have attacked the wealthy and well-walled city of Amustris, which wils said to have been saved by a miracle. We also fear of an expedition against the Chersonese, the despoiling of Cherson, and the miraculous escape of Sugdaia. Such hostinye of Russian marauders, a stalwart and savage race, provido il complete explanation of the mission of Petronas to Cherson, of the institution of a stratégos there, and of the co-operation of the Greeks with the Khazars in building Surkel. In view of the Russian attack on Amastris, it is significant that the governor of Paphlagonia assisted Petronas; and we may conjecture with some probability that the need of defending the Pontic coasts against a new enemy was the motive which led to the elevation of this oflicial from the rank of katepano to the higher status of a stratégos.

The timely measures adopted by Theophilus were efficacious for the safety of Cherson. That outpost of Greek life was ultimately to fall into the bands of the Russians, but it remained Imperial for another century and a half'; and when it pussed from the possession of Byzantium, the sacrifice was not too deir a price for perpetual peace and friendship with the Russian state, then becoming a great power.

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Iu their settlement at Novgorod, near the Baltic, the Russians were far away from the Bluck Seu, to the shores of which their traders journeyed laboriously yeur by year.

But they were soon to form a new settlement on the Dnieper, which brought them within easy reach of the Euxine and the Danube. The occupation of Kiev is one of the decisive events in Russian history, and the old native chronicle assigns it to the year 862. If this date is right, the capture of Kiev wils preceded by one of the boldest marauding expeditions that the Russian udventurers ever undertook.

In the month of June, A.1). 860,' the Emperor, with all his forces, was marching against the Saracens. He had probably gone far' when he received amazing tidings, which l'ecalled him with all speed to Constantinople. A Russian host had sailed across the Euxine in two hundred bouts, entered the Bosphorus, plundered the monasteries and suburbs on its binks, and overrun the Islands of the l'rinces.* The inhubitants of the city were utterly demoralised by the sudden horror of the danger and their own impotence. The troupes (Tagmatil) which were usually stationell in the neighbourhood of the city were fur away with the Emperor and his uncle;' and the fleet wils absent. Having wrought wreck and ruin in Russimus belonged to a lillerent com. 1yd., are in perfect accordance. The munity from those who had attacked other sources for the episode are Cherson and Amastris. Novgorod Photius, llumiliai, 51 and 52; was hardly the only settlement at this Simeon (Leo. Gr. 240-211); Joann. time. But here we are quite in the Ven. 117. dark. For the embassy see above, ? Simeon (Cont. Geory, ed. Muralt,

the suburbs, the barbarians prepared to attack the city. At this crisis it was perhaps not the Prefect and the ministers entrusted with the guardianship of the city in the Emperor's absence who did. most to meet the emergency. The learned Patriarch, Photius, rose to the occasion; he undertook the task of restoring the moral courage of his fellow-citizens. If the sermons which lie preached in St. Sophia were delivered as they were written, we muy suspect that they can only have been appreciated by the most educated of his congregation. llis copious rhetoric touches all sides of the situation, and no priest could have made better use of the opportunity to inculcite the obvious lesson that this peril was a punishment for sin, and to urye repentance. He expressed the general

' feeling when he dwelt on the incongruity that the Imperial city, “queen of almost all the world,” should be mocked by il band of slaves, it mean and barbarous crowd.?

. But the populace was perhaps more impressed and consoled when he resorted to the ecclesiastical magic which had been used etlicaciously at previous sieges. The precious garment of the Virgin Mother was borne in procession round the walls of the city ;8 and it was believed that it was dipped in the waters of the sea for the purpose of raising a storm of wind.“ No storm arose, but soon afterwards the Russians began to retreat, and perhaps there were not inany among the joyful citizens who did not impute their relief to the direct intervention of the queen of heaven. Photius preached al sermon of thanksgiving as the enemy were departing; the miraculous deliverance was an inspiring motive for his eloquence.

It would be interesting to know whether l'hotius re

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garded the ceremony which he had conducted as a powerful means of propitiation, or rather valued it us an efficacious sedutive of the public excitement. He and all who were not blinded by superstition knew well that the cause which led to the sudden retreat of the enemy was simple, and would have susliced without any supernatural intervention. It is evident that the Russians became aware that the Emperor and his army were nt hand, and that their only sufety lay in flight.' But they had delayed too long. Michael and Bardas had hurried to the scene, doubtless by forced marches, and they must have intercepted the barbarians and their spoils in the Bosphorus. There was a battle and a rout;? it is possible that high winds aided in the work of destruction.

The Russians had chosen the moment for their surprise astutely. They must have known beforehand that the Emperor had made preparations for a campaign in full force against the Saracens. But what about the fleet? Modern historians have made this episode a text for the reproach that the navy had been allowed to fall into utter decay. We have seen, on the contrary, that the Amoriaus had revived the navy, and the impunity which the barbarians enjoyed until the arrival of the Emperor must be explained by the absence of the Imperial fleet. And, as a matter of fact, it was absent in the west. The Sicilian fortress of Castroyiovanni had been captured by the Moslems in the previous yeur, and a tlect of 300 ships had been sent to Sicily." The possibility of an attack from the north did not enter into the calculations of the governinent. It is clear that the Russians must have been informed of the absence of the fleet, for otherwise they would never havo ventured in their small bouts into the jilws of certain death. ·

! Tinis is obviously tho truo explana. jecture ; but possibly on receiving the nation of the sudden retroat, which nows he had ordered ships to suil from began spontaneously, bofore the battlo. Amastris to the Bosphorus. Two It is impossible to accepit Gerland's iambic poems on the Church of view that the battle was fought during Blachernae, anthol. Pal. i. 120, 121, tho procession, perhaps in sight of the most probably refer to the rout of the praying people.

Russians. Cp. 121, vv. 10, 11 : ? Or the battle we know no more than

ενταύθα νικήσασα τους εναντίους the notice in Anon. Cumont. Simeon

ανεϊλεν αυτούς αντί λόγχης εις ύδωρ. itscribos the destruction entirely to tho where Stadtmüller ad luc, misses the miraculous storm. llow the land forces point by proposing cio 68. of the Emperor operated against tho 3 Cl. Ciorland, op. cit. 720. bouts of the enemies we can only con. + Ser alwve, p. 307.

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The episode was followed by an unexpected triumph for Byzantium, less important in its immediate results than as ill angury for the future. The Northmen sent ambassadors to Constantinople, and -- this is the Byzantine way of putting it-besought the Emperor for Christian baptism. We cannot say whichi, or how many, of the Russian settlements were represented by this embassy, but the object must have been to offer amends for the recent raid, perhaps to procure the deliverance of prisoners. It is certain that some of the Russians agreed to adopt Christianity, and the Patriarchi l'hotius could boast (in, A.D. 866) that a bishop had been sent to teach the race which in cruelty and deels of blood left all other peoples far behind.' But the sced did not fall on very fertile ground. For upwards of a hundred years we hear no more of the Christianity of the Russians. The treaty, however, which was concluded between A.1). 860 and 866, led probably to other consequences. We may surmise that it led to the admission of Norse mercenaries into the Imperiul tleet? -it notable event, because it was the beginning of the famous ' Varangian" service at Constantinople, which was ultimately to include the Norsemen of Scandinavia as well ils of Russia, and even Englishmen.

It has been already observed that the attack upon Constantinople happened just before the traditional date of a far more important event in the history of Russia— the foundation of the principality of Kiev. According to the old Russian chronicle,' Rurik was at this time. the ruler of all the Scandinavian settlements, and exercised sway over the northern Slavs and some of the Fims. Two of his nen, Oskold and Dir,' set out with their families for Constantinople, and, coming to the Dnieper, they saw a castle on a mountain. On enquiry they learned that it was Kiev, and that its inhabitants paid tribute to the Khazars. They settled in the place, gathered many Norsemen to them, and ruled over the

I Photills, fin. 4, 1. 178. The 3 The connotatiou of Putangian is Russians are said to have placed them. cquivalent to Nurse or Scanulinarinn. selves εν πηκόων και προξένων τάξει. Arabic geographers und lösendo-Nestor un refers to ecclesiastical dependence, cail the Baltic “the Varangian Sea." ir pos. to political friendship. The other In kekaumenos (ed. Vasilievski and source is Cont. Th. 190.

Jernstedt) 97 Harald Hardradu is “son Unler Leo VI. (.1.1). 902) there of the Emperor of Varangia.' were 700'P; in the fleet (Constantine, . + liseudo-Nestor, xv. p. 10. Cor. 631).

Scandinavian names.