Battle of Constantinople (922)

Battle of Constantinople
Part of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: War of 913–927
Date June 922 Location near Constantinople, Thrace Result Bulgarian victory
Combatants
First Bulgarian Empire	Byzantine Empire
Commanders
Unknown	Saktikios  †

The Battle of Constantinople was fought in June 922 at the outskirts of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, between the forces of the First Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantines during the Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927. In the summer the Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos sent troops under the commander Saktikios to repel another Bulgarian raid at the outskirts of the Byzantine capital. The Byzantines stormed the Bulgarian camp but were defeated when they confronted the main Bulgarian forces. During his flight from the battlefield Saktikios was mortally wounded and died the following night.

The Bulgarians, who by 922 were in control of most of the Balkans, continued to ravage the Byzantine countryside virtually unopposed. However, they lacked the maritime power to conduct a successful siege of Constantinople. The subsequent attempts to negotiate a Bulgarian–Arab alliance for a joint assault of Constantinople were discovered by the Byzantines and successfully countered. The strategic situation in the Balkans remained unchanged until both sides signed a peace treaty in 927, which recognized the imperial title of the Bulgarian monarchs and the complete independence of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as an autocephalous Patriarchate.

Background

During his short reign the Byzantine emperor Alexander (r. 912–913) provoked a conflict with the Bulgarian monarch Simeon I (r. 893–927). Simeon I, who had long harbored ambitions to claim an imperial title for himself. He took the opportunity to wage war. With the Byzantine Empire in disarray following Alexander's death in June 913, the Bulgarians reached Constantinople unopposed and forced the regency of the infant Constantine VII (r. 913–959) to recognize Simeon I as emperor (in Bulgarian, Tsar). Following a palace coup in 914, the new Byzantine regency revoked the concessions to the Bulgarians and summoned the whole army, including the troops in Asia Minor, to deal with the Bulgarian threat once and for all. In the decisive battle of Achelous in 917 the Byzantine forces were completely annihilated, leaving the Bulgarians in charge of the Balkans. Their annual campaigns reached the walls of Constantinople and the Isthmus of Corinth. All subsequent attempts to confront the Bulgarian army at Katasyrtai, Aquae Calidae and Pegae ended in defeat.

Bulgarian campaign

In the autumn of 920, the Bulgarian army campaigned deep into Thrace, reaching the Dardanelles and setting up camp on the shore of the Gallipoli Peninsula just across from the city of Lampsacus in Asia Minor. These actions caused great concern to the Byzantine court because the Bulgarians could cut Constantinople off from the Aegean Sea if they were successful in securing Gallipoli and Lampsacus. Patriarch Mystikos attempted to sue for peace and proposed a meeting with Simeon in Mesembria but to no avail.

The following year, the Bulgarians marched to Katasyrtai near Constantinople. The Byzantines attempted to lure the Bulgarians to the north away from their capital by conducting a campaign to the town of Aquae Calidae, near modern Burgas. The Byzantine commander Pothos Argyros sent a detachment under Michael, son of Moroleon, to monitor the movements of the Bulgarians. Michael's troops ultimately were discovered and ambushed by the Bulgarians. Although the Byzantines inflicted significant casualties on the Bulgarians, they were defeated. Michael was wounded and fled back to Constantinople where he died.

After the conflict at Aquae Calidae, additional Bulgarians forces led by Menikos and Kaukanos were sent south. They crossed the Strandzha mountains and ravaged the countryside around Constantinople, threatening the palaces around the Golden Horn. The Byzantines summoned a large army, including troops from the city garrison, the imperial guard, and sailors from the navy, commanded by Pothos Argyros and Admiral Alexios Mosele. In March 921, the opposing forces clashed in the battle of Pegae where the Byzantines were routed. Pothos Argyros barely escaped, and Alexios Mosele drowned while attempting to board a ship. In 922, the Bulgarians captured the town of Vizye and burned the palaces of Empress Theodora near the Byzantine capital. Romanos  tried to oppose them by dispatching troops under Saktikios. Saktikios attacked the Bulgarian camp while most soldiers were scattered to gather supplies.

Despite his military supremacy over land, Simeon I was aware that he needed naval assistance in order to seize Constantinople. In 922 he clandestinely sent envoys to the Fatimid caliph Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah in Mahdia to negotiate the assistance of the powerful Arab navy. Simeon I proposed to divide equally all spoils. The Bulgarians were to keep Constantinople and the Fatimids would gain the Byzantine territories in Sicily and Southern Italy.

The battle

The Bulgarians burn a church at the outskirts of Constantinople, Manasses Chronicle.

To distract the Byzantine attention from the secret negotiations with the Arabs, in the summer of 922 the Bulgarians launched a campaign in Eastern Thrace. They captured and garrisoned a number of fortified towns in the region, including Bizye. In June they reached the outskirts of Constantinople and burned the Palace of Theodora, situated on the shores of the Golden Horn.

In response, emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944) summoned the commanders of the tagmata on a feast and urged them to confront the Bulgarians. The following day one of them, Saktikios, led the assault against the Bulgarians. While most of the Bulgarian soldiers were dispersed to loot the countryside, the Byzantines attacked the Bulgarian camp and slaughtered the few defenders left there. When the main Bulgarian forces were informed about the attack, they headed back to the camp to engage the opponents. In the ensuing struggle the Bulgarians prevailed and forced the Byzantines to flee despite the personal courage of Saktikios, who the Byzantine chroniclers claim to have "killed many." During the flight, the horse of Saktikios got stuck in the mud of a river and the Byzantine commander was wounded in the seat and the thigh. His soldiers managed to free the horse from the mud and to bring him to the Blachernae alive. Saktikios was laid in the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae, where he died the following night.

Legacy

A map of Constantinople with the Golden Horn visible to the north and the Blachernae to the north-west.

After the victory Simeon I sent letters to the Ecumenical Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos and Romanos' co-emperor Constantine VII to propose peace negotiations. However, his intention was to prolong the negotiations until the return of his envoys to the Fatimids. While Simeon I and Nicholas Mystikos exchanged letters the military actions continued. In a few weeks the Bulgarian army captured Adrianople, the most important city in Byzantine Thrace. The fall of Adrianople raised fears in Constantinople that a Bulgarian assault of the city was imminent. The Byzantines tried to intimidate Simeon I by threatening to incite the Magyars, the Pechenegs and Kievan Rus' to attack Bulgaria from the north-east, as they had done in the war of 894–896. Simeon I knew that these were empty threats because the Byzantine Empire was in no position to carry out these attacks.

In the meantime, the Bulgarian envoys received a warm welcome by al-Mahdi. The Fatimid caliph accepted the Bulgarian terms and sent his own emissaries to Simeon I. However, on the way back their ship was captured by the Byzantines, who managed to outbid the Bulgarians and distract a Fatimid attack. The Bulgarians remained in control of most of the Balkans, annexing Byzantium's ally Serbia in 924, but without naval support were unable to launch a decisive attack on Constantinople. The war continued until the death of Simeon I in 927, when his son Peter I (r. 927–969) concluded a peace treaty with the Byzantines, who recognized the imperial title of the Bulgarian monarchs and the complete independence of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as an autocephalous Patriarchate in return for most of Simeon I's conquests in Thrace after 917.

The primary sources for the battle are the continuation of George Hamartolos' Chronicle and John Skylitzes' Synopsis of Histories.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Andreev, Iordan, and Milcho Lalkov. Българските ханове и царе (The Bulgarian Khans and Tsars). Veliko Tarnova, BG: Абагар, 1996. ISBN 954427216X
• Angelov, Dimitar. История на България. Том II. Първа българска държава (History of Bulgaria. Volume II. First Bulgarian State). Sofia, BG: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Press, 1981.
• Колектив (Collective), Greek Sources for Bulgarian History (GIBI), Volume VI. Sofia, BG: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Press, 1965. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
• Fine, John V. A. Jr. The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1991. ISBN 0472081497
• Zlatarski, Vasil. История на българската държава през средните векове. Том I. История на Първото българско царство (History of the Bulgarian State in the Middle Ages, Volume I: History of the First Bulgarian Empire). Sofia, BG: Наука и изкуство (Art and Sciences), 1972, (original 1927). Retrieved March 5, 2024.
• "Continuation of the Chronicle of George Hamartolos," GIBI, vol. VI. Sofia, BG: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1965, 146. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
• "Synopsis of Histories by John Skylitzes," GIBI, vol. VI. Sofia, BG: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1965, 252. Retrieved March 25, 2024.

External Links

Link retrieved March 25, 2024.

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New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

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