Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Philippicus

PHILIPPICUS, or Philepicus, emperor of Constantinople from December 711 to June 713, was the son of the patrician Nicephorus, and became distinguished as a soldier under Justinian II. His proper name was Bardanes. Relying on the support of the Monothelete party, he made some pretensions to the throne on the outbreak of the first great rebellion against Justinian; these led to his relegation to Cephalonia by Tiberius Absimarus, and subsequently to his banishment, by order of Justinian, to Cherson. Here Bardanes, taking the name of Philippicus, successfully incited the inhabitants to revolt against a prince who had made them the objects of one of his most vindictive expeditions, and on the assassination of Justinian in Asia Minor he at once assumed the purple. Among his first acts were the deposition of Cyrus, the orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, in favour of John, a member of his own sect, and the summoning of a “conciliabulum” of Eastern bishops which abolished the canons of the sixth general council, and restored to the diptychs the names of Sergius and Honorius. Meanwhile Terbelis, king of the Bulgarians, attacked Constantinople, burning some of its suburbs and carrying off many prisoners and much booty, while shortly afterwards the Saracens made similar inroads from the Asiatic side. The short reign of Philippicus was brought to a close through a conspiracy headed by two of his generals, who caused him to be blinded in the hippodrome in June 713. Of the remainder of his life nothing is known. He was succeeded by his secretary, Artemius, known as Anastasius II.