Amorian dynasty and the last emperor to support iconoclasm.[2]
Theophilos personally led the armies in his long war against the Arabs, beginning in 831.
Life
Early
Theophilos on a coin of his father, Michael II, founder of the Amorian/Phrygian dynasty
Theophilos was the son of the
John Hylilas, the grammarian, and was a great admirer of music and art.[2] On 2 October 829, Theophilos succeeded his father as sole emperor.[8][9]
: 1363 Emperor Theophilos argues with the iconodule monk Lazaros.
Theophilos continued in his predecessors' iconoclasm, though without his father's more conciliatory tone,[2] issuing an edict in 832 forbidding the veneration of icons.[10] He also saw himself as the champion of justice, which he served most ostentatiously by executing his father's co-conspirators against Leo V immediately after his accession.[9]: 2066
Theophilos ordering the urban prefect to execute his father's co-conspirators, who were involved in the murder of Leo V
War against the Arabs
Abbasid Caliph al-Mamun sends an envoy to Emperor Theophilos.
At the time of his accession, Theophilos was obliged to wage wars against the
dinars and the return of 7,000 prisoners),[11] which he obtained the next year, after the death of Al-Ma'mun.
Theophilos celebrating a triumph through Constantinople.
During the respite from the war against the Abbasids, Theophilos arranged for the abduction of the Byzantine captives settled north of the
Persian.[12] He baptized one of the refugees, Theophobos, who married the Emperor's aunt Irene and became one of his generals.[10]
As relations with the Abbasids deteriorated, Theophilos prepared for a new war.
Augustus
, you conquer".
In 837 Theophilos led a vast army of 70,000 men towards
Afshin withstood the Byzantine attack, counter-attacked, and won the battle. The Byzantine survivors fell back in disorder and did not interfere in the caliph's continuing campaign.
The Byzantines engaging the Arabs in Asia Minor.
Al-Mu'tasim took
Ancyra, and al-Afshin joined him there. The full Abbasid army advanced against Amorium, the cradle of the dynasty. Initially there was determined resistance. Then a Muslim captive escaped and informed the caliph where there was a section of the wall that had only a front facade. Al-Mu'tasim concentrated his bombardment on this section, and the wall was breached. Having heroically held for fifty-five days, the city fell to al-Mu'tasim on 12 or 15 August 838.[10]
The Fall of Amorium to the Arabs in 838.
In 838, in order to impress the Caliph of
nomismata to the citizens of Baghdad.[17] In 839 or 840, he initiated diplomatic contact with the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba. The name of his ambassador is somewhat garbled in the Arabic accounts of Ibn Hayyan, but it seems to have been the admiral Krateros. He was accompanied on his return by the Córdoban poet al-Ghazal, who signed a pact of friendship with Theophilos directed against the Abbasids.[18]
Around 841, the Republic of Venice sent a fleet of 60 galleys (each carrying 200 men) to assist the Byzantines in driving the Arabs from Crotone, but it failed.[19] During this campaign Al-Mu'tasim discovered that some of his top generals were plotting against him. Many of these leading commanders were arrested and some executed before he arrived home. Al-Afshin seems not to have been involved in this, but he was detected in other intrigues and died in prison in the spring of 841. Caliph al-Mu'tasim fell sick in October 841 and died on 5 January 842.
It is said that Theophilos, even though fighting the Arabs built a Baghdad-style palace near the Bosporus. In those days people went about a l'arabe in kaftans and turbans. Even as far as in the normal streets of Ghuangzhou during the era of Tang, the Arab-style kaftan was in fashion.[20][relevant?]
Relations with Bulgaria and Serbia
The image of Theophilos on a contemporary gold solidus
In 836, following the expiration of the
Adrianople. At this time, if not earlier, the Bulgarians annexed Philippopolis and its environs. KhanMalamir
died in 836.
The peace between the
Vlastimir of Serbia united several tribes,[22] and Theophilos granted the Serbs independence;[23] Vlastimir acknowledged nominal overlordship of the Emperor.[21] The annexation of western Macedonia by the Bulgars changed the political situation. Malamir or his successor may have seen a threat in the Serb consolidation and opted to subjugate them in the midst of the conquest of Slav lands.[21] Another cause might have been that the Byzantines wanted to divert attention so that they could cope with the Slavic uprising in the Peloponnese, meaning they sent the Serbs to instigate the war.[24] It is thought that the rapid extension of Bulgars over Slavs prompted the Serbs to unite into a state.[21]
Khan
army of Vlastimir.[24] The war ended with the death of Theophilos, which released Vlastimir from his obligations to the Byzantine Empire.[28]
Death and legacy
The health of Theophilos gradually failed, and he died on 20 January 842.
Khazar territories, created the Cherson, Paphlagonia and Chaldiathemes,[9]: 2066 and built a hospital, which continued to exist until the twilight of the Byzantine Empire.[10]
Theophilos receiving the head of the slain rebel Theophobos at his deathbed.
Anastasia (b. c. 833). Exiled into the monastery of Gastria when she died.
Pulcheria (born c. 836). Exiled into the monastery of Gastria when she died.
Maria (b. c. 838). She was bethored to the Caesar Alexios Mosele. Exiled into the monastery of Gastria before of her sisters and died before their exile.
Michael III (840 – 867), who succeeded as emperor.
^I. Sevcenko, Review of New Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire, Slavic Review, p. 111, 1968.
^W. Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, 440
^The claim that Sozopetra or Arsamosata was Mu'tasim's native city is found only in Byzantine sources. This claim is dismissed by most scholars as a later invention, i.e. as a parallel to Amorium, the likely birthplace of Theophilos. It was probably added deliberately to balance and lessen the effect of the blow that the latter's fall represented. Bury 1912, p. 262 (Note #6); Treadgold 1988, p. 440 (Note #401); Vasiliev 1935, p. 141. Kiapidou 2003 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKiapidou2003 (help), Note 1.
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