Theodosius III
Theodosius III was a tax collector who was made emperor against his will and abdicated within two years. He appears in the record in 715 as an official of the fiscal administration in the Opsikion theme in north-western Asia Minor, and nothing before that is known about him. The empire was in the worst stretch of its history. Six emperors had held the throne in twenty years, all removed by mutiny or coup and most blinded or beheaded, while the Arabs took fortress after fortress in Anatolia and prepared for a full assault on Constantinople. Anastasius II had been the ablest of them and had made the mistake of sending the fleet to Rhodes to attack Arab timber supplies pre-emptively. The fleet mutinied instead, killed its admiral, and looked for someone to proclaim. Theodosius was on the coast on tax business, was seized by the troops, and — by the chroniclers' account — fled into the hills and had to be hunted down and crowned. He took the capital after a six-month siege, and Anastasius took monastic vows. He did what he could. He negotiated a treaty with the Bulgars in 716, which mattered enormously the following year, and continued the stockpiling of grain. Leo the Isaurian, the general of the Anatolic theme, then marched on the capital. Theodosius consulted the patriarch, secured a guarantee for himself and his son, and abdicated in March 717 without fighting. He became a monk and later a bishop at Ephesus. Leo beat the Arab siege that summer.
- Lived: 690 CE – 754 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state
