Tiberios III

Infobox Monarch
name =Tiberios III
title =Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire


caption =
reign =698 – 705
predecessor =Leontios
successor =Justinian II
dynasty =Heraclian Dynasty
date of death =705|

Tiberios III or Tiberius III (Greek: Τιβέριος Γ'), (d. 705), was Byzantine emperor from 698 to 705.

Tiberius was a Germanic navy officer originally named Apsimarus (Αψίμαρος), who rose to the position of "droungarios" of the Cibyrrhaeotic Theme. He participated in the failed campaign to regain Carthage in 698. As admiral John the Patrician retreated from Carthage to Crete, the fleet rebelled, deposed their commander, and chose Apsimaros as his replacement. Apsimaros sailed on Constantinople and besieged it. His revolution attracted detachments from the field army and the imperial guard, and officers loyal to him opened the gates of the city and proclaimed him emperor. He ordered the nose of deposed Emperor Leontius cut off; ironically, Leontios had visited this same punishment on his predecessor Justinian II.

As emperor, Tiberius III ignored Africa, where Carthage was now definitively lost, but attacked the Umayyad Caliphate under Abd al-Malik in the east, winning minor victories while raiding into Syria in 701. Arab reprisals in 703 and 704 were repelled from Cilicia. Meanwhile, in 704, Justinian II escaped from exile in Cherson, fleeing to the court of the khagan of the Khazars, Busir Glavan. Tiberius paid a bounty to Busir to have Justinian killed, but Justinian, who had married the khagan's sister and been warned by her, made his way back to Constantinople with the help of Tervel of Bulgaria in 705. Managing to enter Constantinople with some of his supporters, Justinian easily regained control, and had Tiberius arrested and executed in the Hippodrome together with Leontios. A little later the same punishment was inflicted upon Tiberius' brother Heraclius, whom he had appointed strategos of the Anatolic theme.

References

* "The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium", Oxford University Press, 1991.

External links