Alexander of Byzantium

Alexander (870–913), third son of Basil I, was Byzantine emperor from May 912 after his brother Leo VI's death, ruling jointly with his young nephew Constantine VII. He had been co-emperor since 879.

He dismissed Leo's advisers and shut Constantine's mother Zoe Karbonopsina in a nunnery. He also restored Nicholas Mystikos, the patriarch Leo had removed.

In the east he faced attacks by the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir, and by refusing the customary tribute he provoked Simeon I of Bulgaria to war. He died in June 913, reportedly from gluttony and drink, leaving Constantine VII under Nicholas Mystikos's regency amid a Bulgarian invasion.