Battle of Sebastopolis

Battle of Sebastopolis
Part of the Arab–Byzantine wars
Date 692 AD Location Sebastopolis Result Umayyad victory
Belligerents
Umayyad Caliphate	Byzantine Empire
Commanders and leaders
Muhammad ibn Marwan	Leontius Neboulos

The Battle of Sebastopolis was fought at Sebastopolis ^[i] in the middle of Armeniac Theme in 692 CE between the Byzantine Empire and the Umayyad Caliphate. The battle ended the peace that had existed between the two powers since 680.

Justinian II sought to restore the glory of the Roman Empire under Justinian I by pursuing aggressive military campaigns that reversed his father's peaceful policies. Early on, he broke a treaty with the Bulgarians and attacked Slavic tribes near Thessaloniki, many of which were transferred to the depopulated Opsician Theme, granting them land and recruiting them to form a new elite military corps. Justinian II also undermined a treaty with the Umayyad caliphate under Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan over tribute payments, breaking the treaty. His Slavic military corps fought the Umayyads at Sebastopolis but deserted en masse, resulting in a Byzantine defeat. Following this, Justinian II harshly punished the surviving troops and their families.

Background

Byzantine Empire at different periods. The territories of Byzantium had shrank in 690 AD compared to Justinian I in 550 AD.

Gold solidus of Justinian II 4.42 grams (0.156 oz), struck after 692

Early in his reign, Justinian II had the ambition to restore the lands of the former Roman Empire, as Emperor Justinian I did. To accomplish this goal, he aggressively sought combat by undoing measures that brought the peace and prosperity established by his father. Early on, he broke a peace with the Bulgarians and immediately attacked slavic tribes that had established near Thessaloniki. ^[1] In 688/9, Justinian II forcibly transplanted Slavic populations from the Balkans and settled them in the Opsician Theme, which was depopulated from Arab attacks under Justinian's father reign. He granted them military land grants, and from them, he recruited a special military corps, allegedly 30,000 strong, which was called in "the chosen people" (Greek : λαός περιούσιος). ^{[2] [3]} In about 690, Neboulos was placed as the corps' commander ( archon ). ^[4]

Justinian II was bound by a treaty with the caliphate that granted him tribute in gold coins. However, he devised a way to undermine it. He introduced new coins featuring his portrait on one side and that of Christ on the other. Abd al-Malik made similar coins but omitted Christ's image, making them slightly lighter. Justinian then refused the tribute, claiming that the coins were not equivalent. When Abd al-Malik offered to increase the amount to meet the agreed value, Justinian II declared the treaty broken and began preparations for war. ^[5]

Battle

In 692/3, after the corps' training had been completed, they were employed en masse by Justinian II in a major campaign against the Umayyads under the strategos of the Anatolics, Leontios. ^[4]

The long preparation by Justinian II, gave sufficient time for the caliphate to raise their own army and invaded Byzantium before Justinian's army invaded the caliphate's territories. The Byzantines engaged the Arabs near Sebastopolis, ^[i] in the middle of Armeniac Theme, and initially had the upper hand. The Umayyads, incensed at the breaking of the treaty, used copies of its texts in the place of a flag. ^[6] However, Neboulos, with the bulk (some 20,000 ^[ii] ) of his men, deserted the Byzantine lines and went over to the Arabs, allegedly bribed by the Arab commander, Muhammad ibn Marwan. ^[4] The actions of Neboulos ensured the defeat of the Byzantines. ^{[4] [7] [8] [3]}

Aftermath

Justinian II's defeat deprived him of a viable army to continue his military campaigns, and the rupture of the treaty with the caliphate enabled the Arabs to launch new raids against Byzantine territories. ^{[7] [9]}

Sources report how thereafter Justinian II blamed Leontios for the defeat and imprisoned him. He took his revenge on the remaining Slavs. He disbanded the corps, and killed or sold into slavery many of its men, as well as killed the families of the deserters at Leukete near the gulf of Nicomedia. Much of this extermination took place 694/5; ^[3] some scholars dispute this account. ^{[10] [11]} Neboulos and his men, on the other hand, were settled by the Umayyads in Syria, and were employed in subsequent Arab forays into Byzantine-held Asia Minor. ^{[4] [7]} Douglas Whalin contends that the story of Neboulos illustrates the challenges the Byzantine Empire faced in depending on foederati (foreign tribe allies bounded by a treaty) when they were not sufficiently Romanized. ^[3]

See also

• Byzantine Empireportal

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b}
   It is mostly identified with Elaiussa Sebaste in Cilicia but also with modern Sulusaray.
2. ^
   Scholars have expressed the belief that this figure is overstated. ^{[12] [13]}

Footnotes

1. Nikephoros & Short History, p. 38.
2. Treadgold 1997, p. 333.
3. Whalin 2020, pp. 169–170.
4. Hollingsworth 1991 , p. 1448
5. Treadgold 1997, pp. 334–335.
6. Komatina 2014, pp. 35, 39.
7. Treadgold 1997, p. 335.
8. Gelovani 2013, p. 28.
9. Ostrogorsky 1969, p. 131.
10. Haldon 1990, p. 72.
11. Hendy 2008, pp. 631–632.
12. Charalampakis 2017, p. 516.
13. Charanis 1972, pp. 42–43.

Sources

Primary

• Saint Nicephorus (Patriarch of Constantinople) (1990) [c. 820]. Short history. Translated by Mango, Cyril. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton.

Secondary

• Charalampakis, Pantelis (2017). "Once again on St. Ioannikios the Great and the Slavs of Bithynia". Zgodovinski časopis. 71 (3–4): 512–525.
• Charanis, Charanis (1972). Studies on the Demography of the Byzantine Empire. London: Variorum Reprints.
• Haldon, John F. (1990). Byzantium in the seventh century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hendy, Michael F. (2008). Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy C. 300–1450. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hollingsworth, Paul A. (1991). "Neboulos". In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-504652-8.
• Gelovani, N. (2013). "Arab-Byzantine Relations under the Umayyad Caliphate and South Caucasus" (PDF). International Journal of Social Science and Humanity. 3 (1).
• Komatina, Predrag (2014). "Settlement of the Slavs in Asia Minor During the Rule of Justinian II and the Bishopric των Γορδοσερβων". Blegrade Historical Review. 10 (5).
• Ostrogorsky, George (1969). History of the Byzantine state. Rutgers University Press.
• Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN   0-8047-2630-2.
• Whalin, Douglas (2020). Roman Identity from the Arab Conquests to the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Vol. 61. Washington D.C.: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60906-1. ISBN   978-3-030-60905-4.

Further reading

• Lilie, Ralph-Johannes (1976), Die byzantinische Reaktion auf die Ausbreitung der Araber. Studien zur Strukturwandlung des byzantinischen Staates im 7. und 8. Jhd. (in German), Munich: Institut für Byzantinistik und Neugriechische Philologie der Universität München, OCLC   797598069
• Stratos, A.N. (1980), Byzantium in the Seventh Century, Volume V: Justinian II, Leontius and Tiberius, 685–711, Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, pp. 34–38, ISBN   90-256-0852-3