[1][2] Captured by the Byzantines, he was made a eunuch and entered service in the household of Stylianos Zaoutzes, the powerful chief minister and father-in-law of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r.

[3] In 904, however, Samonas was involved in a bizarre episode: on the pretext of visiting a monastery, he escaped Constantinople and made for the East, hoping apparently to reach his native lands.

[1][6] As soon as he was released, Samonas's career resumed its upward path: named patrikios, the highest court rank open to a eunuch, he was made protovestiarios.

As a token of gratitude, probably after the deposition of Mystikos in early 907, he was promoted to the supreme eunuch post of parakoimomenos, which had lain vacant since the end of the reign of Michael III (r.

In 907, in a bid to ingratiate himself with Leo's fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, he presented her with a gift in the person of his own eunuch servant, Constantine Barbaros.

[11] Samonas then resorted to another scheme: with his secretary, he produced a pamphlet, supposedly written by Constantine, which insulted the emperor, and arranged for Leo to read it.

[15] Samona's role as Leo's "security chief", a view adopted by a number of scholars (most prominently Romilly Jenkins) has also been questioned by Tougher, since it relies chiefly on circumstantial literary evidence from a later and distinctly hostile hagiography.