Staurakios

Staurakios (medium Σταυράκιος Greek, Latin Stauracius; † early January 812) was in the year 811 for a few weeks Byzantine emperor.

Staurakios was the son of Emperor Nikephoros ' I. He was raised from this year 803 as co-emperor. 807 he married Theophano, a relative of the former Empress Irene. In the Battle of the Warbiza pass against the Bulgarians in 811, his father fell in battle. Staurakios, who had also participated in the battle, escaped badly wounded and was crowned in Hadrian Opel on 28 July to the emperor. On his return to Constantinople Opel, he appointed his wife to co-ruler. Due to his severe injury in early October 811 but he was deposed by the patriarch Nicephorus and banished to a monastery, where he died in early January of the following year. Some sources report that he had been poisoned by his sister Prokopia. He was succeeded by Michael I. Rangabe, who had survived the battle unharmed and was married to Prokopia.