Date:

The Viking Rus’ siege of Constantinople

The Rus’ Siege of Constantinople occurred in AD 860, in which Byzantine and Western European sources document an expeditionary force of the Rus’ Khaganate that tried to conquer the centre of the Byzantine Empire.

The Rus’ Khaganate, also Russkiy Kaganate was a state, or a cluster of city-states in present-day Russia, comprised of a multi-cultural society consisting of Slavic, Turkic, Baltic, Finnic, Hungarian, and Norse peoples, although the scholarly consensus suggests that the Rus’ originated in eastern Sweden around the eighth century, and that their name has the same origin as Roslagen in Swedish derived from an Old Norse term for “the men who row”.

- Advertisement -

In AD 860, a fleet of around 200 Rus’ vessels carrying up to 5,000 soldiers sailed into the Bosporus and started attacking the suburbs of the imperial capital. According to an oration written by the ecumenical patriarch Photios I of Constantinople, the attack by the “unknown people” or the “obscure people” was “like a thunderbolt from heaven”, and was as sudden and unexpected “as a swarm of wasps”.

Although debated, the casus belli that led to the invasion may have resulted from the construction of the Sarkel fortress by Byzantine engineers in the AD 830s or 840s for their ally the Khazars. The fortress restricted the Rus’ trade route along the Volga-Don portage, which was used to cross from the Black Sea to the Volga, and thence to the Caspian and Baltic.

Walls of Constantinople – Image Credit : Bigdaddy1204 – CC BY-SA 3.0

Realising the impending threat, the city prefect Nicetas Oryphas sealed the city gates, relying on the extensive Roman city walls and fortifications to repel the advance, but in doing so left the outer settlements and hinterland unprotected.

At the time, the bulk of the Byzantine forces led by Emperor Michael III were engaged in repelling the Abbasid advance in Asia Minor, and the Navy was occupied fighting Arabs in the Aegean Sea and against Danish Viking raids in the Mediterranean.

- Advertisement -

Lacking the resources and siege equipment to take the city, the Rus’ advanced into the Sea of Marmora and plundered the monasteries on the Isles of the Princes, capturing servants of the exiled former Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople and dismembered them with axes.

After months of raiding, the Rus’ withdrew, although contemporary accounts leave no clue as to why or the resulting outcome of the siege.

Later sources attribute the Rus’ retreat to the return of Emperor Michael III, who along with Photios placed a veil of the Theotokos into the sea, giving rise to a tempest that dispersed the Rus’ fleet (although Photius’s oration neither mentions Michael III’s return to the capital nor the miracle with the veil).

Header Image Credit : Nicholas Roerich – Public Domain

- Advertisement -
spot_img
Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan is multi-award-winning journalist and the Managing Editor at HeritageDaily. His background is in archaeology and computer science, having written over 8,000 articles across several online publications. Mark is a member of the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW), the World Federation of Science Journalists, and in 2023 was the recipient of the British Citizen Award for Education, the BCA Medal of Honour, and the UK Prime Minister's Points of Light Award.
spot_img
spot_img
spot_img

Mobile Application

spot_img

Related Articles

4,000 fragments of Roman wall paintings unearthed in Villajoyosa

Archaeologists excavating the Roman villa of Barberes Sud in Villajoyosa, Spain, have unearthed over 4,000 fragments of ornamental wall paintings.

Archaeologists solve the mystery of the “Deserted Castle”

Along the shores of a Danube tributary near Stopfenreuth are a section of ruined walls known locally as the “Deserted Castle”.

Ancient lecture hall discovered at Agrigento

An international team of archaeologists, led by Prof. Dr. Monika Trümper and Dr. Thomas Lappi from the Free University of Berlin have discovered an ancient lecture hall during excavations at Agrigento.

Ancient Greek theatre discovered on Lefkada

Archaeologists have discovered an Ancient Greek theatre during a long-term study on the island of Lefkada, located in the Ionian Sea on the west coast of Greece.

Dacian treasure hoard discovered by detectorists

A pair of detectorists conducting a survey near the town of Breaza have discovered a major treasure hoard associated with the Dacian people.

Earthquake reveals Myanmar’s hidden monuments

The 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar on March 28th caused widespread devastation, claiming thousands of lives and massive destruction to property.

Ritual offerings deposited by extinct civilisation discovered in Mexican cave

A mapping project of Tlayócoc Cave, located in the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, has led to the discovery of ritual offerings deposited by an extinct group of the Tlacotepehua people.

North Macedonian ruins could be the lost capital of the Kingdom of Lyncestis

Archaeologists excavating at Gradishte, an archaeological site in the Bitola Municipality of North Macedonia, believe they may have uncovered the remains of Lyncus, the lost capital city of the ancient Kingdom of Lyncestis.