But before that he tried to break the power
of the Chazars, which from the beginning of the ninth century had been
continually declining.
of the Chazars, which from the beginning of the ninth century had been
continually declining.
Cambridge Medieval History - v4 - Eastern Roman Empire
They numbered
eight hordes living separately, each probably having its own centre like
the Avars, who lived in their hrings.
The relations of the Patzinaks to their heighbours and to surround-
ing nations are interesting. The Greeks, endeavouring to restrain them
from invading their colonies in the Crimea, sent them valuable gifts,
and bought their assistance against their enemies, such as the Magyars,
Danubian Bulgars, Russians, and Chazars. In times of peace the
Patzinaks furthered the commercial intercourse between the Russians
and Cherson (Korsun) by transporting their merchandise. In times of
war they not only robbed the Russian merchants but penetrated with
their predatory expeditions even as far as the dominions of Kiev. The
princes of Kiev preferred therefore to be on friendly terms with the
Patzinaks, and when they had a war with other Russian lands they often
won them over to be their allies.
As yet our attention has been engaged with the history of the steppes
of southern Russia. Now we must turn to the history of the Slav
tribes, who laid the foundations of the later Russian Empire. Even to
recent times there prevailed in Russian literature the opinion, defended
by the German scholar A. Schlözer, that the Russian empire was
founded as late as the middle of the ninth century by Northman
(Swedish) immigrants, who united under their dominion numerous Slav
and Finnish tribes, losing in course of time their own nationality, and
finally becoming blended with the Slav elements. This is the theory of
the Varangian origin of the Russian Empire, which was accepted even by
the foremost Russian historians, Karamzin, Pogodin, and Solov'ëv. The
Russian scholars were misled by the report of their own native annalist,
that the first Russian princes were called to the throne from foreign
lands and not earlier than the latter half of the ninth century. Just
a few scholars tried to prove that the Russian Empire originated by its
CA. VII.
## p. 200 (#242) ############################################
200
Russia. The “Varangian” theory
own innate vitality, without any external assistance. The historical truth
lies between the two extreme theories. It was expounded by the late
Professor V. Klyuchevski. While the name Rus no doubt belongs to the
Swedes and the dynasty which ruled till Fëdor Ivanovich descended from
Rurik', the legend that in 862 three Swedish brothers Rurik, Sineus,
and Truvor were called by the Slav and Finnish tribes to rule over them,
only recounts a single incident in the forniation of a great state in what
is now Russia.
By the authors of the sixth century a southern division of the
eastern group of Slavonic tribes is sometimes mentioned, which they call
the Antae? . These are the tribes which we now call Little Russians
or Ukrainians. The Avars tried to subdue the Antae, who in 602 were
allied with the Byzantines, but without success. From the seventh century
onwards we have no information at all of this branch of the Eastern Slavs.
This is explained by the circumstance that Byzantine historiography in
these times had considerably declined. But nevertheless we can propound
a probable supposition as to the history of the Antae from the latter half
of the seventh to the ninth century. As early as the second quarter of the
seventh century the dominion of the Avars was on the decline, and when
in 679 the principal part of the Bulgars departed from the lands near
the Black Sea to the Balkan peninsula, a favourable time opened for the
Antae. They were free from the hostile nomadic hordes, who marred any
peaceful existence, until the ninth century, when the Magyars appeared
near the Black Sea. We must suppose that the Antae spread very far to
the east during this period of peace. We learn from Procopius that Slav
colonisation had already approached the Sea of Azov in the first half of
the sixth century. The Antae were at this time settled to the north of
the Utigurs. Afterwards, up to the tenth century, they probably occupied
the whole northern borderland of the steppes of southern Russia as far
eastward as the river Don, but were driven out of these countries by the
later arrival of new nomadic hordes.
We have no reports of the names of the several tribes of the Eastern
Slavs of that period. The Russian annals enumerate them only according
to their position in the eleventh century. But at that time the Russian
peoples had already a history of several centuries; they began at the end
of the sixth or at the beginning of the seventh century to spread over
Russian territory from the south-west, especially from the south-eastern
slopes and spurs of the Carpathian mountains. At that time the Russian
Slavs already had a nucleus of political organisation. Masóūdi mentions
a once powerful Slavonic race, the Walinana, who lived on the western
banks of the Bug and were once oppressed by the Avars. The Walinana
were probably the first East Slavonic tribe to become the centre of some
state organisation; they founded a small federation of Slavs.
i Cf. Vol. 111. chapter XIII, pp. 327-8.
? See supra, p. 186.
## p. 201 (#243) ############################################
The Eastern Slavs
201
From this south-western corner of modern Russia the Slavonic coloni-
sation spread in an eastern and north-eastern direction. In the wild and
-boundless forests of Russia the Slavonic immigrants hunted wild animals,
kept bees, and soon tilled the land in clearings, founding there small
solitary homesteads not only surrounded by the forest but also secured on
every side by ditches and mounds. In course of time these settlements
of single farms developed into hamlets or villages of several farms! .
Besides the villages there soon arose along the Dnieper, the greatest
river in western Russia, several commercial centres, the kernels of future
commercial towns. The Greek colonies on the Black Sea had given the
impulse to these commercial relations with the more distant Russian
countries long before the Christian era. This connexion did not cease
even when some Greek cities on the Black Sea were destroyed during the
migrations of the nations. The Slavonic colonists thus found a market
for various products of their forest industry. Furs, honey, and wax were
the principal wares exported from Russia. The development of the
Russian trade was also favoured by the circumstance that, just at the
time when the Eastern Slavs began to occupy the wooded plains of Russia,
the dominion of the Chazars was organised in the southern steppes
between the Caspian and the Black Sea, a dominion which performed a
rather important cultural mission in the territories of the later south-
eastern Russia. Through the Chazar lands passed important commercial
routes, partly by land, partly by the rivers connecting Mesopotamia and
Central Asia with Eastern Europe, and vice versa. In the second half of
the seventh or in the first half of the eighth century the Chazars
further extended their empire over the lands of the central Dnieper,
subduing and making tributary the Slavonic tribe settled around Kiev
and subsequently called Polyans. The subjection of the Polyans to the
Chazars was not a hard one, and indeed brought eminent advantages to
the Polyans. The Slavs along the Dnieper were guarded against the
iproads of the nomadic hordes of Asia and had therefore free com-
mercial relations with the Black Sea, while new roads to the East through
the dominion of the Chazars were opened to them.
The Arabian author Ibn Khurdādhbih, in the first half of the ninth
century, gives us good information on the early and great development
of the Russian trade with the Byzantine Empire and the Orient. Russian
merchants not only sailed on the Black and Caspian Seas but brought
their wares even to Baghdad, to which in the middle of the eighth century
the centre of the Arabian Caliphate was transferred. The frequent finds
of Arabian coins in the territories of Russia are an important proof
of the development of this trade. Most of these coins date from the
pinth and tenth centuries, when the trade with the Orient flourished
best, but some of them belong to the beginning of the eighth century.
The Dnieper connected the Slavonic colonies of western Russia not
· Cf. Vol. 11. Chapter xiv, pp. 422-3.
OB, VII.
## p. 202 (#244) ############################################
202
Trade Routes
לר
only with the south but also with the north. It was possible to journey
from the Dnieper to the river Lovat, and to penetrate thence by Lake
Ilmen', the river Volkhov, the Ladoga lake, and the river Neva to
the Baltic Sea. Another route to this sea from the Dnieper was by the
river Dvina. Along both branches of this “route from the Varangians
to the Greeks arose the oldest commercial towns of Russia: Kiev,
Smolensk, Lyubech, Novgorod, Polotsk, and others. Besides these towns
situated directly on the Varangian-Greek trade route, there were a great
number of other towns which formed the connexion between this route
and the affluents of the Dnieper as well as the connexion by water with
the Volga, by which likewise passed the commercial route to the Orient
through the Volga-Bulgars.
As long as the steppes of southern Russia between the Don and
Dnieper were not occupied by the Magyars, no obstacles hindered the
Russian commerce with the Byzantines. But as soon as the Magyars
began to endanger the route, the several towns had to provide for the
security of their commerce. From that time the towns of Russia began
to fortify themselves and to organise a military force. The commercial
centres developed into fortresses offering their protection against hostile
attacks.
At this very time, the beginning of the ninth century, there began
to appear on the Russian rivers greater numbers of enterprising Swedish
companies, the so-called Varangians, travelling in armed bands to Byzan-
tium for commercial purposes. It seems that only a part of the Varan-
gians reached their goal, whereas the majority remained in the Russian
commercial towns, especially in Novgorod and Kiev. Here the inhabitants
employed them not only for their business but principally for their
defence. The Varangians therefore entered the military service of the
Russian towns, and also formed mercenary guards of the Russian com-
mercial caravans.
The fortified Russian towns which could command some military
force developed in course of time into centres of small states. The
inhabitants of the neighbouring smaller towns and villages began to
gravitate towards the greater towns, and in this wise arose the first
Russian town-states, the vólosti. At first all of them were probably
republics, but later some of them became principalities. These princi-
palities probably developed in those towns where the Varangian com-
panies were led by a powerful konung, who succeeded in seizing the
government. But some volosti certainly had princes of Slavonic origin.
These city-states were not founded on a racial basis. The majority
of them were composed of different tribes or parts of tribes; in others
one whole tribe was joined by parts of other tribes. From these fusions
towns arose amongst the populations settled near the principal streams,
the Dnieper, the Volkhov, and the western Dvina. But the tribes which
were too far from the main routes of commerce never combined to form
## p. 203 (#245) ############################################
The vólosti
203
townships, much less states; they formed part of the territories of other
tribes.
The volost of Kiev very soon played the most important part of all
these volosti. It
grew
to be the centre of the Russian trade. It was the
meeting-place of all the merchant-ships of the Volkhov, the western
Dvina, the upper Dnieper, and its tributaries.
The germs of the state of Kiev are old. Urushevsky puts the organisa-
tion of a strong army and the power of the princes of Kiev as early as
the beginning of the eighth century or even earlier, which seems to
be an over-estimate if we consider that the Polyans were tributary to
the Chazars. But we cannot doubt that the independent state of Kiev
already existed in the beginning of the ninth century. At this time the
Russians, evidently those of Kiev, made predatory invasions to the shores
of the Black Sea, and not only to the northern coasts, reports of which
have been preserved in the biography of St Stephen of Surozh (Sugdaea),
but also to Asia Minor on the southern shores, as mentioned in the
biography of St Gregory of Amastris. An accurately dated report of
the existence of the Russian state is found in the Annals of St Bertin,
which inform us that the Greek Emperor Theophilus in 839 included in
an embassy to Louis the Pious members of a nation called “Rhos," who
had been sent to Constantinople as representatives of their lord, called
"chacanus," to conclude a treaty of friendship with the Emperor; fearing
the barbarians who barred their way (evidently the Magyars), they wished
to return by way of Germany. There can be no doubt that by the
khagan of the nation called Rhos is meant the Prince of Kiev. The
name Russia was given first to the land of Kiev, and later to all the lands
(vólosti) united under the sceptre of the Prince of Kiev.
Another exact date in the history of Kiev is the year 860. According
to a Byzantine chronicle, the Russians made a predatory invasion as far
as Constantinople in the summer of that year. Taking advantage of
the fact that the Emperor Michael had marched with his army to Asia
Minor, they sailed with 200 ships against the imperial city. The Russian
chronicle puts this event erroneously in the year 866, and says that it
happened under Askold and Dir, Princes of Kiev.
If the Princes of Kiev were able in the ninth century to venture on
such distant military expeditions beyond the sea, their state must have
already existed for many years. Certainly the period of the small princi-
pality was at an end; the territory of the state was extended over a
greater number of volosti, which were now under the sceptre of a ruler
who later assumed the title of Great Prince.
In the foregoing account we have given a short outline, after Klyu-
chevski and Hrushevsky, of the history of the remotest times of Russia.
Although the descriptions of the oldest phase of the political life of the
Russian Slavs presented by both these historians are on the whole in
harmony, there is nevertheless a great difference between them in their
CB. VII.
## p. 204 (#246) ############################################
204
Settlement of the Varangians
estimate of the influence of the Varangians on the beginnings of Russian
state organisation. These Northmen until the middle of the ninth
century undoubtedly lived in great numbers among the East Slavonic
races, especially among the Slovens, Kriviches, and Polyans, and they
helped the princes to extend their territories and to domineer over the
subjected inhabitants. Klyuchevski, in acknowledging the weight of
the evidence brought forward, and especially the Swedish character of
the names of the first Russian princes and the members of their retinue
(druzhina), does not object to the assertion that among the founders of
the small Russian states there were, besides the Slavs, also Varangians
i. e. Swedish konungs, chiefs of Swedish companies, who came to Gardarik
(Russia) in the course of their adventurous travels. Hrushevsky, on the
contrary, directly denies the account given by the Russian Chronicle of
the Varangian origin of the Russian state and the princely dynasties.
But nevertheless even he acknowledges a certain influence of the Varangian
companies in the building-up of the Russian state during the ninth and
tenth centuries.
Although Hrushevsky defends his opinion very ingeniously, it seems to
us that Klyuchevski is nearer the truth. We believe that the Varangians,
not only the retinue but also the princes, settled at first in the volost of
Novgorod, and only after having gained a firm hold there, went farther
to the south and conquered the volost of Kiev. We believe also that
by the name Russian or Rus just these Swedish companies with their
chiefs were originally meant, although later the Polyans and the country
of Kiev and at last all the inhabitants of the great Russian state were
designated by this name. The oriental sources undoubtedly mean the
Swedes when they use the word Rus, and the “Russian" names of the
rapids of the Dnieper, reported by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, are
evidently of Swedish origin.
The physical conditions forced the Varangians of Novgorod to look
for a way to the Dnieper, to Kiev. Commercial interests also demanded
it. The once small state spread southwards to the regions of the Dnieper.
The Varangians were assisted in these efforts by the Slavs and Finns
over whom they ruled. We see by the history of the state of Smolensk,
formed by a part of the Kriviches, and that of the state of the Sêveryans,
with its capital of Lyubech, that, besides the Varangian, Slavonic states
also developed in Russia, for Oleg became ruler of both these states
when he went from Novgorod to Kiev.
Oleg, who appears in history according to the Russian chronicles
for the first time in 880, is a half-legendary person. Foreign authors
do not even mention his name. Oleg's first care, after having gained
possession of Kiev, was to build new fortified places, “castles," against
the Patzinaks, and to bring the neighbouring Slavonic tribes under his
dominion.
After having secured his power at home, Oleg undertook in 907 a
## p. 205 (#247) ############################################
Oleg and Igor of Kiev
205
great military expedition against Constantinople. The Greeks bound
themselves to pay subsidies to several Russian towns, for “in these
towns resided princes, who were under Oleg," as the Chronicle puts it.
Moreover a commercial treaty was concluded with the Greeks, by which
great advantages were conceded to Russian merchants in Constantinople.
Although this treaty between Oleg and the Greeks is the first Russo-
Greek treaty the content of which is given us by the sources, it is evident
that such treaties must have been concluded as early as the ninth century.
One of them is mentioned in 839; the expedition of the Russians against
Constantinople was afterwards undertaken in 860 because the Greeks
had violated the agreement.
In 911, after many verbal negotiations, additional clauses were intro-
duced bearing on civil and penal law and the rules of procedure in the
courts. The text of this treaty is preserved in the Russian Chronicle,
and it has a special interest, for it contains the names of Oleg's envoys,
which are all of them Scandinavian.
The first historical Russian prince who appears in contemporary
foreign sources is Igor. According to the Russian Chronicle, he began
to reign in 913, but Hrushevsky thinks that he ascended the throne
much later. Ilovayski puts Igor, not Rurik, at the head of the Russian
dynasty.
Igor, too, undertook a military expedition against Constantinople in
the summer of 941. The reason probably was that the Greeks had
ceased to pay to the Russians the subsidies which they had promised to
Oleg. We are informed of Igor's expedition not only by the Russian
Chronicle but also by foreign sources. The Russians again chose a time
when the Greek fleet was employed against the Saracens. Igor landed
first on the shores of Bithynia, and cruelly ravaged the land as far as the
Thracian Bosphorus. Driven from Constantinople by Greek fire, he
returned again to Bithynia. Meanwhile the Greek army began to rally.
Frosts, want of food, and the losses sustained from the Greek fire, com-
pelled Igor to return to Russia. He is said to have escaped with only
ten ships to the Cimmerian Bosphorus.
The war lasted for three years more, and was ended in 945 by the
conclusion of another treaty between Russia and Byzantium, in which
not only the former treaties with Oleg were confirmed with some modi-
fications and additions, but both parties also undertook not to attack
the lands of the other party, and to assist each other. We learn from
this treaty that the great principality of Kiev was divided, not only
among the members of the dynasty but also among the foremost chiefs
of the companies, and that even women had their apportioned territories.
The whole state was administered from the standpoint of civil law in a
business-like manner. Oleg had already in his treaty of 907 agreed with
the Greeks what subsidies were to be paid to the several Russian towns,
or rather to his deputies residing there in Russian posádniki). Whereas
CH. VII.
## p. 206 (#248) ############################################
206
Trade and tribute
in Western Europe officials were remunerated by fiefs, in Russia they
had territories upon which they imposed taxes on their own behalf, and
to collect these was their principal care. The taxes were paid in money,
probably Arabian, as well as in kind, especially in furs. Either the
subject tribes brought their dues to Kiev or the princes rode to the
territories to receive them.
Constantine Porphyrogenitus describes the second manner of levying
the taxes. In the early days of November the Russian princes and all
their retinues started from Kiev to the territory of the Derevlyans,
Dregoviches, Kriviches, and other subject tribes, and lived there all the
winter, returning by the Dnieper to Kiev in April, when the ice had
floated down to the sea. Meantime the Slavs built during the winter
boats, hollowed from one piece of timber, and in spring floated them
down-stream to Kiev, where they sold them to the retinue of the prince
on their return from winter quarters in the lands of the subject tribes.
The courtiers shipped their wares, evidently furs and other taxes in kind
gathered from the tribes, and in June they proceeded by the Dnieper
to the castle or fortress of Vitichev, and thence to Constantinople.
Professor Klyuchevski very acutely recognised that the imposts
which the Prince of Kiev levied as a ruler were at the same time the
articles of his trade. “When he became a ruler as a konung, he as a
Varangian (Varyag) did not cease to be an armed merchant. He shared
the taxes with his retinue, which served him as the organ of administra-
tion and was the ruling class. This class governed in winter, visiting the
country and levying taxes, and in summer trafficked in what was gathered
during the winter. "
The oriental authors give us reports of predatory expeditions of
the Russians to the shores of the Caspian Sea. From the first, under-
taken in 880, all these raids ended in disaster. A particularly audacious
one took place in 944. The Russians arrived with their ships by the
Caspian Sea at the estuary of the river Cyrus, and sailing upstream
invaded the land called by the Arabs Arran (the ancient Albania), which
belonged to the Caliphate. Their first success was the conquest of
Berdaa, the capital of Arran, situated on the river Terter, a southern
tributary of the Cyrus. From Berdaa they ravaged the surrounding
country. The governor of Azarbā'ījān levied a great army which beat
the Russians after losing a first battle, but this defeat was not decisive
enough to induce them to leave the country. Dysentery, however,
spreading rapidly among the Russian army, delivered the Albanians
from their enemies. After depredations which lasted six months the
Russians left the land, returning home with rich spoil.
It is strange that the Russian chronicles are silent about these
invasions of the shores of the Caspian Sea, since there is no reason to
doubt their reality. They are an evidence that the state of Kiev was
## p. 207 (#249) ############################################
Beginnings of Christianity
207
already strong enough in Oleg's time—for the earliest expeditions under-
taken in the tenth century were certainly his--to venture on war not
only against Constantinople but also against the East. The easier there-
fore was it for Igor to undertake such a campaign.
After Igor's death his widow Olga ascended the throne, the first
Christian princess in Russia. Christianity had begun to spread in the
principality of Kiev soon after the first expedition of the Russians against
Constantinople in 860. It is probable that the Prince of Kiev himself at
this time embraced the Christian faith. During Oleg's reign Christianity
suffered a decline, although it did not disappear, as can be inferred from
the register of the metropolitan churches subordinated to the Patriarch
of Constantinople published by the Emperor Leo VI (886–911). In the
treaty of Igor with the Greeks in 945 heathen and Christian Russians
are mentioned, and the Russian Chronicle calls the church of St Elias
(Ilya) in Kiev a cathedral, which implies that there were other churches
in the city. But it seems nevertheless that the Christian faith did not
take strong root among the Russians, and there was hardly an improve-
ment when the Princess Olga embraced Christianity, which happened
probably in 954, three years before her voyage to Constantinople. The
purpose of this visit is not known. Former writers thought Olga went
there to be baptized, but it seems to be nearer the truth that her
journey had only diplomatic aims.
A true type of the adventurous viking was Prince Svyatoslav, son of
Igor and Olga, the first prince of the Varangian dynasty to bear a
Slavonic name. The Chronicle describes him as a gallant, daring man,
undertaking long expeditions to distant lands and neglecting the interests
of his own country. His mind was filled with the plan of transferring the
centre of his state to the Balkan peninsula. He spent the greater part
of his time in foreign lands. He was the first of the Russian princes who
forced the Vyatiches to pay him tribute, whereas they had formerly been
tributary to the Chazars.
But before that he tried to break the power
of the Chazars, which from the beginning of the ninth century had been
continually declining. They were pressed in the south by the Arabs and
the Transcaucasian tribes, in the north by the Patzinaks, and in the
west by the Russians. Some tribes had already thrown off their yoke.
Igor himself had cast an eager gaze on the Crimean peninsula and
on the shores of the Sea of Azov, where he would have liked to found a
Russian dominion. His political aims were followed by his successors.
The Chazars hindered these efforts. Svyatoslav therefore in 965 under-
took an expedition against them, and conquered their town Sarkel
(Bêlavêzha, White Town). After the defeat of the Chazars, Svyatoslav
attacked the Ossetes (remnants of the Alans) and the Kasogs (Cherkesses)
and subdued them. By this expedition against the Chazars and the tribes
-
CH. VII.
## p. 208 (#250) ############################################
208
Reign of Svyatoslav
belonging to their dominion, Svyatoslav laid the foundations of Tmuto-
rakanian Russia, which derived its name from its capital Tmutorakan,
the ancient Tamatarcha.
In 967 Svyatoslav undertook an expedition against the Greeks. The
Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus, indignant that the Bulgarian Tsar Peter
had not hindered the Magyars from invading the Balkan peninsula,
waged war against the Bulgars and sent the patrician Calocyrus to Prince
Svyatoslav for assistance. Calocyrus turned traitor. He concluded on his
own account with Svyatoslav a treaty for mutual support. The Russian
prince was to get Bulgaria, and Calocyrus the imperial throne. Svyato-
slav marched into Bulgaria, conquered it, and remained in Pereyaslavets
(Prêslav), the residence of the Tsar. During his absence in 968 the
Patzinaks attacked the land of Kiev, and only a ruse induced them
to leave the beleagured city. Being informed of this menace by the
inhabitants of Kiev, Svyatoslav returned and expelled the Patzinaks,
but he remained at home only to the end of 970, his mother Olga having
died meanwhile in 969. Then he again went to Bulgaria, leaving his
sons as governors, Yaropolk in Kiev and Oleg among the Derevlyans.
When the inhabitants of Novgorod also demanded a prince of their own,
he
gave
them his natural son Vladímir. But the government was in the
hands of the boyars, as all the sons were minors.
In his war with the Greeks Svyatoslav was unfortunate, although he
hired Magyar and Patzinak troops. In a short time he was forced to
make peace with Byzantium (971) and to renew the former treaties, to
which a new clause was added : the Russian prince bound himself not to
encroach on the Greek possessions in the Crimea (opposite the territory
of Cherson) or Bulgaria.
On his return home to Russia Svyatoslav perished (972) in a sudden
attack by Kurya, Prince of the Patzinaks.
The sons of Svyatoslav quarrelled. When Oleg was killed by Yaropolk,
Vladímir, fearing a similar fate, fled to the Swedes, but returned after
three years (980), and getting rid of Yaropolk by the treason of one of
his retinue ascended the throne of Svyatoslav.
Vladímir's retinue composed of heathen Varangians had the principal
share in the victories of their lord. Vladímir therefore manifested his
heathenism with the greatest zeal and erected idols on the hills of Kiev.
He himself also lived the life of a heathen; besides five legal wives he had
many concubines—the annals report 800. He very adroitly got rid of
the turbulent Varangians who had supported him; the more prominent
he won over to his party, the others were dismissed to Constantinople.
His principal aim was to extend and to consolidate the Russian
empire, which since Svyatoslav's time threatened to be dismembered into
minute principalities. In 981 he undertook an expedition against the
Vyatiches, conquered them, and forced them to pay tribute. They
## p. 209 (#251) ############################################
Vladímir the Great
209
again revolted in 982 but were subdued once more. In 984 Vladímir
took the field against the Radimiches, subdued them, and forced them
to pay tribute. The next year he marched against and defeated the
Bulgars, and then concluded a treaty of peace with them. In the last
decade of the tenth century he once more waged a victorious war against
the Bulgars.
In 1006 he concluded with them a commercial treaty, by
which the merchants of either state were allowed to carry on their trade
in the dominions of the other if they were provided with an official seal.
The statement of the Chronicle that Vladímir in 981 took the Polish
castles of Red Russia (the present eastern Galicia) is doubtful, but it is
certain that he fought a war with the Polish King Boleslav the Mighty
(982), which was ended by a treaty, as Boleslav was engaged in a war
with Bohemia. The peace was moreover secured by the marriage of
Svyatopolk, son of Vladímir and Prince of Turov, with a daughter of
Boleslav.
The incessant raids of the Patzinaks were very troublesome to Vladímir.
We read now and again in the annals that the Patzinaks invaded the
Russian country, so that there was constant war with them. These
unceasing inroads of the nomads led Vladímir to build strong fortresses
on the east and south of his territory, and to garrison them with the
best men of the Slavs (of Novgorod), the Kriviches, Chudes, and Vya-
tiches. The Russian princes as a rule subdued the southern tribes by
means of the northern peoples; with their assistance they defended
themselves also against the barbarians of the steppes.
Under Vladímir friendly relations with Byzantium were again inau-
gurated. The first step was made by the Greek Emperor Basil II,
who (in 988) asked Vladímir to assist him against the anti-Emperor
Bardas Phocas. Vladimir promised his help on condition that the
Emperor would give him his sister in marriage. Basil accepted this
condition if Vladímir consented to be baptised: The Russian prince
agreed and sent his army in the spring or summer of 988 to Basil. This
army of 6000 infantry remained in Greece even after Phocas had been
killed, and took part in the Byzantine wars in Asia in 999-1000. From
that time to the last quarter of the eleventh century the Varangians
formed the bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperors. Later on they were
replaced by soldiers from Western Europe, principally Englishmen.
When the Emperor Basil had been delivered from peril, he hesitated
over the fulfilment of his promise to give his sister Anne to Vladimir
to wife. The Russian prince, offended by this delay, attacked the Greek
possessions in the Crimea. He succeeded (989) in taking Cherson after a
long siege. But meanwhile the Greek Emperor was again in difficulties
in his own lands, especially in consequence of a revolt in Bulgaria, so
that he was obliged to regain Vladimir's good will and to send him his
sister Anne, who received Cherson for her dower.
At that time Vladímir was already a Christian, having been baptised
C. MED, H. VOL. IV. CA. VII.
14
## p. 210 (#252) ############################################
210
Russia accepts Christianity
about the beginning of 988. The long intercourse of Russia with Con-
stantinople had prepared a favourable ground for the Christian faith.
Various missionaries came to the prince at short intervals to explain
the advantages of their religion. Finally, he declared for Christianity,
and, having received baptism, he had his twelve sons christened also, and
encouraged the spread of Christianity among the boyars and the people.
Some districts of the Russian empire nevertheless still remained heathen
for a long time. There were pagans among the Vyatiches and Kriviches
in the beginning of the twelfth century, and in Murom even in the
thirteenth century.
During Vladímir's reign an attempt was also made to win the Russians
over to Rome. With the daughter of Boleslav the Mighty, Reinbern,
Bishop of Kolberg, arrived at the court of Vladímir's son Svyatopolk at
Turov, and tried to sever the young Russian Church from the Eastern
Church. Vladímir, as soon as he was informed of the plans of Reinbern,
imprisoned Svyatopolk, his wife, and the bishop. Thereupon a war broke
out with Boleslav, who hastened to make peace with the Germans (1013),
and having hired troops from them and the Patzinaks set out against
Vladímir. He only devastated the land without gaining further results.
Vladímir died in 1015.
The importance of Vladímir in Russian history is enormous. He
subdued the tribes which had gained their independence under his pre-
decessors; he defended the empire against the barbarians of the steppes ;
he accepted Christianity and introduced Christian reforms. He success-
fully closed the tenth century, the heroic period of Russian history; his
reign was famous for the maritime expeditions against the Greeks, the
inroads beyond the Danube, the occupation of Bulgaria, and the expedi-
tions against the Chazars and Bulgars.
We have yet to say something of the Magyars in their new home in
Hungary.
About the year 895 or 896 the Magyars crossed the northern Car-
pathian Mountains, and endeavoured in the first place to occupy the
lands near the upper course of the river Theiss. The progressive occupa-
tion of the territories of later Hungary was made easy to the Magyars
by the circumstance that the new political formations, which had begun to
arise here, were feeble and of no long duration. The north-western part
of later Hungary, inhabited at that time by Slovaks, was a constituent
part of the Great Moravian realm, which extended as far as the river
Theiss and probably some distance to the south between this river and the
Danube. After the death of Svatopluk (894), the Magyars had nothing
to fear from the Great Moravian state, which was now governed by his
discordant sons. During their quarrels it was an easy matter for the
Magyars to occupy the northern part of the territory between the Theiss
and the Danube. This is the only possible explanation of their being
## p. 211 (#253) ############################################
The Magyars in Hungary
211
able to penetrate without opposition into Pannonia, and to undertake
their predatory invasions into Italy. In Lower Pannonia there arose
by the first half of the ninth century the Slavonic principality of Pribina
(840) under the suzerainty of the Franks, with his capital of Blatno
(Urbs paludum, Mosaburch) near where the river Zala flows into the
lake of Blatno (Balaton). The limits of Pribina's principality can only
be given approximately. To the north-west it extended to the river
Raab, to the south-west to Pettau, to the south as far as the Drave,
and to the north and east about to the Danube. With the Slavs there
also lived German colonists from Bavaria in scattered settlements in this
principality. The country between the Danube and the Raab was
settled by Germans, who there formed the majority of the population.
In ecclesiastical affairs Pannonia was divided after 829 between the
bishoprics of Salzburg and Passau. During the reign of Kocel (861-874),
Pribina's successor, the Moravo-Pannonian Slavonic archbishopric was
founded about 870 and St Methodius installed in the see. After Kocel's
death Lower Pannonia was again governed by German officials. Only
after the arrival of the Magyars in Hungary, King Arnulf in 896 in-
vested the Croatian prince Braslav, reigning between the rivers Drave
and Save, with the south-western part of Pannonia as a fief.
The most ancient Hungarian chronicler, the so-called Anonymus regis
Belae notarius, gives us some, not altogether reliable, accounts of the
political divisions in the other parts of Hungary and in Transylvania.
If we supplement the account of the Anonymus with those of the Frankish
authors, we can conclude that in the eastern half of Hungary beyond the
river Theiss, and perhaps in Transylvania, there were at the end of the
ninth century some feeble principalities probably tributary to the Bulgars,
and that these were neither old enough nor sufficiently developed to stop
the progress of the warlike Magyar tribes. It is certain that in the lands
beyond the Theiss as well as in the so-called Black Hungary (Transyl-
vania) there were numerous Slavonic inhabitants, and even now we can
find traces of them in the place-names.
We have hardly any other accounts of the Magyars, during the first
fifty years after the occupation of Hungary, than that they raided the
neighbouring countries. As early as 898 a scouting party of Magyars
came into north-eastern Italy to the river Brenta, and the following year
the Magyars made a new invasion, and overflowed the plain of Lombardy,
plundering and burning the land. For a whole year, until the spring
of 900, they devastated Italy, and King Berengar only induced them to
leave the country by presents, even giving hostages. On their return
they devastated the greater part of Pannonia belonging to the German
kingdom, and immediately afterwards, in the middle of the year 900, the
whole Magyar nation crossed the Danube and occupied Lower Pannonia
as far as the river Raab. That it was possible to do so without serious
opposition from the Germans may be explained by the foolish policy
CH. VA.
14-2
## p. 212 (#254) ############################################
212
The Magyar raids
of Bavaria. Liutpold of Bavaria, founder of the dynasty of Wittelsbach,
preferred to be at enmity with the Great Moravian state rather than to
oppose the Magyars. But no sooner had the Magyars conquered Pannonia,
than they appeared in Bavaria beyond the Inn. The Bavarians only suc-
ceeded in destroying a part of the Magyars ; the others escaped with a
rich booty. The Bavarians did not make peace with Moravia until 901,
when it had become too late.
In 906 the Magyars overthrew the Great Moravian state. The
Bavarians in 907 invaded the Magyar territory, but were defeated, and
after that Upper Pannonia was also conquered by the Magyars. Under
Árpád's successors the Magyars constantly made predatory incursions,
and penetrated still farther to the west. Nobody opposed their pro-
gress, because the former provinces of the Frankish Empire were in
decline. The weapons of the Germans were clumsy: heavy armour,
a heavy helmet, a great shield, and a long sword. The Magyars on the
contrary appeared suddenly on their swift horses and poured showers
of arrows upon their enemies, causing great disorder among them and
turning them to flight. The foe seldom succeeded in surprising the
Magyars before they had arrayed themselves for battle, because their
scouts were exceedingly wary and vigilant. A frequent military ruse of
the Magyars was to feign a flight in order to entice the enemy into pur-
suit. Suddenly they would turn and frighten the pursuers so thoroughly
by a flood of arrows that it was an easy matter for their reserves to
attack and destroy the baffled foe. The Magyars lacked skill only in
taking castles and fortresses; in Germany and Italy therefore the in-
habitants began quickly to fortify their towns.
The history of these western invasions, ending with the decisive
defeat (955) on the Lechfeld, has been told in the preceding volume of
this work. The turn of the Balkan peninsula came comparatively late.
It was after their defeat in Saxony in 933 that the Magyars turned their
attention in this direction. In the spring of 934 they invaded Thrace
in company with Patzinaks with a force which penetrated to Constanti-
nople. Masóūdi gives us a somewhat confused report of this incursion,
declaring that four tribes were allied against the Greeks, although it
seems that only the Magyars with the Patzinaks were the invaders.
Marquart thinks that by the town Walandar, conquered at this time by
the barbarian armies, Develtus near the modern Burgas is meant. It
seems that since 934 the Magyars regularly demanded tribute from the
Greeks, at first every nine and later on every five years. In 943 they
came again, and the Emperor Romanus Lecapenus appointed the
patrician Theophanes, as he had done in 934, to negotiate with them.
Theophanes succeeded in concluding a truce for five years, for which
both parties gave hostages. It is probable that about this time the
Byzantines tried, but in vain, to gain the Magyars for allies against the
Patzinaks. After that the Magyars invaded the Balkan peninsula several
## p. 213 (#255) ############################################
The Magyars become a settled people
213
times, especially in 959 and 962. In 967 a band of Magyars joined the
Russian prince Svyatoslav when he attacked Bulgaria.
After the Lechfeld, however, the aggressiveness of the Magyars
considerably declined. Western Europe now remained safe from their
predatory inroads, and at last even the expeditions against the Balkan
peninsula ceased. During the three-quarters of a century in which the
Magyars had occupied their new homes in Hungary, political and other
conditions had greatly changed. In the first place the neighbours of the
Magyars had grown much stronger. This is true principally of the
Germanic Empire, which, under the dynasty of Saxon kings, was far more
powerful than under the later Carolingians. In the south the Greek
Empire stretched as far as the Danube, and completely checked any new
Magyar expeditions to the Balkan peninsula. In course of time even the
mode of life of the leading Magyars had somewhat changed. Not only
Prince Géza but also several chieftains ceased to live in tents, preferring
castles for their abodes. This change was caused by the Christian religion,
which in the meanwhile had spread in the neighbouring countries and
extended its influence also among the inhabitants of Hungary, especially
in ancient Pannonia, where a great portion of the Germans and Slavs were
Christians. Through these Christian inhabitants the Magyars became
acquainted with a peaceful manner of life, with agriculture and trade.
During the three-quarters of a century even the ethnic character of the
inhabitants underwent a great modification. The Magyars, who were not
very numerous even at the time of their occupation of Hungary, did not
increase considerably because of their frequent predatory expeditions into
foreign lands. Only the first generation was able to gain victories abroad,
in fact while the military tactics of the Magyars were unknown. The
second generation met with repeated calamities. Many Magyars perished
these expeditions ; only a small band returned from the battle of the
Lechfeld. The decrease of the Magyar element was unavoidably followed
by a great intermixture of the remaining population, which also caused a
change in the character of the nation.
In short, since the accession of Géza as Prince of the Magyars, about
970, there begins a radical change in the history of the Magyars. Géza
was the first ruler who was judicious enough to see that his people could
hold its own among other nations if it would live with them in peace
and if it would accept Christianity. Immediately after his accession to the
throne he sent messengers to the Emperor Otto I in 973 to initiate friendly
relations with Gerinany. That he resolved on this course of action must
be attributed to the influence of his wife Adelaide, a princess of Polish
blood and a fervent Christian. By her recommendation St Vojtěch
(Adalbert), Bishop of Prague and a distant relative of hers, was called
to Hungary. About 985 he converted to the Christian faith not only
Géza but also his ten-year-old son Vajk, to whom the name Stephen
was given in baptism. Ten years later (995) Benedictine monks from
CA. VU.
## p. 214 (#256) ############################################
214
Christianisation of Hungary
Bohemia came to Hungary and settled, as it seems, in the monastery of
Zobor upon the Nyitra. This Christianisation was moreover very much
furthered by Géza having chosen Gisela, a princess of the German
imperial dynasty, as a bride for his son Stephen (996). The work begun
by Géza was brought to a good end by Stephen, who was canonised for
his apostolic zeal. Stephen, immediately after his accession to the throne
(997), ordered his subjects to accept Christianity. To set a good example
he liberated his slaves. He visited his lands and everywhere preached the
new religion. He called in foreign priests, especially Slavs, to assist him.
Etymological researches have proved that the ecclesiastical terminology
of the Magyars is to a considerable degree of Slavonic origin. This alone
would lead to the indubitable conclusion that the first missionaries of
the Gospel among the Magyars were to a great extent Slavs belonging
to the Roman obedience. And the accounts of the conversion witness to
the same fact.
Bohemian priests took a prominent share in the spreading of the
Christian faith in Hungary. In the first place Radla, the former com-
panion of St Vojtěch, must be named, who worked in the Hungarian
realm from 995 to about 1008; then Anastasius, formerly Abbot at
Břevnov near Prague in Bohemia, later of St Martin's in Hungary, and
finally Archbishop of Gran (Esztergom) from 1001-1028. Also Astrik,
Abbot of Pécsvárad and later Archbishop of Kalocsa, who had been at
first one of the priests of St Vojtěch and then an abbot in Poland,
excelled among the Slav preachers of the faith in Hungary. Further,
St Gerard, tutor of Stephen's son Emeric, and later Bishop of Csanád,
was a signal propagator of Christianity in Hungary. St Stephen
himself founded several bishoprics and monasteries : besides the arch-
bishoprics of Esztergom and Kalocsa, he instituted the bishoprics of
Veszprém, Pécs (Fünfkirchen), Csanád, Vácz (Waitzen), Raab (Györ),
Eger (Erlau), and Nagy-Várad (Grosswardein) and Gyulafehérvár (Karls-
burg) in Transylvania.
It was the greatest political success of St Stephen that he secured for
his lands a complete independence in their ecclesiastical and secular rela-
tions. He sent an embassy to Pope Sylvester II to obtain for the
Hungarian ruler a royal crown and papal sanction for the ecclesiastical
organisation. The Pope complied with both requests, and sent to
St Stephen not only the royal crown but also an apostolic cross. Stephen
had himself solemnly crowned as king in 1001.
St Stephen only succeeded with difficulty in controlling the refractory
chieftains of the tribes. One of them, for instance, Kopány, chief of
Somogy (Shümeg) and cousin to St Stephen, headed a revolt in favour
of heathenism, but was defeated. Prokuy also, a maternal relative of
St Stephen, prince in the territories on both sides of the Theiss, belonged
to the turbulent element which hated Christianity. St Stephen sub-
dued him too, and removed him from his government. In Hungary itself,
## p. 215 (#257) ############################################
St Stephen
215
in the south-eastern corner of the land bordered by the rivers Maros,
Theiss, and Danube, and by Transylvania, there lay the principality of
Aytony (Akhtum). This small principality was also overthrown by
St Stephen about 1025.
St Stephen also organised the administration of the land after foreign
models, partly German and partly Slav. He arranged his court after the
German fashion, and divided his lands into counties (comitatus), appointing
as their governors officials called in Latin comites, in Magyar ispanok
(from the Slavonic župan). He likewise followed foreign and especially
German examples in legislative matters, endeavouring to remodel his
state entirely in a European fashion, and to make it into an orderly
land. He died in 1038. His fame as the second founder and moulder of
the Magyar kingdom is immortal. By bringing his savage barbaric nation
into the community of Christendom, he saved the Magyars from a ruin
which otherwise they could not have escaped.
(B)
CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS.
In the numerous records of missionary activity in the Christian
Church of Eastern and Western Europe there is one chapter which,
owing to special circumstances, has attained the greatest importance in
the history of the world. It deals with an incident which happened
more than a thousand
years ago, the
consequences
of which have endured
to this day, and it reveals the characteristic features of Christianity
in the East and South-East of Europe. It arose in connexion with two
brothers, Cyril and Methodius, who lived in the ninth century at Salonica,
and are still venerated by more than a hundred million Slavs as apostles
to their race and as creators of the language of their ritual, the
language which was for many centuries the medium of literary activity,
of the public life of the community, as well as of Church functions.
According to the point of view of individual scholars this historical
event has been very differently criticised and appreciated. Some modern
writers condemn it because it was chiefly the predominance of the language
of the Slav Church, based on a Byzantine model, that separated Eastern
Europe from the civilisation of Western Europe, and was principally to
blame for the unequal progress in the development of Eastern civilisa-
tion in comparison with Western. Other writers cannot praise it suf-
CH. VII.
## p. 216 (#258) ############################################
216
Sources for the history of Cyril and Methodius
ficiently because, as it led to the separation of the Slavonic East and
South-East of Europe from the Latin West, they recognise it as one of
the chief causes of the preservation of national characteristics, even
indeed of political independence.
eight hordes living separately, each probably having its own centre like
the Avars, who lived in their hrings.
The relations of the Patzinaks to their heighbours and to surround-
ing nations are interesting. The Greeks, endeavouring to restrain them
from invading their colonies in the Crimea, sent them valuable gifts,
and bought their assistance against their enemies, such as the Magyars,
Danubian Bulgars, Russians, and Chazars. In times of peace the
Patzinaks furthered the commercial intercourse between the Russians
and Cherson (Korsun) by transporting their merchandise. In times of
war they not only robbed the Russian merchants but penetrated with
their predatory expeditions even as far as the dominions of Kiev. The
princes of Kiev preferred therefore to be on friendly terms with the
Patzinaks, and when they had a war with other Russian lands they often
won them over to be their allies.
As yet our attention has been engaged with the history of the steppes
of southern Russia. Now we must turn to the history of the Slav
tribes, who laid the foundations of the later Russian Empire. Even to
recent times there prevailed in Russian literature the opinion, defended
by the German scholar A. Schlözer, that the Russian empire was
founded as late as the middle of the ninth century by Northman
(Swedish) immigrants, who united under their dominion numerous Slav
and Finnish tribes, losing in course of time their own nationality, and
finally becoming blended with the Slav elements. This is the theory of
the Varangian origin of the Russian Empire, which was accepted even by
the foremost Russian historians, Karamzin, Pogodin, and Solov'ëv. The
Russian scholars were misled by the report of their own native annalist,
that the first Russian princes were called to the throne from foreign
lands and not earlier than the latter half of the ninth century. Just
a few scholars tried to prove that the Russian Empire originated by its
CA. VII.
## p. 200 (#242) ############################################
200
Russia. The “Varangian” theory
own innate vitality, without any external assistance. The historical truth
lies between the two extreme theories. It was expounded by the late
Professor V. Klyuchevski. While the name Rus no doubt belongs to the
Swedes and the dynasty which ruled till Fëdor Ivanovich descended from
Rurik', the legend that in 862 three Swedish brothers Rurik, Sineus,
and Truvor were called by the Slav and Finnish tribes to rule over them,
only recounts a single incident in the forniation of a great state in what
is now Russia.
By the authors of the sixth century a southern division of the
eastern group of Slavonic tribes is sometimes mentioned, which they call
the Antae? . These are the tribes which we now call Little Russians
or Ukrainians. The Avars tried to subdue the Antae, who in 602 were
allied with the Byzantines, but without success. From the seventh century
onwards we have no information at all of this branch of the Eastern Slavs.
This is explained by the circumstance that Byzantine historiography in
these times had considerably declined. But nevertheless we can propound
a probable supposition as to the history of the Antae from the latter half
of the seventh to the ninth century. As early as the second quarter of the
seventh century the dominion of the Avars was on the decline, and when
in 679 the principal part of the Bulgars departed from the lands near
the Black Sea to the Balkan peninsula, a favourable time opened for the
Antae. They were free from the hostile nomadic hordes, who marred any
peaceful existence, until the ninth century, when the Magyars appeared
near the Black Sea. We must suppose that the Antae spread very far to
the east during this period of peace. We learn from Procopius that Slav
colonisation had already approached the Sea of Azov in the first half of
the sixth century. The Antae were at this time settled to the north of
the Utigurs. Afterwards, up to the tenth century, they probably occupied
the whole northern borderland of the steppes of southern Russia as far
eastward as the river Don, but were driven out of these countries by the
later arrival of new nomadic hordes.
We have no reports of the names of the several tribes of the Eastern
Slavs of that period. The Russian annals enumerate them only according
to their position in the eleventh century. But at that time the Russian
peoples had already a history of several centuries; they began at the end
of the sixth or at the beginning of the seventh century to spread over
Russian territory from the south-west, especially from the south-eastern
slopes and spurs of the Carpathian mountains. At that time the Russian
Slavs already had a nucleus of political organisation. Masóūdi mentions
a once powerful Slavonic race, the Walinana, who lived on the western
banks of the Bug and were once oppressed by the Avars. The Walinana
were probably the first East Slavonic tribe to become the centre of some
state organisation; they founded a small federation of Slavs.
i Cf. Vol. 111. chapter XIII, pp. 327-8.
? See supra, p. 186.
## p. 201 (#243) ############################################
The Eastern Slavs
201
From this south-western corner of modern Russia the Slavonic coloni-
sation spread in an eastern and north-eastern direction. In the wild and
-boundless forests of Russia the Slavonic immigrants hunted wild animals,
kept bees, and soon tilled the land in clearings, founding there small
solitary homesteads not only surrounded by the forest but also secured on
every side by ditches and mounds. In course of time these settlements
of single farms developed into hamlets or villages of several farms! .
Besides the villages there soon arose along the Dnieper, the greatest
river in western Russia, several commercial centres, the kernels of future
commercial towns. The Greek colonies on the Black Sea had given the
impulse to these commercial relations with the more distant Russian
countries long before the Christian era. This connexion did not cease
even when some Greek cities on the Black Sea were destroyed during the
migrations of the nations. The Slavonic colonists thus found a market
for various products of their forest industry. Furs, honey, and wax were
the principal wares exported from Russia. The development of the
Russian trade was also favoured by the circumstance that, just at the
time when the Eastern Slavs began to occupy the wooded plains of Russia,
the dominion of the Chazars was organised in the southern steppes
between the Caspian and the Black Sea, a dominion which performed a
rather important cultural mission in the territories of the later south-
eastern Russia. Through the Chazar lands passed important commercial
routes, partly by land, partly by the rivers connecting Mesopotamia and
Central Asia with Eastern Europe, and vice versa. In the second half of
the seventh or in the first half of the eighth century the Chazars
further extended their empire over the lands of the central Dnieper,
subduing and making tributary the Slavonic tribe settled around Kiev
and subsequently called Polyans. The subjection of the Polyans to the
Chazars was not a hard one, and indeed brought eminent advantages to
the Polyans. The Slavs along the Dnieper were guarded against the
iproads of the nomadic hordes of Asia and had therefore free com-
mercial relations with the Black Sea, while new roads to the East through
the dominion of the Chazars were opened to them.
The Arabian author Ibn Khurdādhbih, in the first half of the ninth
century, gives us good information on the early and great development
of the Russian trade with the Byzantine Empire and the Orient. Russian
merchants not only sailed on the Black and Caspian Seas but brought
their wares even to Baghdad, to which in the middle of the eighth century
the centre of the Arabian Caliphate was transferred. The frequent finds
of Arabian coins in the territories of Russia are an important proof
of the development of this trade. Most of these coins date from the
pinth and tenth centuries, when the trade with the Orient flourished
best, but some of them belong to the beginning of the eighth century.
The Dnieper connected the Slavonic colonies of western Russia not
· Cf. Vol. 11. Chapter xiv, pp. 422-3.
OB, VII.
## p. 202 (#244) ############################################
202
Trade Routes
לר
only with the south but also with the north. It was possible to journey
from the Dnieper to the river Lovat, and to penetrate thence by Lake
Ilmen', the river Volkhov, the Ladoga lake, and the river Neva to
the Baltic Sea. Another route to this sea from the Dnieper was by the
river Dvina. Along both branches of this “route from the Varangians
to the Greeks arose the oldest commercial towns of Russia: Kiev,
Smolensk, Lyubech, Novgorod, Polotsk, and others. Besides these towns
situated directly on the Varangian-Greek trade route, there were a great
number of other towns which formed the connexion between this route
and the affluents of the Dnieper as well as the connexion by water with
the Volga, by which likewise passed the commercial route to the Orient
through the Volga-Bulgars.
As long as the steppes of southern Russia between the Don and
Dnieper were not occupied by the Magyars, no obstacles hindered the
Russian commerce with the Byzantines. But as soon as the Magyars
began to endanger the route, the several towns had to provide for the
security of their commerce. From that time the towns of Russia began
to fortify themselves and to organise a military force. The commercial
centres developed into fortresses offering their protection against hostile
attacks.
At this very time, the beginning of the ninth century, there began
to appear on the Russian rivers greater numbers of enterprising Swedish
companies, the so-called Varangians, travelling in armed bands to Byzan-
tium for commercial purposes. It seems that only a part of the Varan-
gians reached their goal, whereas the majority remained in the Russian
commercial towns, especially in Novgorod and Kiev. Here the inhabitants
employed them not only for their business but principally for their
defence. The Varangians therefore entered the military service of the
Russian towns, and also formed mercenary guards of the Russian com-
mercial caravans.
The fortified Russian towns which could command some military
force developed in course of time into centres of small states. The
inhabitants of the neighbouring smaller towns and villages began to
gravitate towards the greater towns, and in this wise arose the first
Russian town-states, the vólosti. At first all of them were probably
republics, but later some of them became principalities. These princi-
palities probably developed in those towns where the Varangian com-
panies were led by a powerful konung, who succeeded in seizing the
government. But some volosti certainly had princes of Slavonic origin.
These city-states were not founded on a racial basis. The majority
of them were composed of different tribes or parts of tribes; in others
one whole tribe was joined by parts of other tribes. From these fusions
towns arose amongst the populations settled near the principal streams,
the Dnieper, the Volkhov, and the western Dvina. But the tribes which
were too far from the main routes of commerce never combined to form
## p. 203 (#245) ############################################
The vólosti
203
townships, much less states; they formed part of the territories of other
tribes.
The volost of Kiev very soon played the most important part of all
these volosti. It
grew
to be the centre of the Russian trade. It was the
meeting-place of all the merchant-ships of the Volkhov, the western
Dvina, the upper Dnieper, and its tributaries.
The germs of the state of Kiev are old. Urushevsky puts the organisa-
tion of a strong army and the power of the princes of Kiev as early as
the beginning of the eighth century or even earlier, which seems to
be an over-estimate if we consider that the Polyans were tributary to
the Chazars. But we cannot doubt that the independent state of Kiev
already existed in the beginning of the ninth century. At this time the
Russians, evidently those of Kiev, made predatory invasions to the shores
of the Black Sea, and not only to the northern coasts, reports of which
have been preserved in the biography of St Stephen of Surozh (Sugdaea),
but also to Asia Minor on the southern shores, as mentioned in the
biography of St Gregory of Amastris. An accurately dated report of
the existence of the Russian state is found in the Annals of St Bertin,
which inform us that the Greek Emperor Theophilus in 839 included in
an embassy to Louis the Pious members of a nation called “Rhos," who
had been sent to Constantinople as representatives of their lord, called
"chacanus," to conclude a treaty of friendship with the Emperor; fearing
the barbarians who barred their way (evidently the Magyars), they wished
to return by way of Germany. There can be no doubt that by the
khagan of the nation called Rhos is meant the Prince of Kiev. The
name Russia was given first to the land of Kiev, and later to all the lands
(vólosti) united under the sceptre of the Prince of Kiev.
Another exact date in the history of Kiev is the year 860. According
to a Byzantine chronicle, the Russians made a predatory invasion as far
as Constantinople in the summer of that year. Taking advantage of
the fact that the Emperor Michael had marched with his army to Asia
Minor, they sailed with 200 ships against the imperial city. The Russian
chronicle puts this event erroneously in the year 866, and says that it
happened under Askold and Dir, Princes of Kiev.
If the Princes of Kiev were able in the ninth century to venture on
such distant military expeditions beyond the sea, their state must have
already existed for many years. Certainly the period of the small princi-
pality was at an end; the territory of the state was extended over a
greater number of volosti, which were now under the sceptre of a ruler
who later assumed the title of Great Prince.
In the foregoing account we have given a short outline, after Klyu-
chevski and Hrushevsky, of the history of the remotest times of Russia.
Although the descriptions of the oldest phase of the political life of the
Russian Slavs presented by both these historians are on the whole in
harmony, there is nevertheless a great difference between them in their
CB. VII.
## p. 204 (#246) ############################################
204
Settlement of the Varangians
estimate of the influence of the Varangians on the beginnings of Russian
state organisation. These Northmen until the middle of the ninth
century undoubtedly lived in great numbers among the East Slavonic
races, especially among the Slovens, Kriviches, and Polyans, and they
helped the princes to extend their territories and to domineer over the
subjected inhabitants. Klyuchevski, in acknowledging the weight of
the evidence brought forward, and especially the Swedish character of
the names of the first Russian princes and the members of their retinue
(druzhina), does not object to the assertion that among the founders of
the small Russian states there were, besides the Slavs, also Varangians
i. e. Swedish konungs, chiefs of Swedish companies, who came to Gardarik
(Russia) in the course of their adventurous travels. Hrushevsky, on the
contrary, directly denies the account given by the Russian Chronicle of
the Varangian origin of the Russian state and the princely dynasties.
But nevertheless even he acknowledges a certain influence of the Varangian
companies in the building-up of the Russian state during the ninth and
tenth centuries.
Although Hrushevsky defends his opinion very ingeniously, it seems to
us that Klyuchevski is nearer the truth. We believe that the Varangians,
not only the retinue but also the princes, settled at first in the volost of
Novgorod, and only after having gained a firm hold there, went farther
to the south and conquered the volost of Kiev. We believe also that
by the name Russian or Rus just these Swedish companies with their
chiefs were originally meant, although later the Polyans and the country
of Kiev and at last all the inhabitants of the great Russian state were
designated by this name. The oriental sources undoubtedly mean the
Swedes when they use the word Rus, and the “Russian" names of the
rapids of the Dnieper, reported by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, are
evidently of Swedish origin.
The physical conditions forced the Varangians of Novgorod to look
for a way to the Dnieper, to Kiev. Commercial interests also demanded
it. The once small state spread southwards to the regions of the Dnieper.
The Varangians were assisted in these efforts by the Slavs and Finns
over whom they ruled. We see by the history of the state of Smolensk,
formed by a part of the Kriviches, and that of the state of the Sêveryans,
with its capital of Lyubech, that, besides the Varangian, Slavonic states
also developed in Russia, for Oleg became ruler of both these states
when he went from Novgorod to Kiev.
Oleg, who appears in history according to the Russian chronicles
for the first time in 880, is a half-legendary person. Foreign authors
do not even mention his name. Oleg's first care, after having gained
possession of Kiev, was to build new fortified places, “castles," against
the Patzinaks, and to bring the neighbouring Slavonic tribes under his
dominion.
After having secured his power at home, Oleg undertook in 907 a
## p. 205 (#247) ############################################
Oleg and Igor of Kiev
205
great military expedition against Constantinople. The Greeks bound
themselves to pay subsidies to several Russian towns, for “in these
towns resided princes, who were under Oleg," as the Chronicle puts it.
Moreover a commercial treaty was concluded with the Greeks, by which
great advantages were conceded to Russian merchants in Constantinople.
Although this treaty between Oleg and the Greeks is the first Russo-
Greek treaty the content of which is given us by the sources, it is evident
that such treaties must have been concluded as early as the ninth century.
One of them is mentioned in 839; the expedition of the Russians against
Constantinople was afterwards undertaken in 860 because the Greeks
had violated the agreement.
In 911, after many verbal negotiations, additional clauses were intro-
duced bearing on civil and penal law and the rules of procedure in the
courts. The text of this treaty is preserved in the Russian Chronicle,
and it has a special interest, for it contains the names of Oleg's envoys,
which are all of them Scandinavian.
The first historical Russian prince who appears in contemporary
foreign sources is Igor. According to the Russian Chronicle, he began
to reign in 913, but Hrushevsky thinks that he ascended the throne
much later. Ilovayski puts Igor, not Rurik, at the head of the Russian
dynasty.
Igor, too, undertook a military expedition against Constantinople in
the summer of 941. The reason probably was that the Greeks had
ceased to pay to the Russians the subsidies which they had promised to
Oleg. We are informed of Igor's expedition not only by the Russian
Chronicle but also by foreign sources. The Russians again chose a time
when the Greek fleet was employed against the Saracens. Igor landed
first on the shores of Bithynia, and cruelly ravaged the land as far as the
Thracian Bosphorus. Driven from Constantinople by Greek fire, he
returned again to Bithynia. Meanwhile the Greek army began to rally.
Frosts, want of food, and the losses sustained from the Greek fire, com-
pelled Igor to return to Russia. He is said to have escaped with only
ten ships to the Cimmerian Bosphorus.
The war lasted for three years more, and was ended in 945 by the
conclusion of another treaty between Russia and Byzantium, in which
not only the former treaties with Oleg were confirmed with some modi-
fications and additions, but both parties also undertook not to attack
the lands of the other party, and to assist each other. We learn from
this treaty that the great principality of Kiev was divided, not only
among the members of the dynasty but also among the foremost chiefs
of the companies, and that even women had their apportioned territories.
The whole state was administered from the standpoint of civil law in a
business-like manner. Oleg had already in his treaty of 907 agreed with
the Greeks what subsidies were to be paid to the several Russian towns,
or rather to his deputies residing there in Russian posádniki). Whereas
CH. VII.
## p. 206 (#248) ############################################
206
Trade and tribute
in Western Europe officials were remunerated by fiefs, in Russia they
had territories upon which they imposed taxes on their own behalf, and
to collect these was their principal care. The taxes were paid in money,
probably Arabian, as well as in kind, especially in furs. Either the
subject tribes brought their dues to Kiev or the princes rode to the
territories to receive them.
Constantine Porphyrogenitus describes the second manner of levying
the taxes. In the early days of November the Russian princes and all
their retinues started from Kiev to the territory of the Derevlyans,
Dregoviches, Kriviches, and other subject tribes, and lived there all the
winter, returning by the Dnieper to Kiev in April, when the ice had
floated down to the sea. Meantime the Slavs built during the winter
boats, hollowed from one piece of timber, and in spring floated them
down-stream to Kiev, where they sold them to the retinue of the prince
on their return from winter quarters in the lands of the subject tribes.
The courtiers shipped their wares, evidently furs and other taxes in kind
gathered from the tribes, and in June they proceeded by the Dnieper
to the castle or fortress of Vitichev, and thence to Constantinople.
Professor Klyuchevski very acutely recognised that the imposts
which the Prince of Kiev levied as a ruler were at the same time the
articles of his trade. “When he became a ruler as a konung, he as a
Varangian (Varyag) did not cease to be an armed merchant. He shared
the taxes with his retinue, which served him as the organ of administra-
tion and was the ruling class. This class governed in winter, visiting the
country and levying taxes, and in summer trafficked in what was gathered
during the winter. "
The oriental authors give us reports of predatory expeditions of
the Russians to the shores of the Caspian Sea. From the first, under-
taken in 880, all these raids ended in disaster. A particularly audacious
one took place in 944. The Russians arrived with their ships by the
Caspian Sea at the estuary of the river Cyrus, and sailing upstream
invaded the land called by the Arabs Arran (the ancient Albania), which
belonged to the Caliphate. Their first success was the conquest of
Berdaa, the capital of Arran, situated on the river Terter, a southern
tributary of the Cyrus. From Berdaa they ravaged the surrounding
country. The governor of Azarbā'ījān levied a great army which beat
the Russians after losing a first battle, but this defeat was not decisive
enough to induce them to leave the country. Dysentery, however,
spreading rapidly among the Russian army, delivered the Albanians
from their enemies. After depredations which lasted six months the
Russians left the land, returning home with rich spoil.
It is strange that the Russian chronicles are silent about these
invasions of the shores of the Caspian Sea, since there is no reason to
doubt their reality. They are an evidence that the state of Kiev was
## p. 207 (#249) ############################################
Beginnings of Christianity
207
already strong enough in Oleg's time—for the earliest expeditions under-
taken in the tenth century were certainly his--to venture on war not
only against Constantinople but also against the East. The easier there-
fore was it for Igor to undertake such a campaign.
After Igor's death his widow Olga ascended the throne, the first
Christian princess in Russia. Christianity had begun to spread in the
principality of Kiev soon after the first expedition of the Russians against
Constantinople in 860. It is probable that the Prince of Kiev himself at
this time embraced the Christian faith. During Oleg's reign Christianity
suffered a decline, although it did not disappear, as can be inferred from
the register of the metropolitan churches subordinated to the Patriarch
of Constantinople published by the Emperor Leo VI (886–911). In the
treaty of Igor with the Greeks in 945 heathen and Christian Russians
are mentioned, and the Russian Chronicle calls the church of St Elias
(Ilya) in Kiev a cathedral, which implies that there were other churches
in the city. But it seems nevertheless that the Christian faith did not
take strong root among the Russians, and there was hardly an improve-
ment when the Princess Olga embraced Christianity, which happened
probably in 954, three years before her voyage to Constantinople. The
purpose of this visit is not known. Former writers thought Olga went
there to be baptized, but it seems to be nearer the truth that her
journey had only diplomatic aims.
A true type of the adventurous viking was Prince Svyatoslav, son of
Igor and Olga, the first prince of the Varangian dynasty to bear a
Slavonic name. The Chronicle describes him as a gallant, daring man,
undertaking long expeditions to distant lands and neglecting the interests
of his own country. His mind was filled with the plan of transferring the
centre of his state to the Balkan peninsula. He spent the greater part
of his time in foreign lands. He was the first of the Russian princes who
forced the Vyatiches to pay him tribute, whereas they had formerly been
tributary to the Chazars.
But before that he tried to break the power
of the Chazars, which from the beginning of the ninth century had been
continually declining. They were pressed in the south by the Arabs and
the Transcaucasian tribes, in the north by the Patzinaks, and in the
west by the Russians. Some tribes had already thrown off their yoke.
Igor himself had cast an eager gaze on the Crimean peninsula and
on the shores of the Sea of Azov, where he would have liked to found a
Russian dominion. His political aims were followed by his successors.
The Chazars hindered these efforts. Svyatoslav therefore in 965 under-
took an expedition against them, and conquered their town Sarkel
(Bêlavêzha, White Town). After the defeat of the Chazars, Svyatoslav
attacked the Ossetes (remnants of the Alans) and the Kasogs (Cherkesses)
and subdued them. By this expedition against the Chazars and the tribes
-
CH. VII.
## p. 208 (#250) ############################################
208
Reign of Svyatoslav
belonging to their dominion, Svyatoslav laid the foundations of Tmuto-
rakanian Russia, which derived its name from its capital Tmutorakan,
the ancient Tamatarcha.
In 967 Svyatoslav undertook an expedition against the Greeks. The
Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus, indignant that the Bulgarian Tsar Peter
had not hindered the Magyars from invading the Balkan peninsula,
waged war against the Bulgars and sent the patrician Calocyrus to Prince
Svyatoslav for assistance. Calocyrus turned traitor. He concluded on his
own account with Svyatoslav a treaty for mutual support. The Russian
prince was to get Bulgaria, and Calocyrus the imperial throne. Svyato-
slav marched into Bulgaria, conquered it, and remained in Pereyaslavets
(Prêslav), the residence of the Tsar. During his absence in 968 the
Patzinaks attacked the land of Kiev, and only a ruse induced them
to leave the beleagured city. Being informed of this menace by the
inhabitants of Kiev, Svyatoslav returned and expelled the Patzinaks,
but he remained at home only to the end of 970, his mother Olga having
died meanwhile in 969. Then he again went to Bulgaria, leaving his
sons as governors, Yaropolk in Kiev and Oleg among the Derevlyans.
When the inhabitants of Novgorod also demanded a prince of their own,
he
gave
them his natural son Vladímir. But the government was in the
hands of the boyars, as all the sons were minors.
In his war with the Greeks Svyatoslav was unfortunate, although he
hired Magyar and Patzinak troops. In a short time he was forced to
make peace with Byzantium (971) and to renew the former treaties, to
which a new clause was added : the Russian prince bound himself not to
encroach on the Greek possessions in the Crimea (opposite the territory
of Cherson) or Bulgaria.
On his return home to Russia Svyatoslav perished (972) in a sudden
attack by Kurya, Prince of the Patzinaks.
The sons of Svyatoslav quarrelled. When Oleg was killed by Yaropolk,
Vladímir, fearing a similar fate, fled to the Swedes, but returned after
three years (980), and getting rid of Yaropolk by the treason of one of
his retinue ascended the throne of Svyatoslav.
Vladímir's retinue composed of heathen Varangians had the principal
share in the victories of their lord. Vladímir therefore manifested his
heathenism with the greatest zeal and erected idols on the hills of Kiev.
He himself also lived the life of a heathen; besides five legal wives he had
many concubines—the annals report 800. He very adroitly got rid of
the turbulent Varangians who had supported him; the more prominent
he won over to his party, the others were dismissed to Constantinople.
His principal aim was to extend and to consolidate the Russian
empire, which since Svyatoslav's time threatened to be dismembered into
minute principalities. In 981 he undertook an expedition against the
Vyatiches, conquered them, and forced them to pay tribute. They
## p. 209 (#251) ############################################
Vladímir the Great
209
again revolted in 982 but were subdued once more. In 984 Vladímir
took the field against the Radimiches, subdued them, and forced them
to pay tribute. The next year he marched against and defeated the
Bulgars, and then concluded a treaty of peace with them. In the last
decade of the tenth century he once more waged a victorious war against
the Bulgars.
In 1006 he concluded with them a commercial treaty, by
which the merchants of either state were allowed to carry on their trade
in the dominions of the other if they were provided with an official seal.
The statement of the Chronicle that Vladímir in 981 took the Polish
castles of Red Russia (the present eastern Galicia) is doubtful, but it is
certain that he fought a war with the Polish King Boleslav the Mighty
(982), which was ended by a treaty, as Boleslav was engaged in a war
with Bohemia. The peace was moreover secured by the marriage of
Svyatopolk, son of Vladímir and Prince of Turov, with a daughter of
Boleslav.
The incessant raids of the Patzinaks were very troublesome to Vladímir.
We read now and again in the annals that the Patzinaks invaded the
Russian country, so that there was constant war with them. These
unceasing inroads of the nomads led Vladímir to build strong fortresses
on the east and south of his territory, and to garrison them with the
best men of the Slavs (of Novgorod), the Kriviches, Chudes, and Vya-
tiches. The Russian princes as a rule subdued the southern tribes by
means of the northern peoples; with their assistance they defended
themselves also against the barbarians of the steppes.
Under Vladímir friendly relations with Byzantium were again inau-
gurated. The first step was made by the Greek Emperor Basil II,
who (in 988) asked Vladímir to assist him against the anti-Emperor
Bardas Phocas. Vladimir promised his help on condition that the
Emperor would give him his sister in marriage. Basil accepted this
condition if Vladímir consented to be baptised: The Russian prince
agreed and sent his army in the spring or summer of 988 to Basil. This
army of 6000 infantry remained in Greece even after Phocas had been
killed, and took part in the Byzantine wars in Asia in 999-1000. From
that time to the last quarter of the eleventh century the Varangians
formed the bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperors. Later on they were
replaced by soldiers from Western Europe, principally Englishmen.
When the Emperor Basil had been delivered from peril, he hesitated
over the fulfilment of his promise to give his sister Anne to Vladimir
to wife. The Russian prince, offended by this delay, attacked the Greek
possessions in the Crimea. He succeeded (989) in taking Cherson after a
long siege. But meanwhile the Greek Emperor was again in difficulties
in his own lands, especially in consequence of a revolt in Bulgaria, so
that he was obliged to regain Vladimir's good will and to send him his
sister Anne, who received Cherson for her dower.
At that time Vladímir was already a Christian, having been baptised
C. MED, H. VOL. IV. CA. VII.
14
## p. 210 (#252) ############################################
210
Russia accepts Christianity
about the beginning of 988. The long intercourse of Russia with Con-
stantinople had prepared a favourable ground for the Christian faith.
Various missionaries came to the prince at short intervals to explain
the advantages of their religion. Finally, he declared for Christianity,
and, having received baptism, he had his twelve sons christened also, and
encouraged the spread of Christianity among the boyars and the people.
Some districts of the Russian empire nevertheless still remained heathen
for a long time. There were pagans among the Vyatiches and Kriviches
in the beginning of the twelfth century, and in Murom even in the
thirteenth century.
During Vladímir's reign an attempt was also made to win the Russians
over to Rome. With the daughter of Boleslav the Mighty, Reinbern,
Bishop of Kolberg, arrived at the court of Vladímir's son Svyatopolk at
Turov, and tried to sever the young Russian Church from the Eastern
Church. Vladímir, as soon as he was informed of the plans of Reinbern,
imprisoned Svyatopolk, his wife, and the bishop. Thereupon a war broke
out with Boleslav, who hastened to make peace with the Germans (1013),
and having hired troops from them and the Patzinaks set out against
Vladímir. He only devastated the land without gaining further results.
Vladímir died in 1015.
The importance of Vladímir in Russian history is enormous. He
subdued the tribes which had gained their independence under his pre-
decessors; he defended the empire against the barbarians of the steppes ;
he accepted Christianity and introduced Christian reforms. He success-
fully closed the tenth century, the heroic period of Russian history; his
reign was famous for the maritime expeditions against the Greeks, the
inroads beyond the Danube, the occupation of Bulgaria, and the expedi-
tions against the Chazars and Bulgars.
We have yet to say something of the Magyars in their new home in
Hungary.
About the year 895 or 896 the Magyars crossed the northern Car-
pathian Mountains, and endeavoured in the first place to occupy the
lands near the upper course of the river Theiss. The progressive occupa-
tion of the territories of later Hungary was made easy to the Magyars
by the circumstance that the new political formations, which had begun to
arise here, were feeble and of no long duration. The north-western part
of later Hungary, inhabited at that time by Slovaks, was a constituent
part of the Great Moravian realm, which extended as far as the river
Theiss and probably some distance to the south between this river and the
Danube. After the death of Svatopluk (894), the Magyars had nothing
to fear from the Great Moravian state, which was now governed by his
discordant sons. During their quarrels it was an easy matter for the
Magyars to occupy the northern part of the territory between the Theiss
and the Danube. This is the only possible explanation of their being
## p. 211 (#253) ############################################
The Magyars in Hungary
211
able to penetrate without opposition into Pannonia, and to undertake
their predatory invasions into Italy. In Lower Pannonia there arose
by the first half of the ninth century the Slavonic principality of Pribina
(840) under the suzerainty of the Franks, with his capital of Blatno
(Urbs paludum, Mosaburch) near where the river Zala flows into the
lake of Blatno (Balaton). The limits of Pribina's principality can only
be given approximately. To the north-west it extended to the river
Raab, to the south-west to Pettau, to the south as far as the Drave,
and to the north and east about to the Danube. With the Slavs there
also lived German colonists from Bavaria in scattered settlements in this
principality. The country between the Danube and the Raab was
settled by Germans, who there formed the majority of the population.
In ecclesiastical affairs Pannonia was divided after 829 between the
bishoprics of Salzburg and Passau. During the reign of Kocel (861-874),
Pribina's successor, the Moravo-Pannonian Slavonic archbishopric was
founded about 870 and St Methodius installed in the see. After Kocel's
death Lower Pannonia was again governed by German officials. Only
after the arrival of the Magyars in Hungary, King Arnulf in 896 in-
vested the Croatian prince Braslav, reigning between the rivers Drave
and Save, with the south-western part of Pannonia as a fief.
The most ancient Hungarian chronicler, the so-called Anonymus regis
Belae notarius, gives us some, not altogether reliable, accounts of the
political divisions in the other parts of Hungary and in Transylvania.
If we supplement the account of the Anonymus with those of the Frankish
authors, we can conclude that in the eastern half of Hungary beyond the
river Theiss, and perhaps in Transylvania, there were at the end of the
ninth century some feeble principalities probably tributary to the Bulgars,
and that these were neither old enough nor sufficiently developed to stop
the progress of the warlike Magyar tribes. It is certain that in the lands
beyond the Theiss as well as in the so-called Black Hungary (Transyl-
vania) there were numerous Slavonic inhabitants, and even now we can
find traces of them in the place-names.
We have hardly any other accounts of the Magyars, during the first
fifty years after the occupation of Hungary, than that they raided the
neighbouring countries. As early as 898 a scouting party of Magyars
came into north-eastern Italy to the river Brenta, and the following year
the Magyars made a new invasion, and overflowed the plain of Lombardy,
plundering and burning the land. For a whole year, until the spring
of 900, they devastated Italy, and King Berengar only induced them to
leave the country by presents, even giving hostages. On their return
they devastated the greater part of Pannonia belonging to the German
kingdom, and immediately afterwards, in the middle of the year 900, the
whole Magyar nation crossed the Danube and occupied Lower Pannonia
as far as the river Raab. That it was possible to do so without serious
opposition from the Germans may be explained by the foolish policy
CH. VA.
14-2
## p. 212 (#254) ############################################
212
The Magyar raids
of Bavaria. Liutpold of Bavaria, founder of the dynasty of Wittelsbach,
preferred to be at enmity with the Great Moravian state rather than to
oppose the Magyars. But no sooner had the Magyars conquered Pannonia,
than they appeared in Bavaria beyond the Inn. The Bavarians only suc-
ceeded in destroying a part of the Magyars ; the others escaped with a
rich booty. The Bavarians did not make peace with Moravia until 901,
when it had become too late.
In 906 the Magyars overthrew the Great Moravian state. The
Bavarians in 907 invaded the Magyar territory, but were defeated, and
after that Upper Pannonia was also conquered by the Magyars. Under
Árpád's successors the Magyars constantly made predatory incursions,
and penetrated still farther to the west. Nobody opposed their pro-
gress, because the former provinces of the Frankish Empire were in
decline. The weapons of the Germans were clumsy: heavy armour,
a heavy helmet, a great shield, and a long sword. The Magyars on the
contrary appeared suddenly on their swift horses and poured showers
of arrows upon their enemies, causing great disorder among them and
turning them to flight. The foe seldom succeeded in surprising the
Magyars before they had arrayed themselves for battle, because their
scouts were exceedingly wary and vigilant. A frequent military ruse of
the Magyars was to feign a flight in order to entice the enemy into pur-
suit. Suddenly they would turn and frighten the pursuers so thoroughly
by a flood of arrows that it was an easy matter for their reserves to
attack and destroy the baffled foe. The Magyars lacked skill only in
taking castles and fortresses; in Germany and Italy therefore the in-
habitants began quickly to fortify their towns.
The history of these western invasions, ending with the decisive
defeat (955) on the Lechfeld, has been told in the preceding volume of
this work. The turn of the Balkan peninsula came comparatively late.
It was after their defeat in Saxony in 933 that the Magyars turned their
attention in this direction. In the spring of 934 they invaded Thrace
in company with Patzinaks with a force which penetrated to Constanti-
nople. Masóūdi gives us a somewhat confused report of this incursion,
declaring that four tribes were allied against the Greeks, although it
seems that only the Magyars with the Patzinaks were the invaders.
Marquart thinks that by the town Walandar, conquered at this time by
the barbarian armies, Develtus near the modern Burgas is meant. It
seems that since 934 the Magyars regularly demanded tribute from the
Greeks, at first every nine and later on every five years. In 943 they
came again, and the Emperor Romanus Lecapenus appointed the
patrician Theophanes, as he had done in 934, to negotiate with them.
Theophanes succeeded in concluding a truce for five years, for which
both parties gave hostages. It is probable that about this time the
Byzantines tried, but in vain, to gain the Magyars for allies against the
Patzinaks. After that the Magyars invaded the Balkan peninsula several
## p. 213 (#255) ############################################
The Magyars become a settled people
213
times, especially in 959 and 962. In 967 a band of Magyars joined the
Russian prince Svyatoslav when he attacked Bulgaria.
After the Lechfeld, however, the aggressiveness of the Magyars
considerably declined. Western Europe now remained safe from their
predatory inroads, and at last even the expeditions against the Balkan
peninsula ceased. During the three-quarters of a century in which the
Magyars had occupied their new homes in Hungary, political and other
conditions had greatly changed. In the first place the neighbours of the
Magyars had grown much stronger. This is true principally of the
Germanic Empire, which, under the dynasty of Saxon kings, was far more
powerful than under the later Carolingians. In the south the Greek
Empire stretched as far as the Danube, and completely checked any new
Magyar expeditions to the Balkan peninsula. In course of time even the
mode of life of the leading Magyars had somewhat changed. Not only
Prince Géza but also several chieftains ceased to live in tents, preferring
castles for their abodes. This change was caused by the Christian religion,
which in the meanwhile had spread in the neighbouring countries and
extended its influence also among the inhabitants of Hungary, especially
in ancient Pannonia, where a great portion of the Germans and Slavs were
Christians. Through these Christian inhabitants the Magyars became
acquainted with a peaceful manner of life, with agriculture and trade.
During the three-quarters of a century even the ethnic character of the
inhabitants underwent a great modification. The Magyars, who were not
very numerous even at the time of their occupation of Hungary, did not
increase considerably because of their frequent predatory expeditions into
foreign lands. Only the first generation was able to gain victories abroad,
in fact while the military tactics of the Magyars were unknown. The
second generation met with repeated calamities. Many Magyars perished
these expeditions ; only a small band returned from the battle of the
Lechfeld. The decrease of the Magyar element was unavoidably followed
by a great intermixture of the remaining population, which also caused a
change in the character of the nation.
In short, since the accession of Géza as Prince of the Magyars, about
970, there begins a radical change in the history of the Magyars. Géza
was the first ruler who was judicious enough to see that his people could
hold its own among other nations if it would live with them in peace
and if it would accept Christianity. Immediately after his accession to the
throne he sent messengers to the Emperor Otto I in 973 to initiate friendly
relations with Gerinany. That he resolved on this course of action must
be attributed to the influence of his wife Adelaide, a princess of Polish
blood and a fervent Christian. By her recommendation St Vojtěch
(Adalbert), Bishop of Prague and a distant relative of hers, was called
to Hungary. About 985 he converted to the Christian faith not only
Géza but also his ten-year-old son Vajk, to whom the name Stephen
was given in baptism. Ten years later (995) Benedictine monks from
CA. VU.
## p. 214 (#256) ############################################
214
Christianisation of Hungary
Bohemia came to Hungary and settled, as it seems, in the monastery of
Zobor upon the Nyitra. This Christianisation was moreover very much
furthered by Géza having chosen Gisela, a princess of the German
imperial dynasty, as a bride for his son Stephen (996). The work begun
by Géza was brought to a good end by Stephen, who was canonised for
his apostolic zeal. Stephen, immediately after his accession to the throne
(997), ordered his subjects to accept Christianity. To set a good example
he liberated his slaves. He visited his lands and everywhere preached the
new religion. He called in foreign priests, especially Slavs, to assist him.
Etymological researches have proved that the ecclesiastical terminology
of the Magyars is to a considerable degree of Slavonic origin. This alone
would lead to the indubitable conclusion that the first missionaries of
the Gospel among the Magyars were to a great extent Slavs belonging
to the Roman obedience. And the accounts of the conversion witness to
the same fact.
Bohemian priests took a prominent share in the spreading of the
Christian faith in Hungary. In the first place Radla, the former com-
panion of St Vojtěch, must be named, who worked in the Hungarian
realm from 995 to about 1008; then Anastasius, formerly Abbot at
Břevnov near Prague in Bohemia, later of St Martin's in Hungary, and
finally Archbishop of Gran (Esztergom) from 1001-1028. Also Astrik,
Abbot of Pécsvárad and later Archbishop of Kalocsa, who had been at
first one of the priests of St Vojtěch and then an abbot in Poland,
excelled among the Slav preachers of the faith in Hungary. Further,
St Gerard, tutor of Stephen's son Emeric, and later Bishop of Csanád,
was a signal propagator of Christianity in Hungary. St Stephen
himself founded several bishoprics and monasteries : besides the arch-
bishoprics of Esztergom and Kalocsa, he instituted the bishoprics of
Veszprém, Pécs (Fünfkirchen), Csanád, Vácz (Waitzen), Raab (Györ),
Eger (Erlau), and Nagy-Várad (Grosswardein) and Gyulafehérvár (Karls-
burg) in Transylvania.
It was the greatest political success of St Stephen that he secured for
his lands a complete independence in their ecclesiastical and secular rela-
tions. He sent an embassy to Pope Sylvester II to obtain for the
Hungarian ruler a royal crown and papal sanction for the ecclesiastical
organisation. The Pope complied with both requests, and sent to
St Stephen not only the royal crown but also an apostolic cross. Stephen
had himself solemnly crowned as king in 1001.
St Stephen only succeeded with difficulty in controlling the refractory
chieftains of the tribes. One of them, for instance, Kopány, chief of
Somogy (Shümeg) and cousin to St Stephen, headed a revolt in favour
of heathenism, but was defeated. Prokuy also, a maternal relative of
St Stephen, prince in the territories on both sides of the Theiss, belonged
to the turbulent element which hated Christianity. St Stephen sub-
dued him too, and removed him from his government. In Hungary itself,
## p. 215 (#257) ############################################
St Stephen
215
in the south-eastern corner of the land bordered by the rivers Maros,
Theiss, and Danube, and by Transylvania, there lay the principality of
Aytony (Akhtum). This small principality was also overthrown by
St Stephen about 1025.
St Stephen also organised the administration of the land after foreign
models, partly German and partly Slav. He arranged his court after the
German fashion, and divided his lands into counties (comitatus), appointing
as their governors officials called in Latin comites, in Magyar ispanok
(from the Slavonic župan). He likewise followed foreign and especially
German examples in legislative matters, endeavouring to remodel his
state entirely in a European fashion, and to make it into an orderly
land. He died in 1038. His fame as the second founder and moulder of
the Magyar kingdom is immortal. By bringing his savage barbaric nation
into the community of Christendom, he saved the Magyars from a ruin
which otherwise they could not have escaped.
(B)
CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS.
In the numerous records of missionary activity in the Christian
Church of Eastern and Western Europe there is one chapter which,
owing to special circumstances, has attained the greatest importance in
the history of the world. It deals with an incident which happened
more than a thousand
years ago, the
consequences
of which have endured
to this day, and it reveals the characteristic features of Christianity
in the East and South-East of Europe. It arose in connexion with two
brothers, Cyril and Methodius, who lived in the ninth century at Salonica,
and are still venerated by more than a hundred million Slavs as apostles
to their race and as creators of the language of their ritual, the
language which was for many centuries the medium of literary activity,
of the public life of the community, as well as of Church functions.
According to the point of view of individual scholars this historical
event has been very differently criticised and appreciated. Some modern
writers condemn it because it was chiefly the predominance of the language
of the Slav Church, based on a Byzantine model, that separated Eastern
Europe from the civilisation of Western Europe, and was principally to
blame for the unequal progress in the development of Eastern civilisa-
tion in comparison with Western. Other writers cannot praise it suf-
CH. VII.
## p. 216 (#258) ############################################
216
Sources for the history of Cyril and Methodius
ficiently because, as it led to the separation of the Slavonic East and
South-East of Europe from the Latin West, they recognise it as one of
the chief causes of the preservation of national characteristics, even
indeed of political independence.
