Bardas 30 was a relative of the emperor Leo V (Leo 15) and an iconoclast; he was the strategos of Smyrna (i.e. strategos of the Thrakesion) when Theodoros 15 (Theodore the Stoudite) was imprisoned there (in 819 or 820) (ὁ τὴν αὐτόθι στρατηγίαν διέπων - Βάρδας δὲ ἦν ὁ τοῦ ἄνακτος καὶ σύγγαμβρος καὶ ὁμόφρων); Bardas 30 fell gravely ill and withdrew to the episcopal palace at Smyrna, where one of his staff, Diogenes 4, suggested that Theodoros 15 be asked to pray for him; Theodoros 15 refused at first, reminding Bardas 30 of his role in the persecution of iconophiles and of his part in the death of Thaddaios 1, whom he accused Bardas 30 of having had beaten to death; Bardas 30 then expressed his full repentance and sorrow, and so Theodoros 15 sent him an icon of the Theotokos with instructions to seek the forgiveness of Thaddaios 1, and prayed for him; Bardas 30 recovered his health, but then lapsed and returned to his old ways, allowing himself to be anointed with oil which had been blessed by the heretical bishop of Smyrna (Anonymus 581); his illness then returned and he died shortly afterwards: Vita B Theod. Stud., 300C-301C, cf. Vita C Theod. Stud., 55ff., pp.290-1 (ὁ τῶν αὐτόθι στρατηγῶν, Βάρδας τούτῳ ὄνομα), Vita A Theod. Stud., 204B-205C (Βάρδας ἐκεῖνος ὁ τοῦ βασιλέως συγγενὴς, ὃς καὶ στρατηγεῖν ἐπετέτραπτο τῶν ἐκεῖ). Cf. also Ignatius, Vita Niceph. p. 201 ed. de Boor. Thaddaios\n 1 died in 817 or 818, and Theodoros 15 was in prison at Smyrna in 819 and 820. Bardas 30 was apparently therefore strategos of the Thrakesion in 818 and 819.

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