CHAPTER II. THE REIGNS OF NICEPHORUS I, MICHAEL I, AND LEO V THE ARMENIAN
A.D. 802-820
NICEPHORUS held the office of grand Logothetes, or treasurer, when he dethroned Irene. He was born at Seleucia, in Pisidia, of a family which claimed descent from the Arabian kings. His ancestor Djaballah, the Christian monarch of Ghassan in the time of Heraclius, abjured the allegiance of the Roman empire, and embraced the Mohammedan religion. He carried among the stern and independent Moslems the monarchical pride and arrogance of a vassal court. As he was performing the religious rites of the pilgrimage in the mosque at Mecca, an Arab accidentally trod on his cloak; Djaballah, enraged that a king should be treated with so little respect, struck the careless Arab in the face, and knocked out some of his teeth. The justice of the Caliph Omar knew no distinction of persons, and the king of Ghassan was ordered to make satisfactory reparation to the injured Arab, or submit to the law of retaliation. The monarch’s pride was so deeply wounded by this sentence that he fled to Constantinople, and renounced the Mohammedan religion. From this king the Arabs, who paid the most minute attention to genealogy, allow that Nicephorus was lineally descended.
The leading features of the reign of Nicephorus were political order and fiscal oppression. His character was said to be veiled in impenetrable hypocrisy; yet anecdotes are recounted which indicate that he made no secret of his avarice, and the other vices attributed to him. His orthodoxy was certainly suspicious, but, on the whole, he appears to have been an able and humane prince. He has certainly obtained a worse reputation in history than many emperors who have been guilty of greater crimes. Many anecdotes are recounted concerning his rapacity.
As soon as he received the Imperial crown, he bethought himself of the treasures Irene had concealed, and resolved to gain possession of them. These treasures are conceived by the Byzantine historians to be a part of the Immense sums Leo III and Constantine V were supposed to have accumulated. The abundance and low price of provisions which had prevailed, particularly in the reign of Constantine V, was ascribed to the rarity of sp
