Petronas was born to the Marinos and
Theoktiste, and was the younger brother of
Bardas and Empress
Theodora, the wife of Emperor
Theophilos. Three other sisters, Kalomaria, Sophia, and Irene, are recorded by
Theophanes Continuatus. Under Theophilos, he was appointed commander ( of the guard regiment () of the , and raised to the high court rank of . In 842, as Theophilos lay dying, Petronas and the eunuch
Theoktistos carried out the execution of the
Theophobos, a former
Khurramite convert and general, whose troops had rebelled and proclaimed him emperor at
Sinope some years before. Despite his kinship with Theophilos, the tale is told that the Emperor once had Petronas stripped naked and flogged in public because he had built a palace that overshadowed the house of a widow, in contravention of the law. The palace itself was then torn down, and both the building materials and the plot were left to the widow. '' When Theophilos died in 842, Theodora was left as regent to her infant son,
Michael III. A regency council was set up headed by Theodora, along with Petronas and Bardas and their relative
Sergios Niketiates. Petronas is said to have urged Theodora to rescind Theophilos's
iconoclastic policies, which eventually resulted in the restoration of the veneration of
images in the so-called "
Triumph of Orthodoxy" on 11 March 843. Soon after that, Petronas and Bardas were successfully sidelined by the Theoktistos, while Niketiates was killed in an expedition against the
Cretan Saracens, leaving the eunuch minister the dominant figure throughout Theodora's regency. In 855, however, Michael III turned fifteen and thus came nominally of age. The young ruler began resenting the dominance of his mother and of Theoktistos, especially after they selected
Eudokia Dekapolitissa as his bride, disregarding Michael's attachment to his mistress,
Eudokia Ingerina. Supported by his uncles Bardas and Petronas, Emperor Michael had Theoktistos seized and killed in late 855, while Petronas undertook the confinement of the empress and her daughters into a
monastery. Bardas was now raised to the rank of and became the effective governor of the Byzantine Empire. In this position, he displayed remarkable energy and ability, and amongst the most important of his policies was a more aggressive stance against the
Arabs in the East. Consequently, Petronas was appointed of the powerful
Thracesian Theme. On his first campaign, against the
Paulicians of
Tephrike in 856, he plundered his way through the emirate of
Melitene and the Paulician lands to
Samosata and
Amida in
Upper Mesopotamia. After penetrating deeper into Arab territory than any Byzantine commander since the beginning of the
Muslim conquests, he returned victorious with many captives. In 863, an Arab army, led by the emir of Melitene,
Umar al-Aqta (), raided deep into Byzantine territory, reaching the
Black Sea coast at
Amisos. Petronas was placed in charge of all Byzantine troops assembling to confront the invasion, and through a brilliant coordination effort, three separate forces managed to converge on the Arab army, encircle it, and destroy it at the
Battle of Lalakaon on September 3, 863. Petronas carried his defeated enemy's head to
Constantinople, where he was honored with a
triumphal entrance by his nephew. Soon after, he was raised to the supreme court rank of and the position of
Domestic of the Schools (commander-in-chief of the army). The defeat of the Arabs and their Paulician allies became a turning point in the
Arab–Byzantine wars. With this victory, Petronas and Bardas were able to secure their eastern borders, strengthen the Byzantine state, and set the stage for the Byzantine conquests of the 10th century. The Byzantine chroniclers add that the victorious general did not survive for long after his victory. A
hagiography, written by a contemporary, claims that Petronas died on the same day as his spiritual father
Saint Anthony the Younger, two years and two months after routing the Arab armies. He was buried in the
Gastria Monastery, where his stone
sarcophagus was placed opposite those of his sister, the Empress Theodora, and his nieces. ==References==