The Damnatio Memoriae of Pope Constantine II (767–768)

The Liber Pontificalis’s account of the four-day Synod of Rome in April 769 convened by Pope Stephen III is a remarkable scene of histrionic recrimination and the condemnation of Stephen’s predecessor Pope Constantine II. At a basic level, the Synod of Rome is a dramatic instance of the politics of legitimation in action. The winning faction not only created a favourable historical record for their candidate (Stephen III) by the long-recognized process of damnatio memoriae but claimed to form ‘new rules’. How political manoeuvres become law, and how law and narrative history overlap in terms of acquiring authority, therefore, are the major preoccupations of this chapter. Further, the subsequent uncritical acceptance of the Roman Synod of 769, of its agenda, the context in which it was convened, and stance adopted, in both the Liber Pontificalis and conciliar acta, to the method by which Constantine II came to occupy the throne, have all overlooked the position of Constantine himself. He was pope for nearly thirteen months, not an ‘antipope’. This chapter explores the case of Pope Constantine II in the texts relating to the Synod of Rome as well as in the light of two extant letters from Constantine II which escaped the conflagration of his Register in Rome in 769.