Nikephoros (Caesar)
Encyclopedia
Nikephoros also Latinized
as Nicephorus or Nicephoros, was the second son of the Byzantine emperor Constantine V
(reign
ed 741–775) and Caesar
of the Byzantine Empire
. He was engaged in a plot against his half-brother, Leo IV
(r. 775–780), which cost Nikephoros his title, and was the focal point of numerous usurpation plots during the subsequent reigns of his nephew, Constantine VI (r. 780–797), and of Constantine's mother, Irene of Athens (r. 797–802). He was therefore blinded
and exiled to a monastery for most of his life, probably dying in the island of Aphousia
sometime after 812.
Nikephoros was born in the late 750s (circa
(ca.) 756/758) to Constantine V and his third wife Eudokia
. Nikephoros was Constantine's third son overall, following Leo IV, who was born 750 to Constantine's first wife Irene of Khazaria
, and Christopher, who was born circa 755 to Eudokia. Either Christopher or Nikephoros were possibly twin brothers to Eudokia and Constantine's only daughter, Anthousa. On 1 April 769, Eudokia was crowned as Augusta
, and on the same occasion Christopher and Nikephoros were crowned and raised to the rank of Caesar, while their younger brother Niketas was made Nobilissimus
. Nikephoros had two other younger brothers, Anthimos and Eudokimos, who were named Nobilissimi at later dates.
When Constantine V died in 775, his eldest son ascended the throne as Leo IV. Soon, Leo confiscated a large amount of gold reserved for the use of his half-brothers, and distributed it to the army and the citizens of Constantinople
as a donative. Then, in spring 776, a conspiracy headed by Nikephoros and involving a number of middle-ranking courtiers was discovered. Nikephoros himself was stripped of his rank, but otherwise not harmed, while the other plotters were tonsure
d as monks and exiled to Cherson in the Crimea
.
When Leo IV died in October 780, his sole heir was the young Constantine VI, his son by the Empress Irene. Due to his age, a regency was instituted under Irene, but this was not well-received among leading officials. Not only was she a woman, and hence alien to the military-dominated establishment of the time, but also a confirmed iconophile, an adherent of the veneration of holy images. This was regarded as heresy
by the state-sponsored doctrine of iconoclasm, which was especially popular with the army and the officials loyal to Constantine V's memory. A number of them, including the Postal Logothete
(foreign minister) Gregory, the former strategos
(governor) of the Anatolic Theme
Bardas and Constantine, the Domestic
(commander) of the Excubitors
guard regiment, favoured the rise of Nikephoros to the imperial throne. Barely a month and a half after Leo's death, the plot was discovered. Irene had the conspirators exiled, while Nikephoros and his younger brothers were ordained as priests, removing them from the line of succession. To confirm this before the people, on Christmas Day 780, Nikephoros and his brothers were forced to perform the communion service in the Hagia Sophia
.
In 792, the return of Irene to power (after having been ousted in a military revolt in 790), coupled with the disastrous defeat of Constantine VI at Marcellae against the Bulgars
, caused widespread discontent among the troops. Some of the imperial guard regiments, the tagma
ta, proclaimed Nikephoros as emperor, but Constantine reacted swiftly: he arrested his uncles, and while Nikephoros was blinded, the others had their tongues slit. They were then imprisoned at the monastery of Therapia
.
Nikephoros is no longer mentioned by name after 792; instead, the brothers are mentioned collectively. It is therefore questionable whether he is to be included in subsequent events, although traditionally (including in reference works like the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
) it is held that he did share in his brothers' fate and died after 812.
After Irene deposed Constantine VI in 797, the brothers were visited at the monastery by some of their supporters and persuaded to seek refuge in the Hagia Sophia. If it had been hoped that the city's populace would be moved to proclaim one of them emperor, their hopes were dashed. No uprising in their support materialized, and Irene's trusted eunuch advisor Aetios
managed to extricate the brothers and send them to exile in Athens
. At Athens, they were again the subject of a conspiracy in March 799, when a certain Akameros
, "archon
of the Slavs in Belzetia" in southern Thessaly
, together with local troops from the theme of Hellas
(to which Athens belonged), planned to proclaim one of them emperor. The plot was foiled, but they were moved to the island of Panormos in the Marmara Sea, while Nikephoros' brothers were blinded as well.
The brothers are mentioned for the last time in 812, when, in the aftermath of the fall of Debeltum to the Bulgars, a group of disgruntled soldiers tried to proclaim the brothers emperors. Emperor Michael I Rangabe
(r. 811–813) however promptly dismissed the soldiers involved, and moved the brothers to the island of Aphousia, where they died sometime later.
Latinisation (literature)
Latinisation is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly met with for historical personal names, with toponyms, or for the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than Romanisation, which is the writing of a word in the Latin alphabet...
as Nicephorus or Nicephoros, was the second son of the Byzantine emperor Constantine V
Constantine V
Constantine V was Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775; ); .-Early life:...
(reign
Reign
A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation or of a people . In most hereditary monarchies and some elective monarchies A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office...
ed 741–775) and Caesar
Caesar (title)
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
of the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
. He was engaged in a plot against his half-brother, Leo IV
Leo IV the Khazar
Leo IV the Khazar was Byzantine Emperor from 775 to 780 CE.Leo was the son of Emperor Constantine V by his first wife, Irene of Khazaria , the daughter of a Khagan of the Khazars...
(r. 775–780), which cost Nikephoros his title, and was the focal point of numerous usurpation plots during the subsequent reigns of his nephew, Constantine VI (r. 780–797), and of Constantine's mother, Irene of Athens (r. 797–802). He was therefore blinded
Political mutilation in Byzantine culture
Mutilation in the Byzantine Empire was a common method of punishment for criminals of the era but it also had a role in the Empire's political life. The mutilation of political rivals by the Emperor was deemed an effective way of sidelining from the line of succession a person who was seen as a...
and exiled to a monastery for most of his life, probably dying in the island of Aphousia
Avsa
Avşa Island or Türkeli is a Turkish island in the southern Sea of Marmara. It was the classical and Byzantine Aphousia or Ophiousa and was a place of exile during the Byzantine period....
sometime after 812.
Early life and first conspiracies
Circa
Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
(ca.) 756/758) to Constantine V and his third wife Eudokia
Eudokia, wife of Constantine V
-Family:According to the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, Eudokia was a sister-in-law of Michael Melissenos, strategos of the Anatolikon Theme. Her sister and brother-in-law were parents to Patriarch Theodotos I of Constantinople.-Empress:...
. Nikephoros was Constantine's third son overall, following Leo IV, who was born 750 to Constantine's first wife Irene of Khazaria
Tzitzak
Tzitzak , baptised Irene , was a Khazar princess, the daughter of khagan Bihar who became the first wife of Byzantine Emperor Constantine V .-Empress:...
, and Christopher, who was born circa 755 to Eudokia. Either Christopher or Nikephoros were possibly twin brothers to Eudokia and Constantine's only daughter, Anthousa. On 1 April 769, Eudokia was crowned as Augusta
Augusta (honorific)
Augusta was the imperial honorific title of empresses. It was given to the women of the Roman and Byzantine imperial families. In the third century, Augustae could also receive the titles of Mater castrorum and Mater Patriae .The title implied the greatest prestige, with the Augustae able to...
, and on the same occasion Christopher and Nikephoros were crowned and raised to the rank of Caesar, while their younger brother Niketas was made Nobilissimus
Nobilissimus
Nobilissimus , in Byzantine Greek nōbelissimos was one of the highest imperial titles in the late Roman and Byzantine empires...
. Nikephoros had two other younger brothers, Anthimos and Eudokimos, who were named Nobilissimi at later dates.
When Constantine V died in 775, his eldest son ascended the throne as Leo IV. Soon, Leo confiscated a large amount of gold reserved for the use of his half-brothers, and distributed it to the army and the citizens of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
as a donative. Then, in spring 776, a conspiracy headed by Nikephoros and involving a number of middle-ranking courtiers was discovered. Nikephoros himself was stripped of his rank, but otherwise not harmed, while the other plotters were tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
d as monks and exiled to Cherson in the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
.
When Leo IV died in October 780, his sole heir was the young Constantine VI, his son by the Empress Irene. Due to his age, a regency was instituted under Irene, but this was not well-received among leading officials. Not only was she a woman, and hence alien to the military-dominated establishment of the time, but also a confirmed iconophile, an adherent of the veneration of holy images. This was regarded as heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
by the state-sponsored doctrine of iconoclasm, which was especially popular with the army and the officials loyal to Constantine V's memory. A number of them, including the Postal Logothete
Logothetes tou dromou
The logothetēs tou dromou , in English usually rendered as Logothete of the Course/Drome/Dromos or Postal Logothete, was the head of the department of the Dromos, the Public Post , and one of the most senior ministers of the Byzantine Empire.- History and functions :The exact origin and date of...
(foreign minister) Gregory, the former strategos
Strategos
Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...
(governor) of the Anatolic Theme
Anatolic Theme
The Anatolic Theme , more properly known as the Theme of the Anatolics was a Byzantine theme in central Asia Minor...
Bardas and Constantine, the Domestic
Domestikos
Domestikos , in English sometimes [the] Domestic, was a civil, ecclesiastic and military office in the late Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire.-Military usage:...
(commander) of the Excubitors
Excubitors
The Excubitors were founded in circa 460 AD as the imperial guards of the early Byzantine emperors. Their commanders soon acquired great influence and provided a series of emperors in the 6th century...
guard regiment, favoured the rise of Nikephoros to the imperial throne. Barely a month and a half after Leo's death, the plot was discovered. Irene had the conspirators exiled, while Nikephoros and his younger brothers were ordained as priests, removing them from the line of succession. To confirm this before the people, on Christmas Day 780, Nikephoros and his brothers were forced to perform the communion service in the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
.
In 792, the return of Irene to power (after having been ousted in a military revolt in 790), coupled with the disastrous defeat of Constantine VI at Marcellae against the Bulgars
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...
, caused widespread discontent among the troops. Some of the imperial guard regiments, the tagma
Tagma (military)
The tagma is a term for a military unit of battalion or regiment size. The best-known and most technical use of the term however refers to the elite regiments formed by Byzantine emperor Constantine V and comprising the central army of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th–11th centuries.-History and...
ta, proclaimed Nikephoros as emperor, but Constantine reacted swiftly: he arrested his uncles, and while Nikephoros was blinded, the others had their tongues slit. They were then imprisoned at the monastery of Therapia
Tarabya
Tarabya is a neighbourhood in Sarıyer district of Istanbul, Turkey. It is located on the European shores of the Bosphorus, between the neighbourhoods of Yeniköy and Kireçburnu....
.
After 792
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium is a three volume historical dictionary published by the English Oxford University Press. It contains comprehensive information in English on topics relating to the Byzantine Empire. It was edited by the late Dr. Alexander Kazhdan, and was first published in 1991...
) it is held that he did share in his brothers' fate and died after 812.
After Irene deposed Constantine VI in 797, the brothers were visited at the monastery by some of their supporters and persuaded to seek refuge in the Hagia Sophia. If it had been hoped that the city's populace would be moved to proclaim one of them emperor, their hopes were dashed. No uprising in their support materialized, and Irene's trusted eunuch advisor Aetios
Aetios (eunuch)
Aetios or Aetius was a Byzantine eunuch official, one of the most trusted advisers of Byzantine empress Irene of Athens . After Irene's rise to sole rule, Aetios developed an intense rivalry with her eunuch chief minister Staurakios. After Staurakios's death, Aetios became the leading man in the...
managed to extricate the brothers and send them to exile in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. At Athens, they were again the subject of a conspiracy in March 799, when a certain Akameros
Akameros
Akameros was the archon of the sklavinia of Belzetia, an autonomous South Slavic community in eastern Thessaly under Byzantine sovereignty, in the late 8th century....
, "archon
Archon
Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...
of the Slavs in Belzetia" in southern Thessaly
Thessaly
Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
, together with local troops from the theme of Hellas
Hellas (theme)
The Theme of Hellas was a Byzantine military-civilian province located in southern Greece. The theme encompassed parts of Central Greece, Thessaly and, until circa 800, the Peloponnese...
(to which Athens belonged), planned to proclaim one of them emperor. The plot was foiled, but they were moved to the island of Panormos in the Marmara Sea, while Nikephoros' brothers were blinded as well.
The brothers are mentioned for the last time in 812, when, in the aftermath of the fall of Debeltum to the Bulgars, a group of disgruntled soldiers tried to proclaim the brothers emperors. Emperor Michael I Rangabe
Michael I Rangabe
Michael I Rangabes was Byzantine Emperor from 811 to 813.Michael was the son of the patrician Theophylaktos Rangabes, the admiral of the Aegean fleet...
(r. 811–813) however promptly dismissed the soldiers involved, and moved the brothers to the island of Aphousia, where they died sometime later.