Olympius (exarch)

Olympius (Ancient Greek: Ολύμπιος, romanized: Olúmpios; died 652) was Exarch of Ravenna from 649 until his death in 652. Prior to his term as exarch, Olympius was an imperial chamberlain at Constantinople.[1]

In 649, according to the Liber Pontificalis, the Byzantine emperor Constans II ordered Olympius to arrest Pope Martin I on the grounds that the pope's election had not been submitted to the emperor for approval. Constans was upset with Martin's condemnation of the Monothelite heresy; he feared that it would resurrect the religious conflict that had plagued the empire. Olympius attempted to gain the support of the citizenry of Rome, as well as the bishops; he also allegedly considered ordering the assassination of Martin. None of his actions, however, met with much success.

Eventually, Olympius decided to switch his allegiance and sided with the Pope, simultaneously declaring himself emperor. He marched into Sicily in 652, either to fight the Saracens or the local Byzantine forces. However, his army was stricken by an unknown disease, which killed Olympius that same year.[2]

## References

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1. ^ Jeffrey Richards, The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages (London:Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979), pp. 187f
2. ^ Raymond Davis (translator), The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis), first edition (Liverpool: University Press, 1989), pp. 69f

## Further reading

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* A. N. Stratos, "The Exarch Olympius and the Supposed Arab Invasion of Sicily in A.D. 652", Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 25 (1976), 63-73.

## External links

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* Dalbon, Francesco (2013). "OLIMPIO". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 79: Nursio–Ottolini Visconti (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-88-12-00032-6.

Preceded by

Plato

|  Exarch of Ravenna
649–652  | Succeeded by

Theodore I Calliopas

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Exarchs of the Exarchate of Ravenna

* Decius (584–585)
* Smaragdus (585–589)
* Romanus (589–596)
* Callinicus (596–603)
* Smaragdus (603–608)
* John I (608–616)
* Eleutherius (616–619)
* Gregory the patrician (619-625)
* Isaac (625–643)
* Theodore I Calliopas (643–645)
* Plato (645–649)
* Olympius (649–652)
* Theodore I Calliopas (653 – c. 666)
* Gregorios (c. 666)
* Theodore II (678–687)
* John II Platyn (687–702)
* Theophylact (702–710)
* John III Rizocopus (710–711)
* Scholasticus (713–723)
* Paul (723–727)
* Eutychius (728–752)

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