Tiberius III

663 – 706 · Generation XV · usurper (r. 698–705)

Tiberius (AD null – 706). usurper (r. 698–705). Born Apsimar; no blood link to Heraclians. Born Apsimar, he was a droungarios – a mid-ranking commander – with the fleet sent to recover Carthage from the Umayyads. When the city was lost again, officers fearing Leontius’s wrath killed their commander and proclaimed Apsimar emperor; allying with the Green circus faction, he besieged plague-stricken Constantinople for months until partisans opened the gates – the first naval officer ever to take the Byzantine throne. Making no attempt on lost Africa, he turned to the eastern frontier, appointing his brother Heraclius head general of the Anatolian themes to carry the war into the caliphate with some success. In 705 Justinian II returned with an army of Slavs and Bulgars, slipped into the city, and deposed him; caught in Bithynia, he was beheaded, his body later recovered and buried on the island of Prote.