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Leo VI the Wise
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Leo VI the Wise
Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise (Greek: Λέων ὁ Σοφός, romanized: Léōn ho Sophós; 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well read, leading to his epithet. During his reign, the renaissance of letters, begun by his predecessor Basil I, continued; but the empire also saw several military defeats in the Balkans against Bulgaria and against the Arabs in Sicily and the Aegean. His reign also witnessed the formal discontinuation of several ancient Roman institutions, such as the separate office of Roman consul.
Born on 19 September 866 to the empress Eudokia Ingerina, Leo was either the illegitimate son of Emperor Michael III or the second son of Michael's successor, Basil I the Macedonian. Eudokia was both Michael III's mistress and Basil's wife. In 867, Michael was assassinated by Basil, who succeeded him as emperor. As the second-eldest son of the Emperor, Leo was associated on the throne in 870 and became the direct heir on the death of his older half-brother Constantine in 879. However, Leo and Basil did not like each other; a relationship that only deteriorated after Eudokia's death, when Leo, unhappy with his marriage to Theophano, took up a mistress in the person of Zoe Zaoutzaina. Basil had married Zoe off to an insignificant official, and later almost had Leo blinded when he was accused of conspiring against him. On 29 August 886, Basil died in a hunting accident, though he claimed on his deathbed that there was an assassination attempt in which Leo was possibly involved.
As one of Leo VI's first actions after his succession, the remains of Michael III were reburied, with great ceremony, in the imperial mausoleum within the Church of the Holy Apostles. This contributed to the suspicion that Leo was (or at least believed himself to be) in truth Michael's son. Seeking political reconciliation, the new emperor secured the support of the officials in the capital, and surrounded himself with bureaucrats like Stylianos Zaoutzes (the father of his mistress, Zoe Zaoutzaina) and the eunuch Samonas, an Arab defector whom Leo raised to the rank of patrikios and who stood in as godfather to Leo's son, Constantine VII. His attempts to control the great aristocratic families (e.g., the Phokadai and the Doukai) occasionally led to serious conflicts, the most significant being the revolt of Andronikos Doukas in 906.
Leo also attempted to involve himself in the church through his arbitrary interference with the patriarchate. Using his former tutor Patriarch Photios's excommunication by Pope John VIII as an excuse, Leo dismissed him and replaced him with his own 19-year-old brother Stephen in December 886. On Stephen's death in 893, Leo replaced him with Zaoutzes' nominee, Antony II Kauleas, who died in 901. Leo then promoted his own Imperial secretary (mystikos) Nicholas, but suspicions that he was involved in the failed assassination attempt against Leo in 903 as well as his opposition to Leo's fourth marriage saw Nicholas replaced with Leo's spiritual father Euthymios in 907.
The magnificent Church of Agios Lazaros in Larnaca was constructed during the rule of Leo VI in the late 9th century, after the relics of St. Lazaros were transported from Crete to Constantinople. The church is one of the best examples of Byzantine architecture. Leo also completed work on the Basilika, the Greek translation and update of the law code issued by Justinian I, which had been started during the reign of Basil.
Bishop Liutprand of Cremona gives an account similar to those about Caliph Harun al-Rashid, to the effect that Leo would sometimes disguise himself and go about Constantinople looking for injustice or corruption. According to one story, three separate patrols of city guards stopped him as a suspicious character during one of his investigations. The first two let him pass in exchange for bribes of 12 nomismata apiece, but the third arrested him. A terrified jailer recognized and released Leo the next morning. The emperor rewarded the arresting officer for doing his duty, while the other patrols were dismissed and punished severely.
Leo VI's fortune in war was more mixed than Basil's had been. In indulging his chief counselor Stylianos Zaoutzes, Leo provoked a war with Simeon I of Bulgaria in 894, but he was defeated. Bribing the Magyars to attack the Bulgarians from the north, Leo scored an indirect success in 895. However, deprived of his new allies, he lost the major Battle of Boulgarophygon in 896 and had to make the required commercial concessions and to pay annual tribute.
Although he won a victory in 900 against the Emirate of Tarsus, in which the Arab army was destroyed and the Emir himself captured, in the west the Emirate of Sicily took Taormina, the last Byzantine outpost on the island of Sicily, in 902. Nevertheless, Leo continued to apply pressure on his eastern frontier through the creation of the new thema of Mesopotamia, a Byzantine invasion of Armenia in 902, and the sacking of Theodosiopolis, as well as successful raids in the Arab Thughur.
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Leo VI the Wise
Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise (Greek: Λέων ὁ Σοφός, romanized: Léōn ho Sophós; 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well read, leading to his epithet. During his reign, the renaissance of letters, begun by his predecessor Basil I, continued; but the empire also saw several military defeats in the Balkans against Bulgaria and against the Arabs in Sicily and the Aegean. His reign also witnessed the formal discontinuation of several ancient Roman institutions, such as the separate office of Roman consul.
Born on 19 September 866 to the empress Eudokia Ingerina, Leo was either the illegitimate son of Emperor Michael III or the second son of Michael's successor, Basil I the Macedonian. Eudokia was both Michael III's mistress and Basil's wife. In 867, Michael was assassinated by Basil, who succeeded him as emperor. As the second-eldest son of the Emperor, Leo was associated on the throne in 870 and became the direct heir on the death of his older half-brother Constantine in 879. However, Leo and Basil did not like each other; a relationship that only deteriorated after Eudokia's death, when Leo, unhappy with his marriage to Theophano, took up a mistress in the person of Zoe Zaoutzaina. Basil had married Zoe off to an insignificant official, and later almost had Leo blinded when he was accused of conspiring against him. On 29 August 886, Basil died in a hunting accident, though he claimed on his deathbed that there was an assassination attempt in which Leo was possibly involved.
As one of Leo VI's first actions after his succession, the remains of Michael III were reburied, with great ceremony, in the imperial mausoleum within the Church of the Holy Apostles. This contributed to the suspicion that Leo was (or at least believed himself to be) in truth Michael's son. Seeking political reconciliation, the new emperor secured the support of the officials in the capital, and surrounded himself with bureaucrats like Stylianos Zaoutzes (the father of his mistress, Zoe Zaoutzaina) and the eunuch Samonas, an Arab defector whom Leo raised to the rank of patrikios and who stood in as godfather to Leo's son, Constantine VII. His attempts to control the great aristocratic families (e.g., the Phokadai and the Doukai) occasionally led to serious conflicts, the most significant being the revolt of Andronikos Doukas in 906.
Leo also attempted to involve himself in the church through his arbitrary interference with the patriarchate. Using his former tutor Patriarch Photios's excommunication by Pope John VIII as an excuse, Leo dismissed him and replaced him with his own 19-year-old brother Stephen in December 886. On Stephen's death in 893, Leo replaced him with Zaoutzes' nominee, Antony II Kauleas, who died in 901. Leo then promoted his own Imperial secretary (mystikos) Nicholas, but suspicions that he was involved in the failed assassination attempt against Leo in 903 as well as his opposition to Leo's fourth marriage saw Nicholas replaced with Leo's spiritual father Euthymios in 907.
The magnificent Church of Agios Lazaros in Larnaca was constructed during the rule of Leo VI in the late 9th century, after the relics of St. Lazaros were transported from Crete to Constantinople. The church is one of the best examples of Byzantine architecture. Leo also completed work on the Basilika, the Greek translation and update of the law code issued by Justinian I, which had been started during the reign of Basil.
Bishop Liutprand of Cremona gives an account similar to those about Caliph Harun al-Rashid, to the effect that Leo would sometimes disguise himself and go about Constantinople looking for injustice or corruption. According to one story, three separate patrols of city guards stopped him as a suspicious character during one of his investigations. The first two let him pass in exchange for bribes of 12 nomismata apiece, but the third arrested him. A terrified jailer recognized and released Leo the next morning. The emperor rewarded the arresting officer for doing his duty, while the other patrols were dismissed and punished severely.
Leo VI's fortune in war was more mixed than Basil's had been. In indulging his chief counselor Stylianos Zaoutzes, Leo provoked a war with Simeon I of Bulgaria in 894, but he was defeated. Bribing the Magyars to attack the Bulgarians from the north, Leo scored an indirect success in 895. However, deprived of his new allies, he lost the major Battle of Boulgarophygon in 896 and had to make the required commercial concessions and to pay annual tribute.
Although he won a victory in 900 against the Emirate of Tarsus, in which the Arab army was destroyed and the Emir himself captured, in the west the Emirate of Sicily took Taormina, the last Byzantine outpost on the island of Sicily, in 902. Nevertheless, Leo continued to apply pressure on his eastern frontier through the creation of the new thema of Mesopotamia, a Byzantine invasion of Armenia in 902, and the sacking of Theodosiopolis, as well as successful raids in the Arab Thughur.
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