Bardas

Rising to the rank of Caesar, he was the effective ruler of the Byzantine Empire for ten years, a period which saw military success, renewed diplomatic and missionary activity, and an intellectual revival that heralded the Macedonian Renaissance.

Bardas was born to the droungarios Marinos and Theoktiste, and was the elder brother of Empress Theodora, the wife of Emperor Theophilos, and of Petronas.

[2] Some modern genealogists, including Cyril Toumanoff and Nicholas Adontz, have suggested a link of Bardas's family with the Armenian noble clan of the Mamikonian.

Bardas and his brother Petronas, as well as their relative Sergios Niketiates, were also members, but it was the logothete Theoktistos who quickly established himself as Theodora's chief advisor.

[4] Bardas still played an active role in the early days of the regency, encouraging Theodora to abandon Iconoclasm for good and taking part in the investigations that led to the deposition of the pro-iconoclast patriarch John the Grammarian and the restoration of the veneration of icons in 843.

[1] With the death of Theoktistos, the regency was at an end; in early 856, Michael proclaimed his assumption of full imperial power, and in 857 Theodora was forced to retire to the Gastria Monastery.

[1] Thus Bardas founded the Magnaura School with seats for philosophy, grammar, astronomy and mathematics, supported scholars like Leo the Mathematician and promoted the missionary activities of Cyril and Methodius to Greater Moravia.

He also scored a number of successes against the Arabs in the East, culminating in the decisive Battle of Lalakaon in 863, and enforced the Christianization of Bulgaria by Byzantine missionaries.

Coupled with competition between Rome and Constantinople over their missionary activities in and jurisdiction over Moravia and Bulgaria, relations with the papacy remained tense.

In September 867, Basil had Michael III assassinated as well, ending the Amorian dynasty and inaugurating the Macedonian period of Byzantine history.