A Royally Low Roman Profile

For the past five years, the handsome, boyish King of the Hellenes has languished in comfortable Roman exile. When not taking correspondence courses in political science from Cambridge University, he has spent much of his time playing wretched rounds of golf (with balls supplied by Richard Nixon) or sailing in an assured, near professional style (he was an Olympic gold medalist in 1960). Deadly serious about his future, King Constantine, 33, has conscientiously kept up with Greek politics since the failure of a 1967 attempt to oust the junta forced him to flee his homeland.

Despite the benefit of a $580,000 annual allowance provided by the junta. Constantine has kept a deliberately low profile in Rome. The King, his pretty, temperamental Danish-born wife, Queen Anne-Marie, 26, and their three small children live in a modest but handsomely situated rented villa on the Via di Porta Latina. Queen Mother Frederika, 56, and Constantine's sister, Princess Irene, 31, live in a more secluded villa north of Rome. Except for occasional appearances at horse shows and the like, all avoid Rome's lively social scene.

Although revered by many Greeks as a living symbol of national unity, Constantine has no blood relations in the country. The royal family is descended from a Danish prince of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonder-burg-Gluecksburg, who was installed by Russia, France and Britain on the throne in 1863, as King George I. Since Constantine's exile, there has been occasional speculation that he might eventually give up his Roman villa and join his wife's family in Denmark. But, says a friend, "if he moved into a palace in Copenhagen, it would look too much like a permanent exile. He wants to make it look as if he's ready to go back to Athens any time."

At week's end that seemed like a faint prospect indeed. Nonetheless, Constantine--no intellectual, but politically sharp--is well aware that Greece's royal family has been deposed, exiled and recalled several times. Presumably, he has patience enough to wait for the day when Greeks might once again decide that the rule of a democratic King is better than that of a despotic commoner.

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