Leo Choirosphaktes

Leo Choirosphaktes, sometimes Latinized as Choerosphactes (Greek: Λέων Χοιροσφάκτης) and also known as Leo Magistros or Leo Magister, was a Byzantine official who rose to high office under Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886) and served as an envoy under Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912) to Bulgaria and the Abbasid Caliphate. Choirosphaktes was also a well-educated and prominent scholar and writer, many of whose works and correspondence survive.

The date of Choirosphaktes's birth is not clear; George Kolias placed it between 845 and 850, while Hans Georg Beck circa 824.Paul Magdalino, however, rejects a birth date in the 820s, for Choirosphaktes was still alive in 913 and probably died after 920. His family came from the Peloponnese and was well established in aristocratic circles. Through his wife, he was apparently a relative of Zoe Karbonopsina, Emperor Leo VI's mistress after circa 903 and eventual fourth wife, and he himself married a lady related to the Byzantine imperial family, with whom he had two daughters.

Nothing is known of Choirosphaktes's early life before circa 865, when he dedicated a major theological work, the Theology in a Thousand Lines (Greek: Χιλιόστιχος Θεολογία) to Emperor Michael III (r. 842–867). Under Michael's successor, Basil I the Macedonian, Choirosphaktes rose to high state offices, being named mystikos (the first attested holder of the post) and kanikleios, both confidential positions in close proximity to the emperor.

Choirosphaktes continued to be favoured by Basil's son and successor, Leo VI, who awarded him the high dignities of anthypatos, magistros, and patrikios by 896. In 895–896, Emperor Leo sent Choirosphaktes in a series of embassies to the Bulgarian ruler Symeon (r. 893–927), to conclude the ongoing war between the two states. His surviving diplomatic correspondence is a valuable source for these events.

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