In the early 8th century, a decorated warrior and administrative official named Sergios came to be appointed as the Byzantine governor of Constantinople’s imperial holdings in Sicily. He held the lofty and prestigious title of protospatharios (first of the sword-bearers), one of the most preeminent titles available in the empire. It was good that he was competent and experienced, for he lived in a complicated time when the imperial realm was ravaged by political chaos and war. In Italy, where Sergios governed, Constantinople’s sphere of influence clashed with the powerful kingdom of the Lombards, ruled at that time by King Aripert II (r. 701-712) and then by King Liutprand (r. 712-744). The Popes and their Papal States, centered around Rome, also acted with defiance and hostility toward the emperors and church patriarchs of Constantinople. Meanwhile, back in the imperial heartland, the throne of Constantinople was experiencing quick turnover. Emperor Justinian II (r. 685-695, 705-711) was killed in a rebellion by Emperor Philippikos (r. 711-713), who in turn was ousted in a coup by Emperor Anastasios II (r. 713-715). Next, Emperor Theodosios III (r. 715-717) deposed Anastasios, but the new emperor immediately faced a revolt from the governor and general, Leo, who was stationed along the Anatolic front. Sergios, governing imperial land in Italy, was along for the ride in that whirlwind of geopolitical tensions and internal intrigue.
Adding more instability to the proverbial powder keg was the Umayyad Arab leader, Suleiman (r. 715-717), who seized upon the instability of Constantinople’s Byzantine Empire and took the opportunity to press the advance against Emperor Theodosios’ Anatolian lands. Therefore, Arab forces were on the march in imperial territory while the aforementioned general, Leo, waged his rebellion against Emperor Theodosios III. Adapting to the situation, Leo’s rebels successfully wove their way through Arab armies and the distracted loyalist forces of Theodosios. His mobility and stealth culminated in a surprise operation near Nikomedeia that resulted in the capture of the emperor’s son, forcing Theodosios III to abdicate and renounce his family’s claim to power. With the throne vacated, the victorious rebel general assumed the throne as Emperor Leo III of Constantinople in 717. Yet, the Arab forces in the region greeted Leo’s ascension by descending on Constantinople and besieging the imperial city.
Across the sea in Sicily, the governor Sergios likely balked at the legitimacy of the latest rebel-turned-emperor, and he also would have questioned Emperor Leo’s ability to survive the sudden Arab siege of Constantinople. At the very least, Sergios believed Leo would be pinned down in besieged Constantinople for the foreseeable future, unable to leave the city or react effectively to any rebellion or threat at the peripheries of the empire. After formulating these assumptions, Sergios made the fateful decision to rebel against Emperor Leo III. Curiously, in the rebellious political and military jostling that ensued, Sergios did not ultimately secure the leading role in the rebellion. Instead, it was a man named Basil Onomagoulos who was proclaimed as the Italian region’s candidate to become the next emperor of Constantinople.
Basil and Sergios assumed they had time to mobilize their forces. They believed that the circumstances would play in their favor and that they would be able to take their first maneuvers unimpeded by besieged Empror Leo III. Yet, assumptions are only valuable if they are grounded in truth, fact, and reality. Unfortunately for Leo and Sergios, they assumed wrong.
Back in Constantinople, Emperor Leo III proved to be a quick study who was able to hit the ground running, as the saying goes. After a smooth and orderly ascension, he was able to efficiently and effectively oversee the defense of Constantinople. He used Greek Fire to ravage the Arab fleets blockading the city, and he orchestrated surprise attacks and ambushes on land to harass the Arab camps in the region. The Arab war effort was further thrown into chaos by the death of the Umayyad leader, Suleiman, in 717, who was succeeded by Umar II (r. 717-720). As of late 717, Leo’s sorties on water and ground loosened the Arab siege enough for imperial messengers and agents to be able to come and go from the city. In the following year, after the Umayyad forces began to suffer from disease, desertion, and lack of supplies, Emperor Leo and the defenders of Constantinople (with the help of Bulgarian reinforcements) broke the siege of the imperial city completely in 718.
In Sicily, Basil and Sergios were unaware of the emperor’s successes, but Emperor Leo III had been very well aware that there was a rebellion brewing among government officials in Italy. Leo launched his response to the rebels as soon as the Arab siege and blockade of Constantinople became permeable for his messengers and agents. Specifically, he dispatched an agent named Paul with troops, letters, and a fast ship, with the promise being that Paul would become the new governor of Sicily if he could defuse the rebellion. With his small force and his ship, Paul successfully avoided the Arab positions that were encircling Constantinople and sailed unnoticed to Sicily, catching Basil, Sergios, and other rebel leaders by surprise. These events were recorded by the chronicler, Theophanes (c. 750s-818), who wrote:
“In this year the protospatharios Sergios, the governor of Sicily, heard that the Arabs were besieging the imperial city. At Sicily he crowned his own Emperor: a Constantinopolitan named Basil, the son of Gregory Onomagoulos. He was renamed Tiberius. He prepared defenses and created his own officers (with the advice of Sergios). When the Emperor heard this he sent out his own chartularius [or imperial Privy Secretary] Paul, making him a patrician and general of Sicily. For support Leo gave him two spatharioi [sword-bearers] and a few men, orders to the western officers, and a state letter to the army. By night they boarded an outbound warship, and went somewhere near Kyzikos. They traveled from place to place by both land and sea, and reached Sicily unexpectedly. Sergios was amazed when he heard they had entered Syracuse. Knowing his own guilt, he fled to the Lombards, who were nearby in Calabria” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6210 [Sep. 717-Aug. 718]).
With the rebellious leaders surprised and scattering, Paul began handing out the letters he had been given by the emperor. Loyal or repentant officers received their orders and the rest of the troops were called together to hear the emperor’s written statement. In the address, the emperor reassured the forces of Sicily that Constantinople was intact and well-defended and he went on to regale the troops about the strong state of the Byzantine military, as well as its recent victories over the Arabs. Hearing of the good order of the empire, the imperial warriors of Sicily were won over by Paul on behalf of Emperor Leo III. Although the former governor, Sergios, had managed to escape, the rebel leader Basil Onomagoulos did not have the same fortune. His fate was recorded by the chronicler, Theophanes, who wrote:
“The army was assembled and the state letter read: it assured the troops that the Empire endured and the city was in good spirits about its enemies. Also, it related the details about the two fleets. The men at once acclaimed Leo as Emperor and gave to his general Basil Onomagoulos and the officers he had appointed. Paul decapitated Basil and his chief general; after he had cut off their heads, he sent them swathed in cloth to the Emperor by means of his two spatharoi. He beat and tonsured the rest, slit some of their noses, and exiled them” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6210 [Sep. 717-Aug. 718]).
Sergios, sheltered by King Liutprand of the Lombards, escaped Paul’s purge of rebel leadership. Yet, instead of starting a new life with the Lombards, Sergios longed to return to the imperial fold. In a bold move, Sergios reached out to Paul and pleaded for a binding oath of safe passage and mercy that would allow him to return to Sicily. Surprisingly, Emperor Leo or his governor agreed to affirm the pledge, and Sergios, taking the gamble, willingly submitted himself into Paul’s custody. As the story goes, Sergios was indeed shown mercy, and he even allegedly became a resource or advisor for Paul in his management of Sicily. By 719, the last vestiges of the rebellion were quashed. On Sergios’ return and his subsequent assistance to the empire, Theophanes wrote, “Sergios asked the general for a pledge that he would not be harmed, and came to him after he got it. They pacified the entire western area” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6210 [Sep. 717-Aug. 718]). Following this statement that Sergios helped pacify the region, the complicated man then vanished from the historical record. Sergios and Paul were never mentioned again in Theophanes’ chronicle.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Left: Portrait of Emperor Leo III, made by Joos Gietleughen in 1557, [Public Domain] via the Rijksmuseum. Right: Byzantine artwork, dated 9th century, photographed and labeled Topographia Christiana Miniature/ Visit to Babylonia between 1839 and 1939, [Public Domain] via Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Europeana).
Sources:
- Theophanes, The Chronicle of Theophanes, translated by Harry Turtledove. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
- History of the Lombards by Paul the Deacon, translated by William Dudley Foulke (c. 1904). University of Pennsylvania Press, 1907, 1974, 2003.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, edited by Oliver Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Liutprand
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leo-III
