Theodosius III

680 – ? · Generation XVI · usurper (r. 715–717)

Theodosius (b. AD null). usurper (r. 715–717). No blood link to Heraclians; death date uncertain. A tax collector at Adramyttium, he was thrust into the purple when the fleet and the troops of the Opsician Theme rose against Anastasius II and acclaimed their reluctant candidate emperor. He took Constantinople in November 715, though many themes dismissed him as a puppet of the soldiers who had raised him, and the generals Leo the Isaurian and Artabasdos denied him recognition outright. Seeking a counterweight after Leo proclaimed himself emperor, he treated with Khan Tervel of Bulgaria, fixing a firm frontier in Thrace, ceding the Zagoria region and promising tribute. When Leo seized Nicomedia and captured his son, he heeded Patriarch Germanus and the Senate, abdicated, and withdrew with his son into a monastery.