Despite the eighth-century extension of imperial authority into central Greece and the Peloponnese, Byzantium around the year 800 was still a medium-sized state.
The only substantial landmass under effective imperial control was Asia Minor. Beyond this, the empire amounted to Constantinople and its hinterland, the shores of Greece, a few Aegean islands, and a handful of coastal outposts in southern Italy, the Adriatic, and the Crimea. Byzantine influence in Italy had been undermined by Charlemagne’s annexation of Lombard territory and his alliance with the papacy. On other frontiers too Byzantine authority was challenged. In the east an Arab Muslim threat persisted throughout the ninth century. While high-profile Abbasid campaigns like that against Amorion in 838 certainly became rarer in this period, seasonal raids on Anatolia were still common. A further Muslim threat came from the sea. In 827 the North African Aghlabids attacked Sicily; around the same time Crete fell to Muslims from Spain. Meanwhile to the north Bulgaria continued to threaten the empire. During a campaign in 811 emperor Nikephoros I (802-11) was ambushed and killed by the Bulgarians in the Haimos mountains, the first eastern emperor to die in battle since Valens in 378 (Ostrogorsky 1968:186-200; Fine 1983: 94-8; Shepard 1995:234-6; Whittow 1996:275-80; Treadgold 1997:424-9; Magdalino 2002b: 169-72).
The two decades which followed Nikephoros’ death were typified by internal unrest and external defeat. Nikephoros’ son Staurakios was forced almost immediately to abdicate in favour of his brother-in-law, Michael Rangabe. Michael’s own reign was notable for little except the Byzantine recognition of Charlemagne as an emperor, albeit not as Emperor of the Romans, a title reserved to the emperor in Constantinople. After another catastrophic Bulgarian defeat Michael was replaced as emperor by Leo the Armenian (813-20). Leo V’s own survival owed much to the death of the Bulgarian khan Krum in 814 and the thirty-year truce which followed (Fine 1983: 98-110; Shepard 1995: 236-7). Meanwhile, Leo reintroduced Iconoclasm, forcing iconophiles such as Theodore the Stoudite into exile. Leo’s murderer and successor Michael II (820-9), founder of the Amorian dynasty, maintained his predecessor’s iconoclast policy. But upheaval continued during the unsuccessful coup of Thomas the Slav in 821-2. It was only with the accession of Michael’s son Theophilos in 829 that some stability returned. New administrative units (both themes and kleisourai) were created in eastern Asia Minor. A strategos (thematic governor) was appointed to Cherson, Byzantium’s outpost on the Crimea. Architects were sent to Sarkel on the river Don to build a defensive fortification for the Khazars, Byzantium’s allies on the steppes. Complex links were also forged with the east. Envoys, intellectuals, and manuscripts were exchanged with Baghdad. Theophilos’ new suburban palace of Bryas was built in conscious imitation of Arab models. Despite Abbasid success at Amorion in 838, Theophilos’ own armies enjoyed victories against the Arabs which were celebrated in imperial triumphs in Constantinople (Ostrogorsky 1968: 200-9; Tread-gold 1997: 429-46; Whittow 1996:150-9, 233-5; Mango 1978:108; McCormick 1986: 146-50).
Theophilos’ son, Michael III (842-67), was the last Amorian. The events of his reign are notoriously difficult to reconstruct because they were later extensively rewritten by historians loyal to the dynasty of Michael’s eventual successor. Nonetheless, it is clear that Michael’s reign witnessed an important shift in state religious policy. In 843 veneration of icons was reintroduced by the empress-regent Theodora, a change which made a deep impact on religious life (Herrin 2001: 202-13). Within decades new artistic and architectural forms had developed, such as the cross-in-square church in which representations of Christ, the Virgin, and the Saints arranged in hierarchical order welcomed the faithful into the court of heaven (Mango 1978:108-20). Another form of religious expression, monasticism, also began to expand, although the relationship between icon restoration and other social, political, and economic factors, such as lay patronage, in the growth of monasteries is complex (Morris 1995: 9-142). Equally obscure are the reasons for the expansion of Orthodox Christianity outside Byzantium, although without doubt missions were widespread during the ninth and tenth centuries, and many states and individuals converted to Orthodoxy. The most famous missionaries were Cyril (Constantine) and Methodios, who travelled to Moravia in 863 armed with a new alphabet which facilitated the writing down of Slav translations of the Greek liturgy. Although their mission in Moravia ultimately failed, their disciples helped to establish the Bulgarian Church after the conversion of khan Boris in 864. Another high-profile conversion involved Vladimir; prince of Kiev, who accepted Christianity in 988. Yet, few of these prominent conversions were initiated by the Byzantine imperial court. Only among the Slavs of central Greece and the Pelo-ponnese does there seem to have been a systematic Byzantine conversion policy. Elsewhere conversion was usually requested by would-be converts and most missions were undertaken by private individuals rather than organized by the state (Obolensky 1971: 69-200; Shepard 2002).
World History
