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82-707: Leo III the Isaurian ( Greek : Λέων ὁ Ἴσαυρος , romanized :  Leōn ho Isauros ; c. 685 – 18 June 741), also known as the Syrian , was the first Byzantine emperor of the Isaurian dynasty from 717 until his death in 741. He put an end to the Twenty Years' Anarchy , a period of great instability in the Byzantine Empire between 695 and 717, marked by the rapid succession of several emperors to

164-593: A monk at Ephesus . On 25 March, abandoning his allegiance to Anastasius, Konon was crowned by Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople as Emperor Leo III at the Hagia Sophia . The new emperor was immediately forced to attend to the second Arab siege of Constantinople , which commenced in August of the same year. The Arabs were Umayyad forces sent by Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik and serving under his brother Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik . They had taken advantage of

246-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

328-708: A civil war within the Umayyad Caliphate, that the regularity of attacks were temporarily interrupted. Leo secured the Empire's frontiers by inviting Slavic settlers into the depopulated districts and by restoring the army to efficiency. His military efforts were supplemented by his alliances with the Khazars and the Georgians . However, the Lombards exploited the Empire's difficulties beginning in 717, when

410-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

492-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

574-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

656-578: A native language, and was described by Theophanes the Confessor as "the Saracen -minded," although there is very little evidence that he was directly influenced by Islam . After the victory of Justinian II , Konon was dispatched on a diplomatic mission to Alania and Lazica to organize an alliance against the Umayyad caliphate under al-Walid I . According to the chronicle written by Theophanes

738-730: A pro-imperial duke and blinding another, while in Naples, iconoclasm was broadly well-received. A conflict between pro- and anti-imperial factions in the Exarchate of Ravenna led to the death of Exarch Paul. The struggle was accompanied by an armed outbreak in the Exarchate in 727, which Leo endeavoured to subdue by means of a large fleet. The new Exarch, Eutychius , disembarked in Naples but could not enter Rome and assert his authority. This led to an unexpected alliance between Liutprand and Eutychius against Gregory, who, however, managed to convince

820-533: A terrifying volcanic eruption at Thira in 726 was interpreted by Leo as a manifestation of God's wrath. In the Bible , God allows his people to fall to Babylonian captivity because of their idolatry . Thus, Auzépy says, the banning of the veneration of images was fundamentally a rejection of idolatry in order to ensure the survival of the Christian people of the Empire, a decision which was apparently vindicated by

902-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

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984-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system

1066-455: Is an "icon-breaker"). After an apparently successful attempt to enforce the baptism of all Jews and Montanists in the empire (722), he issued a series of edicts against the veneration of images (726–729). A revolt broke out in Greece under the leadership of Agallianos Kontoskeles , mainly on religious grounds, with a certain Kosmas being declared rival emperor. The imperial fleet quashed

1148-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

1230-679: Is mentioned in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian Khans , a 9th–11th century document recording early Bulgarian rulers, wherein he is placed between the rulers Sevar and Vineh , is said to have ruled for 17 years, and is assigned to the Vokil clan. The assignment to the Vokil clan is notable given that all of the previous rulers were assigned to the Dulo clan. Kormisosh is also recorded in

1312-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

1394-823: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Kormesiy of Bulgaria Kormisosh

1476-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around

1558-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

1640-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with

1722-780: The Chronicle of the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes the Confessor , recorded to have variously fought against and allied with the Byzantine Empire . Most notably, he is said to have allied with the emperors Theodosius III (715–717) and Leo III (717–741) against the Umayyad Caliphate , helping to break the Siege of Constantinople (717–718) . He is also said to have signed a trade agreement with Theodosius III. Contradictingly, other documents indicate that Kormisosh

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1804-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

1886-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

1968-492: The altar and in the apse , for example) to avoid their receiving the honour due to God alone", confirming this conclusion with the writings of Germanus and John of Damascus which appear to describe a kind of initial or moderate stage of iconoclasm. Leo reformed the silention , a type of restricted council instituted by Justinian I , transforming it into a special assembly in the Great Palace of Constantinople , in which

2050-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

2132-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into

2214-548: The Arabs were forced to abandon the siege in August 718. Sulayman had died the previous year, and his successor Umar II never made a second attempt to capture the city. The siege had lasted 12 months. Having thus saved the Empire from extinction, Leo proceeded to consolidate its administration, which in the previous years of anarchy had become completely disorganized. In 718 he suppressed a rebellion in Sicily . The following year saw

2296-628: The Confessor , Justinian wanted to get rid of Konon and took back the money that had been given to him to help advance Byzantine interests, thus leaving Konon stranded in Alania. The chronicle describes the mission as successful and Konon returning eventually to Justinian after crossing the Caucasus mountains in May with snowshoes and taking the fortress of Sideron, associated with the Tsebelda fortress , on

2378-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

2460-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

2542-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

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2624-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

2706-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

2788-696: The King, appealing to his piety, to return north and the Exarch to put down a revolt in Etruria led by the usurper Tiberius Petasius . In response to the promulgation of stronger iconoclastic decrees in 730, Gregory II and Gregory III summoned councils in Rome to anathematize and excommunicate the iconoclasts (730, 732). Leo retaliated by making the aforementioned transferals in Southern Italy and Illyricum from

2870-666: The Roman legal tradition, and bear the influence of canon law . The new measures, which were embodied in a new code called the Ecloga ( Selection ), published in 741, met with some opposition on the part of the nobles and higher clergy. The Ecloga were a revision and abridgement of the sixth-century Code of Justinian . Leo's prologue to the Ecloga sets out his conception of law as requiring ethical significance founded upon God's will and divinely-sanctioned imperial authority. The authors of

2952-480: The abatement of the Arab and Bulgar threat during Leo's reign. Some scholars, such as Leslie Brubaker and John Haldon, doubt whether there was any active imperial involvement in iconoclasm at all, proposing instead that Leo made a qualified critique of the use of images in public spaces, likely leading to the adoption of a somewhat iconoclastic attitude among the clergy in the late 730s or early 740s. The notion that there

3034-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

3116-405: The alleged aniconism of the eastern part of the Empire, Leo's place of origin, motivated his policies. The phrase "I am emperor and priest" attributed to Leo by later iconodule polemicists represents the characteristically Isaurian imperial ascendancy over the church, which was rejected in the mid-9th century after Patriarch Methodios I of Constantinople purged the clergy of iconoclasts, asserting

3198-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

3280-568: The authority of Rome to Constantinople. The Isaurians in general saw the church and its patriarchs as subordinate to the imperial will. The 740 Constantinople earthquake damaged the Walls of Constantinople , the restoration of which Leo paid for out of the imperial treasury, raising the City taxes by 8⁄ 3 per cent in order to do so, as was recorded on the land walls near the Sea of Marmara . The Empire of

3362-440: The autonomy of the church against the iconoclast emperor, Theophilos ( r.  829–842 ). Others have discussed the mutual influence of Muslim and Byzantine iconoclasm, noting that Caliph Yazid II had issued an iconoclastic edict, also targeting his Christian subjects, already in 721. According to historian Marie-France Auzépy, these explanations are insufficient. She appeals to an explanation by Byzantine chroniclers, that

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3444-466: The church of Rome of the patrimony of St Peter in the theme, reallocating tax income that originally went to the church of Rome to the imperial administration (a large annual sum of 350 pounds of gold). However in 743, Constantine V compensated Pope Zachary for this loss by granting him the estates of Ninfa and Norma to the south of Rome. Between 732 and 754, the bishops of Illyricum, Crete , Sicily, Calabria and Naples (until 769) were transferred from

3526-420: The church, which was rejected in the mid-9th century after Patriarch Methodios I of Constantinople purged the clergy of iconoclasts, asserting the autonomy of the church against the iconoclast emperor, Theophilos ( r.  829–842 ). The few primary sources of the eighth and ninth centuries were mostly written by clerical or monastic iconodules who were hostile to Leo and Constantine V. They tended to view

3608-534: The city of Dalisandus was captured, followed by the fortresses of Kamachon and Ikonion in 723/724 and several frontier fortresses in 725. Caesarea (Cappadocia) was captured in 727, then Gangra in 728. The Byzantine counter-raids were generally of little strategic impact, although crucially a major invading force was destroyed in the Battle of Akroinon of 740. It was only during the Third Fitna of 744–747,

3690-526: The civil discord in the Byzantine Empire to bring a force of 80,000 to 150,000 men and a massive fleet to the Bosphorus , intending to seize the Byzantine capital and destroy the Empire with a single overwhelming attack. Careful preparations, begun three years earlier under Anastasius II, and the stubborn resistance put up by Leo wore out the invaders. An important factor in the victory of the Byzantines

3772-400: The clergy was divided on the issue of iconoclasm, however there was no evidence of widespread support for the iconoclastic policies or of systematic removal of images under Leo. Brubaker and Haldon attribute a more moderate iconoclasm to Leo, "It is quite possible that Leo did attempt to restrict the public display of certain types of image and to remove them from certain places in churches (near

3854-436: The deposed Emperor Anastasius II raise an army and attempt to retake the throne, but he was captured and executed by Leo's government. The rebellion was the only serious threat to Leo's usurpation. Umayyad attacks under Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik continued in the form of yearly raids in eastern and central Asia Minor (see hatched area in figure), which affected communications, commerce and agricultural production. In 721,

3936-508: The duke of Benevento captured Cumae , the duke of Spoleto captured Narni and Liutprand, King of the Lombards , occupied Classe in the Exarchate of Ravenna . Although Narni was never regained, Gregory II recovered Cumae and Liutprand withdrew from Classe. In 724 or 725, Leo increased taxes in Italy which Gregory opposed. This led to two plots to assassinate Gregory, the second of which

4018-463: The dynastic order of succession . In 721, Leo introduced the miliarēsion , a silver coin worth one-twelfth of a nomisma . The gold coins of Leo IV the Khazar show posthumous portraits of Leo III. In response to the catastrophic Twenty Years' Anarchy , Leo, and his son Constantine V in emulation, fundamentally changed the formula of imperial survival as established by Justinian I. The military

4100-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of

4182-620: The eighth century was characterized by ruralization and depopulation, which along with the Arab invasions motivated Leo to undertake intense centralization and militarization, particularly involving the many fortresses and walls in towns such as Nicaea and Padyandus . Leo III died of dropsy on 18 June 741 and was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles . Leo's most striking legislative reforms dealt with religious matters, especially iconoclasm ("icon-breaking," therefore an iconoclast

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4264-441: The emperor would announce a solemn decision. Leo undertook a set of civil reforms including the abolition of the system of prepaying taxes which had weighed heavily upon the wealthier proprietors, the elevation of the serfs into a class of free tenants and the remodelling of family law , maritime law and criminal law , notably substituting mutilation for the death penalty in many cases. These punishments were contrary to

4346-618: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute

4428-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in

4510-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

4592-414: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

4674-499: The legal codes of Basil I ( r.  867–886 ) and Leo VI the Wise ( r.  886–912 ) of the Macedonian dynasty formally rejected the Ecloga . Leo and his successor Constantine V transformed the Byzantine orphanotrophos into a magistrate . Prior to these legislative reforms, Byzantine law required that all orphans are passed into the Byzantine orphanage or to a monastery . The coins minted during Leo's reign exclusively depicted male imperial dynasts, promoting

4756-458: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

4838-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

4920-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

5002-408: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It

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5084-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

5166-422: The pamphlet attributes to Leo the saying, "I am emperor and priest." In the Italian Peninsula , the defiant attitude of Popes Gregory II and later Gregory III on behalf of image-veneration led to a fierce quarrel with the Emperor, with the Liber Pontificalis stating that Gregory II "took up arms against the emperor as if against an enemy." In Rome, the population was more sympathetic to iconodulia, killing

5248-410: The papal diocese to that of the Patriarch of Constantinople . Scholars offer various explanations for the ban on venerating icons c.  730 . On the basis of Patriarch Germanus' letters read at the 787 Second Council of Nicaea , which state that that the bishops Constantine of Nakoleia and Thomas of Claudiopolis had forbidden the veneration of icons even before 730, some scholars argue that

5330-487: The period as dominated by ecclesiastical matters and in particular the imperial persecution of iconodules, despite the Empire's contemporaneous existential struggle against its enemies. Modern assessment of the reign of Leo as well as that of his son is that it was a period of violence which saw the Empire's rescue from destruction, within a context of extensive domestic policy reform. Leo's successful ruse against Caliph Sulayman and his general Maslama, which secured his place on

5412-407: The personality of Leo, can be attributed to the entire Isaurian dynasty, which was unwaveringly iconoclastic, Irene of Athens excepted. Succeeding generations of the Byzantine ruling class regarded the Isaurian period as one of religious persecution. The phrase "I am emperor and priest" attributed to Leo by later iconodule polemicists represents the characteristically Isaurian imperial ascendancy over

5494-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

5576-428: The throne, along with ending the continual defeats and territorial losses the Byzantines had suffered during the 7th century. He also successfully defended the Empire against the invading Umayyads and forbade the veneration of icons . Leo III was born in Germanikeia , Commagene , which is in modern Kahramanmaraş in Turkey . His original name was Konon ( Greek : Κόνων ). Leo III was fluent in Arabic, possibly as

5658-440: The throne, and then his successful defense of the Empire during the siege of Constantinople, earned him a reputation as a wily and formidable commander against colossal odds. His personal knowledge of the geography of the foothills of the Taurus Mountains helped in the countering of Arab incursions mainly in the latter part of his reign, as was especially signified in the Battle of Akroinon—a crucial victory for Leo which had changed

5740-683: The tide of the Arab–Byzantine wars in the favour of Rome for the next 350 years. However, the Byzantine control over its Italian possessions was steadily weakened during Leo's reign, and his attempts to reassert imperial authority there failed. In 1573, a translation of John of Damascus ' attack on Leo III was published, under the title Apologie divisée en trois livres contre Léon Isaure , triggering religious controversy. With his wife Maria , Leo III had four known children: Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

5822-417: The uprising in 727 by way of Greek fire . In 730, Patriarch Germanus opted to resign rather than subscribe to iconoclasm; Leo replaced him with Anastasius , who willingly sided with the Emperor on the question of icons. Patriarch John V of Jerusalem along with John of Damascus fiercely opposed imperial iconoclasm, issuing a pamphlet entitled Adversus Constantinum Caballinum . A later polemical version of

5904-673: The way. Konon was appointed commander ( stratēgos ) of the Anatolic Theme by Emperor Anastasius II . On his deposition, Konon joined with his colleague Artabasdos , the stratēgos of the Armeniac Theme , in conspiring to overthrow the new Emperor Theodosius III , ostensibly in support of Anastasius. Artabasdos was betrothed to Konon's daughter Anna . In 717, Konon marched on Constantinople, capturing Theodosius' son at Nicomedia . He forced Theodosius to abdicate, promising safety for him and his family. Theodosius then became

5986-561: Was a contemporary of Emperor Constantine V (741–775), whom he warred against (at one point Kormisosh's forces are said to have reached Constantinople itself). Some Bulgarian scholars consider the contradictory dates of the two surviving references to Kormisosh to indicate that they refer to two different rulers, placing a "Kormesiy" as reigning between Tervel and Sevar, and a separate "Kormisosh" as reigning between Sevar and Vineh. Most researchers however believe there to have been only one such ruler, chronologically misplaced by one of

6068-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

6150-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

6232-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

6314-448: Was closely associated with the regime in order to stifle the possibility of usurpation. Imperial power was also strengthened by the introduction of low-denomination silver coins, allowing greater flexibility in raising taxes. This autocratic renewal of imperial authority was motivated by justice and spiritual welfare, leading to the denunciation and eventual destruction of images deemed to be "idolatrous". These aspects, which all originate in

6396-525: Was mass imperial persecution and destruction of images is dismissed as a later "iconophile myth". Brubaker and Haldon support this hypothesis by pointing to the absence of any reports of iconoclasm in several contemporary accounts, including those of Willibald , who travelled to Nicaea from 727 to 729, Germanus and even John of Damascus . The Venerable Bede does refer to a critique of images in Constantinople, and Germanus and John of Damascus say that

6478-531: Was supported by Exarch Paul , but both were foiled by the Romans with the help of the Lombards of Benevento and Spoleto. Leo effected many political and ecclesiastical restructurings in order to bolster the authority of the Empire and the Patriarch of Constantinople . Since the end of the seventh century, imperial stratēgoi were sent to the theme of Sicily (which included Calabria ), and in 732–733 Leo deprived

6560-559: Was their use of Greek fire . The Arab forces also fell victim to Bulgarian reinforcements arriving to aid the Byzantines. Leo was allied with the Bulgarians but the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor was uncertain if they were still serving under Tervel of Bulgaria or his eventual successor Kormesiy of Bulgaria . Faced with the Bulgarian onslaught, the impenetrability of Constantinople's walls, and their own exhausted provisions,

6642-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

6724-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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