Slavic Adaptations of Byzantine Chronicles

CHAPTER 2 Slavic Adaptations of Byzantine Chronicles

The Hellenic and Roman Chronograph

This work appears to be a mid-15th-century imitation of Byzantine chronicles and short chronicles.

[Kingdom] 53 of Basil Porphyrogenitus, who killed the Bulgarians too, years 8, of orthodox faith …

Publications: O. V. Tvorogov, Letopisec ellinskii i rimskii, 2 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1999–2000); Snezhana Rakova, Chetvărtiiat krăstonosen pokhod v istoricheskata pamet na pravoslavnite slaviani (Sofia, 2007), p. 206.

The Russian Chronograph

This Russian compilation survives in three redactions dated to 1512, 1617, and 1620–44, respectively. The text in each of them is organized in 200 short chapters.

1512 redaction

The tsardom of Basil and Constantine, sons of Tsar Roman As the Arabic sword conquered Asia, the Assyrians squeezed the Greek borders. At the same time, the Bulgarians attacked the Greeks along the Danube River and captured Thrace, which is located close to the borders. Yet suddenly, after the long winter, the spring shone and the storm was replaced by deep silence, which brought profound calmness. Bardas sub- dued himself to the ruler. Basil conquered the Arab country and the sweet stream of the Phasis,1 which fed the Iberians, as well as the Phoenician land. Tsar Basil had never given peace to his eyes; he had never closed them; he had never slept until he drove away the wolves that tormented

1 The ancient Greek name of the river now known as Rioni, which flows through western Georgia into the Black Sea next to the city of Poti (ancient Phasis)(translator’s note).

the sheep. His power was recognized by the strong Bulgarians. Again, he belted on a sword, like the victorious Ares. And he did not remain in the royal chamber as a young lady, who escapes the gaze of a man, but, on the contrary, he preferred the morning dew to wash his hair, thus inten- sifying his royal aroma. Again, the regiments clashed in vicious battles. And again, the barbarians, like wild goats wounded by a spear edge in the womb, exhibited homicide and ferocious impudence. Soldiers of both sides got armed—Bulgarians and Greeks. And they all breathed wrath and war. And all were ironclad; and bore copper shields and spears. The war began—ruinous for both sides. Shields got smashed and spears were broken with ferocious roar. Emperor Basil walked among his subjects like a rooster and guided them against the headstrong Bulgarians. And of course, the Bulgarians broke into a run and jostled with each other. The Greek regiments rushed after them killing those who could not run faster, striking and crushing them under their feet. Their princes ran away as well, cutting the tendons of their horses, and getting back home to enjoy the booty. Bulgarian fields were covered with blood and bodies of the dead and swamps of blood were formed elsewhere. And the Greek soldiery, armed and unarmed, walked at ease in Thrace and throughout the entire Bulgarian land in great jubilation. Thus, Emperor Basil not once but twice destroyed the tsar of the Bulgarians. His name was Samuel. He captured Vidin, and Pliska and Great and Little Preslav, and many other towns. Skopje was given to him by Roman, the son of the Bulgarian tsar Peter. This town was given to Roman by Samuel, when the Bulgarians ruled over the land from Ohrid to Dyrrhachium and farther. Thus, the emperor crushed the haughtiness of the Bulgarians, as he destroyed the pillar of their pride and rebuffed them as poor dogs away from his sheepfolds. Some of them he captured; and he blinded 15,000 prisoners of war. And as he left a one-eyed man to every hundred blinded, he sent them in that state to tsar Samuel. And he, as he saw them, was struck by grief and died of sorrow. Basil, on his turn, appeased the haughty ones and enslaved the free ones. Since then, the Bulgarian kingdom had fallen under Greek power—up to the time of Asen, the Bulgarian tsar.

Commentary: As Liudmila Gorina points out in her “Zavoevanie Bolgarii Vizantiei (konec X–nachalo XI v.) v russkom Khronografe,” in Makedoniia: problemy istorii i kul’tury, edited by R. P. Grishina (Moscow, 1999), pp. 46–71, the information in the Russian Chronograph derives from various sources—Skylitzes, the