Johannes Tzimiskes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John protected by God and the Virgin Mary

John I. Tzimiskes ( Greek Ἰωάννης Αʹ «Τζιμισκὴς» Κουρκούας Iōannēs I. “Tzimiskís” Kurkuas ; * probably 924 in Constantinople ; †  January 10, 976 ibid) was Byzantine emperor from 969 to 976 . He probably died of typhus after returning from a campaign against the Arabs . His nickname "Tzimiskes" comes from the Armenian word tschemschkik , which means "small".

Life

Career up to the imperial coronation

Coronation of Emperor Tzimiskes. Chronicle of Johannes Skylitzes. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Vitr. 26-2, fol. 159r

John was of Armenian descent and a relative of the emperor Nikephoros II. Under his high command he already led a campaign against the Hamdanids to the upper Euphrates in 959 as the leading general of the Eastern Army . Together with General Basileios Lekapenos, General Tzimiskes stormed the city of Samosata and inflicted a heavy defeat on the enemy. After the elevation of Nikephoros II. To emperor in August 963, Tzimiskes became strategos (general) of the subject Anatolicon . In his first marriage he was married to Maria Sklerina; he also made sure that his brother-in-law Bardas Scleros was given high military posts and developed his own position of power in the Eastern Army. The initially good relationship with the new emperor was soon disrupted; presumably this Johannes wanted to recall. Thereupon Johannes planned the murder of the emperor with the empress Theophanu , who detested her husband because of his appearance and was drawn to the handsome Johannes. On December 11, 969, Johannes and his henchmen entered the Bukeleon Palace and shamefully killed the sleeping Nikephoros. Theophanus' urging to marry Tzimiskes quickly, was bitterly disappointed. The aged Patriarch Polyeuktus of Constantinople relentlessly demanded that the self-proclaimed emperor be penalized before his coronation was granted. Theophanu bitterly saw her position of power waning, she had to watch as Johannes legitimized his position by marrying another member of the older imperial family. Theodora, one of the five sisters of the former emperor Romanos II. Was fetched from the nunnery and married to the emperor in November 971 by the new patriarch Basil Skamandrenos.

Internal uprisings and foreign policy

At first, Johannes had a hard time grappling with the circumstances surrounding his assumption of power. The emperor had to revoke the ordinances of his predecessor regarding the taxation of the church in order to consolidate his position. Bardas Phokas , nephew of Emperor Nikephorus II and Dux of Chaldia and Koloneia , was banished from Tzimiskes to Amaseia . From there, Bardas escaped in the summer of 970 to Kaisareia in Cappadocia , the power base of his family, and was proclaimed a basileus. His father Leon Phokas supported the rebellion from his place of exile, Lesbos , by trying to persuade the troops in the European part of the empire to apostate Johannes Tzimiskes. However, the uprising of the Phocades was quickly put down. While his father was blinded, Bardas Phokas had to surrender to the general Bardas Scleros in the summer of 971 in Pisidia . Leon Phokas and his family were pardoned by the emperor, but lost all positions and were interned on Chios .

However, the emperor was able to take tough measures against the large landowners who opposed the central authority. In addition, he was only a trustee: just like under his predecessor, the imperial crown officially belonged to the two underage sons of Emperor Romanos II. He achieved diplomatic successes in foreign policy. After the capture of Duke Pandulf I of Capua , an agreement with Otto I followed , which initially secured the preservation of the last possessions in Calabria . In 972 he sent his niece Theophanu to Eastern France . She was on April 14, 972 in Rome by Pope John XIII. married Otto's son, who later became Otto II . Relations between the two empires relaxed noticeably.

The emperor's campaigns

Nikephorus II already had the reputation of a successful general. But John should still overshadow him in this regard. John dreamed of a restauratio imperii of the Eastern Empire. The aim was certainly not a restoration within the boundaries of Justinian I , but the previous years had clearly shown that the Arabs were no longer as strong as in the two centuries before.

As a result of the Russo-Bulgarian War, Grand Duke Svyatoslaw I of Kiev conquered large parts of the Tsarist Empire of Bulgaria. In 968 Svyatoslav had defeated the Bulgarian Tsar Boris II and in 969 moved his capital to Pereslavetz . In the same year the Russians conquered Philippopolis , marched into Thrace and besieged Adrianople in the summer of 970 . In 970, the emperor's general and brother-in-law, Bardas Skleros, succeeded in stopping the planned advance of a Russian-Bulgarian coalition on Constantinople at the Battle of Arkadiopolis for the time being.

Meeting of Svyatoslav I and Johannes Tzimiskes, historicizing account by Klavdiy Lebedev, 1916.

Johannes Tzimiskes began a campaign in Bulgaria in the spring of 971 to restore balance. With a well-armed army he defeated the Russians on the bank of the Goljana Kamciya river and stormed the city of Preslav during Easter . The Byzantine army was reinforced by a strong fleet, 300 ships operated on the Danube in the rear of the enemy and were equipped with Greek fire . After a Byzantine victory on the Danube near Silistra in May, Svyatoslaw Heer escaped to the fortress Dorostolon (Drustur / Durostorum). Johannes Tzimiskes began the siege of Dorostolon , which should last a total of 65 days. After he recognized his hopeless situation, Svyatoslav's army surrendered on July 24, 971 to free retreat and signed a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire. In it, the Rus had to give up their claims to Bulgaria, Hungary and the former Byzantine trade node Chersonese in the Crimea . After the arrival of the Byzantines, Silistra was renamed Theodoropolis after the wife of the emperor.

After the Abbasids had fallen in power , the rival Fatimid caliphate in Tunisia ( Mahdia ) tried to defend Syria by moving troops across the Nile valley and Palestine. During the fighting in the Balkans the Arabs had already tried to regain the lost Antioch in 971 and were able to destroy a Byzantine contingent in front of Amida in July 972 .

In the campaign of 974 the emperor turned with a new army against the Arabs on the eastern border, the march took place via detours to Armenia. He was able to deal with troops of the allied King Ashot III. strengthen considerably and marched south via Martyropolis (Mayyafariquin) and Amida. The population of Nisibis fled without a fight when the Byzantines marched into the plain of Jazira . Why Tzimiskes did not continue the campaign against the unprotected Baghdad and returned with rich booty to the winter camp in Antioch remains unclear.

During the winter of 975, John had returned to the capital to replace the ascetic patriarch Basil Skamandrenos and to grant asylum to the Roman Pope Boniface VII, who had fled to Constantinople . In the spring of 975 the confused church policy was settled with the uprising of the new Patriarch Antonios Studides.

Returning to Antioch, he led his army in the campaign of 975 first to Emesa , which surrendered without a fight and then took the old trading metropolis of Baalbek . The end of Arab rule in Syria seemed imminent, and the Syrian capital Damascus finally fell back to Byzantium.

Finally, in the summer of 975, Johannes Tzimiskes invaded Palestine . His troops succeeded in conquering Nazareth and the important port cities of Acre and Caesarea Maritima . He then stormed Sidon and Byblos in order to be able to secure supplies from his fleet via these port cities. However , he refrained from taking the Holy City of Jerusalem because he had already run into the resistance of the fortress Tiberias on the coast and in order not to overload his supply lines. Nevertheless, Byzantium had recaptured a considerable part of its lost eastern territories.

It was a new peak of Byzantine power, at the same time the structural weaknesses of Arab rule were exposed. However, at the height of his success, the emperor died unexpectedly after his return from the Syrian theater of war on January 10, 976. The cause of death was probably typhus , although the Greek and Arabic sources largely agree that he was poisoned at the instigation of Basil Lakapenos .

meaning

John I was considered one of the most capable generals and emperors that Byzantium had produced. After his predecessor Nikephorus II had already acted very successfully militarily, Tzimiskes succeeded in re-establishing the great power of Byzantium. Thanks to its successes against the troops of Kiever Rus in the Balkans and against the Arabs in Syria, Byzantium reached a new high point in its power development after the catastrophe of Islamic expansion in Palestine and the Levant. However, in terms of territorial gains, John lagged behind his successor Basil II , whose successes were short-lived.

The fact that John only came to power as a usurper by having his predecessor and relative Nikephorus II murdered cast a black shadow over his ambiguous character, despite his later "knightly gestures" attested to in contemporary sources.

The small Turkish town of Çemişgezek was named after him.

swell

The most important narrative source for his reign are the histories of Leon Diakonos . Johannes Skylitzes is partly dependent on this , but he also used other sources that are now lost.

  • Leonis Diaconi Caloënsis historiae libri decem . Edited by Charles Benoît Hase (Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae 3). Bonn 1828.
    • the best translation (with a very good introduction and commentary) is: The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine military expansion in the tenth century . Introd., Transl., And annotations by Alice-Mary Talbot and Denis F. Sullivan. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington / DC 2005.
  • Hans Thurn (Ed.): Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis historiarum . Berlin 1973.
    • There is no German translation of the passages in question available from Skylitzes, but a newer English translation is available: John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811-1057. Translated by John Wortley. With Introductions by Jean-Claude Cheynet and Bernard Flusin and Notes by Jean-Claude Cheynet. Cambridge 2010.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Julius Norwich: Byzanz Volume II., Bechtermünz, Munich 1994, p. 275
  2. ↑ John Julius Norwich: Byzanz Volume II., Bechtermünz, Munich 1994, pp. 270-278
  3. ↑ Norwich: Byzanz Volume II., P. 283 f

literature

Web links

Commons : Johannes Tzimiskes  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Nikephorus II. Emperor of Byzantium
969–976 		Basil II
personal data
SURNAME Johannes Tzimiskes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johannes Tzimiskes I .; Ιωάννης Τζιμισκής Κουρκούας (Greek); Iōánnēs A´ Tzimiskēs Kurkúas; Johannes Tzimiskes Kurkuas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine emperor
DATE OF BIRTH around 924
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 976
Place of death Constantinople