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From History to Legend

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The Avar Siege of Constantinople in 626

Part of the book series: New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture ((NABHC))

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Abstract

The second part of this publication follows the process of the gradual transformation of the historical narration about the siege into a legend. There is a focus on the primary sources about the siege and especially on the sermon by Theodore Synkellos that became the foundation for short hagiographic narrations about the Avar attack. The significance of the siege in the context of the concept of Constantinople being a city dedicated to the Mother of God is also acknowledged. In the chapter’s conclusion, there is a discussion of the transformation of the motif of the defeat of the Avars and Slavs in the Golden Horn into a story comparable to the destruction of the Egyptian army known from the second book of the Prophet Moses. There is also mention of this motif being present in texts describing the later sieges of the Byzantine capital.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Chronicon Paschale, 716.9–16 (the English translation by Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby 1989, 169–170).

  2. 2.

    Theodore Synkellos, 298.34–35.

  3. 3.

    Theodore Synkellos, 299.4.

  4. 4.

    Theodore Synkellos, 298.26–27.

  5. 5.

    Theodore Synkellos, 303.19.

  6. 6.

    Theodore Synkellos, 302–303.

  7. 7.

    Theodore Synkellos, 304.9–12.

  8. 8.

    Theodore Synkellos, 306.1–4.

  9. 9.

    Theodore Synkellos, 313.9–10.

  10. 10.

    Theodore Synkellos, 312.19–22.

  11. 11.

    Theodore Synkellos, 319.35–320.5.

  12. 12.

    Theodore Synkellos, 320.25–29.

  13. 13.

    Cf. Fenster 1968, 100–101.

  14. 14.

    George of Pisidia Bellum Avaricum, v. 1–9, 156. Cf. also, Germanos 18, 196.

  15. 15.

    Weyl-Carr 2000, 330.

  16. 16.

    George of Pisidia Bellum Avaricum, v. 145–147, 166.

  17. 17.

    Kaldellis 2013, 139–143.

  18. 18.

    Kazhdan 1987, 202 and 226.

  19. 19.

    Patmos Vita (BHG 365n) 5, 79.24–25.

  20. 20.

    Patmos Vita (BHG 365n) 8, 83.19–84.26.

  21. 21.

    George Kedrenos, 495.22–496.9; John Zonaras, 13.3, 14.5–10; Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos, 8.26, col. 100–101.

  22. 22.

    Diegesis (1402), 110.30–32.

  23. 23.

    According to the church historian Eusebios (Vita Constantini, 3.48), Constantine the Great consecrated his city to the God of Martyrs. On the other hand, preserved information about festivities connected with the consecration of Constantinople lack any indication of having a Christian character. Cf. Berger 2003, 204–215 and 2011, 7–20. These sources also mention Constantine’s consecration of the city to Tyche, who got the name Anthousa (Flourishing). Bardill 2012, 251–255. Tyche represented here a personification of the city rather than a real goddess. Cf. Shelton 1979, 28–29; cf. also Frolow 1944, 75–85 and Limberis 1994, 14–29.

  24. 24.

    Cf. among others, Av. Cameron 1978, 79–108; Limberis 1994, 47–61; Mango 2000, 17–25; James 2005, 145–152; Pentcheva 2006, 11–21. For general critical overview, cf. Meier 2003, 502–518.

  25. 25.

    Mango 2000, 19; Krausmüller 2011, 222–224.

  26. 26.

    Mango 2000, 19–20.

  27. 27.

    On this tendency, cf. Cameron 1978, 82–89, 95–108; Mango 2000, 20–21; Krausmüller 2011, 219–221.

  28. 28.

    Only one Syriac chronicler (Ps.-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, 97–98) mentioned that during the bubonic plague of 542, some people in Constantinople were convinced that they protected by the Holy Mother, the apostles, and the saints. A very late report preserved in the old French collection of Marian legends from the twelfth century even stated that the inhabitants were carrying the image of Mary during processions at that time. Cf. Adgar 220–223; also cf. Meier 2003, 524–525.

  29. 29.

    Prokopios De Aedificiis, 1.3, 21; Mango 2000, 21; Meier 2003, 512.

  30. 30.

    Meier 2003, 520.

  31. 31.

    Cf. the chapter “The Akathistos”.

  32. 32.

    Theophylaktos Simokattes, 7.15.4–7.15.6, 271–272.

  33. 33.

    Cf. Haldon 1997, 355–356.

  34. 34.

    George of Pisidia Heraclias 2, v. 12–18, 210; Theophanes, 298.16–17 (referring to George of Pisidia, but he mentioned several icons). Cf. Speck 1988, 54; 2003, 266–267 and Pentcheva 2002, 15.

  35. 35.

    George of Pisidia Expeditio Persica 1, v. 139–154, 80.

  36. 36.

    The date of this ceremony is still a matter of discussion, cf. recently Effenberger (2016, 323–325), who plausibly opts for 2 July 627 (at the earliest) but more probably one year later.

  37. 37.

    In depositionem pretiosae vestis, 18, 610–611 (for the English translation, cf. Av. Cameron 1979, 55–56).

  38. 38.

    On the contrary, Av. Cameron (1978, 89) concluded that the full emergence of Theotokos as special protector of Constantinople belongs to the late sixth century. Yet until the two attacks of the Avars at the beginning of the seventh century, no such precise expression can be found in the sources except Prokopiosʼs statement regarding the churches of Blachernai and Pege.

  39. 39.

    Av. Cameron 1979, 42.

  40. 40.

    Cutler 1975, 111–115; Belting-Ihm 1976, 56; Penna 2000, 212.

  41. 41.

    Chronicon Paschale, 724.18–20.

  42. 42.

    Chronicon Paschale, 725.9–11 (the English translation by Mich. and Mar. Whitby 1989, 180).

  43. 43.

    Limberis 1994, 123–129; Pentcheva 2006, 16–21; Kaldellis 2013, 141–142.

  44. 44.

    Herodotos, 8.84, 80, 82.

  45. 45.

    Zosimos, 5.6, 253.2–10.

  46. 46.

    Jenkins 1947 31–33; Pentcheva 2006, 64.

  47. 47.

    Nilsson 1955 1: 716; 2: 226–227.

  48. 48.

    Nilsson 1955 1: 716–717.

  49. 49.

    Chronicon Paschale, 538.

  50. 50.

    Chronicon Paschale, 538.14–15; cf. also Mich. Whitby and Mar. Whitby XXX, XVI. An almost identical version is preserved by Theophanes (40.4–6), who, however, asserted that the angel held the Emperor Constantius by the hand.

  51. 51.

    Evagrios, 4.28, 176.24–177.2.

  52. 52.

    Theophylaktos Simokattes, 6.5.4–6.5.7, 228.

  53. 53.

    Miracula Sancti Demetrii, 1.13.120, 135. Cf. Lemerle 1981, 27–34.

  54. 54.

    Miracula Sancti Demetrii, 1.14.161, 157.17–18.

  55. 55.

    Miracula Sancti Demetrii, II.1.188, 177.30–178.5

  56. 56.

    Strategios, 5.22–24.

  57. 57.

    On the topography of Palaia Petra cf. Janin 1964, 463 and Külzer 2008, 580–581. In the Typicon of the Great Church (Hagios Stauros 2:146), there is a mention of the regular procession to the Church of Theotokos.

  58. 58.

    George Kedrenos, 728.23–729.18.

  59. 59.

    John Kananos, 40.356–357.

  60. 60.

    Cf. Nilsson 1955 1: 124.

  61. 61.

    Kaldellis 2013, 139, 140.

  62. 62.

    Theodore Synkellos, 311.17–40.

  63. 63.

    George of Pisidia Bellum Avaricum, v. 440–445, 184.

  64. 64.

    George of Pisidia Bellum Avaricum, v. 454–455, 184.

  65. 65.

    Kaldellis 2013, 133–135, 141.

  66. 66.

    Theodore Synkellos, 311.26–29.

  67. 67.

    George of Pisidia Bellum Avaricum, v. 495–499, 188.

  68. 68.

    Pentcheva 2006, 63.

  69. 69.

    Diegesis Ophelimos, col. 1361B.

  70. 70.

    Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (BHG 1063b), col. 874; Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Lipsiensis R II 25), col. 873–874.52–54; Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Parisinus Graecus 1587) col. 871–872; 48–50; Historia Syntomos, 335.36–37; Lectio Triodii, col. 1352A; Antonios of Larissa, 135.20–136.6.

  71. 71.

    George Kedrenos, 729.16–18.

  72. 72.

    Synopsis Chronike, 108.28–109.1.

  73. 73.

    Ps.-Germanos, 12–20, 194–197.

  74. 74.

    Theodore Laskaris, 273.10–12 and 274.40–41.

  75. 75.

    Constantine Manasses, v. 3723–3725, 203. Cf. Septuagint Exodus 14:7, 109 (καὶ λαβὼν ἑξακόσια ἅρματα ἐκλεκτὰ καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ἵππον τῶν Αἰγυπτίων καὶ τριστάτας ἐπὶ πάντων). Manganeios Prodromos, vv. 69–74, 22–23; 106–116, 24.

  76. 76.

    For the previous overviews of that siege, cf. Lilie 1976, 77–82; Tsangadas 1980, 107–133; Karapli 2009, 325–330.

  77. 77.

    Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (BHG 1063b), 772.8–16.

  78. 78.

    Theophanes, 354.5–6.

  79. 79.

    This motif is completely absent in the works of Theophanes’s contemporary, the patriarch Nikephoros. In the later prologue written for the Akathistos (Lectio Triodii, col. 1352C), the destruction of the Arab ships is credited to the intervention of the Holy Mother of God. The otherwise unattested Theodosios Grammatikos (130.14–15) compares the sinking of Arab ships to the destruction of the Pharaoh’s troops, but the title of the poem mistakenly affirms that it happened under the reign of Emperor Herakleios. To which Arab siege this poem refers remains a matter of discussion. Cf. Olster 1995, 23–28; Gero 1973, 174; Jankowiak 2013, 302; O’Sullivan 2004, 80–81; Karapli 2009, 330–331.

  80. 80.

    Jankowiak 2013, 237–320; cf. also, Howard-Johnston 2010, 302–303 and 492–492, n. 13. For Shahrbaraz’s story, cf. the chapter “Winners and Losers”.

  81. 81.

    Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (BHG 1063b), 772.8–16; Patmos 266, 83; Vasiliev 1946, 208.

  82. 82.

    Diegesis Ophelimos, col. 1364C; Lectio Triodii, col. 1352C; cf. also Antonios Tripsychos, 5, 82.19–24; Antonios of Larissa, 137.25–138.12. The motif of a storm also appears by Ps.-Sebeos (50, 143–146) which puts the Arab attack in the era of the rule of Constans II (nowadays dated to 654). For commentary, cf. Thomson and Howard-Johnston 1999, 274–276 and O’Sullivan 2004, 67–88. The information about this attack has not been preserved in the Byzantine chronicles, and the attack is not documented in the local liturgical tradition.

  83. 83.

    Two storms are mentioned in the chronicle of Theophanes (399.6–19). One supposedly surprised the Arabs in the Marmara Sea and the second one in the Aegean Sea. Cf. also George Kedrenos, 790.2–11 and Nikephoros, 56, 124.4–126.2. Later entries in synaxaria and the historical prologues of the Akathistos also mention the destruction of the Arab fleet at sea. Diegesis Ophelimos, col. 1368B–C; Lectio Triodii, col. 1352D–1353A; Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (BHG 1063b) 904.7–15. On these sources, cf. Speck 2002, 273–302. The motif of a storm together with the comparison with the Old Testament devastation of the Pharaoh’s troops can be found in The Miracles of Archangel Michael by the deacon Pantaleon. For this entry, cf. Karapli 2009, 331–332.

  84. 84.

    Theophanes, 399.7–19.

  85. 85.

    Symeon Magister and Logothetes, 131.29, 245–247.

  86. 86.

    Cf. the chapter “The Sacred Iconography of the Siege”.

  87. 87.

    Poves’ vremennych let, 13. In this connection Mango 1958, 76–88. The Brussels Chronicle (33.15–21), a reliable source, provides an exact date for the attack and a report that the Russians were destroyed by the ever-glorified Holy Mother.

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

    Martin Hurbanič

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Hurbanič, M. (2019). From History to Legend. 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_11

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