[46] [On the 8th of October, according to Theophanes.[j]]
[47] [According to Hefele[m] this commonly accepted statement is not true, since Leo’s first order was the total abolition of images.]
[48] [June, 741, is the date usually assigned to Leo’s death, but Bury[h] thinks that Theophanes[j] made a miscalculation, and he reckons from a solar eclipse and an Easter date, that Leo’s death actually occurred in 740.]
[49] [According to other accounts, he actually smote the statue in the face three times.]
[50] [His brother-in-law Artavasdos rebelled shortly after his accession and held Constantinople for two years before he could be expelled and imprisoned in a monastery.]
[51] [So Nicephorus[k] says, but Theophanes[j] says they returned unmolested.]
[52] [During the reigns of Leo IV, Constantine VI, and Irene there were frequent conflicts with the Saracens, the Bulgarians, and with the troops of Charlemagne, who at one time purposed to reunite the old Roman Empire by marrying Irene, on which Bury[h] comments that such a marriage of ill-assorted nations would have been followed by a speedy divorce.]
[53] [He called a General Council which anathematised Tarasius and Nicephorus, and, repealing the acts of the Council of Nicæa, reasserted those of 754.]
[54] [“‘Crete and Sicily’ were conquered by the Saracens without offering the resistance that might have been expected from the wealth and number of their inhabitants. Indeed, we are compelled to infer that the change from the orthodox sway of the emperors of Constantinople to the domination of the Mohammedans was not considered by the majority of the Greeks of Crete and Sicily so severe a calamity as we generally believe.”—Finlay.[n]]
[55] [“It is the boast of orthodox historians that ten thousand Paulicians perished in this manner. Far greater numbers, however, escaped into the province of Melitene, where the Saracen emir granted them protection, and assisted them to plan schemes of revenge.”—Finlay.[n]]