Bardas has quickly become the moving spirit in the new regime.

A university is organized in Constantinople.

Ignatios, who had supported Theodora, is arrested and imprisoned in 858, and upon refusing to resign his office is deposed.

On December 25, Michael elevates to the patriarchate a layman, Photius, after the latter’s receipt of the lesser orders in six days.

Photius, a relative of the Patriarchs Tarasios and John VII Grammatikos, had after completing his own education begun to teach grammar, rhetoric, divinity and philosophy.

Following the marriage of his brother Sergios to Irene, a sister of Theodora, and Theodora’s assumption of the regency, Photius had become a captain of the guard and subsequently chief imperial secretary.

At an uncertain date, Photius had participated in an embassy to the Arabs.

Ignatios continues to refuse abdication, and his supporters appeal to the new pope, Nicholas, when Photius begins to alter his predecessor's policies.

Imperial forces meanwhile continue to win victories over the Arabs, and in the campaign of 859, which reaches at least as far as the Euphrates River, Emperor Michael himself leads the troops.

The majestic mosaic of the Virgin and Child, executed in 867 for the apse of Hagia Sophia, displays the restrained dignity and noble grandeur characteristic of Byzantine art of the period, which often draws directly and deliberately on the Hellenistic and Roman classical heritage.

The lifelike image of the enthroned Virgin, holding the Christ child on her lap and flanked by two archangels against an uneven golden background, and executed in carefully graded colors and meticulous setting both of stone and of glass-paste tesserae, replaces the original (sixth century?) image destroyed by the iconoclasts.

Photios summons a council that deposes Nicholas in 867 in retaliation for the papacy’s attempts to establish ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Bulgarians, newly converted to the Rite of Constantinople (Greek, or Byzantine, rite) under Photios himself.

The emperor Michael has meanwhile developed a reputation for being unstable and extremely cruel, though modern historians believe him to have been less incompetent or dissolute than his epithet, “the Drunkard”, would imply.

This more modern view is supported to some extent by his record of victories over the Arabs.

His faults have probably been exaggerated by historians who sought to find extenuating circumstances for the murder of Michael by Basil and his supporters.

When Michael started to favor another courtier, Basiliskian, Basil had decided that his position was being undermined.

Michael has invested Basiliskian with the Imperial title and this induces Basil to pre-empt events by organizing the assassination of Michael on the night of September 23/24, 867.

Michael and Basiliskian are insensibly drunk following a banquet at the palace of Anthimos when Basil, with a small group of companions (including his father Bardas, brother Marinos, and cousin Ayleon), gains entry.

The locks to the chamber doors have been tampered with and the chamberlain has not posted guards; both victims are then put to the sword.

On Michael III's death, Basil, as an already acclaimed co-emperor, automatically becomes the ruling basileus.

Immediately on his accession, Basil attempts to win support at home and to conciliate Rome by reinstating the deposed patriarch Ignatios and excommunicating Photios.

Photios is removed from his office and banished about the end of September 867, and Ignatios is reinstated on November 23.