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October 829, and we are asked to believe that between that date and
831, when Alexius was Caesar, three types of gold were struck,
which constituted the bulk of Theophilus' solidi, that between 831
and 838 no gold was issued at all, with one rare type coming in
838-839 and one (of which Wroth reports a single specimen which the
British Museum does not possess) in the remaining years, 839-842. This
arrangement also is clearly inacceptable.
The way out of this dilemma is to abandon Bury's theory of the death
of Constantine before 831. We have no direct evidence as to the date
of the birth and death of Constantine, but we do know that he was not
alive in 831. Theophanes Continuatus is explicit that the
reason for the betrothal of Maria to Alexius was that Theophilus had
no sons: |
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Created by the Digital
Documentation Center at AUB
in collaboration with Al
Mashriq of Høgskolen i
Østfold, Norway. 990216 PN - Email: hseeden@aub.edu.lb |
The
Latin translator, Franciso Combefisi, takes this last phrase to mean
that Theophilus had as yet had no son: "nec ullam hactenus masculam
prolem susceperat," which is the natural, though not the inevitable
interpretation. We know that the betrothal came in 831 because, in
addition to the passage from Porphyrogenitus cited by Bury, Symeon
Magister10 dates the event 
. But it is perfectly possible to assume that the
state of affairs was entirely changed by the birth of Constantine. The
career of Alexius continued prosperous for a time at least. We are
told by Theophanes Continuatus that he commanded an army
against the Lombards to the Emperor's satisfaction, and Bury points
out that, though he may have been betrothed in 831 he could hardly
have been married before 836 when Maria would have been fourteen. Was
Constantine born before the marriage? The condition which led to the
betrothal would be over at the birth of an heir and it might be argued
that the plans for marriage would not have been carried out in that
case. But if Constantine was born in 836 and had died by 838 when
Theophilus and his daughters appear on the gold, we must put into
those two years the types of Theophilus and Constantine, and
Theophilus, Constantine, and Michael. This is not impossible, but it
is not the proportion suggested by the comparative commonness of the
coins. An arrangement more in conformity with the evidence would be to
put the coins of Theophilus and Constantine in 832, the year of the
heir's presumed birth, and those of Theophilus, Constantine and
Michael in the years 833-837. This would mean that the marriage
arranged in 831 when the Emperor had no son was celebrated in 836 when
Constantine was four years old; we know nothing to make this
improbable. Certainly Alexius did eventually retire to a monastery
after the death of Maria and the birth of
Michael11, but the stories of the slander
against him and his consequent loss of favor differ too fundamentally
for us to discover the truth.12 There is
nothing to prove that his fortunes waned so much after Constantine's
birth that Theophilus would have robbed him of his promised bride. On
the other hand, he never appears on the coins, as we might have
expected that he would if he had been the Emperor's son-in-law at the
time when he had no son.