Leon Phocas the Elder

Capture and blinding of Leon Phokas. Miniature from the Madrid illuminated manuscript of the Skylitz

Leon Phokas ( Middle Greek Λέων ὁ Φωκᾶς ; * around 875/880; † after August 919), named to distinguish himself from his eponymous nephew the Elder , was a Byzantine general and rebel against Emperor Constantine VII and his co-regent Romanos Lakapenos .

Life

Leon Phokas was a son of the general Nikephoros Phokas , who under Emperor Leo VI. until 896 as Domestikos der Scholen (commander-in-chief of the imperial troops) at the head of the Byzantine military hierarchy. This post was later also held by Leon Phokas, who was also awarded the dignity of Magistros by the emperor .

In August 917, Leon Phokas commanded the army that suffered a devastating defeat in the battle of Anchialus against the Bulgarians . Unlike many other leaders, Leon survived and escaped to Mesembria . A renewed meeting with the Bulgarians at Katasyrta west of Constantinople in the winter of 917/918 ended in another catastrophe for the troops commanded by Leon Phokas.

Due to rumors that Leon Phokas was aspiring to the imperial throne, Constantine VII and his mother Zoe Karbonopsina asked the naval commander (Drungarios) Romanos Lakapenos for help in the spring of 919 . This ensured that Leon was recalled as Domestikos of the Scholen and that his influential brother-in-law, the Parakoimomenos Konstantin, was ousted. Leon Phokas then retired to private life in Cappadocia .

After Constantine VII married the daughter of Romanos on May 9, 919 and made his father-in-law a co-regent as a basile opator , Leon Phokas decided to rebel. He officially pretended to support the young emperor and only wanted to prevent Romanos from taking power. But this succeeded in distributing chrysobulle in the rebel camp and thus pulling several of Leon's partisans to his side. Nevertheless, Leon marched with his soldiers as far as Chrysopolis and took up positions on the Asia Minor side of the Sea of Marmara . Romanos sent on a Dromone another messenger, who was showing the opposing troops of Constantine VII authorized. Schriftstrück than in the Leon Phocas usurper was branded. This was then abandoned by his followers and fled, but was caught in Goeleon in Lycaonia and blinded either already there or in Constantinople . In August 919 he was shown publicly on a mule in the capital .

Leon's further fate is unknown. His younger brother Bardas , also a prominent general, was the father of the future emperor Nikephorus II.

swell

• Leon Diakonos , Historia 7, 7
• Liutprand from Cremona , Antapodosis 3, 38
• Pseudo-Symeon 723-728
• Johannes Skylitzes , Konstantinos 8-14
• Symeon Logothetes 135-136
• Theophanes Continuatus 6, 10-15
• John Zonaras 16, 16-17

literature

• Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , pp. 1665-1666.
• Ralph-Johannes Lilie , Claudia Ludwig, Thomas Pratsch, Beate Zielke, Harald Bichlmeier, Bettina Krönung, Daniel Föller, Alexander Beihammer , Günter Prinzing : Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period . 2nd department: (867-1025). Volume 4: Landenolfus (# 24269) - Niketas (# 25701). Created after preliminary work by F. Winkelmann . Published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-016669-9 , pp. 101-104 No. 24408.