List of Byzantine emperors of Armenian origin

According to medieval and modern sources, a number of Byzantine emperors were allegedly Armenian or of partially Armenian heritage. The following list includes the Byzantine emperors to whom sources attribute Armenian origin. Speculation of Armenian ancestry in emperors remains a wide topic of debate.

History and criticism

In 1891 John Buchan Telfer reported to the Royal Society of Arts several Byzantine emperors of Armenian origin, including Maurice and John Tzimiskes.
The first work on Byzantine emperors of Armenian origin, Armenian Emperors of Byzantium, was authored by Fr. Garabed Der-Sahagian and published in 1905 by the Mekhitarist congregation of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in Venice. Anthony Kaldellis suggested that Der-Sahagian extended "western European modes of racial and nationalist historiography to the history of medieval Armenia." Kaldellis believes that it was Nicholas Adontz who "made the search for Armenians in Byzantium into a more scholarly and less romantic nationalist process." However, he is critical of Adontz as he saw "Armenians everywhere and injected them into as many important events as he could."
According to Kaldellis it was later endorsed by Peter Charanis and Alexander Kazhdan and "has spread widely in the field of Byzantine Studies." Kazhdan's book Armenians in the Ruling Class of the Byzantine Empire in the 11th-12th Centuries was published by the Armenian Academy of Sciences in Russian in 1975.
Charanis suggested that "every emperor who sat on the Byzantine throne from the accession of Basil I to the death of Basil II was of Armenian or partially Armenian origin." However, he noted that "in Byzantium the ethnic origins of a person was of not significance, provided he integrated himself into its cultural life." Speros Vryonis listed the Heracleian and Macedonian dynasties as being of Armenian ancestry, along with individual emperors like Leo V, Romanus I, and John Tzimisces.
Robert H. Hewsen counted "no fewer than sixteen emperors and eleven empresses" of Byzantium of Armenian origin and suggested that Armenians ruled "for almost a third of history." He conceded, however, that "ost of these Armenians, of course, were thoroughly hellenized, membership in the Greek Church being the sine qua non for advancement in the Byzantine world."
Anthony Kaldellis is highly critical of what he calls the "Armenian fallacy" in Byzantine studies to which he dedicated a separate chapter and a sub-chapter specifically about emperors in his 2019 book Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium, published by Harvard University Press. He wrote, "The consensual mass hallucination that is the Armenian fallacy has populated Byzantine history with a series of alleged “Armenian” emperors." Earlier, in 2008, Kaldellis wrote in Two Romes that scholars incorrectly apply modern ethnic labels like "Armenian" or "Bulgarian" to assimilated Byzantine Romans, stating “what they should be called are Romans of Armenian descent” instead. He suggested this practice is driven by modern nationalist claims rather than historical accuracy.
Kaldellis' criticisms of the "Armenian fallacy" have been subsequently endorsed by historians such as Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Alexander Beihammer, Marek Klatý, and C.J. Meynell, among others. Toby Bromige wrote that Kaldellis "may at times seem dismissive of the depth and influence that Armenians had within Byzantium, especially the strength of ancestral descent in certain individuals, but he correctly identifies a lack of relevant historical investigation and precision."

List

Pre-Macedonian

Modern scholarship, however, does not have a consensus. Krzysztof Stopka writes that it is generally regarded as a legend. It has been accepted by Nicholas Adontz, Peter Charanis, Henri Grégoire, Robert H. Hewsen, but rejected by others, such as Paul Goubert. Walter Kaegi described him as "of probable Armenian origin." Anthony Kaldellis argues that his Armenian ancestry is "largely unknown to historians who study his reign" and that "no contemporary source—and there are many— mentions it." He considers the medieval Armenian chronicles to be "Armenian folktales" and notes that "one of the names in his extended family are Armenian". A. E. Redgate is also skeptical; as the "counter-arguments, in his case, seem overwhelming."
Kaldellis argues that his Armenian origin "takes the prize for fiction masquerading as history" and that statements regarding his ancestry "have been woven out of thin air". He notes that "there is not a single primary source that says that Herakleios was an Armenian" and, moreover, "none of the names in his extended family are Armenian, and this in an age when Armenian generals in Roman service kept their native names and did not always switch to Graeco-Roman ones". He writes that this assertion about Heraclius' ancestry is based on an erroneous reading of Theophylact Simocatta. In a letter, Priscus, a general who had replaced Heraclius the Elder, wrote to him "to leave the army and return to his own city in Armenia". Kaldellis interprets it as the command headquarters of Heraclius the Elder, and not his home town, since "t would make no sense in the context of the narrative for Philippikos to send Herakleios “home.”". According to historian Benjamin Anderson, Kaldellis "effectively debunks the received wisdom" on Heraclius's origins.

Macedonian dynasty

The Macedonian dynasty, which ruled the empire between 867 and 1056, has been called the "Armenian dynasty" by some scholars such as George Bournoutian and Mack Chahin. Zachary Chitwood suggests the term Macedonian dynasty is "something of a misnomer" because of the Armenian origin of Basil I, the dynasty's founder.
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