Birthday Greetings # 63

Happy birthday to Leo IV the Khazar, Byzantine emperor.  Leo came to the throne in 775AD when his father died of a fever while campaigning in Bulgaria.  At the time the Byzantine empire was filling in its spare time by having a furious religious argument.  This is what the Byzantine empire did whenever it had some time on its hands and frequently even when it didn't.

This particular ecclesiastical tiff revolved around the use of icons.  Specifically whether they should be used or not.  Those in favour argued that it was traditional usage, helpful for spreading the gospel amongst those who couldn't read (almost everybody in those days) and that the icons were "venerated" rather than worshipped.  Those opposed pointed out that God had actually written a commandment specifically forbidding them.  They further went on to state that the level of adulation given to the icons in many cases went a hell of a lot further than "veneration".  Some people were actually naming the icons of saints as godparents to their children.

There was also a geographical aspect; most, although not all, of the icon puppies came from the western parts of the empire.  Most, although not all, of the statue breakers came from the eastern parts (much muttering that the proximity of Islam might have led them to such unpleasant attitudes as the Moslems are most definitely opposed to icons).  The problem for the statue freaks was that the best soldiers in the empire came from the east and thus tended to be opposed to icons.  The problem for the closet Moslems was that the bulk of the bureaucracy and most of the monastic houses were located in the west and tended to favour setting up graven images.

Debate was tense, homicidally so.  Leo's grandfather was an eastern soldier who by a combination of low cunning, judicious murder and quite possibly outright treason had wound up as emperor.  The bulk of the soldiers who supported him opposed icons.  So icons were banned.  Uproar ensued.  Legislation was enacted, oppression occurred, icon supporters were tortured, exiled, killed and ridiculed (not necessarily in that order).  It got even worse under Leo's father.  The grandfather had been a cynical pragmatist doing what he needed to maintain the army's support but Leo's father (Constantine the Shit according to the pro icon historians who documented his reign) was a genuine fanatic.  The army however loved him and responded by winning battles.  This fact led to Constantine dying of natural causes as noted above.

Leo came to the throne and calmed things down a bit.  He wasn't exactly pro-icon (although his wife was) but he did seem to feel that possibly estranging 50% of his subjects couldn't be a particularly wise move in the long term.  While he personally was no more keen on the icons than his father or grandfather he adopted a bit of a "don't ask don't tell" policy.  Supporters of icons praised him to the skies for his moderation which seemed to embarrass him.

Meanwhile over in the east the Arabs considered the vigorous debate going in within the empire as a perfect opportunity to invade.  However the icon hating army proved to be capable of handling their incursions (and the bureaucracy in the capital probably wouldn't have minded too much if a lot of them got killed doing it) and Leo managed to maintain his borders unchanged.  So to speak.  The term "border" is a reasonably modern concept.  In those days you simply travelled further away from your own centre of power until you wound in somebody elses.  Somewhere in between a border had obviously been crossed but where it actually was could be considered a matter of debate.  Indeed whole armies spent a lot of their time debating it.

But it wasn't just the Arabs who were trying to move the Byzantine border a little closer to Constantinople.  Over in Europe the Bulgarians were also on the warpath.  Leo took time out from drooling over precious stones (an odd fetish but a harmless one) and not quite persecuting the icon lovers to march against Bulgaria.  Before he did so he stopped having sex with his wife and instigated a harsher regime against the icon freaks.  His wife, Irene, was a dedicated supporter of icons ("superstitious women" muttered the not at all misogynistic soldiers who surrounded Leo) and had introduced various icons and icon favourers into the palace.  Leo found them, and indulged in a little torture and imprisonment just to let everybody know that he couldn't be taken for granted.

With his status as an icon breaker reasserted and his wife "punished" by his absence from the marital bed Leo marched on Bulgaria like his father before him and like his father before him caught a fever and died.  His son (aged nine) ascended the throne as Constantine VI.  His mother Irene was regent and pretty soon icons were everywhere.