965–970
Sviatoslav, 965–970
Sviatoslav, the son of Igor and Olga, takes over the rule of Kiev from his mother and turns against the Khazars. He makes the Vyatichi on the Oka pay tribute to him instead of to them, attacks the Volga Bulgars and around 965 destroys the Khazar fortress of Sarkel on the Don. He sacks the Khazar capital Atil, probably in 968 or 969, and Khazar power comes to an end.
Sviatoslav's horsemen invade Bulgaria, a miniature of the Bulgarian translation of the Manasses Chronicle, 14th centuryWikimedia Commons, unknown artist, Public domain (63-manasses-chronicle.jpg)
Emperor Nikephoros II, at war with Bulgaria, sends the envoy Kalokyros to Sviatoslav, with 1,500 pounds of gold by Leo the Deacon’s account. In 967 or 968 the Rus' cross the Danube, defeat a Bulgarian army of 30,000 at Dorostolon and winter at Pereyaslavets. Sviatoslav hurries home in 968 when the Pechenegs besiege Kiev, and in summer 969 he returns with Pecheneg and Magyar allies, takes the Bulgarian capital Preslav and rules the country through Tsar Boris II. The Primary Chronicle has him say that Pereyaslavets on the Danube is the centre of his lands, where all good things flow.
Sviatoslav returns from the Danube to his family in Kiev, a painting by Ivan Akimov, 1773Wikimedia Commons, Ivan Akimov, Public domain (Akimov - Svyatoslav's return from the Danube.jpg)
Nikephoros is murdered in December 969, and his successor John I Tzimiskes offers to negotiate. Sviatoslav demands a large payment, or else that the Byzantines leave Europe for Asia Minor. Early in 970 a Rus' army with Bulgarian, Pecheneg and Magyar contingents crosses the Balkan Mountains, storms Philippopolis and marches on Constantinople. Leo the Deacon puts it at over 30,000 men, John Skylitzes at 308,000.
Near Arcadiopolis Bardas Skleros meets it with 10,000 to 12,000 men. A small Byzantine force attacks the Pechenegs and draws them back in a slow retreat into an ambush of two hidden divisions, and the Pechenegs break when Skleros kills their leader. The panic spreads to the Bulgarians and the Rus', who lose several thousand men and withdraw north of the Balkan Mountains. The Primary Chronicle claims a Rus' victory and a tribute.
Byzantine horsemen ride down the fleeing Rus', a miniature of the Madrid Skylitzes, 12th centuryWikimedia Commons, unknown artist, Public domain (Skylintzes+Byzantine Rus conflict.jpg)
Sources
- Leo the Deacon, The History, translated by Alice-Mary Talbot and Denis F. Sullivan (2005).
- Paul Stephenson, Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204 (2000).
- A. D. Stokes, The Background and Chronology of the Balkan Campaigns of Sviatoslav Igorevich, The Slavonic and East European Review 40 (1962), pp. 44 to 57.
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