European Kingdoms

Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire
Isaurian (Syrian / Iconoclastic) Dynasty (AD 717-802)

Rome Aquitani Tribes Canaanite States Celtic Tribes Classical Colonies Germanic Tribes Iberian Tribes Mesopotamian States Syrian States

From the start, the capital of the newly-created Eastern Roman empire was based at Constantinople, dedicated by Emperor Constantine 'the Great' in AD 330. In AD 395, the Roman empire finally suffered a permanent split, creating formal Eastern Roman and Western Roman empires within Europe and beyond, acknowledging what had existed in practise for many years.

The 'Isaurian Dynasty' succeeded a short period known as the 'Anarchy'. The empire's organisation visibly began to break up. Both the empire itself and the city of Constantinople were neglected and decaying, civil education was disappearing, and military discipline dissolved. Great cities fell one by one: Tyana in 710, Amasia in 712, and Antioch-in-Pisidia in 713.

The great exarchate at Carthage was captured by the Islamic wali of Ifriqiyya and the Maghreb. Then the deposed and banished Justinian II Rinotmetus used the Danubian Bulgars to reclaim the imperial throne, and the city was entered by him and the Bulgarian khan at the head of mounted Bulgarian troops. The preceding two emperors and many of their supporters were subsequently executed, but the cycle of short-lived non-dynastic emperors continued.

By this time one of the few military officers who still had any real reputation of note was Leo 'the Isaurian' (the epithet being due to his Syrian birth). He was general of the Anatolic theme (in Anatolia). Early in 717 he marched towards the Bosphorus with the intention of taking the imperial throne from the latest failed holder, Theodosius III.

Constantinople's army lost one engagement against Leo's troops before the relatively peaceable Theodosius convened his court. He pointed out the impeding Islamic invasion before voluntarily stepping down in favour of the general. The new emperor started his own Isaurian dynasty and began putting the empire to rights.

The eastern church also had its own internal disputes during this time, most infamously the iconoclasm or 'destruction of images' of 726-787, with a second round being visited between 814-843 during the crossover between another 'Non-Dynastic' period and the rise of the 'Phrygian / Amorian Dynasty'.

Principal author(s): Page created: Page last updated:

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284-813, Cyril Mango & Roger Scott (1997), from the World Heritage Encyclopaedia, from An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples, Peter B Golden (1992), from The Bulgarians: from pagan times to the Ottoman conquest, David Marshall Lang (Westview Press, 1976), and from External Links: History of the Byzantine Empire (Live Science), and The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire, Jonathan Shepard (Ed, Revised Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2008, and available via the Internet Archive), and Byzantine Empire, CWC Oman (Fisher Unwin, 1892, and available via Heritage History).)

717 - 741

First successor to 'Non-Dynastic' rulers. Died of dropsy.

717 - 718

During the reign of the Islamic empire's Caliph Sulayman, Constantinople is placed under a protracted siege. Leo calls to the Danubian Bulgars for help based on established ties of cooperation, and they send a large army. Together the allies inflict several crushing defeats on the Arab army, forcing it to lift the siege and leave. This marks the end of any serious Islamic ambitions to conquer the Eastern Roman empire.

The obverse of a gold solidus which was issued by Leo III 'the Isaurian', named as such for his Isaurian (Syrian) origins, who brought solidity to the empire's defences but who sparked a century of internal conflict through his banning of the use of religeous images (iconography)

c.725

Corsica is conquered by the Lombards, ending almost two centuries of insecure and very poorly recorded Eastern Roman governance there. Lombard rule is brief, but this is just a taste of defeats to come for Constantinople.

726 - 728

The Lombards take control of the exarchate of Ravenna. As a result, Eastern Roman imperial authority is temporarily unrecognised, marking a break in Constantinople's control over the Papacy.

c.737

The accession of Khan Kormesios sees the end of the Dulo clan on the throne of the Danubian Bulgars and the rise of the Ukil (or Vokil) clan. The circumstances surrounding this change of clan are unknown, but it coincides with a sudden worsening in relations with the Eastern Romans regarding their shared frontier after what would seem to be thirty years of peace and cooperation. Constantine V Capronymus eventually organises some sort of peace between them.

741 - 775

Son. Constantly battled the Bulgarians.

752

The Eastern Romans permanently lose control of the exarchate of Ravenna to the Lombards. With that they also lose Rome and the power to select each new Pope. This defeat marks the end of any effective control and influence which Constantinople is able to exert over Western Europe.

Two sides of a coin issued during the reign of Constantine V Copronymus, with the beardless Leo IV shown beside him as his associate ruler from 751, the coin being a solidus of circa 757-775, while the reverse contains a bust of Leo III wearing a crown and loros

763

Khan Teletz belongs to a different faction of Danubian Bulgarian leaders. He leads a well-trained army in a series of devastating raids across the frontier zone, and challenges Constantine to a contest of strength. Unfortunately for him, he is defeated in battle at Anchialus when his Slav auxiliaries switch sides.

The emperor does not press his victory, instead returning home in triumph. His dealings with several successive Bulgarian khans usually see him coming off better, and them being expelled and/or murdered by their subjects for being weak or foolish.

766

Details of Antiochus, strategos of Sicily, are very sparse save for his involvement in a conspiracy in this year against Emperor Constantine. Theophanes 'the Confessor' records that Antiochus and eighteen other military governors (strategoi) and senior officials are led by brothers Strategios and Constantine Podopagouros in a plot against the emperor.

Oguric-speaking warriors on the Pontic-Caspian steppe in the sixth century would have been largely indistinguishable from each other but, under Eastern Roman influence, some would have begun to resemble the Romans just like the eighth century Bulgars shown here

Once it is uncovered, the conspirators are paraded and humiliated at Constantinople's Hippodrome on 25 August 766. Strategios and Constantine are subsequently beheaded at the Kynegion and the others are blinded and exiled.

767

Georgian Abasgia rises in revolt and throws off Eastern Roman rule after its people have endured a mixture of Roman and Arab rule since the end of the kingdom of Egrisi. The Arabs remain a serious threat to their existence, however.

775 - 780

Son. Grandson of Khazar ruler, Bihar. Died of tuberculosis.

780 - 797

Son. Acceded aged 9. Blinded & murdered by his mother, Irene.

780 - 790

Regent and mother. Seized the throne in 797.

781 - 782

Elpidius is appointed strategos of Sicily by Empress Irene in February 781. Theophanes 'the Confessor' records that he has already served as governor of Sicily in the past, although a precise date is not known.

Following the collapse of the Western Roman empire, Sicily became an important stronghold in the fight to hold back the tide of Islam which was sweeping northwards

Almost immediately he is suspected of being involved in a plot to remove Irene from the throne, replacing her with Nicephorus (son of Constantine V and later head of the Nicophoran dynasty).

He is ordered to return to Constantinople but refuses with the support of the Eastern Roman military and people on Sicily. The result is that his wife and children are publicly flogged and then imprisoned.

Either towards the end of the year, or early in 782, Irene sends a large fleet which defeats Elpidius' own weak military forces in several battles. Elpidius, along with Dux Nikephoros (his second-in-command, who probably governs Calabria), flees to North Africa with the remnants of the island's treasury. The Abbasids welcome him and quietly support his self-proclamation as emperor.

The silver dirham shown here was issued during the reign of Caliph Muhammad al Mahdi (775-785) from his capital in Baghdad as only the third of the Abbasid caliphs

796 - 797

The reign of Kardam of the Danubian Bulgarians has seen proper order restored in Bulgarian lands, with the khan's authority being respected as he grinds out a peace agreement with Constantine VI regarding payments of annual tribute.

That agreement is reached in 796, but this seems to trigger crisis in the imperial court. Unlike his wily grandfather, Constantine V, this Constantine is seen as a relative failure, so he is dethroned by his mother, Irene.

797 - 802

Former regent, now empress. Deposed.

800

Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne of the Carolingian Franks as 'Roman Emperor'. Partially this is a papal attempt to be able to claim sovereign rights over the new emperor and his territories.

In part, too, it is to convey upon Charlemagne, and the vast territory which he has conquered, the historical legacy of the Roman empire, thereby legitimising this new empire.

Under Charlemagne's leadership, the Franks greatly expanded their borders eastwards, engulfing tribal states, the Bavarian state and its satellite, Khorushka, and much of northern Italy, with the Avars now an eastern neighbour (click or tap on map to view full sized)

It also gives the papacy a basis for claiming sovereign rights over the later Holy Roman emperors, and may also be a rebuke against Empress Irene, who continues to outrage the papacy for being a female ruler of the Eastern Roman empire.

802

Empress Irene is deposed by the eldest surviving son of Constantine V. She is exiled to the island of Lesbos but dies there less than a year later. The reign of Nicephorus I heralds the end of the Isaurian (Syrian) dynasty and the beginning of a short-lived Nicophoran dynasty.