The Battle of Sebastopolis was fought at Sebastopolis[a] in the middle of the Armeniac Theme in 692 CE between the Byzantine Empire and the Umayyad Caliphate. With this battle, the long-standing peace between the two powers, established in 680, came to an end.
Justinian II sought to restore the territorial extend of the Roman Empire under Justinian I by pursuing military campaigns that reversed his father’s policies. Early on, he broke a treaty with the Bulgarians and attacked Slavic tribes near Thessaloniki, resettling many in the Opsician Theme and enrolling them in a new corps under Neboulos. Later, tensions with the Umayyads increased after Justinian II undermined an existing treaty and prepared for war. However, the long preparation by the Byzantines gave sufficient time for the Umayyads to assemble an army and invade Byzantine territories.
The Byzantine army, led by Leontios, met the forces of Muhammad ibn Marwan near Sebastopolis in the Armeniac Theme. The Umayyads used texts of the broken treaty as their flag to display the justice of their cause. The Byzantines initially had the advantage in the battle, however, Neboulos and a significant portion of the Slavic troops defected to the Umayyad side, presumably bribed by Muhammad ibn Marwan. The desertion caused a Byzantine defeat. Following this, Justinian punished the remaining Slavic troops harshly, while the Umayyads resumed raids into Byzantine territory.
Background
Early in his reign, Justinian II had the ambition to restore the lands of the former Roman Empire, as Emperor Justinian I had during his reign. To accomplish this goal, he sought combat by undoing measures established by his father. Early on, he broke peace with the Bulgarians and immediately attacked Slavic tribes that had established themselves near Thessaloniki.[2] In 688/9, Justinian II transplanted Slavic populations from the Balkans and settled them in the Opsician Theme, which had been depopulated from Arab attacks under the father of Justinian’s reign. He granted them military land grants, and from them he recruited a special military corps, allegedly 30,000 strong, called “the chosen people” (Greek: λαός περιούσιος),[3][4] which meant that this population would have a particular function to fulfill under the emperor’s direction, presumably to participate in military campaigns.[5] In about 690, Neboulos was placed as the corps’ commander (archon).[6]
Justinian II was bound by a treaty with the Umayyad Caliphate that granted him tribute in gold coins. However, he devised a way to undermine it. He introduced new coins featuring his portrait on one side and Christ‘s on the other. The leader of the caliphate, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, made similar coins but omitted Christ’s image, making them slightly lighter. Justinian then refused the tribute, claiming that the coins were not equivalent. When Abd al-Malik offered to increase the amount to meet the agreed value, Justinian II declared the treaty broken and began preparations for war.[7]
Battle
By the summer of 692,[b] after the corps’ training had been completed, they were employed en masse by Justinian II in a major campaign against the Umayyads under the strategos of the Anatolics, Leontios.[8]
The long preparation by Justinian II gave the caliphate sufficient time to raise its own army and invade Byzantium before Justinian’s army invaded the caliphate’s territories. The Byzantines engaged the Arabs near Sebastopolis,[a] in the middle of the Armeniac Theme. The Umayyads, incensed at the breaking of the treaty, used copies of its texts in the place of a flag to emphasize the justice of their cause.[9][8] In the battle, the Byzantines initially had the upper hand. However, Neboulos, with the bulk (some 20,000[c]) of his men, deserted the Byzantine lines and went over to the Arabs, allegedly bribed by the Arab commander, Muhammad ibn Marwan.[6] The actions of Neboulos ensured the defeat of the Byzantines.[6][8][4]
Aftermath
Justinian II’s defeat deprived him of a viable army to continue his military campaigns, and the rupture of the treaty with the caliphate enabled the Arabs to launch new raids against Byzantine territories.[8][1]
Sources report how, after the battle, Justinian II blamed Leontios for the defeat and imprisoned him. He was irritated by the defeat acted on the remaining Slavs, he disbanded the corps and killed or sold into slavery many of its men, as well as killed the families of the deserters at Leukete near the Gulf of Nicomedia. Much of this extermination took place in 694/695;[4] some scholars dispute this account.[12][13] Neboulos and his men, on the other hand, were settled by the Umayyads in Syria, and were employed in subsequent Arab forays into Byzantine-held Asia Minor.[6][8] Historian Douglas Whalin contends that the story of Neboulos illustrates the challenges the Byzantine Empire faced in depending on foederati (foreign tribe allies bounded by a treaty) when they were not sufficiently Romanized.[4]
See also
References
Notes
Citations
- ^ a b c Ostrogorsky 1969, p. 131.
- ^ Nikephoros, Short History, p. 93, part 38.
- ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 333.
- ^ a b c d Whalin 2020, pp. 169–170.
- ^ Κουντουρά-Γαλάκη 2001, pp. 326–328.
- ^ a b c d e Hollingsworth 1991, p. 1448
- ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 334–335.
- ^ a b c d e Treadgold 1997, p. 335.
- ^ Komatina 2014, pp. 35, 39.
- ^ Charalampakis 2017, p. 516.
- ^ Charanis 1972, pp. 42–43.
- ^ Haldon 1990, p. 72.
- ^ Hendy 2008, pp. 631–632.
Primary sources
- Saint Nicephorus (Patriarch of Constantinople) (1990) [c. 820]. Short history. Translated by Mango, Cyril. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton.
Secondary sources
- Charalampakis, Pantelis (2017). “Once again on St. Ioannikios the Great and the Slavs of Bithynia” (PDF). Zgodovinski časopis. 71 (3–4): 512–525.
- Charanis, Charanis (1972). Studies on the Demography of the Byzantine Empire. London: Variorum Reprints.
- Haldon, John F. (1990). Byzantium in the seventh century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Hendy, Michael F. (2008). Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy C. 300–1450. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Hollingsworth, Paul A. (1991). “Neboulos”. In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- Komatina, Predrag (2014). “Settlement of the Slavs in Asia Minor During the Rule of Justinian II and the Bishopric των Γορδοσερβων”. Blegrade Historical Review. 10 (5): 26–29.
- Κουντουρά-Γαλάκη, Ελεωνόρα, ed. (2001). Οι σκοτεινοί αιώνες του Βυζαντίου (7ος–9ος αι.) [The Dark Centuries of Byzantium (7th–9th cen.)] (in Greek). Athens: National Hellenic Research Foundation. ISBN 960-371-015-6.
- Ostrogorsky, George (1969). History of the Byzantine state. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-1198-4.
- Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2.
- Whalin, Douglas (2020). Roman Identity from the Arab Conquests to the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Vol. 61. Washington D.C.: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60906-1. ISBN 978-3-030-60905-4.
Further reading
- Lilie, Ralph-Johannes (1976), Die byzantinische Reaktion auf die Ausbreitung der Araber. Studien zur Strukturwandlung des byzantinischen Staates im 7. und 8. Jhd. (in German), Munich: Institut für Byzantinistik und Neugriechische Philologie der Universität München, OCLC 797598069
- Stratos, A.N. (1980), Byzantium in the Seventh Century, Volume V: Justinian II, Leontius and Tiberius, 685–711, Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, pp. 34–38, ISBN 90-256-0852-3