ABSTRACT

Both were men of mark. Leo III., 717-t41, was born in Isauria but spent his youth at Mesembria (now Misivri, in Bulgaria) on the Black Sea. He became a soldier of fortune; and, 704, was promoted to be Spatharius, or aide-de-camp, to Justinian II., who entrusted him with a mission in Lazica. By 713 Leo had risen to be Strategus of the Anatolic Theme. In 716 he relieved Amorium (now Hamza-Hadji) in Phrygia Salutaris, when it was besieged by the Saracens; and entered Constantinople, 25th March, 717, to be hailed as Emperor. Only five months were allowed him to organise its defence before they should reach the Bosporus; and from 15th August, the Saracens laid siege to the capital for a whole year by land and sea. In August, 718, they were forced to retire. Their repulse by Leo III. was an epoch-making event; for fro111 718 onwards the Ommayad dynasty began to decline until, by their loss of Damascus, 750, and the transference of the Caliphate to the Abbasids at Bagdad, the centre of Saracen power was removed far away from the Roman frontiers. Constantine V., 741-1"75, was born in the year of his father's triumph. He married, 732, Irene, daughter of the Khan of the Khazars; whose capital, at this epoch of their greatness (c. 600-950), was Itil at the mouth of the Volga, from whence they controlled the trade between

140 The Churches of Eastern Christendom the Caspian and the Euxine. S At the age of twenty-three, Constantine came to the throne; and, sharing his father's valour but disgracing it by cruelty, he carried further the successes of the Roman arms. Thus, in campaigns against the Saracens, he defeated them at Acroenus (now Afium Karahissar4 ) in Phrygia Salutaris, 739. In 745 he took the offensive in Syria; reconquered Cyprus, 746; and, 750, entered Armenia and penetrated to the Euphrates. The danger from Islam now being past, Constantine, in nine campaigns, 755-64, beat back the Bulgars; and simultaneously repressed a rising of the Slavs, 758, in Macedonia and Thrace. Numbers of them he transported, 762, to the theme of Opsikion. These victories endeared the first two Isaurian Emperors to their armies; they wrung unwilling tribute to the valour of these Iconoclast rulers from the fathers of the Seventh <Ecumenical Council5 at Nicrea, 787. But they also secured for them the support of the commercial classes who, though Iconophile, preferred to be ruled by the Iconoclast Emperors because they had rescued the Empire from anarchy and revived its prestige abroad.