Philotheos 1 was logothetes of the genika and a close friend of the Kaisar Bardas 5; Bardas 5 related a dream to him which threatened him with approaching death; Philotheos 1 advised Bardas 5 to cease persecuting the exiled patriarch Ignatios 1, but Bardas 5 ignored the advice and placed Ignatios 1 under close guard; three months later Bardas 5 was killed: Nicetas, Vita Ignatii 533D-536D, cf. 533D (Φιλόθεον ἐκεῖνον γενικῶν ποτε λογοθέτην καὶ φίλον αὐτῷ πιστὸν ὄντα). The date of this dream, if historical, was therefore in January 866 (see below), when presumably also Philotheos 1 was logothetes of the genikon.

In 866 Philotheos 1, protospatharios and genikos (i.e. logothetes) (Φιλόθεος δὲ πρωτοσπαθάριος καὶ γενικός) and a friend of the Kaisar Bardas 5, went on the expedition against Crete; at Kepoi in Thrakesioi, when Bardas 5 sought advice what to do after receiving a warning of a plot to kill him (see Prokopios 3), Philotheos 1 told Bardas 5 to don his finest clothing (τὸν χρυσοπερσικὸν σοῦ χιτονισκὸν) and show himself to his enemies; they would then flee before him: Leo Gramm. 244, Georg. Mon. Cont. 830, Ps.-Symeon 678. Bardas 5 took his advice and was assassinated. The date of the murder was 21 April 866 (indiction 14): Theoph. Cont. V 17, p. 238.

Philotheos 1 was a protospatharios and a close associate of Bardas 5, whom he advised for his own safety to assume the dignity of Kaisar when the emperor Michael 11 became sole ruler: Genesius IV 12 (Φιλόθεός τις τῶν αὐτοῦ λίαν γνωστὸς καὶ τὴν τοῦ πρωτοσπαθαρίου ὑπέχων τιμὴν). See also Theod. Mel. 171, 4-7; Symeon Slav. 107, 25-27; and cf. Bury, Eastern Roman Empire 171f.

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