Emese's Dream by Mihaly Buday 20th-21st C. CE
"The necessity for a change of country by the Magyars was a direct consequence of the policy of the Byzantine court." (The Byzantine Church in Medieval Hungary by Gyula Moravcsik).
"They [the Hungarians] were allied with the Eastern emperor, Leo VI (the wise), who was trapped in the vise of combined Islamic and Bulgar assaults that came dangerously close to his capital on the Bosporus. A bold counterattack, however, saved the city of Constantine. The Byzantine fleet ferried Hungarians into Bulgar territory as Khan Simeon's forces arrived at the very gates of Constantinople. Consequently, the Bulgarian ruler found it necessary to end the siege and turn his attention to the Magyars who were marauding in his territory. This maneuver allowed Eastern imperial armies to save their capital. After defeating Islamic forces and making peace with the Bulgars, Leo left his erstwhile allies (the Hungarians) in the lurch" (Charles R. Bowlus. Franks, Moravians, and Magyars: The struggle for the Middle Danube).
Though the Hungarians defeated the Bulgarians and forced Simeon into hiding, they weren't expecting the Pecheneg attack that followed. The Pechenegs were the key element that turned the war of 894-896 in Bulgaria's favor. The Magyars were caught off guard and defeated at the Battle of Southern Buh and forced to migrate westward into the Carpathian Basin while the Pechenegs took Etelkoz.
The Romans [Byzantines] had a two-faced approach to the Hungarians. This seems to have been largely rooted in religion; the Romans were Christian and the Hungarians were not. Roman Emperor Leo VI [The Wise] clearly despised the Hungarians who helped him but outwardly encouraged them to conquer their eastern neighbors who had forced them out of Etelkoz and into the Carpathian Basin. From the writings of Leo VI's son, Constantine Porphyrogenitus:
"A cleric named Gabriel was once sent to the Magyars by the Emperor's orders, and he delivered his message to the following effect: 'The Emperor instructs you to go and expel the Pechenegs from their country and to settle there yourselves (it was your own home once). I want you, his Majesty directs me to say, to be near my dominions..." (Arnold Toynbee, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World).
The Romans likely desired the Magyars to defeat the Pechenegs because they knew how much of a problem they could be. Up to this point the Pechenegs had largely been friendly allies of the Romans. Now they had sided with the Bulgarians in the Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 894–896. From Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World: "The Pechenegs are fully capable of making war on all these peoples [Rhos, Bulgars, Magyars], and, as they have often attacked them, they have now become a terror to them." The Romans, however, now found themselves added to that list of potential victims.
Leo VI takes quite a different tone in his personal writings (his Tactica) describing all Scythians (including the Hungarians) as a faithless people who "have never done anything of value". Ironically, after the Magyars saved the Romans and were left to deal with the dual Bulgar-Pecheneg invasion on their own, Leo calls the Magyars a people who "scorn their oaths and do not observe agreements they have made". Leo VI also notes that the Hungarians and Bulgarians are "stronger than the other Scythian nations as they engage in close combat under one commander". His writings come after the Hungarians defeated the Bulgarians, designating the Magyars as the most formidable of the Scythian nations. Leo VI then says the Bulgarians must not be punished for their prior invasion because they are a Christian population: "Since the Bulgarians, however, embraced the peace of Christ and share the same faith in him as the Romans, after what they went through as a result of breaking their oath, we do not think of taking up arms against them".
Leo's writings show that he still looked down on the Magyars who saved him and he embraced the Bulgars who had just invaded him. The Magyar's contemporary view of their dealings with the Romans here is unknown to me and probably lost to time, but they likely looked at it as a one-sided deal where the Romans benefited and they didn't. This hubris of Leo would have grave consequences later, continuing on even after the Bulgars broke the peace deal again and defeated the Romans at the Battle of Boulgarophygon in 896 CE. The main Roman army that had arrived home from the east couldn't save them, and the Magyars weren't eager to find themselves on the receiving end of "Roman gratitude" again.
The writings of Nicholas I Patriarch of Constantinople show the continuity of Eastern Roman problems with Bulgaria in the 900s. Written between 912-925 CE (probably shortly before 917): "...this governor of Cherson is continually reporting that Bulgarians are making every effort to get the Pechenegs and other nations in those parts to join them in the expedition and attack on the Romans. These reports are not intermittent...they went on to say that as many as sixteen messengers had come from the race of the Pechenegs, who had reported that messengers from Bulgaria had been sent to them, not just once or twice, but over and over again, to invite them to join them..." (Nicholas I Patriarch of Constantinople Letter 9, trnsl Jenkins & Westerink).
The specifics of what came next depends on what sources you choose to believe. The Miracula Sancti Georgii [written in the 11th century] states that some years later the Bulgars, Magyars, and Pechenegs forged an alliance and destroyed the Roman army together at the battle of Achelous in 917 CE where "...even now there could be seen piles of bones at Anchialus, where the fleeing army of the Romans was disgracefully slain." (from Leo the Deacon's History, 75 years later).
Source:
Arnold Toynbee, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World.
Charles R. Bowlus. Franks, Moravians, and Magyars: The struggle for the Middle Danube.
The Byzantine Church in Medieval Hungary by Gyula Moravcsik.
The Taktika of Leo VI.
Nicholas I Patriarch of Constantinople Letters, Greek Text & English Translation by R.J.H Jenkins & L.G. Westerink. Dumbarton Oaks Texts.
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