Constans II

Constans II took the throne in 641 at ten years old, inheriting an empire already buckling under pressure. He served as consul in 642, the last emperor on record to hold the ancient office. By 648 he issued the Typos, an edict that banned all debate over the nature of Christ - his attempt to quiet the feuding Orthodox and Monothelite camps by decree rather than doctrine. The late 640s through the 660s brought relentless Arab invasions under three successive caliphs, and Constans spent much of his reign trying to hold the line. In the 660s he traveled west to Rome, the first emperor to visit since 476, and the last who would see it as Byzantine territory. He never made it home - he was murdered in his bath in 668.