Yes, according to medieval chronicles, Emperor Justinian II of Constantinople (r. 685-695, 705-711) sentenced the wife of a rebel to marry her household cook. Specifically, a chronicler named Theophanes (c. 750s-818) stated that Justinian “made her marry her own cook, who was an Indian” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6203 [Sep 711-Aug 712]). The bizarre situation resulted from a tragic and complicated series of events that spanned decades. Mind the emotional whip-lash as the tale is recounted.
Emperor Justinian II, within decades of his death, was predominantly remembered by his countrymen as a man consumed with anger, wrath, cruelty, paranoia and madness. Executions were rampant in the second period of his rule, and his deadly rage extended to the children and wives of those who wronged him. How truly insane he may have been is debatable, but Justinian II definitely lived a tortured existence that drove him to act in an increasingly bitter, unforgiving, and merciless manner. One can attempt to glimpse into the mind of the emperor by looking at how many times he faced betrayal and treachery. Such traumatic incidents may have compounded into a psychological quagmire.
In his early reign, he was betrayed by an army of relocated Slavic warriors—a personal project of his—whose defection to the enemy cost him dearly at the disastrous Battle of Sebastopolis (c. 692 or 692) against the Arabs in Anatolia. He faced treachery from the head of his religion, Patriarch Callinicus (r. 693-705), who was the top church official of Constantinople and its empire. He was also betrayed by Leontios, the general he hand-picked to command the forces of Greece. Leontios and Patriarch Callinicus, with other conspirators, launched a coup against Emperor Justinian II in 695, in which the emperor was arrested, paraded through the streets, and his face was mutilated in a public spectacle. The emperor’s top lieutenants and ministers were executed, and Justinian (then nose-less and slit-tongued) was banished to Crimea. In exile, he married his wife, Theodora, the sister of the Khazar Khaganate leader, but Justinian faced an additional betrayal from his new brother-in-law, for the Khazars became complicit in a plot by agents of Constantinople to assassinate Justinian II. Successfully escaping the threat, Justinian fled to the Bulgarians, and with their help he reclaimed his throne in Constantinople against the then ruler, Tiberius III (r. 698-705). Back in power after a decade of exile, betrayals continued into his second round as emperor. Justinian faced treachery from Helias, his hand-chosen governor for Cherson, who was given a large expeditionary force by the emperor. A key ally of Helias was a man named Bardanes Philippikos, who had been exiled by Tiberius III, but was subsequently allowed by Justinian II to return to the empire and the military. Helias and Philippikos became leaders of a rebellion against Justinian II in the year 711—in effect, Justinian was betrayed by the large expeditionary force he had personally dispatched to Cherson. Adding insult to injury, Justinian’s meddlesome in-laws, the Khazars, were once again treacherous toward the emperor, this time giving Helias and Philippikos aid in their uprising.
It was this series of paranoia-inducing events that shaped Justinian’s thoughts and actions, contributing to his most gruesome deeds. The treachery he faced in his first period as emperor, and the subsequent assassination attempt during his exile, ratcheted up a murderous rage in Emperor Justinian II, which he unleashed on his empire when he returned to power in 705. He executed the two usurpers, Leontios and Tiberius III, who had ruled during his banishment. He executed Tiberius’ brother, Herakleios, and blinded and banished Patriarch Callinicus of Constantinople, who had conspired with Leontios against Justinian in 695. He punished and purged to varying degrees those who wronged him in deed or perception. Justinian’s expeditionary force to Cherson had similar directives given to them. Helias and Bardanes Philippikos, while they were still loyal, were charged with executing members of the population there and to send others back to Constantinople as captives. Emperor Justinian’s bloodlust was reportedly at its height when Helias and Philippikos made their fateful decision to lead their forces in rebellion against the emperor.
Helias’ commitment to the rebellion came at a huge personal cost, as he had been unable to move his family out of the emperor’s grasp by the time that the revolt was launched. Justinian II quickly seized Helias’ wife and children—not an uncommon move by a medieval ruler—but he did not use the hostages as a bargaining chip. Rather than utilize the captured family members in an effort to coerce Helias into standing down, Justinian instead skipped straight to imposing punishments on the rebel’s wife and children. This is the context behind the odd tale of the rebel’s wife being forced to marry her cook. The chronicler Theophanes (c. 750s-818), writing about the wife of Helias, stated that Justinian “made her marry her own cook, who was an Indian” (Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6203 [Sep 711-Aug 712]). Peculiarity and eccentricity aside, this is a tragedy, not a comedy, and Justinian’s next victims were Helias’ children. As written by Theophanes, “He killed the spatharios Helias’ children on their mother’s breast…” (Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6203). With the death of the children, Helias committed himself to avenging their deaths.
Justinian II, ironically, fixated on the wrong leader of the rebels. While the emperor vented his rage on the family of Helias, it was actually Helias’ fellow rebel leader, Bardanes Philippikos, who became the foremost figure of the revolt. Nevertheless, Helias remained a prominent leader, and leaving the politics to Philippikos, Helias was able to focus on his singular goal—revenge. From then on, the rebellion began to snowball into strength, and after a questionable decision by Justinian II to personally go gather intelligence around Damatrys, near Chalcedon, Bardanes Philippikos was able to use that opportunity to march into Constantinople without a fight. Following the fall of the capital, Bardanes Philippikos had Justinian’s son, Tiberius, executed. And, of course, Helias personally led the manhunt for the emperor. He found Justinian still in the environs of Damatrys, and it was there that he achieved his revenge for his slain children. According to Theophanes, “the spatharios Helias angrily burst forward and seized Justinian’s neck. He cut off his head with the dagger with which he was girded and sent it to Philippikos by way of the spatharios Romanos.” (Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6203). With Justinian II and his son dead, Emperor Bardanes Philippikos (r. 711-713) assumed the imperial throne in Constantinople. As for Helias’ fate, Theophanes was silent. Unfortunately, he made no more mention about the spatharios, his wife, or the Indian cook.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Miniature from a Byzantine Bible, c. 11th century, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven).
Sources:
- Theophanes, The Chronicle of Theophanes, translated by Harry Turtledove. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, edited by Oliver Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
