Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople
The Primary Chronicle tells how in 907 Oleg sailed to Constantinople with 2,000 boats, put them on wheels and nailed his shield to the city gates, forcing the Greeks to pay tribute and grant trade privileges. Byzantine sources are silent about the campaign.
- Date
- 907year known
- Place
- Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Route
- Kyiv → Dnieper Rapids → Constantinople
- Participants
- Oleg of Novgorod, Kievan Rus’, Byzantine Empire, Varangians
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Rus'–Byzantine War of 907; Treaty of 907; Щит на вратах Царьграда; Договор 907 года
The chronicle’s account is full of folklore: the Greeks try to poison Oleg, but he refuses the food and wine, and his people call him Veshchy, “the Seer”. The Byzantines agree to pay a large tribute and to supply Rus’ merchants coming to Constantinople with monthly provisions, baths, and anchors and rigging for the voyage home; the merchants were to live at St Mamas outside the walls.
The silence of the Greek sources has led some historians to doubt the campaign. Most accept it, because the preliminary peace of 907 and the full treaty of 911, whose texts are preserved in the chronicle, presuppose a conflict; some date the raid to 904, when Byzantium was fighting Leo of Tripoli. Rus’ contingents soon appear in Byzantine service, including 700 Rus’ in an early 10th-century naval expedition against Crete.
Connections
Consequences
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · Balkans and Anatolia
Related events
- Oleg takes Kyiv882 · Eastern Europe
Same participants
- Mission of Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia863 – 6 April 885 · Western and Central Europevia Byzantine Empire
- Great Rus’ raid on the Caspianbetween 913 and 914 · Middle East and Egyptvia Varangians
Same place
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
- First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’ attack on Constantinople18 June – 4 August 860 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Fall of Constantinople29 May 1453 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Founding of Cluny Abbeybetween 909 and 910
- Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte911
- Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basinbetween 894 and 895 – 907
- Viking siege of Parisbetween 24 November and 25 November 885 – October 886
- Abd al-Rahman III proclaims the Caliphate of Córdoba16 January 929
+ 2 events
Eastern Europe
- The Pechenegs first come to the Rus’ land915
- Ibn Fadlan’s embassy to the Volga Bulgars21 June 921 – 12 May 922
- Oleg takes Kyiv882
- Askold and Dir rule in Kyiv862–882
- Gnezdovo inscriptionbetween 925 and 960
Middle East and Egypt
- Great Rus’ raid on the Caspianbetween 913 and 914
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Rus'–Byzantine War (907)
- Wikipedia (English): Rus'–Byzantine Treaty (907)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Русско-византийская война (907)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Русско-византийский договор (907)
- Сахаров А. Н. Дипломатия Древней Руси: IX — первая половина X в. — М.: Мысль, 1980.
- Wikidata: Q2707090