Historical Background
In 838 the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim (reigned 833–842) led a military campaign that culminated in the sack of Amorium, the capital of the Anatolic Theme and the birthplace of the reigning Byzantine Amorian dynasty. The campaign was waged during the wars between the Byzantine emperor Theophilos (829–842) and the Saracen forces of the caliphate.
By the surviving accounts, the city fell in part through treachery: a local inhabitant is said to have revealed a weak point in the fortifications, and the military commander Boiditzes (also rendered Baditses) conducted unauthorized negotiations with the caliph and then abandoned his post, allowing the Arab forces to penetrate the defenses. After the city's fall, the surviving population was divided as slaves among the army's leaders, except for the military and civic leaders, who were reserved for the caliph's disposal. These leaders, numbering forty-two, were taken as hostages to the Abbasid capital of Samarra.
Tradition holds that Boiditzes, the betrayer of Amorium, was ultimately killed by his own Saracen allies, who distrusted his treachery.
Captivity and Martyrdom
The prisoners endured roughly seven years of captivity. The emperor Theophilos and, after his death in 842, his successor Michael III together with the empress-regent Theodora made repeated attempts to ransom the captives, but the caliphs consistently refused.
Throughout their imprisonment the captors repeatedly sought to persuade the prisoners to accept Islam, by turns through inducements and through threats. The martyrs consistently refused. According to the synaxarion, they argued that the Old Testament prophets had borne witness to Christ, whereas Muhammad called himself a prophet without other witnesses to support his claim.
Having refused to convert, all 42 were put to death at Samarra, on the banks of the Euphrates, on March 6, 845. The synaxarion relates that each was led off separately to be beheaded and the bodies were cast into the river.
The Named Martyrs
Seven of the forty-two are known by name. The hagiographic tradition records them with epithets of praise — Theodore the All-Blessed, Callistus the Unconquered, Constantine the Valiant, Theophilos the Wondrous, Bassoes the Most Strong, together with Aetius and Melissenus.
Historical identifications attach to several of these figures. Theodore Krateros was a court eunuch, possibly strategos of the Bucellarian Theme, and is regarded as the leader among the 42. Aetios was a patrikios and strategos of the Anatolic Theme. Theophilos held the rank of patrikios but is otherwise unknown. Constantine Baboutzikos was a magistros and the husband of a sister of the empress Theodora, and appears to have been the highest-ranking of the prisoners. Bassoes is identified only as a 'runner.' Kallistos, possibly of the Melissenos family, is described as having risen to become doux of Koloneia. A further Constantine served as secretary (notarios or hypographeus) to Constantine Baboutzikos.
The synaxarion preserves a saying attributed to Theodore. When taunted for having abandoned the priesthood, he is said to have answered that he left the priesthood on account of his own unworthiness, and that he must therefore shed his blood for Christ so that Christ might forgive the sins he had committed against him.
Hagiography and Legacy
The monk Euodios wrote the account of the martyrs soon after their execution. His hagiography portrays theological discussions between the steadfast prisoners and a succession of visitors — Byzantine defectors and Muslim officials — sent to persuade them to convert. Euodios also used the martyrs' fate as an indictment of, and as proof of divine retribution against, the re-adoption of Iconoclasm under the emperor Theophilos.
The account is described as the last example of the genre of collective martyrdom. It was widely disseminated, and several variants of the legend appear in later authors. The 42 are commemorated by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church on March 6, the day of their execution.
In Art
Pictorial representations of the 42 are rare in Byzantine art. Where they are depicted, they are represented simply as a group of officials in court dress.
