Leontios
Leontios seized the Byzantine throne in 695, ruled three years, and was mutilated and executed by the man he had mutilated. He was a general from Isauria who had commanded successfully in the east under Constantine IV, recovering Armenia and Georgia. Under Justinian II he fell out of favour, was imprisoned for three years without charge, and was then abruptly released and appointed governor of Hellas. Justinian II had made himself widely hated. He taxed heavily to fund building, resettled populations by force, and used two officials — a former monk and a logothete — whose collection methods produced open loathing. On the night of his release, urged on by two monks who predicted he would be emperor, Leontios went to the prison, freed its inmates, and had the city raised against Justinian in the Hippodrome. He had Justinian's nose and tongue slit rather than killing him — the practice of rhinokopia, on the principle that a maimed man could not reign — and exiled him to Cherson in the Crimea. The nickname Rhinotmetos, slit-nose, stuck to the victim. His own reign was undone in Africa. An Arab army took Carthage in 697; a Byzantine fleet retook it and lost it again; and the fleet, expecting punishment, mutinied on the way home and proclaimed its own commander, Tiberios Apsimaros. Leontios was deposed, had his nose slit in turn, and was confined to a monastery. Justinian returned in 705 with a Bulgar army, and had both men beheaded in the Hippodrome. Justinian was killed himself in 711, ending the Heraclian dynasty and twenty years of coups.
- Lived: 660 CE – 706 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader
