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| 741–75 |
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| CONSTANTINE V (Kopronymos, or “dung-named,” for supposedly having defecated while being baptized; the name reflects clerical hostility to his zealous support of iconoclasm), the son of Leo and for years associated with him in the government. Constantine was autocratic, uncompromising, and violent, but withal able and energetic as well as sincere. A revolt of his brother-in-law, Artavasdos, was supported by the idolaters and by part of the army. It took fully two years to suppress it. | 1 |
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| 745 |
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| The emperor, taking the offensive against the Arabs, carried the war into Syria. | 2 |
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| 746 |
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| Constantine destroyed an Arab armada and reconquered Cyprus. | 3 |
| The empire suffered from the greatest plague epidemic since the time of Justinian. | 4 |
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| 751–52 |
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| The emperor led a successful campaign against the Arabs in Armenia. The Arabs were weakened by the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate and the removal of the capital from Damascus to Baghdad (See 747–50). | 5 |
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| 751 |
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| The Lombards conquered the exarchate of Ravenna. The pope thereupon called in the Franks and was given the former Byzantine territory by Pepin (Donation of Pepin, 756) (See 754, 756). | 6 |
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| 753 |
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| The Church Council of Hieria approved of the emperor's iconoclastic policy. Therewith began the violent phase of the controversy. The monks offered vigorous resistance, but the emperor was unbending. The monks were imprisoned, exiled, and some even executed; monasteries were closed and their properties confiscated; images were destroyed or whitewashed. | 7 |
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| 755–64 |
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| Nine successive campaigns against the Bulgars. The emperor won important victories at Marcellae (759) and Anchialus (763), and forced the Bulgars to conclude peace (764). | 8 |
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| 758 |
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| The Slavs were defeated in Thrace, and a large number of them settled in Asia. | 9 |
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| 772 |
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| Renewal of the war with the Bulgars, marked by further victories for the emperor. | 10 |
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| 775–80 |
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| Leo IV, the son of Constantine. | 11 |
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| 778–79 |
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| Victory over the Muslims at Germanikeia (778), and their expulsion from Anatolia. | 12 |
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| 780–97 |
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| Constantine VI ascended the throne as a child, wholly under the influence of his ambitious, unscrupulous, and scheming mother, Irene, and her favorites. Irene, anxious to secure support for her personal power, devoted herself almost exclusively to the religious question. The Muslims, who again advanced to the Bosporus (782), were bought off with heavy tribute (783). On the other hand, the general Staurakios carried on a successful campaign against the Slavs in Macedonia and Greece (783). | 13 |
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