The Hexapolis () was a district in
Armenia Minor
Lesser Armenia (; ; ), also known as Armenia Minor and Armenia Inferior, comprised the Armenian-populated regions primarily to the west and northwest of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia (also known as Kingdom of Greater Armenia), on the western sid ...
, mentioned in the early
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
period (7th–8th centuries). It comprised the cities of
Melitene, which was the district capital,
Arka,
Arabissos,
Kukusos,
Komana and
Ariaratheia. It formed part of the
Roman province
The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...
of
Armenia Secunda, renamed to
Armenia Tertia
Roman Armenia refers to the rule of parts of Greater Armenia by the Roman Empire from the 1st century AD to the end of Late Antiquity. While Armenia Minor had become a client state until it was incorporated into the Roman Empire proper during t ...
after
Justinian I
Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...
's provincial reorganization in 536.
The Hexapolis sustained several attacks from the Arabs beginning in 661.
An emir called Busr attacked the area west of Militene in 667
while, in 695, the Arabs - disregarding all treaties - raided Hexapolis and took many of its inhabitants captive. Justinian was about to launch an expedition to Hexapolis to counter the Arab attack but this was prevented after he was deposed by a mob led by
Leontios
Leontius (; died 15 February 706) was Byzantine emperor from 695 to 698. Little is known of his early life, other than that he was born in Isauria in Asia Minor. He was given the title of ''patrikios'', and made ''strategos'' of the Anatolic ...
, his previously appointed ''
strategos
''Strategos'' (), also known by its Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized form ''strategus'', is a Greek language, Greek term to mean 'military General officer, general'. In the Hellenistic world and in the Byzantine Empire, the term was also use ...
'' of the
''Hellas'' Theme.
References
Sources
*
Byzantine Anatolia
Provinces of the Byzantine Empire
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