Theophilos

Byzantine emperor from 829 to 842

  • Fame55.6
  • Momentum2.6
  • Wikipedia7.8K
Source-basedStable
Lived 813–842, aged 29
ModelsModel
  • Wikipedia
    52 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    813–842
    Aged 29
Summary
Updated 2026-06-09

The last Byzantine emperor to enforce iconoclasm — the ban on religious images that split the empire for over a century. His reign ended the controversy; his widow reversed the policy within months of his death.

Biography

About

Theophilos inherited the throne in 829 and immediately faced invasions from the Abbasid Caliphate in the east and the Aghlabids pressing Sicily. He led his armies personally from 831 onward, winning brief victories before Caliph al-Mu'tasim retaliated with crushing force: the 838 Sack of Amorion destroyed his dynasty's ancestral city. The humiliation drove him toward a harsher iconoclasm than his father Michael II had pursued, and he persecuted clerics who refused to abandon religious images. Yet he also patronized learning — his ally John the Grammarian helped foster ties with the Caliphate a…

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By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Stable
55.6
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum2.6
Historical22.9
Now attention14.6
Source confidence60.0
Completeness60.0
Global rank
Country rank
Category rank
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence