The Paphlagonian expedition of the Rus' was an

attack Attack may refer to: Warfare and combat * Offensive (military) * Charge (warfare) * Attack (fencing) * Strike (attack) * Attack (computing) * Attack aircraft Books and publishing * ''The Attack'' (novel), a book * '' Attack No. 1'', comic an ...

by the Rus' on cities on the Propontis ( Sea of Marmara) and on the coast of the Paphlagonia, marking the first known contact between the Rus' and the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. Its date is questioned, as is the belief that it was distinct from the Rus'–Byzantine War (860).

Expedition

The expedition is documented in the ''Life of Saint George of Amastris'', a hagiographic work describing the Rus' as "the people known to everyone for their barbarity, ferocity, and cruelty". According to the text, they attacked

Propontis The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the ...

(probably aiming for Constantinople) before turning east and raiding Paphlagonia some time after the death of St. George (ca. 806). When they fell upon the city of Amastris, the intercession of St. George helped the inhabitants to survive the raid. This is held by many to be the earliest written record of the migration of the Rus' into southeastern Europe. It is only according to late and dubious accounts that the Rus' would have reached Byzantine borders before the Paphlagonian expedition. Notably, the

15th century The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian dates from 1 January 1401 ( MCDI) to 31 December 1500 ( MD). In Europe, the 15th century includes parts of the Late Middle Ages, the Early Renaissance, and the early modern period. M ...

Slavonic ''Life of St. Stephen of Sugdaea'' records the invasion led by a certain

Bravlin {{no footnotes, date=July 2017 Bravlin (apparent Cyrillic: "Бравлин") was an apocryphal overlord of the Rus' who supposedly devastated all the Crimea from Kerch to Sougdaia in the last years of the 8th century but was paralyzed when he ha ...

of the Rus', who supposedly devastated Crimea in the 790s, but this does not feature in the ancient Greek recension of the work.

Date of the expedition

Obviously, dating the ''Life'' is of paramount importance for dating the Paphlagonian expedition. Unfortunately the source or parts of it have been variously ascribed to the 9th or 10th centuries, and the question still seems to be far from being settled. Vasily Vasilievsky, who was the first to publish the text in 1893, attributed it to

Ignatios the Deacon Ignatios the Deacon ( el, Ἰγνάτιος ὁ Διάκονος, 780/790 – after 845) was a Byzantine cleric and writer. Left an orphan as a child, he was educated under the auspices of Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople, and rose in the church ...

(ca. 775 – ca. 848). Accordingly, he thought that the attack had happened during the period of

Iconoclasm Iconoclasm (from Ancient Greek, Greek: grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, wikt:κλάω, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών + wi ...

(before 842), notably dating it to the years 825–830. Alexander Vasiliev pointed out that

Emperor Theophilus Theophilos ( gr, Θεόφιλος; sometimes Latinized or Anglicized as Theophilus or Theophilo; c. 812 20 January 842) was the Byzantine Emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Amorian dynasty and the last em ...

provided for the safe conduct of the Rus', who had somehow arrived at Constantinople (ca. 838), through Frankish lands by his embassy to

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...

of 839, as witnessed to by the

Annals of St. Bertin ''Annales Bertiniani'' (''Annals of Saint Bertin'') are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the Abbey of Saint Bertin, Saint-Omer, France, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus continu ...

, which is inconsistent with the assumption that the raid had at that time already taken place. Thus, rejecting Vasilievsky's arguments as to authorship and date of the work, he identified the Paphlagonian expedition described in the ''Life'' with the raid in 860 that reached Constantinople.

Constantine Zuckerman Constantin Zuckerman (; born 1957) is a French historian and Professor of Byzantine studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. Biography Academic rank: professor. Highest degree: doctorate. Job title: The Deputy Director of the Cen ...

, however, maintains a higher dating of the sack of Amastris to the 830s and holds the 838 embassy of the Rus' to Constantinople, as recorded in the same entry of the

, to be an attempt at negotiating a peace treaty with Byzantium. Other scholars believe the raid took place as early as 818 or 819. Others, while maintaining the attribution of the ''Life'' to Ignatios, have made an interesting but so far unproven case that the description of the invasion alone was inserted into the ''Life'' in the second half of the 9th century or later and thus reflects Rus'-Byzantine relations as they stood by that time, after the 860 raid.Markopoulos A. ''La Vie de Saint Georges d'Amastris et Photius.'' // Jahrbuch Österreichischer Byzantinistik, 1979, 28, pp. 75-82. Others still, including the same Vasiliev in his later production, argued for an even later composition of the ''Life'' and accordingly held the account of the Paphlagonian raid to echo the 941 attack. This is little more than an unverifiable guess, however, and a rather facile one, given that the work is transmitted by a single 10th-century manuscript.

References

;General * Vasily Vasilievsky. Русско-византийские исследования. St. Petersburg, 1893. *

George Vernadsky George Vernadsky (Russian: Гео́ргий Влади́мирович Верна́дский; August 20, 1887 – June 12, 1973) was a Russian Empire-born American historian and an author of numerous books on Russian history. European years ...

. ''The Problem of the Early Russian Campaigns in the Black Sea Area''. // American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Feb., 1949), pp. 1-9. * Andrey Sakharov. Дипломатия древней Руси: IX - первая половина X в. Moscow, 1980. *Efthymiadis St. ''On the Hagiographical Work of Ignatius the Deacon''. // Jahrbuch Österreichischer Byzantinistik, 1991, 41, pp. 73-83. ;Inline {{coord missing, Turkey 830s conflicts Battles involving the Vikings Rus'–Byzantine wars 9th century in the Byzantine Empire Battles in medieval Anatolia 830s in the Byzantine Empire Military history of the Black Sea

Expedition

Date of the expedition

See also

References