Theophilos of Byzantium (813-20 January 842) was the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 829 to 842, succeeding Michael II of Byzantium and preceding Michael III of Byzantium.
Biography[]
Theophilos was born in 813 to the House of Amorios, and he succeeded his father Michael II of Byzantium as Emperor of the Byzantine Empire in 829. In 831, the Aghlabids established the Emirate of Sicily, but that same year Theophilos took Tarsus in Cilicia from the Abbasid Caliphate. In 837, with 70,000 Byzantine troops, he captured Melitene and Arsamosata in Mesopotamia from the Arabs, but on 22 July 838, his army was destroyed at the Battle of Anzen and Amorium was sacked a few weeks later. At the same time, he ravaged the frontier with the First Bulgarian Empire, and he seized Philippopolis (Plovdiv). On 20 January 842 he died, and he was succeeded by his son Michael III of Byzantium.