Pope Constantine
[1] One of the last popes of the Byzantine Papacy, the defining moment of his pontificate was his 710/711 visit to Constantinople, where he compromised with Justinian II on the Trullan canons of the Quinisext Council.
[8] The imperial mandate made it "obvious that the relentless emperor meant to settle once and for all the issue of Rome's acceptance of the Trullan decrees".
[4] Unlike his predecessors, Constantine neither delayed nor made excuses to avoid appearing in the imperial city; in fact, he "identified with Byzantium as perhaps no Roman pontiff before him ever had".
[4] Prior to Constantine's departure, Justinian had blinded Archbishop Felix of Ravenna for plotting to overthrow him, an act that had improved the papal-Byzantine rapport.
[9] Eleven of Constantine's thirteen companions who can be identified by name (two bishops, three priests, and all the ranking members of the papal chancellery and household) were also of Eastern extraction.
[3] While stopping in transit in Naples, Constantine crossed paths with the exarch of Ravenna, John III Rizocopo, then on his way to Rome to execute four high-ranking papal officials by cutting their throats.
[3] In the spring, Constantine crossed the Ionian Sea, meeting the strategos of the imperial fleet on the island of Chios and was received by the Karabisianoi before proceeding to Constantinople.
[3] Constantine entered Constantinople on a "horse caparisoned with gilded saddle clothes and golden bridles and bearing on his head the kamelaukion, or diadem, which the sovereign alone was authorized to wear and then only on 'a great public festival of the Lord'".
[3] Justinian II's son and co-emperor Tiberius, along with Patriarch Kyros, senators, nobles, clerics, and many others, greeted Constantine at the seventh milestone from the city in the style of an imperial adventus.
Philippicus was overthrown in June 713 and his successor, Anastasius II, sent Exarch Scholasticus and a letter to the pope affirming imperial support for the Sixth General Council.
