The Arabs capture several cities in 712-713.…

The Arabs capture several cities in 712-713.

The Opsikian army in Thrace on June 3, 713, overthrows and blinds Philippikos and, mainly at the instigation of the Senate and people, installs his chief secretary, Artemios, as Anastasios II.

Soon after his accession, Anastasios II imposes discipline on the army and executes those officers who had been directly involved in the conspiracy against Philippikos.

Andrew of Crete had been sent from his monastery in Jerusalem to Constantinople, where he had become deacon of the Hagia Sophia.

During the reign of Philippikos he had been made archbishop of Gortyna and had taken part in the Synod of Constantinople, where he had subscribed to Monothelitism; he recants his Monothelitic views in 713.

In developing the liturgy of the Greek Church, he is credited with inventing the kanon, a new genre of hymnography that consists of nine odes in stanzaic form, each sung to a different melody.

His canon replaces the kontakion, a homiletic hymn of which all stanzas were sung to the same melody.

Andrew is the author of many hymns and canons still used in Greek liturgical books.