BATTLE OF PLISKA

The 'Battle of Pliska' (Battle of Vărbitsa pass) (Bulgarian: битката при Върбишкия проход) took place on July 26, 811, between the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria, resulting in one of the worst defeats in Byzantine history.

Contents

Initial campaigns

Preparation for an invasion

Sack of Pliska

The battle

Aftermath

Sources

Footnotes

Initial campaigns

When Nicephorus I became emperor in 802, he planned to reincorporate Bulgarian-held territory back into the empire. In 807 he launched a campaign but only reached Odrin and achieved nothing because of a conspiracy in his capital. ^[1] That attempted attack, however, gave reason for the Bulgarian Khan Krum to undertake military operations against the Byzantine Empire. The main objective was an extension to the south and south-west. In the next year a Bulgarian army penetrated the Struma valley and defeated the Byzantines. The Bulgarian troops captured 1,100 ''litres'' of gold and killed many enemy soldiers including all strategos and most of the commanders. ^[2] In 809 the Khan personally besieged the strong fortress of Serdica and seized the city, killing the whole garrison of 6,000. ^[3]

Preparation for an invasion

In 811, the Byzantine Emperor organised a large campaign to conquer Bulgaria once and for all. His preparations were long and careful; troops were collected from throughout the Empire. There was no danger from the Saracens at the moment; so he gathered an enormous army from the Anatolian and European ''themata'' with their ''strategi'', and the imperial bodyguard (the ''tagmata''); they were joined by a number of irregular troops, armed with slings and clubs, who expected a swift victory and plunder. The conquest was supposed to be easy, and most of the high-ranking officials and aristocrats accompanied him, including his son Stauracius and his brother-in-law Michael I Rangabe. ^[4] The whole army consisted of around 80,000 soldiers.

Sack of Pliska

In May 811, the great expedition left Constantinople, led by the Emperor himself and his son, Stauracius, and by July 10 had set up camp at the fortress of Marcelae (present-day Karnobat) near the Bulgarian frontier where it stopped for several days to gather the various detachments coming from different places of the Empire. At this time, a courtier close to Nicephorus, by the name of Byzantios, escaped from Marcelae for unknown reasons, and went to Krum, taking with him part of the imperial wardrobe and 100 litres of gold; many considered this as a bad omen for Nicephorus. Nicephorus intended to confuse the Bulgarians and over the next ten days launched several supposed attacks, which were immediately called back. Krum assessed the situation and estimated that he could not repulse the enemy and offered peace which Nicephorus haughtily rejected. Theophanes wrote that the Emperor "''was deterred from his own ill thoughts and the suggestions of his advisors who were thinking like him''". ^[5] Some of his military chiefs considered the invasion of Bulgaria to be imprudent and too risky but Nicephorus was convinced of his ultimate success counting mainly on the luck and wisdom of his son Stauracius.
In June he invaded the Bulgarian lands and marched through the Balkan passes towards the capital Pliska. On July 20 Nicephorus divided the army into three columns, each marching by a different route towards Pliska. He met little resistance ^[6] and for three days he reached the capital where the Byzantines met a 12,000 army of elite soldiers who guarded the stronghold. The Bulgarians were defeated and most of them perished. Another hastily assembled army of 50,000 soldiers had a similar fate. ^[7] On 23 July the Byzantines quickly captured the defenseless capital. The city was sacked and the countryside destroyed. ^[8][9] Khan Krum attempted once more to negotiate for peace. According to the historian Theophanes, Krum’s proclamation stated "''Here you are, you have won. So take what you please and go with peace.''" Nicephorus, overconfident with his success ignored him. He believed that Bulgaria was thoroughly defeated and conquered.
Michael the Syrian, patriarch of the Syrians Jacobites in XIIth century described in his Chronicle the brutalities and atrocities of the Roman Emperor Nikephoros I Genik. “Nicephorus, emperor of the Romans, walked in Bulgarians land: he was victorious and killed a great number of them. He reached their capital, took it over and devastated it. His savagery went to such a point that he ordered to bring their small children, got them tied down on earth and made thresh grain stones to smash them.” The Byzantine soldiers looted and plundered; burnt down the unharvested fields, cut the tendons of the oxes, slaughtered sheep and pigs. ^[10] The Emperor took over Krum's treasury, locked it and did not allow his troops to reach it at the same time cutting noses and other appendages of soldiers who touched the trophies. ^[11]

The battle

While Nikephoros I and his army were busy plundering the Bulgarian capital, Krum mobilized his people (including the women) to set traps and ambushes in the mountain passes. ^[12] Initially Nicephorus intended to march through Moesia and reach Serdika before returning to Constantinople but the news of these preparations for a battle changed his decision and he chose the shortest way to his capital. ^[13] On 25 July his army entered the Vărbitsa Pass but the road was barred with thick wooden walls and Krum's detachments watched from the heights around. ^[14] The emperor became panicked by the situation and repeatedly stated to his companions "Even if we have had wings we could not have escaped from peril." ^[15]

On that night the Bulgarians gathered their troops and tightened the belt around the trapped enemy. At dawn they rushed down and started to kill the panicked and totally confused Byzantines. The Byzantines fruitlessly resisted for a short time and perished. Upon seeing their comrades' fate, the next units immediately ran away.
On their way south the Byzantine forces hit a muddy river which was difficult to cross. As they could not find a ford quick enough, many Byzantines fell into the river. The first stalled in the mud with their horses and were trampled by those who came next. The river was filled with so many dead that the chasing Bulgarians easily passed over them and continued the pursuit. Those who passed through the river reached the wooden wall which was high and thick. The Byzantines left their horses and began climbing the wall with hands and legs and hung over the other side. The Bulgarians had dug a deep moat from the inner side and when the Byzantine soldiers were getting across the ramparts, they fell from the high wall, breaking their limbs. Some of them died instantly, others hobbled some time before falling to the ground and dying from thirst and hunger. The Byzantine troops burnt the wall at several places but as they were rushing to get across it, they too fell into the moat along with the burning parts of the palisade. Almost everyone perished; some were killed by sword, others drowned in the river or were mortally injured after falling from the wall and some of them burnt into the fire. Among the killed nobles were the patricius Theodosius Salivara; the ''strategos'' of the Eastern armies Romanos and the ''strategos'' of Thrace.

Only a few survived the defeat but the majority of them died shortly after they arrived in their homes. The most notable person to be killed, however, was Emperor Nicephoros, who according to historians died on a dunghill on the day of the battle. ^[16] Nicephoros' son Stauracius was carried to safety by the imperial bodyguard after receiving a paralyzing wound to his neck. ^[15][18] According to tradition, Krum had the Emperor's skull lined with silver and used it as a drinking cup.

Aftermath

The defeat was the worst the empire had faced since the Battle of Adrianople over 400 years previously. Nicephorus' skull was turned into a drinking cup by Krum. Stauracius, the new emperor, had been wounded and was ineffectual as emperor; he was deposed and succeeded by his brother-in-law Michael I Rangabe a month later. ^[6] For Bulgaria, this victory had tremendous importance: it not only saved it from the great threat from Byzanthium and returned all the lands taken from them, but strenghtened all Bulgarian conquests to the West together with Serdika and secured them from future attacks by Byzantine emperors for whom Bulgaria became a permanent threat. For a long time, all through until the reign of John I Tzimiskes, Byzantines were afraid to pass the Balkan Mountains. Moreover, this victory elevated the image of the Bulgarian Khan in the eyes of Macedonian Slavs and with this opened a way for extension of the Bulgarian state to the Southwest. This pride of Krum is most clearly evident in the story about Nicephorus's head: " ''As he cut the head of Nicephorus, Krum put it on a stake for several days 'to show it to the tribes coming to him' to our disgrace. After that he took it, plated it with silver from the outside and proudly made the Slav knyazes [princes] drink from it.''"^[20] Over the next two years, Krum was able to attack the empire in the vicinity of Constantinople itself, although he was never able to take the city. Michael attempted to recover from the loss, but was defeated in 813 at the Battle of Versinikia; the danger did not subside until Krum himself died in 814.
== Unresolved issues^[21] ==

Although historians are unanimous about the timing of the last battle, in which Nicephorus I Genik was killed (July 26, 811), there is some disagreement about the exact circumstances of his death and location of the battle. Theophanes writes: " ''Some say that the Christians (that is, the Byzantians) killed him with stones after he fell down while his effeminate [literally: woman-like] servants with whom he slept together, died either in the fire of the burning ramparts [τω της σούδας πυρί] or were killed with swords'' " ^[23]. Zonaras records the following: " ''They say that he [Nicephorus] was killed by his people: either they killed him themselves or, when the barbarians started to kill him, the Romeans [Byzantians] finished the killing of the torturer'' " ^[18]. The above sources leave the impression that Nicephorus was killed by his own soldiers because they hated him. However, old Bulgarian sources are explicit and inequivocal with the opposite statement: that Nicephorus was killed by the Bulgarians, even by Krum himself. Thus, in the old-Bulgarian translation of the Manassias Chronicle, writing in general about the Nicephorus catastrophe in 811, one reads: " ''This tsar Nicephorus came into the Bulgarian land during Kniaz Krum['s reign] and at first he apparently vanquished him, and plundered the estate bearing his [Krum's] name. After this, Krum gathered those who were left after the defeat, and he attacked the tsar during the night, and not only defeated the Greeks, but he [Krum] himself cut the head of the tsar, and he cased his head in silver, and poured wine in it, and he gave it to the Bulgarians to drink from it.''" ^[22]. Further in this chronicle, under two miniatures, illustrating the above text, it is written: " ''Kniaz Krum caught tsar Nicephorus and cut his head.'' "^[26] In the Arabian Synaxarium (Prologue), that had copied the description of the said battle almost literally from the Greek Synaxarium, under the month of Temmus (July) day 23, it is written: " ''In this day, we mention our Christian brothers, who died in the Bulgarian lands in the days of tsar Nicephorus who set out with his Army during the ninth year of his reign against the Bulgarians, attacked them suddenly, and was deigned with victory at first, and [Nicephorus] won a great victory. But what came to pass after this, is not to be muted but deserves a cry and weeping. It happened so, that one night, the Bulgarians taking advantage of the carelessness of the Greeks, attacked their army, killed the tsar and many other commanders. Those who received lethal blows, transcended immediately from our world; those for whom the blows were not lethal hid in the wooded and overgrown places; those who were captured alive suffered numerous tortures because they refused to deny Our Lord Jesus Christ; for some of them their heads were cut with sword; others were deprived of their present life with strangling; thirds were wounded with numerous arrows and transcended from this life. As for the rest, they were imprisoned in dungeons and sentenced to hunger and thirst. In this way, they freed themselves from this world and were wreathed with martyrs' wreaths.'' " ^[27]

As for the issue over the place of this catastrophe, it must be noted that although Theophanes writes about this event in great detail as a contemporary and also according to the narratives of participants, he does not give any topographic names that can pinpoint the place of the catastrophe; therefore, this place is pointed differently by different authors. Thus, Jireček^[28] thinks that the invasion of Nicephorus as well as his defeat happened in the Veregava and Vărbitsa Passes because the latter had been opened until 8th or 9th century at the latest. Brothers V. and K. Škorpil^[29] tried to prove that the catastrophe happened in the Kotel Pass, and they even tried to point the Bulgarian and Romean positions. They based their opinion on a local legend that " ''here Bulgarians and Greeks fought, and there was a maiden named Vida, who by discerning the rampart on the near peak, facilitated the Bulgarian army'' " and that in "Greek Glen" (between the Vid Peak (Kăstepe) and Razboyna Mountain) fell 16,000 Greeks together with their tsar. Later, K. Škorpil softened his earlier opinion by suggesting that Nicephoras army was returning from Aboba (Pliska) towards Vărbitsa and in Vărbitsa Pass they were repulsed by Krum towards the Kotel Pass where the fighting took place in the so-called "Greek Glen". But immediately after this, he writes: "According to legend, the fighting between Bulgarians and Greeks took place in the locality "Razboy" between the villages Krumovo (Chatalar) and Divdyadovo (on the southern slopes of the Shumen Plateau) in the vicinity of Aboba (Pliska). We think, however, that a more probable location for the fight between Krum and Nicephorus is the Rish Valley, which, being surrounded by mountains, corresponds to Nicephorus's words. Krum could retreat to Marcelae through Veregava Pass and the said valley."^[30] The last paragraph shows that K. Škorpil has abandoned his earlier opinion and maintains that the catastrophe occurred in the Veregava (=Chalăka) or Rish Passes. Bury, however, thinks that Veregava Pass is not the right location of the fight: "As far as we can judge, Nicephorus came into the trap laid by his enemy who lured him in the nearby Vărbitsa Pass: a narrow gorge, jammed with wooden ramparts such that small garrisons could defend against multitudinous army. Maybe on this place, which today is known as "Greek Glen" where according to legend many Greeks found their death, the army seemed caught in a cage."^[31] As we see, Bury accepts the earlier opinion of K. Škorpil; however, he mistakes Vărbitsa Pass with Kotel Pass in ascribing the location of "Greek Glen".
The following objections can be raised against the opinion of Kotel Pass being the location of the battle: First of all, it is too risky to rely on local legends for determining topography of historic events, if those are not supported, at least in part, by literature data. Such precaution is necessary especially on the issue at hand, first, because such legends for Nicephorus's defeat exist in many places throughout Eastern Bulgaria (around Shumen and Preslav), not only among Bulgarian but also among the Turkish population there, and second, because those legends cannot be considered going back to old times: they were created relatively recently, during Bulgarian Renaissance and rediscovery of Bulgarian history. This is best exemplified by the name "Greek Glen". This name in the mouth of old Kotel citizens sounds "Grăshki" and according to some "Grishki" or "Grashki" (=Pea Glen) so that etymology can have completely different sense.
Without doubt, however, the best evidence can be found in the chronological data in Theophanes' account. As we saw above, Nicephorus entered the Bulgarian territory through the border fortress Marcelae on July 20. The first 3 days he spent on the move in skirmishes with the Bulgarians, and when he entered the mountain pass, he chose steep paths, so that on the fourth day, July 23, he could enter into the residence of the Bulgarian Khan. One cannot believe the words of Theophanes that Nicephores plundered and killed the population of the town, and then burned Krums' palaces only in one day, and immediately went back; because, as we saw, Krum even after the plunder negotiated for peace, probably to gain time while blocking the entrances and the exits of the pass, which happened on the 5th and the 6th day (Thursday and Friday) while Nicephorus was still in Pliska. Evidently, he left on the 6th day because on the 7th day (Saturday) on July 26 at dawn the Bulgarians were already attacking Nicephorus's tent. It is hardly conceivable that in such short time the Byzantians would reach the peaks Vetrila and Vid in the Kotel Pass and take good strategical positions, and Nicephorus make a military camp in the locality "Karenika" in the Kotel Pass. Moreover, Nicephorus learned for the Bulgarian fortifications while he was on the move and was already inside the pass, and this happened in the night of the 7th day, because if he knew before that he wouldn't want "to have wings" but would seek another way to retreat. The confusion and panic in the Byzantine army show that it was attacked without warning, so that it is unconceivable that Nicephorus would have time to fortify and choose "important positions" and, in general, to prepare for battle. All this shows that the defeat of Nicephorus happened not far from Krum's residence and this can be in Chalăka or Vărbitsa Passes. It is hard to say which one; however, if we take into account that Nicephorus chose the shortest way for retreat, it is more probable that Nicephorus chose the Vărbitsa pass through which he also entered in Bulgaria.^[21]

Sources

★ Michael the Syrian, patriarch of the Syrian Jacobites, published by J.–B. Chabot ''Chronique de Michel le Syrien'' (in French). Paris, (1905). vol. 3, p. 17.

★ Васил Н. Златарски, История на българската държава през средните векове, Част I, I изд. София 1918; II изд., Наука и изкуство, София 1970, под ред. на Петър Хр. Петров. ( Prof. Dr. )

★ John Skylitzes, Synopsis Historion, translated by Paul Stephenson.

★ Nikephoros Patriarch of Constantinople, Short History, C. Mango, ed., Dumbarton Oaks Texts 10, 1990.

★ Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, Ed. Carl de Boor, Leipzig.

★ Zonarae Ioannis. Epitome historiarum, ed. L. Dindorfii, 6 vol., Lipsiae (BT), 1858—75.

★ A History of the First Bulgarian Empire )

Footnotes

1. Theophanes Confessor. Chronographia, p.482-484
2. Theophanes Confessor. Chronographia, p.484-486
3. Theophanes Confessor. Chronographia, p.485
4. Anonymus Vaticanus, p.148
5. Theophanes Confessor. Chronographia, p.486
6. Chronique de Michel le Syrien, p.17
7. Anonymus Vaticanus, p.148-149
8. Ioannes Zonaras. Epistome historiatus, p.372-373
9. Georgius Monachus. Chroniconq, p.774
10. Anonymus Vaticanus, p.150
11. Anastasius Bibliothecarius. Chronographia tripertita, p.329
12. Theophanes Confessor. Chronographia, p.430
13. Anonymus Vaticanus, p.152
14. Theophanes Confessor. Chronographia, p.490-491
15. Theophanes Confessor. Chronographia, p.489-492
16. Anonymus Vaticanus, p.153
17. Theophanes Confessor. Chronographia, p.489-492
18. Ioannes Zonaras. Epistome historiatus, p.373
19. Chronique de Michel le Syrien, p.17
20. Theophanes Confessor, Chronographia, p. 491
21. Zlatarski, Appendix VII, pp. 527-533
22. Manassias Chronicle, Vatican transcription, p. 143
23. Theophanes Confessor. Chronographia, p.491
24. Ioannes Zonaras. Epistome historiatus, p.373
25. Manassias Chronicle, Vatican transcription, p. 143
26. Manassias Chronicle, Vatican transcription, p. 145
27. А. Васильев, Арабский синаксарь о болгарском походе императора Никифора I. В „Новый сборникъ” статей в честь проф. В. И. Ламанского, Петроград, 1905, стр. 361—362.
28. Иречек К., История болгар, перевод Бруна и Палаузова, Одесса, 1878.
29. Шкорпил В. и К., Някои бележки върху археологическите и историческите изследвания в Тракия, Пловдив 1885.
30. K. Шкорпил. Материалы для болгарских древностей Абоба-Плиска. Известия Русского Археологическото Института в Константинополе, Х (1905).
31. Bury, J.-B. A History of the Eastern Roman Empire from the fall of Irene to the accession of Basil I (802—867), London, 1912.
32. Zlatarski, Appendix VII, pp. 527-533