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RECONCILING NIKEPHOROS BRYENNIOS' MATERIALS for a HISTORY a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillme

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RECONCILING NIKEPHOROS BRYENNIOS' MATERIALS for a HISTORY a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillme THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME: RECONCILING NIKEPHOROS BRYENNIOS’ MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Humanities By JAMES GILMER M.A., American Public University System, 2012 2019 Wright State University WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL [August 22nd, 2019] I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY JAMES GILMER ENTITLED The Song Remains the Same: Reconciling Nikephoros Bryennios’ Materials for a History BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF HUMANITIES. Jeannette Marchand, PhD Thesis Director Valerie Stoker, PhD Director, Master of Humanities Program Committee on Final Examination: [Jeannette Marchand, PhD] [Paul Lockhart, PhD] [Aaron Wolpert] [Valerie Stoker, PhD] Barry Milligan, PhD Interim Dean of the Graduate School ABSTRACT Gilmer, James. M.Hum. Graduate Program, Wright State University, 2019. The Song Remains the Same: Reconciling Nikephoros Bryennios’ Materials for a History. The following thesis presents new perspectives on the representation of Byzantine generals during the eleventh century, focusing specifically on parallel representations of Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder. I will argue that Byzantine chroniclers routinely employed the language of Byzantine military manuals as a template to describe the generals who populate the pages of their works. This tendency created a shared language of praise and censure which chroniclers applied to the generals whose reputation they sought either to exalt or to tarnish. The career of Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder as it is presented in the History of Michael Attaleiates and the Materials for a History of Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger vividly demonstrates this tendency as Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger attempts to salvage the reputation of his grandfather. Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Argument ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter I: Byzantine Historiography ............................................................................................... 7 Byzantine Military Tradition ........................................................................................................ 7 Leo the Deacon: ......................................................................................................................... 16 John Skylitzes: ............................................................................................................................ 24 Chapter II: Other Voices ................................................................................................................ 33 Michael Attaleiates: ................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter III: Reinterpreting the Hyle Historias ................................................................................ 51 Bryennios the Elder: ................................................................................................................... 53 Alexios Komnenos: ..................................................................................................................... 56 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 78 Bibliography: .................................................................................................................................. 81 Primary Sources: ........................................................................................................................ 81 Secondary Sources: .................................................................................................................... 82 Appendix A: Translated materials ................................................................................................. 85 The Battle of Manzikert: ............................................................................................................ 85 Alexios vs. Roussel ..................................................................................................................... 90 Nikephoros Bryennios’ Illyrian Campaign .................................................................................. 91 Alexios vs. John Bryennios ......................................................................................................... 93 Alexios’ advice to Michael VIII ................................................................................................... 94 Alexios vs. Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder............................................................................... 96 Alexios vs. Basilakes ................................................................................................................. 103 Introduction In the late eleventh century, the Byzantine Empire nearly collapsed. After the catastrophic defeat suffered by the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, a series of civil wars wracked the empire and paved the way for the loss of Anatolia to the Turks – a loss of nearly half the empire’s territory. The events of this period are the focus of the Hyle Historias, an oft-overlooked chronicle written by Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger. The husband of Anna Komnene Porphyrogenite1 – the daughter of the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081 – 1118) – and therefore a Byzantine prince, Nikephoros Bryennios was also the grandson of Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder, a high-ranking Byzantine general-turned-rebel. Alexios Komnenos had defeated Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder when the latter rebelled against the throne in the late 1070s, before Alexios himself had risen to the imperial power. Despite the rich historical information that can be gleaned from the Hyle Historias, there is at present no English translation of this work in its entirety – the production of which served as the primary motivation of this thesis project. In spite of the complex relationship between Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger and his father-in-law Alexios I Komnenos, the Hyle presents a heroic account of both the career of Nikephoros Bryennios’ grandfather and of his father-in-law. Alexios Komnenos and Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder share the spotlight as Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger casts both men in a well-established template for the ideal Byzantine general – in the process contradicting rival historian Michael Attaleiates. The result is a sketch of both men’s careers which fits a paradigm well-established by Nikephoros’ forerunners, the chroniclers Leo the Deacon, John Skylitzes, and 1 “Purple-born;” a child born in the ‘purple room’ of the palace in Constantinople to a reigning Emperor. This title emphasized the legitimacy and standing of the child. 1 Michael Attaleiates. Each constructs an image of the perfect general: a man who enforces rigid military discipline, upon himself and the troops under this command; a strategist who possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire range of Byzantine military manuals and the tactics contained therein; someone with a penchant for cunning stratagems and indirect tactics; and, most importantly, a general who possesses a high degree of tactical awareness and employs the correct tactical arrangements for each military situation he finds himself in.2 Byzantine military theory recommended a wide range of indirect methods of fighting as the most efficacious way to win battles and preserve resources. These included flanking maneuvers, concealed ambushes, feigned retreats, and stratagems. Walter Emil Kaegi notes that the object of Byzantine warfare “is the defeat and disruption, not necessarily the slaughter, of the enemy” – a distinct change from traditional Roman practice and a characteristic feature of the transition from Roman to Byzantine Empire.3 The Byzantines, like the Romans, relied upon highly trained and disciplined soldiers; however, unlike the Romans the Byzantines faced a perennially short supply of such soldiers. John Haldon notes that this shortage of resources was a defining feature of Byzantine warfare, which “alone meant that the casual expenditure of such a valuable resource was, whenever possible, to be avoided. Hence the Byzantines’ reputation for clever diplomacy and…cunning and deceitfulness…Fighting was to be avoided at all costs.”4 2 “Tactical awareness” is here defined as a general’s faculty at understanding his situation on the battlefield and reacting appropriately, e.g. fortifying his camp in hostile territory or planning an ambush against a numerically superior foe. This quality is based upon the recommendations of the Emperor Maurice, who advised his generals to be ever vigilant, for it is better to be prepared for any stratagem of the enemy; a “general should not have to say: ‘I did not expect it.’” Maurice, Strategikon, Trans. George T. Dennis, Maurice’s Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984), VIII.36; 86. 3 Walter Emil Kaegi, Some Thoughts on Byzantine Military Strategy, Brookline, Mass.: Hellenic College Press, 1983, 10; Edward Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009, 56-58. 4 John Haldon, The Byzantine Wars, (Arcadia
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