MEDIEVAL HISTORY

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE SARACENS (867-1057)

By

A. A. VASILIEV.

THE struggle with the Saracens constituted the chief problem with which the foreign policy of Basil I had to deal. The circumstances were as favourable as they could possibly be, because during his reign the Empire lived in peaceful relations with its other neighbours: in the east with Armenia, in the north with young Russia and Bulgaria, and in the west with Venice and Germany.

The favourable conditions in which Basil I was placed in his relation with the Eastern and Western Saracens become clearer when we bear in mind the following considerations.

1.      Owing to the rapidly increasing influence of the Turks at the Caliph's court, internal dissensions were continually breaking out in the Eastern Caliphate.

2.    Egypt became independent in 868, owing to the fact that a new dynasty, that of the Talanids, had been founded there.

3.    Civil war had broken out among the North African Saracens.

4.    The relations of the Spanish Umayyads with the local Christian population were beset with difficulties.

Basil I was occupied during the first four years of his reign with military operations against the Western Saracens, for during this time peace was not violated on the eastern frontier. The help which the Byzantine fleet in 868 gave to Ragusa, which at that time was being besieged by the Saracens, forced the latter to withdraw and was thus the means of strengthening the Byzantine influences on the shores of the Adriatic.

The troubles in South Italy compelled the intervention of the Western Emperor Louis II, who, having concluded an alliance with Basil I and with the Pope, took Bari on 2 February 871. Of the important places in South Italy only Taranto now remained in the hands of the Saracens. The position of Byzantium was not improved during these four years in Sicily, where only Taormina and Syracuse remained in her power; the occupation of the island of Malta by the Saracens in August 870 com­pletely surrounded Sicily with Saracen possessions, for all the other islands in that region already belonged to them.

In the east Basil I, wishing to re-establish peace and union with the Paulicians, who had been severely persecuted by the Empress Theodora, sent to them in 869-870 Peter the Sicilian as his ambassador, but his mission was not successful, and the extravagant demands of Chrysochir, the leader of the Paulicians, led to war.

The campaigns of 871 and 872 gave Tephrice, the chief town of the Paulicians, into the power of Basil, and also a whole chain of other fortified places. In one of the battles Chrysochir himself was slain. The fugitive Paulicians found a ready welcome from the Saracens.

This war with the Paulicians extended the Byzantine frontier as far as the Saracen Melitene (Malatiyah), and set Basil free to advance against the Eastern Saracens. In 873 war was declared, and Basil captured Zapetra (Sozopetra) and Samosata, but in the end he was totally defeated near Malatiyah.

From 874 to 877 was a period of calm. In the east and in Sicily, we do not hear of any military operations. In Italy, after the death of the Emperor Louis II, the Byzantine troops occupied the town of Bari at the request of the inhabitants, and apparently at this time, in the years 874-877, the Byzantine fleet captured Cyprus; but it remained in the possession of the Greeks only for seven years.

Loss of Syracuse

The year 878 was disastrous to the military policy of Byzantium: on 21 May the Saracens took Syracuse by assault after a siege of nine months. Thus the only town in Sicily remaining in the hands of the Greeks was Taormina. The loss of Syracuse was the turning-point in the history of Basil's foreign relations. His foreign policy proved a complete failure, and the last eight years of his reign were occupied in casual and comparatively small encounters. In the east there were frequent conflicts, but of an undecided character; success alternated sometimes in favour of one side and sometimes of the other, but in no case to the glory of the Byzantine arms.

From 886 Basil was in friendly relations with the Armenian King, Ashot I, the Bagratid, whose State formed a useful buffer against the Eastern Saracens. In Sicily the usual skirmishes went on, and it was only in South Italy that the Byzantine troops began to gain victories, more especially after the arrival of Nicephorus Phocas' in command. But in this year Basil died (29 August 886).

During his reign the Empire had lost much in the west, but in Asia Minor, notwithstanding some failures, the frontier was considerably ad­vanced eastwards, and thus the Byzantine influence, which had been somewhat weakened, was to a great extent restored.

Disasters under Leo VI 

If Basil I lived in peace with his neighbours, with the exception of the Saracens, it was very different with his successor Leo VI the Wise (886­912). Immediately after his accession to the throne, military operations began in Bulgaria, and this war, which terminated with the peace of 893, brought much humiliation upon the Empire. The peace lasted about twenty years. In connection with the Bulgarian war, for the first time the Hungarians enter into the history of Byzantium, and towards the end of the reign of Leo the Russians appeared before Constantinople. Armenia, which was in alliance with Byzantium, during the whole of Leo's reign was subjected to Arabian invasions, and the Emperor of Byzantium had not the strength to help the Armenian King Sempad; it was only at the end of his reign that Leo went to the aid of Armenia, but he died during the campaign. The question about the fourth marriage of the Emperor caused great division in the Empire. It was thus evident that the conditions of the struggle between the Byzantine Empire and the Saracens were becoming more difficult.

During the first fourteen years of the reign of Leo VI, from 886 to 900, the Greeks suffered frequent defeats in the east, at the Cilician Gates and in the west of Cilicia, where the Saracens successfully advanced along the coast as well as into the interior of the country. The failures on land and the naval defeat of Raghib in 898 of the coast of Asia Minor compelled the Byzantine government to recall the energetic Nicephorus Phocas from Italy, and about 900 he arrived in Asia Minor. Affairs in Sicily grew worse and worse with every year. In 888 the imperial fleet suffered a severe defeat at Mylae (now Milazzo); but the Byzantines were somewhat helped by the fact that the Saracens were at that time occupied with their own internal dissensions and in conflicts with the African Aghlabids. Some successes gained by the Byzantine arms in Italy had no influence on the general conditions of the struggle between Leo VI and the Saracens. In the east, Nicephorus Phocas by his victory at Adana in 900 justified the hopes that had been placed in him; but the success of the Byzantines came with this nearly to a standstill.

The first years of the tenth century were signalized by a whole series of misfortunes for the Byzantine Empire, in the west as well as in the east. In the west, the Saracen chief Abul-Abbas took possession of Reggio in Calabria on 10 June 901, and the Aghlabid Emir Ibrahim captured on 1 August 902 Taormina, the last fortified place of the Greeks in Sicily.

With the fall of Taormina, Sicily was entirely in the power of the Saracens. It is true that several unimportant points, as for instance Demona, still remained in the hands of the Greeks, but this had no importance whatever for the future history of Byzantium. From 902 onwards Sicilian events do not exercise any influence on the course of Byzantine political affairs. In the second half of Leo's reign, the eastern policy of the Empire is quite independent of his relations with the Sicilian Saracens.

The first years of the tenth century were also signalized by important events on sea, At the end of the ninth century the Saracens of Crete had already begun their devastating attacks on the coast of the Peloponnesus; indeed, they held in their power the whole of the Aegean Sea. We possess information about their attacks on the islands of Naxos, Patmos, Paros, Aegina, and Samos. But it was during the first years of the tenth century that these maritime invasions of the Saracens became especially threatening. Their two strong fleets—the Syrian and the Cretan —frequently acted together. In 902 the Saracen fleet laid waste the islands of the Aegean Sea, and destroyed the rich and populous town of Demetrias on the coast of Thessaly. In the summer of 904, another Saracen fleet, under the command of the Greek renegade, Leo of Tripolis, made an attack on the south coast of Asia Minor, and, in the month of July of the same year, took possession of the important town of Attalia. Leo then had the intention of going towards Constantinople, the town "preserved by God." But having entered the Hellespont and captured Abydos, the chief custom-house port for ships going to Byzantium, he suddenly departed, and then, coasting round the peninsula of Chalcidice, approached Thessalonica. Himerius, who was sent against him, did not dare to engage the Saracen fleet in battle.

Naval disasters

The Saracen ships approached Thessalonica on 29 July 904, and made an unexpected assault upon it. The story of the siege, which lasted from 29 to 31 July, is well known to us from a work of John Cameniates. Thessalonica passed into the power of the Saracens on 31 July 904, but they shortly afterwards departed for Syria with many prisoners and rich booty. It was only after this misfortune that the Byzantine government began to fortify Attalia and Thessalonica.

The naval failures of 902-904 induced the Emperor Leo to give greater attention to the fleet, which was so quickly and greatly improved that in 906 Himerius was enabled to gain a brilliant victory over the Saracens, and in the summer of 910 he was therefore placed at the head of a large naval expedition, directed against the allied Eastern and Cretan Arabs. Detailed accounts of the composition of this expedition are preserved in the Ceremonies of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.

However, the result of the expedition did not correspond to all these great preparations, for after some success at Cyprus Himerius suffered a severe defeat near the isle of Samos in October 911 and lost the greater part of his fleet. On the death of Leo VI, Himerius returned to Constantinople, and was shut up in a monastery by the Emperor Alexander.

In the east, on land, from 900, the usual military operations were carried on with varying success.

Byzantine policy, in its relation to the Saracens, proved a complete failure under Leo VI: in the west, Sicily was definitely lost; in the south of Italy, after Nicephorus Phocas had been recalled, the success of the Byzantine arms was brought to a close; on the eastern frontier, the Saracens were still steadily, if slowly, advancing, especially in Cilicia; on sea, Byzantium met with a whole series of most ruinous disasters.

Constantine VII: the decline of the Caliphate 

The reign of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus is divided into three periods:

1. From 913 to 919—the government of his mother Zoe, who acted as regent during his minority.

2. From 919 to 944—the government of Romanus Lecapenus.

3. From 945 to 959—the absolute government of Constantine himself.

The period down to 927 was occupied with the obstinate and unhappy war with the Bulgarian King Simeon, during which Byzantium was obliged to concentrate all its efforts against this terrible enemy. At this time it was impossible even to think of any regular organized action against the Saracens. It was a happy circumstance for Byzantium that the Caliphate itself was passing at the same time through the epoch of its dissolution, which was caused by internal dissensions and the rise of separate independent dynasties. Consequently, down to 927 the encounters with the Saracens were of the usual harassing and monotonous character, and generally resulted to the advantage of the Saracen arms. It was only in 921 or 922 that the Byzantine fleet gained a great naval victory near the island of Lemnos over the renowned hero of 904, Leo of Tripolis. In 927 Byzantium concluded peace with the Bulgarian King Peter, who had succeeded Simeon, and was thus free to turn her attention towards the Saracens.

In the time of Romanus Lecapenus, eminent leaders arose in the armies of both adversaries; in that of the Greeks, the Domestic John Curcuas, who, after some defeats in Saracen Armenia, fought with success in the frontier province of Mesopotamia, and in 934 captured Melitene (Malatiyah). The new Saracen leader was Saif-ad-Daulah, sovereign of Aleppo and chief of the independent dynasty of the Hamdanids. He strengthened himself at the expense of the Caliph of Baghdad, and began successful military operations in the regions of the Upper Euphrates. This induced the Emperor to enter into friendly negotiations with the Caliph of Baghdad and with the Egyptian sovereigns, the Ikhshidids. But disturbances in the Eastern Caliphate and other difficulties drew the attention of Saif­ad-Daulah away from the Byzantine frontier, and this explains why John Curcuas, in the fourth decade, gained a series of easy victories in Armenia and Upper Mesopotamia, and in 942-3 captured the towns of Mayyafariqin (Martyropolis), Dara, and Nisibis. In 944 Edessa, after a severe siege, succumbed to the Greeks, and was obliged to deliver up her precious relic, the miraculous image of the Saviour, which was with great solemnity transferred to Constantinople.

In 945 Constantine Porphyrogenitus became absolute ruler of the Byzantine Empire. Down to the very year of his death (959) military operations did not cease in the east, where his chief adversary was the already famous Saif-ad-Daulah, who, having settled in 947 his difficulties with the Egyptian Ikhshidids, turned against Byzantium. In the beginning the advantage was with the Greeks. In 949 they seized Marash (Germanicea); in 950 they totally defeated Saif-ad-Daulah in the narrow passage near the town of Hadath; and in 952 they crossed the Euphrates and took the Mesopotamian town of Saruj. But in 952 and 953 Saif-ad-Daulah defeated the Greeks not far from Marash and took the son of the Domestic prisoner. In 954 Saif-ad-Daulah gained a fresh victory over the Domestic Bardas Phocas near Hadath, and in 956 the future Emperor John Tzimisces was defeated by him in the province of the Upper Euphrates near the fortress of Tall-Batriq. Only in 957 did success turn to the side of the Greeks. In this year Hadath surrendered to them. In 958 John Tzimisces defeated the Arabs in Northern Mesopotamia and took Samosata. During the life of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Saif-ad-Daulah was unable to avenge himself upon the Greeks for these last failures.

If the fighting on the eastern frontier was difficult for Byzantium and was far from being always successful, the maritime operations of the Byzantine fleet ended in total disaster. In 949 a great naval expedition was undertaken against the Cretan Arabs, who, as was always the case, were greatly feared, and were desolating the coast of Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea. To further the success of the enterprise, the Emperor entered into friendly relations with their enemies the Spanish Saracens. The Emperor has left in his Ceremonies a detailed account of the composition and equipment of this expedition'. The incompetent patrician Constantine Gongylas, who had been given the chief command of the Byzantine fleet, landed troops at Crete, but suffered a terrible defeat and lost the greater part of his vessels.

The monotonous conflicts of the Greeks with the Saracens in the west, in Italy and in Sicily, did not have any influence on the general course of events.

It is true that the military operations in the east, during the reign of Constantine, were not always successful for the Byzantine Empire; but the advance of the last years in removing the frontier beyond the Euphrates laid the foundation for the brilliant triumphs of his successors.

War on the Euphrates

The reign of the weak Emperor Romanus II is distinguished by great victories of the Byzantine arms over the Saracens, thanks to the talents and energy of Nicephorus Phocas, the future Emperor.

This great general captured the island of Crete in March 961, and thus destroyed the nest of pirates who had struck terror into the inhabitants of the islands and of the always open shores of the Mediterranean Sea. After having enjoyed a triumph in Constantinople, Nicephorus Phocas was removed to the eastern frontier and he began there also a successful war with Saif-ad-Daulah. At the end of 961 or in the beginning of 962 he seized Anazarbus; in 962 he captured Marash, Raban, and Duluk (Doliche); in the vicinity of Manbij he took prisoner the famous poet Abu­Firas, the governor of the town; and, at last, in December of the same year, he took possession of Aleppo, the capital of the Hamdanid Emirs, after a difficult siege. All these places, however, did not remain in the hands of the Greeks, for Nicephorus Phocas retired to the Byzantine territory.

Less successful were the military operations of the Byzantine troops in the west, and especially in Sicily. Taormina, as it is well known, was taken by the Saracens in 902, but was again lost by them. And now, on 24 December 962, after a siege of seven months, the Saracens captured it once more; and there remained in the hands of the Greeks only the inaccessible Rametta, situated in the eastern part of the island.

The reigns of Nicephorus Phocas, John Tzimisces, and Basil II Bulgaroctonus, the three next successors of Romanus II, when viewed from the side of the military successes of the Empire in its fight with the Saracens, form the most glorious and successful period of Byzantine history.

Advance under Nicephorus Phocas 

After the death of Romanus, 15 March 963, his brilliant general Nicephorus Phocas, who was adored by his troops, was proclaimed Emperor by them on 2 July of that year, at Caesarea in Cappadocia. Upon arriving at Constantinople he quickly overthrew Joseph Bringas, who had been all-powerful at court, and was then crowned on 16 August. To consolidate his power he married Theophano, the late Emperor's widow, who had been regent of the Empire.

The new Emperor turned his chief attention to the east, although he was drawn away at times by his hostile relations with the Bulgarians. His policy towards Bulgaria brought about the intervention of the Russian Prince Svyatoslav, and caused conflicts in Italy with the Western Emperor Otto the Great.

In the summer of 964 Nicephorus Phocas arrived in Cilicia, and since Adana had been abandoned by its inhabitants, he concentrated his energies upon Mamistra (Mopsuestia) and Tarsus. While his armies were besieging these towns, the lighter detachments devastated the north and south of Cilicia, took Anazarbus, and even advanced to the boundaries of Syria, where they took possession of the seaport town of Rhosus. In the meantime the sieges of Mamistra and Tarsus were so unsuccessful that the Emperor returned to Cappadocia for the winter, leaving a detachment of sufficient strength to watch the besieged towns. At the renewal of military operations in 965, Mamistra and Tarsus were so greatly exhausted by famine and disease that they were incapable of holding out any longer; on 13 June 965 Mamistra was taken, and on 16 August Tarsus surrendered.

In this year, 965, in connection with the campaign on land, we may mention the conquest of Cyprus by the patrician Nicetas Chalcutzes, about which only very meagre accounts have been preserved. The Egyptian fleet, which was ordered to convey provisions to the besieged Tarsus and to recover Cyprus from the Greeks, appeared in August 965 off the southern coast of Asia Minor and suffered defeat. The conquest of Cyprus gave into the hands of Byzantium dominion over the north-eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and the general results of the campaign of 965 were such that the possession of Cilicia and the island of Cyprus opened for Nicephorus the road to Syria.

On 23 June 966, near Samosata on the Euphrates, an exchange of prisoners took place, and the Arab poet Abu-Firas, already known to us, obtained his freedom. Fighting, however, was renewed in the autumn, when Nicephorus Phocas appeared in the east and invaded the districts surrounding Amida and Dara, and besieged Manbij (Hierapolis) in north­east Syria, from whose inhabitants he demanded and received one of the Christian relics belonging to the town, a brick on which the image of the Saviour was impressed. Advancing far over the borders of Syria, he drew near to the accomplishment of his chief design, the conquest of Antioch. He began to besiege the city in October 966, but it was so well fortified that Nicephorus Phocas could not at this time capture it, and so, raising the siege, he returned to Constantinople by way of Tarsus.

 Capture of Antioch and Aleppo

In January 967 the chief antagonist of Nicephorus Phocas in the east, Saif-ad-Daulah, died after a prolonged illness, and was succeeded by his son Sadad-Daulah. The war with Bulgaria and disturbances inside the Empire did not allow Nicephorus to profit by the difficulties arising from the succession to the throne of the Hamdanids, and consequently the year 967 is only marked by insignificant conflicts with the Saracens, which did not always end to the advantage of the Byzantine troops. Only in the latter half of 968 was the Emperor free to depart again to the east. The chief aim of this campaign was the conquest of the two most important towns of Syria, Antioch and Aleppo. Before beginning a regular siege of these towns, he made devastating incursions into Syria; towns one after another succumbed to his attacks. Emesa, Tripolis, Arca, Taratas (Tortosa), Maraqiyah, Jiblah (Byblus), Laodicea also, suffered much from the Byzantine troops.

Nicephorus began now to besiege Antioch in earnest, but was again unsuccessful. Leaving Peter Phocas, the stratopedarch, with the army at Antioch, the Emperor returned to the capital. During his stay there important events were happening near Antioch. Dissensions and disturbances broke out there, and profiting by these quarrels Peter Phocas and Michael Burtzes, the commander of the garrison of the fortress of Baghras, took possession of Antioch on 28 October 969. The chief object was now obtained; the city was in the hands of the Byzantine Emperor. An enormous booty fell to the share of the conquerors. Soon after this the Byzantine troops advanced against the Syrian town of Aleppo, which, at the end of 969 or in the beginning of January 970, after a siege of twenty-seven days, also passed into their hands.

The curious text of the treaty concluded by Peter Phocas with Qarghuyah, who was at that time in possession of Aleppo, is still preserved. By this treaty the boundaries in Syria were accurately fixed and a list of localities was drawn up, some of which passed into the possession of the Greek Emperor and others into feudal dependence. Antioch, the most important of the conquered towns, was annexed to the Empire; but Aleppo only became a vassal. The population was subjected to taxation for the benefit of Byzantium; the Christians living under Muslim rule were, however, freed from all imposts. The Emir of Aleppo was obliged to assist the Emperor in case of war with the non-Musulman inhabitants of these provinces. The restoration of the destroyed churches was guaranteed to the Christians. The Emir of Aleppo was also obliged to give protection to the Byzantine commercial caravans when entering his territory. It was agreed that, after the deaths of the ruler of Aleppo, Qarghuyah, and his successor Bakjur, the new governor of Aleppo could only be appointed by the Emperor from the nobility of Aleppo. Rules were even prescribed about the surrender of run-away slaves, and so on. This treaty was only ratified after the death of Nicephorus Phocas, who fell by the hands of assassins on the night of 10-11 December 969. We can say that never before were the Saracens subjected to such humiliation as during the reign of Nicephorus Phocas. Cilicia and a part of Syria were taken away from them, and a great part of their territory acknowledged itself as being in vassal dependence upon the Empire.

The military operations of the troops of Nicephorus in Sicily did not correspond with his successes in the east. In Sicily, as we have said, only one town, Rametta, remained in the hands of the Greeks, and this was besieged by the Saracens in 964. To help the besieged town, a great fleet was despatched under the command of Manuel. But the troops which had been landed were defeated, and in 965 Rametta was taken by assault. The whole of Sicily thus passed into the hands of the Saracens. In 967 a durable peace was concluded between Nicephorus Phocas and the Fatimite Caliph Muizz, to whom Sicily was in subjection.

John Tzimisces in Syria

During the first years of his reign, John Tzimisces was unable personally to take part in the military operations on the eastern frontier. The wars with the Russian Prince Svyatoslav and with Bulgaria, and the revolt of Bardas Phocas, required his unremitting attention. But the wars finished successfully and the revolt of Bardas Phocas was crushed. The dissensions which had broken out in Italy found a happy solution in the marriage of the Byzantine Princess Theophano with the heir to the German throne, the future Emperor Otto II. It was only when these questions had been settled that John Tzimisces was able to turn to the east.

In the meantime, a difficult problem arose there, namely, how to retain all the new acquisitions which Nicephorus Phocas had won in Cilicia and Syria. In 971 the Egyptian Fatimite Muizz despatched one of his commanders into Syria for the purpose of conquering Antioch. The city was subjected to a severe siege, and was only saved by an unexpected attack by the Carmathians on the Egyptian troops, who were compelled to raise the siege and to retire hurriedly to the south. At the news Tzimisces, who was at that time in Bulgaria, immediately sent Michael Burtzes to the assistance of Antioch; and he at once rebuilt the town-wall, which had suffered much. In 973 Mleh (Melchi) an Armenian, who commanded the Greek troops, invaded the north of Mesopotamia, devastated the provinces of Nisibis, Mayydfariqin, and Edessa, and captured Malatiyah, but he suffered a severe defeat near Amida and died in captivity.

These successes of the Greeks angered the Saracens to such an extent that a revolution broke out in Baghdad, and the people demanded an immediate declaration of a holy war (jihad) against the victorious Empire. So far as we can judge from the fragmentary and confused accounts of the sources, in 974 John Tzimisces himself set out to the east. He there concluded an alliance with Armenia and victoriously passed along the route of the campaign of 973, i.e. through Amida, Mayydfarigin, and Nisibis. Special significance attached to his campaign in the east in 975, concerning which a very valuable document in the form of a letter by the Emperor to his ally, the Armenian King Ashot III, has been preserved by the Armenian historian, Matthew of Edessa. The plan of this campaign is striking owing to its very audacity: the Emperor aimed at freeing Jerusalem from the power of the Saracens, and thus he undertook an actual crusade.

On leaving Antioch, the Emperor passed Emesa and turned to Baalbek, which was taken after a vain resistance. Damascus also voluntarily surrendered, and promised to pay tribute and to fight for the Byzantines. Turning to the south, the Emperor entered north Palestine, and the towns of Tiberias and Nazareth as well as Caesarea on the coast voluntarily surrendered to him; from Jerusalem itself came a petition to be spared a sack. But apparently he was not in sufficient strength to advance further, and he directed his march along the sea-coast to the north, capturing a whole series of towns: Beyrout (Berytus), Sidon, Jiblah (Byblus), Balanea, Gabala, Barzayah (Borzo); but at Tripolis the troops of the Emperor were defeated. "Today all Phoenicia, Palestine, and Syria" says the Emperor with some exaggeration in his letter to Ashot, "are freed from the Saracen yoke and acknowledge the dominion of the Romans, and in addition the great mountain of Lebanon has become subject to our authority." In September 975 the imperial troops retired to Antioch, and the Emperor himself returned to his capital, where he died on 10 January 976.

Basil II

After the death of John Tzimisces, the two young sons of Romanus II, Basil and Constantine, succeeded. Basil became the head of the government. The first three years of their reign were occupied with quelling the rebellion of Bardas Sclerus on the eastern frontier, among whose troops were not a few Saracens. This revolt was suppressed by the Greek commander Bardas Phocas in 979, but only with much difficulty. Bardas Sclerus escaped to the Caliph of Baghdad, who welcomed a useful prisoner. Bardas Phocas remained in the east and fought the Saracens, especially the weakened Hamanids, with alternating success, and he endeavoured to counteract the rapidly increasing influence of the Egyptian Fatimites in Syria.

In 986 began the famous Bulgarian war, which lasted for more than thirty years and ended in 1019 with the destruction of the Bulgarian kingdom of Samuel. Such an arduous and prolonged war might naturally have turned the attention of Basil II completely away from the eastern frontier of the Empire, but in fact he was compelled to intervene, through serious complications which were taking place there. Bardas Phocas, the victor over Bardas Sclerus, having fallen into disgrace at court, was proclaimed Emperor by his troops in 987, and Bardas Sclerus, having escaped from captivity in Baghdad, also appeared in Asia Minor. Bardas Phocas, however, captured him by a stratagem, and then crossed Asia Minor to the Hellespont. The condition of Byzantium was at this time very difficult: from the east the troops of Bardas Phocas were advancing to the capital, and from the north the Bulgarians were pressing on. To this time we must refer the negotiations of Basil II with the Russian Prince Vladimir and the consequent appearance at Byzantium of a Russian contingent of 6000 men. Basil II did not lose his presence of mind. With fresh forces he fought Bardas Phocas in 989, and in this battle the latter was slain. The Empire was thus freed from one of its dangers. In the same year a new insurrection of Bardas Sclerus was crushed.

War with the Fatimites 

During this time Syria was subjected to attacks by the troops of the Egyptian Fatimites, who several times assaulted Aleppo. Aleppo begged the Greeks for help and the Emperor sent Michael Burtzes, the governor of Antioch, to its assistance; but he suffered a severe defeat on the river Orontes in 994. This petition for help from Aleppo and the news of the defeat of Michael Burtzes reached Basil II when campaigning in Bulgaria. Notwithstanding the Bulgarian war, which was fraught with so much danger to the Empire, the Emperor decided to go personally to the east in the winter of 994-995, especially as danger was threatening Antioch. He unexpectedly appeared under the walls of Aleppo, which was being besieged by the Egyptian troops, and was successful in freeing the former capital of the Hamdanids from the enemy; he also captured Raphanea and Emesa; but having fought unsuccessfully under the walls of the strongly-fortified Tripolis, he returned to Bulgaria. In 998 the Greek troops under Damianus Dalassenus were severely defeated near Apamea. In 999 we meet Basil II again in Syria, at the towns of Shaizar and Emesa; but he was once more unsuccessful at Tripolis. Having spent some time in arranging affairs in Armenia and Georgia (Iberia), the Emperor returned to Constantinople in 1001.

In the same year a peace for ten years was concluded between the Emperor and the Egyptian Fatimite Hakim. Down to the very year of his death, there were no more encounters between him and the Eastern Muslims.

In the west, the Sicilian Saracens made yearly attacks on South Italy, and the imperial government, being occupied in other places, could not undertake expeditions against them. Its forced inactivity gave a welcome opportunity to the Western Emperor Otto II to attempt the expulsion of the Saracens from Sicily. Desiring to obtain a firm point of support in South Italy, he occupied some fortified Byzantine places, as for instance Taranto. But his chief aim was not reached, for in 982 the Saracens severely defeated him at Stilo. After his death in 983, the authority of the Greeks was somewhat restored, and the Byzantine governor occupied Bari, which had revolted. But the attacks of the Saracens on Southern Italy continued, and Bari was only saved by the intervention of the Venetian fleet. At the end of his reign Basil planned a vast expedition for the purpose of winning back Sicily, but during its preparation he died in 1025.

 The Successors of Basil II

The death of Basil II, that terrible scourge of the Eastern Saracens, gave fresh heart to these enemies of the Empire. The Saracens, with great success, availed themselves of the weakness of the successors of Basil II and of the disturbances which broke out in the Empire, and they quickly took the offensive. Under Romanus III Argyrus (1028-1034), the Emir of Aleppo defeated the governor of Antioch, and the campaign, undertaken in 1030 after long preparation under the personal command of the Emperor, ended in a signal defeat near Aleppo, after which the Emperor quickly returned to Constantinople. In this campaign the young George Maniaces, who later on played a very important part in Byzantine history, distinguished himself for the first time.

The defeat of 1030 was to some degree mitigated by the capture of the important town of Edessa by George Maniaces in 1031, and by his seizing there the second relic of the town, the famous letter of Jesus Christ to Abgar, King of Edessa. This letter was sent to Constantinople and solemnly received by the Emperor and the people.

During the reign of the next Emperor, Michael IV the Paphlagonian (1034-1041), the usual collisions went on in the east, sometimes at Antioch, sometimes at Aleppo, whilst at the same time the Saracen corsairs devastated the southern coast of Asia Minor and destroyed Myra in Lycia.

In the west, the object of the imperial government was to recapture Sicily from the Saracens. The internal quarrels among the Sicilian Muslims made the intervention of the Greeks easy, and during the reign of Michael IV they undertook two expeditions. The first, under the command of Constantine Opus in 1037, was unsuccessful, but the second, in which the army was composed of different races, such as the "Varangian-Russian Druzhina " (detachment), and in which the Norse prince Harold Fairhair distinguished himself, was despatched in 1038 under the chief command of the brilliant young Maniaces. The beginning of the expedition was fortunate. Messina, Syracuse, and the whole eastern coast of the island passed into the hands of the imperial troops. But George Maniaces fell into disgrace, and being recalled to Constantinople was put into prison. With his removal, all the Byzantine conquests, with the exception of Messina, passed again into the power of the Saracens.

During the reign of Constantine IX Monomachus (1042-1054), almost complete peace reigned on the frontier of Syria and Mesopotamia; but on the other hand, from 1048 the Byzantine troops were obliged to fight, especially in Armenia, with the Seljuq Turks, who from this time forward appear as a new and formidable enemy on the eastern frontier.

(C)

SUMMARY

Ir will be seen from the foregoing pages that, ever since Leo the Isaurian saved Constantinople from the formidable attack of the Saracens in A.D. 717, there was continuous warfare between the Empire and the Caliphate, for three hundred years. Its history is for the most part a monotonous and barren chronicle of raids to and fro across the Taurus mountains, truces, interchanges of prisoners, briefly registered in Greek and Arabic annals. Only occasionally have we a description of events full enough to excite some interest, like the campaign of the Caliph Mutasim (A.D. 838) or the siege of Thessalonica. Successes varied, but few were decisive until Nicephorus Phocas definitely turned the tide in favour of the Empire and reconquered long-lost provinces. After his victories the Abbasid power, which had seen its best days before the end of the ninth century, declined rapidly till the Caliphate passed under the control of the Seljuqs. So long as the struggle lasted, the Eastern war had the first claim on the armies and treasury of the Empire, and these were not sufficient to enable the Emperors to deal at the same time effectively with their European enemies, the Slays and Bulgarians, and to maintain intact their possessions in Sicily and Southern Italy. It was only when the Saracen danger in the east had been finally averted by the army of Nicephorus that his successors were able to recover some of the European provinces which had been lost.

If the Caliphs had a more extensive territory under their rule than the Emperors, it is not certain that they had larger revenues even when they were strongest. Their State was very loosely organized, and it was always a strain on them to keep its heterogeneous parts together. The Empire, on the other hand, was kept strictly under central control ; it might be conquered, but it could not dissolve of itself ; and the event proved that it had a much greater staying power.

It is to be observed that throughout the period the hostilities which were the order of the day do not seem to have interfered very seriously with the commercial intercourse between the peoples of the two states, and reciprocal influences of culture flowed constantly between them. Through educated captives, who were often detained for four or five years and were generally well treated, knowledge of the conditions and features of the Byzantine world passed to Baghdad, and reversely. The capitals of the two Empires vied with each other in magnificence, art, and the cultivation of science. For instance, there cannot be much doubt that Theophilus was stimulated in his building enterprises by what he had heard of the splendour of the palaces of Baghdad. Oriental influences had been affecting the Roman Empire ever since the third century, through its intercourse with the Sasanid kingdom of Persia; they continued to operate throughout the Abbasid period, and were one of the ingredients of Byzantine civilization.