Elpidios (usurper)

Seal of Elpidios

Elpidios ( Middle Greek Ἐλπίδιος , Latin Elpidius ; † after 792/802) was a Byzantine usurper who defeated Empress Irene and her son Constantine VI on Sicily in 781 . revolted and after his escape into the Caliphate of the Abbasids of the Arabs was recognized as emperor.

Life

In February 781, Patrikios Elpidios was appointed strategos of the Sicily theme by Irene , having previously held this office. At Easter he was falsely accused by the Empress of having supported the conspirators around Emperor Nikephoros . Trying to be arrested Elpidius, the Sicilians resisted successfully, after which his wife and sons in Praitorion in Konstantin Opel in guilt by association were taken. In the following year Irene sent a force under the command of the eunuch Theodoros against Elpidios, who fled together with his Dux Nikephoros and settled with the Arabs in North Africa . There he settled with the approval of the governor Yazid ibn Hatim al- Muhallabi to Basileus crown. Probably 792 Elpidios took part in an unsuccessful campaign of the Arabs against the Byzantine Asia Minor , possibly to there against Constantine VI. to be installed as emperor by the grace of Harun ar-Rashid .

The Syrian sources embarrassed the episode to the year 792/793 and claim Elpidius had gone to Irene and was afraid of the fines as punishment glare fled to the Arabs. Constantine VI I then withdrew the imperial title from his mother and had Elpidios' family arrested. He is said to have lived with the Arabs in Iraq at the beginning of the reign of Emperor Nikephorus I.

swell

• At-Tabarī 151
• Bar Hebrews 119
• Chronicle of 1234 , chap. 188
• Michael the Syrian 3: 9 and 15-16
• Theophanes , pp. 454–455 (in the edition by Carl de Boor )
• John Zonaras 15:10

literature

• Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , pp. 688-689.
• 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. 486-487 No. 1515 .
• Ilse Rochow: Byzantium in the 8th century as seen by Theophanes. Source-critical historical commentary on the years 715–813 (= Berlin Byzantine works. Vol. 57). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-05-000700-1 , pp. 230-231, 236.
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 2: Baanes-Eznik of Kolb . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52377-4 , pp. 389-390.
• Warren Treadgold : A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 1997, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2 , pp. 66-67, 103, 127.