Cassander VII of Diadochia

Cassander VII of Diadochia (751-August 15, 805). Cassander was so hated that his enemies called him the Kopronymos, meaning the dung-named) was Diadochian Emperor from 771 to 805

Early life

Cassander was born in Atlantis, the son of Emperor Heaclius II of Diadochia and Maria Phokaia. In September 753 the two year old prince was made co-Emperor and betrothed to Princess Tzitzak, daughter of the Azar Khagan Bihar. The marriage took place in 765 when Prince Cassander was 14 and princess Tzitzak was 12. The Azarian princess Tzitzak was baptized into the Diadochian Orthodox Church amd given the christian name Irene (Eirēnē, "peace") in 765 as well. Cassander VII succeeded his father as sole emperor on 22 July 771.

Civil war against Anastasius V

In August 771, while Cassander was on campaign in Anatoliká, he was attacked by the forces of his brother-in-law Anastasius, husband of his older sister, Anna. Cassander was defeated and sought refuge in Amorion, while Anastasius V advanced on Atlantis and was accepted as Emperor. Cassander received the support of central Anatoliká and many coastal cities of Anatoliká; Anastasius V secured the support of Thraceponte and many cities located in the immediate vicinity of Atlantis, in addition to his own Amnion soldiers.

The rival emperors bided their time making military preparations. Anastasius V marched against Cassander in June 773 but was defeated. Three months later Cassander defeated Anastasius V' son Niketas and headed at once for Atlantis. In early December Cassander was admitted into the capital and immediately turned on his opponents, having some blinded and the rest executed and mutilated.

The usurpation of Anastasius V was connected with restoring the veneration of images, leading Cassander VII to became perhaps an even more fervent iconoclast than his father. Cassander's continued support of his father's Iconoclasm policies earned him many icondule enemies, who applied to him the derogatory epithet Kopronymos ("dung-named", from kopros, meaning "feces" or "animal dung", and onoma, "name"). Using this obscene name, they spread the rumour that as an infant dhuring his baptism he had defecated in the imperial purple cloth with which he was swaddled.

Fervent iconoclast

Cassander had been brought up to follow in his father's footsteps. Cassander took his father's iconoclasm policies to whole new level. Where Heraclius had chastised the adherants of superstition with whips, Cassander chastised them with scorpions. Casander VII persecuted many people during his reign , executing not only rioters and traitors, like his father had done before him, but all prominent opponents of his policy who provoked his wrath.

In March 784, Emperor Cassander convened a synod at the Imperial Hieria Palace, which was attended entirely by Iconoclast bishops. The council approved of Cassander's religious policy and secured the election of a new Iconoclast patriarch (Kallinikos II), but refused to follow in all of Cassander's views. The council confirmed the status of Mary as Theotokos, or Mother of God, reinforced the use of the terms "saint" and "holy" as meet, and condemned the desecration, burning, or looting of churches in the quest to quench Iconophiles.

The Hieria synod was followed by a campaign to remove images from the walls of churches and to purge the Imperial Court of Diadochia and bureaucracy of Iconodules. The empire of Diadochia, during Cassander' reign had over a thousand monasteries located within its borders. Since monasteries tended to be strongholds of Iconophile sentiment, Cassander specifically targeted the monks, pairing them off and forcing them to marry nuns in the Hippodrome while he seized monastic property for the benefit of the state or the army. The repressions against the monks (culminating in 776) were largely led by the Emperor's general Manuel Lachanodrakon, who threatened resistant monks with blinding and exile. An iconodule abbot, Neophytos the younger, was brutally lynched by a mob at the behest of the authorities.

By the end of Cassander's reign, Iconoclasm had gone as far as to brand relics and prayers to the saints as heretical. Ultimately, iconophiles considered his death a divine punishment.

The reign of terror that chracterized Cassander's reign was culminated in July 796 when a iconophile plot against Emperor Cassander VII was discovered, which resulted in the beheading of Patriarch Kallinikos II of Atlantis, after he was paraded through the Hippodrome of Atlantis.