Battle of Bathys Ryax

Battle of Bathys Ryax

Part of: Byzantine-Paulican Wars

date	872 or 878
place	Bathys Ryax (today's Kalınırmak Pass, Sivas )
output	Byzantine victory

Parties to the conflict
Byzantine Empire	Paulician
Commander
Christopher	Chrysocheir
losses
Low	Very difficult

The Battle of Bathys Ryax was either 872 or 878 between the Byzantine Empire and the Paulikianern discharged. The Paulikians were a Christian sect who, because of persecution by the Byzantine state, had created their own domain around Tephrike on the Byzantine eastern border and worked against the empire with the Muslim emirates along the Thughur , the border strip to the Abbassid caliphate . The battle was a decisive Byzantine victory and resulted in the flight of the Paulician leader, Chrysocheir . The battle shook the Paulican state and freed Byzantium from a serious threat on the eastern border. As a result of the battle, Tephrike was to fall and the Paulikian state to be annexed by Byzantium.

background

The massacre of the Paulikians in 843/844

The Paulikians were a Christian sect whose origin is unclear: Byzantine sources describe them as dualists , while Armenian sources see them as adoptionists . The Paulikians were avid iconoclasts , adhered to a very specific Christology , and rejected the authority and practices of the official Orthodox Church; they followed their own leaders. As a result, they were persecuted by the Byzantine state from 813, despite the emperors' official support for iconoclasm. After the definitive end of Byzantine iconoclasm in 843, the persecution intensified: in an attempt to exterminate this "heretical" sect, which was unique in Byzantine history, orders were issued to kill anyone who did not revoke it. According to the chronicles, up to 100,000 Paulikians were massacred. The survivors fled to their bases in eastern Anatolia and found refuge with the Muslim enemies of the empire, the Arab Emirates of Thughur , the Arab-Byzantine border zone along the Taurus- Antitaurus line. With the support of the Emir of Melitene , Umar al-Aqta , the leader of the Paulikians, Karbeas , was able to found an independent principality near Tephrike , and in the decades that followed, the Paulikians went to the field together with the Arabs against Byzantium.

The Arabs and Paulicians suffered a severe blow in 863 with the defeat and death of Umar at the Battle of Lalakaon and the death of Karbeas that same year. But under their new leader Chrysocheir the Paulikians resumed their raids deep into Byzantine Anatolia (they plundered as far as Nicaea and conquered Ephesus in 869/870). The new Byzantine Emperor Basil I (ruled 867-886) sent an embassy to Tephrike to negotiate with the Paulicians. When the negotiations failed, Basil led a campaign against the Paulicians in the spring of 871, but was defeated and was only able to escape with difficulty.

battle

Gold coins of the emperor Basil I

Encouraged by this success, Chrysocheir dared another foray deep into Anatolia, reached Ankyra and devastated southern Galatia . Basil responded and sent his stepbrother, the Domestikos of the Scholes Christopher, against them. The Paulikians were able to prevent a meeting, and as the season for campaigns drew near, they withdrew to their own territory. They camped near Agranai (today's Muşalem Kalesı) in the theme of Charsianon , while the Byzantine army pursuing them had set up camp at Siboron (Σίβορον, today's Karamadara) further west. From there the Paulikians marched northeast to the pass of Bathys Ryax or Bathyryax (Βαθυρύαξ, "deep stream", today's Kalınırmak pass west of Sivas in Turkey ), a place of strategic importance. Christopher sent the strategoi of the subjects of Armeniakon and Charsianon with four to five thousand men as a vanguard to follow the Paulikian army, pursue them to the pass and find out their intentions, d. H. whether they would try to turn around again and plunder further Byzantine territory or whether they would return to Tephrike, in which case they should return to the troops of Domestikos.

When the two generals and their troops reached the pass, night had fallen. The Paulikians, apparently unaware that they were being persecuted, had set up camp in the valley floor. The Byzantines moved into a wooded hill called Zogoloenos from which one could observe the Paulikian camp. The sources report that at this point a dispute broke out between the two thematic armies as to which was the braver; the generals decided to take advantage of the troops' good morale and fighting spirit and disregard their orders. A select group of 600 soldiers from both branches of the army launched a surprise attack at dawn, while the rest of the troops remained hidden, but by blowing horns and shouting, gave the impression that the main Byzantine army was on the march. The deception worked: the Paulikians ran apart in panic. The entire Paulikian army was in a panic, and it actually ran into the Byzantine army as it fled. The scattered remains of the army were hunted by the Byzantines for over 50 km. Chrysocheir was able to escape with a small bodyguard, but he was taken over by Konstantinou Bounos (probably today's Yildiz Dagı) by the Byzantine vanguard. In the ensuing battle, he was wounded and fell from his horse. He was captured and beheaded, his head sent to the Emperor Basil in Constantinople .

consequences

The defeat of Bathys Ryax marked the end of the Paulikian threat to Byzantium. Basil continued this success with a series of campaigns against the Paulicians and the eastern Emirates. Tephrike was conquered in 878 and razed to the ground. The remaining Paulikians were resettled to the Balkans , another part was shipped to southern Italy to fight for the empire under Nikephoros Phocas the Elder .

Questions about chronology

The exact time of the battle and the end of the Paulician state is unclear as Byzantine sources contradict each other: some historians date the battle to 872, others to 878, either before or after the capture of Tephrice. Alexander Vasiliev initially proposed a Byzantine victory, followed by the conquest of Tephrikes and then the final defeat of the Paulikians at Bathys Ryax, all in 872. Recent historians place the battle before the city was captured. Some historians, such as Nina Garsoïan or John Haldon , date both events to 878.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Kiapidou: Battle at Bathys Ryax, 872/8. 2003, Chapter 3 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Haldon: The Byzantine Wars. 2001, p. 85.
3. ↑ Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Volume 3. 1991, p. 1606; Jenkins: Byzantium. 1987, p. 158.
4. ↑ Jenkins: Byzantium. 1987, pp. 158-159.
5. ↑ Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Volume 2. 1991, p. 1107, Volume 3. 1991, p. 1606.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Kiapidou: Battle at Bathys Ryax, 872/8. 2003, Chapter 1 .
7. ↑ Jenkins: Byzantium. 1987, pp. 162-163; Whittow: The Making of Byzantium, 600-1025. 1996, p. 311.
8. ↑ Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Volume 1. 1991, p. 452, Volume 3. 1991, p. 1606.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Whittow: The Making of Byzantium, 600-1025. 1996, p. 314.
10. ^ ^{A b} Treadgold: A History of the Byzantine State and Society. 1997, p. 457.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Kiapidou: Battle at Bathys Ryax, 872/8. 2003, chapter 2 .
12. ↑ ^{a b c d} Haldon: The Byzantine Wars. 2001, p. 87.
13. ^ Haldon: Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204. 1999, pp. 103, 175.
14. ↑ Jenkins: Byzantium. 1987, p. 191.
15. ↑ Garsoïan: The Paulician Heresy. 1967, pp. 39, 128.
16. ↑ Haldon: The Byzantine Wars. 2001, pp. 85, 87.

literature

• Nina G. Garsoïan: The Paulician Heresy. A Study of the Origin and Development of Paulicianism in Armenia and the Eastern Provinces of the Byzantine Empire (= Publications in Near and Middle East Studies. Series A: Monographes. Vol. 6, ZDB -ID 845768-2 ). Mouton, The Hague et al. 1967.
• John F. Haldon: Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204 . University College London Press, London 1999, ISBN 1-85728-495-X .
• John Haldon: The Byzantine Wars. Battles and Campaigns of the Byzantine Era . Tempus, Stroud et al. 2001, ISBN 0-7524-1795-9 .
• Romilly Jenkins : Byzantium. The Imperial Centuries AD 610-1071 (= Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching. Vol. 18). Reprint (of the edition) 1966. University of Toronto Press, Toronto et al. 1987, ISBN 0-8020-6667-4 .
• Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . 3 volumes. Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 .
• Eirini-Sofia Kiapidou: Battle at Bathys Ryax, 872/8 . In: Encyclopedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor . Foundation of the Hellenic World. January 17, 2003. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
• Warren Treadgold: A History of the Byzantine State and Society . Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 1997, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2 .
• Mark Whittow: The Making of Byzantium, 600-1025 . University of California Press, Berkeley CA 1996, ISBN 0-520-20496-4 .