Konstantinos 73 was the unnamed bishop of Nakoleia who shared the iconoclast views of Beser 1 and the emperor Leo III (Leo 3): Theoph. AM 6215 (Νακωλείας ὁ ἐπίσκοπος). Bishop of Nakoleia in Phrygia Salutaris; he expressed doubts about the veneration of icons and was reported for this to the patriarch Germanos I (Germanos 8) by his metropolitan bishop, Ioannes 138; Germanos 8 replied to Ioannes 138 that he had already corresponded with Konstantinos 73 on the matter and he summarised the arguments which he used to him and which Konstantinos 73 had professed to accept: Mansi XIII 100-105 (Germanos 8 to Ioannes 138). Germanos 8 also wrote again to Konstantinos 73 rebuking him for not passing his former letter on to Ioannes 138 and threatening to depose him from his episcopal office unless he did so: Mansi XIII 105 (letter of Germanos - πρὸς Κωνσταντῖνον ἐπίσκοπον Νακωλείας). The two letters were read out at the Second Council of Nikaia (the Seventh Ecumenical Council) in 787 and the refusal of Konstantinos 73 to send Germanos 8's original letter to him to Ioannes 138, his metropolitan, is twice described by the patriarch Tarasios 1 as the start of the iconoclast heresy: Mansi XIII 105 (ἡ γὰρ ἀρχὴ τῆς αἱρέσεως ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο), XIII 108 (ἡ εἰσαγωγὴ τῆς ἐπεισάκτου καινοτομίας ταύτης γέγονεν ἐκ τοῦ προειρημένου ἄνδρος ἐπισκόπου Νακωλείας). According to the patriarch Nicephoros (Nikephoros 2) and again in a statement read out to the Second Council of Nikaia (the Seventh Ecumenical Council) in 787 the iconoclast movement began in Syria under the caliph Yezid II (Yezid 2) and the idea spread into the empire when the unnamed bishop of Nakoleia (i.e. Konstantinos 73) and others (Mansi: ὁ ψευδεπίσκοπος Νακωλείας καὶ οἳ κατ'αὐτὸν) heard of it: Nicephorus, Antirrheticus III, 529C, Mansi XIII 200. His date was probably late in the patriarchate of Germanos 8 (715-730), when iconoclasm became a problem. Yezid 2 died in 724. At the seventh session of the Second Council of Nikaia Konstantinos 73 was anathematised, together with his colleague Ioannes 140, bishop of Nikomedeia: Mansi XIII 400 (Ἰωάννῃ Νικομηδείας καὶ Κωνσταντίνῳ Νακωλείας, τοῖς αἱρεσιάρχαις ἀνάθεμα. ἐξουδένωσαν τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ κυρίου καὶ τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ. ἐξουδένωσεν αὐτοὺς ὁ κύριος), XIII 416. He is probably the person recorded among those attacked by John of Damascus (Ioannes 11), under the name Nakoliates (see Auzépy, n. 202), in a speech attributed to St Stephen the Younger (Stephanos 2): Vita Steph. Iun. 126, 9 (1120A). He was still alive in 762, when he was one of the leading iconoclasts sent by the emperor Constantine V (Konstantinos 7) to interview Stephanos 2, then held in custody in Chrysopolis: Vita Steph. Iun. 142, 7 (1140B) (τὸν τούτου ὁμώνυμον Νακωλείας), cf. 144, 9-10 (1144A) (Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ Νακωλείας; he began to read out to Stephanos 2 the statement of faith of the Council of Hieria) (but note the doubts expressed by G. L. Huxley, "On the Vita of St Stephen the Younger", GRBS 18 (1977), pp. 97-108 about the historicity of his survival so late). See also Gero, Iconoclasm I, pp. 85 ff.; P. Speck, Kaiser Konstantin VI: Die Legitimation einer Fremden und der Versuch einer eigenen Herrschaft. Quellenkritische Darstellung von 25 Jahren byzantinischer Geschichte nach dem ersten Ikonoklasmus (Munich, 1978), pp. 139-40, 543; Rochow, Theophanes, p. 107.

(Publishable link for this person: )