Artabasdos

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Solidus of Artabasdos

Artabasdos ( Middle Greek Ἀρταβάσδος or Ἀρταύασδος Artauasdos ; Armenian Արտավազդ Artavazd ; † 743 ) was a usurper against Constantine V, Byzantine emperor from 741/42 to 743.

Life

Artabasdos was of Armenian descent and possibly came from the Syrian town of Germanikeia . In 717 he acted as the commander of the Armeniakon theme and supported Leo , the commander of the Anatolicon theme , in its ascension to the emperor. As a thank you Artabasdos received the title Kuropalates and married Leo's daughter Anna.

After Leo's death and shortly after Constantine's accession to the throne (741), Artabasdos seized power in Constantinople . He had his son Nikephorus (and perhaps his brother Nicetas ) raised to be co-emperor. Allegedly, Artabasdos was supported by an iconophile (adherents of the image worship ) faction both in the clergy and in the people (hence his nickname Iconophilos ). Whether this is true, however, is more than uncertain and is probably based on misinterpretations of older research. At that time, only a single image distance was definitely proven; the picture controversy (the importance of which is probably exaggerated in the surviving sources) played no role during the civil war.

Constantine fled to the mountains of Isauria , but returned with the Asiatic part of the Byzantine army and defeated the usurper's forces. After November 2nd, 743, the day of the reconquest of Constantinople, Artabasdos and his sons were blinded , shown in the hippodrome and, according to the legendary vita of Michael Synkellos, banished to the Chora monastery , where they are said to have died and been buried.

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literature

  • Ralph-Johannes Lilie , Claudia Ludwig, Thomas Pratsch, Ilse Rochow, Beate Zielke: Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period . 1st department: (641-867). Volume 1: Aaron (# 1) - Georgios (# 2182). Created after preliminary work by F. Winkelmann . Published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. De Gruyter, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-11-015179-0 , pp. 202-204 No. 632.
  • Ilse Rochow: Emperor Constantine V (741–775). Materials on his life and afterlife (= Berlin Byzantine Studies. Vol. 1). With a prosopographical appendix by Claudia Ludwig, Ilse Rochow and Ralph-Johannes Lilie. Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1994, ISBN 3-631-47138-6 , p. 245 (sv Artabasdos (Artavazd) ).
  • Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 1: Aaron - Azarethes . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2007, ISBN 978-2-503-52303-3 , pp. 403-404.
  • Paul Speck: Artabasdos. The orthodox champion of divine teachings. Investigations into the revolt of Artabasdos and its representation in the Byzantine historiography (= Poikila byzantina . Vol. 2). Habelt, Bonn 1981, ISBN 3-7749-1857-0 . [Detailed, but problematic and partly speculative.]
  • Warren Treadgold : A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 1997, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2 , specifically pp. 356-358.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period . 1. Department, Volume 1. Berlin 1999, p. 202.
  2. ↑ On the civil war see Ilse Rochow: Kaiser Konstantin V. (741–775). Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1994, p. 21ff.
  3. ↑ Leslie Brubaker, John F. Haldon: Byzantium in the Iconoclast era, c. 680-850. A history. Cambridge et al. a. 2011.
  4. ^ Ilse Rochow: Emperor Konstantin V (741–775). Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1994, p. 23f. See also Leslie Brubaker, John F. Haldon: Byzantium in the Iconoclast era, c. 680-850. A history. Cambridge et al. a. 2011, p. 156ff.
personal data
SURNAME Artabasdos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἀρταβάσδος (Greek); Ἀρταύασδος (Middle Greek); Artavazd (Armenian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine counter-emperor
DATE OF BIRTH 7th century or 8th century
DATE OF DEATH 743