Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία

1. Biography

The place where Michael Lachanodrakon was born remains unknown, and we can only presume that he was born sometime in the first half of the 8^th century. Nothing is known about the social rank of his family or any special education or military training he received in order to rise to the military hierarchy. In any case, his career in the army secured his ascension to the upper social classes. The available sources provide no information about his family status and, because all information comes from iconodule writers and Michael Lachanodrakon was a fervent iconoclast, we are given a negative picture of him by the sources. Names such as "impious", "drakontonymos" (bearing the name of the dragon, of the beast) and "arch-satrap" (refering to his being tyrannical) attached to him, along with the detailed descriptions of tortures he inflicted upon iconodules, exclusively aim to give the impression of an atrocious and fanatic iconoclast. However, such portraits can hardly be described as objective ones.¹

It is certain that Michael, apart from his iconoclastic action, developped a rich military activity in the Asia Minor front against the Arabs. His time coincided with the emergence of the institution of themes and, as a result, the comeback of the Byzantine army on the eastern borders, as well as the beginnings of the border conflicts with the caliphate, which would gradually lead the Byzantines to counter-attack the Arabs. As a particularly effective strategos and powerful personality, Michael Lachanodrakon played a leading role in military operations between 766 and 792. His activityn came to an end on 20 July 792, when he was killed in the battlefield at Markellai during a campaign of Constantine VI against the Bulgarians.

2. Political-Military Career

2.1 Political Actions

Information retrieved from sources about the political actions of Michael Lachanodrakon concern the period after 766, when Emperor Constantine V Kopronymos appointed him to the senior office of the strategos of the Theme of Thrakesion.² He had already launched a career in the army by the mid-8^th century, while at that time he seems to have been conferred the titles of patrikios and royal protospatharios. The title of senator must have been conferred on him as well.³ As the strategos of the Theme of Thrakesion, Michael developped intense military activity mainly against the Arabs, although at the same time he actively and fully participated in the political affairs of the empire by loyally serving the iconclastic policy of Emperor Constantine V Kopronymos.

Because of his actions against the iconodules, especially against the monks and the monasteries in the area of his jurisdiction, he was considered as one of the most uncompromising iconoclasts of his time. An illustrative example of this is the destruction of the monastery of Pelekete in western Asia Minor, in 763/764, as described in Vita of Stephen the Younger. According to the latter, Lachanodrakon, ordered by Emperor Constantine V Kopronymos, is said to have invaded the monastery in command of his soldiers during the Divine Liturgy. After he captured thirty-eight of the foremost monks, he subjected the rest of them to a series of tortures, such as beating, burning at the stake, burning of beards and severance of the nose. He then set the monastery afire and took the captive monks to the area of Ephesus, where he killed them.⁴ According to later sources, in 769/70 Michael ordered the first persecution of both male and female monks of the Theme of Thrakesion. He first gathered them at the tzykanisterion in Ephesus and then he made them abandon monasticism and get married under the threat of being blinded and banished to Cyprus in case of disobedience.⁵ In 771 he set the men’s and women’s monasteries of his precinct afire, burnt religious books and holy relics and sold the property of the monasteries; he then sent the Emperor the money he had collected. According to the Chronographia of Theophanes,⁶ Emperor Constantine V Kopronymos sent him a letter personally thanking and praising him for this actions. All monastic communities of the Theme of Thrakesion were actually eliminated by 772.

2.2 Military Action

The information about the activity of Michael, mainly in the front of Asia Minor but in the Balkans as well, concerns the period after 778, during the reign of Emperor Leo IV (775-780), when the conflict about the icons was in decline thanks to the relaxed attitude of the new emperor. It was in 778 that Lachanodrakon took part in a Byzantine campaign against the Arabs as the strategos of Thrace, in command of troops from almost all Asia Minor themes, which shows how high a place he held in military hierarchy.⁷ The campaign was launched against the city of Germanikeia of Syria, which the Byzantines did not manage to capture, though.⁸ However, it was a successful campaign because the Byzantine forces finally captured lots of prisoners, mainly Syrian Jacobites from the wider region of Germanikeia, which they sacked, while they also defeated an Arab force sent to fight them. The success of Lachanodrakon was greatly celebrated in Constantinople by the Emperor, who settled the Syrian captives in the district of Thrace.

The next military success of Michael took place in 780, when, during an Arab raid, he managed to take the invaders by surprise and kill the brother of their commander Thumama ibn al-Valid, while the following year he made Abd al-Kabir, who had invaded Cappadocia, withdraw without a fight.⁹ In 781 Lachanodrakon moved again against the Arab invaders, in command of a large force consisting of soldiers from more than one theme. He confronted the Arabs in the passage of Adata, but the Arab commander avoided to fight the Byzantines. The latter captured some Syrian soldiers and took them to Thrace.¹⁰ During the large-scale invasion of the Arabs under caliph Harun al-Rashid against Byzantine territory in 782, the Arabs advanced to the coasts of the Bosporus opposite Constantinople and Michael was defeated during a battle against a part of the Arab army led by al-Barmaqi. He is said to have then lost fifteen thousand men.¹¹ Because of his defeat he was elbowed or even displaced from the office of strategos of the Theme of Thrakesion.

However, the main reason for his falling in disgrace must have been the attempt of the Empress Eirene – an iconodule who assumed power after Leo IV Khazar died (780), and represented her underage son Constantine VI – to purge the army of iconoclasts. Lachanodrakon reappears in 790 on the side of the young Emperor Constantine VI, who assumed power at the age of 19, thus overriding his mother Eirene. Michael was sent by the Emperor to the Armeniakon Theme in order to make the soldiers vow allegiance to the young Emperor and support him against his mother. In that period he must have been conferred the higher honorary title of magistros, possibly as a reward for his support to the Emperor. Finally, in 792 he participated as a strategos on the side of Constantine VI in the campaign against the Bulgarians and was killed on 20 July at Markellai.

1. The sources that provide information about the life and acts of Michael Lachanodrakon are the Chronographia of Theophanes Confessor and the Vita of St. Stephen the Younger, which are both marked by an iconodule zeal and their depiction of Lachanodrakon is therefore rather negative, insisting on his iconoclastic activities and refering to him as a prosecutor of monks.

2. Theophanes Chronographia 1, de Boor, C. (ed.), (Leipzig 1883), pp. 440.25-27.

3. Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit. Erste Abteilung (641-867), vol. 3 (Berlin, New York 2000), pp. 273-4, see entry “Michael Lachanodrakon”.

4. Migne, J-P. (ed.), “Vita Sancti Stephani Junioris”, Patrologia Graeca 100, 1165.

5. Theophanes Chronographia 1, de Boor, C. (ed.), (Leipzig 1883), pp. 445.3-9.

6. Theophanes Chronographia 1, de Boor, C. (ed.), (Leipzig 1883), pp. 446.12-15.

7. Lilie, R.J., Die byzantinische Reaktion auf die Ausbreitung der Araber, Studien zur Strukturwandlung des byzantinischen Staates im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Miscellanea Byzantina Monacensia 22, München 1976), p. 167.

8. According to the narration of Theophanes, Lachanodrakon took a bribe from the Arab coomander of the city, de Boor, C. (ed.), Theophanes Chronographia (Leipzig 1883), pp. 451.12-27. However, one should be sceptical towards this information, since the writer is bound to have a negative attitude towards all iconoclasts.

9. This information is provided by the Arab historian at-Tabari, Yar-Shater, E., The History of al-Tabari XXIX (Series in New Eastern Studies. Bibliotheca Persica, New York 1985), p. 198. On the contrary, Theophanes attributes the repulse of al-Kabir to sacellarius John, see de Boor, C. (ed.), Theophanes Chronographia (Leipzig 1883), pp. 455.2-8.

10. Lilie, R.J., Die byzantinische Reaktion auf die Ausbreitung der Araber, Studien zur Strukturwandlung des byzantinischen Staates im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Miscellanea Byzantina Monacensia 22, München 1976), p. 167.

11. Theophanes Chronographia, de Boor, C. (ed.), (Leipzig 1883), pp. 456, 7.