Eustathios Argyros (general under Leo VI)

[1][2] Nothing is known of his life or prior to the turn of the 10th century, although he may have been in imperial service as early as 866, when a man of the same name is recorded as protostrator of the Caesar Bardas in connection with the latter's murder on 21 April.

[2][3][4] The Byzantine historians praise Eustathios Argyros as an intelligent, valiant, prudent and just man, and account him, along with Andronikos Doukas, as the best of Leo VI's generals.

[3][4] At this time, evidently after a succession of—unknown—military commands, Eustathios had reached, according to Theophanes Continuatus, the rank of patrikios and hypostrategos of the Anatolic Theme.

Although no details or reasons are offered for his exile, this has been interpreted by modern scholars as being connected to the failed rebellion and flight of Andronikos Doukas to the Arabs in 906–907.

[8] There he received the return to imperial service of a number of Armenian lords, Melias, the three brothers Baasakios, Krigorikios and Pazounes, and Ismael, who were established as march-wardens along the Empire's eastern border.

[2][9][12] While historian Romilly James Heald Jenkins has suggested that Argyros' poisoning was done through an agent of the powerful and scheming court eunuch Samonas, it more likely was suicide.

[2][9][12] Eustathios' sons Pothos and Leo would go on to hold senior military commands, including the post of Domestic of the Schools (commander-in-chief).