Leo III the Isaurian (Greek: Λέων ὁ Ἴσαυρος, romanized: Leōn ho Isauros; Latin: Leo Isaurus; c. 685 – 18 June 741), also known as the Syrian, was Byzantine Emperor from 717 until his death in 741 and founder of the Isaurian dynasty.[1] He put an end to the Twenty Years' Anarchy, a period of great instability in the Byzantine Empire between 695 and 717, marked by the rapid succession of several emperors to the throne. He also successfully defended the Empire against the invading Umayyads and forbade the veneration of icons.[2]
Of Syrian extraction,[3][4][5] Leo was born in Germanikeia, Commagene (modern Kahramanmaraş in Turkey). His original name was Konon (Greek: Κόνων; Latin: Conon or Cononus).[6] Some, including the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes, have claimed that Konon's family had been resettled in Thrace, where he entered the service of Emperor Justinian II, when the latter was advancing on Constantinople with an army of loyalist followers, and horsemen provided by Tervel of Bulgaria in 705. Leo was likely to have been a Jacobite Christian, but would have converted to the Chalcedonian creed upon joining the Byzantine hierarchy.[7][8] Leo was fluent in Arabic,[9] possibly as a native language,[10] and was described by Theophanes as "the Saracen minded."[11]
After the victory of Justinian II, Konon was dispatched on a diplomatic mission to Alania and Lazica to organize an alliance against the UmayyadCaliphate under Al-Walid I. According to the Chronicle of Theophanes Justinian wanted to get rid of Konon and took back the money that had been given to him to help advance Byzantine interests, thus leaving Konon stranded in Alania. The chronicle describes the mission as successful and Konon returning eventually to Justinian after crossing the Caucasus mountains in May with snowshoes and taking the fortress of Sideron (associated with Tsebelda) on the way.[12][13]
Konon was appointed commander (stratēgos) of the Anatolic Theme by Emperor Anastasius II. On his deposition, Konon joined with his colleague Artabasdus, the stratēgos of the Armeniac Theme, in conspiring to overthrow the new Emperor Theodosius III. Artabasdus was betrothed to Anna,[14] daughter of Leo as part of the agreement.
Leo entered Constantinople on 25 March 717 and forced the abdication of Theodosius III, becoming emperor as Leo III. The new emperor was immediately forced to attend to the Second Arab siege of Constantinople, which commenced in August of the same year. The Arabs were Umayyad forces sent by Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik and serving under his brother Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik. They had taken advantage of the civil discord in the Byzantine Empire to bring a force of 80,000 to 150,000 men and a massive fleet to the Bosphorus.[15]
Careful preparations, begun three years earlier under Anastasius II, and the stubborn resistance put up by Leo wore out the invaders. An important factor in the victory of the Byzantines was their use of Greek fire.[16] The Arab forces also fell victim to Bulgarian reinforcements arriving to aid the Byzantines. Leo was allied with the Bulgarians but the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor was uncertain if they were still serving under Tervel of Bulgaria or his eventual successor Kormesiy of Bulgaria.
Unable to continue the siege in the face of the Bulgarian onslaught, the impenetrability of Constantinople's walls, and their own exhausted provisions, the Arabs were forced to abandon the siege in August 718. Sulayman himself had died the previous year and his successor Umar II would not attempt another siege. The siege had lasted 12 months.
Having thus saved the Empire from extinction, Leo proceeded to consolidate its administration, which in the previous years of anarchy had become completely disorganized. In 718 he suppressed a rebellion in Sicily; the following year saw the deposed Emperor Anastasios II raise an army and attempt to retake the throne, but he was captured and executed by Leo's government.
Leo secured the Empire's frontiers by inviting Slavic settlers into the depopulated districts and by restoring the army to efficiency; when the Umayyad Caliphate renewed its invasions in 726 and 739, as part of the campaigns of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, the Arab forces were decisively beaten, particularly at Akroinon in 740. His military efforts were supplemented by his alliances with the Khazars and the Georgians.
Leo undertook a set of civil reforms including the abolition of the system of prepaying taxes which had weighed heavily upon the wealthier proprietors, the elevation of the serfs into a class of free tenants and the remodelling of Family law, maritime law and criminal law, notably substituting mutilation for the death penalty in many cases. The new measures, which were embodied in a new code called the Ecloga (Selection), published in 726, met with some opposition on the part of the nobles and higher clergy. The Emperor also undertook some reorganization of the theme structure by creating new themata in the Aegean region.
Iconoclasm
Example of the miliaresion silver coins, first struck by Leo III to commemorate the coronation of his son, Constantine V in 720.
Leo's most striking legislative reforms dealt with religious matters, especially iconoclasm ("icon-breaking," therefore an iconoclast is an "icon-breaker").[17] After an apparently successful attempt to enforce the baptism of all Jews and Montanists in the empire (722), he issued a series of edicts against the veneration of images (726–729).[18]
A revolt which broke out in Greece, mainly on religious grounds, was crushed by the imperial fleet in 727 (cf. Agallianos Kontoskeles). In 730, Patriarch Germanos I of Constantinople resigned rather than subscribe to an iconoclastic decree. Leo had him replaced by Anastasios,[19] who willingly sided with the Emperor on the question of icons. Thus Leo suppressed the overt opposition of the capital.
In the Italian Peninsula, the defiant attitude of Popes Gregory II and later Gregory III on behalf of image-veneration led to a fierce quarrel with the Emperor. The former summoned councils in Rome to anathematize and excommunicate the iconoclasts (730, 732); in 740 Leo retaliated by transferring Southern Italy and Illyricum from the papal diocese to that of the patriarch of Constantinople.[20] The struggle was accompanied by an armed outbreak in the exarchate of Ravenna in 727, which Leo finally endeavoured to subdue by means of a large fleet. But the destruction of the armament by a storm decided the issue against him; his southern Italian subjects successfully defied his religious edicts, and the Exarchate of Ravenna became effectively detached from the Empire.
Scholars have discussed the mutual influence of Muslim and Byzantine iconoclasm, noting that CaliphYazid II had issued an iconoclastic edict, also targeting his Christian subjects, already in 721.[21]
^Craig, Graham, Kagan, Ozment, and Turner (2011). The Heritage of World Civilizations. Prentice Hall. p. 321. ISBN978-0-205-80766-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Gero, Stephen (1973). Byzantine Iconoclasm during the Reign of Leo III, with Particular Attention to the Oriental Sources. Louvain: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO. ISBN90-429-0387-2.
^Stanton, Andrea L.; Ramsamy, Edward; Seybolt, Peter J.; Elliott, Carolyn M. (5 January 2012). Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications. ISBN978-1-4522-6662-6.
^Ekonomou, Andrew J. (26 January 2007). Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590-752. Lexington Books. ISBN978-0-7391-3386-6.
^Toynbee, Arnold (1973). Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World. London and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-215253-X. Whether Leo's family were Monophysites or not, their place of origin makes it certain that they were Syrians.
^Giovanni Sienda (1761). Lexicon polemicum: In Quo Potiorum Haereticorum Vita Perstringitur, Omnes Contra Fidem Errores Colliguntur.... G - Q. 2. Rieger. p. 128. ISBN9781175927651.
^Kleinhenz, Christopher (2016). Routledge Revivals: Medieval Italy (2004): An Encyclopedia - Volume II. Taylor & Francis. p. 631. ISBN978-1-351-66443-1.
^Hussey, J. M. (2010). The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 34. ISBN978-0-19-161488-0.
^Hitti, Philip (2002). History of The Arabs. Red Globe Press. p. 203. ISBN0333631420.
^Ball, Warwick (2002). Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. Routledge. p. 489. ISBN0415243572.
^A. A. Vasiliev (1964). History of the Byzantine Empire, 324-1453, Volume 1. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 255.
^Theophanes the Confessor (1982). The Chronicle of Theophanes: Anni Mundi 6095–6305 (A.D. 602–813). Stanford: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 85. ISBN0812211286.
^The association of the Sideron fortress with Tsebelda is made by O. Bgazhba and S. Lakoba in Бгажба, О. Х.; Лакоба, С. З. (2007). История Абхазии с древнейших времен до наших дней (The History of Abkhazia from Ancient Times to Present Day) (in Russian). Алашарбага. p. 134.
^Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford: University of Stanford Press. p. 346. ISBN0-8047-2630-2.
^(in French) Guilland, Rodolphe. "L’expédition de Maslama contre Constantinople (717–720)" in Études Byzantines. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1959, pp. 109–133.
^Treadgold. History of the Byzantine State, p. 347.
^Ladner, Gerhart. "Origin and Significance of the Byzantine Iconoclastic Controversy." Mediaeval Studies, 2, 1940, pp. 127–149.
^Treadgold. History of the Byzantine State, pp. 350, 352–353.
^Treadgold. History of the Byzantine State, p. 353.
^Treadgold. History of the Byzantine State, pp. 354–355.
^A. A. Vasiliev (1956), The Iconoclastic Edict of the Caliph Yazid II, A. D. 721, pp. 25-26
isaurian, greek, Λέων, Ἴσαυρος, romanized, leōn, isauros, latin, isaurus, june, also, known, syrian, byzantine, emperor, from, until, death, founder, isaurian, dynasty, twenty, years, anarchy, period, great, instability, byzantine, empire, between, marked, rap. Leo III the Isaurian Greek Lewn ὁ Ἴsayros romanized Leōn ho Isauros Latin Leo Isaurus c 685 18 June 741 also known as the Syrian was Byzantine Emperor from 717 until his death in 741 and founder of the Isaurian dynasty 1 He put an end to the Twenty Years Anarchy a period of great instability in the Byzantine Empire between 695 and 717 marked by the rapid succession of several emperors to the throne He also successfully defended the Empire against the invading Umayyads and forbade the veneration of icons 2 Leo III the IsaurianEmperor of the RomansSolidus of Leo III marked leon pa mul Byzantine emperorReign25 March 717 18 June 741PredecessorTheodosius IIISuccessorConstantine VBornKononc 685Germanikeia Byzantine Empire now Marash Turkey Died18 June 741 aged 55 or 56 SpouseMariaIssueConstantine VAnnaIreneKosmoNamesKonon LeonDynastyIsaurian dynastyReligionEastern Christianity Contents 1 Early life 2 Siege of Constantinople 3 Administration 4 Iconoclasm 5 Death and family 6 See also 7 Citations 8 General and cited references 9 External linksEarly life EditOf Syrian extraction 3 4 5 Leo was born in Germanikeia Commagene modern Kahramanmaras in Turkey His original name was Konon Greek Konwn Latin Conon or Cononus 6 Some including the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes have claimed that Konon s family had been resettled in Thrace where he entered the service of Emperor Justinian II when the latter was advancing on Constantinople with an army of loyalist followers and horsemen provided by Tervel of Bulgaria in 705 Leo was likely to have been a Jacobite Christian but would have converted to the Chalcedonian creed upon joining the Byzantine hierarchy 7 8 Leo was fluent in Arabic 9 possibly as a native language 10 and was described by Theophanes as the Saracen minded 11 After the victory of Justinian II Konon was dispatched on a diplomatic mission to Alania and Lazica to organize an alliance against the Umayyad Caliphate under Al Walid I According to the Chronicle of Theophanes Justinian wanted to get rid of Konon and took back the money that had been given to him to help advance Byzantine interests thus leaving Konon stranded in Alania The chronicle describes the mission as successful and Konon returning eventually to Justinian after crossing the Caucasus mountains in May with snowshoes and taking the fortress of Sideron associated with Tsebelda on the way 12 13 Konon was appointed commander strategos of the Anatolic Theme by Emperor Anastasius II On his deposition Konon joined with his colleague Artabasdus the strategos of the Armeniac Theme in conspiring to overthrow the new Emperor Theodosius III Artabasdus was betrothed to Anna 14 daughter of Leo as part of the agreement Siege of Constantinople EditMain article Siege of Constantinople 717 718 Leo entered Constantinople on 25 March 717 and forced the abdication of Theodosius III becoming emperor as Leo III The new emperor was immediately forced to attend to the Second Arab siege of Constantinople which commenced in August of the same year The Arabs were Umayyad forces sent by Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al Malik and serving under his brother Maslama ibn Abd al Malik They had taken advantage of the civil discord in the Byzantine Empire to bring a force of 80 000 to 150 000 men and a massive fleet to the Bosphorus 15 Careful preparations begun three years earlier under Anastasius II and the stubborn resistance put up by Leo wore out the invaders An important factor in the victory of the Byzantines was their use of Greek fire 16 The Arab forces also fell victim to Bulgarian reinforcements arriving to aid the Byzantines Leo was allied with the Bulgarians but the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor was uncertain if they were still serving under Tervel of Bulgaria or his eventual successor Kormesiy of Bulgaria Unable to continue the siege in the face of the Bulgarian onslaught the impenetrability of Constantinople s walls and their own exhausted provisions the Arabs were forced to abandon the siege in August 718 Sulayman himself had died the previous year and his successor Umar II would not attempt another siege The siege had lasted 12 months Administration EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed April 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message Byzantine Empire 717 AD 1 Ravenna 2 Venetia and Istria 3 Rome 4 Naples 5 Calabria 6 Hellas 7 Thrace 8 Opsikion 9 Thrakesion 10 Anatolikon 11 Karabisianoi 12 Armeniakon Hatched area Frequently invaded by Umayyad Caliphate Having thus saved the Empire from extinction Leo proceeded to consolidate its administration which in the previous years of anarchy had become completely disorganized In 718 he suppressed a rebellion in Sicily the following year saw the deposed Emperor Anastasios II raise an army and attempt to retake the throne but he was captured and executed by Leo s government Leo secured the Empire s frontiers by inviting Slavic settlers into the depopulated districts and by restoring the army to efficiency when the Umayyad Caliphate renewed its invasions in 726 and 739 as part of the campaigns of Hisham ibn Abd al Malik the Arab forces were decisively beaten particularly at Akroinon in 740 His military efforts were supplemented by his alliances with the Khazars and the Georgians Leo undertook a set of civil reforms including the abolition of the system of prepaying taxes which had weighed heavily upon the wealthier proprietors the elevation of the serfs into a class of free tenants and the remodelling of Family law maritime law and criminal law notably substituting mutilation for the death penalty in many cases The new measures which were embodied in a new code called the Ecloga Selection published in 726 met with some opposition on the part of the nobles and higher clergy The Emperor also undertook some reorganization of the theme structure by creating new themata in the Aegean region Iconoclasm Edit Example of the miliaresion silver coins first struck by Leo III to commemorate the coronation of his son Constantine V in 720 Leo s most striking legislative reforms dealt with religious matters especially iconoclasm icon breaking therefore an iconoclast is an icon breaker 17 After an apparently successful attempt to enforce the baptism of all Jews and Montanists in the empire 722 he issued a series of edicts against the veneration of images 726 729 18 A revolt which broke out in Greece mainly on religious grounds was crushed by the imperial fleet in 727 cf Agallianos Kontoskeles In 730 Patriarch Germanos I of Constantinople resigned rather than subscribe to an iconoclastic decree Leo had him replaced by Anastasios 19 who willingly sided with the Emperor on the question of icons Thus Leo suppressed the overt opposition of the capital In the Italian Peninsula the defiant attitude of Popes Gregory II and later Gregory III on behalf of image veneration led to a fierce quarrel with the Emperor The former summoned councils in Rome to anathematize and excommunicate the iconoclasts 730 732 in 740 Leo retaliated by transferring Southern Italy and Illyricum from the papal diocese to that of the patriarch of Constantinople 20 The struggle was accompanied by an armed outbreak in the exarchate of Ravenna in 727 which Leo finally endeavoured to subdue by means of a large fleet But the destruction of the armament by a storm decided the issue against him his southern Italian subjects successfully defied his religious edicts and the Exarchate of Ravenna became effectively detached from the Empire Scholars have discussed the mutual influence of Muslim and Byzantine iconoclasm noting that Caliph Yazid II had issued an iconoclastic edict also targeting his Christian subjects already in 721 21 Death and family Edit Solidus of Leo III with Constantine V Leo III died of dropsy on 18 June 741 and was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles 22 With his wife Maria Leo III had four known children Constantine V born in 718 He was crowned co emperor in 720 and became senior emperor in 741 Anna born before 705 She married the future emperor Artabasdos 23 Kosmo and Irene They were both buried in a sarcophagus of Proconnesian marble in the Church of the Apostles 24 See also Edit Byzantine Empire portalList of Byzantine emperorsCitations Edit Craig Graham Kagan Ozment and Turner 2011 The Heritage of World Civilizations Prentice Hall p 321 ISBN 978 0 205 80766 6 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Gero Stephen 1973 Byzantine Iconoclasm during the Reign of Leo III with Particular Attention to the Oriental Sources Louvain Secretariat du Corpus SCO ISBN 90 429 0387 2 Stanton Andrea L Ramsamy Edward Seybolt Peter J Elliott Carolyn M 5 January 2012 Cultural Sociology of the Middle East Asia and Africa An Encyclopedia SAGE Publications ISBN 978 1 4522 6662 6 Ekonomou Andrew J 26 January 2007 Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias A D 590 752 Lexington Books ISBN 978 0 7391 3386 6 Toynbee Arnold 1973 Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World London and New York Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 215253 X Whether Leo s family were Monophysites or not their place of origin makes it certain that they were Syrians Giovanni Sienda 1761 Lexicon polemicum In Quo Potiorum Haereticorum Vita Perstringitur Omnes Contra Fidem Errores Colliguntur G Q 2 Rieger p 128 ISBN 9781175927651 Kleinhenz Christopher 2016 Routledge Revivals Medieval Italy 2004 An Encyclopedia Volume II Taylor amp Francis p 631 ISBN 978 1 351 66443 1 Hussey J M 2010 The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire Oxford University Press p 34 ISBN 978 0 19 161488 0 Hitti Philip 2002 History of The Arabs Red Globe Press p 203 ISBN 0333631420 Ball Warwick 2002 Rome in the East The Transformation of an Empire Routledge p 489 ISBN 0415243572 A A Vasiliev 1964 History of the Byzantine Empire 324 1453 Volume 1 University of Wisconsin Press p 255 Theophanes the Confessor 1982 The Chronicle of Theophanes Anni Mundi 6095 6305 A D 602 813 Stanford University of Pennsylvania Press p 85 ISBN 0812211286 The association of the Sideron fortress with Tsebelda is made by O Bgazhba and S Lakoba in Bgazhba O H Lakoba S Z 2007 Istoriya Abhazii s drevnejshih vremen do nashih dnej The History of Abkhazia from Ancient Times to Present Day in Russian Alasharbaga p 134 Treadgold Warren 1997 A History of the Byzantine State and Society Stanford University of Stanford Press p 346 ISBN 0 8047 2630 2 in French Guilland Rodolphe L expedition de Maslama contre Constantinople 717 720 in Etudes Byzantines Paris Presses universitaires de France 1959 pp 109 133 Treadgold History of the Byzantine State p 347 Ladner Gerhart Origin and Significance of the Byzantine Iconoclastic Controversy Mediaeval Studies 2 1940 pp 127 149 Treadgold History of the Byzantine State pp 350 352 353 Treadgold History of the Byzantine State p 353 Treadgold History of the Byzantine State pp 354 355 A A Vasiliev 1956 The Iconoclastic Edict of the Caliph Yazid II A D 721 pp 25 26 Martindale J R 2001 Leo 3 PBE Lilie Ralph Johannes et al 2013 Anna 443 PmbZ Lilie Ralph Johannes et al 2013 Kosmo 4148 PmbZGeneral and cited references EditOstrogorsky George 1956 History of the Byzantine State Oxford Basil Blackwell Entry of Leo III in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium ed Alexander Kazhdan New York Oxford University Press 1991 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leon III Leo III the IsaurianIsaurian dynastyBorn c 685 Died 18 June 741Regnal titlesPreceded byTheodosius III Byzantine emperor25 March 717 18 June 741 Succeeded byConstantine VPolitical officesPreceded byAnastasios II in 714 then lapsed Roman consul718 Succeeded byLapsed Constantine V in 742 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php 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