Battle of Pliska

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Battle of Pliska
Part of the Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars
Ruins of Pliska
Date July 26, 811 Location Pliska Result Decisive Bulgarian victory
Combatants
Byzantine Empire	Bulgaria
Commanders
Nicephorus I†	Krum
Strength
around 80,000	Unknown
Casualties
almost the whole army, including the emperor	Unknown

Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars
Ongala  –1st Anchialus  – Rishki Pass  –2nd Anchialus  – Berzitia  – Marcelae  – Serdica  – Pliska – 1st Adrianople – Versinikia  – Bulgarophygon  – 3rd Anchialus  – Katasyrtai  – Pigae  – Trayanovi Vrata  – Solun  – Spercheios  – Skopie  – Kleidion  – Ostrovo  – Klokotnitsa  – 2nd Adrianople – Devnya  – Skafida  – Rusokastro

The Battle of Pliska (Battle of Vărbica pass) (Bulgarian: битката във Върбишкия проход) took place on July 26, 811, between the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria, resulting in one of the worst defeats in Byzantine history.

Contents 1 Origins of the conflict 2 The Battle 3 Aftermath 4 Sources

[edit] Origins of the conflict

When Nicephorus I became emperor in 802, he planned to reincorporate Bulgar-held territory back into the empire. In 809, he sacked Pliska, the Bulgar capital, and although he did not launch a major military expedition against them, he settled many Anatolian families in the area. In 811, he gathered a larger army from the Anatolian and European themata, and the imperial bodyguard (the tagmata). The reconquest was supposed to be easy, and a number of high-ranking officials and aristocrats accompanied him, including his son Stauracius.

[edit] The Battle

The army gathered in May, and by July 10 had set up camp at the Bulgarian frontier. Nicephorus intended to confuse them and over the next ten days launched several supposed attacks, which were immediately called back. The Bulgarians, meanwhile, gathered their own forces. On July 20 Nicephorus divided the army into three columns, each marching by a different route towards Pliska, where he defeated the defenders and took the city on July 23. The city was sacked and the countryside destroyed. The Bulgarian khan Krum wanted to negotiate a peace but Nicephorus ignored him.

Michael the Syrian, patriarch of the Syrians Jacobites in XIIth century described in his Chronicle the brutalities and atrocities of the Roman Emperor Nikephoros I Genik. “Nicephorus, emperor of the Romanians, walked in Bulgarians land: he was victorious and killed great number of them. He reached their capital, took it over and devastated it. His savagery went to this point that he ordered to bring their small children, got them tied down on earth and made thresh grain stones to smash them.”

While Nikephoros I and his army were busy pillaging, killing women and children, devastating and plundering Bulgarian capital, Krum mobilized his people (including the women) to set traps and ambushes in the mountain passes. On his way back to Constantinople, the Roman Emperor learnt about these preparations for battle. The panicked emperor repeatedly stated to his companions “Even if we have had wings we could not have escaped from peril.”

At dawn on July 26 the Byzantines found themselves trapped against a moat and wooden wall in the Vărbica pass. Nikephoros was killed in the ensuing battle together with many of his troops. Many of them drowned in the nearby river, or were killed when the barricade was set on fire. Nikephoros son Staurakios was carried to safety by the imperial bodyguard after receiving a paralyzing wound to his neck. According to tradition, Krum had the Emperor's skull lined with silver and used it as a drinking cup.

[edit] Aftermath

The defeat was the worst the empire had faced since the Battle of Adrianople over 400 years previously. Nicephorus' skull was turned into a drinking cup by Krum. Stauracius, the new emperor, had been wounded and was ineffectual as emperor; he was deposed and succeeded by his brother-in-law Michael I Rangabe a month later. Over the next two years, Krum was able to attack the empire in the vicinity of Constantinople itself, although he was never able to take the city. Michael attempted to recover from the loss, but was defeated in 813 at the Battle of Versinikia; the danger did not subside until Krum himself died in 814.

[edit] Sources

• (primary source) Michel le Syrien, patriarch of the Syrians Jacobites, Michel le (1905). “t. III”, J.–B. Chabot Chronique de Michel le Syrien (in French). Paris: J.–B. Chabot, p. 17.