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The Avars at the Gates

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Abstract

The introduction to this chapter analyses the diplomatic background to the attack, specifically the mission of patriarch Athanasios to the camp of the Avar khagan. It then describes the arrival of the Avar army at Constantinople. The next part focuses on the first phase of the siege while specifically pinpointing two lesser discussed aspects of the Avar attack dealing with the naval defence of Constantinople in the Golden Horn and the topographical estimation of the concentration of Slavic monoxyles in the area of the Bridge of St Kallinikos.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A different dating has been suggested by Ericsson (1968, 17–28), but cf. Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby 1989, 201–202.

  2. 2.

    Chronicon Paschale, 715.9–13. Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby 1989, 169, n. 456. These new recipients of the state bread (Chronicon Paschale 715.13) probably belonged to the units stationed at the suburbs of Constantinople (cf. Chronicon Paschale 717.1–10).

  3. 3.

    Chronicon Paschale, 716.1–2.

  4. 4.

    Chronicon Paschale, 717.7–9.

  5. 5.

    Chronicon Paschale, 717.1–10.

  6. 6.

    Chronicon Paschale, 717.5.

  7. 7.

    Howard-Johnston 1995, 138.

  8. 8.

    Chronicon Paschale, 717.11–22.

  9. 9.

    Chronicon Paschale, 717.13–16.

  10. 10.

    Chronicon Paschale, 717.22–718.2.

  11. 11.

    Chronicon Paschale, 718.2–4; Theodore Synkellos, 304.31–35.

  12. 12.

    Speck 1987, 384.

  13. 13.

    Cf. Pohl 1988, 209–215.

  14. 14.

    Chronicon Paschale, 718.4–719.4. cf. Speck 1987, 385.

  15. 15.

    Chronicon Paschale

  16. 16.

    Stratos 174, 183; Speck 1987, 388–389.

  17. 17.

    Stratos 1968, 174; Kaegi 2003, 133.

  18. 18.

    Chronicon Paschale, 718.7–9 (the English translation by Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby 1989, 172).

  19. 19.

    Theodore Synkellos, 301.13–14.

  20. 20.

    Chronicon Paschale, 718.13–15.

  21. 21.

    Chronicon Paschale, 717.1–718.18.

  22. 22.

    Cf. the chapter “The Fortress Constantinople”.

  23. 23.

    The members of the regency council had information of the arrival of the rescuing army, as it is clear from the negotiations between the khagan and the embassy dispatched to him on 2 August. Cf.Chronicon Paschale, 722.1–4. cf. also Speck 1987, 389.

  24. 24.

    Chronicon Paschale, 718.19–22.

  25. 25.

    Howard-Johnston 1995, 134, n. 10.

  26. 26.

    Chronicon Paschale, 718.23–719.1 (the English translation by Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby 1989, 172).

  27. 27.

    Howard-Johnston 1995, 135.

  28. 28.

    Chronicon Paschale, 719.3–4 (the English translation by Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby 1989, 172).

  29. 29.

    Chronicon Paschale, 719.4–7; Theodore Synkellos, 305.21–28.

  30. 30.

    Theodore Synkellos, 305.21–26.

  31. 31.

    Theodore Synkellos, 304.36–305.12; George of PisidiaBellum Avaricum, v. 66–379, 178, 180.

  32. 32.

    Chronicon Paschale, 725.2; 725.4; 725.1.

  33. 33.

    Strategikon, 11.2, 362.32–33. Cf. McCotter 1996, 207.

  34. 34.

    Theodore Synkellos, 312.12.

  35. 35.

    Strategikon, 4.3. 196.35–36.

  36. 36.

    The wagons are documented during the siege of 626 as a part of the military equipment of the attackers. Cf. Theodore Synkellos, 306.17; 312.33. For the use of wagons by the Slavs and Avars: Theophylaktos Simokattes, 7.2.4–7.2.11, 247–248. and 7.11.7, 264.

  37. 37.

    Cf. the chapter “The Fortress Constantinople”.

  38. 38.

    Howard-Johnston 1995, 139.

  39. 39.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.15–17.

  40. 40.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.10–13 (the English translation by Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby 1989, 174).

  41. 41.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.14–15 (the English translation by Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby 1989, 174).

  42. 42.

    Theodore Synkellos, 305.34–36.

  43. 43.

    George of PisidiaBellum Avaricum, v. 220–222, 170.

  44. 44.

    Chronicon Paschale, 719.9–10.

  45. 45.

    For other examples of nudity during the battle: Pohl 1998, 45, n. 125.

  46. 46.

    For the use of scaling ladders by the Slavs and Avars during the sieges of Thessalonica in 586 and 618, cf.Miracula Sancti Demetrii, 1.13.119, 135 and 2.2.203, 186.

  47. 47.

    Tsangadas 1980, 89.

  48. 48.

    Chronicon Paschale, 719.12–14.

  49. 49.

    Cf. Grafenauer 1950, 110; Kollautz—Miyakawa 1970: 1, 240; Barišić 1955, 147; Angelov—Kašev—Čolpanov 1983, 122; Kazanski 2015, 46.

  50. 50.

    Theodore Synkellos, 305.37–38.

  51. 51.

    Ivanov 1995, 80; Curta 2001, 109.

  52. 52.

    Theodore Synkellos, 305.38–306.7; cf. Barišić 1954, 381.

  53. 53.

    Theodore Synkellos, 306.1–2. On this monastery: Janin 1969, 223–228; Berger 1988, 686.

  54. 54.

    Theodore Synkellos, 306.1–2.

  55. 55.

    Theodore Synkellos, 306.7–8.

  56. 56.

    Chronicon Paschale, 719.15–16. Cf. the chapter “The Fortress Constantinople”.

  57. 57.

    Theodore Synkellos, 306.14–18.

  58. 58.

    Chronicon Paschale, 719.16–19.

  59. 59.

    Chronicon Paschale, 719.19–21.

  60. 60.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.2–3. Cf. also Meyer-Plath and Schneider 1943, 12.

  61. 61.

    Cf. the chapter “The Fortress Constantinople”.

  62. 62.

    Nikephoros 13, 58.16–19.

  63. 63.

    Theodore Synkellos, 306.18–19.

  64. 64.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.7–9.

  65. 65.

    Mordtmann 1903, 17.

  66. 66.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.5–6.

  67. 67.

    Tevyashov 1914, 232.

  68. 68.

    Pohl 1988, 230; Nicolle 2003, 23; Pertusi 1959, 203.

  69. 69.

    Even the famoustolleno (a sort of crane) made by Archimedes was able to drop a large amount of stones on the attacking Roman ships during the siege of Syracuse. Cf. Lendle 1983, 121–127.

  70. 70.

    John Malalas, 18.66, 392.64–65 (the English translation according to E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys, and Scott 1986, 274).

  71. 71.

    De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, 162.

  72. 72.

    Ibn al-Qalanisi, 124.

  73. 73.

    Ibn al-Qalanisi, 124–125.

  74. 74.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.5–9 (the English translation by Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby 1989, 174).

  75. 75.

    That incident is only briefly mentioned by Barišič 1954, 382–383 and note 1; Stratos 1968, 185–186; Tsangadas, 1980, 89–90; Howard-Johnston 1995, 139.

  76. 76.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.15–19. For askaphokaraboi, cf. chapter “The Fortress Constantinople”.

  77. 77.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.18.

  78. 78.

    For the localization of this bridge cf. Hurbanič 2012, 15–24, cf. also one important correction of my conclusions by Effenberger (2018, 157–176).

  79. 79.

    Chronicon Paschale, 720.21–721.1.

  80. 80.

    Meyer-Plath and Schneider 1943, 102.

  81. 81.

    For its localization cf. chapter “The Fortress Constantinople”.

  82. 82.

    John Malalas, 15.14, 315.66 and 18.13, 360.49. For this church, cf. Janin 1969, 282–284.

  83. 83.

    Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae, 240 (regio Sycena);Chronicon Paschale, 618.14–19.

  84. 84.

    Cf. in detail Hurbanič 2015, 2011–220.

  85. 85.

    Miracula Sancti Demetrii, 2.1.182, 176.19–25.

  86. 86.

    Miracula Sancti Demetrii 2.1.184, 176.30–31.

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  1. Department of History, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Martin Hurbanič

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Hurbanič, M. (2019). The Avars at the Gates. In: The Avar Siege of Constantinople in 626. New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16684-7_8

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