Tiberius III (), born Apsimar (; ), was Byzantine emperor from 698 to 705AD. Little is known about his early life, other than that he was , a mid-level commander, of the Cibyrrhaeots, and that his birth name was Apsimar. In 696, Tiberius was part of an army sent by Byzantine Emperor Leontius to retake the city of Carthage in the Exarchate of Africa, which had been captured by the Arab Umayyads. After seizing the city, this army was pushed back by Umayyad reinforcements and retreated to the island of Crete; some of the officers, fearing the wrath of Leontius, killed their commander, and declared Tiberius emperor. Tiberius swiftly gathered a fleet, sailed for Constantinople, and deposed Leontius. Tiberius did not attempt to retake Byzantine Africa from the Umayyads, but campaigned against them along the eastern border with some success. In 705 former emperor Justinian II, who had been deposed by Leontius, led an army of Slavs and Bulgars to Constantinople, and after entering the city secretly, deposed Tiberius. Tiberius fled to Bithynia, but was captured a few months later and beheaded between August 705 and February 706. His body was initially thrown into the sea, but was later recovered and buried in a church on the island of Prote. History Early life Very little is known of Tiberius before the reign of Byzantine emperor Leontius (), except for his birth name, Apsimar, historically considered to be of Germanic origin. The historian Wolfram Brandes traces the traditional assumption of a Germanic origin to J. B. Bury, but remarks that it is incorrect. The Byzantinists Anthony Bryer and Judith Herrin have suggested that the name Apsimar may be Slavic in origin, and scholars Leslie Brubaker and John Haldon have suggested a Turkic origin. Additionally, it is known that he was a (a commander of about a thousand men) of the Cibyrrhaeot Theme, a military province in southern Anatolia. Some scholars, such as Alexander Vasiliev, have speculated that Tiberius was of Gotho-Greek origin. The Byzantinist Walter Kaegi states that Tiberius had some unspecified victories over the Slavs in the Balkans during his early military career, which granted him a degree of popularity. Background In 696, the Umayyad Caliphate renewed their attack upon the Exarchate of Africa of the Byzantine Empire, focused on seizing the city of Carthage and managed to capture it in 697. The Byzantine Emperor Leontius sent John the Patrician