The History of Leo the Deacon Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century Introduction, translation, and annotations by Alice-Mary Talbot and Denis F. Sullivan Dumbarton Oaks Studies XLI THE HISTORY OF LEO THE DEACON THE HISTORY OF LEO THE DEACON Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century Introduction, translation, and annotations by Alice-Mary Talbot and Denis F. Sullivan with the assistance of George T. Dennis and Stamatina McGrath Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Washington, D.C. © 2005 Dumbarton Oaks Trustees for Harvard University Washington, D.C. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leo, the Deacon, b. ca. 950. [ History. English] The History of Leo the Deacon : Byzantine military expansion in the tenth century / introduction, translation, and annotations by Alice-Mary Talbot and Denis F. Sullivan ; with the assistance of George T. Dennis and Stamatina McGrath. p. cm. History translated into English from the original Greek; critical matter in English. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-88402-306-0 1. Byzantine Empire—History, Military—527-1081. I. Talbot, Alice-Mary Maffry. II. Sullivan, Denis. III.Title. DF543.L46 2005 2005003088 Contents Preface and Acknowledgments vii Abbreviations χ Introduction A The Byzantine Empire in the Tenth Century: Outline of Military and Political Events 1 Β The Byzantine Military in the Tenth Century 4 C Biography of Leo the Deacon 9 D Leo as a "Historian" 11 Ε Manuscript Tradition of the History 50 F Editions 51 G Translations 52 Note to the Reader 53 The History of Leo the Deacon Book I 55 Book II , 70 Book III 87 Book IV 104 BookV 126 Book VI 143 Book VII 162 Book VIII 175 Book IX 187 Book X 202 Genealogies Partial Genealogy of the Macedonian Dynasty 223 Partial Genealogy of the Phokas Family 224 Maps 1 Byzantine Empire in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 225 2 Constantinople in the Tenth Century 226 3 Eastern Anatolia and Syro-Palestine 227 4 Bulgaria in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 228 5 The Battle of Dorystolon 229 Bibliography 231 Indexes Index of Proper Names 243 General Index 255 Index of Notable Greek Words 260 Index Locorum 262 [vi] Preface and Acknowledgments The History of Leo the Deacon presented here in annotated translation is one of the most important sources for the transitional years of the Macedonian dynasty. It covers the reigns of Nikephoros Phokas and John Tzimiskes, a period in which the future Macedonian emperors, Basil II and Constantine VIII, were in their minority, and the empire was ruled by highly successful military officers who had usurped the imperium. The appearance of this translation has been long delayed, and a few words of explanation are in order. In 1970—1971, Dr. Nicholas Panagiotakes spent a year as a fellow at Dumbarton Oaks working on a critical edition of the Greek text of Leo. For his doctoral dissertation at the University of Athens he had prepared the prolegomena to this edi- tion, consisting of a biographical essay and a discussion of the manu- scripts and previous editions. The dissertation was published in 1965 in the Έπετηρις της Εταιρείας Βυζαντινών Σπουδών, vol. 34, under the title Λέων ό Διάκονος, and also appeared as a separate volume (Athens, 1965). In the fall of 1970 Dr. Panagiotakes invited me to prepare an English translation to accompany his Greek text. When I agreed to do so, he sent me a photocopy of his handwritten new Greek text, com- plete with critical apparatus and fontes et paralleles. I finished a first draft that same academic year, most of which Panagiotakes was able to review before his return to Greece. Subsequently he discovered that de Gruyter, with which he had a contract to publish his text in the Series Berolinensis of the Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, was unwilling to include an English translation, and he therefore released me to publish the trans- lation on its own. Since my translation was, however, based on Panagiotakes' new edition, with different paragraphing from the Bonn edition of Hase, and with a number of different readings and punctua- tion, I decided to wait for Panagiotakes' Greek text to appear before publishing my translation. Alas, this never came to pass, since Panagiotakes' interests turned away from Byzantium in the 1970s, and he devoted the rest of his career to research on the post-Byzantine history and literature of his beloved homeland of Crete. After his untimely death in 1997, Prof. Athanasios Markopoulos undertook responsibility for completing Preface and Acknowledgements the posthumous publication of the Greek text of Leo, and it is my fer- vent hope that this critical edition will soon see the light of day. About five years ago, at the urging of some of my colleagues at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Washington area, in particular Professor George Dennis of The Catholic University of America, I decided to make Leo's History the focus of our weekly Byzantine Greek reading group at Dumbarton Oaks. Over a period of eighteen months we read the text and took turns making oral translations into English.This exer- cise gave me the opportunity to review my translation, and to discuss problem passages with colleagues. To speed up preparation of the final publication, four of us agreed to share the work of annotation and writ- ing the introduction.The initial division of labor was as follows: Stamatina McGrath drafted the preliminary version of notes to Books I and III, Denis Sullivan Books II and IV, George Dennis Books VI and VII, and myself Books VIII—X. The annotation of Book V was a joint effort. Thereafter Denis Sullivan meticulously reviewed the entire translation and all the notes, and made so many additions, corrections, and sugges- tions for improvement throughout that he must be considered a coau- thor of the translation and all the notes; he is also the principal author of the Introduction. I undertook the final editorial coordination of our contributions. I should also like to acknowledge the active engagement in this project of Alexander Alexakis, an original member of the team, who had to withdraw during the final phase of preparation, but was an invaluable collaborator in the earlier stages, especially in matters of trans- lation and emendations to the Greek text. Let me add a note of grati- tude to the two anonymous readers who carefully reviewed the initial draft of the manuscript and made valuable suggestions for corrections and improvement. Because of uncertainty about the eventual date of publication of the new Greek edition, I have decided to revert to the Bonn text as the basis for the translation, using Hase's paragraphing. Where, however, I felt that Panagiotakes' edition offered a better reading (based either on a more accurate transcription from the manuscripts, an emendation, or a con- jecture), I have adopted it and so indicated in a footnote. In a few cases I have suggested readings different from those of Hase and Panagiotakes. I should also acknowledge my extraordinary debt to the efforts of Panagiotakes to identify fontes et paralleles, a task undertaken well before the advent of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, which has been so beneficial for Greek philologists. The online version of the TLG has enabled our [ viii ] Preface and Acknowledgements team to identify numerous citations that Panagiotakes did not find, and we have also rejected a number of his fontes as being too far removed from the text of Leo. Nonetheless his labors have greatly eased our work, and we stand in awe and admiration of his deep knowledge of Greek literature. Last but not least, I would like to express our appreciation to Leslie MacCoull, who served as copy editor, and to the staff of the Dumbarton Oaks Publications Office, especially Joel Kalvesmaki, for their care in preparing the manuscript for publication and shepherding it through the press. Alice-Mary Talbot Dumbarton Oaks, May 2004 [ix] Abbreviations AB Analecta Bollandiana Agath. Agathias, Historiarum libri quinque, ed. R. Keydell (Berlin, 1967) [references cited by page and line number] Ahrweiler, Mer H. Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer (Paris, 1966) Ahrweiler, Structures H. Ahrweiler, Etudes sur les structures administratives et sociales de Byzance (London, 1971) AIPHOS Annuaire de I'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientates et Slaves Anna Komriene, Alexiad Anne Comnene,Alexiade, ed. B. Leib and P. Gautier, 3 vols. (Paris, 1937—76) Beck, Kirche H. G. Beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich, 1959) Belke, Galatien K. Belke, Galatien und Lykaonien, TIB 4 (Vienna, 1984) Belke and Mersich, Phrygien und Pisidien K. Belke and N. Mersich, Phrygien und Pisidien, TIB 7 (Vienna, 1990) Berger, Untersuchungen A. Berger, Untersuchungen zu den Patria Konstantinupoleos (Bonn, 1988) BMGS Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies Brokkaar, "Basil Lacapenus" W. G. Brokkaar, "Basil Lacapenus. Byzantium in the 10th Century," in Studia Byzantina et Neohellenica Neerlandica, ed. W. F. Bakker et al. (Leiden, 1972), 199-234 BS1 Byzantinoslavica Bury, Adm. System J. B. Bury, The Imperial Administrative System in the Ninth Century (London, 1911; repr. New York, n.d.) ByzF Byzantinische Forschungen Abbreviations BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift CAG Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca Cameron, Agathias A. Cameron, Agathias (Oxford, 1970) Cameron, Procopius A. Cameron, Procopius (Berkeley, 1985) Canard, "Expeditions mesopotamiennes" M. Canard, "La date des expeditions mesopotamiennes de Jean Tzimisces," AIPHOS 10 (1950): 99-108 Canard, H'amdanides M. Canard, Histoire de la Dynastie des H'amdanides de Jazira et de Syrie (Alger, 1951) CFHB Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae Cheynet, "Les Phocas" J.-C. Cheynet, "Les Phocas," in Dagron, Le traite, 289—315 Cheynet, Pouvoir J.-C. Cheynet, Pouvoir et contestations a Byzance (963—12t0) (Paris, 1990) Christides, Crete V.