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Home , 5th century, Barsils, Bleda, Khanate of Kazan, Sittas

Japanese Slavic and East European Studies Vol.37. 2016

ARTICLES

ΣΆΣΠΕΙΡΕΣ / ΣΑΥΑΡΟΙ / ΣΑΒΕΙΡΟΙ IN THE 5th BC TO THE AD

Anton Salmin Department of the Eastern and Peoples of European at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Altogether, historians have identified the ethnonyms Σάπειρες, Σάσπειρες, Σάβιροι, Sapires, Savares, and Saviri.1 In the lower reaches of the and in , they were already known as Suvars. The aim of this paper is to give a historical chronology of this tribe from the 5th century BC to the 8th century AD . As Herodotus tells us in his History, the Achaemenid King Darius I (522–486 BC) divided the Persian state into 20 (satrapies). Having established these divisions, he appointed men to rule them and instituted the payment of tribute from each tribe . The capital of the state was the city of Persepolis . The country had a single monetary system based on the gold daric weighing 8.2 grams and the silver siglos weighing 5.6 grams. The Matienians, Saspeirians (Σάσπειρες), and Alarodians were allotted to the 18th and commanded to pay Darius 200 talents. The Alarodians and Saspeirians went on campaigns equipped like the Colchians, that is to say, they wore wooden helmets and carried small shields of uncured leather, short spears, and daggers.2 In the 333 BC, Alexander the Great defeated Darius III at the Battle of Issus, and, as a result, Asia Minor was lost to the Persians. In roughly the first half of the BC, Apollonius of Rhodes wrote about the Sapirs / Sapeires (Σάπειρες) who had “long been living” next to the tribes called the Becheiri and Byzeres 3. The reference is to lands to the south of the Çoruh River, while the Becheiri lived in the area between Trebizond (Trabzon) and the Black Sea.4

17 Anton Salmin

Beginning with thee, O Phoebus, I will recount the famous deeds of men of old, who, at the behest of King Pelias, down through the mouth of Pontus and between the Cyanean rocks, sped well-benched Argo in quest of the golden fleece.

That is how the splendid Argonautica, by the Greek poet Apollonius of Rho- des, begins. The band of brave men who have gathered to sail to distant Colchis is told by the blind soothsayer Phineus (a son of Agenor, a former king of Thrace) which tribes they will encounter on their way. Among those mentioned are the Sa- peires . The Argonautica is an epic work, very close in subject matter to Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. Paraphrasing a researcher of the Cimmerians,5 we can ask: “Where did the author of The Argonautica learn the real name of the Sapirs?” The answer is simple: his main protagonists, Pelias and Jason, were historical personages. Pelias was a man who seized royal power by force; Jason was his nephew, the son of King Aeson of Iolcos, and Alcimede / Polymede. The entire plot is constructed around them and the scheming around the throne. Of pri- mary significance for us, however, is the Greeks’ knowledge of the real picture of the peoples populating the southeast coast of Pontus. “Of course, it cannot be a question of proper localization, since the action... takes place in a mythi- cal, rather than a real world, but the use of real-life geographical details in the description of these journeys cannot be denied.”6 Many of Askold Ivanchik’s assertions about the Odyssey author’s sources about the Cimmerians and the Black Sea also have a direct logical bearing on The Argonautica, for example, the identification of the Pontic Colchis with Aea / Aia and the Black Sea with the Ocean. Thus, in any case, the references are to the true situation in the Black Sea region. Incidentally, these details had already appeared in the works of authors of the 8th–6th BC 7. In the 8th century, mariners, followed by settlers, established more than 900 trading posts and settlements in the Propontis (Sea of Marmara); however, the largest were in Colchis. By the 5th–4th centuries BC, the Greeks already had a precise picture of the boundaries of the world that they had made their home. Moreover, researchers write of mixed marriages between the newcomers and the local tribes 8. At the very least, we can speak with cer- tainty about the reality of the ethnonyms Βεχείρες, Σάπειρες, and Βύζηράς that Apollonius of Rhodes used in his Argonautica .

18 ΣΆΣΠΕΙΡΕΣ / ΣΑΥΑΡΟΙ / ΣΑΒΕΙΡΟΙ in the 5th century BC to the 8th century AD

Ptolemy wrote about the Savirs, in the form of Σαύαƍοι in the , below the Aorsi and the Pagyritae, in the second half of the AD .9 For that reason, scholars justly speak of the appearance of the Savirs, and also the Barsils, in the Northern Caucasus “already in the pre-Hunnish period.”10 The historian Vasilii Dimitriev agreed with Ptolemy’s assertion about the pre­ sence of a group of Savirs in the Northern Caucasus in the 2nd century11 and considered that the ancestors of the Chuvash were located there “in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.”12 In the first half of the 3rd century, the Greek grammarian Herodian (Aelius Herodianus) wrote of tribes called σάπεϱ / σάπειϱ.13 In the early 3rd century, a military-political alliance of the living in the northwestern Caspian basin passed through the Gate of Chor (i. e., the Gate), crossed the Kura River, and invaded . Researchers draw on the works of Movses Khorenatsi and Bardaisan and correctly suppose that those nomads definitely included Khazirs () and Basils (Barsils).14 However, taking into account the overall historical and geographical situation, it is also possible to say that the nomads who attacked the Armenian lands included both and Savirs . Ammianus Marcellinus records the Sapires in the year 361–362.15 That is why researchers of the history of the Caucasus hold the opinion that the Savirs / Sabirs began to penetrate into the and foothills’ tableland zone of the Northern Caucasus no later than the first centuries AD.16 Matters become clearer from the 5th century, when, as active participants in the Perso-Byzantine wars, the Savirs / Sabirs (Σάβειϱοι) were drawn into in- teraction with the Persians, Eastern Romans, Ugrian tribes, Avars, , , and Laz.17 Stephanus of Byzantium, describing events of the 5th century, mentions the Sapirs / Savirs / Sabirs (Σάπείϱεϛ / Σάβείϱεϛ) living on the River Akampis (Çoruh) between Colchis and Persia.18 In the early period of Caucasian history, the Savirs were often confused with other tribes, primarily with the Huns. “...the Huns, like a kind of very fertile sod of exceedingly strong tribes, expanded with two-pronged ferocity against other peoples. Some of these are called Altziagiri, others Sabiri; and they have separate dwelling places,” wrote of the tribes that made up the core of the Hunnish confederation .19 Actually, the Huns themselves comprised only a small fraction of their forces. The great mass was made up of allies and con- quered tribes.

19 Anton Salmin

Attila became the sole leader of the Hunnish union after violently ousting his own brother, Blida / Bleda (Βλήδα / Bleda), in 445. He then united many tribes and completely usurped power. Until ’s death, only isolated episodes are recorded in which the Savirs / Sabirs displayed particular bravery in combat. On all other occasions, the Savirs acted as part of Attila’s forces and were called Huns, or, at best, “Hunno-Savirs,” or, “the Huns called Savirs.” After the death of Attila in 453 and the break-up of the Hunnish union into autonomous tribes in the Caucasus, the Savir confederation acquired a dominant role. The Onogur state fell apart and was replaced by a new military and politi­ cal union led by the Savirs. It included Huns and . “The disintegration of the first Hunno-Bulgarian amalgamation led by the Onogurs caused the start of a parallel process of unification among the nomads of eastern Ciscaucasia and the emergence of a new military and political union led by the Sabirs.”20 In roughly the year 463, the Savirs, who lived a nomadic existence in the north of the Caucasus, attacked the Saragur, Ugor, and Onogur. In turn, the Saragur encroached on the lands of the Acatzir. This action was prompted by the Savirs / Sabirs (Σαβίϱων) themselves being attacked by the Avars, while the Avars themselves had been driven out by tribes living on the coast.21 The majority of scholars accept this date from of Panium’s History as the first mention of the Savirs; however, variations of the ethnonym “Savirs” were known several centuries before that. To be more exact, in the original work by Priscus, the reference is not precisely to the year 463 but to the period 461–465, as it is not possible from what he writes to assign the event to a particular year — it began appearing in research thanks to someone’s infectious initiative. In the second half of the fifth century, the Savirs settled in the region of the Kuma River along the Caspian Sea. As we see, the ethnonym Σάβειϱοι again crops up actively in Byzantine sources after the death of Attila . In the early , the Savirs / Sabirs forced the Onogur to leave the lands they had occupied and move to the west of the Ciscaucasian region. This left the southeastern nomadic territory completely under the control of the Savirs .22 On the basis of available data, it is possible to form a hypothesis as to how the Savirs would have been armed. For example, 4th–5th-century burials on the Palasa-Syrt upland (30 km south of Derbent) contain close-combat weapons (long and short swords and daggers) and those for longer range (bows and ar- rows). In constructional terms, they belong to “Hunnish” types. Adult males, who

20 ΣΆΣΠΕΙΡΕΣ / ΣΑΥΑΡΟΙ / ΣΑΒΕΙΡΟΙ in the 5th century BC to the 8th century AD participated in warfare in one way or another, would have had a high standard of training for the time.23 Irrespective of the ethnic identity of the population of the Palasa-Syrt upland, all of these characteristics would have applied fully to the Savirs, as they also inhabited the Derbent region at that time. In the literature, there is a widespread depiction of the Savirs as a bellige­ rent people. Agathias paints a particularly dark picture in this respect. Such an assessment is, however, excessively one sided. The Savir rulers were known to constantly take account of their people’s own internal circumstances and the international situation between the two chief rivals in the Caucasus — and Byzantium. Nevertheless, due to the constant wars between those regional powers, and above all because the Savirs shifted their support from one side to the other, two groups formed within the Savir amalgamation: pro-Iranian and pro-Byzantine. At that time, the Savirs were made up of a number of separate subgroups. “But already in the early sixth century the position in Savir society changed. A hereditary dynasty emerged from the tribal nobility that laid claim to rule all the Savirs. Members of this dynasty engaged in an open struggle with the separatism of tribal chieftains.”24 The Derbent and Darial Gorges served as the main military and trade routes across the mountains. Knowing this, in the early , the Savirs gained control of the eastern and central regions of the Northern Caucasus. They occupied the areas of both strategic “gates.” This has led researchers to call the very early 6th century the start of Savir hegemony, and some even give an exact date — the year 506.25 In his Chro­ nicle for the year 516–517, Theophanes of Byzantium wrote: “The Huns called Savirs [Οὔννοι οἰ λεγόμενοι Σαβὴρ] penetrated beyond the Caspian Gate [the Derbent passage], raided Armenia, plundered Cappadocia, Galatia and Pontus and almost reached Euchaita.”26 The Savirs were then one of the most powerful tribes in the region.27 In 527– 528, Boarix, “a woman of the Huns called Savirs [Οὔννων τὤν λεγομένων Σαβήρ],” allied herself with the Romans. She had begun to rule in the Hunnish lands after the death of her husband, Valakh (Βαλαχ), and had 100,000 war- riors under her control. The Persian king Kavadh persuaded two tribal rulers, relatives of Boarix, to help him in his war against the Romans. When they passed through Queen Boarix’s lands, she attacked them. One, Styrax, was captured and sent in chains to . The other, Glonis, fell in battle. Thus, she became an ally of Justinian. Regarding this episode, Peter Golden

21 Anton Salmin wrote that the Sabir queen Boa ruled over 100,000 people and could have had an army of 20,000 on the battlefield.28 Actually, Ioannes Malalas stated that Boa had “a hundred thousand under her command.” In the Latin translation of this passage, the reference is quite specifically to 100,000 men under arms: “Mater erat haec filiorum parvulorum; quae exercitum 100000 militum [i. e., warriors; my italics] sub se habens, regionibus, Hunnicis, post Blach conjugis sui obitum imperabat.”29 Gyula Németh was inclined to reckon 100,000 soldiers, but, at the same time, suggesting that this number included the men of the whole tribe.30 Evidently, he proceeded from the assumption that every adult Savir male was reckoned to be a warrior. In that case, though, the wives, parents, and children (that is, the non-combatants) remain uncounted. Theophanes asserted that Boarix had “a hundred thousand under her,” which means 100,000, be it warriors or the total Savir population. We know, though, that the two Hun commanders (from the context, we must assume that these were “Savirs called Huns,” but allies of the Persians) entered the campaign with 20,000 to aid the Persians. Naturally, in this case, the meaning is warriors and not the general populace. In other words, Malalas was thinking in terms of warriors and not population. Ivan Stritter wrote unambiguously about Boarix having a force of 100,000.31 Vasilii Dimitriev also accepted that the queen had an army of 100,000.32 Boarix utterly routed the two opposing contingents. Her forces outnumbered by five to one the two Savir forces under the command of Styrax and Glonis. This is a further argument in favor of a large number of warriors under Boarix’s command. Citing Malalas, Hyun Jin Kim wrote that the Sabirs were a power­ ful confederation, capable of fielding 100,000 horsemen. He believes that, in spite of an undoubted element of exaggeration here, this is evidence of the strength of the Sabir forces to Byzantine eyes.33 That is why Peter Golden finds it unsurprising that Byzantium would seek means of making the Savirs allies in their constant skirmishes with Sassanid Iran in their pursuit of dominance in the Caucasus .34 Thus, according to Theophanes and Ioannes Malalas, in 528, the Savir leaders could field more than 120,000 warriors at one time. From this, we can extrapolate the total number of the Savirs, adding to the warriors their wives, children, and parents: it comes to a million people. There was practically no other force of that strength in the Caucasus at the time. Con- sidering that the size of a ’s family would have been between 2 and 11 people (with an average of 6), it is also possible to estimate the number of fami­ lies Boarix ruled: 167,000 (calculations by A. M. Khazanov and L. B. Gmyria).

22 ΣΆΣΠΕΙΡΕΣ / ΣΑΥΑΡΟΙ / ΣΑΒΕΙΡΟΙ in the 5th century BC to the 8th century AD

It is clear that Boarix aimed to eliminate separatism among the tribal aris- tocracy, uniting all of the Savirs around her capital, Varachan, and strengthening her state 35. Jordanes’ report about the strength of the Hunnish forces is extremely useful for calculating the estimated size of the Savirs’ forces and population. Here is the passage in question: “For after his brother Bleda, who ruled over a great part of the Huns, had been slain by his treachery, Attila united all the people under his own rule. Gathering also the multitude of other tribes which he then held under his sway, he sought to subdue the foremost nations of the world, the Romans and the . His army is said to have numbered five hundred thousand men.”36 As we can see, Jordanes’ figure takes into account the warriors of all tribes included in the Huns’ army. However, Elena Skrzhinskaia believed that Jordanes exaggerated the true size of the Hunnish forces.37 In that case, we can suppose that there were less than 500,000 warriors in the Hunnish formations. Of them, 120,000 were Savir warriors, i. e., roughly one quarter. This proportion also favors my calculation because, within the Hunnish forces, the Savirs were overwhelmingly more numerous than any other tribe. In the course of his description of the Perso-Byzantine War, Procopius noted that “...Cabades sent another army into the part of Armenia which is subject to the Romans. This army was composed of Persarmenians and Sunitae, whose land adjoins that of the Alani. There were also Huns with them, of the stock called Sabiri [Σάβειϱοι], to the number of three thousand, a most warlike race.”38 We can calculate the year in which this event occurred on the basis of the names mentioned in the text. We know that the Sassanid ruler Kavadh I (Cabades) died in 531, so the event took place before that year. Sittas, whom Procopius men- tions in the same paragraph, “held the office of general in Byzantium and had authority over the whole army in Armenia” in 528–531. Dorotheus, meanwhile, was general of Armenia. He commanded at the Battle of Satala in the summer of 530.39 Therefore, it was in the summer of 530 that 3,000 Savirs fought with the Persian forces in Armenia against the . Together with the Khazars, the Savirs “made up one and the same military and political amalgamation that was, however, headed by the Savirs, since in the first half of the 6th century in the majority of historical reports it is their name that serves to designate the barbarians who dwelt north of Derbent.”40 In 541, hostilities between Iran and Byzantium erupted in Lazica. This was a strategic area for both sides. An important bone of contention was the

23 Anton Salmin mighty maritime citadel of Petra, which, on Justinian’s orders, was built to the south of the River Phasis. The local populace was, however, unhappy with the Byzantine occupation . The Laz turned to the Persian Shah for aid . He prepared well and took the fortress. In 545, a truce was concluded between Persia and Byzantium. Then, however, the Laz appealed to the Byzantines instead for help. In the year 549, Justinian sent a 7,000-strong army. Gubazes, the ruler of the Laz, ordered Dagisthaeus, the commander of Armenia, to send some men to guard the gorge leading to Petra. Gubazes himself proceeded to the borders of Lazica to guard the gorge there. Before doing so, he concluded an alliance with the Alans and the Savirs. “The Justinian at this time sent to the nation of the Sabiri [Σαβείϱων] the money which had been agreed upon.”41 As Aleksandra Chekalova rightly noted in her commentary on Procopius, “the alliance with the Hun-Sabirs was indeed important, since they were a warlike people and well acquainted with siege warfare.”42 Procopius himself repeatedly noted this characteristic of the Savirs in his book on the Gothic War. Early in 551, with the aid of the Hun-Savirs, the Byzantine commander Bessas finally retook Petra. In this attack, the Savirs used rams (ϰϱιός) of a special construction that played a decisive role in demolishing the walls of the fortress. These battering rams differed substantially from the heavy, clumsy types of construction that were drawn by oxen. Procopius informs us that, in this Roman army, there hap- pened to be a few barbarians from the Savir tribe. When they arrived beneath the walls of besieged Petra, the Savirs saw that the Romans did not know what to do under the circumstances that had arisen and had reached an impasse . At that point, the Savirs / Sabirs (Σαβείϱοι) “devised a contrivance, such as had never been conceived by anyone else of the Romans or of the Persians since men have existed, although there have always been and now are great numbers of engineers in both countries.” Procopius gave a detailed description of the Savir invention. This machine did not have supporting logs; they had been replaced by thick ropes (or wands). Only in the center did they place a freely moving log with a pointed iron tip . The Savirs prepared three of these machines . Around forty of the Romans, dressed in armor, easily moved the rams up to the walls of Petra. Soldiers stood on either side of the machine equipped with poles that had iron hooks on one end. When blows from the log loosened rows of mason- ry, they dragged the crumbling stones out with these hooks and tossed them aside. That is how the walls of Petra were demolished. Soon afterward, at the

24 ΣΆΣΠΕΙΡΕΣ / ΣΑΥΑΡΟΙ / ΣΑΒΕΙΡΟΙ in the 5th century BC to the 8th century AD siege of Archaeopolis, it was the Persians who used the services of the Savirs’ light battering rams. The Persian commander Mermeroes (Mihr-Mihroe) “first commanded the Sabiri (Σαβείϱοιϛ) to build a great number of rams of the sort which men would be able to carry on their shoulders, because he was quite unable to bring up the customary engines to the circuit-wall of Archaeopolis, lying as it did along the lower slopes of the hill; for he had heard what had been achieved by the Sabiri (Σαβείϱοιϛ) who were allies of the Romans at the wall of Petra not long before, and he sought by following out the method discovered by them to reap the advantage of their experience. And they carried out his orders, constructing immediately a large number of rams, such as I have said were recently made for the Romans by the Sabiri (Σαβείϱουϛ)... So then the Persians and Sabiri (Σαβείϱοιϛ) together, by shooting rapidly at the wall so that they filled the air round about it with their arrows, came not far from compelling the Romans there to abandon the parapet.”43 Of course, Procopius exaggerated somewhat in giving the Savirs precedence in the invention of battering rams for the capture and demolition of fortifications. Rams, testudos, and their use in warfare are described in detail by the ancient Greek engineer Athenaeus Mechanicus (died ca. 21 BC, author of On Machines), Apollodorus of Damascus (early 2nd century AD, author of Siege Engines), Vegetius (wrote of events he witnessed personally in AD 390–410 in Epitoma rei militaris), and Syrianus Magister (Anonymus Byzantinus, 6th century, De Re Strategica). Still, none of this in any way diminishes the Savirs’ achievements in the art of warfare and in the use of portable rams and testudos for attacking enemy fortresses . In 552, the Persian forces under the command of Mermeroes took the Laz stronghold of Uthimereos by cunning. The Persians had more than 70,000 hand- picked soldiers and a large number of Savirs / Sabirs (Σαβείϱουϛ). As a result, all of the fertile lands from Mocheresis to Iberia became inaccessible to the Romans and Laz 44. At the end of the winter of 552–553, a truce was established between the Persians and the Romans; however, Khosrau I was unwilling to give up Lazica. He distributed money obtained by selling silkworm eggs to the Romans as a gift to the Hun-Savirs (Οὔννων των Σαβείϱωυ) and recruited large numbers of them into his army . He sent them all to Mermeroes as well as many war elephants and ordered him to press ahead vigorously in Lazica. Mermeroes moved against

25 Anton Salmin the Laz stronghold with his entire Persian and Hunno-Savir army. The Romans were inside the stronghold and did not engage in an open fight. They were joined by King Gubazes of the Laz. Having discovered that the King’s sister was in a certain fortress, the Persians resolved to capture it; however, the Romans put up a resolute defense . They were assisted in this by the narrow mountainous approach to the fortress, and the Persians turned back. The Romans pursued the withdrawing enemy, attacking at an awkward place for the Persians and killing many, including the leader of the Sabirs (Σαβείϱωυ). Fierce fighting ensued around his body, which ended with the Persians overcoming their foes and putting them to flight.45 In the campaign of 554–555, the heavily armed Savirs, under the leadership of “their most illustrious people,” Balmakh (Βαλμάχ), Kutilzis (Κούτιλζιϛ), and Ilager (Ἴλιγεϱ), played an active part in the war on the Byzantine side and routed a strong force of the warlike Dilimnites, who were allies of the Persians. In the next battle in Iberia, however, a force of Hunno-Savirs (Ούννοι Σάβειϱοι) numbering 500 men was already fighting on the Persian side. In 552–558, there is mention of Savirs on the Tekhuri River in Western Georgia. Agathias Scholasticus, in particular, wrote: “Mercenaries from among the Huns who are called Savirs [Σαβείϱων]...made camp by Archaeopolis and the adjoining localities,”46 that is to say, in the land of the Laz. “By the middle of the sixth century the Savirs, being the most powerful and numerous people in the Caucasus, seized the whole of Northern Albania (Shirran and Arran) in the area of Derbend-Kabala, the former center of Savir settlements, and stayed there more than 100 .”47 At that time, the Savirs had control of the Caspian Gates that Armenian historians call Chora and where, in 568–569, the city of Derbent began. As Menander Protector wrote in 558, “the Avars soon started a war with the Utigurs, then with the Zali, who are of the Hunnish tribe, and smashed the forces of the Savirs (Σαβείϱους),”48 i. e., inflicted heavy losses on their military units . In 559, during the siege of Chersonesus, the Savirs made small boats from long, sturdy reeds; they also invented an improvised method of attaching the oars with outrigged rowlocks on both sides.49 The year 572 was marked by the outbreak of a profound disagreement be- tween Persia and Byzantium over the Caucasus. On learning that the Huns had sent an embassy to Justin II, Khosrau became concerned. Until then, the Emperor

26 ΣΆΣΠΕΙΡΕΣ / ΣΑΥΑΡΟΙ / ΣΑΒΕΙΡΟΙ in the 5th century BC to the 8th century AD had been giving the Persians an annual payment in gold to keep invading tribes from disturbing either of their states. Now, Justin cancelled the treaty, saying that it was shameful for him to pay tribute to the Persians. “Because of this, that great war took place between the Persians and Romans.”50 Byzantist Igor Chichurov suggested that we should understand the expression invading tribes, which Theophanes did not clarify further, to mean first and foremost the Cau- casian Huns, mainly the Hunno-Savirs.51 It is indeed true that at that time, the Huns ‒ meaning the Savirs ‒ were in possession of Derbent and were eastern neighbors of the Alans. The Savirs also troubled the Byzantines by mounting daring attacks on their Anatolian provinces. In 576, the Persian and Roman armies engaged in tactical maneuvering for superiority in Caucasian Albania. The Emperor was angry with his commanders, Cursus and Theodore, reproaching them for not having moved the Savirs / Sa- birs (Σαβείϱων) and Albanians to a different place after they entered Albania. The commanders, though, restricted themselves to taking hostages from those tribes . The Savirs did indeed overthrow Roman rule immediately . Then the Roman commanders returned to Albania and forced the Savirs / Sabirs and Albanians to move to the east side of the River Cyrus (Kura).52 In this way, the Byzantines sought to keep those tribes on their side. In 578, Khosrau moved cavalry, heavy infantry, and archers — 20,000 men in total — from the Caucasus to Mesopotamia. Of these, 12,000 were Persians, and the rest were Saracens and Savirs / Sabirs (Σαϱαϰηοὶ δὲ ϰαὶ Σαβεῖϱοι / Saraceni autem et Sabiri).53 An Armenian source that described the events of 579–590 told of a large Persian force’s invasion into the lands of Vaspurakan. Many fortresses were captured and set on fire; inhabitants were taken into captivity. Many areas suf- fered at that time, including the district of Chuash, and the captured lands were given over to the ishkhans (princes).54 In roughly the year 613, an armed contest broke out for the fortress of Beiu- daes in Upper Mesopotamia (present-day southeastern ) between the local inhabitants and the Persian and Roman armies. The Romans laid siege to the stronghold with exceptional strength. Their forces included a warrior named Sapeir / Sapir (Σάπειρ). Theophylact Simocatta characterizes him in the highest possible light: for physical strength, Sapir was like Tydeus, extolled by Homer: in intellect, he excelled Tydeus; in spirit he was a Heracles; and in valor, he was even greater than Heracles. This Sapir snatched up some sharpened stakes and,

27 Anton Salmin by inserting them into the wall, climbed up onto the fortress. One of the Per- sian warriors appeared on the fortress tower, though, and pushed a large stone down onto Sapir. Sapir tumbled down, along with that stone, and came down head first. Yet, stubbornly, the wounded Sapir quickly began to climb the wall again. He grabbed hold of the battlements; however, the enemy pushed him off, together with a loosened merlon. The daredevil slid down, “holding in his embrace that merlon like a dearly beloved woman.” Still, Sapir made a third attempt. This time, he managed to get onto the wall and cut off the Persian’s head. One of Sapir’s brothers, who had witnessed his valor, duplicated his feat. Other warriors followed them. The gates were opened, and the fortress was taken .55 In her commentary on Theophylact Simocatta, K.A Osipova opined that Sapir is not a proper name; that in this instance the reference is to a man from the Hunnish Sabir (or Sapir) tribe. Besides, from the context, we learn that this Sapir had several brothers in the troop . Theophanes does indeed state more precisely: “one of the brothers of this Sapir (he was the eldest of them).” It becomes clear that in this instance, this name was being used for warriors of a single tribe — the Savir / Sapir. In 657–659, the Western Turkic Kaganate fell apart. At the same time, in the northeastern foothills of , the state of Suvar — with Varachan as its capital — formed on the basis of early feudal relations. Through inertia, Arme- nian sources continued to call it the Kingdom of the Huns, and Arab chroniclers still called it Jidan . Immediately after Varaz-Trdat ascended to the throne of Caucasian Alba- nia in 670, a large force of Hunno-Savirs, led by Alp-Ilituer (more correctly Alp-Ilutuer), invaded the country and began laying waste to the regions at the foot of the Caucasus mountains and the settlements in the gavar of Kapalak . Alp-Ilituer himself crossed the River Cyrus and entered the gavar of Uti and set about rustling cattle, looting, and taking the entire population away as prison- ers. Then, the Hunno-Savirs set up camp in a valley by the borders of Lpinka. When Varaz-Trdat heard this, he sent an envoy to Alp-Ilituer with a proposal of peace. The envoy managed to incline Alp-Ilituer to peace and friendship, and the Hunno-Savirs returned to their own country.56 In 723, the Arab military commander al-Jarrah arrived on the territory of Vabandar, i. e., Varachan. At that time, there were 40,000 houses in the city.57 According to Baladzori, in 737, the Arab commander Marwan entered the Savir domains of Khamzin (as the Arabs called Varachan at that time). Still,

28 ΣΆΣΠΕΙΡΕΣ / ΣΑΥΑΡΟΙ / ΣΑΒΕΙΡΟΙ in the 5th century BC to the 8th century AD the inhabitants refused to conclude a peace treaty with the invader . The citadel was taken by force after a month-long siege. The stronghold was burned and razed. The treaty imposed called for a one-time delivery of 500 young men and maidens to Bab (Derbent) along with 30,000 measures of grain each year.58 Other sources also wrote of the Arab capture of Khamzin. Al-Kufi, for example, wrote that the defenders of the fortress battled the Arab army. “Marwan and the owner of the fortress came together in a fierce battle and the Muslims lost many slain.”59 Armenian sources wrote that Merwan undertook his campaign in the land of the Huns with the support of the Prince of Armenia . He captured the city of Varachan and returned triumphant, having seized great booty.60 Of course, “Dagestani Huns,” in this case, refers to the Savirs. By that time, the Huns were neither a single ethnos nor a single military and political union. The Savirs were called Huns by inertia, since before Attila’s death they had been part of their confederation. It is believed that their capital, Balanjar–Khanzin–Varachan, ceased to exist after 737.61 The Savirs did indeed leave the area. However, some historians suggest that they went not to the Middle Volga62 but to the area between the lower reaches of the Volga and the Don, where together with other tribes, they formed the Saltovo-Mayaki archaeological culture. As we can see, the Kingdom of the Huns was the first to suffer the onslaught of the Arab forces. Naturally, this significantly weakened their alliance, a fact that the Khazars exploited. It was at that time, after the events of 737, that the Khazar capital of Itil (Atil) arose in the Volga delta. That is why scholars consider that the inclusion of the territory of the country of the Huns (i. e., the Savirs) within the sphere of influence of the Khazar state took place against the background of the Arab-Khazar war for the Caucasus.63 Meanwhile, the majority of the Bulgars, taking advantage of the Arab-Savir-Khazar turmoil and the fact that the Khazars took their eye off of them, did indeed go off to the Volga after 737; soon, the core of Volga Bulgaria formed there. The role of political dominance over the neighboring tribes passed to them. At the same time, though, a remnant group of Bulgars at the very end of the eighth century still remained in the steppes around the Don . Thus, we can trace the etymological, historical, geographic, and ethnographic line of continuity of the tribe recorded in the Greek forms Σάπειρες, Σάσπειρες, Σαύαϱοι, σάπεϱ, Σάπείϱεϛ, Σάβείϱεϛ, Σαβίϱ, Σάβειϱοι, Σαβὴρ, Σαβεῖϱοι, and Σάπειρ.

29 Anton Salmin

NOTES 1 Budanova V. P. Varvarskii mir epokhi Velikogo pereseleniia narodov [The Barbarian World of the Migration Period], Moscow: Nauka, 2000: 335, 342, 345. 2 Hérodote Histoires. Livre I: Clio. Texte établi et traduit par Ph.-E. Legrand. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1995: 130, 134; Livre III: Thalie. 1967: 142; Livre IV: Melpomène. 1985: 69; Livre V: Terpsichore. 1989: 115; Ter-Sarkisiants A. E. Istoriia i kul’tura armianskogo naroda s drevneishikh vremen do nachala XIX v . [The History and Culture of the Armenian People from Earliest Times till the Early ]. Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura, 2008: 58. 3 Apollonii Rhodii Argonautica. Recogn. brevique adnot. crit. instrvxit Hermann Fränkel. Oxonii e tip. Clarendonoano, 1986: 75, 110 . 4 “Plinii Sekund” in Latyshev V. V. Izvestiia drevnikh pisatelei grecheskikh i latinskikh o Skifii i Kavkaze [Information in Ancient Greek and Latin Authors about the Scythians and the Cau- casus]. Vol. II: Latinskie pisateli [Latin Authors]. 1st ed. St Petersburg: Academy of Sciences, 1904: 178. 5 Ivanchik A. I. Nakanune kolonizatsii: Severnoe Prichernomor’e i stepnye kochevniki VIII– VII vv . do n .e. v antichnoi literaturnoi traditsii: fol’klor, literatura i istoriia.[On the Eve of Colonization: the Northern Black Sea Region of the Steppe Nomads of the 8th–7th Centuries BC in the Ancient Literary Traditions: Folklore, Literature and History]. Moscow–Berlin: Palograf, 2005: 59. 6 Ibid.: 60 . 7 Ibid.: 62, 83 . 8 Chistiakova N. A. “Skazanie ob argonavtakh, ego istoriia i poema “Argonavtika’ Apolloniia Rodosskogo” [The Story of the Argonauts, Its History and the Poem Argonautica by Apollo- nius of Rhodes], in Apollonii Rodosskii. Argonavtika [Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica]. Publication prepared by N. A. Chistiakova. Moscow: Ladomir, 2001: 141f, 144. 9 Ptolemaei Claudii Geographia. Vol. I. Lipsiae: Simptibus et typis Caroli Tauchnitii, 1843: 171. 10 Fedorov Ia. A., Fedorov G. S. Rannie tiurki na Severnom Kavkaze (Istoriko-etnografiches- kie ocherki) [The Early in the Northern Caucasus (Historico-Ethnographic Essays)]. Moscow State University, 1978: 83. 11 Dimitriev V. D. Chuvashskii narod v sostave Kazanskogo khanstva: Predystoriia i istoriia. [The within the of : Pre-History and History]. : Chuvash Book Publishing House, 2014: 89. 12 Dimitriev V. D. Chuvashskie istoricheskie predaniia: Ocherki istorii chuvashskogo naroda s drevneishikh vremen do serediny XIX veka [Chuvash Historical Legends. Essays on the His- tory of the Chuvash People from Earliest Times to the Mid-19th Century] . Cheboksary: Chuvash Book Publishing House, 1993: 20f. 13 Guilielmi Dindorfii Grammatici Græci. Vol. I: HERODIANUS NEPI MONHPOϒΣ ΛΕΞΕΩΣ. V ARIETAS LECTIONS AD ARCADIUM. FAVORINI ECLOGAE. Lipsiae: In Libraria Kuehniana, 1823: 51. 14 Gadzhiev M. S. “K etnokarte Severo-Zapadnogo Prikaspiia v pozdnesarmatskii period (v kon- tekste soobshcheniia Khorenatsi o pokhode khazir i basil v 216 godu)” [Towards an Ethnic Map of the North-Western Caspian Basin in the Late Sarmatian Period (in the Context of Khorenatsi’s Report of the Campaign of the Khazirs and Basils in AD 216)], in Nizhne­ volzhskii arkheologicheskii vestnik [Lower Volga Archaeological Bulletin]. Issue 11. Volgo­ grad State University, 2010: 69.

30 ΣΆΣΠΕΙΡΕΣ / ΣΑΥΑΡΟΙ / ΣΑΒΕΙΡΟΙ in the 5th century BC to the 8th century AD

15 Ammianus Marcellinus . Römische Geschichte . Lateinisch und Deutsch und mit einem Kom- mentar versehen von Wolfgang Seyfarth. Part 3. Books 22–25. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1970: 26. 16 Chechenov I. M. “K voprosu o rannikh etapakh tiurkizatsii Tsentral’nokavkazskogo subregio- na” [On the Question of the Early Stages of Turkification of the Central Caucasus Subregion], in E. I. Krupnov i razvitie arkheologii Severnogo Kavkaza [E. I. Krupnov and the Develop­ ment of the Archaeology of the Northern Caucasus]. Moscow: Institute of Archaeology Russian Academy of Sciences, 2014: 288. 17 Procopii Caesariensis Opera omnia. Recognovit Jaecobus Haury. Vol. I: De bellis libri I–IV. Lipsiae: In aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1905: 74, 292, 294. 18 Stephani Byzantii. Ethnicorvm. T. I. Berolini: Impensis G. Reimeri, 1849: 166, 555. 19 Iordanis de Getarum sive Gothorum origine et rebus Gestis. Recognovit, annotatione critica instruxit et cum varietate lectionis adidit Carol. Aug. Closs. Stuttgartiae: Impensis Eduardi Fischhaber, 1861: 29. 20 Dzhafarov Yu. R. Gunny i Azerbaidzhan [The Huns and ]. Baku: Elm, 1985: 69. 21 Prisci Historica, in Corpus scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. Editio emendatior et copiosior, consilio B. G. Niebuhrii C. F. P. I: Dexippi, Eunapii, Petri Patricii, Prisci, Malchi, Menandri, Olympiodori, Candidi, Nonnosi et Theophanis, historiarum reliquiae, Procopii et Prisciani panegyrici, graece et latine. Bonnae: Impensis Ed. Weberi, 1829: 158. 22 Gadlo A. V. “Osnovnye etapy i tendentsii etnosotsial’nogo razvitiia etnicheskikh obshchnostei Severnogo Kavkaza v period rannego srednevekov’ia” [The Main Stages and Tendencies in the Development of Ethnic Communities of the Northern Caucasus in the Early Middle Ages], in Vestnik Leningradskogo universiteta [Bulletin of Leningrad University]. Series 2. 1986: 14. 23 Saidov V. A. “Predmety vooruzheniia naseleniia Palasa-Syrtskoi vozvyshennosti v IV–V vv. (po materialam pogrebenii)” [Weapons of the Population of the Palasa-Syrt Upland in the 4th–5th Centuries (from material in graves)], in Izvestiia Dagestanskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta. Obshchestvennye i gumanitarnykh nauki [Proceedings of the Dagestan State Pedagogical University. Social Sciences and Humanities]. 2014. № 2: 24f. 24 Fedorov Ia. A. “Khazariia i Dagestan” [Khazaria and Dagestan], in Kavkazskii etnograficheskii sbornik [Caucasian Ethnographic Collection], V. Moscow: Nauka, 1972: 21. 25 Rona-Tash A. “Ot Urala do Karpatskogo basseina: (Novye rezul’taty issledovanii po rannei istorii vengrov)” [From the Urals to the Carpathian Basin: (New Results of Research into the Early History of the Hungarians)], in Altaistika i tiurkologiia [Altaistica and ]. 2011. № 4: 133. 26 Feofan Ispovednik [Theophanes the Confessor]. Khronografiia [Chronography]. Text in An- cient Greek and Russian, translation and commentary by I. S. Chichurova, in Chichurov I. S. Vizantiiskie istoricheskie sochineniia.[Byzantine Historical Writings]. Moscow: Nauka, 1980: 26, 49. 27 Malalas Joannes Chronographia. Bonnae: Impensis E. D. Weberi, 1831: 430f. 28 Golden, Peter B. Studies on the Peoples and Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes. Ed. by Cătălin Hriban. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 2011: 91. 29 Malalas Joannes Chronographia. Bonnae: Impensis E. D. Weberi, 1831: 430f. 30 Németh Gyula A honfoglalό magyarság kialakulása. Közzéteszi Berta Árpád. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadό, 1991: 151.

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31 Stritter Ivan. Izvestiia vizantiiskikh istorikov, ob’iasniaiushchie rossiiskuiu istoriiu drevnikh vremen i pereseleniia narodov. [Byzantine Historians’ Information, Explaining the in Ancient Times and the Migration of Peoples]. Part 2. St Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1771: 82. 32 Dimitriev V. D. Chuvashskii narod v sostave Kazanskogo khanstva: Predystoriia i istoriia. [The Chuvash People within the Khanate of Kazan: Pre-History and History]. Cheboksary: Chuvash Book Publishing House, 2014: 92. 33 Kim Hyun Jin. The Huns, Rome and the Birth of . Cambridge: CUP, 2013: 253. 34 Golden Peter B. “The Peoples of the South Russian Steppes,” in The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge: CUP, 2008: 259. 35 Fedorov Ia. A., Fedorov, G. S. Rannie tiurki na Severnom Kavkaze (Istoriko-etnografiches- kie ocherki) [The Early Turkic Peoples in the Northern Caucasus (Historico-Ethnographic Essays)]. Moscow State University, 1978: 185. 36 Iordanis de Getarum sive Gothorum origine et rebus Gestis. Recognovit, annotatione critica instruxit et cum varietate lectionis adidit Carol. Aug. Closs. Stuttgartiae: Impensis Eduardi Fischhaber, 1861. fr. 180f. 37 Skrzhinskaia E.Ch. (introduction, translation, commentary), Iordan. O proiskhozhdenii i deianiiakh getov. Getica. St Petersburg: Aleteiia, 2001: 310 38 Procopii Caesariensis Opera omnia. Recognovit Jaecobus Haury. Vol. I: De bellis libri I–IV. Lipsiae: In aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1905: 74. 39 Adonts Nikolai. Armeniia v epokhu Iustiniana [Armenia in the Time of Justinian]. Yerevan: Yerevan State University, 1971: 135. 40 Artamonov M. I. Istoriia khazar [The History of the Khazars]. Leningrad: State Hermitage, 1962: 127. 41 Procopii Caesariensis Opera omnia. Recognovit Jaecobus Haury. Vol. I: De bellis libri I–IV. Lipsiae: In aedibus B.G. Teubneri, 1905: 300. 42 Chekalova A. A. Russian translation, introduction and notes to Prokopii Kesariiskii. Voina s persami. Voina s vandalami. Tainaia istoriia [Procopius of Caaesaria. Persian War. Vandal War. Secret History]. Moscow: Aleteiia, 1998: 422. 43 Procopii Caesariensis Opera omnia. Recognovit Jaecobus Haury. Vol. II: De bellis libri V– VIII. 1905a: 538–540. English translation by H. B. Dewing, from the Loeb Classical Library edition of Procopius, Vol. 5. London–Cambridge, MA: Heinemann: Harvard University Press: 193, 195. 44 Procopii Caesariensis Opera omnia. Recognovit Jaecobus Haury. Vol. II: De bellis libri V– VIII. 1905: 570–572. 45 Procopii Caesariensis Opera omnia. Recognovit Jaecobus Haury. Vol. II: De bellis libri V– VIII. 1905: 578f. 46 Agathiae Myrinaei. Historiarum libri quinque. Ιστοριων. Bonnae: Impensis Ed. Weberi, 1828: 177 . 47 Ashurbeili, Sara. Gosudarstvo Shirvanshakhov (VI–XVI vv.) [The State of the Shirvanshahs (6th–16th Centuries)]. Baku: Elm, 1983: 62. 48 Menandri Protectoris “Ex Historia,” Corpus scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. Editio emen- datior et copiosior, consilio B. G. Niebuhrii C.F. P. I: Dexippi, Eunapii, Petri Patricii, Prisci, Malchi, Menandri, Olympiodori, Candidi, Nonnosi et Theophanis, historiarum reliquiae, Procopii et Prisciani panegyrici, graece et latine. Bonnae: Impensis Ed. Weberi, 1829: 284.

32 ΣΆΣΠΕΙΡΕΣ / ΣΑΥΑΡΟΙ / ΣΑΒΕΙΡΟΙ in the 5th century BC to the 8th century AD

49 Golden Peter B. Studies on the Peoples and Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes. Ed. by Cătălin Hriban. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 2011: 113. 50 Feofan Ispovednik [Theophanes the Confessor]. Khronografiia [Chronography]. Text in an- cient Greek and Russian; translation and commentary by I. S. Chichurova, in Chichurov I. S. Vizantiiskie istoricheskie sochineniia.[Byzantine Historical Writings]. Moscow: Nauka, 1980: 30, 54. 51 Chichurov I. S. Vizantiiskie istoricheskie sochineniia.[Byzantine Historical Writings]. Mos- cow: Nauka, 1980: 89. 52 Menandri Protectoris “Ex Historia,” Corpus scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. Editio emen- datior et copiosior, consilio B. G. Niebuhrii C.F. P. I: Dexippi, Eunapii, Petri Patricii, Prisci, Malchi, Menandri, Olympiodori, Candidi, Nonnosi et Theophanis, historiarum reliquiae, Procopii et Prisciani panegyrici, graece et latine. Bonnae: Impensis Ed. Weberi, 1829: 394. 53 Menandri Protectoris “Ex Historia,” Corpus scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. Editio emen- datior et copiosior, consilio B.G. Niebuhrii C.F. P. I: Dexippi, Eunapii, Petri Patricii, Prisci, Malchi, Menandri, Olympiodori, Candidi, Nonnosi et Theophanis, historiarum reliquiae, Procopii et Prisciani panegyrici, graece et latine. Bonnae: Impensis Ed. Weberi, 1829: 408. 54 Bagratuni Psevdo-Shapukh. Istoriia anonimnogo povestvovaniia [The History of an Ano­ nymous Narrative] Russian translation, compilation, editing M. O. Darbinian-Melikian, M. O. Melik-Ogandzhanian. Baku: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the Ar- menian SSR, 1971: 94. 55 Theophylacti Simocattae Historiae. Ed. Carolvs de Boor. Lipsiae: I Aedibvs B. G Tevbneri, 1887: 107–109. 56 Kalankatuatsi Movses. Istoriia strany Aluank [History of the Country of Aluank] in 3 vols. Russian translation from the Old Armenian, foreword and commentary by Sh. V. Smbatian. Yerevan: Matenadaran, 1984: 102f. 57 Al-Kufi Abu Mukhammad. Kniga zavoevanii (Izvlecheniia po istorii Azerbaidzhana VII– IX vv.) [The Book of Conquests (Excerpts on the History of Azerbaijan in the 7th–9th Centu- ries)]. Translation from the Arabic by Z. M. Buniiatov. Baku: Elm, 1981: 20. 58 Baladzori. Kniga zavoevaniia stran. Tekst i perevod. [The Book of the Conquest of the Coun- tries. Text and Translation]. Russian translation from the Arabic by P. K. Zhuze. Baku: Society for the Study and Research of Azerbaijan, 1927: 18. 59 Al-Kufi Abu Mukhammad. Kniga zavoevanii (Izvlecheniia po istorii Azerbaidzhana VII– IX vv.) [The Book of Conquests (Excerpts on the History of Azerbaijan in the 7th–9th Centu- ries)]. Translation from the Arabic by Z. M. Buniiatov. Baku: Elm, 1981: 55. 60 Gevond Vardapet. Istoriia khalifov [The History of the Caliphs]. Russian translation from the Armenian by K. Patkan’ian. St Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1862: 81f 61 Gmyria L. B. “Pravovye normy v Khazarskom kaganate na rannem etape istorii (seredina VII — pervaia tret’ VIII v.)” [Legal Norms in the Khazar Khanate at the early stage of its history (mid-7th to the first third of the 18th Сentury)], Vestnik Instituta IAE DNTs RAN [Herald of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography, Dagestan Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences]. 2012. №2: 4. 62 Kakhovskii V.F. “Suvary i chuvashi” [The Suvars and the Chuvash], Gorodishche Khulash i pamiatniki srednevekov’ia Chuvashskogo Povolzh’ia The Khulash Archaeological Site and Artefacts of the Mediaeval Chuvash Region on the Volga]. Cheboksary: Research Institute attached to the Council of Ministers of the Chuvash ASSR, 1972: 215.

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63 Gmyria L. B. Strana gunnov u Kaspiiskikh vorot: Prikaspiiskii Dagestan v epokhu Velikogo pereseleniia narodov [The Land of the Huns and the Caspian Gate. Caspian Dagestan in the Age of Migration]. Makhachkala: Dagestan Book Publishing House, 1995: 75.

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