Sergios (Protospatharios)

Sergios ( Middle Greek Σέργιος ; † after 718) was a Byzantine Protospatharios , Patrikios and Strategos of Sicily .

Life

Sergios was the driving force behind the usurpation of Basil Onomagulos in Sicily in 717. On hearing of the alleged fall of Constantinople to the Arabs, he crowned his subordinate as emperor, who then assumed the throne name Tiberios . Even when it turned out that Constantinople had not been conquered, Sergios did not withdraw this coronation. As Emperor Leo III. sent a punitive expedition under the Chartularios Paulos to Sicily, the revolt collapsed. Sergios fled to the Longobards in Calabria , but was later pardoned by the emperor and was allowed to return to the territory of the empire.

It is unclear why Sergios did not have himself crowned emperor. In the prosopography of the Middle Byzantine period , it is believed that he was a eunuch or for some other reason unsuitable for the rule. Whether he is identical to the strategos of Sicily of the same name, who officiated from 731, is disputed in research.

swell

• Kedrenos 1, 790
• Nikephoros 54-55
• Theophanes AM 6210 (p. 398 in the edition by Carl de Boor ).
• Johannes Zonaras 15, 2

literature

• Ralph-Johannes Lilie , Claudia Ludwig, Thomas Pratsch, Ilse Rochow, Beate Zielke: Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period . 1st department: (641−867). Volume 4: Plato (# 6266) - Theophylaktos (# 8345). Created after preliminary work by F. Winkelmann . Published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. De Gruyter, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-11-016674-7 , pp. 106-107 No. 6596.