Alexios Mosele (Ancient Greek:Ἀλέξιος Μωσηλέ) orMusele/Mousele (Μουσελέ) was aByzantine aristocrat and general, chosen by EmperorTheophilos (r. 829–842) for a time as his heir, betrothed to his daughter Maria and raised to the supreme dignity ofCaesar. He campaigned in theBalkans, recovering territory from theSlavs, and fought with some success inSicily against theArabs. Recalled toConstantinople on suspicion of plotting to usurp the throne, he was imprisoned but later pardoned and allowed to retire to amonastery, where he spent the remainder of his days.
Alexios was possibly the son or the grandson of the generalAlexios Mosele, who had been active underConstantine VI (r. 780–797), although Byzantine chroniclers record that he was descended from theKrenites family. A brother named Theodosios, who held the high court title ofpatrikios, is also recorded.[1][2][3]
Sometime between 838 and 839, Alexios was engaged to the princess Maria, Emperor Theophilos's youngest and favourite daughter, despite the fact that she was aninfant. Theophilos had no male heir at the time, and this move was evidently intended as marking out Alexios as his heir apparent. He was progressively promoted topatrikios andanthypatos, then tomagistros and eventually toCaesar.[2][4][5] He was the only person known to have been promoted to the rank during Theophilos's reign, and may indeed have been raised to it as early as 831, when the presence of an unnamedCaesar is attested at an imperial triumph. Alternatively, it may be a reference to another, otherwise unknown, holder of the title, who probably died shortly after.[6]
In summer 836, Mosele was dispatched with an army against theBulgars inThrace. Instead of confronting them, however, he focused on recovering for the Byzantine Empire the coastal strip between the riversNestos andStrymon, which had been abandoned to the local Slavs by the Byzantine-Bulgarian Treaty of 816. In this way, he restored the direct land connection between Thrace andThessalonica, the Empire's major Balkan city. After founding a new city, namedCaesaropolis after himself, he returned to Constantinople.[7]
Alexios may have participated in Theophilos's successful campaign againstMelitene in 837, as he is recorded to have participated in the triumph that followed the emperor's return. This, however, is disputed by some scholars.[8] In 838, Mosele was sent on an expedition against the Arabs inSicily. There, he achieved a number of successes, forcing the Arabs to raise their siege ofCephaloedium, and inflicted several defeats upon their forces. His forces, however, were insufficient to evict the Arabs altogether from their holdings in the western part of the island, and in late 838 he suffered a defeat at the hands of fresh Arab reinforcements.[9]
In 842 he was accused by some Sicilians of colluding with the Arabs and planning to become emperor himself. To avoid forcing hisCaesar into a corner, Theophilos sent Theodore Crithinus,Archbishop of Syracuse, to recall him under guarantees of personal safety. Nevertheless, upon his arrival in the capital, Alexios was stripped of his titles, beaten, and imprisoned.[2][10] Theodore Crithinus publicly confronted the emperor for his breach of his word at theChurch of St. Mary of Blachernae, but the enraged Theophilos had him beaten and exiled as well. Soon, however, thePatriarchJohn the Grammarian too publicly berated Theophilos. The emperor relented, released both Theodore and Alexios, and restored the latter to his rank and property.[2][11]
His relations with the emperor, however, cooled considerably, particularly after the birth, in 840, of Theophilos's son,Michael III (r. 842–867). By 842, Mosele had retired to a monastery at the quarter ofta Anthemiou inChrysopolis, which he himself had founded. Nothing is known of him thereafter.[1][2][5][12]