1. Early History. — He was born in or on the borders of the rude province of Isauria, and his original name was Conon. He emigrated with his father, a wealthy farmer or grazier of that country, to Tlirace. Young Conon obtained the place of spatharius, or broadswords- man, in the army of .Justinian II, and soon, by his mili- tary talents, excited the jealousy of the emperor, as he drew the eyes of the people, and especially of the sol- diers, towards him as one fitted to command, and compe- # tent even for the empire. He was sent forward, there- fore, with a few troops, against the Alani, and then aban- doned by the emperor without succor, in the hope that he would be cut off and destroyed, but from this critical position Leo extricated himself with consummate dex- terity and courage. Anastasius II (A.D. 713-716) gave him the supreme command of the troops in Asia, which was exposed to the terrible onslaughts of the Arab or Saracen hordes, by whom it had already been half over- run and conquered. This command was still in his hands when Theodosius HI, at the beginning of 716, rose against Anastasius, deposed him, and seated him- self upon the throne. Leo, being summoned to ac- knowledge Theodosius, at once denounced him as a usurper, and attacked him under pretext of restoring the rightful sovereign to the throne, but probably with the design of seizing for himself the imperial dignity. He secured the support of the principal leaders in the army, readied the imperial troops before they could be gathered in sufficient force to resist him, and slew them. At Nicomedia he met the son of Theodosius, whom he defeated and captured. He next marched direct upon Constantinople, and Theodosius, seeing no hope of resist- ance, quietly resigned his sceptre in March, 718, and re- tired into a convent, while the vacant throne was forth- with occupied by Leo himself, by the suffrages of the troops.
2. Imperial History. — No sooner was Leo arrayed in the purple than the caliph Soleiman, together with the noted Moslima, appeared before Constantinople with an immense and enthusiastic army, supported by a pow- erful fleet, determined to retrieve their sullied fame. The city was invested by sea and land, and its cajiture was considered certain ; but the indefatigable energy, military skill, and fearless courage of Leo, aided by the new invention of the Greek fire, saved the capital from falling, five centuries before its time, into the hands of the Moslems. The superstitious people ascribed their deliverance to the constant interposition of the Virgin, in which they gave the greatest possible praise to the genius of Leo. This third (Gil)bon calls it tlie second) siege of Constantinople by the Saracens lasted precisely two years (Gibbon calls it tliirteen months) from the loth'of August, 718. On the 15th of August, 720, the caliph (now Omar, who had succeeded Soleiman shortly
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after the commencement of the siege) was compelled to raise the siege, losing in a storm the greater part of the remnants of his third fleet before reaching the harbors of Syria and Egypt. So close had been tlie investment of tlic city, so enormous the preparations, and so loud the boasts of the Saracens, that in the provinces Con- stantinople was given up as lost, notwithstanding all the splendid victories of Leo, for the very news of those victories had been intercepted by the vigilant blockade of tlie besiegers. The whole empire was in consterna- tion, and in the West the rumor was credited that the cali])!) had actually ascended the throne of Byzantium. Accordingly, Sergius, governor of Sicily, took measures to make himself independent, and to secure the crown for himself in case of complete success; but Leo imme- diately dispatched a small force to Sicily, which soon crushed the rebellion. The deposed monarch Anasta- sius, also, was tempted to plot the recovery of the throne, and in the attempt lost his life. In spite of his defeats before Constantinople, Omar continued the war for twen- ty years ; and though, in 726, he captured Cresarea in Cappadocia, and Neo-Cajsarea in Pontus, yet Leo main- trineil an acknowledged superiority. The great work of ecclesiastical reform occupied the attention of the em- pire, without any considerable interruption from the in- lidels, until the year 734. What belongs to this chap- ter of domestic history, though it includes elements and facts of political and military significance, is reserved for the next head. Daring the last seven years of Leo's reign (from 734) falls the protracted life-struggle with the Saracens. The caliph Ilesham instigated the Syr- ians to support an adventurer who pretended to be the son of Justinian II, and who, under the protection of the caliph, entered Jerusalem arrayed in the imperial pur- ple. This proved a mere farce. But something more se- rious happened when, in 739, the Arab general Soleirnan invaded the empire with an army of 90,000 men, dis- tributed into three bodies. The first entered Cappado- cia, and ravaged it with fire and sword ; the second, com- manded by INIalek and Batak, penetrated into Phrygia ; the third, under Solciman, covered the rear. Leo was actually taken by surprise ; but he soon assembled an army and defeated the second body, in Phrygia, in a pitched battle, and obliged Soleiman to withdraw hastily into Syria. The Saracens had, in the mean time, been routed in their invasion of Europe by Charles !Martel in 732, and the progress of their conquests seemed now for some time to be checked both in the East and in the West. The remaining great event of Leo's reign was the terrible earthquake of October, 740, which caused great calamities throughout the empire.