The occasion for the invasion of Sicily was provided by the rebellion of the tourmarches Euphemius, commander of the island's fleet. According to later and possibly fictional accounts, driven by lust for a nun, he had forced her to marry him. Her brothers protested to Emperor Michael II, and the Byzantine ruler ordered the island's strategos, Constantine Soudas, to investigate the matter and if the charges were found true, to cut off Euphemius' nose as punishment. Thus it came that Euphemius, returning from a naval raid against the African coast, learned that he was to be arrested. Instead, he sailed for Syracuse, occupying the city, while the governor sought refuge in the interior. Euphemius soon managed to gain the support of a large part of the island's military leadership. Euphemius repulsed an attempt by Constantine to recover Syracuse, forcing the governor to flee to Catana. Euphemius' forces pursued and drove Constantine out of Catana, and eventually captured and executed him. Euphemius was then proclaimed emperor. The historian Alexander Vasiliev doubts the "romantic" story of the origin of Euphemius' revolt, and believes that the ambitious general simply used an opportune moment, when the central Byzantine government was weakened by the recent Revolt of Thomas the Slav, and by its preoccupation with the contemporary Muslim conquest of Crete, to seize power for himself.
