The ‘Peace and Tranquillity’ of the Emperor Constantine IV

In the reign of Emperor Herakleios, Nikephoros had set the model of an ideal emperor, of a desirable state order, and of a relationship between the emperor and the patriarch in Byzantium. The reign of Herakleios was portrayed as an age of order which had been established in contrast to the previous state of affairs during Phokas's rule, and according to the ideal notions as they were expressed in the oration of Shahin. Herakleios managed to restore the Byzantine state in the face of the threats coming from Persia. He established friendly and brotherly relations with the patriarchs of Constantinople. However, his unlawful marriage was a cause of internal disorder, which had first taken root in the imperial family after his death, and later in Constantinople, causing the abdication of Patriarch Pyrrhos. Regarding the further historical narration in the Short History, Nikephoros continued by narrating the reign of the Emperor Constantine IV, whose reign is the last accomplished rule according to the previously established models which were presented in Herakleios's reign. The inner turmoil of the Dark Century of Byzantium set in with the reigns of Justinian II and the emperors who ruled until the restoration of state under the Isaurian dynasty.

In the chronological frame between the years after Herakleios's death and the assumption of power by Leo III, ten emperors in total were mentioned, with more or less space dedicated to several of these emperors. In this part of his work, Nikephoros gave most of his attention to the government of Emperor Justinian II, his first downfall, his return to power, and his execution. In the context of an overall narrative, his rule can be viewed as central to this part of the Short History, since it connected the two periods of rules by Herakleios and the later emperors Leo III and Constantine V, and since it accentuated the establishment of state order in the Empire. The account of Justinian II's reign and his subsequent successors, in the form in which it was presented, thus formed a prelude to the final part of the Short History, but it also accented the previous reigns of Herakleios and Constantine IV.