Theophilos (emperor)

Theophilos
Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans
Theophilus, in the Chronicle of John Skylitzes
Byzantine emperor
Reign	2 October 829 – 20 January 842
Coronation	12 May 821
Predecessor	Michael II
Successor	Michael III and Theodora
Co-emperor	Constantine (830s)
Born	c. late 812 – c. early 813
Died	(842-01-20)20 January 842
Consort	Theodora
Issue	Constantine Thekla Anna Anastasia Pulcheria Maria Michael III
Dynasty	Amorian dynasty
Father	Michael II
Mother	Thekla

Theophilos (Greek: Θεόφιλος, romanized: Theóphilos, sometimes Latinised as Theophilus; c. 812 – 20 January 842) was Byzantine Emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Amorian dynasty and the last emperor to support iconoclasm.

Theophilos was well-educated in the imperial household but upon his accession to the throne was met with the dual threat of the Abbasid Caliphate in Asia Minor and the Aghlabids in Sicily. He personally led the armies in his long war against both the Abbasid Caliphate and the Aghlabids in Sicily, beginning in 831. He won fleeting victories but the retaliation of Caliph al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842) was devastating, as was most humiliating in the Sack of Amorion in 838, the ancestral home of Theophilos' Amorian dynasty. Internal strife within the Caliphate allowed the Byzantines to recover. Theophilos engaged in many construction and renovation projects. One of his closest allies was the learned and cosmopolitan John the Grammarian, and they both improved relations with the Caliph and appreciated Arabic culture. He also secured nominal overlordship over the Principality of Serbia, uniting against their common enemy, the First Bulgarian Empire.

The military defeats to the Arabs inspired a more intensely iconoclastic policy than what Theophilos inherited from his father Michael II and he persecuted many clerics for refusing to submit to the imperial will. As with all iconoclast emperors, Theophilos was viewed critically by subsequent chroniclers however the historical record does witness to his reputation as a just ruler and keen constructor and administrator, partly thanks to a defence by his wife, later Empress regnant Theodora (r. 842–856).