Siege of Constantinople (860)
Fresco in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe , Michael III. and Photios I. throw the veil of Our Lady into the Bosporus
| date | June 18, 860 to August 4, 860 |
|---|---|
| place | Constantinople |
| output | Rus sacked the suburbs of Constantinople |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 5,000 men, 200 ships | unknown |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
The siege of Constantinople (860) by the Rus marks the first major attack by the Rus on Byzantine territory .
As early as 830, the Rus had attacked some Byzantine cities in Paphlagonia , but spared Constantinople itself. On the evening of June 18, 860 about 200 Rus boats appeared in front of the capital of the Byzantine Empire. After devastating some suburbs and killing their inhabitants, they destroyed parts of the Byzantine fleet. At the time of the attack, neither Emperor Michael III. with his army, the main Byzantine force of the fleet still present. The residents had no choice but to get to safety behind the heavily fortified city walls. By August 4th, the Rus plundered and pillaged the Prince Islands and lands in the vicinity of Constantinople. In later, sometimes very different versions of Christian chroniclers, their deduction is ascribed to divine intervention. It is reported that Emperor Michael and Patriarch Photios I , who hurriedly returned from his campaign against the Arabs , threw the veil of Our Lady Mary into the Bosphorus and a storm then scattered the boats of the Rus.
swell
- Johannes Deacon , Chronicon
- Leon Grammatikos , Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae , Bonn 1842
- Nikolaus I. , Papae epistolae , in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica . Epistolae VI. (Karolini aevi IV), Berlin 1925
- Logothetenchronik
literature
- Donald F. Logan: The Vikings in History . Routledge, 1992, ISBN 0-415-08396-6 .
- Jonathan Harris: Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium . Hambledon / Continuum, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-84725-179-4
- Alexander Vasiliev: The Russian Attack on Constantinople in 860 . Cambridge / Mass. 1925
- Constantine Zuckerman : Deux étapes de la formation de l'ancien état russe, dans Les centers proto-urbains russes entre Scandinavie, Byzance et Orient. Actes du Colloque International tenu au Collège de France en octobre 1997, éd. M. Kazanski, A. Nersessian et C. Zuckerman (Réalités byzantines 7), Paris 2000, pp. 95-120.