Leontius

## Leontius (Leo)

Emperor of the Romans
 King of Kings

A gold solidus of Leontius. It reads "DN LEON PE AV" (Dominus Noster Leon(tius) Perpeetus Augustus)

* Life
* Names
* Reign

### Born

c. 660
 Isauria

### Died

15 February 706 (aged c. 46)
 Constantinople

### Greek

Λεόντιος (Λέων)
 *Leóntios (Léōn)*

### Epithets

The Patrician
 The Isaurian

**Flavius Leontius** (Greek: Φλάβιος Λεόντιος, *translit.* *Phlábios Leóntios*; c. 660 – 15 February 706) or **Leoncius**, known under the regnal name **Flavius Leo** (Greek: Φλάβιος Λέων, *translit.* *Phlábios Léōn*) and sometimes referred to as **Leontius the Patrician** (Latin: *Leontius Patricius*) or as **Leontius the Isaurian** was Eastern Roman emperor from 695 to 698. Of disputed Armenian or Isaurian extraction, the Isauria-born Leontius became a highly popular general under Constantine IV, for whom he recovered much of the Caucasus from the Arabs, albeit using brutal methods according to Armenian sources.

Constantine's son and successor, Justinian II, again dispatched Leontius to face the Arabs in 692, but he was betrayed by his own army, as its Slavic warriors defected to the Arabian cause. Infuriated, Justinian held Leontius accountable and imprisoned him. He was released in 695 and promptly overthrew Justinian, who, by then, had fallen from grace, becoming emperor himself in a public ceremony. The audience implored Leontius to claim Justinian's life, but he declined, out of respect for Constantine IV, and he exiled Justinian to the Crimea instead after mutilating him.

A decently competent emperor, Leontius tried to steer a middle line in his policy, focusing on consolidation, defensive strategies and diplomacy. He enjoyed considerable popularity among his peasants and nobles, but was feared by his military, whom he tried to placate with property. Carthage was conquered by the Arabs in 698, and the soldiers responsible for its loss decided against accepting their responsibility before Leontius; instead, they nominated one of their own, Apsimarus, as emperor. Leontius was deposed the same year, but spared and sent to a monastery. In 705, Apsimarus was in turn overthrown by a vengeful Justinian, who had him and Leontius put to death the following year.

## Background

### Origins and family

The future emperor was born in Isauria, around the year 660. It is not certain whether Leontius was ethnically Isaurian or Armenian; the former is suggested by Theophanes Confessor, but the latter is upheld by certain scholars, such as Scott Moore and John Haldon. He may have also been of mixed ethnicity. Based on genealogical research, Christian Settipani believes that Leontius was the son of a certain Lazarus, who himself descended directly from emperor Phocas and his son-in-law the general Priscus; he alo attests that Leontius had a son called Tarasius, by a wife whose name was not recorded.

### Military service

Entering the military at an early age, Leontius showed remarkable promise, and became a personal friend of Constantine IV in his early twenties, who made him a patrician around 682. He became the *strategus* of the Theme of Anatolia in 685, roughly around the death of Constantine and the accession of his eldest son, Justinian II.

In 686, Justinian sent Leontius to campaign in Armenia and Iberia (Georgia). He became known for his brutal methods of warfare, and achieved fame after marching all the way into Azerbaijan and even as far as Persia. There, he acquired substantial riches as a result of looting. Due to the general's success, Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was forced to sue for peace. The Romans became entitled to much of the tax revenue of Georgia, Armenia and Cyprus, as well as to a weekly tribute of gold, horses and slaves.

In 692, Justinian violated his own peace treaty with the Arabs by carrying out an invasion of the Caliphate; Leontius was assigned to lead the expedition. Placed in charge of a large army of Slavs, whom Justinian had deported from the Balkans and forced into military service, the Isaurian met the Arabs head-on at Sebastopolis. There, the Slavs mutinied against Leontius and defected to the Arabs, who emerged victorius in the battle. Justinian's fury led him to imprison Leontius for his failure; some sources, though, like Patriarch Nikephoros I and Theophanes Confessor, suggest that Leontius had designs on the imperial throne, and that Justinian was aware, thus deciding to act quickly.

### Rebellion

While imprisoned, Leontius befriended a monk named Paulus, and a former soldier known as Gregorius the Archimandrite, who were involved with astrology. They insisted that Leontius was foretold to become a just emperor, and they buoyed him into rebelling. By 695, the Arabs were on the offensive again; they had invaded Anatolia and were also marching to Carthage. Justinian was horrified of potentially losing Carthage, and so, unknowing of his general's ambitions, released Leontius and created him *strategus* of the Theme of Hellas, in mainland Greece. Leontius quickly staged an overthrow of Justinian's government, using wide support from both the peasantry and the aristocracy.

He first went to the *praetorium* of Constantinople and knocked at the gate, claiming the emperor was there. The prefect opened the gate and was immediately beaten and had his hands and feet tied; the freed soldiers were immediately armed. Leontius marched to the forum with his followers, where he exclaimed "All Christians to Saint Sophia!" and dispatched messengers to spread word. They also spread the rumor that Justinian was on the verge of massacring they who supported the faction of the Blues (a cultural and political organization in Constantinople), and that the patriarch was also in danger of execution.

Leontius and a small contingent of followers then found the patriarch, whom they convinced to follow them to the baptistery. There, the patriarch exclaimed "This is the day that the Lord hath made", and sanctioned the rebellion against Justinian II. The crowd replied with "May the bones of Justinian be dug up!".

Quickly thereafter, Leontius captured the emperor and brought him to the Hippodrome. The audience ecstatically cheered on Leontius, and their chants requested that Justinian's blood spill. However, Leontius could not bring himself to kill the son of his former friend, the expired emperor Constantine, and so decided to mutilate and exile him to the Crimean Peninsula instead. Despite his attempts to prevent this, the crowd promptly seized Justinian's officers, Stephen the Persian and Theodotus, whom had brutally tortured the populace in their tax collection; they were both dragged across the strees with ropes and then immolated. Leontius was now Roman emperor, at the cost of the line of Heraclius.

## Reign

### Domestic policy

Little is known about Leontius’s domestic policy, as primary sources for his reign are scant and secondary sources lack detail.

Owing his accession to their implementation, Leontius went about reverting Justinian's unpopular policies; this included an agrarian reform which made it more difficult for nobles to acquire land from freeholders and made the landlords directly responsible for taxation. Justinian also attempted to enforce religious laws grouped as the Quinisext Council, which sought to enforce Eastern Orthodox practices onto the Western Church and outlaw many regular acts on the grounds of "being pagan", such as dancing, "provocative hairstyles" and several festivals. These laws were highly unpopular and dropped under the rule of Leontius.

The emperor lowered the taxes paid by peasants and also had the port of Neorion in Constantinople cleared; he ordered the removal of several obstructions from the harbour that were previously installed to deter Arab raids, but were now impeding his own fleet. This, however, reportedly caused a four-month outbreak of plague. In Italy, the Republic of Venice was established in 697, with Leontius seemingly having approved the election of *Doge* Paulucius Anafestus. He also began returning many of the Cypriots whom Justinian II had relocated back to Cyprus. Additionally, Leontius seems to have established the Cibyrrhaeot Theme and its naval force, first mentioned in 698 during the expedition to Carthage.

### Military engagements

Leontius forewent offensives against the Umayyad Caliphate in favour of consolidation, with the one notable exception to this policy being an unexplained Roman raid on the Visigothic Kingdom, in what is now Spain; for the rest, the activities of the Roman navy were restricted. The empire went entirely on the defensive. The leader of the Roman garrison in Lazica, Sergius the Patrician, defected to the caliphate and surrendered the land to them. The Arabs followed up with an invasion from Melitene, but it was repulsed, and stalled further by famine and disease. In 698, the Romans successfully scored military victories in and around Antioch.

*Main article: Battle of Carthage (698)*

The defeats suffered by Leontius, combined with his lack of iniative, were interpreted as weakness by the Arabs. Emboldended, they responded by invading the Exarchate of Africa in 696. in 697, they captured Carthage. Leontius dispatched a force under John the Patrician, exarch of Africa, and Apsimarus, a drungary of the Roman navy, to reclaim Carthage. Using trickery and stealth, John managed to infiltrate the city's harbour and lead a surprise attack on Carthage, forcing the Arabs to leave and regroup. Emir Hasan ibn al-Nu'man was recalled from campaigning against the Berbers and tasked with retaking Carthage. Using diplomacy, Leontius managed to seal an alliance with King Wittiza of the Visigothic Kingdom, who sent a force of 500 warriors; the Romans acquired further aid from allied Berber tribes. The Franks did not respond to Leontius's request for help.

The Roman army left Carthage to face Hasan in the field, but was repulsed and forced to regroup within Carthage. John and Apsimarus, relying on the rest of the Roman navy to resupply them from the sea, attempted to wait out the siege within the city walls, in hopes that the Arabs – who were trying to scale the walls with ladders – would exhaust themselves and offer an opening. The Umayyads identified this potential turning point, and dispatched their own navy to harass the Roman fleet, forcing them to retreat. John and Apsimarus were forced to leave Carthage, as the Arabs surrounded the city with combined land and sea offensives; they regrouped in Crete, while other legions of the Roman army sought sanctuary in Sicily and Corsica.

## Downfall

John intended to return to Leontius to report their failure and request reinforcements, but his troops rioted and acclaimed Apsimarus as emperor instead. Their exact motivation is unknown, although it is speculated that, since they had seemingly been given orders of victory or death, they feared reprisal from Leontius. Apsimarus sailed from Crete back to Constantinople, where he sought to expel his former patron. The latter still enjoyed considerable popularity, but another outbreak of plague, combined with actions by "foreign agents", allowed Apsimarus to enter Constantinople anyway. There, he mutilated Leontius and exiled him to a monastery (either in Constantinople or in Illyria), taking the regnal name Tiberius III. He made no attempts to recapture North Africa, seeking instead to stabilize the eastern borders and reform the army.

Tiberius would himself be deposed by a vengeful Justinian II in 705 (proving that Leontius had made a mistake in sparing him). Justinian's second tenure was even more cruel than his first, and out of spite, he would have both Tiberius and Leontius publicly humiliated and tormented, whereafter he beheaded them. The body of Leontius was thrown into the sea alongside Tiberius, but was later recovered and buried in a church on the island of Prote.

## Assessment

Leontius is one of the more obscure Byzantine emperors, and one of the most obscure Roman emperors of (Late) Antiquity. Very little is known about his reign or about his personal life, both before and after his accession, with even information about his ethnicity, family and religious beliefs being scarce. Subsequently, and due to the short length of his tenture, the reign of Leontius is overshadowed by the emperors before and after him. Nonetheless, Leontius was a competent and popular emperor; despite his quick deposition, he was overall effective. It is difficult to blame Leontius for the loss of Carthage, and it is likely that the navy could have still mutinied against him even if he had not prohibited his troops from surrendering or retreating. Overall, while Leontius was not the greatest emperor and is a very unknown figure, his reign was ultimately quite fine, and would have possibly became great had it not been for his untimely deposition.

## Footnotes

1. ↑ As a general of disputed Isaurian or Armenian extraction, it is difficult to ascertain whether Leontius subscribed to Chalcedonian or Oriental Orthodox views. The former were most common in Anatolia, whereas the latter are upheld by the Armenian Apostolic Church.
2. ↑ Leontius seemingly changed his name to **Leo** (Greek: Λέων, *translit.* *Léōn*) upon his accession as emperor. However, he is still referred to as Leontius by historiographical convention. Another explanation is that "Leo" appears only as an abbreviation of his name. Even when his name is given as Leo in historical sources, he is not usually enumerated. Other sources claim that the emperor's name was always Leo, and that the name Leontius was a dimunitive created by later historians after his reign, much like how the emperor Constantine (r. 641-668) became known as Constans.
3. ↑ Elsewhere given as "summer 698", probably in July.
4. ↑ Some sources enumerate him as **Leontius II** in reference to the 5th century usurper Leontius. The latter never successfully installed himself as ruler, even though he minted his own coins and was coronated by an ex-empress, thus he is not regarded as a legitimate emperor by this wiki.

## Bibliopgrahy

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