Table Of ContentNEW APPROACHES TO
BYZANTINE HISTORY AND CULTURE
The Avar Siege of
Constantinople in 626
History and Legend
Martin Hurbanič
New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture
Series Editors
Florin Curta
University of Florida
FL, USA
Leonora Neville
University of Wisconsin Madison
WI, USA
Shaun Tougher
Cardiff University
Cardiff, UK
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Martin Hurbanič
The Avar Siege of
Constantinople in 626
History and Legend
Martin Hurbanič
Department of History
Comenius University
Bratislava, Slovakia
New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture
ISBN 978-3-030-16683-0 ISBN 978-3-030-16684-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16684-7
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A
cknowledgements
The present book is primarily dedicated to the memory of my teacher,
Professor Alexander Avenarius (1942–2004), who in his later years could
once again vigorously support Byzantine studies at many Slovak universi-
ties once the ban imposed on him by the former Communist regime had
been lifted. Professor Avenarius, a prominent expert on the history of
Avars, sparked my interest in them many years ago.
Even though this publication came to life over the course of two years,
it is a product of fifteen years’ worth of research. I would like to point out
that the final version’s completion, including the English translation, was
made possible mainly thanks to the financial support provided by the many
projects sponsored by the Slovak Ministry of Education which I have
taken part in, particularly KEGA 042UK-4/2018, VEGA 1/0814/18,
KEGA 004UKF-4/2018, and APVV-18-0333.
I would also like to express my gratitude to all the people who have
provided me with their help while working on this manuscript, especially
to Florin Curta, Peter Buttler, Vratislav Zervan, Ivan Varšo, Adam Sitár,
Alice Sullivan, Peter Ivanič, Vlastimil Drbal, Dušan Zupka, Marek Meško,
Dragan Vojvodić, and Aleksandr Preobrazhensky, and to all my other col-
leagues and friends who have been helpful with their advices and com-
ments, and who have undeniably contributed to the substantial
improvement of the present publication.
Special thanks are due to the former and present heads of the
Department of General History at Comenius University in Bratislava—
Miroslav Daniš and Vincent Múcska—for their various forms of support,
selfless help, and kind approach.
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Naturally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family,
particularly to my wife and my mother, for their great patience and love.
A note on the trAnscription
When transcribing most of the historical Greek proper names, I tended to
opt for the original forms as opposed to their traditional Latinized or
anglicized forms. Exceptions include first names that have been used in
English over a long period of time as well as names of several famous per-
sons of Byzantine history. In that case, I decided to go with their more
common anglicized transcriptions. The same method was applied for sev-
eral well-known topographic names and often used specific terms. The rest
are written in their Greek forms. When dealing with the Russian personal
names, I based their transcription on the English system of converting let-
ters from Cyrillic (e.g., š = sh, ž = zh, j = y, and others). In the case of
Serbian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian names, however, I went with their
more commonly used forms of transcription (e.g., Barišić instead of
Barishich, Barišic, or Barishic; Kašev instead of Kashev; and others). The
titles of books and scholarly papers written by Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian,
and Macedonian authors were left in their original forms to aid interested
readers in searching for them.
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
2 The Memory of the Siege 7
3 The Interpretation of the Siege 55
4 The Last War of Antiquity 81
5 The Siege in Context 103
6 The Army of Besiegers 123
7 The Fortress Constantinople 151
8 The Avars at the Gates 181
9 The Final Solution 203
1 0 W inners and Losers 223
vii
viii CONTENTS
11 From History to Legend 247
12 T he Akathistos 269
13 T he Sacred Iconography of the Siege 285
14 T he Spiritual Arsenal of the Siege 315
15 C onclusion 339
Index 351
l f
ist of igures
Fig. 6.1 A possible route of the Avar army to Constantinople in 626;
map by Ivan Varšo 124
Fig. 8.1 The localization of the Bridge of Saint Kallinikos; map by Ivan
Varšo 193
Fig. 8.2 The approximate line of skaphokaraboi in the Golden Horn;
map by Ivan Varšo 194
Fig. 9.1 An attempt to transport the Persian army across the Bosphorus;
map by Ivan Varšo 208
Fig. 9.2 The Long Wall of the Thracian Chersonesos; map by Ivan Varšo 212
Fig. 11.1 The narthex of Hagia Sophia; photograph by Martin Hurbanic ̌ 250
Fig. 13.1 The Siege of Constantinople, ca. the 1360s, exterior mural,
south wall, Church of St. Peter, Golem Grad, Prespa; drawing
by G. Krstevski 287
Fig. 13.2 The Siege of Constantinople, 1535, exterior mural, south wall,
Church of the Dormition of the Virgin, Humor Monastery,
Moldavia, modern-day Romania Artwork in the public domain;
photograph by Alice Isabella Sullivan 290
Fig. 13.3 The Siege of Constantinople, details showing the large fortified
city, 1537, exterior mural, south wall, Church of the
Annunciation, Moldovita̦ Monastery, Moldavia, modern-day
Romania. Artwork in the public domain; photograph by Alice
Isabella Sullivan 291
Fig. 13.4 The Siege of Constantinople, 1541, exterior mural, south wall,
Church of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, Arbore,
Moldavia, modern-day Romania Artwork in the public domain;
photograph by Alice Isabella Sullivan 293
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