| Siege of Constantinople | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theRus'–Byzantine Wars | |||||||
 The Rus' under the walls ofConstantinople | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Byzantine Empire | Rus' | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Michael III | Askold and Dir | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | 8,000 men[1] | ||||||
 | |||||||
Thesiege of Constantinople in 860 was the only major military expedition of theRus' recorded inByzantine andwestern European sources. Thecasus belli was the construction of the fortressSarkel by Byzantine engineers, restricting the Rus' trade route along theDon River in favour of theKhazars.[not verified in body] Accounts vary, with discrepancies between contemporary and later sources, and the outcome is unknown in detail.
It is known from Byzantine sources that the Rus' caughtConstantinople unprepared; preoccupied by the ongoingArab–Byzantine wars, the empire was unable, at least initially, to make an effective response to the attack. After pillaging the suburbs of the Byzantine capital, the Rus' retreated for the day and continued their siege in the night after exhausting the Byzantine troops and causing disorganization. The event gave rise to a laterOrthodox Christian tradition, which ascribed the deliverance of Constantinople to a miraculous intervention by theTheotokos.
The first mention of the Rus' near the Byzantine Empire comes fromLife of St. George of Amastris, ahagiographic work whose dating isdebated. The Byzantines had come intocontact with the Rus' in 839. The timing of the attack suggests the Rus' had been informed of the city's weakness, demonstrating that the lines of trade and communication did not cease to exist in the 840s and 850s. Nevertheless, the attack from the Rus' in 860 came as a surprise; it was as sudden and unexpected "as a swarm of wasps", asPhotius put it.[2] The empire was struggling to repel theAbbasid advance inAsia Minor. In March 860, the garrison of the key fortressLoulon unexpectedly surrendered to the Arabs. In April or May, both sidesexchanged captives, and the hostilities briefly ceased; however, in the beginning of June, EmperorMichael III left Constantinople forAsia Minor to invade theAbbasid Caliphate.[3]
On June 18, 860,[a] at sunset, a fleet of about 200 Rus' vessels[b] sailed into theBosporus and started pillaging the suburbs of Constantinople (Old East Slavic:Tsarigrad,Old Norse:Miklagarðr). The attackers set homes on fire, drowning and stabbing the residents. Unable to do anything to repel the invaders,Patriarch Photius urged his flock to implore theTheotokos to save the city.[4] Having devastated the suburbs, the Rus' passed into theSea of Marmara and fell upon theIsles of the Princes, where the formerpatriarch Ignatius of Constantinople was living in exile. The Rus' plundered the dwellings and the monasteries, slaughtering those they captured. They took twenty-two of the patriarch's servants aboard a ship and dismembered them with axes.[5]
The attack took the Byzantines by surprise, "like a thunderbolt from heaven", as it was put by Patriarch Photius in his famous oration written on the occasion.Emperor Michael III was absent from the city, as was his navy, which was dreaded for its skill in usingGreek fire. The imperial army, including troops normally garrisoned closest to the capital, was fighting the Arabs in Asia Minor. The city's land defences were weakened by this. The sea defences were also lacking as theByzantine Navy was occupied fighting Arabs in theAegean Sea and theMediterranean Sea. These simultaneous deployments left the coasts and islands of theBlack Sea, theBosporus, and the Sea of Marmara susceptible to attack.[citation needed]
The invasion continued until August 4, when, in another of his sermons, Photius thanked heaven for miraculously relieving the city from such a dire threat. The writings of Photius provide the earliest example of the name "Rus" (Rhos,Greek:Ῥῶς) being mentioned in a Greek source; previously the dwellers of the lands to the north of theBlack Sea were referred to archaically as "Tauroscythians". The patriarch reported that they had no supreme ruler and lived in some distant northern lands. Photius called them ἔθνος ἄγνωστον, "unknown people", although some historians prefer to translate the phrase as "obscure people", pointing out the earlier contacts between Byzantines and the Rus'.[6]
The sermons of Photius offer no clue as to the outcome of the invasion or the reasons why the Rus' withdrew. Later sources attribute their retreat to the Emperor's speedy return. As the story goes, after Michael and Photius put theveil of the Theotokos into the sea, there arose a tempest which dispersed the boats of the barbarians. In later centuries, it was said that the Emperor hurried to thechurch at Blachernae and had the robe of the Theotokos carried in procession along theTheodosian Walls. This precious Byzantine relic was dipped symbolically into the sea and a great wind immediately arose and wrecked the Rus' ships.[2] The pious legend was recorded byGeorge Hamartolus, whose manuscript was an important source for thePrimary Chronicle.[7] The authors of the chronicle appended the names ofAskold and Dir to the account as they believed that these twoVarangians had presided overKiev in 866. It was to this year that (through some quirk in chronology) they attributed the first Rus' expedition against the Byzantine capital.[8]
Nestor's account of the first encounter between the Rus' and the Byzantines may have contributed to the popularity of the Theotokos in Russia. The miraculous saving of Constantinople from the barbarian hordes would appear in Russian icon-painting, without understanding that the hordes in question may have issued fromKiev. Furthermore, when theBlachernitissa was brought toMoscow in the 17th century, it was said that it was this icon that had savedTsargrad from the troops of the "Scythiankhagan", after Michael III had prayed before it to the Theotokos. Nobody noticed that the story had obvious parallels with the sequence of events described by Nestor.[citation needed]
In the 9th century, a legend sprang up to the effect that an ancient column at the Forum of Taurus had an inscription predicting that Constantinople would be conquered by the Rus. This legend, well known in Byzantine literature, was revived by theSlavophiles in the 19th century, when Russia was on the point of wresting the city from the Ottomans.[citation needed]
As was demonstrated by Oleg Tvorogov andConstantine Zuckerman, among others, the 9th century and later sources are out of tune with the earliest records of the event. In his August sermon, Photius mentions neither Michael III's return to the capital nor the miracle with the veil (of which the author purportedly was a participant).
On the other hand,Pope Nicholas I, in a letter sent to Michael III on September 28, 865, mentions that the suburbs of the imperial capital were recently raided by the pagans who were allowed to retreat without any punishment.[9] TheVenetian Chronicle ofJohn the Deacon reports that theNormanorum gentes, having devastated thesuburbanum of Constantinople, returned to their own lands in triumph ("et sic praedicta gens cum triumpho ad propriam regressa est").[10]
It appears that the victory of Michael III over the Rus' was invented by the Byzantine historians in the mid-9th century or later and became generally accepted in the Slavic chronicles influenced by them.[11] However, the memory of the successful campaign was transmitted orally among the Kievans and may have dictated Nestor's account ofOleg's907 campaign, which is not recorded in Byzantine sources at all.[citation needed]