Martyr Aetius of the 42 Martyrs of Amorium

Martyr Aetius was one of the defenders of the Byzantine fortress of Amorium (Galatia/Phrygia), which fell in 838 during Emperor Theophilos's war with the Abbasid Caliphate through the treachery of the commander Boditzes (Vaditzes). The 42 captured Byzantine commanders and defenders were taken to Samarra (near Baghdad) and held there in prison for seven years, subjected to constant pressure to force them to accept Islam.

All forty-two, including their leader Constantine, as well as Theophilus, Theodore (a former cleric who had left holy orders for military service but had not renounced Christ), Melissenus, Callistus, Vasoes, and Aetius, were beheaded in 845 for refusing to renounce the Christian faith. Their bodies were cast into the river.

The feat of the Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorium is attested by Byzantine chroniclers (the Continuator of Theophanes and others) and entered church tradition as one of the striking examples of confession of faith under Muslim rule.

The feast is kept on March 6/19.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: both of the entry's former images turned out to be completely unrelated — an ancient Roman coin with an emperor's portrait (having nothing to do with any saint) and an engraved portrait of the 18th-century Italian poet Pietro Metastasio ("Petrus Metastasius"); both have been removed as a gross file-attachment error.