Re: Khazaarse en Pauliciaanse keizers op de Byzantijnse troon
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Leo IV the Khazar (Greek: Λέων Δ΄, Leōn IV ), (January 25, 750
– September 8, 780), Byzantine Emperor from 775 to 780.
[edit] Life
Leo was the son of Emperor Constantine V by his first wife, Irene of
Khazaria (Tzitzak). His maternal grandfather was Bihar, a Khazar ruler.
Leo was crowned co-emperor by his father in 751, and was married to the
Athenian Irene in 769. In 775 he succeeded his father as sole emperor.
In 776 he associated his young son, Constantine, with himself in the
empire, and suppressed the first in a series of uprisings led by his
half-brothers Christopher and Nikephoros which broke out as a result.
The failed claimants to the throne were blinded, tonsured, and exiled.
During his short reign, Leo fought against the Abbasid Caliphate under
Al-Mahdi. He dispatched forces into Syria under Michael Lachanodrakon
in 776 and 778. Nevertheless, the Abbasid forces succeeded in raiding
into Asia Minor in 776, 779, and 780.
Unlike his father and grandfather, Leo showed himself relatively
tolerant towards iconodules, and restored an iconophile patriarch. Only
at the very end of his reign, in 780, did he have a number of iconodule
officials tortured and imprisoned. Following the precedent set by his
father, he prepared an expedition against Kardam of Bulgaria, but died
before achieving anything of significance.
During his reign Leo was largely under the influence of his wife Irene,
and when he died suddenly in 780 she was left as the guardian of his
son and successor, Constantine VI.
[edit] Family
By his wife Irene, Leo IV had only one child:
Constantine VI, who succeeded as emperor.
Preceded by:
Constantine V Byzantine Emperor
775–780 Succeeded by:
Constantine VI