Leo V the Armenian

A few years before this, Charles had asked him for an elephant, and he sent the only one that he had.

The emperors of Constantinople, Nicephorus I, 802-811, Michael I, 811-813, and Leo V, 813-820, made advances to Charles, and sought friendship and alliance with him by several embassies.

And even when the Greeks suspected him of designing to wrest the empire from them, because of his assumption of the title emperor, they made a close alliance with him, that he might have no cause of offence.

In fact, the power of the Franks was always viewed by the Greeks and Romans with a jealous eye, whence the Greek proverb, Have the Frank for your friend, but not for your neighbour.

There were also proponents of icons among the empire's monks, and Constantine closed many of the monasteries that venerated them.

Though his immediate successors moved away from iconoclasm, it was brought back in the 9th century by the new dynasty of Leo V, who may have been reacting to the fact that he was suffering losses in the conflict with the Bulgars, while his predecessor Constantine, who was an iconoclast, had managed to defeat them.

The military, social, and financial difficulties of this period would be largely reversed during the 10th and 11th centuries, when many of the territories held by the early empire were regained.

Cities once again became centers of culture and economic growth, education and classical literature were revived, and there were new developments in art and architecture.