Leo III the Isaurian, also known as the Syrian, was Byzantine Emperor from 717 until his death in 741 and founder of the Isaurian dynasty. He put an end to the Twenty Years' Anarchy, a period of great instability in the Byzantine Empire between 695 and 717, marked by the rapid succession of several emperors to the throne. He also successfully defended the Empire against the invading Umayyads and forbade the veneration of icons.
Year 806 (DCCCVI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Year 718 (DCCXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 718 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Constans II, nicknamed "the Bearded", was the Eastern Roman emperor from 641 to 668. Constans was the last attested emperor to serve as consul, in 642, although the office continued to exist until the reign of Leo VI the Wise.
The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of Muslim Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. Conflict started during the initial Muslim conquests, under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs, in the 7th century and continued by their successors until the mid-11th century.
The Battle of the Masts or Battle of Phoenix was a crucial naval battle fought in 654 between the Muslim Arabs led by Abu al-A'war and the Byzantine fleet under the personal command of Emperor Constans II. The battle was part of the earliest campaign by Muawiyah to reach Constantinople and is considered to be "the first decisive conflict of Islam on the deep".
Euphemius or Euphemios was a Byzantine commander in Sicily, who rebelled against the imperial governor in 826 AD, and invited the Aghlabids to aid him, thus beginning the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
The first Arab siege of Constantinople in 674–678 was a major conflict of the Arab–Byzantine wars, and the first culmination of the Umayyad Caliphate's expansionist strategy towards the Byzantine Empire, led by Caliph Mu'awiya I. Mu'awiya, who had emerged in 661 as the ruler of the Muslim Arab empire following a civil war, renewed aggressive warfare against Byzantium after a lapse of some years and hoped to deliver a lethal blow by capturing the Byzantine capital, Constantinople.
Leo of Tripoli, known in Arabic as Rashīq al-Wardāmī, and Ghulām Zurāfa, was a Greek renegade and fleet commander for the Abbasid Caliphate in the early tenth century. He is most notable for his sack of Thessalonica, the Byzantine Empire's second city, in 904.
The Muslim conquest of Sicily began in June 827 and lasted until 902, when the last major Byzantine stronghold on the island, Taormina, fell. Isolated fortresses remained in Byzantine hands until 965, but the island was henceforth under Muslim rule until conquered in turn by the Normans in the 11th century.
Niketas Oryphas or Oöryphas was a distinguished Byzantine official, patrikios, and admiral under the Byzantine emperors Michael III and Basil I the Macedonian, who achieved several naval victories against the Cretan Saracen raiders.
The Battle of Mauropotamos was fought in 844, between the armies of the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate, at Mauropotamos. After a failed Byzantine attempt to recover the Emirate of Crete in the previous year, the Abbasids launched a raid into Asia Minor. The Byzantine regent, Theoktistos, headed the army that went to meet the invasion but was heavily defeated, and many of his officers defected to the Arabs. Internal unrest prevented the Abbasids from exploiting their victory, however. A truce and a prisoner exchange were consequently agreed in 845, followed by a six-year cessation of hostilities, as both powers focused their attention elsewhere.
The Karabisianoi, sometimes anglicized as the Carabisians, were the main forces of the Byzantine navy from the mid-7th century until the early 8th century. The name derives from the Greek karabos or karabis for "ship", and literally means "people of the ships, sea-men". The Karabisianoi were the first new permanent naval establishment of the Byzantine Empire, formed to confront the Muslim expansion at sea. They were disbanded and replaced with a series of maritime themes some time in 718–730.
The Sack of Thessalonica refers to the capture, and subsequent sack, of the Byzantine city of Thessalonica by the Abbasid Caliphate in the year 904, led by Leo of Tripoli, a privateer and Muslim convert.
The Cibyrrhaeot Theme, more properly the Theme of the Cibyrrhaeots, was a Byzantine theme encompassing the southern coast of Asia Minor from the early 8th to the late 12th centuries. As the Byzantine Empire's first and most important naval theme, it served chiefly to provide ships and troops for the Byzantine navy.
The siege of Syracuse in 827–828 marks the first attempt by the Aghlabids to conquer the city of Syracuse in Sicily, then a Byzantine province. The Aghlabid army had only months before landed on Sicily, ostensibly in support of the rebel Byzantine general Euphemius. After defeating local forces and taking the fortress of Mazara, they marched on Syracuse, which was the capital of the island under Roman and Byzantine rule. The siege lasted through the winter of 827–828 and until summer, during which time the besieging forces suffered greatly from lack of food and an outbreak of an epidemic, which claimed the life of their commander, Asad ibn al-Furat. In the face of Byzantine reinforcements, the new Arab leader, Muhammad ibn Abi'l-Jawari, abandoned the siege and withdrew to the southwestern part of the island, which remained in their hands. From there they pursued the slow conquest of Sicily, which led to the fall of Syracuse after another long siege in 877–878, and culminated in the fall of Taormina in 902.
The siege of Syracuse from 877 to 878 led to the fall of the city of Syracuse, the Roman capital of Sicily, to the Aghlabids. The siege lasted from August 877 to 21 May 878 when the city, effectively left without assistance by the central Byzantine government, was sacked by the Aghlabid forces.
The Theme of Cephallenia or Cephalonia was a Byzantine theme located in western Greece, comprising the Ionian Islands, and extant from the 8th century until partially conquered by the Kingdom of Sicily in 1185.
The Battle of Marash was fought in 953 near Marash between the forces of the Byzantine Empire under the Domestic of the Schools Bardas Phokas the Elder, and of the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla, the Byzantines' most intrepid enemy during the mid-10th century. Despite being outnumbered, the Arabs defeated the Byzantines who broke and fled. Bardas Phokas himself barely escaped through the intervention of his attendants, and suffered a serious wound on his face, while his youngest son and governor of Seleucia, Constantine Phokas, was captured and held a prisoner in Aleppo until his death of an illness some time later. This debacle, coupled with defeats in 954 and again in 955, led to Bardas Phokas' dismissal as Domestic of the Schools, and his replacement by his eldest son, Nikephoros Phokas.
The Battle of Kardia was a naval battle fought in c. 872/3 between the fleets of the Byzantine Empire and the Cretan Saracens off Kardia, in the Gulf of Saros. The battle was a major Byzantine victory.
