Byzantine commander George Maniakes
Normans and Lombard Warriors. Mid-11th Century. Artist: Florent Vincent. Osprey Publishing
The period of the Macedonian dynasty (867-1056) is traditionally associated in historiography with the Byzantine Renaissance, victories in the east and north, the capture of Bulgaria, and the struggle for Italy and Sicily. Against the backdrop of brilliant victories, often during the civil war, and triumphs, the Constantinople society preferred not to notice defeats, during which entire armies perished and enormous resources of the country were lost, incommensurate with the economic capabilities of the annexed lands.
But as long as the empire had the resources for wars, both defensive and offensive, it had a combat-ready army and outstanding commanders.
The composition of the army again became the same as in the 6th century, that is, the army for war was formed from combat-ready and motivated ethnic mercenaries, with the participation of the stratiot militia.
The civil emperors of the 11th century, who knew well how the warrior emperors had seized real power, leaving its external attributes to the representatives of the Macedonian dynasty in the 10th century, had to keep a close eye on the military leaders who were constantly claiming to become real, and not hereditary, decorative emperors.
The factor of the struggle for power and resources, while they existed and even when they dried up, was key in the development of Byzantium, which finally led to irreparable defeats from neighboring ethnic groups and countries.
The country needs heroes
One of these commanders needed by the country was George Maniakes, son of Gedelius Maniakes. He was from the very border east of the Empire, possibly of Turkish (Turkic) origin. He began his service there, on the Euphrates. He amazed his contemporaries, as his contemporary historians Michael Psellus and Attaleiates wrote:
I saw this man and admired him. Nature had collected in him everything that was required for a commander: his height reached almost ten feet, and those around him looked up at him from below, as if he were a hill or a mountain peak, he was not delicate and handsome in appearance, but as if he were a tornado, he had a thunderous voice, with his hands he could shake walls and smash copper gates, in swiftness he was not inferior to a lion and had menacing eyebrows. And in everything else he was the same, and rumor even exaggerated what was in reality. And the barbarians were afraid of Maniakes, some - because they saw him with their own eyes and were amazed at this man, others - because they heard terrible stories about him.
William of Apulia, who was prejudiced against all Greeks, while noting his beauty, denied him all virtues.
As Michael Psellos emphasized, he was not an upstart, but a soldier who had passed through all the stages of service. His rise through the ranks coincided with the reign of Romanos III from 1028 to 1034. At first, he was the catepan of Lower Media on the Euphrates. The position of catepan in the XNUMXth century was equal to the position of dux, the head of a border province. Soon he became the strategos of the Euphrates cities, the province of Euphratesia, with its center in Armenian Samosata (in modern Turkey). After which he received the court title of protospatharios (from spatharios - sword-bearer), then patrician and magistracy.
In 1031, he captured a major trading center in the Euphrates region, the Arab border city of Edessa (modern-day Sanliurfa). Chance helped the matter. The ruler of the city died, and his wife fell in love with her Turkish slave Suleiman. He, fearing that the city elite would not submit to him, turned to Maniakes. Maniakes, in turn, turned to the emperor, who ordered that the city be taken under his control, giving Suleiman the title of anthipat-patrician. But the townspeople refused to let the Romans into Edessa, so Maniakes broke through the wall and his troops plundered the city, returning the previously captured Christian relics.
Such a commander was sent by Emperor Michael IV Paphlagonian (1034-1041) in 1038 to liberate Sicily.
Battles for Sicily
Vasily II began planning a campaign to liberate Sicily as early as 1025.
Sicily was captured by African Arabs in the 770th century. As usual, there was betrayal, as reported by Theophanes' successor, the tourmarch Euthymius, in order to avoid punishment for violence against the nun Omonisa, fled to the Arabs. He acted, one might say, following the example of Emperor Michael II Travlus (829-XNUMX), who himself married a nun. Euthymius was appointed "king" by the Arabs and led their army to conquer Sicily. Although the Salerno Chronicle reports a different version.
By 831, the Arabs had established control over almost the entire island, and they captured Palermo, located in the north. By the 60s, Byzantium was left with only Syracuse and Taormina. The former was taken after an eight-month siege on May 21, 878 and razed to the ground, and Taormina on August 1, 902. Thus, the richest province of Byzantium was captured. In 912, Taormina was returned and lost again in 962.
Taormina. View from the sea. Photo by the author
The warrior emperor Nicephorus II Phocas did not leave this territory without attention, sending a huge army to recapture it in 964, the patrician eunuch Nicetas and the patrician, his cousin, Manuel Phocas. Syracuse, Himera (Buonfornello), Tauromenium and Leontini (Lintini) were suddenly captured. The most important cities on the eastern coast were liberated, but the ardor and intemperance of the young Manuel, as Leo the Deacon wrote, who tried to solve everything in one fell swoop, led the Romans to defeat in the battle of Rometta (modern Rametta) in 965: the Arabs lured the army into a trap. After which, during the battle in the Strait of Messina, the fleet.
Basil II gave the order to begin the reconquest of Sicily. Numerous troops headed to Italy under the bedchamber Orestes, but the emperor died and the expedition was cancelled in 1025. The last lands in Sicily were lost by the Romans in 1034.
Campaign of 1038
Thus, Emperor Michael IV set about resolving the "Sicilian problem", placing the patrician Maniakes at the head of the expedition, and the fleet was headed by the naval droungarios Stefan Calafat, the husband of the king's sister. Michael Psellus considered such officials to be "insignificant people". The catepan of Italy (Longguardia) was Michael Spondylus.
We do not have precise data on the composition of his army. It can be assumed that it could have included, as in the expedition of 1025, the Rus, whom we meet in Italy during the entire period of the struggle for it from the 20s to the 50s of the XNUMXth century. The Varangians, who are also found next to the Rus, some as "sailors", others as "conductors" (κονταρατουζ) - spearmen. Turks, as the Byzantines called the Hungarians during this period, Bulgarians, Vlachs. The stratiote militia from the themes of Macedonia, Opsikion, Anatolia, Thrace and the Paulicians are also mentioned in the early Italian expeditions. The Paulicians were supporters of the Manichaean heresy and were compactly resettled in Bulgaria from the east, for a long time they were considered good warriors. The militia from Calabria also took part, as did Italians from various regions of the central and southern Apennines, including mercenary spearmen (conterati).
Byzantine mercenaries. Soldiers. Firm "Engineer Basevich". Saint Petersburg
It is known for certain that the army included a detachment of 500 warriors, who had recently arrived to serve in Miklagard, as the Scandinavians called Constantinople, King Harald (1015–1066).
We must agree with those researchers who believe that Harald, "the son of the basileus of Norway", despite his nobility, did not receive power over all the Varangians serving in Constantinople. This was not in the Byzantine tradition, and also unsafe for the state: the mercenaries were led by Roman officials with the rank of akaluf. After the Sicilian expedition, Harald received a rather modest rank of guardsman - mangavit (club-bearers), equal to other guardsmen - protospatharii (sword-bearers), but this rank was higher than the border commander. Later he received the rank of spafarokandidat.
Other documented participants in the expedition were Normans. By the mid-30s, there was an influx of them into southern Italy. They took an active part in the fight against the Arabs in these lands, and later in local feuds. When Maniakes arrived in Italy, Duke Guaymarius IV of Solern was glad to get rid of such notorious characters as William Iron Hand (d. 1046) and his brothers. They agreed to go on the expedition, tempted by the prospect of future booty.
The fury of the Norman horsemen amazed their contemporaries. Michael Psellus, comparing the Varangians and the Normans, wrote:
If the former are impetuous, swift and unstoppable, then the latter are furious and ferocious. The first onslaught of the Italians [Normans – V.E.] is irresistible, but they quickly become filled with anger; the Tauroscythians [Scandinavians – V.E.] are not so hot-tempered, but do not spare their blood and do not pay any attention to wounds.
Despite the fact that the infantry was an integral part of the army, its basis was the cavalry. All stratiotes were horsemen, and Harald Hardraga probably learned horsemanship skills in the Byzantine army. Nevertheless, the Normans, who came from feudal France, stood out against this background for their ability to act in a mounted battle.
Therefore, the patrician Maniac was glad to acquire such mercenaries.
We know for sure that there were 300 Norman knights, 500 were Harald's Varangians, so presumably the entire expeditionary force consisted of several thousand people.
Maniac Landing in Sicily. Miniature. John Skylitzes.History Byzantine emperors. Madrid list. XNUMXth century National Library. Madrid
In Sicily
So, having landed in Sicily, George Maniakes began the siege of Messina, an important port located in a natural bay of the Messian Strait. The city contained the main parts of the Sicilian Arabs, but when faced, as Gottfried Mallater claims, with the Norman onslaught, they realized that they were not Greeks and preferred to surrender. The city surrendered, not wanting to be subjected to the horrors of a siege by a huge army. And Maniakes thanked the Normans worthily. From Messina, they began moving inland, past Rometta, where they fell into an ambush by Manuel Phocas.
In the battle of Syracuse, Maniakes again defeated the Arabs. William Tancred killed the city's ruler, thereby ensuring victory: with the death of the Arab commander, his soldiers fled. In Syracuse, an old man pointed to the mausoleum of St. Lucia, her body was placed in a silver reliquary and solemnly sent to Constantinople.
Of course, in the battles of this period the commander did not act as the "general staff", but was first and foremost a playing coach, he himself actively participated in the battle, encouraged the hesitant and constantly set an example, therefore often strong, but often narrow-minded soldiers became commanders
As for Maniakes, as we will see later, he was just the ideal medieval commander, who personally did everything that I wrote about.
The Romans moved to the center of the island, where a battle took place near the city of Troina (63 km from modern Enna):
Then William, son of Tancred, proud of his military glory, brave in battle, outstripping the Greeks, himself began the battle and fought the enemy with only the warriors of his people before the Greeks arrived at the scene of battle.
But while the Normans were pursuing the enemy, the Greeks plundered their rich camp, as the Norman chronicler claims. When a Greek representing the Normans came to ask for the Normans' owed goods to be returned, he was beaten with sticks. Maniakes later praised the Normans, promising to compensate them for the loss of their booty, but, as often happens, he mocked them among his own people. The Normans were then able to trick their way into sailing from Sicily to Italy, where upon arrival they began to seize Byzantine lands. Maniakes's harsh, and perhaps uncontrollable, character was not to the liking of the wayward warriors.
We read a similar story about Harald Hardrada in the collection of royal sagas "The Circle of the Earth". Harald constantly confronts Gyurg (George Maniakes), one giant to another, both were over 2 meters tall. Harald appears in the Saga as both more cunning and more dexterous, he takes care of his people, trying to make the Greeks fight, and when he fights himself, he fearlessly breaks into the ranks of the enemy. Of course, in these boastful stories one can also highlight part of the truth, for example, Harald travels on Byzantine ships, but in general the Saga tells of the unusual exploits of its hero, which were brought to us by two Icelanders, participants in the Varangian campaigns as part of the Byzantine army, Halldor, the son of Snorri Godi, and Ulf, the son of Ospak. They told of the capture of four cities by Harald: the first with the help of birds, like Princess Olga Iskorosten, which gave modern authors a reason to believe that they borrowed this story from Rus'. The second city was taken by digging, and the other two - by cunning. Once the Varangians, as usual, played "football" near the city, thereby weakening the vigilance of the townspeople and turning them into spectators, and they themselves suddenly ran and captured the open city gates.
And finally, the fourth city was taken by another trick, when Harald pretended to be dead, and when he was carried to the city to be buried, his companions captured him. This is a completely "wandering fairy-tale motif."
Two stories that illustrate Maniacus's character are related to the noble knight of Milan, Arduid Lombard, who fought in the ranks of the Normans. According to one version, he was beaten with sticks when he stood up for the Normans who had not received their share; according to another version, Maniacus took from him a beautiful horse that Arduid had won in a duel. Arduid Lombard eventually began a rebellion against the Romans in 1041 in Apulia.
After his victories, Maniak decided that he had a right to more, insulted "in word and deed" the naval droungarios Stefan Calafat (Caulker). For this, most likely, following a complaint from his wife to the emperor, he was removed from his post and accused of plotting against the emperor: he was chained and sent to Constantinople. The prepositor Basil Pediadites was appointed to his post.
Maniac quarreling with Stefan Calafat. Miniature. John Skylitzes. "History of the Byzantine Emperors". Madrid list. 13th century. National Library of Madrid
At that time, as John Skylitzes noted, “due to greed, carelessness and recklessness"All acquisitions in Sicily were lost.
The new catepan of Italy, Nicephorus Dokian, who was in office from February 1039 to January 1040, tried to rectify the situation, but died. His replacement, protospatharios Michael Dokian the Younger, was torn between Sicily, where the Arabs were advancing, and Italy, where the Normans and local "collaborators" were attacking. The uprising against Byzantium was led by the Lombard duke, Argyrus, son of Mel, who had spent his youth in Constantinople. He attracted the Normans to his side, capturing all of Apulia and Bari. Dokian the Younger entered Bari, but in two battles in 1041 he was defeated and was forced to recall the Macedonians, Paulicians and Calabrians from Sicily, who were not particularly able to resist the onslaught of the Normans, but Sicily was left without protection. The new catepan Exaugustus, son of Bayon, suffered a crushing defeat in September 1041, was taken prisoner, where he died. In Apulia, the Romans were left with only one fortress, Trani, and in February 1042, the Normans and local knights elected Argyrus of Bari as prince and duke of Italy. It is significant that he would later defect to the Roman Empire and become catepan in these lands.
New expedition to Italy
Michael V Calafat, son of Stefan the Caulker, who came to power in 1041, freed Maniakes. He was most likely sent to Italy by him, where things had become very bad: the Arabs had cleared Sicily of the Romans, and the Normans and Lombards were doing the same in southern Italy. Michael was overthrown in April 1042, and George was already fighting in Italy in April.
The Roman army of George Maniakes arrived at Idrunto or Otranto, a city in Apulia, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Queen. Chess from Salerno. 11th century. Museum Island. Berlin. Germany. Photo by the author
In April 1043 Maniakes gathers all Greek forces:
Crowds of people flocked to this brave man, unrivaled in military science, and not only those who were old enough for military service, but old and young - all went to Maniakes! He, however, understood that trophies are erected not by numbers, but by skill and experience, and selected only the most experienced warriors in battle, with whom he ravaged many cities and captured much booty and prisoners; together with them, unnoticed by the guards, he crossed to the opposite bank, and no one dared to go out to meet him.
He also gathered a detachment of Norman Italians, who would later be called Maniacats in the Byzantine army.
The commander took Tarentum, a city on the Gulf of Tarentum, and built a fortress to protect it on the Tara River. The Normans, who tried to besiege Tarentum, failed, and Maniakes captured the city of Monopoli on the Adriatic coast and Matera, whose count had recently been William Iron Hand, who had fought under Maniakes in Sicily. Maniakes' troops massacred the inhabitants of these cities. In the battle at Matera, there were no winners between the Normans and Maniakes.
Thus, George Maniakes in a short time, presumably with a small army, which also had enough Norman mercenaries, the future Maniacs, liberated most of Apulia. But, as Michael Psellus notes, the new, next king Constantine IX Monomakh did not encourage the commander in any way and when he reminded about himself, he decided to remove him. The matter was aggravated by the fact that Constantine, who became the husband of the 64-year-old Vasilissa Zoe, cohabited for seven years with Maria Skleros, the future grandmother of Prince Vladimir Monomakh. As John Skylitzes reported, the Skleros were at odds with Maniakes, and Maria's brother Roman Skleros seduced Maniakes' wife.
And, of course, they began to assure Constantine that Maniakes, as a successful commander, was laying claim to supreme power.
Constantine IX Monomakh. Portrait. St. Sophia. Istanbul. Author's photo
In September 1042, Maniakes was replaced by the patrician, the catepan of Italy, Pardus, the protospatharios Tubaki, and Archbishop Nicholas, who were to bribe Prince Argyrus, son of Melus, to go over to the Romans. In Otranto, the inexperienced Pardus,entered the palace from a street intersection", sitting on horseback, accused Maniakes and his army of rebellion.
Maniac, who had already taken the path of rebellion, was still hesitating, but the envoy's audacity and unwillingness to compromise left him with no options. He and his warriors hacked to death Pard, and later Tubaki. But there is another version of Pard's death: his nose and mouth were stuffed with manure and he was killed in the stable.
He declared himself emperor, and then moved to Bari in October 1042. At that time, Argyrus was besieging the Byzantine city of Trani, north of Bari. Maniakes offered Argyrus and the Normans an alliance, but they refused. He was unable to take the city, and Argyrus, having received letters from the emperor appointing him patrician and catepan, handed over Bari to the empire.
In February 1043, the catepan Basil Theodorocan arrived in Bari with a fleet. He headed for Otrant, where Maniakes was, with the support of the Normans and Lombards. And Maniakes crossed from Italy to Epidamnus or Dyrrachium (Durres, Albania). He, easily scattering the oncoming troops, went along the Via Egnatia to Constantinople through Thessalonica.
And the emperor urgently gathers an army from everywhere, most of whose warriors trembled at the name of Maniakes. Basileus Constantine, handsome as Achilles, but incompetent as a warrior, understood that the conqueror of Maniakes would be an even greater threat to the throne. Therefore, he appointed the worthless sebastophorus eunuch Stefan as commander.
The battle took place near Thessalonica. Maniakes, with his pressure and strength, almost won the battle, constantly attacking the enemy, but he accidentally received a mortal wound from a spear in the right side. The enemies cut off his head, and the basileus ordered it to be hung over the Hippodrome. And his troops began to go over to the side of the emperor.
Constantine Monomakh, who knew a thing or two about spectacles, donned a crown and staged a triumph in Constantinople. In it walked the cataphracts, horsemen clad in armor, followed by prisoners who sat backwards on donkeys with all sorts of junk on their necks, then carried the head of Maniakes and his armor. Then came the axe-bearers, the palace ravduchi, the sword-bearers. And after them rode the accidental winner and his retinue.
So the emperor won, but the Romans lost...
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