CHAPTER 4 The Beginning of the Rebellion and the Rise of the Vlach-Bulgarian State (1185–1188)

Before his victory over William II (November 7th, 1185), Emperor Isaac II camped for a while at Kypsella in Thrace, now Ipsala in Turkey, 85 km to the south-west from Adrianople/Edirne. The town is located at approxi- mately 300 km east from the battlefield of Dimitritsi. Both locations are on Via Egnatia.1 Before the battle, the army was marching and approaching Thessaloniki from the north. As Günter Prinzing has demonstrated, the camp in Kypsella must have therefore have been before, not after the battle.2 recounts that two Vlachs named Peter and Asan arrived at the camp to see Isaac II Angelos,

requesting that they be recruited in the Roman army (συστραλογηθῆναι Ῥομαίοις) and be awarded by imperial rescript (βασιλεία γράμματα) a certain estate (χωρίον) situated in the vicinity of Mount Haimos, which would provide them with a little revenue (πρόσοδον). Failing in their request—for the punitive action of God supersedes that of man—they grumbled because they had not been heard; and with their request made for naught, they spat out heated words, hinting at rebellion and the destruction they would wreak on their way home. Asan, the more insolent and savage of the two, was struck across the face and rebuked for his impudence at the command of John, the . Thus did they return, unsuccessful in their mission and wantonly insulted.3

Since Isaac II was preparing for battle against William II, it is clear that Peter and Asan were expecting their recruiting offer to be accepted, especially since they were most likely not alone, but accompanied by a group of Vlachs. Basilika

1 For Kypsella see Soustal 1991, 330–331. 2 Prinzing 1999–2000, 259. The date of setting the camp at Kypsella before the battle of Dimitritsi was previously admitted by Van Dieten 1971, 70. 3 Niketas Choniates, Isaakios Angelos, I (ed. Van Dieten, 369; transl. Magoulias, 204; FHDR III, 254/255); Zlatarski 1972, II, 411–413, 435–436; Wolff 1949, 182–183; Brand 1968, 89; Malingoudis 1978, 73; Cankova-Petkova 1978a, 96–98; Angelov 1984, 41; Angelov 1985, 8; Fine 1994, 10–11; Stephenson 2000, 289; Curta 2006, 358–359; Ritter 2010, 32–33; Ritter 2013, 172–173.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004333192_005 36 CHAPTER 4 grammata were letters issued by the emperor in favor of those joining the army in return for domains, thus becoming pronoiars.4 Peter and Asan were brothers (ταυτόσποροι) and from the same bloodline (ὁμογενεῑς) as the Vlachs whom Niketas Choniates blamed for the rebellion in Mount Haemus, in response to the stealing of their flocks and to their oppres- sion. Choniates also mentions that those barbarian Vlachs used to be called Mysians (Moesians), thus acknowledging their implicit origin from the old Roman province of Moesia, in contrast to Bulgarians.5 They relied on numer- ous fortresses (φρουρίοις) located in inaccessible areas, on steep rocks. As already pointed out, another cause of the rebellion was the fact that the emperor was “despoiling” the people, according to Niketas, for he needed money to cover the expenses for the imperial wedding. The taxes levied for the occasion were not only for those living on the private imperial domains (τῶν οικείον χώρον),6 but also for those in Anchialos (now Pomorie) and neighboring towns. The imperial domains in question had once belonged to the Bulgarian tsars and noblemen, before being confiscated after the conquest of . Their owners must have been either killed or moved to other provinces. The emperors then granted a part of those domains to Byzantine noblemen, but others remained imperial property, served by dependent peasants, paroikoi.7 According to Paul Magdalino,­ Choniates quite abstruse passage implies that additional taxes have been abusively taken not only from those domains but also from Anchialos and the neighboring towns. The intention must have been to confiscate or over-tax the Vlachs’ flocks grazing in the area, instead of pro- viding supplies from . It appears that the Vlachs had been pre- viously taxed only for what they bought in Anchialos, whereas the new tax (kapnikon) applied to their flocks. Peter and Asan represented those Vlachs.8 ’ history clarifies some aspects of those taxes paid in kind: “Sheep, pigs, and oxen were collected from every province of the Roman empire. But since the land of the Bulgarians rears more of these than do other places, more animals were also demanded from it”. George Akropolites shows that the rebellion was set off by the fact that the authorities demanded an exaggerated number of animals from the Bulgarians, but he does not mention

4 Niketas Choniates, Manuel Comnenos, VII (ed. Van Dieten, 209; transl. Magoulias, 118–119); Lemerle 1959, 273; Birkenmeier 2002, 174. 5 For the use of this archaism see Brezeanu 1991, 105, 112–114. 6 For the exact meaning of the expression see Magdalino 1993, 134–135; Hendy 1999, 4. 7 Litavrin 1994, 68–69. 8 Magdalino 1993, 135. The interpretation was endorsed by Stephenson 2000, 289; Ritter 2010, 30–31; Ritter 2013, 170–171.