Petronas (general)

Petronas ( el, ; died November 11, 865) was a notable Byzantine general and leading aristocrat during the mid-9th century. Petronas was a brother of Empress Theodora and hence brother-in-law of Emperor Theophilos, under whom he advanced to the rank of ''patrikios'' and the post of ''droungarios'' of the '' Vigla'' regiment. After Theophilos' death, he played a role in the ending of Iconoclasm, but was sidelined along with his brother Bardas during the minority of his nephew, Michael III, when power was held by the regent Theoktistos. In 855, Petronas and Bardas encouraged Michael III to seize control of the government: Theoktistos was murdered, Theodora banished to a monastery, Bardas became Michael's chief minister, and Petronas was tasked with the war against the Arabs. In 863, he scored a crushing victory at the Battle of Lalakaon, a feat which marked the gradual beginning of a Byzantine counter-offensive in the East. Promoted to ''magistros'' and '' domestikos ton scholon'', he died in 865.

Biography

Petronas was born to the ''droungarios'' Marinos and Theoktiste, and was the younger brother of Bardas and Empress Theodora, the wife of Emperor Theophilos. Three other sisters, Kalomaria, Sophia, and Irene, are recorded by '' Theophanes Continuatus''.

Under Theophilos, he was appointed commander (''droungarios'') of the guard regiment ('' tagma'') of the '' Vigla'', and raised to the rank of ''patrikios''. In 842, as Theophilos lay dying, Petronas and the eunuch Theoktistos carried out the execution of the ''patrikios'' Theophobos, a former Khurramite convert and general, whose troops had rebelled and proclaimed him emperor at Sinope some years before. Despite his kinship with Theophilos, however, the tale is told that the Emperor once had Petronas stripped naked and flogged in public because he had built a palace that overshadowed the house of a widow, in contravention of the law. The palace itself was then torn down, and both the building materials and the plot were left to the widow.

When Theophilos died in 842, Theodora was left as regent to her infant son, Michael III. A regency council was set up headed by Theodora, along with Petronas and Bardas and their relative Sergios Niketiates. Petronas is said to have urged Theodora to rescind Theophilos's iconoclastic policies, which eventually resulted in the restoration of the veneration of images in the so-called " Triumph of Orthodoxy" on 11 March 843. Soon after that, Petronas and Bardas were successfully sidelined by the ''logothetes'' Theoktistos, while Niketiates was killed in an expedition against the Cretan Saracens, leaving the eunuch minister the dominant figure throughout Theodora's regency.

In 855, however, Michael III turned fifteen and thus came nominally of age. The young ruler began resenting the dominance of his mother and of Theoktistos, especially after they selected Eudokia Dekapolitissa as his bride, disregarding Michael's attachment to his mistress, Eudokia Ingerina. Supported by his uncles Bardas and Petronas, Emperor Michael had Theoktistos seized and killed in late 855, while Petronas undertook the confinement of the empress and her daughters into a monastery. Bardas was now raised to the rank of ''Caesar'' and became the effective governor of the Byzantine Empire. In this position, he displayed remarkable energy and ability, and amongst the most important of his policies was a more aggressive stance against the Arabs in the East. Consequently, Petronas was appointed ''strategos'' of the powerful Thracesian Theme. On his first campaign, against the Paulicians of Tephrike in 856, he plundered his way through the emirate of Melitene and the Paulician lands to Samosata

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