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10. Viking Exchange with Byzantium

Geography

• Russia’s varied climate zones helped shape early Russian life: – A band of fertile land in the south was home to Russia’s

first civilization. – The steppe provided a highway for nomads migrating from

Asia to Europe.

• A network of rivers provided transportation for both people and goods. – Major rivers ran north to south, linking Russia to the

Byzantine world in the south.

• The city of Kiev was located at the heart of the vital trade network linking Vikings, Slavs, and Constantinople. – Kiev would later become the center of the first Russian

state.

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monoxylon

Rus’-Byzantine War (860)

• The Byzantines had first come into contact with the Rus' in 839

18 June 860 200 Rus’ ships slipped into Bosporus Straights

– fleet attacking Arab strongholds in Med.

– all troops away on Arab frontier; city undefended

– Michael III absent

• Patriarch Photios assumed head of resistance

“Why has this dreadful bolt fallen out of the farthest north?...A people has crept down from the north, as if it were attacking another Jerusalem...the people are fierce and has no mercy; its voice is the roaring sea...Woe is me...ravaging everything...O city reigning over nearly the whole universe, what an uncaptained army, equipped in servile fashion, is sneering at thee as at a slave!”

De Rossorum Incursione, Homille I

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Result of the attack

• Nothing

• siege was lifted even before Michael III was told to return with his army in Cappadocia

• credit for saving the city given to the power of a relic

– veil of the Theotokos

• Robe of the Virgin carried around the circuit of the wall; the enemy withdrew

The Blachernitissa: the icon before which Michael III may have prayed to the Theotokos for the deliverance of Constantinople from the Rus'.

Fresco (1644) showing Michael and Photius put the veil of the Theotokos into the sea (Church of the Veil, Moscow Kremlin).

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1. Theotokos Church 2. Soros Chapel 3. Danubios 4. Okeanos 5. Anastasiakos 6. Alexiakos 7. So called Anemas Dungeons 8. Palace bath recently found 9. Palace of Manuel Comnenus 10. Chapel 11. Palace of Empress Bertha 12. Tower of Isaac Angelus

http://www.arkeo3d.com/byzantium1200/landwall.html

Photios initiates missionary work Northwards

860 Constantine ‘s mission to the Khazars

• military alliance

• deter attacks

• ambassadors of the Rus convert to Christianity

867 Photios declares Rus as “subjects and friends”

– hypekooi = subject-allies

– proxenoi = friends (honorary citizens)

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New waves of attacks

907 Oleg sailed with a large fleet to Constantinople

• stopped by chain across the Golden Horn – Rus put wheels on the ships

• Oleg extracts a huge tribute and then leaves

911 Treaty signed

• trade and legal rights of Rus merchants in capital – received free room and board for six months

• 2x longer than normal limit for foreigners

– Rus must serve as mercenaries in Byz army

Medieval Icelandic saga Laxdæla

• spans from 890 to 1030

• Bolli Bollason

– 11th C. Icelandic Hero

– became the earliest known Varangian Guardsman

murderous Rus’, an illumination from the 11th century Chronicle of John Skylitzes.

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Laxdaela Saga, 77

• Bolli rode from the ship with twelve men, and all his followers were dressed in scarlet, and rode on gilt saddles, and all were a trusty band, though Bolli was peerless among them. He had on the clothes of fur which the Garth-king had given him, he had over all a scarlet cape; and he had Footbiter girt on him, the hilt of which was dight with gold, and the grip woven with gold, he had a gilded helmet on his head, and a red shield on his flank, with a knight painted on it in gold. He had a dagger in his hand, as is the custom in foreign lands; and whenever they took quarters the women paid heed to nothing but gazing at Bolli and his grandeur, and that of his followers.

Varangian units in the Byzantine Army

911 Varangians are mentioned as fighting as mercenaries for the Byzantines.

936 a unit of 415 Varangians was involved in the Italian expedition

949 a force of 629 fought in Crete under Constantine Porphyrogenitus

955 Varangian contingents among the forces that fought the Arabs in Syria

The Rus’ under the walls of Tsargrad. Detail from a medieval Russian icon.

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Varangian Guardsmen, an illumination from the 11th century Chronicle of John Skylitzes.

Igor’s attack of 941

941 Russian attack of Constantinople • “Greek Fire” used once again

– “The Greeks have something which is like lightening from heaven, and, discharging it, they set us on fire: that is why we did not defeat them”

944 Igor return; signs treaty • Rus’ merchants no longer exempt from custom

duties • not buy silk too expensive • winter over in St. Mamas not Constantinople

Princess Olga comes to Court

• Widow of Igor came to Constantinople

• graciously received

• Const. VII Porphyrogenitus

– “of whatever she wished”

• also went to court of Otto I

– social slights probably to blame

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Rus-Byz Trade

Rus imported

• “gold, silk fruit, wine, all manner of finery”

Byzantines imported

• slaves

• fur

• wax

• honey

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The Thirteenth Warrior (1999)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5REaxl15uI

Fresco of Saint Vladimir from a Novgorod Cathedral

The 19th century Church of the Tithes.

Vasnetsov , The Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir (1890)

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Trade Economy of the 10th century

World Bank economist Branko Milanovic estimates Byzantine GDP per capita $680 to $770 (1990 Dollars)

at its peak around 1000 (reign of Basil II)

– The Byzantine population between 12 and 18 million

– total Byzantine GDP between $8.16 and $13.86 billion

– US GDP (2009) 14.59 Trillion

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29