of Orthodox historians. Typical of this demonisation are the descriptions of Constantine in the writings of Theophanes the Confessor: "a monster athirst for blood", "a ferocious beast", "unclean and bloodstained magician taking pleasure in evoking demons", "a precursor of Antichrist". However, to his army and people he was "the victorious and prophetic Emperor". Following a disastrous defeat of the Byzantines by the Bulgarian Khan Krum in 811 at the Battle of Pliska, troops of the tagmata broke into Constantine's tomb and implored the dead emperor to lead them once more. The life and actions of Constantine, if freed from the distortion caused by the adulation of his soldiers and the demonisation of iconodule writers, show that he was an effective administrator and gifted general, but he was also autocratic, uncompromising and sometimes needlessly harsh. All surviving contemporary and later Byzantine histories covering the reign of Constantine were written by iconodules. As a result of this, they are open to suspicion of bias and inaccuracy, particularly when attributing motives to the Emperor, his supporters and opponents. This makes any claims of absolute certainty regarding Constantine's policies and the extent of his repression of iconodules unreliable. In particular, a manuscript written in north-eastern Anatolia concerning miracles attributed to St. Theodore is one of few probably written during or just after the reign of Constantine to survive in its original form; it contains little of the extreme invective common to later iconodule writings. In contrast, the author indicates that iconodules had to make accommodations with imperial iconoclastic policies, and even bestows on Constantine V the conventional religious acclamations: 'Guarded by God' () and 'Christ-loving emperor' (). Family By his first wife, Tzitzak ("Irene of Khazaria"), Constantine V had one son: Leo IV, who succeeded as emperor. He was crowned in 751. By his second wife, Maria, Constantine V is not known to have had children. By his third wife, Eudokia, Constantine V had five sons and a daughter: Christopher, caesar Nikephoros, caesar Niketas, nobelissimos Eudokimos, nobelissimos Anthimos, nobelissimos Anthousa (an iconodule, after her father's death she became a nun, she was later venerated as Saint Anthousa the Younger See also List of Byzantine emperors References Sources Angold, M. (2012) Byzantium: The Bridge from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Hachette UK, London Barnard, L. (1977) "The Theology of Images", in Iconoclasm, Bryer, A. and Herrin, J. (eds.), Centre for Byzantine Studies University of Birmingham,