<펌> Alexander (Byzantine Emperor, r 912-913)

Alexander (Byzantine emperor)

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For other emperors named Alexander, see Emperor Alexander (disambiguation).

AlexanderByzantine emperorReignPredecessorSuccessorBornDiedDynastyFatherMother

Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans

Byzantine Mosaic portrait of Emperor Alexander in Hagia Sophia. In his left hand he holds a globus cruciger, and in his right the akakia.

11 May 912 – 6 June 913

Leo VI

Constantine VII

23 November 870[1] Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey)

6 June 913 (aged 42)

Macedonian

Basil I

Eudokia Ingerina

Alexander[a] Porphyrogenitus (Greek: Αλέξανδρος, Alexandros, 23 November 870 – 6 June 913) was briefly Byzantine emperor from 912 to 913.

Contents

• 1 Life
• 2 See also
• 3 Notes
• 4 References
  • 4.1 Sources

Life

Alexander was the third son of Emperor Basil I and Eudokia Ingerina. Unlike his older brother Leo VI the Wise, his paternity was not disputed between Basil I and Michael III because he was born years after the death of Michael.[7] As a child, Alexander was crowned as co-emperor by his father around 879.[8]

Upon the death of his brother Leo on 11 May 912, Alexander succeeded as senior emperor alongside Leo's young son Constantine VII. He was the first Byzantine emperor to use the term "autocrator" (αὐτοκράτωρ πιστὸς εὑσεβὴς βασιλεὺς) on coinage to celebrate the ending of his thirty-three years as co-emperor.[9] Alexander promptly dismissed most of Leo's advisers and appointees, including the admiral Himerios, the patriarch Euthymios, and the Empress Zoe Karbonopsina, the mother of Constantine VII whom he locked up in a nunnery.[10] The patriarchate was again conferred on Nicholas Mystikos, who had been removed from this position because he had opposed Leo's fourth marriage. During his short reign, Alexander found himself attacked by the forces of Al-Muqtadir of the Abbasid Caliphate in the East, and provoked a war with Simeon I of Bulgaria by refusing to send the traditional tribute on his accession. Alexander died soon after, allegedly because of a stomach disease caused by a night of excessive eating and alcohol.[11]

 

The sources are uniformly hostile towards Alexander, who is depicted as lazy, lecherous, drunk, and malignant, including the rumor that he planned to castrate the young Constantine VII in order to exclude him from the succession. At least that charge did not come to pass, but Alexander left his successor a hostile regent (Nicholas Mystikos) and the beginning of a long war against Bulgaria. The sources also accused the Emperor of idolatry, including making pagan sacrifices to the golden statue of a boar in the Hippodrome in hope of curing his impotence.[12]

 

 

See also

• 

  Byzantine Empire portal

• List of Byzantine emperors

Notes

 

1. Alexander is most commonly not assigned a regnal number.[2][3][4] If assigned a number, he is rarely regarded as Alexander I (though there was no later emperor by the name),[5] or Alexander II, after Severus Alexander (r. 222–235).[6]

References