Nicknamed Pinakas, Basilios 59 was a spatharios; one of the envoys sent in late 867 by the patriarch Ignatios 1 to the bishop of Rome, Nicolas I (Nikolaos 28), with the emperor Basilios 7's support, to convene a council at Constantinople; the other envoys were Ioannes 241 (bishop of Perge) and Petros 74 (bishop of Sardis); Petros 74 perished in the gulf of Dalmatia, but Basilios 59 and Ioannes 241 reached Rome in safety, to find Nikolaos 28 dead and Hadrian II (Hadrianos 8) bishop in his place: Nicetas, Vita Ignatii 544B-C (σὺν αὐτοῖς δὲ καὶ Βασίλειος ὁ καλούμενος Πινακᾶς ἀπῄει, σπαθάριος τὴν ἀξίαν καθεστώς).

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