TIBERIUS ALEXANDER. 



TIBERIUS ABSIMARUS. 



13 



settle this dispute. Adhering to the opinion of Gregorius, he con- 

 vinced the patriarch that he was wrong, aud he persuaded him to burn 

 a book wLioh he had written on the corporeal nature of the soul after 

 death. 



Khosrew died in 579, after a reign of forty-eight years. He had 

 entered into negociations with the Greeks, but his successor, Hormisdas 

 (Ormuz) broke them off and recommenced the war. Hormisdas was 

 defeated by Mauritius and his lieutenant, Narses, a great captain, who 

 must not be confounded with Narses, the victor of the Ostro-Qoths. 

 They overran Persia in one campaign in 579, and in 580 they routed 

 the army of Hormisdas in a bloody battle on the banks of the 

 Euphrates, and took up their winter-quarters in Mesopotamia. At 

 the same time the Greeks obtained great advantages in Africa. 

 Gasmul, king of the Mauritani, or Berbers, had defeated and killed 

 three Greek generals Theodore, Theoctistes, and Amabilis; but in 

 580 he was defeated by the exarch Gennadius, and put to death. 

 Tiberius was less fortunate in Europe, the Avars having surprised and 

 taken the town of Sirmium. But in the following year (581) Mau- 

 ritius destroyed the Persian army in the plain of Constantino, and 

 their general, Tam-Khosrew, lost his life. Mauritius had a triumph 

 iu Constantinople, and on the 5th of August he was created Caesar by 

 Tiberius, who was then worn out by illness, and who had no male 

 issue. After having given his daughter Constantina in marriage to 

 Mauritius, Tiberius died on the 14th of August 582, and since the 

 time of the great Theodosius no emperor's death caused regret so 

 universal. It is a remarkable circumstance in the reign of this 

 emperor, that he was always provided with money without oppressing 

 the people by taxation ; and yet his liberality was so great that the 

 people used to say that he had an inexhaustible treasure. But all 

 these resources did not enable him to save Italy, which may be 

 accounted for thus : During the invasions of Italy and other parts of 

 the Roman empire by the barbarians, many rich men saved great 

 quantities of gold and silver, which they carried to Constantinople, 

 then the only safe place in Europe. This city being the centre of the 

 arts, and the commerce and industry of the East being very extensive, 

 even the money which fell into the hands of the barbarians gradually 

 found its way into the Greek empire, where the barbarians purchased 

 all those articles which they had not skill enough to fabricate them- 

 selves. This view is corroborated by the fact, that notwithstanding 

 the immense tribute which the Greek emperors often paid to the bar- 

 barians, there was always a want of coin in the barbarian kingdoms. 

 On the other hand, the Greeks having lost their martial habits, the 

 emperors were obliged to recruit their armies among the barbarians. 

 These people however were as ready to fight against the emperors as 

 for them ; and it would have endangered the existence of the empire 

 if too large a number had been engaged in its service. Thus Tiberius 

 preferred bribing the Longobardian dukes to raising a large army of 

 barbarians, who would probably have joined the Longobards as soon 

 as they had got their pay. 



(Cedrenus ; Theophanes ; Theophylactus ; Zonaras ; Gregorius 

 Turonensis; Paulus Diaconus; Gibbon, Decline and Fall; Le Beau, 

 JJistoire du Bas Empire.) 



TIBE'RIUS ALEXANDER, prefect of Egypt, was the son of Tibe- 

 rius Alexander who was alabarcha of Alexandria, and the brother of 

 Philo Judseus, the well-known writer. Tacitus calls him an Egyptian, 

 but this only means that he was a native of Alexandria ; for he was a 

 Jew, though he afterwards adopted paganism. Nero appointed him 

 governor of Judaea, where he succeeded Cuspius Fadus, and he made 

 him a Roman eques. In the last campaign of Corbulo against the 

 Parthians, Tiberius Alexander and Vinianus Annius, the son-in-law of 

 Corbulo, were given as hostages to King Tiridates, who came to the 

 Roman camp for the purpose of settling his differences with the 

 Romans (A.D. 63). Tiberius Alexander was afterwards appointed 

 prefect of Egypt, in which capacity he quelled a dangerous insurrec- 

 tion of the Jews of Alexandria, who were jealous of the favour which 

 Nero showed the Greek inhabitants of that town. The resistance of 

 the Jews was so obstinate, that Tiberius was obliged to employ two 

 legions and five thousand Libyan soldiers against them ; and it is said 

 that more than fifty thousand Jews perished on this occasion. On the 

 1st of July, A.D. 69, Tiberius Alexander proclaimed Vespasian emperor, 

 pursuant to a scheme which had been concerted by Vespasian, Titus, 

 and Mucianus, the proconsul of Syria. In consequence of this event, 

 the 1st of July 69 is regarded as the beginning of the reign of Ves- 

 pasian, who showed great regard for his governor of Egypt. When 

 Titus, the successor of Vespasian, was about to undertake the siege of 

 Jerusalem, which resulted in its capture, he was accompanied by 

 Tiberius Alexander. 



(Josephus, Antiq, Jud. and De Hello Jud.; Suetonius, Vespasianus ; 

 Tacitus, Annal., xv. 28 ; Hist. i. 11 ; ii. 74, 79 ; the notes of Ernesti 

 to Suetonius and Tacitus.) 



TIBERIUS, an Alexandrine grammarian, who probably lived in the 

 4th century of our era. Suidas (s. v. Ttfifptos), who calls him a philo- 

 sopher and a sophist, ascribes to him a long list of rhetorical works, 

 all of which are lost, with the exception of one, which formerly used 

 to be called Ilepi TWV irapa. A^jUotrfleVet trx'/A tc ' Ta " / > au( i which is one of 

 the best works of the kind that were produced at the time. The 

 editio princeps of it, which is ascribed to Leo Allatius, appeared at 

 Rome in 1643. The next edition is that of Gale, who incorporated 



EIOG. HIV. VOL. VI, 



the work of Tiberius in his 'Rhetores Select!,' 8vo, Oxford, 1676. A 

 reprint of this collection of rhetoricians was edited by J. F. Fischer, 

 8vo, Leipzig, 1773. In all these editions the work of Tiberius contains 

 only 22 short chapters, which treat on Schemata, that is, those forms 

 of expression which are not the natural forms, bat are adopted for 

 ornament or use. In 1815 J. F. Boissonade published at London a 

 new edition, in 8vo, from a Vatican manuscript, in which the work is 

 called Tltpl ffx'ni^iruv prjropiKwv, and in which there are 26 chapter* 

 more than had ever before been published ; and this second part of 

 the work treats on the so-called ' figures elocutionis,' or the ornamental 

 forms of elocution. This edition of Boissonade also contains a work 

 of Rufus, entitled rt'x"'? prjropiK-fi, the author of which has only become 

 known through the Vatican manuscript containing the complete work 

 of Tiberius ; in the editions of Gale and Fischer it was called the 

 work of an anonymous writer. A few fragments of other works of 

 Tiberius are preserved in the scholiast on Hermogenes, ii., pp. 385 and 

 401, edit. Aldus. 



(Groddeck, Initia Ifisloria Qrcecorum Literamce, iL 173; Wcster- 

 mann, Geschichte der Griech. Beredtsamkeit, p. 251, &c.) 



TIBE'RIUS ABSI'MARUS became emperor of the East, in A.D. 698, 

 under the following circumstances : Leontius dethroned and banished 

 the tyrant Justinian II., and having assumed the imperial title in 

 695, continued the war with the Arabs in Africa. Notwithstanding 

 the Greeks were assisted by the Berbers, they lost Carthago in 

 697 ; they reconquered it shortly afterwards, but in 698 the Arabs 

 retook the town from the Greeks and entirely destroyed it. A 

 powerful fleet, commi nded by the patrician John, was then off Car- 

 thage ; but although John entered the harbour with a division of his 

 fleet, and landed a body of troops, his measures had only a partial 

 effect, and he was obliged to leave Carthage to her fate. The destruc- 

 tion of this famous town was attributed by the Greek officers to the 

 incompetency of John, and they were afraid to return to Constanti- 

 nople without having prevented the ruin of Carthage. Absimarua, 

 the commander of the Cibyrats, or the troops of the province of 

 Cibyra, then the collective name of Caria and Lycia, turned the dis- 

 content of the soldiers to his own profit. He persuaded hia men that 

 the emperor would punish them severely for not having obtained 

 some advantage over the Arabs, and that they ran the risk of suffering 

 for the faults of their commander-in-chief. When the fleet was off 

 Crete, a mutiny broke out. The Cibyratso proclaimed Absimarus 

 emperor, the rest of the fleet followed their example, and John was 

 massacred. 



Absimarus having arrived at Constantinople, cast anchor in the bay 

 of Ceras (now the Golden Horn), between this city and the suburb of 

 Sycse. Leontius prepared a vigorous resistance ; but the courage of 

 his soldiers and of the inhabitants was weakened by an epidemic 

 disease, and at last Absimarus found his way into the town by bribing 

 some sentinels. 



Absimarus assumed the name of Tiberius and was acknowledged 

 emperor : his rival Leontius had his nose and his ears cut off, and was 

 confined in a monastery. Tiberius Absimarus continued the war with 

 the Arabs, and appointed his brother Heraclius commander-in-chief. 

 This experienced general conquered Syria in 699 and 700, and treated 

 the Mohammedan inhabitants most barbarously : it is said that 

 200,000 of them lost their lives by the sword of the Greeks. This 

 war continued during the years 701, 702, and 703 ; and, although 

 the Greeks did not recover Carthage, they obtained many signal advan- 

 tages. Tiberius Absimarus had great influence in Italy, where Popes 

 Sergius and John VI. were continually harassed by John Platys, and 

 afterwards by Theophylact, the Greek exarch of Ravenna. 



Tiberius Absimarus lost his crown by a sudden revolution. When 

 Leontius dethroned Justinian II., this prince had his nose cut off, and 

 was banished to the town of Cherson, in the present Crimea. Some 

 years after, he fled to the khaghan, or khan, of the Khazars, who 

 received him respectfully, and assigned for his residence Phanagoria, 

 once an opulent city, on the island of Tamatarcha, The khaghan, 

 whose name was Busirus, gave him in marriage his sister Theodora ; 

 but Tiberius Absimarus bribed the khan with a large sum of gold, and 

 Justinian was only saved by the affection of Theodora, who discovered 

 to him the treacherous design of her brother. After strangling with 

 his own hands the two emissaries of the khaghan, Justinian rewarded 

 the love of his wife by repudiating her and sending her back to her 

 brother Busirus ; and he fled to Terbelis, or Terbellus, the king of the 

 Bulgarians. He now formed the plan of recovering his throne, and he 

 purchased the aid of Terbelis by promising him his daughter and a part 

 of the imperial treasury. At the head of 15,000 horse, they set out for 

 Constantinople. Tiberius Absimarus was dismayed by the sudden 

 appearance of his rival, whose head had been promised by the khaghan, 

 and of whose escape he was yet ignorant. Justinian had still some 

 adherents in Constantinople, who introduced his troops into the city, 

 by means of an aqueduct. Tiberius escaped from Constantinople, but 

 he was seized at Apollonia on the Pontus Euxinus (705), and Justinian 

 ordered him, his brother Heraclius, and the deposed Leontius, who 

 was still alive, to be dragged into the Hippodrome. Before their exe- 

 cution, the two usurpers were led in chains to the throne, and forced 

 to prostrate themselves before Justinian, who had sworn not to spare 

 one of his enemies. Planting his feet on their necks, the tyrant 

 watched the chariot-race for more than an hour, while the people 







