Artabasdos

Leo seals an alliance with his associate Artabasdos by marrying his daughter Anna to him.

(Throughout Leo's reign, Artabasdos will remain the second most powerful man in the empire by virtue of his control of several important military posts.)

Leo's wife, Maria, had in 718 borne him a son, Constantine, whom he crowns in 720.

Leo has secured the Empire's frontiers by inviting Slavic settlers into the depopulated districts and by restoring the army to efficiency.

Akroinon is a major success for the imperial forces, as it is the first large-scale victory they have scored in a pitched battle against the Arabs.

Seeing it as evidence of God's renewed favor, the victory also serves to strengthen Leo's belief in the policy of iconoclasm that he had adopted some years before.

His military efforts are supplemented by his alliances with the Khazars and the Georgians.

Leo's victory has freed Asia Minor from any immediate serious threat of Arab conquest, and it will make possible the forceful counteroffensive and reconquest of some lost territory in the subsequent reign of his son, Constantine V.

The emperor’s son succeeds his father as Constantine V at the latter's death on June 18, 741, but not before first fighting his way to the throne, suppressing a revolt of the Opsikian and Armeniakon themes launched by his brother-in-law Artabasdos, who resolves to seize the throne and attacks Constantine while the latter is traversing Asia Minor to fight the Arabs on the eastern frontier.

While Constantine flees to Amorion, Artabasdos seizes Constantinople amid popular support and is crowned emperor.

Sulayman, taking advantage of the civil war between the usurper Artabasdos and Constantine V, leads another raid in 742 that reaches as far as Paphlagonia undisturbed and takes many prisoners.

Artabasdos has abandoned his predecessor's religious policy of Iconoclasm and restored Orthodoxy with some support, including that of Pope Zacharias.

Soon after his accession, Artabasdos had crowned his wife Anna as Augusta and his son Nikephoros as co-emperor, while putting his other son Niketas in charge of the Armeniac theme.

But while Artabasdus can rely also on the support of the themes of Thrace and Opsikion, Constantine secures for himself the support of the Anatolic and Thracesian themes.

The inevitable clash comes in May 743, when Artabasdos leads the offensive against Constantine but is defeated.

Later the same year Constantine defeats Nicetas, and on November 2, 743 Artabasdus' reign comes to an end as Constantine V enters Constantinople and apprehends his rival.

Artabasdos and his sons are publicly blinded and relegated to the monastery of Chora on the outskirts of Constantinople.

The date of his death is unknown.