Constantine V

Constantine V ruled Byzantium from 741 to 775, inheriting an empire squeezed between Arab armies and Bulgar raiders. He exploited civil war in the Muslim world to push limited gains on the eastern frontier, then turned his attention north: repeated campaigns against the Bulgars and a policy of resettling Christian populations from the Arab lands into Thrace strengthened Byzantine control of the Balkans. He introduced significant military and administrative reforms. But his fierce iconoclasm - the destruction of religious images - and hostility to monasticism made him a demon to the monks who wrote the chronicles. They branded him Koprónymos, "Dung-Named," and Kaballinos, "the Equestrian," for horse dung, insults that eclipsed his strategic record. He died in September 775, secure in power but reviled in ink.