v50_0097 - THEOPHILUS Solidus

THEOPHILUS

(2/10/829-20/01/842)

Michael II, like Justin three hundred years earlier, is a soldier of low extraction. He joined his son Théophile from the beginning of the reign, May 12, 821 or June 1, 822, and the latter succeeded him in 829. Théophile was a cultivated man and a scholar who continued the fight against opponents of iconoclasm , but with moderation and justice. He associated his eldest son Constantine to the throne, but the latter died in 831. He had to face the rise of Islamic power and, at the end of the reign, he saw the fall of Amorium, the fortress from which he originated. He died in 842 and his son, Michael III the drunkard, succeeded him.