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brought from the Caliph-silk robes, about a thousand bottles of musk, saffron, and jewels-were presented.! Three interpreters came forward, and Nasr charged them to add nothing to what he said. The Emperor accepted the gifts, and Nasr noticed that he did not bestow any of them on the interpreters. Then he desired that the envoy should approach, graciously caressed him, and gave orders that a lodging should be found for him in or near the Palace. But the business on which Nasr had come did not progress rapidly. He mentions that a message arrived from the garrison of Lulon, which consisted of Mohammadan Slavs, signifying their desire to embrace Christianity and sending two hostages. It will be remembered that this important fortress had been captured by Mamun in A.D. 832, and the opportunity for recovering it was welcome. For four months Nasr was detained at Constantinople. Then new tidings arrived from Lulon, which prompted Michael to settle the question of the captives without delay. He had sent a patrician," who promised the garrison a handsome largess; but they repented of their treachery, and handed over both the place and the patrician to a Saracen captain. The patrician was carried into captivity and. threatened with death if he did not renounce his religion. It would seem that the Emperor was seriously concerned for his fate, for, as soon as the news came, the exchange of captives was promptly arranged with Nasr. It was agreed that both sides should surrender all the prisoners who were in their hands. Nasr and Michael's uncle confirmed the agreement by oath in the Imperial presence. Then Nasr said: “O Emperor, your uncle has sworn. Is the oath binding for you?" He inclined his head in token of assent. And, adds the envoy, "I did not hear a single word from his lips from the time of my arrival till my departure. The interpreter alone spoke, and the Emperor listened and expressed his assent or dissent by motions of his

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Not far from himself." It is not clear whether this means in the Palace, not far from the Chrysotriklinos, or not far from the Palace.

There is no reason for supposing (with Vasil'ev, 186), that it was in the hands of the Greeks in A.D. 857.

• December 859 to March 860.

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Tabari, 56, says he was a logothete (perhaps Logothete of the Course).

6 A thousand dinars each, according to Tabari. This can hardly be true. A thousand nomismata for all seems more probable, but we do not know the number of the garrison.

7 Evidently Bardas,

head. His uncle managed all his affairs." The Emperor received 1000 Greek captives in return for 2000 subjects of the Caliph, but the balance was redressed by the release of the patrician whom he was so anxious to recover.'

Not many weeks later, committing the charge and defence of his capital to Ooryphas, the Prefect, Michael again set forth to invade the Caliph's dominions. But even, as it would seem, before he reached the frontier, he was recalled (in June) by the alarming news that the Russians had attacked Constantinople. When the danger had passed, he started again for the East, to encounter Omar, the Emir of Melitene, who had in the meantime taken the field. Michael marched along the great high-road which leads to the Upper Euphrates by Ancyra and Sebastea. Having passed Gaziura, he encamped in the plain of Dazimon, where Afshin had inflicted on his father an overwhelming defeat." Here he awaited the approach of the Emir, who was near at hand, advancing, as we may with certainty assume, from Sebastea.

An enemy marching by this road, against Amasea, had the choice of two ways. He might proceed northward to Dazimon

This is not explained in the narrative of Nasr, but follows from the statement of Tabari elsewhere (56), that the Emperor wrote offering 1000 - Moslems as a ransom.

The exchange was effected on the banks of the Lamos in April to May. Michael must have left Constantinople about the beginning of June.

Cp.

3 Simeon (Add. Georg.) 826. above, p. 144. At the time of Michael's death Ooryphas seems to have been drungarios of the Imperial fleet (see the addition to Simeon's text in the Vatican MS. of Cont. Georg. ed. Muralt, 752= Pseudo-Simeon, 687),

but it does not follow that, as de Boor (Der Angriff der Rhos, 456) assumes, he held this post in 860. Had he been drungarios he would have been absent with the fleet in the west.

He had reached Mauropotamon (Simeon, vers. Slav. 106, and Cont. Georg, ed. Mur. 736). The other published Greek texts have a corrupt reading which implies that the Russians were at Mauropotamon: τὴν τῶν ἀθέων Ρὼς ἐμήνυσεν ἄφιξιν γεγενημένους ἤδη Karȧ TOV [leg. Tò] M. (Cmt. Georg. ed.

B. 826 Leo Gr. 240=Th. Mel. 168); we must correct το γεγενημένου. Pseudo-Simeon (07i rò Bao da rộn τὸ Μ. καταλαβόντα) had a good text of the original before him. Mauropotamon is the unknown place on some road to the region of Melitene where Theoktistos was defeated (see above, p. 274). The true date of the campaign is determined by that of the Russian episode (see de Boor, op. cit. 458). Genesios wrongly implies the date 861 (91, two years after the campaign of 859). Tabari records that in A.D. 860 Omar made a summer raid and took 7000 captives (56), and does not mention a raid of Omar in the following year. According tɔ Genesios, the Imperial army numbered 40,000 including Macedonian and Thracian troops, and that of the Emir 30,000.

This might be reached from Ancyra by (northern route) EuchaitaAmasea, or (southern) by Tavion, Verinopolis, and Zela. (Euchaita is Elwan-Chelebi: Anderson, Stud. Pont. i. 9.)

He reached Dazimon (Tokat) and encamped in the meadow of Kellarion (Gen. 92).

and then westward by Gaziura; or he might turn westward at Verisa (Bolous)' and reach Amasca by Sebastopolis (Sulu-serai) and Zela. On this occasion the first route was barred by the Roman army, which lay near the strong fortress of Dazimon, and could not be advantageously attacked on this side. It would have been possible for Omar, following the second route, to have reached Gaziura from Zela, and entered the plain of Dazimon from the west. But he preferred a bolder course, which surprised the Greeks, who acknowledged his strategic ability. Leaving the Zela road, a little to the west of Verisa, he led his forces northward across the hills (AkDagh), and descending into the Dazimon plain occupied a favourable position at Chonarion, not far from the Greek camp. The battle which ensued resulted in a rout of the Imperial army, and Michael sought a refuge on the summit of the same steep hill of Auzên which marked the scene of his father's defeat. Here he was besieged for some hours, but want of water and pasture induced the Emir to withdraw his forces.

It is possible that the victorious general followed up his success by advancing as far as Sinope. But three years

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1 For Verisa Bolous, see Anderson, ib. 37-38.

If we could identify Kellarin and Chonarion, there would be no difficulty in understanding the brief description in Gen. and Cont. Th. of the strategic movement of Omar. But I submit that the logical interpretation of their words is that on which I have ventured., Gen. 92 ὁ δὲ ̓Αμερ στρατηγικώς παρεκβατικώτερον διελθὼν τῆς ἀπαγούσης ὁδοῦ πρὸς τὴν Ζέλισαν (which unquestionably means Zela); Cont. Th. 177-178 άρτι δὴ ̓Αμερ αὐτῷ κατα στρατηγών πορρωτέρω τῆς τετριμμένης yet odov; i.e. Omar left the high-road to Zela in order to reach a position close to the Roman army which was near Dazimon. The map seems to leave no alternative to the general course which I have indicated.

3 Cp. above, p. 265. The hill was six miles from the scene of the battle. Vasilev has the strange notion (194, n. 2) that Xwraptor may be a shortened form of Strabo's Kairdr Xwpion (781, ed. Teubner), which he thinks suits the description of Anzên. On etymological grounds alone this is unaccept alle; but in any case Chonarion is not

Anzen, and is probably on the south side of the Dazimonitis. Hamilton's identification of Καινὸν Χωρίον with Yildiz Dagh (Researches in Asia Minor, i. 348), which is east of Verisa, southeast of Tokat, cannot be maintained; see Cumont, Stud. Pont. ii. 231-223.

The notice of Omar reaching Sinope is in Simeon (Cont. Georg.) 824. Ramsay connected it with the expedi tion of 863; but it is noted by Simeon as a distinct expedition. The difliculty in connecting it with the expedition of 860 lies (1) in the words vñéorpeye μὴ καταληφθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ ̔Ρωμαικοῦ OTpaToû (words which forbid its connection with 863), and (2) in the fact that the writer relates subsequently (out of chronological order) Michael's march to Mauropotamon and the Russian peril (826). Perhaps it is best to assign it to 861 or 862. In any case Amisus or Sinope was probably the goal of Omar in 860. This year was also marked by incursions of Karbeas and of Ali ibn Yahya, and by the capture of a maritime stronghold (the MS. text of Tabari has Antiochia, but probably Attalia is meant). Tabari, 6. See Vasil'ev, 195, n. 4.

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later, Omar revisited the same regions, devastated the Armeniac Theme, and reached the coast of the Euxine (A.D. 863). His plan seems to have been to march right across the centre of Asia Minor and return to Saracen territory by the Pass of the Cilician Gates.1 He took and sacked the city of Amisus (Samsun), and the impression which the unaccustomed appearance of an enemy on that coast made upon the inhabitants was reflected in the resuscitation of an ancient legend. Omar, furious that the sea set a bound to his northern advance, was said, like Xerxes, to have scourged the waves. The Emperor appointed his uncle Petronas, who was still stratêgos of the Thrakesian Theme, to the supreme command of the army; and not only all the troops of Asia, but the armies of Thrace and Macedonia, and the Tagmatic regiments, were placed at his disposal. When Omar heard at Amisus of the preparations which were afoot, he was advised by his officers to retiro by the way he had come. But he determined to carry out his original plan, and setting out from Amisus in August, he chose a route which would lead him by the west bank of the Halys to Tyana and Podandos. The object of Petronas was now to intercept him. Though the obscure localities named in the chronicles have not been identified, the general data suggest the conclusion that it was between Lake Tatta and the Halys that he decided to surround the foe. The troops of the Armeniac, Bukellarian, Paphlagonian, and Kolonean Themes converged upon the north, after Omar had passed Ancyra. The Anatolic, Opsikian, and Cappadocian armies, reinforced by the troops of Seleucia and Charsianon, gathered on the south and south-east; while Petronas himself, with the Tagmata, the Thracians, and Macedonians, as well as his own Thrakesians, appeared on the west of the enemy's line of march. A hill separated Petronas from the Saracen camp, and he was successful in a struggle to occupy the height. Omar was caught in a trap. Finding it impossible to escape to the north or to the south, he

For this campaign, see Bury, Mutasim's March, 124 sqq. Tabari, 6162, says that, before starting, Omar communicated with Jafar ibn Dinar, who seems to have been governor of Tarsus. The date, A.D. 883, is fixed by Tabari.

2 Nasar was stratêgos of the Bukellarians (George, Boun, 825). He distinguished himself subsequently in the reign of Basil. Simeon (Cont. Georg., b.) inaccurately or proleptically describes Petronas as στρατηλάτης τῆς ἀνατολῆς.

attacked Petronas, who held his ground. Then the generals of the northern and southern armies closed in, and the Saracen · forces were almost annihilated. Omar himself fell. His son' escaped across the Halys, but was caught by the turmarch of Charsianon. The victory of Poson (such was the name of the place),' and the death of one of the ablest Moslem generals were a compensation for the defeat of Chonarion. Petronas was rewarded by receiving the high post of the Domestic of the Schools, and the order of magister. Strains of triumph

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at a victory so signal resounded in the Hippodrome, and a special chant celebrated the death of the Emir on the field of battle, a rare occurrence in the annals of the warfare with the Moslems.

It would appear that this success was immediately followed up by an invasion of Northern Mesopotamia. We know not whether the Greek army was led by Petronas, but another victory was won, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Martyropolis, and this battlefield was likewise marked by the fall of a Saracen commander who, year after year, had raided Roman territory-Ali ibn Yahya.5

These victories are the last events worthy of record in the Eastern war during the reign of Michael III. While the young Emperor was sole Augustus, and Bardas was the virtual ruler, the defence of the Empire in the east was

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showed, Ceremonial Book, p. 434) in the ἄκτα ἐπὶ μεγιστάνῳ ἀμειρᾷ ἐν πολέμῳ ηττηθέντι καὶ ἀναιρεθέντι (Const. Cer. i. 69, p. 332). It runs : Glory to God who shatters our enemies! Glory to God who has destroyed the godless! Glory to God the author of victory Glory to God who crowned thee, O lord of the earth! Hail, Lord, felicity of the Romans! Hail, Lord, valour of thy army! Hail, Lord, by whom (Omar) was laid low! Hail, Lord (Michael), destroyer! God will keep thee in the purple, for the honour and raising up of the Romans, along with the honourable Augustae [Eudocia, Theodora, Thecla] in the purple. God will hearken to your people!"

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Yakubi, 11; Tabari, 62: in the month of Ramadan = October 18 to November 16, 863. Cp. Bar-Hebr. 171. Saracen raids are noted by Tabari in 864 and 865.

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