Leo IV
750 – 780 · Generation XVII · Emperor (r. 775–780) · Isaurian
Leo (AD 750 – 780). Emperor (r. 775–780). Married Irene around AD 769. Son of Constantine V and Tzitzak (Irene of Khazaria). Co-emperor from infancy, he came to sole power when his father died on campaign against the Bulgars. He named his young son Constantine caesar in 776, dashing the hopes of two half-brothers — whom he pardoned when they were caught conspiring, despite public sentiment for their execution. He kept up his father's policy of resettling people from the Arab border cities in fortified camps in Thrace, and in 778 sent the armies of the themes into Abbasid Syria, where they decisively defeated the Abbasids outside Germanikeia and returned to a triumphal entry into Constantinople. The next year he repelled an Abbasid thrust into Asia Minor; the year after, a violent fever born of his tuberculosis killed him.
One of 6 people of Isaurian (680–803) in this archive. The iconoclast emperors, who held Constantinople through its longest siege.
Line of descent: Leo III → Constantine V → Leo IV.
Parents
- Constantine V (718 – 775)
Partners
- Married Irene (752 – 803) in 769 — one child together
Children
- Constantine VI (771 – ?)
Life
- 750 — Born
- 769 — Married Irene
- 780 — Died