Petronas the Patrician

Petronas the Patrician (; died November 11, 865) was a notable Byzantine general and leading aristocrat during the mid-9th century. The uncle of Emperor Michael III, by the time of his death, he held the titles of magistros and patrikios, and had commanded the elite Scholai and Vigla regiments.

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. Three other sisters, Kalomaria, Sophia and Irene, are recorded by the historian Theophanes Continuatus.

Under Theophilos, he was appointed droungarios of the tagma of the Vigla, and raised to the rank of patrikios. In 840 or 842, Theophilos ordered him to decapitate the patrician Theophobos, a Khurramite Kurdish or Persian convert and general whose troops had proclaimed him emperor at Sinope some years before. 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.<ref...
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