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 BYZANTINE

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BYZANTINE

Salvation from the Arab peril came through the energetic dynasty of Heraclius. As appears from the above table, the dynasty flourished for five gen- erations. Three of the rulers were characterized by extraordinary will power and striking intellectual ability: Heraclius (610-41), Constans (642-68), and Constantine, called Pogonatus, or the Bearded (668- 85). The year 685 marks the beginning of the dy- nastic decline. Justinian II (685-95, and 705-11) had inherited the excellent qualities of his ancestors, but grotesquely distorted; he had the instincts of a sultan, with a touch of Ciesarian madness. Whence it came about that in 695 he was deposed. His nose was cut off — whence the name Rhinotmetus — and he was banished to Cherson. There he formed an alli- ance with the Khan of the Khazars. whose brother- in-law he became, and tied in a fishing boat over the Black Sea to the mouths of the Danube. The Bulgarians had dwelt in this region since about 679. In 705, aided by an army of Slavs and Bulgarians, Rhinotmetus returned to Constantinople, and the Bulgarian prince received the name of Caesar as a re- ward for the help he had rendered. For the next six years the emperor's vengeance was wreaked on all who had been his adversaries. At last, while hasten- ing to Cherson, where Philippicus Bardanes, an Ar- menian officer, had been proclaimed emperor, Rhi- notmetus was slain near Damatrys in Asia Minor.

The first dethronement of Justinian, in 695, had been accomplished by an officer named Leontius, who reigned from then until 698, and it was in this period that the Arabs succeeded in gaining possession of almost all Roman Africa, including Carthage. The Byzantine fleet which had been sent to oppose this invasion revolted, while off the coast of Crete, and raised the admiral, Apsimarus, to the purple under the title of Tiberius III (698-705). The reign of Tiberius was not unsuccessful, but in 705 Justinian returned, and both Tiberius and Leontius (who had meantime been living in a monastery) were be- headed. Philippicus the Armenian, following upon the second reign of Rhinotmetus, favoured the re- ligious principles of his Armenian countrymen, and the people of Byzantium raised to the throne in his stead Anastasius II (713-15), an able civilian official, who restored the orthodox faith. But when he at- tempted to check the insubordination of the army, which had made three emperors since 695, the troops of the Opsikion ihema (from the territory of the Troad as far as Nica?a) proclaimed as emperor the unwilling Theodosius (715-17), an obscure official of one of the provinces. At the same time the Caliph Suleiman was equipping a vast armament to ravage the fron- tier provinces. Thus the empire which the army, under the great military emperors, Heraclius, Con- stans, and Constantine, had saved from the threat- ened invasion of the Arabs, seemed fated to be brought to destruction by the selfsame army. But the army was better than the events of the preceding twenty-two years might seem to indicate. Leo and Artavasdus, commanders, respectively, of the two nn i i important themata, the Anatolic and the Ar- menian, combined forces. Theodosius voluntarily abdicated, and again the throne of Constantine was Occupied by a great Byzantine ruler, fitted by nature for his position, Leo of Ccrmanicia (now Marash) in .\oi them Syria.

This brief review of the various rulers suffices to

show thai tin- diseased mentality of Justinian II

brought to an end the prosperous period of the Her- dynasty. The attempt has been made to prove thai this prince inherited an unsound mind, and to discover corresponding symptoms of insanity in his an- cestors. This much is certain: that a strength of will carried at times to the point of foolhardiness and in- corrigible obstinacy and a propensity to the despotic exercise of powei distinguish the whole dynasty.

Even Heraclius, by a personal inclination to which he clung in defiance of reason and against the remon- strances of his well-wishers, placed the peace of the State and the perpetuation of his dynasty in serious peril. This was his passion for his niece Martina, whom he married after the death of his first wife in

Justinian II and His Wife Sophia, Copper Coin Struck at Constantinople (4th Year of His Reign)

defiance of all the warnings of the great Patriarch Sergius. Martina is the only woman of any political importance during these warlike times. Her char- acter w-as distinguished by a consuming ambition, and her influence may have increased when, after the loss of Syria to the Arabs, Heraclius, becoming afflicted with an internal disease, fell into a state of lethargy. On the death of her husband (641) she sought to obtain the supreme power for her own son Heracleonas, to the prejudice of her step-son Con- stantine. The army recognized both princes as sov- ereign, a state of things which contained the germ of further complications. Fortunately Constantine, who had long been ailing, died a few weeks after his father, and the army, ignoring Martina and Heracle- onas, placed Constans, the son of Constantine, on the throne. Thus it was that the almost uninterrupted succession of the three emperors, Heraclius, Con- stans, and Constantine IV, Pogonatus came about. As has been repeatedly observed, the activity* of these rulers was concentrated on the Herculean task of defending the empire against the foreign foes that were bearing down on it from all sides. Fortunately, the Avars, who from the time of Justinian had been bought off with an annual tribute, but who as lately as 623 and 626 had besieged Constantinople, were gradually hemmed in by the onrushing Slavs and Bul- garians upon the Hungarian lowlands, and thereby removed from immediate contact with the Byzantine Empire. All the more persistent, however, were the attacks of the Slavic races. During the time of Her- aclius the Croats and Serbs established themselves in their present homes. The Roman cities of Dal- matia had difficulty in defending themselves. Pres- ently the Slavs took to the sea, and by 623 they had pushed their way as far as Crete. Still their visits were only occasional; they made no permanent set- tlements on the islands, and on the mainland the larger cities escaped subjection to Slavic influence. Thessalonica was attacked again and again, most seriously in 675, but was saved each time by the heroism of her citizens. The Slavs, fortunately, were still split into different tribes, so that tiny could be held in check by timely expeditions, such as that which Constans had made near Thessalonica. It was otherwise with the Bulgarians. In 635 Heraclius concluded an alliance with their prima', Kuvrat, so as to use them in opposing the Avars and Slavs. However, then' soon arose in the territory between the Danube and the Balkan Peninsula, under the leadership of the Bulgarians, a state composed of Slavonic and Finnic-! grian elements. Their organ- ization differed widely from that of the Serbs and

Croat i, who »eiv held together by no political bond. In 679 the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus suffered

a serious defeat at the hands of the Bulgarians; by