Alexios Mosele (general)

In September of that year, Alexios Mosele was sent by the Empress-regent Irene of Athens (r. 797–802) to deal with the soldiers of the Armeniac Theme, who had refused to swear an oath of loyalty which placed her before her son, Emperor Constantine VI (r. 780–797).

Constantine took action on two counts: he had his tutor recalled and sent him, with the iconoclast general Michael Lachanodrakon, to ensure that the Armeniacs – his hard-core supporters – took an oath that they would not accept Irene as emperor.

[2] Constantine, however, soon proved incapable to rule the empire effectively, and the military successes, which the soldiers who supported him had hoped for, did not materialize.

Despite having guaranteed his personal safety, Constantine, who suspected him of designs on the throne, with the advice and encouragement of his mother Empress Irene, had him flogged, tonsured, and imprisoned.

As the imperial army grumbled and even the usually loyal tagmata plotted to replace him, Constantine, on the advice of his mother and her eunuch adviser Staurakios, had Mosele blinded.