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{{Short description|Byzantine emperor from 912 to 913}}{{For|other emperors named Alexander|Emperor Alexander (disambiguation)}}

factoids

September 879{{efn>There is some evidence that Alexander was already crowned by August 879, but most sources agree that he was appointed co-emperor following the death of his brother Constantine (son of Basil I).ALEXANDROS (#20328) PUBLISHER=DE GRUYTER, {{Sfn1996AUTHOR-LINK=CYRIL MANGOURL=HTTPS://BOOKS.GOOGLE.COM/BOOKS?ID=0ETFDWAAQBAJ&PG=PA179ORIG-DATE=1958VOLUME=3ISBN=9781532641381, }}Leo VI the Wise>Leo VI| successor = Constantine VIIMacedonian dynasty>Macedonian| regnal name = Alexander AugustusCoinage from 912-913, unlike the coins issued during his co-rules, refers to him as Alexandros Augustos| father = Basil I| mother = Eudokia IngerinaGriersonp=475}}| birth_place = Constantinople(now Istanbul, Turkey)| death_date = 6 June 913 (aged 42)| death_place = | burial_date = | burial_place = List of Byzantine emperors>Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans}}Alexander{{efn|Alexander is most commonly not assigned a regnal number.{{Sfn|Browning|1980|p=297}}{{Sfn|Haldon|2005|p=176}}{{Sfn|Lawler|2015|p=37}} If assigned one, he is rarely regarded as Alexander II, after Severus Alexander ({{reign}}222–235){{Sfn|Jenkins|1999|p=101}} or even more rarely as Alexander III{{Sfn|Granier|2018|p=224}} after both Severus Alexander and Domitius Alexander ({{reign}}308–310). He has also been called Alexander I (though there was no later emperor by the name).{{Sfn|Tougher|1996|p=209}}}} (, Alexandros, 23 November 870{{spaced ndash}}6 June 913) was briefly Byzantine emperor from 912 to 913, and the third emperor of the Macedonian dynasty.

Life

Born in the purple, Alexander was the third son of Emperor Basil I and Eudokia Ingerina. Unlike his older brother Leo VI the Wise, his paternity was not disputed between Basil I and Michael III because he was born years after the death of Michael.ENCYCLOPEDIA, Schmitz, Leonhard, Alexander, William Smith, William Smith (lexicographer), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, 115, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1867,quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=acl3129.0001.001;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=130, As a child, Alexander was crowned as co-emperor by his father in early 879, following the death of Basil’s son Constantine.{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1969|p=233}}File:Emperor Alexander deposes Patriarch Euthymios.jpg|thumb|Alexander ordering the dismissal of Patriarch Euthymius.]]Upon the death of his brother Leo on 11 May 912, Alexander succeeded as senior emperor alongside Leo’s young son Constantine VII. He was the first Byzantine emperor to use the term ”autocrator” () on coinage to celebrate the ending of his thirty-three years as co-emperor.{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1969|p=261}} Alexander promptly dismissed most of Leo’s advisers and appointees, including the admiral Himerios, the patriarch Euthymios, and the Empress Zoe Karbonopsina, the mother of Constantine VII whom he locked up in a nunnery.{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1969|p=261}} The patriarchate was again conferred on Nicholas Mystikos, who had been removed from this position because he had opposed Leo’s fourth marriage. File:Emperor Alexander receives the Bulgarian envoys.jpg|thumb|Emperor Alexander rebuffs the Bulgarian envoys, refusing to pay tribute.]]During his short reign, Alexander found himself attacked by the forces of Al-Muqtadir of the Abbasid Caliphate in the East, and provoked a war with Simeon I of Bulgaria by refusing to send the traditional tribute on his accession. Alexander died soon after, allegedly because of a stomach disease caused by excessive eating and alcohol.BOOK, Skylitzes, Ioannes,archive.org/details/skylitzes-2010/page/190, Synopsis of History, 2010, 190, John Wortley, John Skylitzes, 1100, [Alexander] came down to play ball (tzykanion). A pain arose in his entrails which had been overloaded with an excess of food and excessive drinking. He went back up into the palace haemorrhaging from his nose and his genitals; after one day he was dead., File:Emperor Alexander on his deathbed hands over power to his nephew Constantine.jpg|thumb|On his deathbed, Alexander finally concedes power to his nephew Constantine VIIConstantine VIIThe sources are uniformly hostile towards Alexander, who is depicted as lazy, lecherous, drunk, and malignant, including the rumor that he planned to castrate the young Constantine VII in order to exclude him from the succession. At least that charge did not come to pass, but Alexander left his successor a hostile regent (Nicholas Mystikos) and the beginning of a long war against Bulgaria. The sources also accused the Emperor of idolatry, including making pagan sacrifices to the golden statue of a boar in the Hippodrome, and providing it with new teeth and genitals, in hope of curing his impotence.{{sfn|Karlin-Hayter|1969}}

See also

• List of Byzantine emperors

Notes

{{Notelist}}

References

{{Reflist}}

Sources

• JOURNAL, The Emperor Alexander’s Bad Name, P., Karlin-Hayter, Speculum (journal), Speculum, 44, 4, 585–596, 1969,www.jstor.org/stable/2850385, 10.2307/2850385, 2850385, 161599458,
• BOOK, George Ostrogorsky, Ostrogorsky, George, History of the Byzantine State, Rutgers University Press, 1969, 0-8135-0599-2, registration,archive.org/details/historyofbyzanti00ostr/page/233,
• BOOK, Granier, Thomas, Transformations of Romanness: Early Medieval Regions and Identities, De Gruyter, 2018, Pohl, Walter, Rome and Romanness in Latin southern Italian sources, 8th–10th centuries, Gantner, Clemens, Grifoni, Cinzia, Berlin, 978-3-11-059838-4,
• BOOK, Philip Grierson, Grierson, Philip, Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection

year=1973page=475,archive.org/details/docoins-3,

• {{citation | editor-first = Alexander | editor-last = Kazhdan | editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan | title = Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-19-504652-6|chapter=Alexander|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/odb_20210521/page/56/mode/1up|pages=56–57}}
• BOOK, Browning, Robert,books.google.com/books?id=qAlcKDsubMgC, The Byzantine Empire, The Catholic University of America Press, 1980, 978-0813207544, Revised,
• BOOK, Haldon, John,books.google.com/books?id=xjAWDAAAQBAJ&q=Constantius+III+Doukas&pg=PA176, The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 978-0230243644,
• BOOK, Jenkins, Everett,books.google.com/books?id=giEkCQAAQBAJ, The Muslim Diaspora: A Comprehensive Chronology of the Spread of Islam, 1, McFarland, 1999, 978-0786447138,
• BOOK, Lawler, Jennifer,books.google.com/books?id=sEWeCQAAQBAJ&q=%22Tiberius+I+Constantine%22&pg=PA323, Encyclopedia of the Byzantine Empire, McFarland, 2015, 978-0-7864-6616-0, Jefferson, 2004,
• ENCYCLOPEDIA, Ralph-Johannes Lilie

editor1-first = Ralph-Johannes editor2-first = Claudia editor3-first = Beate editor4-first = ThomasProsopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit>language = de De Gruyter >year = 2013 PmbZ, }}

• BOOK, Byzantium, The Apogee, John Julius Norwich, John Julius Norwich, Penguin Books, 1993, 0140114483,
• BOOK, Tougher, Shaun, The Reign of Leo VI (886-912): Politics and People, 1996, Leiden; New York; Köln, Brill, 9004108114,books.google.com/books?id=iPquae5A4zIC&pg=PA219,

{{Roman emperors}}{{Authority control}}