Empires and Barbarians

by Peter Heather

  25 Russian Primary Chronicle (911 and 944 AD); for detailed comment, see Franklin and Shepard (1996), 106ff. and 118ff.: comparison shows, amongst other things, an increase in the numbers of Rus trading with Constantinople.

  26 De Administrando Imperio 9.

  27 For an excellent introduction, see Noonan (1997).

  28 On the archaeological evidence for this earliest phase of Scandinavian activity in northern Russia, see Duczko (2004), chapter 2. For the comparison between Constantinople and the Caliphates as potential markets, see Chapter 7.

  29 Swedish Vikings: Annals of St Bertin AD a 839. (It must be questioned whether this was the first time that the Dnieper route was actually tried.) The death of Sviatoslav: Russian Primary Chronicle (972 AD).

  30 The relevant boats will presumably have been Slavic ‘monoxyla’, hollowed from single tree trunks, however, rather than the longships so prominently deployed in the west.

  31 On the Abaskos attack and its aftermath, see Franklin and Shepard (1996), 50ff.; Duczko (2004), chapter 1.

  32 On the anarchy at Samarra, see Kennedy (2004).

  33 On these coin flows, see Noonan (1997).

  34 On the archaeological evidence for Scandinavian settlers from this era, see Franklin and Shepard (1996), 91ff.; Duczko (2004), chapters. 3–5.

  35 See Franklin and Shepard (1996), chapter 3; Melnikova (1996), 54–60; Duczko (2004), chapter 6.

  36 See Likhachev (1970); Melnikova (1996), 105–9.

  37 Quoted in O Corrain (1997), 94.

  38 See Sawyer (1962).

  39 Chronicle of Ireland AD a. 848.

  40 Healfdan: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (878 AD). The argument for the scale of the Great Armies was made in full by Brooks (1979); cf. Smyth (1977) on their structure, with the identifications of Olaf and Ingvar. (The data has since been accepted by Sawyer.) On the continent, likewise, when the Franks won their great victory at the Dyle, they killed two Viking kings and captured sixteen royal standards.

  41 Settlement entries: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (876, 877 and 880 AD). Estimates based on Doomsday Book suggest that the total population of England in 1086 was perhaps a million and a half, and the settlements did not affect the whole country.

  42 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (896 AD).

  43 See Vince (2001); Leahy and Paterson (2001); cf. the more general studies of Hart (1992); and for a good survey of the place-name evidence, with full references, see Fellows-Jenson (2001).

  44 See O Corrain (1997), (1998); Smyth (1979).

  45 For a useful introduction, see Ritchie (1993), 25–7.

  46 Chronicle of Ireland (856, 857, 858 AD); cf. O Corrain (1998), 326–7; Charles-Edwards (2006), vol. 2, 4–5.

  47 For the DNA evidence, see Helgason et al. (2000), (2001), (2003); Goodacre et al. (2005).

  48 For a useful introduction, see Rafnsson (1997).

  49 The Great Army: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (892 AD). For the DNA evidence, see note 47. As we have seen in the case of the Anglo-Saxon evidence (Chapter 6), there is a substantial margin for error in reading modern proportions as a direct reflection of those in the past.

  50 See note 28 above.

  51 And to suggest that the Norse had in fact arrived here before any Slavic immigrants: see note 34 above.

  52 For references, see note 35 above.

  53 Such commemorative runestones were put up in far larger numbers in the late Viking period: see B. Sawyer (1991).

  54 See Wormald (1982).

  55 For introductions to post-Viking history in England and Scotland respectively, see Campbell (1982); Broun et al. (1998). Davies (1990), chapter 4 tackles the same issue for Wales.

  56 For references, see notes 13 and 14 above.

  57 See e.g. P. Sawyer (1982), (1997a); Sawyer and Sawyer (1993), chapter 2, with references.

  58 On the dirhems, see Noonan (1997), 145 (and cf. the comments of Arab travellers on the astonishing silver wealth of Rus merchants: see note 16 above). On Francia, see Nelson (1997), 37.

  59 For the background of the Roman period, see Chapter 2.

  60 For useful introductions, see Crawford (1987), chapter 1; Bill (1997); Rafnsson (1997).

  61 See Melnikova (1996), 3–18 (for the mixture of practical information, amidst the learned and biblical material, in medieval Scandinavian geography), and 31–44 (for a brilliantly evocative account of the main Russian river routes and their interconnections).

  62 The Anglo-Saxon expansion into England nevertheless bears some comparison: see Chapter 6.

  63 Asser Saxe: Aarhus runestone no. 6; cf. Roesdahl (1991), 58. Sodalitates: Annals of St Bertin (862 AD); cf. Nelson (1997), 36.

  64 For Asser Saxe, see previous note. On ship types, see Bill (1997). For monoxyla, see note 26 above; cf. Melnikova (1996), 33. Because of the rapids, shallows and sandbanks of the River Volkhov, ships had to be changed for rivercraft precisely at Ladoga.

  65 For a useful introduction, see Bill (1997).

  66 For an excellent recent survey, see Wickham (2005), 680–90, 809–11, with full references to the excavations, most of which have happened within the last scholarly generation.

  67 ‘Emporia’ were centres of movable wealth, so it is at least possible that initial accident turned into eventual design here; that would certainly be my best guess.

  68 See Wormald (1982). For an introduction to this ‘first’ Danish state, see Roesdahl (1982), especially chapters 5 and 8; Hedeager (1992); Lund (1995), 202–12.

  69 Anoundas: Life of St Anskar 19. Reginharius: see note 8 above.

  70 This phenomenon has generated the concept of ‘New Medievalism’ in international-relations theory, a conceptualization of the fact that Third World states in particular find that they have in practice no monopoly of power or authority within their notional territorial space. For an introduction to these debates, see Friedrichs (2004), chapter 7.

  10. THE FIRST EUROPEAN UNION

  1 Thietmar, Chronicle 4.45–6.

  2 The classic treatment in English of all three of these kingdoms remains Dvornik (1949); cf. Dvornik (1956). The available literature is now immense, and the references below are largely restricted to those written in western European languages, in which most of the main players in the Slavic world have anyway always tended (and now increasingly tend) to write, at least at regular intervals. Important supplements to Dvornik are provided, firstly, by useful general works such as Barford (2001); Curta (2006); and, secondly, by collections of papers dealing with a range of Slavic states: Manteuffel and Gieysztor (1968); Settimane (1983); Brachmann (1995); Urbancyzk (1997a), (2001); Curta (2005); Garipzanov et al. (2008). Then, thirdly, there are the studies devoted to individual kingdoms, as follows. Poland: Manteuffel (1982); Urbancyzk (2004). Bohemia: Wegener (1959); Graus and Ludat (1967); Turek (1974); Sasse (1982); Prinz (1984); Godja (1988), (1991). Moravia: Dittrich (1962); Bosl (1966); Graus and Dostál (1966); Poulik et al. (1986); Bowlus (1995); M. Eggers (1995). These works provide the basis of my understanding of state formation in eastern Europe in the late first millennium; I will only footnote very specific points in the rest of this chapter, but this literature will always be implicit.

  3 Dvornik was well aware of this point, although he did not treat Denmark in the same detail as his Slavic kingdoms. Papers relevant to Scandinavian state formation appear in some of the secondary sources listed in the previous note. In addition, the following studies, from an immense literature, of the early Danish state’s emergence from the Viking period, are particularly useful: Randsborg (1980); Roesdahl (1982); Hedeager (1992); Sawyer and Sawyer (1993); Rumble (1994); Lund (1997).

  4 Dvornik treated the history of the first Rus state in some detail (see note 2 above, with the supplementary works detailed there). For further information, see e.g. Kaiser and Marker (1994); Franklin and Shepard (1996); Melnikova (1996); Duczko (2004); cf., on legal structures, D. Kaiser (1980), (1992).

  5 The first homegrown historian of the Danish state, Saxo Grammaticus, worked about seventy-five years lat
er than his Slavic counterparts.

  6 For an introduction to the new cultural patterns of the Carolingian era and beyond, see McKitterick (1989), (1994).

  7 For a useful commentary on Thietmar’s Chronicle, see Schröder (1977). Dvornik was immensely interested in the conversion of these states to Christianity: with the works cited in note 2 above, see especially Dvornik (1969). Many of the studies cited in notes 2–4 deal with Slavic conversion, but useful additional information and analysis can be found in e.g. Wolfram (1979), (1995); Kantor (1990); Urbancyzk (1997b); Wood (2001).

  8 In addition to the studies cited in note 3 above, there are several useful papers in Scragg (1991) and Cooper (1993), especially those of Sawyer (1993) and Lund (1993). See, too, in Rumble (1994), the papers of Sawyer (1994) and Lund (1994). The rehabilitation of the reputation of Aethelred – see e.g. Keynes (1987) – only emphasizes the military capacity of the Danish monarchy.

  9 On the fortifications of Dux Rastiz of Moravia: Annals of Fulda 869 (cf. ibid 855). For Slavic and Danish fortifications, see notes 2–4 above, but particularly helpful are Kurnatowska (1997a); Dulinicz (1997); Petrov (2005). For the Alamanni, see Chapter 2. Admittedly, the political unity of the Tervingi collapsed when their leader induced them to build fortifications, but only when they were simultaneously faced with Hunnic assault: Ammianus 31.3.8, and see Chapter 4 above.

  10 See Ibn Fadlan, Relation, with Thietmar, Chronicle 4.46 (quoted on p. 515). Polish forces in 1003: Thietmar, Chronicle 5.36–7. For other sources of revenue, see pp. 563ff above.

  11 One Byzantine source reports that the Rus force assisting Basil II numbered 6,000 men: Franklin and Shepard (1996), 161–3. Territorial contingents: Russian Primary Chronicle (1015 AD, 1068 AD). Retinues appear regularly in the Bohemian sources translated by Kantor (1990).

  12 Encomium of Queen Emma II.4. Lund (1986), (1993) argues firmly for a solely mercenary army, but the descriptions in the Encomium sound more like a mixed force, and it is worth noting that the much less powerful earls of Orkney had imposed carefully defined military obligations on their populations from an early date: Crawford (1987), 86–91. I think it is in the nature of the Danish state, as with its Slavic peers, that there are likely to have been substantial differences between separate parts of the kingdom: see pp. 526ff above.

  13 On the Tithe Church, see Franklin and Shephard (1996), 164–5. For other references, see notes 2–4 above, with Kurnatowska (1997a); Shepard (2005); Font (2005).

  14 For Danish transport infrastructure, see Randsborg (1980), 75ff.; Roesdahl (1982), chapter 3.

  15 For an introduction, see Dvornik (1949), 105–10, with Appendix 5, though the details of the territories it defines are much disputed.

  16 On Moravia and Bohemia, see Jirecek (1867) and Friedrich (1907) for some of the texts, with Kantor (1983), (1990) for commentary. On Russia, see D. Kaiser (1980), (1992).

  17 The pattern does not apply to Moravia, however, whose capacity to operate as state centre was destroyed by the rise of Magyar power in the 890s, after which it became one of the territories to be swapped.

  18 For a more detailed narrative in English, see Dvornik (1949). Randsborg (1980), 75ff. is excellent on the principles on itineration. For Bohemian documents, see note 16 above. For excellent commentaries on the Polish information, see Lowmianski (1960); Gorecki (1992).

  19 Russian Primary Chronicle (945–55 AD).

  20 See e.g. Roesdahl (1982), 147–55. One-quarter of the buildings in Fyrkat were residential, for instance, and one-third for storage.

  21 Sobibor would later die in Prague in 1004 fighting the expelled Premyslid Jaromir, having returned to Prague with a Polish army: Thietmar, Chronicle 6.12. For a general account, see Urbanczyk (1997c).

  22 Annals of Fulda (845, 872, 895 AD), with secondary references as note 2 above.

  23 For commentaries, see Wolfram (1995); cf. the different geographical reconstructions of Bowlus (1995); M. Eggers (1995). Wherever it is placed, however, the basic political process stays the same.

  24 The traditional picture was of 30 small ‘tribes’ in the seventh century, eventually evolving into 8 greater ones, according to Marxist principles, in the ninth. This was mostly guesswork based on extrapolation from the Anonymous Bavarian Geographer, which didn’t cover lands beyond the Oder (see Chapter 8), and by analogy with Bohemia: cf. Barford (2001), chapter 12. The pattern may not be so far from the historical reality, except that we must reckon with a much more violent finale: see especially Kurnatowska (1997a); Dulinicz (1994), (1997).

  25 On the emergence of the Rus state, see Franklin and Shepard (1996), chapter 3.

  26 Russian Primary Chronicle (974 AD: Sveinald); 978 AD: Rogvolod/Ragnvaldr and Tury; 993 AD: the concubines).

  27 For fuller discussion of the Jelling dynasty, see references in note 3 above. On the fate of the ninth-century state, see p. 511 above.

  28 On the kings associated with the ninth-century Great Armies, see Chapter 9. For more detail on tenth-century patterns, see the literature cited in note 3 above.

  29 For general references, see previous note. For the ‘mark’ in Denmark, see Lund (1984), 21–2; cf. Lund (1997).

  30 See Chapter 8 above, with Curta (2001), chapter 7.

  31 Miesco: Ibn Jaqub. Bohemia: Annals of Fulda (845 AD), with the texts translated in Kantor (1990). Moravia: Annals of Fulda (894 AD). Russia: Ibn Fadlan, Relation ; Russian Primary Chronicle (945–6 AD). The fourth-century Germani: see Chapter 2 above. The sixth-century Slavs: Curta (2001), chapter 7.

  32 For further discussion, see Chapter 8, and Chapter 1 (on the early Germanic world).

  33 For fuller discussions, see the literature cited in notes 2–4 above. On the Germanic world, see pp. 64ff above.

  34 For post-Avar leaders, see the literature cited in note 23 above. Wiztrach and his son ruled their own civitas in Bohemia: see Annals of Fulda (857 AD). On Moravia, see the studies cited in note 2 above. For excellent introductions to the changing patterns of hillforts, see Godja (1991), chapter 3; Kurnatowska (1997a), with full references. Nothing similar has been found in the early Slavic world to the Runder Berg and other Herrenhöfe of the leaders of the fourth-century Alamanni: see Chapter 2.

  35 See, in particular, Roesdahl (1982); Hedeager (1992); Sawyer and Sawyer (1993).

  36 For pollen, see Donat (1983); cf. Barford (2001), 153–9, both with full references.

  37 In addition to the literature cited in note 2 above, see most recently, on agricultural expansion, Henning (2005); Barford (2005). These studies show that full manorialization followed rather than preceded state formation (as Marxist orthodoxy required). Agricultural expansion did, however, take other forms between the sixth and tenth centuries.

  38 For the reasons we have previously encountered, the availability of food is one of the most basic limiting factors on possible population sizes.

  39 For similar processes among the Germani, see Chapter 2.

  40 Hedeby: Royal Frankish Annals (808 AD), with Roesdahl (1982), 70–6. Prague: Ibn Rusteh. Kiev: De Administrando Imperio, chapter 9; cf. Thietmar, Chronicle 8.2. Poland’s participation in these networks is clear from the silver dirham distribution map: see Map 16.

  41 Russian Primary Chronicle (911 and 945 AD). As far back as 808, Godfrid had moved the merchants to Hedeby because he wanted the toll revenue: see previous note.

  42 For literature on the destruction of tribal castles, see note 24 above. On Vladimir’s transfers, see Russian Primary Chronicle (1000 AD). On service villages and the organization of the heartlands of Bohemia and Poland, see respectively Godja (1991), chapters 3–4; Kurnatowska (1997a).

  43 Oleg’s army: Russian Primary Chronicle (880–2 AD). Sviatoslav: Russian Primary Chronicle (971–2 AD). For Vladimir, see previous note, with general commentary in Franklin and Shepard (1996), chapter 4.

  44 For an introduction, see Bartlett (1993), chapter 5. A top estimate is that some 200,000 German peasants were eventually attracted east of the Elbe by the excel
lent terms on offer.

  45 On Carolingian expansion and its structural importance, see Reuter (1985), (1990).

  46 On the feuds, see Leyser (1989). On the burgwards, see Reuter (1991).

  47 For an introduction to the Elbe Slavs, and a convenient collection of the relevant materials, see Lübke (1984–88), with Lübke (1994), (1997) for further analysis.

  48 Dvornik (1949) provides a useful narrative. For the Northern Crusades, see e.g. Christiansen (1980).

  49 Gero: Widukind of Corvey 2.20, with Heather (1997) more generally on the Abodrites. Zwentibald: Annals of Fulda (870–2 AD).

  50 On the Christianization of Moravia, see the references in note 2. Werinhar’s mutilation: Annals of Fulda (882 AD). Violence and plunder are regular features in all the warfare of this period, as recorded in Thietmar’s Chronicle, the Russian Primary Chronicle, Adam of Bremen’s History of the Bishops of Hamburg and Helmold’s Chronicle of the Slavs, the two latter both having much to report on the plunderings and wars between the Empire and the Elbe Slavs.

  51 On Saxon military evolution, see Leyser (1982), essays 1 and 2. For the Capitulary of Thionville, see Boretius (1883), 44.7.

  52 Miracles of St Demetrius II.5; cf. the swift appearance of powerful leaders such as Liudewit: for references, see note 23 above.

  53 For further discussion, and references, see Chapter 9.

  54 On the slave raids of the Rus and Western Slavs: Ibn Jaqub; cf. McCormick (2001), on the general importance of these new connections.

  55 Ibn Fadlan, Relation ; cf. Russian Primary Chronicle (993 AD), on Vladimir. If the trade was essentially in women, the Rus presumably had to carry their own boats round the Dnieper rapids, but this may just be the literature of shock. Certainly the western slave trades – overland and by sea – involved males as well as females; cf. Verlinden (1955), the source of the map in question.

  56 For introductory references, see note 7 above. The same tendency of trying to avoid taking your Christianity from a near imperial neighbour is also visible in the case of the Bulgarians, who did the same, trying to avoid a Byzantine connection: see e.g. Browning (1975), for an introduction. The Bulgarians equally failed to avoid the imperial connection, but, like the Poles, were eventually granted their own archbishop.