The Byzantine conquest of Crete (961 AD), Prokopios' Vandal War, and the Continuator of the Chronicle of Symeon

Abstract

Historians reconstruct the Byzantine conquest of Crete in 960‒961 based largely on the History of Leo the Deacon and two variants of the continuation of the Chronicle of Symeon the Logothete. However, the account in the continuation is modelled closely, in narrative structure, imagery, vocabulary and ideology, on Prokopios' account of the conquest of North Africa by Belisarios in 533‒534. This challenges our knowledge of the campaign but sheds interesting new light on the sophisticated use of classical texts that Byzantine ‘chroniclers’ could make.

Notes

1 The main reconstructions of events are V. Christides, The Conquest of Crete by the Arabs (ca. 824): a turning point in the struggle between Byzantium and Islam (Athens 1984) 172‒91; D. Tsougarakis, Byzantine Crete from the 5th Century to the Venetian Conquest (Athens 1988) 61‒74.

2 The text is ed. by U. Criscuolo, Theodosius Diaconus: De Creta Capta (Leipzig 1979). For the dates, see N. Panagiotakis, Θɛοδόσιος ὁ Διάκονος καὶ τὸ ποίημα αὐτοῦ «Ἅλωσις τῆς Κρήτης» (Herakleion 1960) 11; and G. T. Tserebelakis, Ο Νικηφόρος Φωκάς και η απɛλɛυθέρωση της Κρήτης από τους Άραβɛς (961 µ.Χ.) (Thessalonike 2009) 18‒19, with a translation of the poem. I will here be discussing only the tenth-century sources. The information in later sources was crafted, and probably invented, to serve the rhetorical needs of their times, e.g., in Michael Attaleiates, History 222‒29; text and trans. A. Kaldellis and D. Krallis (Cambridge, MA 2012).

3 C. B. Hase, ed., Leonis diaconi Historiae libri X (Bonn 1828); trans., introduction, and detailed notes by A.-M. Talbot and D. F. Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century (Washington, D.C. 2005), 10 for the date.

4 S. Wahlgren, ed., Symeonis magistri et logothetae Chronicon (Berlin and New York 2006).

5 For the Chronicle of Symeon, see A. Karpozilos, Βυζαντινοὶ ἱστορικοὶ καὶ χρονογράφοι, II (Athens 2002) 391‒94; the most recent attempts to sort out the biographical problems are by W. Treadgold, The Middle Byzantine Historians (New York 2013) 203‒209, followed (209‒217) by a discussion of his sources for the Chronicle; and F. Winkelmann et al., eds., Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit: Zweite Abteilung (867‒1025), VI (Berlin and Boston 2013) 228‒33 (#27504).

6 For the variants of the continuation, see Karpozilos, Βυζαντινοὶ ἱστορικοὶ, II, 358‒64; Treadgold, Middle Byzantine Historians, 211‒12 n. 51. A third variant of the final section of the second edition is not used here because it edits out the Prokopian language that will identified in the two listed ones; this is found in Vat. gr. 163, which goes down to 963: A. Markopoulos, History and Literature of Byzantium in the 9th-10th Centuries (Aldershot and Burlington, VT 2004) III; discussed also by Karpozilos, Βυζαντινοὶ ἱστορικοὶ, II, 399‒400.

7 Theophanes Continuatus, book 6: Romanos II, ed. I. Bekker, Theophanes Continuatus, Ioannes Cameniata, Symeon Magister, Georgius Monachus (Bonn 1838) 469‒81.

8 This final portion was published with Theophanes Continuatus (see note above), pp. 756‒60; for Pseudo-Symeon, see Karpozilos, Βυζαντινοὶ ἱστορικοὶ, II, 401‒8; Treadgold, Middle Byzantine Historians, 217‒24.

9 Treadgold, Middle Byzantine Historians, 206, 210‒11.

10 Excerpta: see now A. Németh, Imperial Systematization of the Past: Emperor Constantine VII and his Historical Excerpts (PhD thesis, Central European University 2010); Leo: see the Index Locorum of the English trans.: Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon, 264.

11 Though the Byzantine sources appear not to know this, the Arab conquerors of Crete had briefly taken over Alexandria in Egypt before moving to Crete: Christides, The Conquest of Crete, 81‒85.

12 A. Kaldellis, ‘Prokopios’ Vandal War: thematic trajectories and hidden transcripts,’ in J. Conant and S. Stevens (eds.), North Africa under Byzantium and Early Islam, ca. 500‒ca. 800 (Washington, DC forthcoming 2016) 13‒21.

13 For Bringas, see Markopoulos, ‘Joseph Bringas: prosopographical problems and ideological trends,’ in idem, History and Literature, IV.

14 Christides, The Conquest of Crete, 172‒91; Tsougarakis, Byzantine Crete, 61‒74.

15 A. Kaldellis, Procopius of Caesarea: Tyranny, History, and Philosophy at the End of Antiquity (Philadelphia 2004) 24‒45.

16 Leo the Deacon, History 1.3.

17 According to Leo the Deacon, Nikephoros blockaded Chandax closely with the fleet so that no ships could get out: History 1.3.

18 Tsougarakis, Byzantine Crete, 68‒70; French trans. of the Arabic sources in M. Canard, ‘Les sources arabes de l'histoire byzantine aux confins es Xe et XIe siècles,’ REB 19 (1961) 284‒314, here 284‒88; English trans. in A. Tibi, ‘Two sources on Arab Crete: al-Majālis wa'l-Musāyarāt and Mu‘jam al-Buldān,’ Graeco-Arabica 11 (2011) 119‒22.

19 M. McCormick, Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West (Cambridge and Paris 1986) 167‒8, who suggests (n. 142) an intermediary use of Prokopios, perhaps through Theophanes; A. Kaldellis, ‘The original source for Tzimiskes’ Balkan campaign (971) and the emperor's classicizing propaganda,’ BMGS 37 (2013) 1‒18.

20 Kaldellis, ‘The original source for Tzimiskes’ Balkan campaign (971),’ 1‒18.

21 This has been promised by the editor of the first edition, S. Wahlgren. For surveys of the current state of research, see Karpozilos (cited above), and A. Markopoulos, ‘Byzantine history writing at the end of the First Millennium,’ in P. Magdalino, ed., Byzantium in the Year 1000 (Leiden and Boston 2003) 183‒97.

22 Treadgold, Middle Byzantine Historians, 214‒15.

23 For studies of tenth-century warfare that use Leo and the manuals in tandem, see E. McGeer, Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Byzantine Warfare in the Tenth Century (Washington, DC 1995); G. T. Dennis, ‘The Byzantines in battle,’ in K. Tsiknakis, ed., Το ɛμπόλɛμο Βυζάντιο (9ος-12ος αι.) (Athens 1997) 165‒78; J. Haldon, Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204 (London 1999); and the notes and introduction to Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon.

24 Compare Leo the Deacon, History 2.6, with Prokopios, Wars 1.7.18-19 (siege of Amida); and the siege of Chandax in Leo is modelled on a siege in Agathias: Haldon, Warfare, 187. The other fact not in Theodosios is that Leo knows the name of the general of the Thrakesion theme who was killed, Nikephoros Pastilas, and has moved his story to a different part of the narrative (toward the beginning).