Dictionary of Battles / From the Earliest Date to the Present Time

by Thomas Benfield Harbottle

Amorium (Moslem Invasion of Asia Minor).

Fought 838, between the Moslems under the Caliph Motassem, and the Greeks under Theophilus. Thirty thousand Persian horsemen, serving under the Emperor, succeeded in breaking the Moslem line, but the Greeks themselves were overthrown by the Moslems, and the day ended in a complete rout of the Imperial army. Motassem then laid siege to Amorium, and after a defence of 55 days, which cost the besiegers 70,000 men, the gates were opened by treachery, and 30,000 Christians were massacred.