Nikephoros 4 | Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire |
| Sex | M |
| Floruit | E/M VIII |
| Dates | 742 (taq) / 743 (tpq) |
| PmbZ No. | 5260 |
| Religion | Iconophile |
| Ethnicity | Armenian |
| Locations | Dorylaion (Phrygia); Constantinople; Constantinople (residence); Constantinople (officeplace) |
| Titles | Augustus (office); Emperor (office) |
| Textual Sources | Grierson, P., A Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, II: Phocas to Theodosius III, 602-717; III: Leo III to Nicephorus III 717-1081 (numismatics); Nicephorus, Breviarium Historiae, ed. C. Mango, Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History; prev. ed. C. de Boor Nicephori ArchiepiscopiConstantinopolitani Opuscula Historica Leipzig 1880 (history); Theophanes Confessor, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1883-85, repr. Hildesheim/NewYork, 1980); tr. and comm. C. Mango and R. Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Oxford 1997 (chronicle); Zonaras = Ioannis Zonarae Epitome Historiarum, libri XIII-XVIII, ed. Th. Büttner-Wobst, (Bonn, 1897) (history) |
Nikephoros 4 was the son of Artabasdos 1 (the usurper), brother of Niketas 4: Nic., Brev. de Boor 59, Mango 64, de Boor 62, Mango 66, Theoph. AM 6234 (ὁμοίως δὲ Νικηφόρον, τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ). In Nic., Brev. de Boor 59, he is named after his brother Niketas 4 and was therefore probably the younger brother; the fact that he was crowned emperor (see below) and not his elder brother implies that he was Artabasdos 1's son by the daughter of the emperor Leo III (Leo 3), Anna 1, and that Niketas 4 was Artabasdos 1's son by an earlier marriage; cf. Speck, Artabasdos (see below), p. 333, n. 292, Rochow, Theophanes, pp. 152-153.
Nikephoros 4 was present with his father (Artabasdos 1) and his brother (Niketas 4) at Dorylaeum when Artabasdos 1 rebelled (probably in 741): Nic., Brev. de Boor 59, Mango 64, Theoph. AM 6233 (and see Rochow, Theophanes, pp. 145 and 153 for the problem of the date).
In 742 or 743 Nikephoros 4 was himself crowned emperor by Artabasdos 1: Nic., Brev. de Boor 61, Mango 65, Theoph. AM 6234 (ὁμοίως δὲ Νικηφόρον, τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ, ἔστεψε διὰ Ἀναστασίου τοῦ πατριάρχου). In 743 Nikephoros 4 was captured by the emperor Constantine V (Konstantinos 7), together with his father (Artabasdos 1) and his brother (Niketas 4); he was put on display with them in the hippodrome, then kept in prison and finally blinded: Nic., Brev. de Boor 62, Mango 66, Zon. XV 5. 18, 5. 21. An imperial seal of Nikephoros 4 and his father (Artabasdos 1) is in Schlumberger, Sig., p. 420 (facsimile). The obverse has the image and name of his father (Artabasdos 1), the reverse those of Nikephoros 4.
He is named on the coinage of his father: Grierson, Catalogue 3.1, pp. 286-289.
See P. Speck, Artabasdos der rechtgläubiger Vorkämpfer der göttlichen Lehren. Untersuchungen zur Revolte des Artabasdos und ihrer Darstellung in der byzantinischen Historiographie (Poikila Byzantina 2, Bonn, 1981), Rochow, Theophanes, pp. 152-153, Rochow, Konstantin V, pp. 228-229.
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