or 922 cup was deeply tinctured with the manners of the Scythian 17 A.D. 888-927, for that of a king and warrior; and in his reign, of more than forty years, Bulgaria assumed a rank among the civilised powers of the earth. The Greeks, whom he repeatedly attacked, = derived a faint consolation from indulging themselves in the [A.D. 893] reproaches of perfidy and sacrilege. They purchased the aid of the Pagan Turks; but Simeon, in a second battle, redeemed the loss of the first, at a time when it was esteemed a victory to elude the arms of that formidable nation. The Servians 18 were overthrown, made captive, and dispersed; and those who [Turks Hungarians] [A.D. 924] 15 [In the year after his victory over Nicephorus, the Bulgarian prince Krum captured the towns of Mesembria and Develtus, and in the following year inflicted a crushing defeat on Michael I. at Versinicia near Hadrianople (June, 813) and proceeded to besiege Constantinople. He retired, having devastated the country, but prepared to besiege the capital again in 814. His death was a relief to the Emperor Leo V. (see above, vol. 5, p. 206), who had taken the field and gained at Mesembria a bloody victory over the Bulgarians. The prince Giom Omurtag, who came to the throne in 814-5, made a treaty with Leo for 30 years; and peace was maintained with few interruptions for more than 75 years, till the accession of Simeon. Omurtag is called Mortagon by the Greek chroniclers, and Ombritag by Theophylactus of Ochrida; but the right form of the name is furnished by his own inscriptions (see Appendix 10). Omurtag's youngest son Malamir came to the throne. He was succeeded by his nephew Boris (circa A.D. 852-888), whose reign is memorable for the conversion of Bulgaria to Christianity (see Appendix 12).] 16 Simeonem [emi-argon, id est] semi-Græcum esse aiebant, eo quod a pueritia Byzantii Demosthenis rhetoricam et Aristotelis syllogismos didicerat [leg. didicerit] (Liutprand, 1. iii. c. 8 [ = c. 29]). He says in another place, Simeon, fortis, bellator, Bulgaria [leg. Bulgariis] præerat; Christianus sed vicinis Græcis valde inimicus (1. i. c. 2 [: = c. 5]). [It is important to notice that native Slavonic literature flourished under Simeon--the result of the invention of Slavonic alphabets (see Appendix 12). Simeon himself-anticipating Constantine Porphyrogennetosinstituted the compilation of a Sbornik or encyclopædia (theological, philosophical, historical), extracted from 20 Greek writers. The Presbyter Grigori translated the chronicle of John Malalas into Slavonic. John the Exarch wrote a Shestodnev (Hexaemeron), an account of the Creation. The monk Chrabr wrote a little treatise on the invention of the Cyrillic alphabet (cp. Appendix:12): and other works (chiefly theological) of the same period are extant.] 17 [Simeon came to the throne in 892-893, and died May 27, 927.] 18 [That is, Servia in the strict sense, excluding the independent Servian principalities of Zachlumia, Trevunia, Diocletia, as well as the Narentans. See Const. Porph., De Adm. Imp., chaps. 32-36. The boundary of Bulgaria against Servia in Simeon's time seems to have followed the Drin; it left Belgrade, Prishtina, Nitzch and Lipljan in Bulgaria.] visited the country before their restoration could discover no more than fifty vagrants, without women or children, who extorted a precarious subsistence from the chase. On classic ground, on the banks of the Achelõus, the Greeks were defeated; [A.D. 917. their horn was broken by the strength of the barbaric Hercules. 19 Aug. 20] He formed the siege of Constantinople; and, in a personal conference with the emperor, Simeon imposed the conditions of peace. They met with the most jealous precautions; the royal galley was drawn close to an artificial and well-fortified platform; and the majesty of the purple was emulated by the pomp of the Bulgarian. "Are you a Christian?" said the humble Romanus. "It is your duty to abstain from the blood of your fellow-Christians. Has the thirst of riches seduced you from the blessings of peace? Sheathe your sword, open your hand, and I will satiate the utmost measure of your desires." The reconciliation was sealed by a domestic alliance; 20 the freedom of trade was granted or restored; the first honours of the court were secured to the friends of Bulgaria, above the ambassadors of enemies or strangers; 21 and her princes were dignified with the high and 19 -Rigidum fera dextera cornu Dum tenet, infregit truncâque a fronte revellit. Ovid (Metamorph. ix. 1-100) has boldly painted the combat of the river-god and the hero; the native and the stranger. [The battle was fought near Anchialos in Bulgaria (Leo Diac. p. 124). There was a river named Achelous in the neighbourhood (Theoph. Contin. p. 389; cp. Pseudo-Sym. Mag. p. 724), and the name misled Gibbon. Cp. Finlay, ii. p. 288, note.] [The peace was concluded after Simeon's death in A.D. 927. Th. Uspenski has published (in the Lietopis ist. phil. obschestva, of the Odessa University. Viz. Otd. ii., 1894, p. 48 sqq.) a curious jubilant sermon preached at Constantinople on the occasion of the conclusion of the peace. It presents great difficulties, owing to the allusiveness of its style, which has been ingeniously discussed by Uspenski, who is tempted to identify the anonymous author with Nicolaus Mysticus, the Patriarch, a correspondent of the Tsar Simeon. But chronology seems to exclude this supposition; for Nicolaus died in 925; and, though the preliminaries to the peace may have occupied a considerable time, the sermon must have been composed after the death of Simeon in 927 (as Uspenski seems to forget in his concluding remarks, p. 123).] 21 The ambassador of Otho was provoked by the Greek excesses, cum Christophori filiam Petrus Bulgarorum Vasileus conjugem duceret, Symphona, id est consonantia, scripto [al. consonantia scripta], juramento firmata sunt, ut omnium gentium Apostolis, id est nunciis, penes nos Bulgarorum Apostoli præponantur, honorentur, diligantur (Liutprand in Legatione, p. 482 [c. 19]). See the Ceremoniale of Constantine of Porphyrogenitus, tom. i. p. 82 [c. 24, p. 139, ed. Bonn], tom. ii. p. 429, 430, 434, 435, 443, 444, 446, 447 [c. 52, p. 740, 742, 743, 749, 751, 767, 771, 772, 773], with the annotations of Reiske. [Bulgarian rulers before Simeon were content with the title Knez. Simeon first assumed the title tsar (from tsesar, ts'sar; = Cesar). It may have been remembered that Terbel had been made a Cesar by Justinian II. (Nicephorus, p. 42, ed. de Boor). The Archbishopric of Bulgaris was raised to the dignity of a Patriarchate. Simeon's residence was Great Peristhlava; see below, p. 167, note 90.] invidious title of basileus, or emperor. But this friendship was soon disturbed: after the death of Simeon, the nations were A.D. 950, &c. again in arms; his feeble successors were divided 22 and extinguished; and, in the beginning of the eleventh century, the second Basil, who was born in the purple, deserved the appellation of conqueror of the Bulgarians.23 His avarice was in some measure gratified by a treasure of four hundred thousand pounds sterling (ten thousand pounds weight of gold) which he found in the palace of Lychnidus. His cruelty inflicted a cool and exquisite vengeance on fifteen thousand captives who had been guilty of the defence of their country: they were deprived of sight; but to one of each hundred a single eye was left, that 22 [In A.D. 963 Shishman of Trnovo revolted, and founded an independent kingdom in Macedonia and Albania. Thus there were now two Bulgarian kingdoms and two tsars.] 23 [The kingdom of Eastern Bulgaria had been conquered first by the Russians and then by the Emperor Tzimisces (see below, p. 167), but Western Bulgaria survived, and before 980, Samuel, son of Shishman, came to the throne. His capital was at first Prespa, but he afterwards moved to Ochrida. His aim was to recover Eastern Bulgaria and conquer Greece; and for thirty-five years he maintained a heroic struggle against the Empire. Both he and his great adversary Basil were men of iron, brave, cruel, and unscrupulous; and Basil was determined not merely to save Eastern, but to conquer Western, Bulgaria. In the first war (976-986) the Bulgarians were successful. Samuel pushed southward and, after repeated attempts which were repulsed, captured Larissa in Thessaly and pushed on to the Isthmus. This was in A.D. 986. To cause a diversion and relieve Greece, Basil marched on Sofia, but was caught in a trap and having endured immense losses escaped with difficulty. After this defeat Eastern Bulgaria was lost to the Empire. (The true date of the capture of Larissa and the defeat of Basil, A.D. 986, has been established, against the old date 981, by the evidence of the Strategikon of Kekaumenos,-for which see above, vol. 5, p. 536. Cp. Schlumberger, L'épopée Byzantine, p. 636. On this first Bulgarian war, see also the Vita Niconis, ap. Martène et Durand, ampl. Coll. 6, 837 sqq.; and a contemporary poem of John Geometres, Migne, P. G. vol. 106, p. 934, and cp. p. 920, a piece on the Cometopulos, i.e. Samuel, with a pun on Kоμhтηs, "comet ".) There was a cessation of hostilities for ten years. The second war broke out in A.D. 996. Samuel invaded Greece, but returning he was met by a Greek army in the plain of the Spercheios north of Thermopyle, and his whole host was destroyed in a night surprise. In A.D. 1000 Basil recovered Eastern Bulgaria, and in the following year South-western Macedonia (Vodena, Berroa). Again hostilities languished for over ten years; Basil was occupied in the east. In A.D. 1014, the third war began; on July 29 Nicephorus Xiphias gained a brilliant victory over the Bulgarian army at Bielasica (somewhere in the neighbourhood of the river Strumica); Samuel escaped to Prilep, but died six weeks later. The struggle was sustained weakly under Gabriel Roman (Samuel's son) and John Vladislav, his murderer and successor, last Tsar of Ochrida, who fell, besieging Durazzo, in 1018. The Bulgarians submitted, and the whole Balkan peninsula was once more imperial. If Samuel had been matched with a less able antagonist than Basil, he would have succeeded in effecting what was doubtless his aim, the union of all the Slavs south of the Danube into a great empire. For a fuller account of these wars see Finlay, vol. ii.; and for the first war, Schlumberger, op. cit., chap. x. Jireček, Gesch. der Bulgaren, p. 192-8, is remarkably brief. There is a fuller study of the struggle by Rački in the Croatian tongue (1875).] Tsar he might conduct his blind century to the presence of their king. Their king is said to have expired of grief and horror; the nation [Death of was awed by this terrible example; the Bulgarians were swept Samuel. away from their settlements, and circumscribed within a narrow Sept. 15] province; the surviving chiefs bequeathed to their children the advice of patience and the duty of revenge. A.D. 1014. tion of the Hungari 884 III. When the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over Emigra Europe, about nine hundred years after the Christian era, they Turks or were mistaken by fear and superstition for the Gog and Magog ans. A.D. of the Scriptures, the signs and forerunners of the end of the world.24 Since the introduction of letters, they have explored their own antiquities with a strong and laudable impulse of patriotic curiosity.25 Their rational criticism can no longer be amused with a vain pedigree of Attila and the Huns; but they complain that their primitive records have perished in the Tartar war; that the truth or fiction of their rustic songs is long since forgotten; and that the fragments of a rude chronicle 26 must be painfully reconciled with the contemporary though foreign intelligence of the Imperial geographer.27 Magiar is the [Magyar] national and Oriental denomination of the Hungarians; but, among the tribes of Scythia, they are distinguished by the Greeks under the proper and peculiar name of Turks, as the descendants of that mighty people who had conquered and reigned from 24 A bishop of Wurtzburg [leg. Verdun] submitted this opinion to a reverend abbot; but he more gravely decided that Gog and Magog were the spiritual persecators of the church; since Gog signifies the roof, the pride of the Heresiarchs, and Magog what comes from the roof, the propagation of their sects. Yet these men once commanded the respect of mankind (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 594, &c.). 25 The two national authors, from whom I have derived the most assistance, are George Pray (Dissertationes ad Annales veterum Hungarorum, &o., Vindobonæ, 1775, in folio) and Stephen Katona (Hist. Critica Ducum et Regum Hungariæ stirpis Arpadiane, Pastini, 1778-1781, 5 vols. in octavo). The first embraces a large and often conjectural space; the latter, by his learning, judgment, and perspicuity, deserves the name of a critical historian. 26 The author of this Chronicle is styled the notary of king Béla. Katona has assigned him to the twelfth century, and defends his character against the hypercriticism of Pray. This rude annalist must have transcribed some historical records, since he could affirm with dignity, rejectis falsis fabulis rusticorum, et garrulo cantu joculatorum. In the xvth century, these fables were collected by Thurotzius, and embellished by the Italian Bonfinius. See the Preliminary Discourse in the Hist. Critica Dacum, p. 7-38. [Cp. Appendix 13.] $7 See Constantine de Administrando Imperio, c. 3, 4, 13, 38-42. Katona has nicely fixed the composition of this work to the years 949, 950, 951 (p. 4-7). [Cp. App. 4.] The critical historian (p. 34-107) endeavours to prove the existence, and to relate the actions, of a first duke Almus, the father of Arpad, who is tacitly rejected by Constantine. [Constantine, c. 38, says that Arpad was elected chief, and not his father Salmutses (Almos).] China to the Volga. The Pannonian colony preserved a correspondence of trade and amity with the Eastern Turks on the confines of Persia; and after a separation of three hundred and fifty years, the missionaries of the king of Hungary discovered and visited their ancient country near the banks of the Volga. They were hospitably entertained by a people of pagans and savages, who still bore the name of Hungarians; conversed in their native tongue, recollected a tradition of their long-lost brethren, and listened with amazement to the marvellous tale of their new kingdom and religion. The zeal of conversion was animated by the interest of consanguinity; and one of the greatest of their princes had formed the generous, though fruitless, design of replenishing the solitude of Pannonia by this domestic colony from the heart of Tartary.28 From this primitive country they were driven to the West by the tide of war and emigration, by the weight of the more distant tribes, who at the same time were fugitives and conquerors. Reason or fortune directed their course towards the frontiers of the Roman empire; they halted in the usual stations along the banks of the great rivers; and in the territories of Moscow, Kiow, and Moldavia some vestiges have been discovered of their temporary residence. In this long and various peregrination, they could not always escape the dominion of the stronger; and the purity of their blood was improved or sullied by the mixture of a foreign race; from a motive of compulsion or choice, several tribes of the Chazars were associated to the standard of their ancient vassals; introduced the use of a second language; 29 and obtained by their superior renown the most honourable place in the front of battle. The military force of the Turks and their allies marched in seven equal and artificial divisions; each division was formed of thirty thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven warriors, and the proportion of women, children, and servants supposes and requires at least a million of emigrants. Their public councils were directed by seven vayvods,30 or hereditary chiefs; but the experience of discord and weakness recommended the more simple and vigorous administration of a single person. 98 Pray (Dissert. p. 37-39, &c.) produces and illustrates the original passages of the Hungarian missionaries, Bonfinius and Eneas Silvius. 29 [Cp. Appendix 13.] 30 [Voivods, "war-leaders,” a Slavonic word. Cp. Appendix 13.] |