PHILIPPICUS  ,

East Roman emperor, 711-713, was the son of the patrician Nicephorus, and became distinguished as a soldier under Justinian II . His proper name, which indicates his Armenian origin, was Bardanes . Relying on the support of the Monothelite party, he made some pretensions to the throne on the outbreak of the first great rebellion against Justinian; these led to his relegation to Cephalonia by Tiberius Absimarus, and subsequently to his banishment, by order of Justinian, to Cherson . Here Bardanes, taking the name of Philippicus, successfully incited the inhabitants to revolt, and on the assassination of Justinian he at once assumed the purple . Among his first acts were the deposition of Cyrus, the orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, in favour of John, a member of his own sect, and the summoning of a conciliabulum of Eastern bishops, which abolished the canons of the sixth general council . Meanwhile Terbelis, king of the Bulgarians, plundered up to the walls of Constantinople, and shortly afterwards the Saracens made similar inroads from the Asiatic side . The reign of Philippicus was brought to a close through a conspiracy headed by two of his generals, who caused him to be blinded . See Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (ed . Bury, London, 1896), v . 183-184 .