Ioannes 228 was John VII, bishop of Rome from 705 to 707. He was of Greek nationality and was the son of Platon 13: Lib. Pont. 88. 1. He erected an epitaph to his father (see Platon 13) and another to his mother, Blatta 1: Marini, P. Dip., p. 378 and de Rossi, Bull. 1867, p. 11 = Rossi, ICVR II 442, no. 153. See Duchesne, Lib. Pont., p. 386, n. 1. Described as a man of great learning and eloquence ("vir eruditissimus et facundus eloquentia"), he became bishop of Rome in succession to John VI (Ioannes 227) and occupied the see for two years, seven months and seventeen days (1 March 705 to 18 October 707): Lib. Pont. 88. 1 (according to later manuscripts, in the reigns of Tiberius (Tiberios 2) and Justinian (Ioustinianos 1)). He built an oratory of the Virgin in St Peter's, adorning the walls with mosaic and with gold and silver and including in the decoration images of the Fathers: Lib. Pont. 88. 1. He restored the Church of St Eugenia, the cemeteries of the martyrs Marcellianus and Marcus and of St Damasus, and decorated various churches with images, including the representation of himself; he adorned with paintings the Church of S. Maria Antiqua, built a new ambo there and also constructed for himself over it a new episcopal palace, in which he died; he also made a golden chalice adorned with precious stones: Lib. Pont. 88. 2. In his time the papacy regained the former papal patrimony of the Cottian Alps, by a donation from the Lombard king Aripert II (Aripert 1): Lib. Pont. 88. 3. The emperor Justinian sent him a copy of the canons of the Quinisext Council which had been rejected by Pope Sergius I (Sergios 30) and ordered him to convene a council and emend them where necessary; instead he returned them unaltered to the emperor, allegedly through fear ("humana fragilitate timidus"), but shortly afterwards he died: Lib. Pont. 88. 5-6. According to later manuscripts, he was buried in St Peter's before the altar of the Virgin which he himself had built, on 18 October of the sixth indiction under Justinian: Lib. Pont. 88. 6, variant on line 4 (ed. Duchesne, p. 386). In fact 18 October 707 was in the fifth indiction.

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