia, and sacked
Caesarea Mazaca. In 648 the Arabs raided into
Phrygia and in 649 launched their first maritime expedition against
Crete. A major Arab offensive into
Cilicia and
Isauria in 650–651 forced the emperor to enter into negotiations with
Caliph Uthman's governor of
Syria, Muawiyah. The truce that followed allowed a short respite, and made it possible for Constans to hold on to the western portions of Armenia.
In 654, however, Muawiyah renewed his raids by sea, and plundered
Rhodes. Constans led a fleet to attack the Muslims at Phoinike (off
Lycia) in 655, but it was defeated: 500 Byzantine ships were destroyed in the battle, and the emperor himself risked to be killed. Caliph Uthman was preparing to attack
Constantinople, but did not carry out the plan when civil war between the future
Sunni and
Shi'a factions broke out among them in
656.
With the eastern frontier under less pressure, in 658 Constans defeated the
Slavs in the
Balkans, temporarily reasserting some notion of Byzantine rule over them. In 659 he campaigned far to the east, taking advantage of a rebellion against the Caliphate in
Media. The same year he concluded peace with the Arabs.
Now Constans could turn to church matters once again.
Pope Martin I had condemned both Monothelitism and Constans' attempt at a compromise. Now the emperor ordered his exarch of
Ravenna to arrest the pope. One exarch excused himself from this task, but his successor carried it out in 653. The pope was brought to Constantinople and condemned as a criminal, ultimately being exiled to
Cherson, where he died in 655.
Constans grew increasingly fearful that his younger brother, Theodosius, could oust him from the throne: he therefore obliged him first to take the orders, and later had Theodosius killed in 660. Constans' sons Constantine, Heraclius, and Tiberius had been associated on the throne since the
650s. However, having attracted the hatred of citizens of Constantinople, Constans decided to leave the capital and to move to
Syracuse in
Sicily.
From here, in 661, he launched an assault against the
Lombard Duchy of Benevento, which then occupied most of
Southern Italy. Taking advantage of the fact that Lombard king
Grimoald I of Benevento was engaged against the forces of
Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace of
Neustria who was the
power behind the throne of
Clotaire III, Constans II disembarked at
Taranto and besieged
Lucera and
Benevento. However, the latter resisted and Constans withdrew to
Naples, while part of his army was destroyed by the Beneventani at
Forino, between
Avellino and
Salerno (other source tells the battle was near
Calore River, an afflunet of the river
Volturno and the Commander was Mitolas, count of
Capua) on
May 8, 663.
In 663 Constans visited
Rome for 12 days—no emperor having set foot in Rome for two centuries—and was received with great honor by
Pope Vitalian (657–672). Although on friendly terms with Vitalian, he stripped buildings, including the
Pantheon, of their ornaments and bronze to be carried back to Constantinople, and declared the
Pope of Rome to have no jurisdiction over the Archbishop of Ravenna, since that city was the seat of the
exarch, his immediate representative.
His subsequent moves in
Calabria and
Sardinia were marked by further strippings and request of tributes that enraged his Italian subjects. Rumours that he was going to move the capital of the empire to Syracuse were probably fatal for Constans. On
September 15, 668 he was assassinated in his
bath by his
chamberlain. His son Constantine succeeded him as
Constantine IV, a brief usurpation in Sicily by
Mezezius being quickly suppressed by the new emperor.
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