MICHAEL III., Emperor of Constantinople, grandson of the preceding, succeeded his father Theophilus in 842 at the age of three, and was for some time under the guardianship of his mother Theodora. This emperor rivalled Nero in vice and cruelty; and neglected the loss of provinces for the sake of a victory in the chariot race. These excesses, along with the profane insults which he offered to the religion of his people, made him an object of universal hatred and contempt; and he was at last murdered by Basil the Macedonian in 867, after a reign of twenty-five years.