9th century
The Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorium
Byzantine officials captured by the Arabs at the fall of Amorium (838) and put to death in 845 for refusing to renounce Christianity; among them was the patrician Theophilus.
Biography
The forty-two martyrs were Byzantine generals, officials and nobles - among them the patrician Theophilus and the protospatharios Theodore - who defended Amorium in Phrygia when the caliph al-Mu'tasim besieged the city in 838.
After its fall, they were taken captive to Samarra in Mesopotamia, where the caliph promised to restore their ranks if they converted to Islam. They steadfastly refused and, after years of imprisonment and torture, were beheaded in 845.
Emperor Basil II later built a church in Constantinople in their memory.