Vladimir’s siege of Chersonesus (Korsun)
Vladimir besieged and took Chersonesus, Byzantium’s outpost in Crimea, and demanded the hand of the emperors’ sister Anna; according to the Primary Chronicle he was baptised there, married Anna and returned the city to the empire as a bride price.
- Date
- between 988 and 989exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Chersonesus (Korsun)today: Sevastopol, Crimea · Eastern Europe
- Route
- Kyiv → Chersonesus (Korsun)
- Participants
- Vladimir the Great, Kievan Rus’, Byzantine Empire, Basil II, Anna Porphyrogenita
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Siege of Korsun; Korsun campaign; Взятие Корсуни; Rus'–Byzantine War of 988; Anastas of Cherson
The background was the alliance of 987–988: Basil II, threatened by the rebellion of Bardas Phokas, asked Vladimir for help and promised him his sister Anna on condition that he be baptised. A Rus’ force of six thousand, according to Stephen of Taron, helped Basil defeat the rebels at Chrysopolis at the end of 988 and at Abydos on 13 April 989; these troops became the core of the Varangian Guard. The attack on Chersonesus is usually explained as pressure on the emperors, who were in no hurry to send a porphyrogenita to a “barbarian”.
The chronicle says the city fell after a traitor, Anastas, shot an arrow into the Rus’ camp showing where to cut the water pipes. It dates the siege to 988; but Leo the Deacon links the capture of Cherson with a comet seen in 989, and Jacob the Monk says Vladimir took Korsun in the third year after his own baptism, so many historians prefer 989 and think the prince had been baptised earlier, in 987 or 988, perhaps in Kyiv.
Connections
Related events
- Battle of the Gates of Trajan17 August 986 · Balkans and Anatoliadefeated by the Bulgarians and facing revolts, Basil II sought the help of Vladimir
- Baptism of Rus’988 · Eastern Europeaccording to the chronicle Vladimir was baptised in Korsun
Same participants
- Building of the Church of the Tithes989–996 · Eastern Europevia Vladimir the Great
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Hugh Capet becomes King of the FranksMay 987 – 3 July 987
- Christianization of Icelandbetween 999 and 1000
- Coronation of Stephen I of Hungarybetween 25 December 1000 and 1 January 1001
- Baptism of Poland14 April 966
Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of the Gates of Trajan17 August 986
- Siege of Dorostolon23 April 971 – July 971
- Sviatoslav’s invasion of Bulgariabetween 967 and 968 – July 971
North America
- Leif Erikson reaches Vinlandc. 1000
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Chersonesus
- Wikipedia (English): Anna Porphyrogenita
- Wikipedia (Russian): Русско-византийская война (988)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Херсонес Таврический
- Wikipedia (Russian): Анна Византийская
- Poppe A. The Political Background to the Baptism of Rus’: Byzantine–Russian Relations between 986–89 // Dumbarton Oaks Papers. — 1976. — Vol. 30. — P. 195–244.
- Карпов А. Ю. Владимир Святой. — М.: Молодая гвардия, 1997. — (Жизнь замечательных людей).
- Wikidata: Q3778666