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Case file s799 · Russia and Byzantium · 711
711
Justinian II: Justinian ii (2, cropped and askew)
Justinian II. Marvelfannumber1. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
711
Place
Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey
Field
Byzantine imperial throne · Royalty and nobility on the timeline
Legal tradition
Byzantine custom that a mutilated man could not be emperor
Historical event
Twenty years of coups in Constantinople (695 to 717)
Religion
Justinian II: Other Christian (recorded as Christianity on Wikidata)

Justinian II lost his throne and his nose in 695, took Constantinople back in 705, and was killed with his son in 711

Justinian II became emperor in 685 at 16, after his father Constantine IV died. In 695 the general Leontios overthrew him, slit his nose and tongue, and exiled him to Cherson in Crimea. Custom required an emperor to be free of physical defects, so the cut was meant to keep him from ruling again. In exile he sought help from the Khazar ruler and married into the ruler's family. In 705 he marched on Constantinople with the Bulgar khan Tervel. His men entered the city through an aqueduct, and Tiberios III, who had overthrown Leontios, fled. Justinian took the throne a second time, wearing a gold false nose†. He crowned his Khazar wife, the first foreign-born augusta, and crowned their young son Tiberios co-emperor to secure the succession. His coins of 705 to 711 show father and son together. Leontios and Tiberios III were paraded through the city and executed, and those who had helped depose him were persecuted. In 711 Bardanes, sent with a force to Cherson, turned on him, seized the capital and had Justinian beheaded. He also ordered the young Tiberios killed. No son of Justinian's line ruled again†.

What the law took from it

Mutilation was used as a legal bar to inheritance, but it held only as long as the mutilated heir had no army.

Record vs. record

World History Encyclopedia says his Khazar wife Theodora was the sister of the Khazar leader Ibuzir: | Dumbarton Oaks says she was the khaghan's daughter:

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Justinian II lost his throne and his nose in 695, took Constantinople back in 705, and was killed with his son in 711,” story s799, https://www.celebrity.estate/justinian-ii-711, updated 30 October 2026.

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