Tiberios Petasius

Solidus of Tiberios Petasius (assignment uncertain)

Tiberios Petasius († 730) was a Byzantine counter-emperor in Italy.

Life

In the course of Emperor Leo III. Serious unrest is said to have occurred in Italy as well, allegedly triggered by 726 iconoclasm . Tiberios rose in Tuscany around 729 and proclaimed himself a basileus . Apparently he managed to establish himself briefly in central Italy. With the support of Pope Gregory II , however, he was captured and executed by the exarch Eutychios in Monterano in 730 . His head was sent to Constantinople as a trophy .

The nickname Petasius refers to the headgear Petasos , possibly an allusion to the imperial crown.

Whether the uprising is related to an anti-iconoclastic reaction against Leo, as the surviving sources suggest (most of the surviving Latin and Greek sources are almost exclusively written from an image-friendly perspective) cannot be clearly established. In recent research, the effects of the iconoclasm in the time of Leo III. and his son Constantine V viewed in a much more differentiated manner. So it is uncertain that Leo initiated a widespread persecution of picture friends and this allegedly met with stiff resistance.

swell

Liber Pontificalis 1, 91

literature

Ralph-Johannes Lilie , Claudia Ludwig, Thomas Pratsch, Ilse Rochow, Beate Zielke: Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period . 1st department: (641−867). Volume 5: Theophylaktos (# 8346) - az-Zubair (# 8675), Anonymi (# 1001- # 12149). Created after preliminary work by F. Winkelmann . Published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. De Gruyter, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-11-016675-5 , p. 52 No. 8492.

Remarks

↑ Leslie Brubaker, John F. Haldon: Byzantium in the Iconoclast era is now fundamental . c. 680-850. A history. Cambridge et al. 2011.

↑ On source criticism and recent research cf. especially Leslie Brubaker, John F. Haldon: Byzantium in the Iconoclast era. c. 680-850. A history. Cambridge et al. 2011, here p. 79ff.

personal data
SURNAME	Tiberios Petasius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Byzantine counter-emperor in Italy
DATE OF BIRTH	7th century or 8th century
DATE OF DEATH	730

[1] Leslie Brubaker, John F. Haldon: Byzantium in the Iconoclast era is now fundamental . c. 680-850. A history. Cambridge et al. 2011.

[2] On source criticism and recent research cf. especially Leslie Brubaker, John F. Haldon: Byzantium in the Iconoclast era. c. 680-850. A history. Cambridge et al. 2011, here p. 79ff.