LEO V the ARMENIAN Constantine Syracuse Sicily Byzantine Follis Coin i48819

Description

Item:
i48819
Authentic Ancient Coin of:
Byzantine Empire
Leo V, the Armenian
<="" font="" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> - Byzantine Emperor: 11 July 813 – 25 December 820 A.D.
with Associate Ruler and Son, Constantine, Augustus from December 25th, 813 A.D.
Bronze Follis 22mm (2.26 grams) Syracuse mint: 814-820 A.D.
Reference: Sear 1635
No leged. Facing busts of Leo, with short beard (on left) and Constantine, beardless (on right), each wearing crown and chlamys; between their heads, pellet; in field above, cross.
Large
ΛΚ with pellet between; in field above, cross.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
Leo V the Armenian
(
Greek
:
Λέων Ε΄ ὁ Ἀρμένιος
,
Leōn V ho Armenios
;
Armenian
:
Լևոն Ե Հայ
; 775 – 25 December 820) was
Emperor
of the
Byzantine Empire
from 813 to 820. A senior general, he forced his predecessor,
Michael I Rangabe
, to abdicate and assumed the throne. He ended the decade-long war with the
Bulgars
, and initiated the second period of
Byzantine Iconoclasm
. He was assassinated by supporters of
Michael the Amorian
, one of his most trusted generals, who succeeded him on the throne.
Life
Leo was the son of the patrician Bardas, who was of
Armenian
descent (according to a later source, Leo was also of
Assyrian
descent). Leo served in 803 under the rebel general
Bardanes Tourkos
, whom he deserted in favor of Emperor
Nikephoros I
. The Emperor rewarded Leo with two palaces, but later exiled him for marrying the daughter of another rebel, the patrician
Arsaber
. On the other hand, a contemporary source  says that one general Leo of the
Armeniakon
theme was punished for his humiliating defeat by the Arabs during which he also lost the salaries of his thematic units (a modern scholar suggests that this Leo is not the same with the emperor). Punishment also included depriving of his military rank, beating and hair cutting.
Proclamation of Leo as emperor, miniature from the
Madrid Skylitzes
Recalled by
Michael I Rangabe
in 811, Leo became governor of the
Anatolic theme
and conducted himself well in a war against the
Arabs
in 812, defeating the forces of the Cilician
thughur
under
Thabit ibn Nasr
. Leo survived the
Battle of Versinikia
in 813 by abandoning the battlefield, but nevertheless took advantage of this defeat to force the abdication of Michael I in his favor on 11 July 813. In a diplomatist move, he wrote a letter to
Patriarch Nikephoros
in order to reassure him of his orthodoxy (Nikephoros being obviously afraid of a possible
iconoclast
revival). One month later, during his entrance to the Palace quarter, he kneeled before the icon of Christ at the
Chalke Gate
. A further step in preventing future usurpations was the castration of Michael's sons.
With
Krum of Bulgaria
blockading
Constantinople
by land, Leo V had inherited a precarious situation. He offered to negotiate in person with the invader and attempted to have him killed in an ambush. The stratagem failed, and although Krum abandoned his
siege of the capital
, he
captured
and depopulated
Adrianople
and Arkadioupolis (
Lüleburgaz
). When Krum died in spring 814, Leo V defeated the
Bulgarians
in the environs of Mesembria (
Nesebar
) and the two states concluded a
30-year peace in 815
. According to some sources, Krum participated in the battle and abandoned the battlefield heavily injured.
With the
iconodule
policy of his predecessors associated with defeats at the hands of Bulgarians and Arabs, Leo V reinstituted
Iconoclasm
after deposing patriarch Nikephoros and convoking a synod at Constantinople in 815. The Emperor used his rather moderate iconoclast policy to seize the properties of iconodules and monasteries, such as the rich
Stoudios Monastery
, whose influential iconodule abbot,
Theodore the Studite
, he exiled.
Leo V appointed competent military commanders from among his own comrades-in-arms, including
Michael the Amorian
and
Thomas the Slav
. He also persecuted the
Paulicians
. When Leo jailed Michael for suspicion of conspiracy, the latter organized the
assassination
of the Emperor in the palace chapel of St. Stephen on
Christmas
, 820. Leo was attending the matins service when a group of assassins disguised as monks suddenly threw off their robes and drew their weapons. In the dim light they mistook the officiating priest for the Emperor and the confusion allowed Leo to snatch a heavy cross from the altar and defend himself. He called for his guards, but the conspirators had barred the doors and within a few moments a sword stroke had severed his arm, and he fell before the communion-table, where his body was hewed in pieces. His remains were dumped unceremoniously in the snow and the assassins hurried to the dungeons to free Michael II. Unfortunately for them Leo had hidden the key on his person, and since it was too early in the morning to find a blacksmith Michael was hastily crowned as Emperor with the iron clasps still around his legs. Leo's family (including his mother and his wife
Theodosia
) was exiled to monasteries in
Princes' Islands
. His four sons (including ex co-emperor Symbatios) were castrated, a procedure so brutally carried out that one of them died during the "operation".
Even sources vehemently hostile to Leo (Theophanes Continuatus, patriarch Nikephoros) acknowledge his competence in managing state affairs. Unfortunately, as with all iconoclast emperors, his actions and intentions cannot be easily reconstructed due to the extreme bias of the iconodule sources (there are no surviving contemporary iconoclast sources of any kind).
Family
By his wife
Theodosia
, a daughter of the patrician Arsaber, Leo V had several children, including:
Symbatios
(Συμβάτιος), renamed Constantine, co-emperor from 814 to 820.
Basil
Gregory
Theodosios (died in 820)
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