Fla'vius> Leo Vi. or Fla'vius> Sa'piens or Fla'vius Philosophus
surnamed SA'PIENS and PHILO'SOPHUS, emperor of Constantinople (A. D. 886-911), second son of Basil I., the Macedonian, by his second wife, Eudoxia, was born in A. D. 865, and succeeded his father on the 1st of March, 886, after having previously been created Augustus.
A short time before the death of Basil, young Leo narrowly escaped the punishment of a parricide, a crime, however, of which he was not guilty, but of which he was accused by the minister, Santabaren, the knavish favourite of the emperor.
As soon as Leo ascended the throne he prepared for revenge.
He began by deposing the notorious patriarch Photius, who was the chief support of Santabaren; and having got rid of that dangerous intriguer, he had the minister arrested, deprived him of his eyes, and banished him to one of the remotest corners of Asia Minor.
The reign of Leo presents an uninterrupted series of wars and conspiracies. In 887 and 888 the Arabs invaded Asia Minor, landed in Italy and Sicily, and plundered Samos and other islands in the Archipelago: it was only in 891 that the emperor's authority was re-established in his Italian dominions. Styiianus, Leo's father-in-law, and prime minister, gave occasion to a bloody war with the Bulgarians.
At that period these people were no longer so barbarous as in former centuries, and they carried on a considerable trade with the Byzantine empire, having their principal factories at Thessalonica, where they enjoyed great privileges.
These privileges Stylianus disregarded, and exposed the Bulgarian merchants to vexations and ill-treatment. Thence arose a war with the Bulgarian king, Simeon, who ravaged Macedonia, and routed the Greek army, commanded by Leo Catacalon and Theodosius, the latter of whom was killed in the action, to the great regret of the nation and the emperor.
The credit of Stylianus ceased with the death of his daughter, the empress; and his disgrace grieved him so much that he died of sorrow and disappointed ambition (894). Leo got rid of the Bulgarians by involving them, through intrigues, in a war with the Hungarians.
The following years were rendered remarkable by several conspiracies.
That of 895 proved nearly fatal to the emperor, but it was discovered in time, and quelled by one Samonas, who, in reward, was created patricius, and soon rose to great wealth and power.
A few years afterwards Leo was attacked in a church during service by a ruffian, who felled him to the ground with a club; but on this occasion also the emperor escaped, and the assassin met with the fate he deserved.
The inactivity of Leo induced the Arabs and northern neighbours of the empire to attack it at their convenience.
The former once more invaded Sicily, and took Tauromenium; and in 904 appeared with a numerous fleet in the harbour of Thessalonica.
This splendid city, the second in wealth and population after Constantinople, was ill fortified and still worse garrisoned, so that in spite of the efforts of the inhabitants, the Arabs soon made themselves master of it. They destroyed a great portion of it; and after having plundered it during ten days, left the harbour with their fleet laden with booty and captives.
The history of this conquest was described by Joannes Cameniata in his valuable work,
The Capture of Thessalonica (
Ἠἅλωσις τῆς Θεσσαλονίκης). [CAMENIATA.] About this time the last remains of the authority of the senate were finally abolished by a constitution of Leo. In 910 Samonas was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment for having abused the confidence the emperors had never ceased to bestow upon him since he had crushed the conspiracy of 895. In 911 the Arabs defeated the Greek fleet off Samos.
In this action the Greeks were commanded by Romanus Lecapenus, who became emperor during the minority of Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus. Leo died in the same year, 911, either on the 11th of May or on the 11th of July, of a chronical dysentery. His successor was his infant son, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, whom he had by his fourth wife, Zoe; and his younger brother, Alexander, who had nominally reigned with Leo since the death of their father, Basil, but who, preferring luxury and idleness to business, had abandoned his share in the government to his elder brother Leo. Leo was married four times; in consequence of which he was excluded from the communion with the faithful by the patriarch Nicolaus, as the Greek church only tolerated a second marriage: it censured a third, and it condemned a fourth as an atrocious sin.
The first wife of Leo was Theophano, the daughter of Constantinus Martinacius; the second Zoe, the widow of Theodorus Guniatzita, and the daughter of the minister Stylianus, who, after the marriage of Zoe, received from his son-in-law the unusual title of basileopator, or father of the emperor; the third was Eudoxia, a woman of rare beauty; and the fourth was Zoe Carbonopsina, who survived her husband.
It is difficult to understand how the exalted name of Philosophus could be given to a man like Leo, and one would feel inclined to take it ironically, were it not for the impudent flattery of the later Greeks. Gibbon, with a few striking words, gives the following character of this emperor: -- "The name of Leo VI. has been dignified with the title of philosopher; and the union of the prince and the sage, of the active and speculative virtues, would indeed constitute the perfection of human nature.
But the claims of Leo are far short of this ideal excellence. Did he reduce his passions and appetites under the dominion of reason? His life was spent in the pomp of the palace, in the society of his wives and concubines; and even the clemency which he showed, and the peace which he strove to preserve, must be imputed to the softness and indolence of his character. Did he subdue his prejudices, and those of his subjects? His mind was tinged with the most puerile superstition; the influence of the clergy, and the errors of the people, were consecrated by his laws; and the oracles of Leo, which reveal in prophetic style the fates of the empire, are founded on the arts of astrology and divination. If we still inquire the reason of his sage appellation, it can only be replied, that the son of Basil was less ignorant than the greater part of his contemporaries in church and state; that his education had been directed by the learned Photius; and that several books of profane and ecclesiastical science were composed by the pen, or in the name of the imperial philosopher."
Legislative Work
In speaking of Leo's literary merits, we must first say a few words of his legislation.
In his time the Latin language had long since ceased to be the official language of the Eastern empire, and had gradually fallen into such disuse as to be only known to a few scholars, merchants, or navigators.
The earlier laws being all written in Latin, opposed a serious obstacle to a fair and quick administration of justice; and the emperor Basil I., the father of Leo, formed and partly executed the plan of issuing an authorised version of the Code and Digest.
This plan was carried out by Leo, who was ably assisted by Sabathius, the commander of the imperial lifeguards.
The new Greek version is known under the title of
Βασιλικαὶ Διατάξεις, or shortly,
Βασιλικὰ; in Latin,
Basilica, which means "Imperial Constitutions," or " Laws."
It is divided into sixty books, subdivided into titles, and contains the whole of Justinian's legislation, viz., the Institutes, the Digest, the Codex, and the Novellae; as also such constitutions as were issued by the successors of Justinian down to Leo VI.
There are, however, many laws of the Digest omitted in the Basilica, which contain, on the other hand, a considerable number of laws or extracts from ancient jurists which are not in the Digest. The Basilica likewise give many early constitutions which are not contained in Justinian's Codex. They were afterwards revised by the son of Leo, Constantine Porphyrogenitus.
Editions
Latin editions
Hervet published a Latin translation of the books 28-30, 45-48, Paris, 1557, fol.
Cujacius, who made the
Basilica a special subject of his studies, and published the criminal part of them at Lyon, 1566, fol., estimated the translation of Hervet but little, and accordingly published a revised edition under the title
Libri VIII. Βασιλικῶν Διατάξεων, id est, Imperialium Constitutionum in quibus continentur totum Jus Civile, a Constantino Porphyrogenito in LX. libros redactum, G. Herveto interprete. Accessit Liber LX.,Jacobo Cujiacio interprete. Cum Praefatione D. Gothofredi, Hanoviae, 1606, fol.
Previous to this edition, Joannes Leunclavius published, with notes and commentary, " LX. Libri
Βασιλικῶν, id est, Universi Juris Romani, &c., Ecloga sive Synopsis; accessit Novellarum antehac ineditarum Liber," Basel, 1575, fol.
Greek editions
All these are incomplete editions of Latin versions. The Greek text, with a revised Latin version, of 36 complete, 6 incomplete books, and fragments of the remaining 18 books, was first published by Fabrot, Paris, 1647, 7 vols. fol.
Four of the deficient books, viz. 49-- 52, were afterwards discovered in MS., and published, with a Latin version by G. O. Reitz, by the Dutch jurist Meermann, in the 5th vol. of his Nov. Thesaur. Juris Civ. et Can.
A separate reprint of these four books was published in London 1765, fol., as a supplement to Fabrot's edition.
As long ago as 1830 the brothers Heimbach, in Germany, began a new critical edition of the whole collection, of which the first volume appeared in 1833, but which is not yet finished.
Assessment
The law of the Basilica is by no means a mere matter of antiquity: it is the groundwork of the legislation of the modern Greeks in Turkey as well as in the kingdom of Greece, and also that of the legislation of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia; and a closer investigation of the laws of Russia would perhaps trace the influence of the Basilica upon the history of the civilisation of that country also.
Further Information
Montreuil,
Histoire du Droit Byzantin ; C. W. E. Heimbach,
De Basilicorum Origine, Leipzig, 1825, 8vo.; Haubold,
Manuale Basilicorum, Leipzig, 1819, 4to.
Works
The principal works written, or supposed to be written, by the emperor Leo VI. are: --
Τῶν ἐν πολέμοις τακτικῶν σύντομος παράδοσις, commonly called
Tactica, an essay on the art of warfare in the author's time, which is celebrated in military history. Leo perused freely the works of earlier writers on the subject, but it would be unjust to charge him with plagiarism: there is a great deal of his own in the work, especially on the policy to be observed in warfare, but it betrays no genius.
Editions
The editio princeps, but only in a Latin version, is by Joannes Checus (John Cheke), of Cambridge, and was published at Basel, 1554, 12mo.: it is dedicated to king Henry VIII., and was consequently composed previously to the death of that king, in 1547. The Greek text, together with the translation of Cheke, revised by Jo. Meursius, was first published at Leyden, 1612, 4to.;
the same in the 6th vol. of Meursii Opera, edited by Lami, Florence, 1745, fol.;
the same, together with Aelian's Tactica, Leyden, 1613, 4to.
Translations
The importance of the work caused it to be translated into several modern languages.
The best version is the one in French, entitled, " Institutions Militaires de l'Empereur Léon le Philosophe, traduites du Grec par M. Joly de Mezeray," Paris, 1771, 2 vols. 8vo., with engravings. The best German translation is entitled " Kaiser Leo's des Philosophen Strategie und Taktik, übersetzt von einem MS. in der Kaiserlichen Bibliothek zu Wien bei J. W. von Bourscheid." Vienna. 1771-1781, 5 vols. 8vo. with notes and engravings. The notes are very good, but the version resembles much more the French translation by Mezeray than the Greek text.
Some passages extracted from the Tactica, and given by Fabricius, led to the supposition that they are quotations fron, and consequently fragments of, a separate work of Leo on naval warfare.
3. XVII. Oracula
XVII. Oracula, written in Greek iambic verses, and accompanied by marginal drawings, on the fate of the future emperors and patriarchs of Constantinople, showing the superstition of Leo if he believed in his divination, and that of the people if they had faith in the absurd predictions.
Editions
The 17th Oracle, on the Restoration of Constantinople, was published in Greek and Latin by Joan. Leunclavius ad Calcem Const. Manassae, Basel, 1573, 8vo. Janus Rutgersius edited the other sixteen, with a Latin version by Georg. Dousa, Leyden, 1618, 4to. Other editions: " Espositione delli Oracoli di Leone imperatore," by T. Patricius, Brixen, 1596;
by Petrus Lambecius, with a revised text from an Amsterdam Codex, with notes and a new translation, Paris, 1655, fol. ad Calcem Codini.
Translations
A German translation by John and Theodore de Bry appeared in " Vita, &c. Muhammedis," quoted above; and a Latin one by the same translators, Frankfort, 1597, 4to.; the same year in which the German version was published.
Assessment
It is doubtful whether Leo is or not the author of the Oracles. Fabricius gives a learned disquisition on the subject.
4. Orationes XXXIII.,
Orationes XXXIII., mostly on theological subjects.
Editions
One of them appeared in a Latin version by F. Metius, in Baronius, Annales;
nine others by Gretserus, in the 14th vol. of his Opera, Ingolstadt, 1600, 4to.;
three others, together with seven of those published by Gretserus, by Combéfis, in the first vol. of his Biblioth. PP. Graeco-Lat. Auctar. Nov., Paris, 1648, fol.;
Oratio de Sto. Nicolo, Greek and Latin, by Petrus Possinus, Toulouse, 1654, 4to.;
Oratio de Sto. Chrysostomo, restored from the life of that father by Georgius Alexandrinus, in the 8th vol. of the Savilian ed. of St. Chrysostomus, Antwerp, 1614, fol.;
some others in Combéfis, Biblioth. Concionatoria, in the Biblioth. Patrum Lugdun., and dispersed in other works Leonis Imp. Homilia nunc primum vulgata Graece et Latine, ejusdemque qua Photiana est, Confutatio, a Scipione Maffei, Padua, 1751, 8vo.
5. Epistola ad Omarum Saracenum de Fidei Christianae Veritate et Saracenorum Erroribus
Editions
Published in Latin, Lyon, 1509, by Champerius, who translated a Chaldaean version of the Greek original, which seems to be lost;
the same in the different Biblioth. Patrum, and separately by Professor Schwarz, in the Program of the University of Leipzig, of the year 1786.
6. Canticum Compunctionis ex Meditatione extremi Judicii
Editions
Canticum Compunctionis ex Meditatione extremi Judicii, Greek and Latin, by Jac. Pontanus, Ingolstadt, 1603, 4to.;
and in the various Biblioth. Patr.
7. Carmen iambicum de misero Graeciae Statu,
Editions
Published with a Latin version by F. Lucidus, edited by Leo Allatius in his "De Consensu utriusque Ecclesiae."
8. XXII. Versus Retrogradi (Καρνικοί).
Editions
Published by Leo Allatius in Excerpt. Graec. Rhetor., Rome, 1641, 8vo. Different hymns of Leo are extant in MS. in various libraries.
Ἠ γεγονυῖα διατύπωσις παρὰ τοῦ Βασιλέως Δεόντος τοῦ Σοφοῦ,
ὅπως ἔχουσι τάξεως οἱ δρόνοι τῶν Ἐκκληοιῶν,
τῶν ὑποκειμένων τῷ Πατριάρχῃ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως Dispositio facta per Imperatorem Leonem Sapientem quem ordinem habeant throni Ecclesiarum Patriarchae Constantinopolitano subjectarum
Editions
Greek and Latin, by J. Leunclavius, in Jus Graeco-Romanum; by Jac. Goar, ad calcem Codini, Paris, 1648, fol.
Εἰς τὰ Μονομερίου,
In Spectaculum Unius Dei, an epigram of little value.
Editions
Published with notes by Brodaeus and Opsopaeus, in Epigram. Libri VII., ed. Wechel, Frankfort, 1600.
Other publications ascribed to Leo
Among other productions ascribed to Leo, and of which the reader will find an account in the sources cited below, we mention only two books on falconry, extant in MS. in a Munich MS., which seems to be different from a Turin MS. entitled
Ὀρνεοσοφιστικὸν, since the first treats on falconry exclusively, and the latter on various birds, though on falcons more than others: the first may be an extract of the second.
Further Information
Zonar. vol. ii. p. 174, &c.; Cedren. p. 591, &c.; Joel, p. 179; Manass. p. 108, &c.; Glycas, p. 296, &c.; Genes. p.. 61, &c.; Codin. p. 63, &c.; Fabric.,
Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 693, &c.; Hamberger.
Nachrichten von Gelehrten Männern ; Cave,
Hist. Lit.; Hankius,
Script. Byzant.; Oudin,
Comment. de SS. Eccl., vol. ii. p. 394, &c.)
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