Michael II

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Michael II
Emperor of the Romans
Michael II, from the Madrid Skylitzes
Byzantine emperor
Reign	25 December 820 – 2 October 829
Coronation	25 December 820
Predecessor	Leo V
Successor	Theophilos
Co-emperor	Theophilos
Born	770 Amorium, Phrygia (now Hisarköy, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey)
Died	2 October 829 (aged 59)
Consort	Thekla Euphrosyne
Issue	Theophilos
Dynasty	Amorian dynasty

Michael II (Greek: Μιχαὴλ, Mikhaḗl; 770 – 2 October 829), called the Amorian (ὁ ἐξ Ἀμορίου, ho ex Amoríou) and the Stammerer (ὁ Τραυλός, ho Travlós or ὁ Ψελλός, ho Psellós),^[1] reigned as Byzantine emperor from 25 December 820 to his death on 2 October 829, the first ruler of the Amorian dynasty.

Born in Amorium, Michael was a soldier, rising to high rank along with his colleague Leo V the Armenian (r.  813–820). He helped Leo overthrow and take the place of Emperor Michael I Rangabe. However, after they fell out Leo sentenced Michael to death. Michael then masterminded a conspiracy which resulted in Leo's assassination at Christmas in 820. Immediately he faced the long revolt of Thomas the Slav, which almost cost him his throne and was not completely quelled until spring 824. The later years of his reign were marked by two major military disasters that had long-term effects: the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Sicily, and the loss of Crete to the Saracens. Domestically, he supported and strengthened the resumption of official iconoclasm, which had begun again under Leo V.

Michael was born c. 770 in Amorium, in Phrygia, into a Cappadocian family of professional peasant-soldiers who received land from the government for their military service. They may have been members of the sect of the Athinganoi.^[2]

Michael first rose to prominence as a close aide (spatharios) of the general Bardanes Tourkos, alongside his future antagonists Leo the Armenian and Thomas the Slav. He married Bardanes' daughter Thekla, while Leo married another daughter. Michael and Leo abandoned Bardanes shortly after he rebelled against Emperor Nikephoros I in 803, and they were rewarded with higher military commands: Michael was named the Emperor's Count of the Tent. Michael was instrumental in Leo's overthrow of Michael I Rangabe in 813, after Rangabe's repeated military defeats against the Bulgarians. Under Leo V, Michael was appointed to command the elite tagma of the Excubitors.

Thekla and Michael had only one known son, Theophilos (813 – 20 January 842). The existence of a daughter called Helena is possible but there is a contradiction between different sources. Helena is known as the wife of Theophobos, a patrician executed in 842 for conspiring to gain the throne for himself. George Hamartolos and Theophanes report him marrying the sister of the Empress Theodora. Joseph Genesius records Theophobos marrying the sister of the Emperor Theophilos. Whether Helena was sister or sister-in-law to Theophilos is thus unclear.

Michael became disgruntled with Leo V when he divorced Michael's sister-in-law. In late 820, agents of the Postal Logothete uncovered a plot led by Michael to overthrow Leo, who then imprisoned Michael and sentenced him to death by burning. Empress consort Theodosia secured a postponement of the execution until after Christmas. This allowed Michael to rally undetected plotters to assassinate Leo on Christmas morning in the palace chapel and castrate his sons to prevent the continuation of his dynasty.^[2]

Michael was immediately proclaimed emperor, while still wearing prison chains on his legs. Later the same day, he was crowned by Patriarch Theodotus I of Constantinople. In his internal policy, Michael II supported iconoclasm, but he tacitly encouraged reconciliation with the iconodules, whom he generally stopped persecuting and allowed to return from exile. These included the former patriarch Nikephoros, Anthony the Confessor, and Theodore of Stoudios, who failed, however, to persuade the emperor to abandon iconoclasm. One of the few victims of the Emperor's policy was the future patriarch Methodios I.^[3]

Michael's accession prompted his former comrade-in-arms Thomas the Slav to set himself up as rival emperor in Anatolia to avenge Leo V. Thomas was supported by the Bucellarian, Paphlagonian and Cibyrrhaeot themes, while Michael held the European part of the Empire including the Opsikion, Thracesian, Armeniac and Chaldian themes. To strengthen his position, he won the support of iconodules by stopping persecution, recalling exiled bishops and offering to reinstate Patriarch Nikephoros I of Constantinople if he ignored the iconoclast controversy, which he refused to do.^[4]

Thomas successfully transferred his forces into Thrace, winning the support of the theme as well as the Armeniacs and Chaldians. He besieged the capital in December 821. Although Thomas did not win over all the Anatolian themes, he secured the support of the naval theme and their ships, allowing him to intensify his siege of Constantinople. In his quest for support, Thomas presented himself as a champion of the poor, reduced taxation, and concluded an alliance with al-Ma'mun of the Abbasid Caliphate, having himself crowned as emperor by the iconodule Greek Patriarch of Antioch, Job, in the Church of Cassian, then in Abbasid territory. At this point, Michael's usurpation was prevented only by the Walls of Constantinople.^[5][6]

With the support of Omurtag of Bulgaria, Michael II forced Thomas to lift his siege of Constantinople in the spring of 823, and many of his men began to desert, leading him to retreat to Arcadiopolis. Michael besieged Thomas in Arcadiopolis and forced his surrender by starving him out in autumn. The last outbreak of resistance was put down in Anatolia in spring 824.^[7]

Michael tried to reunite the Empire by pardoning many of Thomas' supporters and marrying the daughter of Constantine VI and Maria of Amnia, Euphrosyne, of the illustrious iconoclast Isaurian dynasty, although she herself was an iconodule. He also sent a fleet to raid the Syrian coast and sack Sozopetra.^[8]

However, Michael inherited a seriously weakened military and was unable to prevent the conquest of Crete in 824 by 10,000 Arab pirates from al-Andalus (who had 40 ships), or to recover the island with an expedition in 826. In 827, Arabs under the emir of the Aghlabid dynasty in North Africa invaded Sicily, taking advantage of a rebellion which begun in 826, and besieged Syracuse. By 829, Michael had managed to repel the invasion with the imperial fleet and drove out the Arabs of Crete from the Cyclades.^[9][10]

Michael II died on 2 October 829 from kidney failure.

Because of his iconoclasm, Michael was not popular among the clergy, who depicted him as an ignorant and poorly educated peasant, but he was a competent statesman and administrator. The civil war, which was the most ferocious since the Heraclian revolt (608–610), gravely weakened the imperial government, but by the end of his reign he had begun a restoration of the Byzantine military. The system of government and military built by Michael II enabled the Empire under his grandson Michael III to gain the ascendancy in their struggles with the Abbasids and to withstand all the vicissitudes of Byzantine palace life. Michael II's direct descendants, the Amorian dynasty followed by the so-called Macedonian dynasty, ruled the Empire for more than two centuries, inaugurating the Byzantine Renaissance of the 9th and 10th centuries.^[10]

• List of Byzantine emperors

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Michael (emperors)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 359–360.
• Giorgi, Andrea U. De; Eger, A. Asa (2021). Antioch: A History. Routledge. p. 243. ISBN 978-1-317-54041-0. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
• Kazhdan, Alexander (1991). "Michael II". The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. p. 1362. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
• Martindale, J.R. (2001). Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire. ISBN 978-1-897747-32-2.
• Norwich, John Julis (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee. Viking. ISBN 978-0-67080-252-4.
• Talbot, Alice-Mary Maffry (1996). "Life of St. Theodora of Thessalonike". Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives in English Translation. Dumbarton Oaks. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-88402-248-0. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
• Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2.