Tiberios III

Tiberius III Τιβέριος Γʹ
Solidus displaying the cuirassed bust of Tiberius III, with spear & shield
Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Reign	698–705
Predecessor	Leontios
Successor	Justinian II
Born	possibly Pamphylia
Died	15 February 706 Constantinople
Full name Tiberius

Tiberius III (Greek: Τιβέριος Γʹ, Tiberius III; Latin: Tiberius Augustus; d. 15 February 706) was Byzantine emperor from 698 to 21 August 705. Although his rule was considered generally successful, especially in containing the Arab threat to the east, he was overthrown by the former emperor Justinian II and subsequently executed.

Tiberius was a Germanic naval officer from the region of Pamphylia and originally named Apsimar (Αψίμαρος, Apsímaros), who rose to the position of droungarios of the Cibyrrhaeotic Theme. He participated in the failed campaign to regain Carthage in 698. As admiral John the Patrician retreated from Carthage to Crete, the fleet rebelled, deposed and murdered their commander, and chose Apsimaros as his replacement. Changing his name to Tiberius, Apsimaros sailed on Constantinople which was suffering from a plague and proceeded to besiege it.

His revolution attracted the support of the Green faction, as well as detachments from the field army and the imperial guard, and officers loyal to him opened the gates of the city and proclaimed him emperor, after which his troops then proceeded to pillage the city. When he was firmly established on the throne, he commanded that the nose of deposed Emperor Leontius be cut off, and ordered him to enter the monastery of Psamathion. Leontios had also mutilated his predecessor Justinian II in the same fashion three years earlier.

As emperor, Tiberius III made the tactical decision to ignore Africa, where Carthage was now definitively lost. Instead, he appointed his brother Herakleios as monostrategos of the East, who firstly strengthened the land and sea defences of Anatolia before proceeding to attack the Umayyad Caliphate under Abd al-Malik, winning minor victories while raiding into northern Syria in 700 and 701. He then proceeded to invade and for a period hold territory in Armenia, while Arab reprisals in 703 and 704 were repelled from Cilicia with heavy Arab losses.