LEO III., called /sauricus, from the country of his birth, was of humble parentage, and served in the army under Justinian II. Linder the reign of Auastasius II. he received the supreme command of the troops of Asia. After Amastasius was deposed and Theodosius HI, proclaimed in his stead in 716, Leo would not acknowledge the latter, but marched to Constantinople, when Theodosius resigned the crown to him in March 717. The Saracens soon after, coming in large num• bers by sea and by land, laid siege to Constantinople, when the new emperor came out of the harbour with some fire.ships, which, being impelled by a fair wind among the enemy's fleet, threw it into con fusion and destroyed many of their ships. The severe winter which followed killed most of the horses and camels of the Saracens, and in the course of the next summer Leo, having defeated them by land, obliged them to raise the siege. It was during this long siege that Sergiue, governor of Sicily, thinking the empire at an end, made him self independent; but Leo sent a new governor to assert his authority, and the rebels were punished. In 719 Anastasius, having attempted to resume the crown, was beheaded. Thus far Leo had shown himself to be a brave and able sovereign, but unfortunately, like many of his predecessors, when ho began to mix in religious controversy he became tyrannical and crueL The new religion of the Koran abhorred the worship or even the use of images; the Jewish law likewise strictly forbade it as leading to idolatry ; and this principle thee asserted by these creeds found its way among the Christians of the east, and was adopted by Leo, who, now believing that the use of images in the churches was contrary to religion, issued an edict, ordering their immediate removal. The Patriarch of Constantinople and most of the Greek clergy remonstrated against this measure, and the pope, Gregory II., condemned the edict of Leo as hereticaL This was the beginning of the schism of the Icenoclaets, or image-breakers,' which caused great calamities to tho empire, and contributed to its losing Italy, as the Habana, supported by the pontiff, refused to obey the edict, while Leo resorted to violence, which irritated the people still more. It was asserted that a conspiracy against the life of the pope
was batched at Rome by the Greek officers there, and supported by the Exarch of Ravenna ; but the people of Rome rose and killed some of the Greeks, and a general insurrection took place over Italy against tho emperor, of which the Loogobards availed themselves to extend their dominions, and occupied the port of Classe near Raveona. Even in the east Leo found the greatest opposition among his subjects, who were much attached to the images. The islands of the Archipelago revolted, and even sent a fleet to threaten the capital, but the Greek fire dispersed it. Great tumults broke out at Constantinople on account of the removal of the images according to the order of the emperor; several persons were killed in the confusion, and others were sentenced to death for having excited the mutiny ; the patriarch Germanua was deposed, and another prelate favourable to the Icono clasts was put in his place. Gregory IL having died in 731, his suc cessor, Gregory III., assembled a council at Rome in the following year, in which the Iconoclasts were condemned. A messenger who was despatched to the emperor with the decree of the council was detained in Sicily and not allowed to proceed. Leo, in his wrath against the pontiff, detached from the Roman patriarchate the sees of Illyricum, of Calabria, and Sicily, and placed them under the Patriarch of Constantinople. Meantime the Saracens were making great progress in Asia Minor, and they conquered the whole of Paphiagonia. In the midst of his unsuccessful struggle both against the Saracens of Asia and against the Italians and the pope, Leo died of the dropsy in the year 741, and was succeeded by his son Constantine, called Copro nymus, also a zealous Iconoclast, who had married Irene, the daughter of a prince of the Gazari, a Turkish tribe.