Neboulos

Neboulos () was a South Slavic military commander in the service of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II (r. 685–695 and 705–711). Around 690, Neboulos was appointed commander a special military corps of about 30,000 men established by the Emperor. In 692/3, he and his corps joined in a major Byzantine campaign against the Umayyad Caliphate. However, in the Battle of Sebastopolis, Neboulos and about 20,000 of his men defected to the Arabs, allegedly bribed by the Arab commander Muhammad ibn Marwan. In retaliation, Justinian II disbanded the corps, executed or enslaved the remaining soldiers and their families. Neboulos and his followers were resettled in Syria to serve in future Arab campaigns.

==History== thumb|right|upright=0.75|Gold solidus of Justinian II 4.42 grams (0.156 oz), struck after 692 Early in his reign, Justinian II had the ambition to restore the lands of the former Roman Empire, as Emperor Justinian I did. To accomplish this goal, he aggressively sought combat by undoing measures that brought the peace and prosperity established by his father. Early on, he broke a peace with the Bulgarians and immediately attacked slavic tribes that had established near Thessaloniki. In 688/9, Justinian II forcibly transplanted Slavic populations from the Balkans and settled them in the Opsician Theme, which was depopulated from Arab attacks under Justinian's father reign. He granted them military land grants, and from them, he recruited a special military corps, allegedly 30,000 strong, which was called in "the chosen people" ().