Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 894–896
Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 894–896 | |
---|---|
Part of the Dobrudzha and Ukrainian steppes | |
Result |
Bulgarian victory
|
Territorial changes |
Bulgarian territorial gains in Thrace Magyars forced to migrate westwards and settle in Pannonia |
- Byzantine Empire
- Magyars
Prokopios Krenites
Leo Katakalon
Liüntika
The Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 894–896 (Bulgarian: Българо–византийска война от 894–896) was fought between the Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire as a result of the decision of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI to move the Bulgarian market from Constantinople to Thessalonica which would greatly increase the expenses of the Bulgarian merchants.
Following the defeat of the Byzantine army in the initial stages of the war in 894 Leo VI sought aid from the
With the Magyar threat eliminated, Simeon led his hosts south and routed the Byzantine army in the battle of Boulgarophygon in the summer of 896, which forced Byzantium to agree to the Bulgarian terms. The war ended with a peace treaty which restored the Bulgarian market in Constantinople and confirmed Bulgarian domination in the Balkans. The Byzantine Empire was obliged to pay Bulgaria an annual tribute in exchange for the return of captured Byzantine soldiers and civilians. Under the treaty, the Byzantines also ceded an area between the Black Sea and the Strandzha mountains to Bulgaria. Despite several violations, the treaty formally lasted until Leo VI's death in 912.
Background
During the reign of
During the
Prelude
In 894
The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes Continuatus described the reasons for the conflict as follows:
The cause of the war was the following — the basileopator Stylianos Zaoutzes had a eunuch slave named Mousikos. He befriended Staurakios and Cosmas, who originated from Hellas, merchants greedy for profit and covetous. In their desire to enrich themselves and through the mediation of Mousikos, they moved the market of the Bulgarians from the capital [Constantinople] to Thessaloniki and taxed the Bulgarians with heavier duties. When the Bulgarians acquainted Simeon with the issue, he informed emperor Leo. Infatuated in his predilection to Zaoutzes, he considered all this a trifle. Simeon was infuriated and raised arms against the Romans. —Chronographia by Theophanes Continuatus[8][13]
The ousting of the merchants from Constantinople was a heavy blow for Bulgarian economic interests.
Initial campaigns and Magyar intervention
In the autumn of 894 Simeon I launched an invasion of Byzantine Thrace, taking advantage of Byzantium's engagements with the
This failure urged the Byzantines to seek aid from the
In the beginning of 895 the talented general Nikephoros Phokas the Elder was summoned to Constantinople and sent against the Bulgarians at the head of a large army.[24] While Simeon concentrated his forces along the southern border to confront Phokas, the Byzantine navy under admiral Eustathios Argyros sailed to the Danube Delta to assist the Magyars.[25] Believing that Simeon I would back off Leo VI sent an envoy, Constantinacios, to propose peace. Simeon I, who had studied in the University of Constantinople and was familiar with the Byzantine diplomacy, was suspicious of the Byzantine rapprochement, charged Constantinacios with espionage and put him into custody.[18][26] The Danube was barred with an iron chain to impede the movement of the Byzantine navy and the bulk of the army was dislocated northwards. The Byzantines, however, managed to break the chain and transported the Magyar hordes south of the river.[18] The Magyars, led by Árpád's son Liüntika,[22] ravaged Dobrudzha and dealt a heavy defeat on the Bulgarian army, led personally by Simeon I.[21][27] Simeon sought refuge in the strong fortress of Drastar while the Magyars pillaged and looted unopposed, reaching the outskirts of the capital Preslav.[26] Before retreating north, the Magyars sold thousands of captives to the Byzantines.[26][28]
Truce negotiations
Facing a difficult situation with war on two fronts, Simeon sent a peace proposal through admiral Eustathios to buy time to deal with the Magyar menace, promising to return the Byzantine captives. Leo VI gladly complied, ordered Eustathios and Nikephoros Phokas to retreat and sent the diplomat Leo Choirosphaktes to Bulgaria to negotiate the terms.[18][26] That was exactly what Simeon I had aimed. Leo Choirosphaktes was detained in one fortress and was repeatedly refused an audience. Instead, Simeon I exchanged letters with him, protracting the negotiations, showing suspicions over the wording of the Byzantine proposals, constantly seeking clarifications and adding new demands.[21] The main issue was the exchange of the captives — the Byzantine priority was to free the prisoners captured during the Bulgarian campaign of 894.[29] In one of his letters to Choirosphaktes Simeon I demonstrated his diplomatic skills deriding the emperor:
The eclipse of the sun, and its date, not only to the month, week or day, but to the hour and second, your emperor prophesied to us the year before last in the most marvellous fashion. And he also explained how long the eclipse of the moon will last. And they say he knows many other things about the movements of the heavenly bodies. If this is true, he must also know about the prisoners; and if he knows, he will have told you whether I am going to release them or keep them. So prophesy one thing or the other, and if you know my intentions, you shall get the prisoners as reward for your prophecy and your embassy, by God! Greetings!. —letter of Simeon I to Leo Choirosphaktes[30]
Choirosphaktes replied with an ambiguous answer, which was used by Simeon to claim that Leo could not prophesy the future and to refuse the return of the captives, further prolonging the negotiations.[31]
Defeat of the Magyars and battle of Boulgarophygon
While exchanging correspondence with Leo Choirosphaktes, Simeon sent envoys to forge an alliance with the
With the Magyar threat eliminated, Simeon returned to Preslav "proud of the victory"[32] and demanded the return of all Bulgarian captives as a precondition for further peace negotiations. Leo VI, who was in a difficult situation, facing the Arabs in the east and deprived of the services of the capable general Nikephoros Phokas, who was either disgraced as a result of the intrigues of Stylianos Zaoutzes or died in early 896, had to comply.[33][35] Leo Choirosphaktes and a Bulgarian envoy called Theodore, a trusted man of Simeon's, were sent to Constantinople to arrange the transfer which was successfully implemented.[36] Interpreting that as a sign of weakness, Simeon claimed that not all Bulgarians had been released and in the summer of 896 invaded Thrace.[34] The Byzantines secured an uneasy truce with the Arabs and transferred to Europe "all themes and tagmata",[32] i. e. all forces of the empire. The troops were commanded by the Domestic of the Schools Leo Katakalon, who lacked the ability of Phokas.[33] The two armies clashed in the battle of Boulgarophygon and the Byzantines were thoroughly routed — most of the soldiers perished, including the second-in-command, the protovestiarios Theodosius. Katakalon managed to escape with a few survivors.[9][32][34][37] The defeat was so grave that one Byzantine soldier retired from society and became an ascetic under the name of Luke the Stylite.[33]
The Byzantine sources have not recorded the aftermath of the battle but, according to the accounts of the contemporary Arab historian
Aftermath
The war ended with a peace treaty which confirmed the Bulgarian domination on the
The Bulgarian monarch was satisfied with the results and considered that he had superiority over the Byzantine Empire to achieve his political ambitions — to assume the throne in Constantinople.
The devastation in Dobrudzha at the hands of the Magyars indicated how vulnerable Bulgaria was to attacks from the north under the influence of the Byzantine diplomacy.[39] That experience paid off well in 917, when Simeon managed to counter the Byzantine efforts to ally with the Serbs or the Pechenegs, and forced them to fight alone in the battle of Achelous, where the Byzantines were soundly defeated in one of the biggest disasters in Byzantine history.[45]
See also
- Byzantine–Bulgarian wars
- Bulgarian–Hungarian Wars
- Medieval Bulgarian army
- Byzantine army
Footnotes
Notes
^ a: The borders established after the treaty are unknown but according to contemporary chronicles in 907 the town of Medea lied on the Byzantine–Bulgarian border.[46]
Citations
- ^ Andreev & Lalkov 1996, pp. 73, 75
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, pp. 261–262
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, pp. 272–273
- ^ Andreev & Lalkov 1996, p. 87
- ^ Andreev & Lalkov 1996, p. 91
- ^ a b c Andreev & Lalkov 1996, p. 92
- ^ Runciman 1930, p. 137
- ^ a b c Bakalov et al 2003, p. 251
- ^ a b c d "Selections from the Chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes, translated and adapted from B. Flusin and J.-C. Cheynet (2003)". Ian Mladjov's Resources. Archived from the original on 2012-07-27. Retrieved 2014-11-08.
- ^ a b c d Fine 1991, p. 137
- ^ Runciman 1930, p. 144
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, p. 286
- ^ "Chronographia by Theophanes Continuatus" in GIBI, vol. V, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, pp. 121–122. Archived pp. 121–122
- ^ Obolensky 1971, p. 105
- ^ a b Zlatarski 1972, pp. 288–289
- ^ Andreev & Lalkov 1996, pp. 92–93
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, pp. 289–290
- ^ a b c d Andreev & Lalkov 1996, p. 93
- ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 286–287
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, p. 290
- ^ a b c Fine 1991, p. 138
- ^ a b Spinei 2003, p. 52
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, pp. 294–295
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, p. 295
- ^ Runciman 1930, pp. 145–146
- ^ a b c d Runciman 1930, p. 146
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, pp. 297–299
- ^ a b Bozhilov & Gyuzelev 1999, p. 248
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, pp. 301–305
- ^ Fine 1991, pp. 138–139
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, pp. 306–307
- ^ a b c d e Andreev & Lalkov 1996, p. 94
- ^ a b c d Runciman 1930, p. 147
- ^ a b c d e f Fine 1991, p. 139
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, p. 315
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, pp. 312–313
- ^ Kazhdan 1991, p. 317
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, p. 317
- ^ a b Whittow 1996, p. 287
- ^ Fine 1991, pp. 139–140
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, pp. 318–321
- ^ Fine 1991, p. 140
- ^ Andreev & Lalkov 1996, pp. 94–95
- ^ Fine 1991, p. 141
- ^ Andreev & Lalkov 1996, pp. 99–100
- ^ Zlatarski 1972, p. 320
Sources
- Андреев (Andreev), Йордан (Jordan); Лалков (Lalkov), Милчо (Milcho) (1996). Българските ханове и царе (The Bulgarian Khans and Tsars) (in Bulgarian). Велико Търново (ISBN 954-427-216-X.
- Бакалов (Bakalov), Георги (Georgi); Ангелов (Angelov), Петър (Petar); Павлов (Pavlov), Пламен (Plamen); et al. (2003). История на българите от древността до края на XVI век [History of the Bulgarians from Antiquity to the end of the XVI century] (in Bulgarian). София (ISBN 954-621-186-9.
- Божилов (Bozhilov), Иван (Ivan); ISBN 954-426-204-0.
- Колектив (Collective) (1964). "11. Продължителят на Теофан (11. Theophanis Continuati)". Гръцки извори за българската история (ГИБИ), том V (Greek Sources for Bulgarian History (GIBI), volume V) (in Bulgarian and Greek). София (Sofia): Издателство на БАН (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Press).
- ISBN 0-472-08149-7.
- ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- Obolensky, D. (1971). The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500–1453. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- OCLC 832687.
- Spinei, Victor (2003). The Great Migrations in the East and South East of Europe from the Ninth to the Thirteenth Century. Romanian Cultural Institute (Center for Transylvanian Studies) and Museum of Brăila Istros Publishing House. ISBN 973-85894-5-2.
- Whittow, Mark (1996). The Making of Byzantium (600–1025). ISBN 0-520-20497-2.
- OCLC 67080314.
Further reading
- Stoyanov, Aleksandr (July 2019). "The Size of Bulgaria's Medieval Field Armies: A Case Study of Military Mobilization Capacity in the Middle Ages". Journal of Military History. 83 (3): 719–746.
External links
- Mladjov, Ian. "Selections from the Chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes, translated and adapted from B. Flusin and J.-C. Cheynet (2003)". Hosted on the Department of History, University of Michigan. Archived from the original on 2012-07-27. Retrieved 2014-11-08.