Petronas the Patrician
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Petronas the Patrician (Greek: Πετρωνᾶς, died November 11, 865), was a notable Byzantine general and leading aristocrat during the mid-9th century. By the time of his death, he held the titles of magistros and patrikios, and had commanded the elite Scholai and Vigla regiments.[1]
[edit] Life
He was born to the droungarios Marinos and Theoktiste, and was the younger brother of empress Theodora, the wife of emperor Theophilos and of Bardas.[1] Three other sisters, Kalomaria, Sophia and Irene, are recorded by the historian Theophanes Continuatus.[1]
Under Theophilos, he was appointed droungarios of the tagma of the Vigla, and raised to the rank of patrician. in 840 or 842, Theophilos ordered him to decapitate the patrician Theophobos,[2] a Kurdish convert and general whose troops had proclaimed him emperor at Sinope.[3] Despite his relation to Theophilos however, the tale is told that the emperor once had Petronas been stripped naked and flogged in public because he had built a palace that overshadowed the house of a widow. The palace itself was then torn down, and both the building materials and the plot were left to the widow.[1][2]
When Theophilos died in 842, Theodora was left as regent to her infant son, Michael III, and Petronas is said to have urges Theodora to rescind Theophilos iconoclastic policies.[1] He was however sidelined under the regency of Theodora and the logothetēs Theoktistos.[2] When Michael III came of age in 855 however, he began resenting the dominance of his mother and of Theoktistos, as well as of the latter's overbearing behavior.[4] Supported by his uncles Bardas and Petronas, Michael had Theoktistos seized and killed in late 855 or early 856, while Petronas undertook the confinement of the empress and her daughters into a monastery.[1]
Bardas, raised to the rank of Caesar and effective governor of the Empire, displayed remarkable energy and ability. Amongst the most important of the Caesar's policies was a more aggressive stance against the Arabs in the East.[5] Petronas was appointed stratēgos of the 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 and Amida.[2][6] Having penetrated deeper into Arab territory than any Byzantine commander since the Muslim conquests, he returned victorious with many captives.[6]
In 863, another Arab army, led by the emir of Melitene, Amr al-Aqta, penetrated deep into Byzantine territory, reaching the Black Sea coast at Amisos. Petronas was placed in charge of all Byzantine forces; through a brilliant coordination effort, three separate forces managed to converge on the Arab army, encircle it and destroy it at the battle of Lalakaon on 3 September 863.[7] Petronas carried his defeated enemy's head to Constantinople, where he was honored with a triumphal entrance by his nephew. Soon after, he was raised to the rank of magistros and domestikos of the Scholai regiment.[2]
The defeat of the Arabs and their Paulician allies became a turning point in the Byzantine–Arab Wars. With this victory Petronas and Bardas were able to secure their eastern borders, strengthen the Byzantine state and set the stage for the conquests of the 10th century. The Byzantine chroniclers add that the victorious general did not survive for long after the glorious battle of Lalakaon. A hagiography, written by a contemporary, claims that Petronas died on the same day as his spiritual father Saint Anthony the Younger, two years and two months after routing the Arab armies. He was buried in the Gastria Monastery, where his stone sarcophagus was placed opposite those of his sister, the empress Theodora, and his nieces.[1]
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- Jenkins, Romilly (1987). Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries, AD 610–1071. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0802066674.
- Kazhdan, Alexander, ed (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
- Treadgold, Warren T. (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804726302.
- (German) Winkelmann, Friedhelm (1998). Prosopographie der Mittelbyzantinischen Zeit: I. Abteilung (641–867). Walter de Gruyter. pp. 564-566. ISBN 978-3110166736.
