 The 12th-century chronicle of Michael the Syrian claims that the city's inhabitants abandoned it and fled by ship through Lake Ascania, whereupon the Arabs destroyed Nicaea, but this is clearly an error.The repulsion of the Arab assault on Nicaea was an important success for the Byzantines.Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741) regarded the city's survival as a sign of divine favour towards his newly instituted iconoclastic policies, and was encouraged to drive them further.