Rus'–Byzantine War (907)
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Siege of Constantinople by the Rus | |||||||
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Part of Rus'-Byzantine Wars | |||||||
Oleg leads a squadron of horse-driven boats to the walls of Tsargrad. A medieval Rus' illumination. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Byzantine Empire | Rus' | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Leo the Wise |
Oleg of Kiev | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
unknown | 2,000 ships |
The Rus'–Byzantine War of 907 is associated in the
Primary Chronicle
The chronicle describes the raid of 907 in considerable detail. The memory of the campaign seems to have been transmitted orally among several generations of the Rus'. This may account for the abundance of colorful details that belong to folklore rather than to history.
We are told that, at first, Byzantine envoys attempted to poison Oleg before he could approach Constantinople. The Rus' leader, renowned for his oracular powers, refused to drink from the poisoned cup. When his navy was within sight of Constantinople, he found the city gate closed and the entry into the Bosporus barred with iron chains.
At this point, Oleg resorted to subterfuge: he effected a landing on the shore and had some 2,000 dugout boats (
The threat to Constantinople was ultimately relieved by peace negotiations which bore fruit in the
Interpretations
That Oleg's campaign is not fiction is clear from the authentic text of
Despite recurrent military conflicts, the relations between the Rus' and Byzantium seem to have been predominantly peaceful. The
Furthermore, substantial contingents of the Rus' joined the imperial service and took part in the Byzantine naval expeditions throughout the 10th century. A squadron of 700 Rus' mercenaries participated in the Crete expedition of 902. A unit of 415 Varangians was involved in the Italian expedition of 936. Thirteen years later, in 949, Rus' troops sailed on nine vessels to accompany the Greeks in their expedition against the Emirate of Crete.
See also
References
- Andrey Nikolayevich Sakharov. Дипломатия древней Руси: IX – первая половина X в. Moscow, 1980.
- Analysis of Nestor's account of the expedition on www.textology.ru.