General Notes

REFR
DATE 0886
RETO
DATE 0912
OCCU Emperor of Byzantium
ALIA byname  LEO THE WISE, or THE PHILOSOPHERLeo VI,byname  LEO THE WISE, or THE PHILOSOPHER (b. Sept. 19, 866--d.May 11, 912, Constantinople), Byzantine coemperor from 870 andemperor from 886 to
912, whose imperial laws, written in Greek,became the legal code of the  Byzantine Empire.Leo was the son of Basil I the Macedonian, who had begun thecodification, and his second wife, Eudocia
Ingerina. Madecoemperor in 870, Leo succeeded to the throne on his father'sdeath. His foreign policy was directed mainly against the Arabsand the Bulgars. The able commander Nicephorus Phocas the
Elderwas recalled from his successful campaigns against the Lombardsin south Italy to assist in the Balkans. After this Byzantiummet with reverses in the West: Sicily was lost to the Arabs in902,
Thessalonica was sacked by Leo of Tripoli, and the Aegeanwas open to constant attack from Arab pirates. Steps were takento strengthen the Byzantine navy, which successfully attackedthe Arab fleet in
the Aegean in 908. But the naval expedition of911-912 was defeated by Leo of Tripoli. Byzantium's enemy to thenorth was         Simeon, the Bulgar ruler. Hostilities aroseout of a trade dispute in
894, and the Byzantines, aided by theMagyars of the Danube-Dnieper region, forced Simeon to agree toa truce. With the help of the nomadic Pechenegs, however, Simeonin 896 took revenge on the
Byzantines, forcing them to pay anannual tribute to the Bulgars.During Leo's reign the Russian prince Oleg sailed toConstantinople and in 907 obtained a treaty regulating theposition of Russian
merchants in Byzantium, which was formallyratified in 911. Because of his anxiety for a male heir Leomarried four times, thus incurring the censure of the church.Educated by the patriarch  Photius,
Leo was more scholar thansoldier. In addition to completing the canon of laws, he wroteseveral decrees (novels) on a wide range of ecclesiastical andsecular problems. He also wrote a funeral
panegyric on hisfather, liturgical poems, sermons and orations, secular poetry,and military treatises. Leo's image is in a mosaic over thecentral door of Hagia Sophia.Related Propaedia TopicsThe
eclipse of the Roman Empire in the West and the developmentand Christianization of Germanic successor states (AD 395-c.750)Copyright (c) 1996 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All RightsReservedLeo VI
the Wise of Byzantium, Byzantine EmperorAcceded: 886Died: 912Father: , Basil I the Macedonian of Byzantium, Byzantine EmperorChild 1: , AnnaChild 2: Porphyrogenitus, Constantine VII, Byzantine
Emperor, b.ABT 906
BYZN Y
HIST Y
ROYL Y
DATE 26 MAY 1999