Strategios 1

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexM
FloruitM VIII
Dates766 (taq) / 766 (ob.)
PmbZ No.7130
ReligionChristian;
Iconophile
LocationsKynegion (Constantinople) (deathplace);
Hippodrome (Constantinople);
Constantinople (residence);
Constantinople
TitlesSpatharios (dignity);
Domestikos, Exkoubita (office)
Textual SourcesNicephorus, 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)

Strategios 1 was the brother of Konstantinos 6: Nic. Brev. de Boor 74, Mango 83, Theoph. AM 6257 (καὶ ὁ τούτου ἀδελφὸς Στρατήγιος), Theoph. AM 6259 (Στραήγιον, τὸν τοῦ Ποδοπαγούρου ἀδελφόν; Podopagouros was Konstantinos 6).

In 766 Strategios 1 was spatharios and domestikos of the Exkoubita (Στρατήγιος σπαθάριος καὶ δομέστικος τῶν ἐκσκουβίτων): Theoph. AM 6257. He was one of the nineteen high officials accused of conspiring against the emperor Constantine V (Konstantinos 7) in 766 and put on display in the hippodrome on 25 August; he and his brother were condemned to death and were beheaded in the Kynegion, an event which caused widespread grief, according to Theophanes: Theoph. AM 6257, Nic. Brev. de Boor 74, Mango 83. See also Konstantinos 6 and Prokopios 2. He was a handsome man and had for this reason been chosen by Constantine V (Konstantinos 7) as one of his close companions, but he made no secret of his distaste for the emperor's homosexuality (πρὸς τὰς ἀθεμίτους ἀνδρομανίας αὐτοῦ) and general unsavoury lifestyle (διὰ τὰς ἀκολασίας αὐτοῦ), which he spoke about to the monk Stephanos 2; he was therefore accused by the emperor of conspiracy and put to death with Stephanos 2: Theoph. AM 6259.

See further Winkelmann, Quellenstudien p. 48, for a discussion of the plot. See also Rochow, Konstantin V, p. 240 and Mango and Scott, Theophanes p. 611. Cf. also Anonymi 8.

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