Manuel the Armenian

Manuel the Armenian was a prominent Byzantine general of Armenian origin, active from circa 810 until his death in 838. After reaching the highest military ranks, a palace conspiracy forced him to seek refuge in the Abbasid court in 829. He returned to Byzantine service the next year, receiving the position of Domestic of the Schools. According to one report, he died on 27 July 838 of wounds received while saving Emperor Theophilos (r. 829–842) from capture during the Battle of Anzen. Some chronicles, however, record his survival past this date and report that he died some time around 860. His niece, Theodora, became empress to Theophilos and ruled as regent for many years after Theophilos's death.

Biography
Manuel was of Armenian origin, and the brother of Marinos, the father of the future Byzantine empress Theodora. Manuel first appears in the reign of Michael I Rangabe (r. 811–813), when he held the post of protostrator (head of the imperial stables). At the time, he must still have been young, probably in his twenties. Although he urged Michael to confront Leo the Armenian, following Michael's deposition by Leo (r. 813–820), Manuel was promoted to the rank of patrikios and entrusted with the post of strategos of the Armeniac or the Anatolic Theme. The latter was the most senior of the Byzantine Empire's thematic governors and military leaders, and Leo himself had held the office prior to his accession. According to historians John B. Bury and Warren Treadgold, in early 819 and for about a year, the Εmperor seems to have appointed Manuel to the exceptional post of monostrategos ("single-general") of the five land themes of Asia Minor, but this unusual concentration of command authority was apparently directed towards the more effective suppression of iconophile resistance against Leo's reinstatement of Iconoclasm rather than for military purposes. This appointment is, however, most likely a misreading of the primary source, according to the editors of the Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit. Manuel probably continued serving as strategos of the Anatolics under Emperor Michael II the Amorian (r. 820–829), although he is not explicitly mentioned.

Escape to the Caliphate


Shortly after the accession of Michael II's son and successor, Theophilos (r. 829–842), however, Manuel defected to the Abbasids as a result of machinations at court: the logothetes tou dromou (foreign minister) Myron had accused him to the new emperor of plotting to seize the throne. Theophilos was hesitant to believe the accusations, and was eventually convinced by the protovestiarios (chamberlain) Leo Chamodrakon and the synkellos John the Grammarian of his general's innocence. Manuel, however, did not wait for the Emperor's judgement. Using the carriages of the imperial post, he crossed Asia Minor in haste and offered his services to Caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833), on condition that he would not be forced to convert to Islam. According to the 13th-century historian Vardan Areveltsi, so great was Ma'mun's joy at this defection that he gave him a daily salary of 1,306 silver dirhams, and continually presented Manuel with gifts. Theophilos, in turn, resolved to get him to return and sent John the Grammarian to Baghdad on a diplomatic mission, ostensibly in order to announce his accession. John was indeed able to see Manuel in private and offered him the Emperor's pardon, which Manuel seemed to accept, although for the time being, Manuel remained publicly loyal to his Abbasid allegiance.

In the summer of 830, Manuel participated in an Abbasid expedition against the Khurramite rebels of Babak Khorramdin in Azerbaijan, alongside a contingent of Byzantine captives. The campaign was nominally led by Ma'mun's own son, al-'Abbas, but it is likely, according to Warren Treadgold, that the more experienced Manuel was the actual commander. After winning a few modest successes, the army turned back south. Manuel, who by then had probably won the confidence of his Arab minders, suggested that he and 'Abbas take a part of the army and raid over the Pass of Hadath into Byzantine Cappadocia. Once across the mountains, he and the other Byzantine captives neutralized 'Abbas and his escort, took their arms and escaped. Abbas' and his companions were left behind unmolested, and allowed to return to Abbasid territory.

Domestic of the Schools
Emperor Theophilos welcomed Manuel with open arms, and named him magistros and Domestic of the Schools, commander of the elite tagmata regiments. Manuel would remain Theophilos's leading general for the remainder of his life. Furthermore, as the uncle of Theophilos's new wife, the Empress Theodora, his position at court was now unassailable, as shown by the fact that the Emperor later served as godfather for Manuel's children.



In 831, Manuel accompanied Theophilos in an expedition against a raid by the Cilician Arabs. The Byzantines caught up with the Arabs near the fort of Charsianon, and inflicted a heavy defeat upon them, killing 1,600 and taking some seven thousand prisoner. Manuel is also recorded as accompanying Theophilos on his great expedition in 837 against the Arab cities of northern Mesopotamia, which led to the sack of Zapetra and Arsamosata. This campaign, however, and the atrocities committed by the Byzantines after the fall of Zapetra, provoked a large-scale retaliatory campaign by Caliph al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842). Manuel again accompanied the Emperor as his senior general, along with Theophobos, the commander of the large "Persian" corps, composed of Khurramite refugees. He participated in the disastrous Battle of Anzen on 22 July 838, where Theophilos confronted the army of general al-Afshin. During that battle, the imperial army broke and fled, and Theophilos with his retinue were surrounded by the Arabs on a hill with some 2,000 "Persians". When some of the latter reportedly began planning to surrender the Emperor to the Arabs, Manuel seized the Emperor's horse by the bridle and forcibly led him away. With a few other officers, he managed to break through the Arab lines, and brought Theophilos to safety in the nearby village of Chiliokomon. During this, he received heavy wounds, and according to the chronicle of Symeon Logothetes, he died of them soon after, likely on 27 July 838. He was buried in his palace in Constantinople, which lay near the cistern of Aspar and which became a monastery named after him, now traditionally identified with the Kefeli Mosque.

Possible life after 838
The chronicles of Genesios and Theophanes Continuatus (and following them Skylitzes and Zonaras), however, report that he survived his wounds, allegedly being miraculously cured after renouncing iconoclasm at the behest of some monks. After Theophilos's death, he is further said to have been appointed a member of the regency council for the infant new emperor Michael III (r. 842–867) along with Theoktistos and Bardas, and to have refused the position of Emperor when the populace acclaimed him thus at the Hippodrome. The same writers report that he played an important role in the restoration of the icons, and that he became a protomagistros before falling out with Theoktistos and retiring. According to the same sources, in the late 850s, he saved the Emperor's life in another battle at Anzen and died shortly after. Traditional scholarship has largely accepted this account, but some modern historians have expressed doubts as to its veracity. The Belgian Byzantinist Henri Grégoire was the first to highlight its incompatibility with the narrative of Symeon Logothetes, speculating that it was a later invention, possibly carried out by the monks of the Monastery of Manuel, who venerated him as a saint and tried to mitigate his iconoclast past. Warren Treadgold, who considers Symeon Logothetes more reliable, also dismissed the reports of Manuel's post-838 survival as invented.

Other modern scholars continue to support the possibility of his continued life after 838, especially given the existence of a seal, dated to the mid-9th century, which names "Manuel patrikios, imperial protospatharios, magistros, and bagulos of the Emperor", which seems to confirm both his survival into at least the early years of Michael III's reign, and his reported role as a member of the regency. Even so, the stories about his activities, and in particular his role in the restoration of the icons and the alleged second battle at Anzen (which is clearly inspired by the events of 838), are regarded as almost certainly fictitious. However, it may be that the story of his death after Theoktistos's downfall is reliable, which would probably place it sometime between 855 and 863.