The Reign of Constantine V in the Miracles of St. Theodore the Recruit (BHG 1764)

Abstract

REB 46 1988 France p. 191-210 C. Zuckerman, The Reign of Constantine V in the Miracles of St. Theodore the Recruit (BHG 1 764). — One of St. Theodore the Recruit's miracles in his anonymous enkomion BHG 1764 is an eye-witness account of an Arab raid dated « in the fourteenth year of the God-protected and Christ-loving reign of Constantine, (...) at the beginning of the seventh indiction. » The present study suggests that in spite of the pious epithets, the emperor in question is Constantine V, the only Constantine whose fourteenth year overlapped a seventh indiction. The study presents the historical background of the raid — dated in 753/4 — and analyzes the ideological stand of the author of the enkomion, a closet icon-worshipper who used St. Theodore's miracles to state the orthodox position on all major planks of the iconoclast controversy. In the Appendix, miracles # 2 and # 3 are related to events from Heraclius' first Persian campaign of 622, which permits to take a fresh look at the geographical setting and the chronology of the campaign.