Download PDF | (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450_ vol. 22) Alexandru Madgearu - Byzantine Military Organization on the Danube, 10th–12th Centuries-BRILL (2013).
225 Pages
INTRODUCTION
The first monograph offering a comprehensive survey of the Byzantine military organization in Bulgaria and Dobrudja was written by Nicolae Banescu in 1946,! as final result of his studies published between 1922 and 1945 (for instance: Banescu 1922; Un duc byzantin du XI° siécle: Katakalon Kékauménos, BSH, 11, 1924, 25-36; Banescu 1927; La question de Paristrion, ou conclusion d’un long débat, B, 8, 1933, 277-308; Bizantul si romanitatea de la Dunarea de Jos, Bucuresti, 1938). Besides literary sources (almost the same as those available and known today), his work was based on a small number of lead seals, and on very scarce archaeological data from the fortifications in Capidava and Garvan, where excavations had started few years before his book was published (see G. Florescu, Fouilles et recherches archéologiques a Calachioi (Capidava?) en 1924 et 1926, Dacia, 3-4, 19271932, 483-515; Idem, Capidava tn epoca migratiilor, RIR, 16, 1946, 325-343; Gh. Stefan, Dinogetia, I. Risultati della prima campagna di scavi, Dacia, 7-8, 1937-1940 (1941), 401-425).
The book published in 1946 was the first one exclusively dedicated to the military and administrative organization of the provinces Paradunavon and Bulgaria. Before Banescu, Nicolae Iorga,? Gheorghe I. Bratianu,? Dragutin Anastasijevi¢,+ Petar Mutaftiev,5 Constantin Necsulescu® have dealt with this topic only tangentially. The first seals of military and civilian dignitaries were published in the 1930s. Many came from Silistra, a city within the borders of Romania at that time (see N. Banescu, Les sceaux byzantins trouvés a Silistrie, B, 7, 1932, 1, 321-331; N. Banescu, P. Papahagi, Plombs byzantins découverts a Silistrie, B, 10, 1935, 2, 601-606). Gheorghe I. Bratianu’s outstanding monograph dedicated to the Black Sea also contributed to the study of the Byzantine period in the Danubian region. However, although written between 1946 and 1947, the book was published only in 1969, as the author was sent to prison by the Communist regime, and the manuscript was taken to France by Vitalien Laurent, and published there a cultural association of the Romanian diaspora).”
The development of the archaeological researches in Romania and Bulgaria after 1948 led to the identification of other Byzantine fortifications, in addition to those sites on which excavations continued: Capidava, Garvan, Isaccea, Pacuiul lui Soare (in the Romanian part of Dobrudja),® Pliska, Preslav, Silistra and Varna (in Bulgaria).
The next work building upon of N. Banescu’s was Ion Barnea’s contribution to the third volume of the series “Din istoria Dobrogei”, published in 1971.9 Barnea studied military organization on the basis of archaeological finds and of the then most recently discovered seals. He also analyzed the list of offices published by Nicolas Oikonomides in 1965.
The monograph included the results of archaeological excavations carried out by I. Barnea himself together with Gheorghe Stefan and Bucur Mitrea at Garvan and Isaccea, and also took into account the research of the younger generation of archaeologists (Petre Diaconu and Radu Florescu) at Pacuiul lui Soare and Capidava. The archaeological monograph of Dinogetia-Garvan published in 1967 brought a decisive contribution to drawing a clear chronology of the period.!° A brief synthesis of the then current research on the Byzantine frontier in the 10th—12th centuries was presented at the 13th International Congress of Byzantine Studies (London, 1966)."! Several studies appeared in the 1960s on the military history and historical geography of the Danubian region in the Byzantine period, by such scholars as Alexandru Bolsacov-Ghimpu,” Constantin Cihodaru,'® Petre Diaconu,!* Alexander Kuzev,! Petre 8. Nasturel,!® Eugen Stanescu,!” Andrew Urbansky,!® Tadeusz Wasilewski.19
On the occasion of the 14th International Congress of Byzantine Studies in Bucharest (1971), a remarkable catalogue was published under the title “Cultura bizantina in Romania” [Byzantine Culture in Romania], and together with it a number of papers presented at the congress, which were dedicated to the history of the Byzantine military organization of the Danube region.2° Petre Diaconu’s monograph on the Pechenegs, which had been published the previous year, also included some discussion of the military organization of Paradunavon.”! He continued his studies in the same vein with his book on the Cumans.??
A new generation of historians approached the topic in the 1970s, using either literary (Ivan BoZilov,?3 Jonathan Shepard,”* Nicolae Serban Tanagoca,”> Vasilka Tapkova-Zaimova),”° or archaeological sources, particularly the ever-growing data resulting from excavations in Pacuiul lui Soare, Capidava, Garvan, Isaccea, as well as from newly opened sites in Nufaru, Turcoaia, Tulcea, Krivina, Odarci, Vetren, Branicevo (Stefka Angelova, Silvia Baraschi, Victor H. Baumann, Ljudmila Donéeva-Petkova, Gheorghe Manucu-Adamesteanu, Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, Marko Popovi¢, Ioan Vasiliu). In Serbia, the building of the power plants in the Iron Gates region offered the opportunity for many rescue excavations, which brought out some results relevant to the history of the 10th—12th centuries. A small sector of the Danube frontier was thus studied in an almost exhaustive manner, although only on the southern bank of the river (no similar research was carried out on the northern, Romanian bank). Finally, excavations in Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica), Belgrade and Brani¢evo concerned also the Byzantine fortifications in the area.?”
A significant progress came with the discovery of many lead seals concerning the military organization, which were later published by Georgi Atanasov, Ion Barnea, Ivan Jordanov, Ljubomir Maksimovic, Gheorghe Manucu-Adamesteanu, Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, and Werner Seibt. However, by far the most important discovery was that of an entire archive of hundreds of seals in Preslav, the result of Ivan Jordanov’s intensive work on that site. This was a material of unique value not just for the region, but for the Byzantine Empire as a whole, since nowhere else had so many seals been found in a precisely dated context. The numismatic researches of Gabriel Custurea, I. Jordanov, Gh. Manucu-Adamesteanu and E. Oberlander-Tarnoveanu were also important contribution to the refinement of the chronology of the Danube frontier.
After 1990 new archaeological excavations were carried out in Piatra Frecatei, Hargova, Preslav, Pliska, Skala, Rujno, and field work continued at Pacuiul lui Soare, Capidava, Garvan, Nufaru, and Isaccea. Those excavations were conducted by G. Atanasov, Alexandru Barnea, V. H. Baumann, Costel Chiriac, Oana Damian, I. Jordanov, Gh. Manucu-Adamesteanu, Ioan C. Opris, Dorel Paraschiv, and Valeri Yotov.
The rapidly growing amount of information and the general development of studies on Byzantine military history made possible a number of synthetic studies, which clarified various aspects of the military organization of the Danube provinces, or of the frontier history. The studies published by I. Barnea,?® P. Diaconu,?9 I. Jordanov,?° Gh. Manucu-Adamesteanu,?! N. Oikonomides*? and T. Wasilewski,33 brought important contributions to the chronology of the Byzantine military and administrative organization, as well as of the Pecheneg and Cuman invasions. Moreover, the studies of the Hungarian medievalist Ferenc Makk concerning the Byzantine-Hungarian relations during the uth and 12th centuries dealt also with the Danube frontier, as the military confrontations between Byzantium and Hungary involved the middle course of the river.3+ Other significant contributions to the study of the Danube region may be found in studies of the general military history of the Byzantine Empire published by John Haldon,?> Hans-Joachim Kiihn,?® Jonathan Shepard?” and Warren Treadgold.°*
The British Byzantinist Paul Stephenson wrote several studies, later incorporated into a monograph about the Balkan provinces of the Byzantine Empire in the 10th—12th centuries, with many innovative ideas on the evolution of the Danube frontier.3° Ion Bica’s book on the province Paradunavon is hardly accessible, as it was published only in a small number of copies.?° Florin Curta’s chapters on the Byzantine Danube provinces and the nomad warriors in the history of early medieval South-Eastern Europe should also be mentioned for giving more attention to the archaeological and numismatic data than Stephenson’s book.*!
The recent acceleration over the last few decades of the development of Byzantine Studies, especially in the fields of archaeology and sigillography had a major contribution to a better understanding of the military organization in the Danube region in the 1oth-12th centuries. A new synthesis is now possible and necessary.4? The present book, an updated version of the original manuscript published in Romanian in 2007 by “Cetatea de Scaun” publishing house, is the final result of several of studies dedicated to the beginnings of the Danube provinces, the evolution of the military organization, and different chronological aspects concerning this topic.*?
Some of my initial opinions have changed after learning about the discovery of new seals or the refinement of the analysis of the existing data. The research for this book owes much to the Fulbright post-doctoral grant I received from Ohio State University (October 2002—March 2003), and to further studies in the libraries of Rome and the Dumbarton Oaks Center of Byzantine Studies in Washington DC, as well as in Bulgaria. Many thanks are due to those who have provided me with books and studies which were instrumental for the writing of this work: Viorel Achim, Georgi Atanasov, Jean-Claude Cheynet, Florin Curta, Gabriel Custurea, Anton Cusa, the late Petre Diaconu, Stela Doncheva, Sergiu Iosipescu, Ivan Jordanov, Gheorghe Manucu-Adamesteanu, Emest Oberlander-Tarmoveanu, Paul Stephenson, Victor Spinei, and Valery Yotov.
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