round his neck, holding a column of the altar with one hand and a piece of the cross with the other. Maurus and John Struthus the spatharius had been sent to kill him; and, when they entered the church, Maurus was delayed by Anastasia's entreaties, but John transferred the amulets to his own neck, laid the piece of the cross on the altar, and carried the child to a postern-gate of the city, and cut his throat. Varaz Bakur, thinking Justinian's cause desperate, had left the army and fled, but he was caught and killed. Elijah was sent with a small force against Justinian himself, whose soldiers on a promise of immunity deserted their master, and Elijah cut off his head and sent it to Philippicus, who sent it to Rome (end of 711).
The new Emperor was a ready and plausible speaker, and had a reputation for mildness; but he was an indolent and dissolute man, who neglected public affairs and squandered the money amassed by his predecessors. Accordingly no better resistance was offered to the Arabs. In 712 Maslama and his nephews, 'Abbās and Marwān, entered Roman territory from Melitene and took Sebastia, Gazelon, and Amasia, whence Marwān advanced to Gangra, while Walīd ibn Hishām took Misthia in Lycaonia and carried off many of the inhabitants of the country. In 713 'Abd-al-'Azīz again raided as far as Gazelon, while Yazīd invaded Isauria, and 'Abbās took Antioch in Pisidia and returned with numerous captives. Meanwhile Philippicus for some unknown reason expelled the Armenians from the Empire, and they were settled by the Arabs in Armenia Quarta and the district of Melitene (712). In Europe also the Bulgarians advanced to the gates of Constantinople (712).
There was however one subject on which Philippicus shewed a misplaced energy. Having been educated by Stephen, the pupil of Macarius, he was a fervent Monothelete, and even before entering the city he ordered the picture of the sixth synod to be removed from the palace and the names of those condemned in it restored to the diptychs. Cyrus, who refused to comply with his wishes, was deposed and confined in a monastery, and a more pliant patriarch found in the deacon John (early in 712), who was supported by two men afterwards celebrated, Germanus of Cyzicus and Andrew of Crete. Shortly afterwards the Acts preserved in the palace were burnt, and a condemnation of the synod and the chief Dithelete bishops was issued, while many prominent men who refused to sign this were exiled. At Rome the document was contemptuously rejected, the Romans retaliated by placing a picture of the six synods in St Peter's and abandoning the public use of the Emperor's name; and Peter, who was sent to Rome as duke, was attacked and forced to retire (713).
An emperor without hereditary claim to respect, who could not defend the Empire from invasion and wantonly disturbed the peace of the Church, was not likely to reign long; but the fall of Philippicus was
