Rus’ attack on Constantinople
On 18 June 860, while the emperor and the fleet were away, about two hundred Rus’ ships entered the Bosporus and ravaged the suburbs of Constantinople and the Princes’ Islands — the first Rus’ attack on the Byzantine capital.
- Date
- 18 June – 4 August 860exact date · duration: ≈ 2 monthsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Varangians, Byzantine Empire
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Siege of Constantinople (860); Поход Аскольда и Дира на Царьград
Michael III had left for a campaign against the Arabs in Asia Minor, and the navy was fighting in the Mediterranean. The Rus’ plundered the suburbs and monasteries and killed many inhabitants; Patriarch Photius, an eyewitness, described the terror in two homilies and called the attackers an “obscure” or “unknown” people. The date 18 June comes from a short Byzantine chronicle, the “Brussels Chronicle” published by Franz Cumont in 1894; by 4 August, the probable date of Photius’ second homily, the Rus’ had gone. Later tradition attributed the city’s rescue to the robe of the Theotokos dipped into the sea, which raised a storm.
The Primary Chronicle, using Byzantine sources, places the attack under 866 and ascribes it to Askold and Dir of Kyiv, but its 9th-century chronology is artificial, and whether the attackers came from Kyiv or from the north is debated. The raid revealed a new power on the Black Sea and was soon followed by the first Byzantine mission to the Rus’.
Connections
Consequences
- First Christianization of the Rus’between 860 and 867 · Eastern Europe
Related events
- The “Rhos” at the court of Louis the Pious18 May 839 · Western and Central Europethe first two dated appearances of the Rus’ in written sources
- Askold and Dir rule in Kyiv862–882 · Eastern Europethe chronicle ascribes the attack to Askold and Dir and dates it to 866
Same participants
- Calling of the Varangians862 · Eastern Europevia 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
- Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople907 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · 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 5 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Great Heathen Army in England865–878
- Mission of Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia863 – 6 April 885
Eastern Europe
- Calling of the Varangians862
- First Christianization of the Rus’between 860 and 867
- Askold and Dir rule in Kyiv862–882
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Siege of Constantinople (860)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Поход руси на Царьград (860)
- Vasiliev A. A. The Russian Attack on Constantinople in 860. — Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1946.
- Кузенков П. В. Поход 860 г. на Константинополь и первое крещение Руси в средневековых письменных источниках // Древнейшие государства Восточной Европы. 2000 г. — М.: Восточная литература, 2003. — С. 3–172.
- Wikidata: Q815167