Vikings invade/raid Constantinople

[StonyArabia]

Interesting that Western Europeans would damage Constantinople twice first the Vikings and then it would be the Latin knights.

[Mens-Sarda]

Vikings only raided the coasts of Pontus and the western shores of the Black Sea, they never tried to attack directly the capital because they hadn't the technology to breach the Theodosian walls.


From "A Short History of Byzantium", by John Julius Norwich


First contact between the Byzantines and the "Rus"


In the high summer of the year 860, the people of Constantinople underwent as terrifying an experience as any of them could remember. Suddenly on the afternoon of 18 June, a fleet of some 200 ships from the Black Sea appeared at the mouth of the Bosphorus and made its way towards the city, plundering the monasteries that lined the banks, burning and pillaging every village it passed. Some of the vessels continued into the Marmara to ravage the Princes' Islands; the majority cast anchor at the entrance to the Golden Horn. It was the Byzantines' first real confrontation with the Russians. The leaders were probably not Slavs at all but Norsemen – representing that huge migration from Scandinavia which had begun towards the end of the eighth century. In about 830 they had established a khaganate around the upper Volga; a quarter of a century later they were using that mighty river, together with the Dnieper and the Don, to carry their longships southward against the great trading cities of the Black Sea. With them came their Slav subjects, by whom they were soon to be absorbed.

The situation was made more serious still by the absence in Asia of the Emperor, his commander-in-chief and the bulk of his army. The Prefect Oryphas, who had been left in command of the capital, sent messengers after them and Michael returned at once; but the raiders had already sailed back up the Bosphorus into the Black Sea. Why did they leave so soon? Photius, who preached two sermons on the raid, ascribes the deliverance to the miraculous robe of the Virgin, which was carried shoulder-high around the walls and provoked their immediate retreat. More probably the raiders, finding the city impregnable and having exhausted the possibilities of extramural plunder, simply decided to call it a day.

Second contact in 941, the entire "Rus" fleet is burnt and the attackers massacred

In the year 941 there may have been old men and women still alive in Constantinople who remembered their parents' stories of the terrible Russian raid of eighty-one years before; in the intervening period, however, the Russians had come a long way. In 882 or thereabouts the Viking Oleg had captured Kiev, and made it the capital of a new state. He had been succeeded on his death by Igor, son of Rurik, as Grand Prince of Kiev; and it was Igor who, at the beginning of June 941, dispatched a massive armada against Byzantium. When Romanus first heard of its approach, his heart sank: his army was away on the eastern frontier, his navy divided between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The only craft that could be quickly mobilized were fifteen pathetic hulks, long destined for the scrapyard. These were loaded to the gunwales with Greek fire and dispatched, under a certain Theophanes, to block the Bosphorus at its northern end. Theophanes arrived only just in time: on the morning of 11 June the Russian fleet appeared on the horizon. He attacked at once.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Greek fire in Byzantine history. To the Saracens it was all too familiar; to the Russians, a total surprise. As the first of their ships was engulfed in flames, the remainder turned abruptly away from the mouth of the Bosphorus and headed east along the Black Sea coast of Bithynia, where they landed in strength, perpetrating unspeakable horrors on the local populations. For many weeks the terror continued; but the strategos of the Armeniakon, Bardas Phocas, hurried to the scene with his local levies and kept the marauders occupied pending the arrival of Curcuas. The fleet too was on its way, and as each new squadron arrived it went straight into the attack. Soon it was the Russians who were on the defensive: autumn was approaching and they were anxious to sail for home. But it was too late. The Byzantine fleet was between them and the open sea, and slowly closing in. Early in September they made a desperate attempt to slip through the blockade; but suddenly the whole sea was aflame. As the Russian ships went up like matchwood their crews leapt overboard; the lucky ones were dragged down by the weight of their armour, while the rest met their deaths in the oil-covered water, which blazed as fiercely as the ships. In Constantinople Theophanes was given a hero's welcome.

[gıulıoımpa]

To them it was called Miklagard (great city, for loot probably)


there are stll graffiti of them in Hagia Sofia

[Tauromachos]

Interesting that Western Europeans would damage Constantinople twice first the Vikings and then it would be the Latin knights.

And?

Interesting that Western Europeans would damage and dominate the Arabic world twice

One time in the Middle Ages during the Crusades and another time now

War in Iraq,War in Libya

Israeli occupation the Near East and more

[Mr. Anybody]

To them it was called Miklagard (great city, for loot probably)


there are stll graffiti of them in Hagia Sofia

Halfdan was here..

[StonyArabia]

And?

Interesting that Western Europeans would damage and dominate the Arabic world twice

One time in the Middle Ages during the Crusades and another time now

War in Iraq,War in Libya

Israeli occupation the Near East and more

For their Jewish masters and it was not even easy fight especially in Iraq . Plus we are a different race, different culture, and different color and religion. Well the Romans were the same or supposed to be the same. It was not easy fight. In Western Iraq the Americans and other Westerners were losing the war and it might have ended up same as Vietnam or worse, if it was not for the betrayal of some groups, and also the use of illegal weapons. Also we defeated the Crusaders and the initial colonizers like the Portuguese and Italians. Only Britain was successful but not even full, and this was due to indirect colonization.