Leo VI the Wise
Leo VI | |
---|---|
- Basil I (officially)
- Michael III (reputed)
Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise (
Early life
Born on 19 September 866 to the empress Eudokia Ingerina,[3] Leo was either the illegitimate son of Emperor Michael III[4][5][6] or the second son of Michael's successor, Basil I the Macedonian.[7][8][9] Eudokia was both Michael III's mistress and Basil's wife. In 867, Michael was assassinated by Basil, who succeeded him as emperor.[10] As the second-eldest son of the Emperor, Leo was associated on the throne in 870[11] and became the direct heir on the death of his older half-brother Constantine in 879.[12] However, Leo and Basil did not like each other; a relationship that only deteriorated after Eudokia's death, when Leo, unhappy with his marriage to Theophano, took up a mistress in the person of Zoe Zaoutzaina. Basil married Zoe off to an insignificant official, and later almost had Leo blinded when he was accused of conspiring against him.[13][14] On 29 August 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.[15]
Domestic policy
One of the first actions of Leo VI after his succession was the reburial, with great ceremony, of the remains of Michael III in the imperial mausoleum within the
Leo also attempted to involve himself in the church through his arbitrary interference with the patriarchate.
The magnificent Church of Agios Lazaros in Larnaca was constructed during the rule of Leo VI in the late 9th century,[23] and it was built after the relics of St. Lazaros were transported from Crete to Constantinople.[24] The church is one of the best examples of Byzantine architecture. Leo also completed work on the Basilika, the Greek translation and update of the law code issued by Justinian I, which had been started during the reign of Basil.[25]
Bishop
Foreign policy
Leo VI's fortune in war was more mixed than Basil's had been.
Although he won a victory in 900 against the
Then, in 904 the renegade
Marriages
Leo VI caused a major scandal with his numerous marriages which failed to produce a legitimate heir to the throne.[34] His first wife Theophano, whom Basil had forced him to marry on account of her family connections to the Martinakioi, and whom Leo hated,[b] died in 897, and Leo married Zoe Zaoutzaina, the daughter of his adviser Stylianos Zaoutzes, though she died as well in 899.[36] Upon this marriage Leo created the title of basileopatōr ("father of the emperor") for his father-in-law.[37]
After Zoe's death a third marriage was technically illegal,[38] but he married again, only to have his third wife Eudokia Baïana die in 901.[30] Instead of marrying a fourth time, which would have been an even greater sin than a third marriage (according to the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos)[39] Leo took as mistress Zoe Karbonopsina.[40] He married her only after she had given birth to a son in 905,[38] but incurred the opposition of the patriarch. Replacing Nicholas Mystikos with Euthymios,[18] Leo got his marriage recognized by the church (albeit with a long penance attached, and with an assurance that Leo would outlaw all future fourth marriages).[19]
Succession
The future Constantine VII was the illegitimate son born before Leo's uncanonical fourth marriage to Zoe Karbonopsina.[38] To strengthen his son's position as heir, Leo had Constantine crowned as co-emperor on 15 May 908, when he was only two years old.[41] Leo VI died on 11 May 912.[18] He was succeeded by his younger brother Alexander, who had reigned as emperor alongside his father and brother since 879.[42]
Works
Leo VI was a prolific writer, and he produced works on many different topics and in many styles, including political orations, liturgical poems, and theological treatises.[31] On many occasions he would personally deliver highly wrought and convoluted sermons in the churches of Constantinople.[31]
In the subject matter of legal works and treatises, he established a legal commission that carried out his father's original intent of codifying all of existing Byzantine law. The end result was a six-volume work consisting of 60 books, entitled the
The supposed
Succeeding generations saw Leo as a prophet and a magician, and soon a collection of oracular poems and some short divinatory texts, the so-called Oracles of Leo the Wise, at least in part based on earlier Greek sources, were attached to the Emperor's name in later centuries and were believed to foretell the future of the world.[31]
Finally, Leo is credited with
Family
By his first wife, Theophano Martinakia, Leo VI had one daughter:
- Eudokia, who died in 892.[43]
By his second wife, Zoe Zaoutzaina, Leo had one daughter:
- Anna,[37] betrothed and married to the Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Blind.[44]
By his third wife, Eudokia Baïana, Leo had one son:
- Basil, who survived for only a few days.[34]
By his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, Leo had two children:[40]
- Anna
- Constantine VII.
See also
Notes
- ^ Full title as attested in Leo's Novel Constitutions: Αὐτοκράτωρ καῖσαρ Φλάβιος Λέων εὐσεβής, εὐτυχής, ἔνδοξος, νικητής, τροπαιοῦχος, ἀεισέβαστος αὐγουστος, πιστός βασιλεύς ("Autocrator Caesar Flavius Leo pious, fortunate, renowned, victorious, triumphant, ever-venerable, Augustus, faithful basileus").[2]
- Senate knows that it was against my will and in great sorrow that I married [Theophano].[35]
References
- ^ PBW, "Leon VI".
- ^ Novela 1, in Jus Graeco-Romanum III, p. 67.
- ^ Tougher, p. 42
- ^ Treadgold, p. 462
- ^ Norwich, p. 102
- ^ Finlay, p. 306
- Byzantion, 8, 1933, pp. 475–550
- ^ Charanis, Peter, The Armenians in the Byzantine Empire, 1963, p. 35
- ^ Ostrogorsky, George, History of the Byzantine State, 1969, p. 233, note 1
- ^ Treadgold, p. 455
- ^ Kazhdan, p. 1210
- ^ a b c Gregory, p. 225
- ^ Norwich, p. 99
- ^ Treadgold, p. 460
- ^ a b Treadgold, p. 461
- ^ Finlay, p. 307
- ^ a b Finlay, p. 308
- ^ a b c d e Kazhdan, p. 1211
- ^ a b c Treadgold, p. 468
- ^ Finlay, p. 310
- ^ Norwich, p. 104
- ^ Treadgold, p. 467
- ^ Michaelides, M.G., Saint Lazarus, The Friend Of Christ And First Bishop Of Kition, (1984) "Father Demetrios Serfes – Life of Saint Lazarus". Archived from the original on 22 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Shepard, The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire (2008), p. 493–496
- ^ Norwich, p. 105
- ^ Finlay, p. 314
- ^ Treadgold, p. 463
- ^ Norwich, p. 108
- ^ Treadgold, p. 464
- ^ a b c Treadgold, p. 466
- ^ a b c d e Gregory, p. 226
- ^ Treadgold, p. 466–470
- ^ Treadgold, p. 469
- ^ a b Norwich, p. 114
- ISBN 978-0-521-03697-9, pp. 203
- ^ Treadgold, p. 465
- ^ a b Norwich, p. 113
- ^ a b c d e f g h Gregory, p. 227
- ^ Finlay, p. 312
- ^ a b Norwich, p. 115
- ^ Kazhdan, p. 502
- ^ Gregory, p. 228
- ^ Norwich, p. 112
- ^ Reuter, Timothy, The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. III: c. 900-c. 1024, Cambridge University Press, (2000), p. 334.
Works cited
- OCLC 17186882.
- Finlay, George (1853). History of the Byzantine Empire from 716 – 1057. Edinburgh: William Blackwood.
- ISBN 0-6312-3512-4.
- ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- Leo the Wise (1863). "Tu sophōtatu Basileōs Leontos ta heuriskomena panta: nunc primum in unum corpus collecta" [Novel Constitutions]. In Migne, Jacques-Paul (ed.). Patrologia Graeca (in Latin and Greek). Vol. 107. Paris. pp. 419–660.
- Norwich, John Julius (1993), Byzantium: The Apogee, London: Penguin, ISBN 0-1401-1448-3
- Treadgold, Warren (1997), A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2
- Tougher, Shaun (1997), The Reign of Leo VI (886-912): Politics and People, Leiden; New York; Köln: Brill, OL 675877M
External links
- French translations of a Turkish-language compendium of divinatory works, including some ascribed to Leo the Sage available at [1].
- Greek text with Migne's Latin translation of Leo's works at [2]
- The Mosaic of Leo VI in the Narthex of Hagia Sophia
- Digitalized manuscripts of Leo VI the Wise at the Princeton University Library