the main street till they were dead, and burnt their bodies. The Blues proclaimed Leontius emperor, and he was crowned by the patriarch.
As the Arabs were preparing to reconquer Africa, there was little fighting in Asia Minor during Leontius' reign. In 697 the Caliph's son, Walīd, invaded the Empire from Melitene, and the patrician Sergius, who commanded in Lazica, betrayed that country to the Arabs. Further invasions were prevented by a plague and famine; and in 698 the Romans entered the district of Antioch and gained an unimportant victory.
In 697 Leontius sent the whole fleet under John the patrician to recover Africa, which had for the second time fallen into the hands of the Arabs; and John, having expelled the enemy from Carthage and the other fortified towns on the coast, reported his success to the Emperor and remained in Carthage for the winter. But early in 698, when a larger armament arrived from the east, he was unable to withstand it, and, abandoning his conquests, returned for reinforcements. When he reached Crete however, the crews renounced their allegiance and proclaimed Apsimar, drungarius (vice-admiral) of the Cibyrrhaeots, emperor under the imperial name of Tiberius. They then sailed to Constantinople, which was suffering from plague, and after a short resistance the besiegers were admitted through the gate of Blachernae at the N.W. corner by the treachery of the custodians, and plundered the capital like a conquered city. Leontius was deprived of his nose and sent to a monastery, and his friends and officers were flogged and banished and their property was confiscated (end of 698).
The new Emperor, as a sailor, gave special attention to the defence of the Empire on the sea side, restoring the sea-wall of Constantinople, and settling the Mardaites on the Pamphylian coast. He further repeopled Cyprus by sending back the inhabitants whom Justinian had removed (699). Military operations also were conducted with considerable success, which must be ascribed to an innovation which Tiberius immediately after his accession introduced by appointing his brother Heraclius, who as a general shewed himself not unworthy of his name, commander-in-chief of all the Asiatic themes, and charging him with the custody of the Cappadocian frontier. In 701 the Romans made a successful raid as far as Samosata, and in 704 Heraclius killed or captured the whole of an Arab force which was besieging Sisium in Cilicia. On the other hand Walīd raided Roman territory in 699, his brother 'Abdallāh took Theodosiopolis in 700, in 703 Mopsuestia was occupied and Armenia Quarta betrayed to the Arabs, and in 705 the Caliph's son, Maslama, took two fortresses, and a Roman army was defeated in Armenia.
Meanwhile Justinian was living in Cherson, a place which, while acknowledging the supremacy of the Emperor, was not governed by any
