Leo VI, the Wise – Byzantine Emperor: August 28,
886 – May 11th 912 A.D. –
Bronze Follis 25mm (5.33 grams) Struck 886-912 A.D.
Reference: Sear 1729
+ LЄOn bASILЄVS ROm’ – Bust facing, with short beard, wearing corwn and chlamys,
and holding
akakia in left hand.
+ LЄOn / Єn ΘЄO bA / SILЄVS R / OMЄOn in four lines.
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Authenticity.
The akakia (Greek:
ἀκακία, literally “guilelessness”) was a
cylindrical purple silk roll containing dust,
held
by the
Byzantine emperors
during ceremonies, and
symbolizing the mortal nature of all men. It possibly developed from the
mappa, the cloth used by the
Roman consuls
to start the races at the
hippodrome.
Leo VI, surnamed the Wise or the Philosopher (Greek:
Λέων ΣΤ΄ ὁ Σοφός, Leōn VI ho Sophos,
19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was
Byzantine emperor
from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the
Macedonian
dynasty
(although his parentage is unclear), he was very well-read, leading
to his surname. During his reign, the renaissance of letters begun by his
predecessor Basil
I
continued, but the Empire also saw several military defeats in the Balkans
against
Bulgaria
and against the Arabs in
Sicily
and the
Aegean.
//
Background
Leo was born to
Eudokia Ingerina
who was at the time mistress of Emperor
Michael
III
and wife of his
Caesar
Basil
. Which of the two men was his biological father is uncertain. Basil
legally acknowledged Leo as his son but his later treatment of him might suggest
that he regarded Leo as Michael’s son.
In 867, Michael was assassinated by Basil who succeeded him as Emperor
Basil I
. As the second eldest son of the Emperor, Leo was associated on the
throne in 870 and became the direct heir on the death of his older half-brother
Constantine in 879. However, he and his father hated each other and Basil almost
had Leo blinded as a teenager. On August 29, 886, Basil died in a hunting
accident, though he claimed on his deathbed that there was an
assassination
attempt in which Leo was possibly involved.
Domestic
policy
One of the first actions of Leo VI after his succession was the reburial of
Michael III in
Constantinople
, which may have contributed to the suspicion that he was
Michael’s son. Seeking political reconciliation, the new emperor secured the
support of the officials in the capital, and surrounded himself with bureaucrats
like
Stylianos
Zaoutzes
and the eunuch Samonas. His attempts to control the great
aristocratic families (e.g., the Phokadai and the Doukai) occasionally led to
serious conflicts. Leo also attempted to control the church through his
appointments to the patriarchate. He dismissed the
Patriarch
Photios
of Constantinople, who had been his tutor, and replaced him with his
own 19-year old brother
Stephen
in December 886. On Stephen’s death in 893, Leo replaced him with
Zaoutzes’ nominee, Antony II Kaleuas, who died in 901. Leo then promoted his own
imperial secretary (mystikos)
Nicholas
,
but replaced him with his spiritual father Euthymios in 907.
The magnificent
Church of Ayios Lazaros
in
Larnaca
was
built during Leo VI rule in the late
9th
century
. The church is one of the best examples of
Byzantine architecture
. Leo also completed work on the
Basilica,
the
Greek
translation and update of the
law code
issued by Justinian I
, which had been started during the reign of Basil.
Bishop
Liutprand of Cremona
gives an account similar to those related about caliph
Harun al-Rashid
,
stating that Leo would sometimes disguise himself and look for injustice or
corruption. On one account, he was even captured by the city guards during one
of his investigations. He wanted to know if the city patrol was doing its job
appropriately. Late in the evening, he was walking alone and disguised. Though
he bribed two patrols for 12
nomismata
, and moved on, the third city patrol arrested him. When a
terrified guardian recognized the jailed ruler in the morning, the arresting
officer was rewarded for doing his duty, while the other patrols were dismissed
and punished severely.
Foreign
policy
Leo VI was not as successful in battle as Basil had been. In indulging his
chief counselor Stylianos Zaoutzes, Leo provoked a war with
Simeon I of Bulgaria
in 894, but was defeated. Bribing the
Magyars
to attack the
Bulgarians
from the north, Leo scored an indirect success in 895. However, deprived of his
new allies, he lost the major
Battle of Boulgarophygon
in 896 and had to make the required commercial
concessions and to pay annual tribute.
The
Emirate of Sicily
took
Taormina
,
the last Byzantine outpost on the island of
Sicily
, in 902.
In 904 the renegade
Leo of Tripolis
sacked
Thessalonica
with his Muslim pirates (an event described in The Capture
of Thessalonica by
John Kaminiates
).
In 907
Constantinople
was attacked
by the
Kievan Rus’ under
Oleg of Novgorod
,
who was seeking favourable trading rights with the empire. Leo paid them off,
but they attacked again in 911, and a
trade treaty was finally signed
.
Fourth
marriage dispute
Leo VI caused a major scandal with his numerous marriages which failed to
produce a legitimate heir to the throne. His first wife
Theophano
, whom Basil had forced him to marry, died in 897, and he married
Zoe Zaoutzaina
,
the daughter of his adviser Stylianos Zaoutzes, though she died as well in 899.
Upon this marriage Leo created the title of
basileopatōr
(“father of the emperor”) for his father-in-law.
After Zoe’s death a third marriage was technically illegal, but he married
again, only to have his third wife
Eudokia Baïana
die in 901. Instead of marrying a fourth time, which would have been an even
greater sin than a third marriage (according to the Patriarch
Nicholas
Mystikos
) Leo took as mistress,
Zoe
Karbonopsina
. He married her only after she had given birth to
a
son
in 905, but incurred the opposition of the patriarch. Replacing Nicholas
Mystikos with Euthymios, Leo got his marriage recognized by the church, but
opened up a conflict within it and allowed new grounds for
papal
intervention into Byzantine affairs when he sought and obtained papal
consent.
Succession
The future Constantine VII was the illegitimate son born before Leo’s
uncanonical fourth marriage to Zoe Karbonopsina. To strengthen his son’s
position as heir, Leo had him crowned as co-emperor on May 15, 908, when he was
only two years old. Leo VI died on May 11, 912. He was succeeded by his younger
brother
Alexander
, who had reigned as emperor alongside his father and brother since
879.
Works
A collection of oracular poems and some short divinatory texts, at least in
part based on earlier Greek sources, were attached to the emperor’s name in
later centuries. He is also the author, or at least sponsor, of the
Tactica
, a notable treatise on military operations.
He is credited with
translating
the
relics
of St.
Lazarus
to Constantinople in the year 890. There are several
stichera
(hymns) attributed to him which are chanted on
Lazarus Saturday
in the
Eastern Orthodox Church
. He also composed hymns which are sung on the
Great Feast
of the
Exaltation of the Cross
.
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