Artabasdos

   Strategos of the Armeniakon (qq.v.), later count of the Opsikion (q.v.), who usurped power in 742-743 from Constantine V (q.v.). He captured Constantinople (q.v.), was crowned by the patriarch Anastasios (qq.v.), and restored the holy icons (q.v.). In the provinces the revolt was supported by troops from the themes of Opskikon and the Armeniakon (qq.v.). Constantine V defeated each of them in turn, regained the capital, and blinded Aratabasdos and his two sons in the Hippodrome (q.v.), where the patriarch Anastasios was publicly humiliated by being led around naked on a donkey.