Aba Hanafa is one of the leaders…

Toktu is assumed to have been a member of that faction of the Bulgarian nobility which advocates a hostile policy towards the Empire.

However, before Toktu managed to implement any recorded policy, he is faced with a rebellion and attempts to flee the country.

Unlike his predecessor Sabin, Toktu tries to flee northwards, but is caught and killed together with his brother Bayan and their supporters near the Danube.

Pagan, Toktu’s successor, has been identified as a member of that faction of the Bulgarian aristocracy that seeks to establish peaceful relations with the Empire.

A navigable canal existed between Old Cairo and the Red Sea by the eighth century, but accounts vary as to who ordered its construction—either Trajan or 'Amr ibn al-'As, or Omar the Great.

This canal reportedly linked to the River Nile at Old Cairo and …

…ended near modern Suez.

A geography treatise by Dicuil reports a conversation with an English monk, Fidelis, who had sailed on the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the first half of the eighth century.

The Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur is said to have ordered this canal closed in 767 to prevent supplies from reaching Arabian detractors.

Toto and his armed men, hearing that Pope Paul is on the verge of dying, force their way into Rome through the Gate of St. Pancratius on June 28.

With Paul’s death, Toto makes his way to the Basilica of the Apostles where the other members of the papal court and Roman nobility are gathering, and here Christophorus has everyone swear that they would all uphold each other’s rights during the upcoming election.

However, as soon as the meeting breaks up, Toto’s armed retainers assemble in his house at Rome and elect his brother Constantine as pope.

Since Constantine is still a layperson, he needs to be ordained deacon and priest and then consecrated as bishop in rapid succession.

Although frowned upon by canon law, this approach is far from unknown at this time.

Therefore, accompanied by a group of armed men, he is escorted to the Lateran Palace, where they attempt to force George, the Bishop of Praeneste, to ordain Constantine as a monk.

George throws himself at Constantine’s feet, begging Constantine not to make him do this.

However, Constantine and his supporters make it clear that he will be forced to, one way or another.

George therefore performs the ceremony, ordaining Constantine as a monk.

The next day, June 29, Bishop George makes Constantine a subdeacon followed immediately by his elevation to deacon.

This contravenes canon law, which requires an interval between the giving of the major orders of at least one day.

The Roman people are now required to take an oath of fidelity to Constantine, who again forces George of Praeneste, together with bishops Eustratius of Albano and Citonatus of Porto, to consecrate him as Bishop of Rome on July 5, 767.

In the meantime, opposition to the antipope is being led by Christophorus, the Primicerius, and his son Sergius, the treasurer of the Roman church.

Noting, however, that their lives are in danger, they flee for sanctuary to St. Peter’s Basilica, where they will remain until April 768.

One of Constantine’s first acts is to give notice to the Frankish King, Pepin the Short, of his election, to secure the king’s approval of his actions.

Constantine’s letter to Pepin declares that, against his wishes, he had been raised to the Apostolic See by "the people of Rome and the cities adjoining it", and that he hoped for the continuation of the friendship Pepin had shown to both his predecessors, Paul I and Stephen II.

Pepin ignores this letter, forcing Constantine to write another one, in which he declares that it was only due to the actions of the people which had forced him to take on the burdensome office of pope.

He begs Pepin to bestow his friendship, promising that he would be even more in his debt than his predecessors were, and for the king not to pay any attention to any slanderous accusations that were being said about him and his election as pope.

Pepin refuses to reply to either letter.

On August 12, Constantine receives a letter, addressed to his predecessor Paul, from all the Eastern patriarchs apart from the Patriarch of Constantinople.

It is a synodical letter of faith, sent by Theodore, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and endorsed by Theodore, Patriarch of Antioch, and Cosmas, Patriarch of Alexandria.

It is also endorsed by a large number of the eastern Metropolitan bishops.

In it, it describes their support of the veneration of Icons, and their opposition to the iconoclasm being enforced by Emperor Constantine V. Constantine has the letter read before the Roman people, after which he forwards it to King Pepin.

Constantine, born into a noble Roman family in Nepi near Viterbo, is one of four brothers, of which the most prominent is Toto of Nepi.

Toto, the papal governor and self-styled "Duke" of Nepi, had begun to position himself to take advantage of the expected death of Pope Paul I, and elevate his own candidate onto the papal throne.

Forced by Christophorus, the Primicerius of the notaries, to take an oath to respect the traditional clerical method of papal elections, Toto has retired to his estates in Nepi.

Here, with the help of Constantine and his brothers, they collect troops from his duchy and other parts of Tuscany, in addition to arming a group of peasants to swell his numbers.

The Kharijite Berbers of Tlemcen and Tiaret try to conquer Ifriqiya from the Abbasid caliphate but fail to conquer the capital, Kairouan.

The Final Campaign Against Waifer and the End of Basque-Aquitanian Independence (766–767)

The Frankish-Aquitanian War had reached a deadlock by 766, as Duke Waifer stubbornly resisted Pepin the Short’srelentless advance. To break the impasse, Pepin escalated his scorched-earth tactics, systematically devastating Aquitaine to deprive Waifer’s forces of resources and safe havens.

In 766, Pepin returns to Aquitaine for the third time, launching a decisive offensive beyond the Garonne. With no remaining major strongholds north of the river, Waifer’s position rapidly deteriorates. By 767, the Frankish forces capture Bordeaux and its surrounding hinterland, dismantling what remains of Waifer’s power base.

The Death of Waifer and the Fall of Aquitaine

With Aquitaine collapsing, Waifer flees into the wilderness, but his family is captured by the advancing Frankish forces. Now a hunted fugitive, he takes refuge in the forests of Périgord, where he meets his fate—betrayed and murdered. Whether his killer acted out of exhaustion from years of war or was bribed by Pepin remains uncertain, but his death marks the definitive end of Aquitanian resistance.

With Waifer’s death, Basque-Aquitanian independence is permanently extinguished. Aquitaine is fully absorbed into the Frankish realm, bringing the long struggle between the Carolingians and the southern duchies to an end. Pepin the Short’s victory not only cements Carolingian rule over Gaul but also sets the stage for the future campaigns of Charlemagne in Gascony and the Iberian frontier.

Pagan, after ascending the Bulgarian throne following the murder of his predecessor Toktu, sets out together with his court to attend negotiations with Emperor Constantine V somewhere in Thrace.

In the heated talks, the emperor represents himself as intent on keeping the peace in Bulgaria and upbraids the Bulgarians for their anarchy, and for deposing their former ruler Sabin, who lives as a refugee at the imperial court.

The emperor nevertheless agrees to make peace, and Pagan returns home.

At this point, Constantine V suddenly invades Bulgaria and manages to penetrate across the mountains into the core area of the Bulgarian state, setting afire some settlements around the Bulgarian capital Pliska.

Although Constantine does not follow up his relatively successful invasion and returns home, Pagan faces the wrath of his subjects, who accuse him of credulity and inability to oppose the enemy.

The monarch flees in the direction of Varna, but is murdered by his servants.

Although Telerig is first mentioned in the Byzantine sources in 774, he is considered the immediate successor of Pagan.

The Berber tribal chieftain Saqiya ibn Abd al Wahid al-Miknasi leads a rebellion against the Emirate of Córdoba in the present-day Spanish province of Extremadura.

Christophorus and Sergius had meanwhile hatched a plot with key supporters in the city in order to get them to leave Rome.

Expressing a great desire to enter a monastery, Christophorus and Sergius had begged Constantine to allow them to leave the city and become monks in the Monastery of Our Savior, near Rieti, in the Duchy of Spoleto.

Giving Constantine an oath to that effect, the antipope had allowed them to leave Rome, around April 10, 768.

Instead of going to the monastery as they had vowed, father and son head straight for Theodicius of Spoleto, who takes them to an interview with Desiderius, the King of the Lombards.

Appealing for him to intervene, Desiderius agrees to provide Christophorus and Sergius with troops from Spoleto, and that he will support their march on Rome to overthrow Constantine.