Aetios

Saint Aetios was a Byzantine patrician and general of the ninth century, one of the forty-⁠two martyrs of Amorium. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 6 March.

Under the emperor Theophilus, Aetios was strategos of the Anatolic theme, with his seat at Amorium. In the year 838 the Arab caliph Mu'tasim invaded the eastern frontier and, after many successes, moved toward Amorium. The emperor Theophilus sent a corps of troops to defend the city and put Aetios at its head.

During the siege, Aetios, seeing that the defense of the city would not hold, decided to make a sortie and save as many people as he could. He sent a messenger to the emperor, but the messenger was seized by the Arabs and the plan was not carried out. Then Aetios proposed to Mu'tasim, through an embassy, the surrender of the city and the safe departure of the Byzantine army and the inhabitants, but was refused. The city fell in the same month, August, and Aetios was taken prisoner, imprisoned and, later, put to death, after he had refused to change his faith and so be saved.