Leontios (or Liontius) was a decorated army and navy military leader who commanded forces on the behalf of the emperors of Constantinople along the complicated Anatolian frontline borderlands between the Byzantine and Umayyad Arab spheres of influence in the 7th century. Leontios had some success on land, making gains with ground forces in the regions of Georgia and Armenia, but his fortunes at sea were less forgiving, as he had trouble with insubordination and mutinies. Well-connected and liked by both military and church elites, Leontios became a potential political rival of the then emperor, Justinian II, who began his reign in 685 and had become increasingly unpopular since then. While Leontios oversaw operations in Armenia and Georgia, Emperor Justinian campaigned from Thessalonica against Slavic and Bulgarian forces near the regions of Thrace and Macedonia between 687 and 689. Justinian unwisely drafted into his military large numbers of captured Slavic warriors, who were understandably disgruntled and unrestful, and sent them as an army to the Anatolian front. Justinian further destabilized his Anatolic defenses by removing Leontios from his command and placing him under some form of arrest in 692. Despite the imprisonment, Leontios apparently maintained good health and was allowed to receive visitors.
In Leontios’ absence, the drafted Slavic army plan that was hatched by Justinian II ultimately turned into a disaster. The angry, forcefully-relocated Slavic army defected to the Arab side, setting up the cataclysmic Battle of Sebastopolis, where Justinian’s regional forces were dealt a decisive defeat by their Umayyad opponents in 692 or 693. This weakened Constantinople’s power projection in the region and gave the Umayyads more control of Anatolia. As the ramifications of the military defeat set in, anxiety in imperial lands further increased due to Emperor Justinian’s punishing fiscal policies. Additionally, his choice of harsh, unpopular governing officials amplified his own low popularity. It was in this political atmosphere that Emperor Justinian II, desperate for better military results, made the questionable decision to release Leontios from prison around 695, assigning him to lead the forces of Greece (the Hellas or Helladic Theme). Unfortunately for Justinian II, it indeed turned out to be unwise to release the popular general he had personally imprisoned, and even more perilous was the decision to subsequently give that same man military authority in the heart of the empire. Suffice it to say, within moments of being released from prison, Leontios joined a conspiracy involving both military and church officials plotting against the emperor.
With support from the forces given to him and cooperation from his fellow conspirators, including Constantinople’s top church official, Patriarch Callinicus (or Kallinikos) (r. 693-705), Leontios launched a surprise operation to dethrone Justinian II. He broke into Constantinople’s most important prison, releasing arrested men of renown such as military leaders and noblemen. The snowballing growth of the coup was detailed by the chronicler, Theophanes (c. 750s-818), who wrote:
“Now Leontios, who was a patrician and general of the Anatolic theme, and was distinguished in battle, had spent three years in prison. Although he had been condemned, he was suddenly released and appointed general of Hellas. He was ordered to embark on three warships and leave the city that very day…Leontios took the men and such arms as he had and went to the Praitorion in great secrecy. They pounded on the doors, claiming the Emperor had come to administer some business there. When the underofficer at that time had been notified, he immediately came and opened the door. He was overpowered, clubbed down, and bound hand and foot by Leontios. Once he had got in, Leontios opened the prisons, releasing the many noble men who had been jailed: they had been shut in there for as long as six or eight years. Most of them were soldiers, and Leontios armed them and went out into the Forum with them…Along with his two friends the monks and some of the more important men who had got out of jail, Leontios went to the patriarch at his residence” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6187 [695-696 CE]).
Finally, with growing might and support, Leontios was able to capture Emperor Justinian II. As one might expect, it is never pleasant to be dethroned or to otherwise lose a high-stakes power struggle, but the politics of Constantinople were especially grisly, especially for royalty and claimants to the throne. On the conspirators’ treatment of Justinian II, Theophanes wrote, “Then they led Justinian into the hippodrome through the Sphendone, slit his nose, cut his tongue, and exiled him to the Cherson” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6187). Despite the mutilation, Justinian II fared better than his key ministers, who were allegedly executed by burning.
As defaced Justinian II was shipped off to exile, Emperor Leontios (r. 695-698) settled in for his rule. He attempted to change his name to Leo, but later chroniclers such as Theophanes refused to call him by that designation. A losing battle over his name, however, paled in comparison to the struggle he inherited against the Umayyad forces. Following the Battle of Sebastopolis, the Umayyads renewed military campaigns against the empire of Constantinople on multiple fronts. By 697, the Arabs made successful territorial gains in the Anatolian and Black Sea regions of Armenia and Lazica. The Umayyads also continued to whittle away at Constantinople’s North African holdings, seizing the city of Carthage.
Leontios, formerly a distinguished commander on the field of battle, now pointedly stayed home in Constantinople as these military setbacks piled on, and his lack of personal involvement may have irked military officers and officials. Adding insult to injury, an outbreak of plague or disease developed in the imperial city at that time, which no doubt caused extra worry and unrest. Nevertheless, channeling his former military experience, Emperor Leontios eventually pulled together a large force for a campaign to retake Carthage. Unfortunately, although the expedition was initially successful in capturing the city, the campaign did not ultimately survive the Arab counter-attack. On these events (the Arab conquest, Byzantine re-conquest, and successful Arab counter-attack), Theophanes wrote:
“In this year the Arabs attacked and conquered Africa, settling in it a garrison from their army. When Leontios learned of this he dispatched the patrician John, a competent man, with the entire Roman navy. When he arrived at Carthage he forced open the harbor’s chain, routed his opponents, and drove them away. He freed the African cities and left behind his own garrison. He then referred these matters to the Emperor and, once he had received his orders, wintered in Africa. On learning of this, the Arab leader sent a larger and more powerful expedition against him. In battle he drove John and his army from the harbor” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6190 [698-699 CE]).
The unsuccessful Carthage campaign proved to be a breaking point for Leontios’ military. Stewing in their defeat, the retreating expeditionary forces became increasingly mutinous as they neared the imperial heartland. By the time they reached Crete, officers from the campaign rebelled against their commander, John, as well as Emperor Leontios. From among the rebelling officers a certain Apsimar (or Apsimaros) rose to the forefront, and the rebel forces proclaimed this new leader as their chosen emperor. On this, Theophanes wrote: “John went back to Romania, as he wanted to get reinforcements from the Emperor. He had come as far as Crete, however, when the army was suborned by its officers. Because it was afraid and disgraced, it did not want to refer matters to the Emperor, and turned to a wicked plot. It dug up Apsimaros, the drungarios of the Kibyrhaiotai, and chose him as Emperor, renaming him Tiberius” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6190 [698-699 CE]). With their leader selected, and their rebellion past the point of no return, the mutineers sailed off for Constantinople to dethrone Emperor Leontios.
Constantinople was in a weakened state when the rebels arrived. The city folk there were still fighting plague, and a renewed wave of the disease coincided with the approach of the mutineers. Rebel ships were able to anchor unharassed in the waters outside the city, and from there, agents of the rebellion began clandestinely reaching out to officers and potential saboteurs in the city who they thought could be tempted to betray the emperor. Unfortunately for Leontios, the rebels found the treacherous individuals they needed, and the rebellion was ultimately given access to the city. Once in, the rebels quickly overpowered, or recruited, the local defenders. Emperor Leontios and his inner circle, at that point, fell into the hands of the rebels, who, ironically, decided to give the emperor the same treatment that he had given the former ruler, Justinian II. The chronicler, Theophanes, described these events: “The soldiers of Apsimaros’ naval force entered the citizens’ houses and stripped the property-owners of their possessions. Apsimaros slit Leontios’ nose and ordered him into the monastery of Delmatos under guard. Since Leontios’ officers and friends had clung to him even unto death, Apsimaros beat and exiled them and confiscated their property” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6190 [698-699 CE]). With Leontios arrested, mutilated, and locked away in a monastery, Apsimaros took the throne and assumed the title of Tiberius III (r. 698-705).
Although Leontios’ reign was over, his life and story was not. The imprisoned former-emperor remained in his imposed monastic life as Tiberius III achieved mixed results in his reign. Tiberius’ brother, Herakleios, had some success as a general in challenging Umayyad forces in Syria and Cilicia, but at the same time, Arab troops were able to consolidate power in Armenia, crushing pro-Byzantine forces there that tried to launch a rebellion. These conflict zones, however, were not the greatest threat to Tiberius. As it would turn out, the greatest threat to the regime was a former emperor with a mutilated face. The slit-nosed former emperor in question was not Leontios, who was under close watch in his monastery. Instead, it was Justinian II, the man that had been deposed, mutilated and exiled by Leontios in 695.
While Constantinople and its empire were falling into varying levels of disarray and threat during the reigns of Leontios (r. 695-698) and Tiberius III (r. 698-705), the ousted former emperor, Justinian II, was boiling with rage in his place of exile at Cherson. From that Crimean location, Justinian spent his years of exile making diplomatic inroads with the leaders of the nearby Khazars and Bulgarians, and he also subtly connected with potential allies among the Greek nobility. In 705, Justinian II began making moves to return to power. First, he relocated to the Khazar Khaganate, where he struck up a political alliance by marrying the Khagan’s (or Khan’s) sister, Theodora. These moves, however, did not go unnoticed by Tiberius III in Constantinople. He sent agents to the Khazar lands to attempt to bring about the assassination of the former emperor. How direct of an involvement the Khagan had in Tiberius III’s plot is debatable, but notable Khazar figures were recruited by the conspirators. Tiberius’ scheme, however, was foiled when Justinian’s Khazar wife, Theodora, learned of the plot and the complicity of certain Khazar officials. Justinian, learning the news from his wife, reportedly killed the would-be assassins and quickly fled to the lands of his other prospective ally, the Bulgarians. There, he successfully negotiated a partnership with the Bulgarian leader, Tervel, and they marched together against Constantinople. Justinian used his old Heraclian dynasty knowledge to locate for his forces a secret tunnel into the capital city that was unknown to the usurpers. Utilizing the secret passage, Justinian II seized control of Constantinople and began relentlessly hunting his long, personal list of enemies, including Leontios, the man who had deposed him ten years prior. Theophanes described the hellish purge that ensued:
“In this year Justinian regained the imperial power. He gave Tervel many presents (including imperial regalia) and sent him off in peace. Apsimaros had abandoned the city and fled to Apollonias. He was pursued, seized, and brought to Justinian. Herakleios was brought in bonds from Thrace along with all the officers who were his comrades. Justinian hanged them all on the wall. He also sent men to the interior who routed out many more officers and killed them, those who had been active against him and those who had not alike. He triumphantly paraded Leontios and Apsimaros through the whole city in chains…Then he sent Leontios and Apsimaros to the Kynegion and beheaded them. Justinian blinded the patriarch Kallinikos and exiled him to Rome” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6198 [706-707 CE]).
So ended the life of Leontios. After usurping power from Justian II in 695, unfortunate Leontios had his own power usurped by Apsimaros in 698, and both usurpers met their ends in 705 at the hands of Justinian II, the man that Leontios had deposed at the beginning of the peculiar saga. Unfortunately for the realm, all the bloodshed and treachery only made Justian II all the more paranoid and tyrannical. His second period of rule would be a reign of terror until yet another military rebellion ousted Justinian in 711. Whereas Leontios had spared the emperor’s life and sentenced him to exile, the rebels of 711 instead killed Justinian and his son, ending the Heraclian dynasty that had been in power since 610.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Left: Solidus of Emperor Justinian II, dated between 692-695, [Public Domain] via the MET. Right: Portrait of Emperor Leontios based on a coin, by Joos Gietleughen (c. 16th century), [Public Domain] via the Rijksmuseum).
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.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Justinian-II
