Tiberios III
Tiberios III was a German-born naval officer who took the Byzantine throne in a mutiny and lost it to the man he had helped depose. His name was Apsimar, and he was droungarios of the Cibyrrhaeot fleet — a middle-ranking naval commander — when the empire lost Carthage. The Arabs had taken the city in 697. Leontios sent a fleet under John the Patrician, which retook it and was then driven out again by a larger force. The fleet, expecting to be punished for a failure that was not its fault, mutinied at Crete on the way home, killed its admiral, and proclaimed Apsimar, who took the imperial name Tiberios. They sailed on Constantinople, which was suffering from plague, and took it. Leontios had his nose slit — the same mutilation he had inflicted on Justinian II — and was confined to a monastery. Tiberios then governed better than the manner of his accession suggests. He rebuilt the walls, reorganised the army, and sent his brother Herakleios on campaigns into Cilicia and Syria that were among the few Byzantine successes of the period, taking prisoners and territory. He made no attempt to recover Africa, which was gone. Justinian II came back in 705 with a Bulgar army and got into the city through a disused water conduit. Tiberios fled and was caught. He and Leontios were dragged in chains through the Hippodrome, and Justinian put a foot on each of their necks while the crowd chanted a psalm, before both were beheaded. Justinian was killed himself six years later, and the empire had four more emperors before Leo III stabilised it.
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader
