A couple of examples come to mind:

• The Byzantine emperor Justinian II was deposed, mutilated, and exiled to the Crimea. Later, two assassins were sent to finish him off, but he fought them off and strangled them. He then escaped to the Bulgars, married the daughter of the Khan, and reclaimed the throne with the aid of the Bulgar army.

• The empress Aelia Eudocia became estranged from her husband, the emperor Theodosius II, and took up residence in Jerusalem. Theodosius sent the captain of his bodyguard to kill several of his wife’s followers, but the empress intercepted the man and killed him herself.