Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250 (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks)

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Sout eastern Eure e

tn the M ·ddle Ages

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Cambridge MediC\·al Textbooks

This is a series ofintroductions to unportallt topics in medin·al histon· aimed primarily at ach·anccd students ~md t~Jculty. and is designed to complement the monograph series C1111hrid'>Ze Studies i11 .\ lediel' i.;;, or'' J!l rcnuin . .JCUlLttL' 01 approprute.

To Ana and Lucia

CONTENTS

List qf tnaps Acknow/edg1·nents Note on transliteration, Chronology List qf a!Jinel!iations

page vm IX

name~~

dates, and u;ords

rntroduction The end of Late Antiquity or the beginning of the Middle Ages (c. soo-c. 6oo)? 2 Southeast European "Dark Ages" (c. 6oo-c. 8oo) 3 The rise of new powers (800-900) 4 Iron century or golden age (9oo-rooo)? 5 The first Byzantine century (rooo-r 100) 6 The second Byzantine century (r roo-uoo) 7 Between the Crusade and the Mongol invasion (1200-1250) 0 Conclusions and lingering questions 0 Select bibliography index

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XII XXVII

39 70 I I I

r8o 248 JII

MAPS

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3 4 5 () 7

Southeastern Europe in the sixth century. Location of the principal sites mentioned in the text by ancient or modern (in parenthesis) names. Southeastern Europe in the "'Dark Age-;." Southeastern Europe in the ninth centurv. Southeastern Europe in the tenth century. Southeastern Europe in the eleventh century. Southeastern Europe in the twelfth century. Southeastern Europe between I 200 and I 2 )O.

Jhl.\ZC 4I

7I 3

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ACKNOWLEDGMEN TS

The debts mcurred over the four years during ,,·hich this book has taken - and changed - shape are numerous. In what follows I can onlv acknmvledge a fe\v specific and particularly important contributions. At the onset of this project is the work of many scholars in Southeast European countries, both h1stonans and archaeologists. For all my etl(!rt'> at svnthesis, this book would not exist without their remarkable accomplishment-; and dedication. It goes without saying that I alone am re-;ponsible t()r the use that has been made in this book of their ideas and representations of the past. Tlunks for financial support are due to the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame tor the Mellon fellowship that made possible a valuable year offinal research and first drafi:s. The Hilandar Research Library at the Ohio State University kindly opened its doors and pnwided the space and time tor a brief visit before the manmcript entered it-; final stage. Recognition is also due to my students at the UmVL'rsity of Florida. who first raised in seminars and senior colloquia some of the questions that I have tried to elucidate in the tc1llowing pages. Among t!-iends and colleagues \Vho \Vere particularly supportive of this work, I want to acknowledge Piotr Gorecki, Maria Todorova, Jonathan Shepard, Roman Kovalev, Paul l3arford. C:vetelin Stcpanm·,joaclmn Henning, Alexandru Madgearu, and Paul Stephenson. My largest thanks go to my wife. Lucia, tor helping me see this book to completion, and to my daughter, Ana, for her patience and resilience.

NOTE ON TRANSLITER ATION, NAMES, DATES, AND WORDS

The transliteration of personal and place names t()llmvs a modified wrsion of the Library of Congress system. Tlm is espcciallv true tor Bulgarian words: "Velbazhd" instead of "Velbuzhd" and ''Carevec" instead of "Tsarevets." As a consequence, and t()r the sake of uniformity, I haw altered the standard transliteration tor Ukrainian names, e.g .. "Lenkyvcy" inste,ld of "Lcnkinsi." In general, the geographical terminology closely f(J!lmvs the language in usc in any g1ven area. Commonly ,lccepted equivalents arc excepted fi·om this rule. For example. "C:enad," "Durri..'s.'' and "Zadar" are Lwored m·er "Csan:1d," "Durazzo," and "Zara," but "Belgrade," "Bucharest," and "Corinth" arc preferred to "Beograd,'' "Bucure~ti." and "Korinthos." It IS particularly ditticult to be consistent about Greek torms, especiallY t()J' names of emperors. In such cases, I have tollo\vcd the established convention ,md used Constantine Porphvrogenitus and Andronicus, instc~1d of Komt.mtinc Porphyrogennetos and Andronikos. ThL· same I'> true for '>c\·cral Slavic names. I ha\'t: preferred Cyril to Kiril.Jolm to Ivan, and Peter to Pcrar or Petdr. On the other hand, I strove to n:spect dittering spellings, when anglicized versions ha\·e been long ,lCceptL'd as such. Thus the tirst Bulgarian emperor is Symeon. but his ILmles,lke, the tirst saint of Serbia. 1s Simeon. Since all dates are ti·om the mediC\-,11 period, ..."d)" is not used unless neccssarv in the context. Where nnprecise. yc~n·s arc g1\·cn in the torm "()3) I 6'' to indicate one vcar or the other. but as "1 20 3 or 120S, .. \vhen the optiom are scpaLHed by ,l longLT sp,m.

XI

Certain terms .1re 'ometimes used in a technical sense. which is specific to the space .md period comidered in this book. not in their ,,·idelY accepted meaning. Such is the c.1sc of the word "duke"" to rdtT to a military conmunder or warlord. For example. the Cro,ltian dukes of Bribir \Yere local governors of that fortress .md of the surrounding hinterLmd, but most importantly. local \Varlords. They should not be ,·iewed as a part of a feucbl h1erarchy in the same sense as. t()f example. the I )ukc of Burgundy might be \·ie\Yed. In much the qme \\·ay. a Byzantine duke \vas .1 commander of troops, not a title reft'rrmg to a position in the social and political hierarchv. The duke of Valon.1. t(Jr example. \Yas a military governor appomted by the emperor. "Qag~m"" is the highest "imperial"" title in medieval nomadic societies. while "khan"" (qan) 1s a lesser title. I use "theme"" in the sense of a (Byzantine) province, although the first attestation of the word in Bvzantine sources seems to point to army units. "Roman"" and "Byzantine"" arc used for distinct periods of time in the history of the Eastern RonLm Empire, \vhich has been arbitrarily divided by modern historians into an earlier and a later period, respectively. separated !rom each other by the reign of Emperor Hera eli us (f; ed. by K. Kaser, D. Gramshammer-Hohl, and R. Pichler (Klagent"lm and C:elovec: Wieser, 2003), p. 277. For the Balkan linguistic unity. sec now I. Sawicka, The Ba/k,ul Spmdlin111d ill the L(~ht o(l'ho11etic Fc!ltllrcs (Warsa\\·: Wydawnictwo Encrgcia. 191)7): J Lindstedt, "Linguistic l3.Ilkaniz.Hion: cont.lctinclucecl change by mutual reint(Jrcement," in Llllgiii(~
J(•

Krems an der Donau, 8. his 11. Oktober 1996, ed. by G. Jaritz (Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, IS)'J()), pp. 233-254. For figural graffiti, see D. Ovcharov, Bii{~arski srcdnouekol'111. risunki-gra/iti [Drawing Graffiti from Medieval Bulgaria] (Sofia: Septemvri, 1pis [The historiographic value of the Bulgarian Aporryphal Clmmirlc]." in Cil'itas diPino-htllnpored Idrisi [Bulg,tria and the Neighboring Lands during the Twdfi:h Century, .1ecording to !drisij (Sofia: NaukJ i izkustvo, 1960); M. S. Kordoses. "Hoi dromoi apo to Dyrrakhio kai ten Aulona pros ten Anatole, syrnphona me ton Araba geographo Idrisi [The roads !rom Dyrrachium and Valona to the east, according to the Arab geographer Idrisi]," in Istorike geo,~ra~a. DrolltJ >J!ak>Jimb,)l [The Alba lulia Cathedral at the C)Ooth Anniversary of its Foundation] (Gyulafehcrv:tr: Sch:iscr Ferenc Konyvnyomd,~a. I 903). For Karel Skorpil's discovery of Pliska. see L. Doncheva-Petkova, "Karel Skorpil i istoriiata na prouchvaniiata na Pliska [Karel Skorpil and the history of research at Pliska]," in Ztl'ischm Ry::>111:: 1111d AhC11dl>111d. Plis/.:o, dcr ,)stlirhc Bal/.:mrr,llll/1 1111d Europa im Spi
M. Circiumaru. "Analiza polinid a stratelor de L! l:lucov Uud. Prahova) [The pollen analysis of the medieval strata at Bucov, Prahova district]." Studii 1i ccrccr,iri de istoric Iwiie, vol. 23 (1972), p ..p7; K. Borojevic, "Analiza ugUenisanog semenja sa lokaliteta Svetinja [The analysis of charred seeds from the Svetinja site]," Starinar, vol. 38 (1987), pp. 65-71. See also E. Bozhilova and lu. Atanasova, "l'aleoekologichni usloviia i istoriia na rastitelnostta v raiona na Durankulashkoto ezero [The paleoecologiCJl conditions and the history of vegetation in the region of the Durankulak Lake]," in Durankidak, ed. by H. Todorova (Sofia: l3algarskata Izdatelstvo na Balgarskata Akademiia na Naukite, ll)X<J), pp. 197-204. See Sugar, Sout!Jcastem Europe. The phrase "Southeastern Europe" is used also in the title of Georg Stadtmiiller's Gcscliiclitc Siidostcuropas (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1950). Like Sugar, Stadtmi.iller had little interest in a detailed examination of the earlier medieval period and jumped instead to the Ottoman and post-Ottoman periods. See Fine, Early .\fedicJ•al Balklwgraphia i\M 6204, p. 532· Theophanes' mention of the cattle serves a special purpose, namely to draw a parallel between Bulgars and Arabs, both "stealthily throwing themselves" upon Byzantine territories apparently with no other purpose than taking captives and cattle. " Theophanes, C/mm20(), p. )-to. Sec I' A. Yannopoulos. "Le role des Bulgares dans Ia guerre arabo-byuntinc de 717/]1H." IT. vol. 5:\ (I'J'J-t). pp. 133-153· 30 Theophanes, Chronographia AM 0211. p. 552. According to NKcphorus. Leo had written to the Bulgars, asking them "to embrace peace .md surrender his enemies." In turn, the Bulgars "apologized and asked t(>r his forgiveness. promising to bring about peace." See Nicephorus, Short History 57, p. 127. !3oth accounts seem to put a spin on the events in an attempt to divert attention from Tcrvel's ability to maneuver between contenders. in order to maximize his protlts. l t is very likely that Ten·el recuperated his gold. to which he now added the gifts received from Leo. -'' !Jeshevliev. Die protohu(~ssclfi!IIJ proto-byzamin. le _t;·hat albanais et le Sclt roumain ... Erythci/a:::ak Hn•ara !The Origin of the Croats! (Split: Knijzn·ni krug. 2001). pp. 20o-2 r(>.

Southeast European "Dark Ages" (c. 6oo-c. Boo)

I03

of a certain Theodore, archon of Vagenetia, a coastal region behind the island of Kerkyra, in the Ionian Sea. Given that the seal of Theodore is slightly earlier than the first mention, in the early 700s, of Byzantine military governors of the island of Kerkyra, he must have been a local chieftain in Byzantine service. If so, the same may be true for the archon of Dalmatia. Thus, the existing evidence strongly suggests that on the Dalmatian coast the Byzantine power relied on local elements coopted for the safeguarding of the sea lanes around the Balkan Peninsula, from Constantinople to Venice. This conclusion is further substantiated by analogies between burial assemblages on the Adriatic coast and finds in the interior associated with the so-called "Komani culture. " 74 Long viewed as the archaeological remains of the "first Albanians," the relatively numerous cemeteries of this group of tlnds point to a different interpretation. First, most of them are in the hinterland ofDyrrachium (present-day Durres), a city that certainly remained in Byzantine hands throughout the entire period. Second, finds similar to those from burial assemblages turned up in at least two forts (Kruje and Sarda/Shurdhah ) that were undoubtedly occupied at the time and controlled from Dyrrachium by the ardrontes of the city. Moreover, in at least three cases, the graves have been dug around, and even through the floor of, ruined churches, most likely because the sites were viewed as sacred. For example, in Sv. Erazmo (Macedonia), the cemetery was located both inside and outside the ruins of a Justinianic church. Elsewhere, the neighboring chapels may have been in existence concomitantly. 75

For the Komani culture, see now Bowden, l:]>ints I (·tus, pp. 204-211; E. Nail bani, "Transformations et continuite dans !'ouest des Balkans: le cas de Ia civilisation de Komani (IVe-IXe siecles)," in L'IIIyrie meridionale ct /'1:/Jirc dans /'Atltiquite. IV .-lrtes du Ir ·,. col!t>quc itltl-rn,ltiot~