Aetios 2

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexM
FloruitM IX
Dates838 (taq) / 838 (tpq)
PmbZ No.108
LocationsSyria;
Amorion (Galatia)
TitlesHyparchos (dignity);
Patrikios (dignity);
Protospatharios (dignity);
Strategos, Anatolikoi (office)
Textual SourcesBar Hebraeus, Chronographia, tr. E. A. W. Budge, The Chronography of Abu 'l-Faraj (London, 1932; repr. Amsterdam, 1976) (history);
Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, Vol. IV, ed. A. Boeckh and others (epigraphy);
Georgius Monachus, Chronicon, ed. C. de Boor, corr. P. Wirth (Stuttgart, 1978) (chronicle);
Leo Grammaticus, Chronographia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1842) (chronicle);
Mas`udi = Abu-l Hasan `Ali ibn al-Husayn, Muruj al-dhahab wa-ma`adin al-jawhar: Maçoudi, les prairies d'or, tr. C. Barbier de Meynard, P. de Courteille, 9 vols. (Paris 1861-77); partly in Vasiliev, By (chronicle);
Michael the Syrian, Chronicle, ed. and tr. J.-B. Chabot, La chronique de Michel le Syrien (Paris, 1899-1904) (chronicle);
Pseudo-Symeon, Chronographia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838), pp. 603-760 (history);
Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838) (history)

When Amorion was threatened by the Arabs (in 838), the emperor Theophilos (Theophilos 5) determined to entrust its defence to a capable commander, and chose Aetios, who was patrikios and strategos of the Anatolikoi: Theoph. Cont. III 30 (p. 126) (στρατηγοῦ γενναίου ... Ἀέτιος ἦν οὗτος ὁ πατρίκιος καὶ τῶν Ἀνατολικῶν στρατηγός). He was strategos of the Anatolikoi in 838; he sent news to Theophilos 5 of the invasion by the Arabs in that year; later he was one of the strategoi captured in the fall of Amorion and carried off to Syria by the Arabs: Leo Gramm. 224 (τοῦ στρατηγοῦ τῶν ἀνατολικῶν), Georg. Mon. Cont. 804 (unnamed στρατηγοῦ τῶν ἀνατολικῶν), 805, Ps.-Symeon 639. Although taken at Amorion, he was not numbered among the Forty Two Martyrs of Amorion, and may have been executed not long after his capture; see Treadgold, Revival, p. 445, n. 416 (referring to Masudi, cited in Vasiliev, Byzance et les Arabes, I 332-333).

Aetios the patrician and hyparchos ('wprk') (unless the hyparchos was a different person) was seized by the Arabs at the capture of Amorion: Mich. Syr., III 101, Bar Hebr., p. 137. A patrician, he was a prisoner of the Arabs; he was apparently asked by the emperor Theophilos to give to the Arab prisoners a letter couched in friendly terms to the caliph al-Mutasim 1: Mich. Syr., III 96, Bar Hebr., p. 138.

Possibly identical with Aetios 4.

He is perhaps to be identified with Aetios protospatharios and strategos of the Anatolikoi and husband of Ampelia 1 who with his wife was benefactor of a church of the Theotokos near Ankara: CIG IV 8682 with Grégoire, Inscriptions I, 443ff. The text reads: ἐκαλληεργήθη ὁ ναὸς τῆς ὑπεραγίας Θεοτόκου ὑπὸ Ἀετίο[υ] πρωτοσπαθαρίου κὲ στρατιγοῦ Ἀ[νατολικῶν] καὶ τῖς συμβίου αὐτοῦ Ἀμπελίας.

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