The Raid
The 18th of June 860 was a fine summer day in Constantinople with nothing unusual occurring that would announce the sudden appearance of a 200-boat fleet at the gates of the great city.
The situation had improved in the past few years and the Eastern Roman Empire was witnessing a period of recovery under Michael III and his capable uncle Bardas. Peace had been established with Boris of Bulgaria, the armies of Islam were defeated at the battle of Halys River in Armenia and Crete was back in Imperial hands. No other foe was on the horizon, particularly one that was capable of raising a fleet and threatening the Imperial capital. The court of Constantinople was aware of the distant land of “Rhos” which was inhabited by pagan barbarians but who were certainly incapable of disturbing the peace of the Imperial realm. Yet here they were before the undefended capital, just when the Imperial fleet was fighting Muslim warships in the Mediterranean and Emperor Michael III was marching at the head of an army towards the Syrian border. In his absence the defense of the city fell to the prefect Oryphas and Patriarch Photius and they could only watch as the fleet from Rus (pronounced “Roos”) sailed by with the warriors raising their swords in a challenging defiance.Two weeks of looting and devastation followed, with Oryphas being unable to defend the suburbs of the capital or the surrounding areas. All villages in the Vicinitywere burned, together with the monasteries lining the banks of the Bosphorus. Most of the Rusian ships cast anchor at the entrance of the Golden Horn while others continued into the Sea of Marmara to plunder the Princes’ Islands. After gathering “immense wealth” they left as suddenly as they appeared, before Emperor Michael could arrive with the main army. The size of the raiding party from Rus is not known but it was certainly not big enough to confront Emperor Michaels forces.
Led by the two legendary brothers Askold and Dir of Kyiv the raid was well timed, and indicated that the attackers were acquainted with the main movements of the Imperial forces. This is not surprising given that many Slavs and Scandinavians served as mercenaries in the Imperial army and could easily keep their comrades in Kyiv abreast of the latest developments in the Bosphorus.The first major attack on Constantinople from Rus had caught the authorities Completelyby surprise, but it would not be the last and other major expeditions would follow. An account of the raid and the impression it left on the inhabitants of the cityhas survived in Patriarch Photius, sermon which was given in the Cathedral of St. Sophia.
What is this? What is this grievous and heavy blow and wrath?
... A people has crept down from the north, as if it were attacking another Jerusalem... the people is fierce and has no mercy; its voice (the battle cry) is as the roaring sea.... Woe is me, that I see a fierce and savage tribe fearlessly poured round the city, ravaging the suburbs, destroying everything, winning everything; fields, houses, herds, beasts of burden, women, children, old men, youths, thrusting their swords through everything, taking pity on nothing, sparing nothing.... O city reigning over nearly the entire universe, what an uncaptained army, equipped in servile fashion, is sneering at thee as at a slave.1
A much later (and fictitious) account from Kyivhas divine intervention saving the city, due to the Patriarch s and the Emperor s all-night prayers.
They also sang hymns and carried the sacred vestment of the Mother of God to dip it in the sea. The water was still, and the sea was calm, but a storm of wind came up, and when the great waves straightway rose, confusing the boats of the godless Rus, it threw them upon the shore and broke them up, so that few escaped such destruction and returned to their native land.2
The attack from Rus had apparently come after a negotiated peace treaty with Emperor Theophiles in 839 as claimed by the BertinianiAnnals, and a few years after the raid Emperor Basil I arrived at a new agreement with Kyiv “by giving them attire of gold, silver and silk, and having established peace with them, persuaded (the pagans) to accept baptism.” Abishop was sent to Rus to baptize the pagans, and a part of his presentation to impress the savages was to place a bible in a fire as if intending to burn it. The book was not harmed and this so impressed the spectators that some reportedly agreed to being baptized.3
More on the topic The Raid:
- Kedah
- Cossack Tatar Fighters
- CAT 2001
- Kyiv: The Early Years
- The Manchus
- The Dawn of the Slavs
- Chapter 8 The Cossacks
- Index
- The Long Nineteenth Century
- Frontier Society