Leontios - Wikipedia Leontios From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Byzantine emperor from 695 to 698 For other people named Leontius, see Leontius (disambiguation). Emperor of the Romans Leontios Emperor of the Romans Leontius in imperial regalia, as depicted on a solidus coin. The inscription reads dn leon pe av. Byzantine emperor Reign 695–698 Predecessor Justinian II Successor Tiberius III Born Isauria Died probably February 706 Constantinople Dynasty Heraclian Dynasty Twenty Years' Anarchy Chronology Leontios 695–698 Tiberius III 698–705 Justinian II 705–711 with Tiberius as co-emperor 706–711 Philippikos Bardanes 711–713 Anastasios II 713–715 Theodosios III 715–717 Succession Preceded by Heraclian dynasty Followed by Isaurian dynasty v t e Leontios or Leontius (Greek: Λεόντιος; c. 660 – August 705/February 706), sometimes enumerated as Leontius II,[n 1] was Byzantine emperor from 695 to 698. Little is known of his early life, other than that he was born in Isauria in Asia Minor. He was given the title of patrikios, and made strategos of the Anatolic Theme under Emperor Constantine IV. He led forces against the Umayyads during the early years of Justinian II's reign, securing victory and forcing the Umayyad caliph, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, to sue for peace. In 692, Justinian declared war upon the Umayyads again, and sent Leontios to campaign against them. However, he was defeated decisively at the Battle of Sebastopolis, and imprisoned by Justinian for his failure. He was released in 695, and given the title of strategos of the Theme of Hellas in Southern Greece. After being released, he led a rebellion against Justinian, and seized power, becoming emperor in the same year. He ruled until 697, when he was overthrown by Apsimar, a droungarios who had taken part in a failed expedition that had been launched by Leontios to recover Carthage. After seizing Constantinople, Apsimar took the name Tiberius (III),[n 2] and had Leontios' nose and tongue cut off. He was sent to the Monastery of Dalmatou, where he remained until some time between August 705 and February 706. By this time Justinian had retaken the throne. Both Leontios and Tiberius were executed. Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Origin and early life 1.2 Reign and downfall 2 See also 3 Notes 4 References 4.1 Citations 4.2 Bibliography 4.3 Web sources 5 External links Biography[edit] Origin and early life[edit] Little of Leontios' early life is known, other than that he was from Isauria, and possibly of Armenian descent.[4][5][6] He was appointed as strategos of the Anatolic Theme, at the time the most senior military command of the Byzantine Empire,[4][5][6][7] and patrikios by Emperor Constantine IV, possibly c. 682 AD.[4][5][6] Starting in 680, the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate erupted into a civil war, known as the Second Fitna. Umayyad authority was challenged even in their metropolitan province of Syria, while most of the Caliphate recognized Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr instead. Under Marwan I and his son Abd al-Malik, however, the Umayyads gained the upper hand, although the Zubayrids were not finally defeated until 692.[8][9][10][11][12] The civil war in the Umayyad Caliphate provided an opportunity for the Byzantine Empire to attack its weakened rival, and, in 686, Emperor Justinian II sent Leontios to invade Umayyad territory in Armenia and Iberia, where he campaigned successfully, before leading troops in Adharbayjan and Caucasian Albania; during these campaigns he gathered loot.[4][5] Leontios' successful campaigns compelled the Umayyad Caliph, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, to sue for peace in 688, agreeing to tender part of the taxes from Umayyad territory in Armenia, Iberia, and Cyprus, and to renew a treaty signed originally under Constantine IV, providing for a weekly tribute of 1,000 pieces of gold, one horse, and one slave.[5][13][14] Justinian invaded the Caliphate again in 692, feeling that the Umayyads were in a weak position, but was repulsed at the Battle of Sebastopolis, where a large number of Slavs defected to the Umayyads, ensuring the Byzantine defeat. After this, the Umayyads renewed their invasion of North Africa, aimed at taking the city of Carthage in the Exarchate of Africa, and also invaded Anatolia. Around this time, Justinian imprisoned Leontios. Some Byzantine sources, such as Nikephoros and Theophanes, suggest that Justinian did so because he believed that Leontios was seeking to take the throne,[6] but it is possible that the crushing defeat at Sebastopolis played a part in his imprisonment; as strategos of the Anatolic Theme, he likely served in the battle, and may have even been the main Byzantine commander in it.[5][13][14][6] After further setbacks in the war, Justinian released Leontios in 695 because he feared losing control of Carthage, and appointed him strategos of the Theme of Hellas in Southern Greece.[5][13][15][16] During his captivity, Leontios was cared for by two monks, Gregorios and Paulos, who prophesied his rise to the throne, and encouraged him to rise against Justinian after his release.[6] Leontios, once free, quickly raised a rebellion against Justinian.[5][13] Leontios had wide support from the aristocracy, who opposed Justinian's land policies, which restricted the aristocracy's ability to acquire land from peasant freeholders,[17] and the peasantry, who opposed Justinian's tax policies,[5][17] as well as the Blue faction (one of the Hippodrome factions), and the Patriarch of Constantinople Callinicus.[5] Leontios and his supporters seized Justinian and brought him to the Hippodrome, where Justinian's nose was cut off, a common practice in Byzantine culture, done in order to remove threats to the throne, as mutilated people were traditionally barred from becoming emperor; however, Leontios did not kill Justinian, out of reverence for Constantine IV.[5][17][18][6] After Justinian's nose was cut off, Leontios exiled him to Cherson, a Byzantine exclave in the Crimea.[5][15][17] Reign and downfall[edit] Upon his coronation, Leontios took the name Leo, and adopted a moderate political stance. He restricted the activity of the Byzantine army, allowing small raids against the border of the Byzantine empire to proceed without reprisal, and instead focused upon consolidation.[5][19] Very little is known of his domestic policy, except that he had the port of Neorion in Constantinople cleared, which allegedly led to a four-month outbreak of plague.[6] The Umayyads, emboldened by Leontios' perceived weakness, invaded the Exarchate of Africa in 696, capturing Carthage in 697. Leontios sent the patrikios John to retake the city. John was able to seize Carthage after a surprise attack on its harbor. However, Umayyad reinforcements soon retook the city, forcing John to retreat to Crete and regroup. A group of officers, fearing the Emperor's punishment for their failure, revolted and proclaimed Apsimar, a droungarios (mid-level commander) of the Cibyrrhaeots, emperor.[5][19] Apsimar took the regnal name Tiberius, gathered a fleet and allied himself with the Green faction, before sailing for Constantinople, which was enduring the bubonic plague.[5][19][20] After several months of siege, the city surrendered to Tiberius, in 698. The Chronicon Altinate gives the date February 15.[6] Tiberius captured Leontios, and had his nose slit before imprisoning him in the Monastery of Dalmatou.[5][19] Leontios stayed in the monastery under guard until Justinian retook the throne with the assistance of the Bulgar king Tervel in 705. Justinian then had both Leontios and Tiberius dragged to the Hippodrome and publicly humiliated, before being taken away and beheaded.[5][21] The exact date of the executions is unknown: it may have occurred any time between August 705 to February 706,[22] with the latter date favoured by most modern scholars.[21][23] The Chronicon Altinate states the body of Leontios was thrown into the sea alongside Tiberius, but was later recovered and buried in a church on the island of Prote.[6] See also[edit] Byzantine Empire portal List of Byzantine emperors Notes[edit] ^ Some authors count the 5th-century usurper of the same name as Leontius I.[1][2] Though the 5th-century Leontius was crowned by Verina, the empress of a preceding emperor, and minted coins of his own, he never successfully took the capital and is thus not normally counted or enumerated.[1] ^ While many byzantine emperors did adopt regnal names, non of them used regnal numbers, which are a purely historiographical intervention.[3] References[edit] Citations[edit] ^ a b Grierson 1993, p. 610. ^ British Museum. ^ Foss 2005. ^ a b c d Brubaker & Haldon 2011, p. 586. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Moore 1999. ^ a b c d e f g h i j PmbZ, Leontius (#4547/corr.). ^ Kazhdan 1991, pp. 89–90. ^ Donner 2010, pp. 181–182. ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 168–169. ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 182. ^ Kennedy 2016, p. 80. ^ Gibb 1960, p. 77. ^ a b c d Bacharach 2010, p. 15. ^ a b Rosser 2001, p. 2. ^ a b Saxby & Angelov 2016, p. 27. ^ Asimov 1970, p. 120. ^ a b c d Ostrogorsky 1956, pp. 116–122. ^ Saxby & Angelov 2016, p. 45. ^ a b c d Garland 2017, p. 2. ^ Brubaker & Haldon 2011, p. 730. ^ a b Kazhdan 1991, p. 2084. ^ PmbZ, Tiberios II. (III.) Apsimar (#8483/corr.). ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 341. Bibliography[edit] Asimov, Issac (1970). Constantinople: The Forgotten Empire. Houghton Mifflin. Bacharach, Jere L. (2010). Signs of Sovereignty: The Shahāda, Quranic verses, and the Coinage of Abd Al-Malik. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9-004-18511-1. Brubaker, Leslie; Haldon, John (2011). Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, C. 680-850: A History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-43093-7. Donner, Fred M. (2010). Muhammad and the Believers, at the Origins of Islam. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05097-6. Foss, Clive (2005). "Emperors named Constantine". Revue Numismatique (in French). 6 (161): 93–102. doi:10.3406/numi.2005.2594. Garland, Lynda (2017). Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience 800-1200. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-95371-9. Gibb, H. A. R. (1960). "ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 76–77. OCLC 495469456. Grierson, Philip (1993). Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, 2: Phocas to Theodosius III, 602-717 (2nd ed.). Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 0-88402-024-X.CS1 maint: date and year (link) Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8. Kennedy, Hugh (2016). The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century (Third ed.). Oxford and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-78761-2. Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. Moore, R. Scott (26 May 1999). "Leontius (695-98 A.D.)". De Imperatoribus Romanis. Archived from the original on 7 July 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2019. Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-813-51198-6. Rosser, John H. (2001). Historical Dictionary of Byzantium. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-810-86621-8. Saxby, Michael; Angelov, Dimiter (2016). Power and Subversion in Byzantium: Papers from the 43rd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham, March 2010. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-07693-3. Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2. Wellhausen, Julius (1927). The Arab Kingdom and its Fall. Translated by Margaret Graham Weir. Calcutta: University of Calcutta. OCLC 752790641. Web sources[edit] "Leontius II". The British Museum. Retrieved 12 April 2021. External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leontius. Leontios Born: Unknown Died: February 706 Regnal titles Preceded by Justinian II Byzantine Emperor 695–698 Succeeded by Tiberius III v t e Roman and Byzantine emperors and ruling empresses Principate 27 BC – AD 235 Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasian Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius Lucius Verus Commodus Pertinax Didius Julianus (Pescennius Niger) (Clodius Albinus) Septimius Severus Caracalla Geta Macrinus Diadumenian Elagabalus Severus Alexander Crisis 235–285 Maximinus Thrax Gordian I Gordian II Pupienus Balbinus Gordian III Philip the Arab Philip II Decius Herennius Etruscus Hostilian Trebonianus Gallus Volusianus Aemilianus Valerian Gallienus Saloninus Claudius Gothicus Quintillus Aurelian Ulpia Severina Tacitus Florian Probus Carus Carinus Numerian Gallic emperors Postumus (Laelianus) Marius Victorinus (Domitianus II) Tetricus I with Tetricus II as caesar Palmyrene emperors Vaballathus Zenobia Septimius Antiochus Dominate 284–395 Diocletian Maximian Galerius Constantius I Severus Constantine the Great Maxentius Licinius Maximinus Daza (Valerius Valens) (Martinian) Constantine II Constantius II Constans I Magnentius Vetranio Julian Jovian Valentinian I (west) Valens (east) Gratian (west) Valentinian II (west) Theodosius I Magnus Maximus Victor (Eugenius) Western Empire 395–480 Honorius Constantine III with son Constans II Constantius III Joannes Valentinian III Petronius Maximus Avitus Majorian Libius Severus Anthemius Olybrius Glycerius Julius Nepos Romulus Augustulus Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 395–1204 Arcadius Theodosius II Marcian Leo I Leo II Zeno Basiliscus Marcus Anastasius I Dicorus Justin I Justinian I Justin II Tiberius II Constantine Maurice with son Theodosius as co-emperor Phocas Heraclius Constantine III Heraklonas Constans II Constantine IV with brothers Heraclius and Tiberius and then Justinian II as co-emperors Justinian II (first reign) Leontios Tiberius III Justinian II (second reign) with son Tiberius as co-emperor Philippikos Anastasios II Theodosius III Leo III the Isaurian Constantine V Artabasdos Leo IV the Khazar Constantine VI Irene Nikephoros I Staurakios Michael I Rangabe with son Theophylact as co-emperor Leo V the Armenian with Symbatios-Constantine as junior emperor Michael II the Amorian Theophilos Michael III Basil I the Macedonian Leo VI the Wise Alexander Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos Romanos I Lekapenos with sons Christopher, Stephen and Constantine as junior co-emperors Romanos II Nikephoros II Phokas John I Tzimiskes Basil II Constantine VIII Zoë (first reign) and Romanos III Argyros Zoë (first reign) and Michael IV the Paphlagonian Michael V Kalaphates Zoë (second reign) with Theodora Zoë (second reign) and Constantine IX Monomachos Constantine IX Monomachos (sole emperor) Theodora Michael VI Bringas Isaac I Komnenos Constantine X Doukas Romanos IV Diogenes Michael VII Doukas with brothers Andronikos and Konstantios and son Constantine Nikephoros III Botaneiates Alexios I Komnenos John II Komnenos with Alexios Komnenos as co-emperor Manuel I Komnenos Alexios II Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos with John Komnenos as co-emperor Isaac II Angelos Alexios III Angelos Alexios IV Angelos Nicholas Kanabos (chosen by the Senate) Alexios V Doukas Empire of Nicaea 1204–1261 Constantine Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris John III Doukas Vatatzes Theodore II Laskaris John IV Laskaris Byzantine Empire 1261–1453 Michael VIII Palaiologos Andronikos II Palaiologos with Michael IX Palaiologos as co-emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos John V Palaiologos John VI Kantakouzenos with John V Palaiologos and Matthew Kantakouzenos as co-emperors John V Palaiologos Andronikos IV Palaiologos John VII Palaiologos Andronikos V Palaiologos Manuel II Palaiologos John VIII Palaiologos Constantine XI Palaiologos Italics indicates a junior co-emperor, while underlining indicates a usurper. Authority control General VIAF 1 WorldCat National libraries Netherlands Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leontios&oldid=1028066510" Categories: 7th-century Byzantine emperors 660s births 706 deaths Executed Byzantine people 8th-century executions by the Byzantine Empire Byzantine prisoners and detainees Twenty Years' Anarchy 8th-century Byzantine people 690s in the Byzantine Empire 700s in the Byzantine Empire Byzantine governors of Hellas Governors of the Anatolic Theme Patricii Executed monarchs People executed by decapitation Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Good articles Articles containing Greek-language text CS1 French-language sources (fr) CS1 maint: date and year CS1 German-language sources (de) Commons link is on Wikidata Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages Afrikaans العربية Aragonés Asturianu تۆرکجه Български Català Čeština Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Euskara فارسی Français Galego 客家語/Hak-kâ-ngî 한국어 Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ქართული Latina Magyar Македонски مصرى Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Polski Português Română Русский Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt Zazaki 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 11 June 2021, at 16:55 (UTC). 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