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| 815 |
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| The Council of St. Sophia marked the return to iconoclasm and the beginning of the second period of active and violent persecution of the monks. | 1 |
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| 820–29 |
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| Michael II (Phrygian dynasty), succeeded to the throne after the murder of Leo by conspirators. | 2 |
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| 822–24 |
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| Insurrection of the general Thomas in Anatolia. This was supported by the lower classes and encouraged by the Arabs. Thomas attempted twice to take Constantinople, but was ultimately defeated and executed in Thrace. | 3 |
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| 826 |
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| Crete was seized by Muslim freebooters from Spain, and until 961 it remained the headquarters of pirates who ravaged the eastern Mediterranean. | 4 |
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| 827–78 |
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| Conquest of Sicily by Muslims from North Africa. | 5 |
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| 829–42 |
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| THEOPHILUS, emperor. He was an arrogant, theologizing fanatic who promulgated a new edict against idolaters (832) and pushed persecution to the limit. | 6 |
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| 837–38 |
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| War against the Arabs. The Byzantine armies, after invading the caliphate, were repulsed. After a long siege, Amorion, one of the key positions on the frontier, was taken by the Muslims (838). | 7 |
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| 842–67 |
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| Michael III, for whom his mother Theodora was regent. Advised by her brother Bardas, she decided to end the religious controversy. | 8 |
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| 843 |
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| Image worship was restored. This was a great victory for the opposition party, but only in the matter of doctrine. Politically the power of the emperor over the Church remained unimpaired, if not strengthened. | 9 |
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| 856 |
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| Theodora was obliged to retire, but her brother Bardas, an able but unprincipled politician, remained the real ruler of the empire by exploiting to the full the weaknesses of the emperor. | 10 |
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| 860 |
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| First appearance of the Russians (Varangians) at Constantinople. | 11 |
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| 863–85 |
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| Missionary activity of Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica among the Slavs of Moravia and Bohemia. They invented the glagolitic alphabet—from which the Cyrillic derives (See 865)—which came to be used in various Slavonic languages and was later restricted to liturgical books; hence Cyril and Methodius are regarded as founders of Slavonic literature. | 12 |
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