Karbeas belonged to a
Paulician family, and entered into the
Byzantine army, rising to the post of
protomandator (senior staff officer) under
Theodotos Melissenos, the
strategos (military governor) of the
Anatolic Theme. During the first decades of the 9th century, the Paulicians were well established as a numerous and warlike community across
Asia Minor, but were seen as heretics by the Byzantine state and consequently suffered on-and-off persecution. Under the leadership of their spiritual and military head,
Sergius-Tychicus, they staged a number of revolts against Byzantium from their various strongholds throughout Asia Minor, occasionally collaborating with the
Arabs. As a result, the Byzantine empress-regent
Theodora launched an empire-wide
pogrom against the Paulicians in 843, where allegedly up to 100,000 Paulicians perished. Among the victims was Karbeas' father, who was impaled after refusing to renounce his faith. Consequently, with some 5,000 followers, Karbeas fled to the Arab emirate of
Melitene. It is however possible that Karbeas and his co-religionists had fled to Arab territory before the pogrom, during the reign of Theodora's husband
Theophilos (). '' With the aid of the emir of Melitene,
Umar al-Aqta, Karbeas established an independent Paulician state centred on
Tephrike on the Upper
Euphrates, which also included the newly founded cities of Amara and Argaous. From there, he participated regularly in the raids by the
Arab border emirates into Byzantine Asia Minor. According to the
Patriarch Photius, Karbeas was only the military leader of the Paulician community, and no successor to Sergius as the spiritual head was appointed. Indeed, Photius records that although capable and gifted with persuasive speech, Karbeas was utterly without moral scruples, and that he fought less for his faith, rather than for glory. According to a version of the martyrdom of the
42 Martyrs of Amorium, in 845 he was at the
Abbasid Caliphate's capital of
Samarra, with several of his men. In 859, along with Umar he scored a major success in repelling a Byzantine attack on
Samosata, led by Emperor
Michael III (r. 842–867) and his uncle
Bardas in person, taking many captives, some of whom he managed to persuade to join him. He died in 863, either of natural causes or at the hands of the Byzantines in the
Battle of Lalakaon, and was succeeded by his nephew,
Chrysocheir. ==Cultural impact==