Battle of Achelous (917)

Coordinates: 42°38′35″N 27°38′12″E / 42.64306°N 27.63667°E / 42.64306; 27.63667
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42°38′35″N 27°38′12″E / 42.64306°N 27.63667°E / 42.64306; 27.63667

Battle of Achelous
Part of the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars:
War of 913–927

Seal of Simeon I
Date20 August 917
Location
Achelous river near Anchialus
Result Bulgarian victory
Belligerents
Bulgarian Empire Byzantine Empire
Commanders and leaders
Simeon I of Bulgaria Leo Phokas
Strength
15,000[1] 30,000[2][3]
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown (heavy)

The Battle of Achelous or Acheloos (

Balkan Peninsula, excluding the well-protected Byzantine capital Constantinople and the Peloponnese
.

The battle, which was one of the biggest and bloodiest battles of the European

Bulgarian monarchs
, and the consequent affirmation of Bulgarian equality vis-à-vis Byzantium.

Background

Bulgarian troops seizing Adrianople

After the Bulgarian victory in the war of 894–896, the Byzantines were forced to pay tribute to Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria. In 912 when the Byzantine emperor Leo VI died, his brother Alexander refused to pay tribute to the Bulgarians. Simeon saw an opportunity to wage a new war and fulfil his ambitions to conquer Constantinople. Alexander died in the same year and the new government under the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos made desperate attempts to avoid the war, promising that the infant Emperor Constantine VII would marry one of Simeon's daughters.[7] At some point, the patriarch and Simeon even met outside the walls of Constantinople, performing a coronation ceremony. Thereafter, Simeon began using the title "Tsar of the Bulgarians", and the Greek title basileus in his seals.[8]

After a plot in the Byzantine court in 914, however, the new regent

Thessalonica.[14]

Preparations for battle

Both sides carefully prepared for a decisive end of the conflict. Empress Zoe wanted to swiftly make a peace settlement with the

Magyars, Pechenegs and Serbs,[18] but Simeon was familiar with the methods of Byzantine diplomacy and from the very beginning took successful actions to subvert a possible alliance between his enemies.[19] Thus the Byzantines were forced to fight alone.[citation needed
]

The Byzantine army

Zoe of Byzantium and her son, emperor Constantine VII

By 917, after a series of successful campaigns, the Byzantine Empire had stabilized its eastern borders, and the generals

Asia Minor[20] to reinforce the imperial tagmata and the European thematic troops, gathering a force of some 60,000 men.[6] This was a very large army by contemporary standards, and its goal was the elimination of the Bulgarian threat from the north. The Byzantine commanders were convinced that their strategy would be successful.[citation needed] Morale was raised as the soldiers vowed by the miraculous Cross to die for one another.[citation needed] The spirit of the army was further raised as the troops were paid in advance and a fleet commanded by Romanus Lecapenus set off to the north at the mouth of the Danube. The Byzantines had tried to pay some Pecheneg tribes to attack, but Romanus would not agree to transport them across the Danube, and instead, they attacked Bulgarian territory on their own.[21]

The Bulgarian army

The size of the Bulgarian army under

Dnieper River
in the east.

Miracula Sancti Georgii, written in the 11th century and in this particular case of dubious veracity, is the only source which points that the Bulgarian army in the battle of Achelous was allied with

Serb principalities to prevent possible unrest.[citation needed
]

The battle

The oath of the Byzantine soldiers on the eve of the battle

The Byzantine army marched northwards and set its camp in the vicinity of the strong fortress of Anchialus. Leo Phocas intended to invade

Dobrudzha. Simeon swiftly concentrated his army on the heights around the fortress.[citation needed
]

On the morning of 20 August, the battle between the Bulgarians and the Byzantines began by the River

Acheloi, 8 kilometers to the north of Anchialus (modern Pomorie) on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.[citation needed] The Byzantine generals planned to outflank the Bulgarian right wing in order to detach Simeon's troops from the Balkan Passes.[citation needed] The Bulgarian ruler concentrated his most powerful forces in the two wings and left the centre relatively weak in order to surround the enemy when the centre would yield to the Byzantine attack. Simeon himself was in charge of large cavalry reserves hidden behind the hills which were intended to strike the decisive blow.[citation needed
]

The Bulgarian victory at Anchialus

The Byzantine attack was fierce and it was not long before the Bulgarians began slowly to retreat.[25] The Byzantine cavalry charged the infantry in the centre killing many Bulgarians. The Bulgarian position became desperate as they could not manage to hold the heights to the south of the river and began a hasty retreat to the north. Elated, the Byzantines started a bitter chase and their battle formations soon began to break, especially as a rumour spread that the Byzantine commander, Leo Phocas, had been killed.[6] At this point, Simeon, who had detected the disarray in the Byzantine formation, ordered his army to stand, and, at the head of his heavy cavalry corps, attacked the Byzantine left wing from behind the hills.[26] With an irresistible onslaught the cavalry bore down at the confused enemy who immediately bent under their attack, panicked, and took to their heels.[27]

...And even now there could be seen piles of bones at Anchialus, where the fleeing army of the Romans was disgracefully slain.

— from Leo the Deacon's History, 75 years later[28]

Some Byzantines tried to repulse the cavalry charge but they were also attacked by the infantry. Tsar Simeon personally took part in the fight, his white horse killed at the height of the battle. The Byzantines were completely routed. Leo Phocas was saved by fleeing to Mesembria (modern Nesebar) in Bulgaria, but in the thick of the battle Constantine Lips, John Grapson, and many other commanders (archontes) were cut down along with an enormous number of soldiers and officers.[29] By the end of the day the Bulgarians overwhelmed the defenders of Mesembria and captured the town. Leo Phocas barely escaped by boarding a ship.

The Byzantine historian

medieval history and some historians[30][page needed] refer to it as "the battle of the century".[citation needed
]

Aftermath

Progress of the Battle of Acheloos.

The remainder of the Byzantine army fled all the way back to

Zoe Karvounopsina, but Zoe refused and allied with Serbia and Hungary against him. However, in August 918, general Romanus Lecapenus engineered a coup to depose Zoe and confined her to the monastery of St Euphemia-in-Petrium, allowing him to assume the purple. The alliance with the Serbs postponed the decisive assault of Constantinople. Due to his also heavy casualties, Simeon decided to secure his rear and sent an army from his remaining forces under Marmais and Theodore Sigritsa to destroy them.[35] His generals captured the Serb prince[18] but that gave the Byzantines precious time to recover due to his already diminished forces, making him have no sufficient forces to fight on both sides at the same time.[citation needed
]

Significance

The battle of Achelous was one of the most important battles in the long

Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars. It secured the concession of the Imperial title to the Bulgarian rulers, and thereby firmly established Bulgaria's role as a key player in Europe. However, the dynastic marriage that Simeon desired to establish with the Byzantine imperial family was foiled. After his death in 927, however, his successor Peter I was able to secure the hand of Maria Lecapene, the granddaughter of emperor Romanus I,[36] and with it an annual tribute, the renewed recognition of his imperial title and the autocephaly of the Bulgarian church. This agreement ushered an unprecedented period of 40 years of peaceful relations between the two powers, a time of stability and prosperity for Bulgaria.[37]

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Сайт на списание Военна история, 27.03.2017. Александър Стоянов, Ахелой – митове и легенди". Archived from the original on 19 October 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  2. ^ Haldon, p. 92
  3. ^ Hupchick, p. 80
  4. ^ Haldon (1999), p. 212
  5. ^ Stephenson (2004), p. 23
  6. ^ a b c d Haldon (2008), p. 92
  7. ^ Nicolaus Patriarcha. Epistolae, ep. 8, col. 61C-68C
  8. ^ Stephenson (2004), p. 22
  9. ^ Theophanes Continuatus. Chronographia, p. 387
  10. ^ Leo Grammaticus. Chronographia, p. 293–294
  11. ^ Pseudo-Simeon. Chronographia, p. 723
  12. ^ Островски, Г. Историја Византије, с.255
  13. ^ Georgius Monachus Continuatus. Chronicon, p. 805
  14. ^ Nicolaus Patriarcha. Epistolae, ep. 9, col. 76C
  15. ^ Theophanes Continuatus. Chronographia, p. 388
  16. ^ Georgius Monachus Continuatus. Chronicon, p. 806
  17. ^ Ioannes Skylitzes. Historia, 2, pp. 283–284
  18. ^ a b Constantinus Porphyrogenitus. De administrando imperio, §32, p. 156
  19. ^ Божилов, Ив. България и печенезите, 47–51
  20. ^ Leo Grammaticus. Chronographia, p. 244
  21. ^ Nicolaus Patriarcha. Epistolae, ep. 9, col. 73A
  22. ^ Kristó Gyula: Levedi törzsszövetségétől Szent István államáig; Magvető Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1980 p. 248 From Miracula Sancti Georgii. Hungarian translation: "A nyugati népek, azaz a bolgárok, magyarok, szküthák, médek és türkök leghevesebb felkelése történt" English translation from the Hungarian: It was the most violent upraising of the Western nations: the Bulgarians, Hungarians, Scythians, Medians and Turks
  23. ^ Tóth, Péter. "Pecheneg – Hungarian Reconciliation after the Defeat of Riade, p. 27" (PDF). Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  24. ISBN 978-963-482-851-8
    .
  25. ^ Theophanes Continuatus. Chronographia, pp. 388–390
  26. ^ Leo Grammaticus. Chronographia, pp. 294–296
  27. ^ Ioannes Skylitzes. Historia, 2, pp. 284–288
  28. ^ Leo Diaconus, Historia, p. 124.
  29. ^ Ioannes Skylitzes. Historia, 2, p. 288
  30. ISBN 9545000449
    .
  31. ^ Theophanes Continuatus. Chronographia, p. 290
  32. ^ Leo Grammaticus. Chronographia, p. 296
  33. ^ Georgius Monachus Continuatus. Chronicon, p. 808
  34. ^ Nicolaus Patriarcha. Epistolae, ep. 9, col. 68A
  35. ^ Obolensky, D. The Byzantine Commonwealth, London, 1971, p. 111
  36. ^ Stephenson (2004), p. 24
  37. ^ Stephenson (2004), pp. 24–25

Sources

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Further reading
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