Constantina Augusta

Constantina was the Roman empress consort as wife of the emperor Maurice (reigned 582-602), daughter of the previous emperor Tiberius II Constantine, and bearer of the imperial title Augusta. She is best known to history through her correspondence with Pope Gregory the Great, who addressed several letters to her at Constantinople; in the most famous of these (c. 594) Gregory tactfully but firmly declined her request to send the head of the Apostle Paul to Constantinople, explaining Roman reluctance to disturb the bodies of the saints and offering filings from St. Peter's chains instead. After Maurice and their children were overthrown and executed in the coup of the usurper Phocas in 602, Constantina was confined and later put to death around 605, a downfall that helped trigger the wars of the early seventh century.