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A Chronological Note on the First Persian Campaign of Heraclius (622)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

N. Oikonomidès
N. Oikonomidès*
Affiliation:
University of Montreal, Canada
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Extract

The main sources concerning Heraclius’ first campaign against the Persians are : (a) The poem of George Pisides, known under the Latin title Expeditio Persica; Pisides, an eyewitness, composed and read his panegyric poem shortly after the end of the campaign, when the emperor returned to Constantinople.(b) A chapter of the Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor (818) concerning the events of the year 622; the first part of this chapter, concerning the preparations and the beginning of the campaign (p. 302, l. 32-p. 303, l. 17) is based on sources that have not been preserved; the second part (p. 303, l. 17-p. 306, l. 8) depends almost completely upon the poem of Pisides. Of the other Greek sources, the Paschal Chronicle and the Chronicle of Patriarch Nicephorus do not even mention the campaign, while later chroniclers, such as Cedrenus and Zonaras, summarize and reproduce the account of Theophanes. The non-Greek chronicles have also a very limited importance for our research since most of them ignore this first campaign, or contain no chronological data.

Type
Research Article
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 1 , 1975 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1975

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References

1. Ed. with Italian translation and important commentary by Pertusi, A., Giorgio di Pisidia, Poemi, I: Panegirici Epici (Studia Patristica et Byzantina, 7: Ettal, 1959), pp. 84–136 Google Scholar (text and transl.), pp. 136-75 (commentary). In the following, we use the abbreviations: Pisides in order to refer to the text; and Pertusi in order to refer to the commentary.

2. Pertusi, p. 15; Sternbach, L., Rozprawy Akademii Umiejetnopości, Wydzial Filologiczny, 2nd Ser., XV (Krakow, 1900), 295–6 Google Scholar.

3. Theophanis Chronographia, ed. Boor, C. de, I (Leipzig, 1883), pp. 302 Google Scholar, 1. 32-306, 1. 8 (in the following referred to as Theophanes).

4. In the margins of his edition of Theophanes De Boor has given references to the corresponding lines of Pisides. A very close comparison of the two texts shows that Theophanes has followed Pisides so closely, that he eventually repeats himself; e.g., the army manoeuvres organized by Heraclius before the beginning of the operations, are described twice: on p. 303, 11. 12-17, following Theophanes’ unknown source, and on p. 304, 11. 3-11, following Pisides. The important elements of information concerning the campaign itself, ignored by Pisides and provided by Theophanes, are: the name of the Persian general Shahrbaraz, to whom Pisides ironically refers as (cf. E. Gerland, in BZ, III (1894), 347, n. 1); the geographical precision that the military operations started when Heraclius arrived in ‘the region of Armenia’ : Theophanes, p. 304, i. 13); and the indication that the Byzantine army went to winter quarters in Armenia (єiς p. 306, 1. 8); but Armenia is mentioned by Pisides in a similar context (II, 1. 345, cf. Theophanes, p. 304, 1. 25).

5. ‘Die persischen Feldzüge des Kaisers Herakleios’, BZ, III (1894), 340-8.

6. L’imperatore Eraclio (Firenze, 1905), pp. 111-20.

7. Istorija Vizantii, III (Kiev, 1915), pp. 57f.

8. ‘The First Campaign of Heraclius against Persia’, English Historical Review, XIX (1904), 694-702; and again in Cambridge Medieval History, II (1913), pp. 292-3; concerning the problem of chronology see also BZ, XXVI (1926), 55ff.

9. Ostrogorsky, G., History of the Byzantine State (Oxford, 1968), pp. 100–1 Google Scholar. Manandjan, Ja. A., ‘Maršruty persidskih pohodov imperatora Iraklija’, Vizantijskij Vremennik, III (1950), 133–53 Google Scholar, barely mentions this first campaign on p. 134. On the contrary, a very detailed description of the campaign is given by Stratos, A., Byzantium in the Seventh Century (Amsterdam, 1968), pp. 135–44 Google Scholar.

10. Dates: Theophanes, p. 302, 11. 32-4; cf. Pisides II, 11. 10-11.

11. Theophanes, p. 303, 11. 10-11. I have commented on the meaning of this controversial phrase in an article to appear in Zbornik Radova Viz. Inst., XV, under the title ‘Les premières mentions des thèmes dans la chronique de Théophane’.

12. Pisides II, 11. 38, 54, 56, 76-205; Theophanes, p. 303, 11. 24f. It must be remembered here that in 621 Heraclius, after concluding peace with the Avars, had transferred to Asia Minor his European troops, obviously in view of the campaign that he planned for 622: Theophanes, p. 302, 11. 28-30.

13. Pisides II, 11. 57-9.

14. According to Theophanes, p. 304, 1. 13.

15. Pisides II, 11. 206-38; Theophanes, p. 304, 11. 13-18 (summary incomplete).

16. Pisides II, 11. 256-60. I have added commas after (1. 256) and (1. 257).

17. Theophanes, p. 304, 11. 18-20.

18. E.g., instead of (in Pisides II, 1. 257). It is significant that the correction of into has already been proposed by Tafel, in order to reconcile Pisides’ and Theophanes’ versions of the events: Tafel, G. L. F., Theophanis Chronographia; Probe einer Neuen kritisch-exegetischen Ausgabe (Vienna, 1852), p. 55 Google Scholar, n. 11 (offprint of the Sitzungsberichte der philol.—histor. Classe der kaiserl. Akademie d. Wiss. IX, 1852).

19. See, e.g., the considerations of Baynes, English Historical Review, loc. cit., p. 697 and n. 29. Pertusi’s translation (p. 109), although much better than any previous one, also suggests that the events that follow were in the winter 622-3.

20. Later in his text, Pisides describes the Byzantine army as suffering from the ‘hot sun’ (Pisides III, 1. 100), which is hardly possible in winter.

21. Pisides II, 11. 286-8.

22. Pisides II, 11. 340-3; cf. Theophanes, p. 304, 1. 24 (different interpretation of the Persian move).

23. Pisides II, 1. 345; Theophanes, p. 304, 1. 25.

24. Pisides II, 11. 368-75; III, 11. 1-2; Theophanes, p. 305, 11. 2-4.

25. Cf.von Oppolzer, Th. Ritter, Canon der Finstenisse (Vienna, 1887)Google Scholar [Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe, 25], p. 353, and Grumel, V., La Chronologie (Traité des Etudes Byzantines, I: Paris, 1958), p. 461 Google Scholar, cf. p. 458.

26. Pisides III, 11. 13-16.

27. Pisides III, 11. 3-6.

28. Pisides III, 11. 23-4, 27, 30.

29. Pisides III, I. 100: this is normal for the month of August.

30. This is obvious from the story of a Persian defector to the Byzantines, related by Pisides II, 11. 137-77.

31. Pisides III, 11. 385-485.

32. It has been pointed out (Pertusi, p. 161; cf. I. Dujčev in BZ, LVII (1964), 415) that the comparison of the emperor to Moses is a topos in Byzantine poetry and particularly in Pisides’ poems. But this remark does not explain the mention of Elias in the present text.

33. Pisides III, 11. 300-1.

34. Pisides III, 11. 311-40; Theophanes, p. 306, 11. 7-8.

35. See, e.g., Stratos, loc. cit., p. 138.

36. Pisides I, 11. 157-252.

37. Pisides II, 11. 76-205.

38. Pisides II, 11. 206-38.

39. Pisides III, 11. 137-77.

40. Pisides II, 1. 56.

41. Pisides II, 11. 38, 54.

42. E.g. in 607-8, invasion of Armenia, Cappadocia, Galatia, Paphlagonia down to Chalcedon; in 611, temporary occupation of Caesarea; in 615, the Persians arrive again at Chalcedon; in 619, they occupy Ancyra: see Pernice, , loc. cit., pp. 57f Google Scholar. and Pertusi, pp. 136f.

43. Cf. Pernice, loc. cit., p. 63, n. 1.

44. Cf. supra, note 11.