The influence of Justinian's Plague on the success of the slavic invasion of Thrace in 550

The influence of Justinian's Plague on the success of the slavic invasion of Thrace in 550

TitovIvanStanislavovich

студент, Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет, РФ, г. Белгород

Марков Александр Владимирович

scientificsupervisor,

senior lecturer, Belgorod State National
Research University, RF, Belgorod

Влияние Юстиниановой чумы на успех славянского вторжения во Фракию в 550 году

Титов Иван Станиславович

студент, Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет, РФ, г. Белгород

Марков Александр Владимирович

научный руководитель,

ст. пр., Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет, РФ, г. Белгород

The consideration of this topic is topical because, in spite of a rather extensive Russian historiography on the problem of Slavonic incursions into the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th-7th centuries, the Justinian plague, which raged on the Peninsula during the mentioned period of time, is usually ignored there.

In 541, from Ethiopia, the plague reached the Egyptian city of Pelusium¹ and from there, through Alexandria, it spread all over the Mediterranean, reaching Constantinople in 544².

Procopius of Caesarea writes about the enormous mortality from plague in the empire's capital, reaching sometimes several thousand people a day³. The plague left the city only in 544, but it was still raging in Byzantium⁴. The situation was so bad that the government had to relocate people to Thrace in order to restore the region to its former economic life⁵. Of course, the situation in which the empire found itself was exacerbated by the wars with the Goths and Sassanids. And so in this environment begins the Slavic invasion of Thrace in 550.

Here is how Procopius of Caesarea writes about it: "About the same time the army of the Slavs, having gathered not more than three thousand people, crossed the river Istr, without meeting resistance from anybody, and then without great difficulty, having crossed the river Gebr, was divided into two parts"⁶.

Apparently, there were not enough troops in Thrace to guard the Istr River. Traditionally the Romans did not attack invading barbarians immediately, but lured them deeper and deeper into their possessions, where they dealt the death blow. This speaks to an elaborate intelligence system that allowed them to record barbarian movements within the empire. But this time, the invasion of the Slavs came as a complete surprise to the local Roman army. Despite the disunity of the Slavs, they managed to strike a surprise attack, wiping out most of the soldiers and putting the rest to flight. It was a fiasco for the Romans as they outnumbered the Slavs in this battle.

After this victory, one of the two Slavic units went into battle with a detachment of regular cavalry commanded by Asbad. Once again the Slavs defeated the Roman army, turning the surviving enemies to flight. Asbad himself was taken prisoner, had straps cut out of the leather on his back, and burned at the stake. Here is what Procopius writes about what happened after these events: "After this they began to plunder fearlessly and all these districts in both Thrace and Illyria, and many fortresses both this and that detachment of Slavs took by siege"⁷.

All this looks extremely strange - first the divided groups of Slavs defeat one Byzantine detachment, then only one group defeats another fighting detachment, which is headed by the emperor's bodyguard. Characteristically, in both cases the losers fled instead of fighting to the end. Further events look even more suspicious, for such a free plundering of a large number of lands by small bands of Slavs was only possible in the complete absence of any troops capable of resisting the barbarians.

Also, these Slavs took the city of Toper, slaughtering the local garrison and the entire male population of the city. Procopius says that the capture of the city happened after the Slavs had "devastated the whole country right down to the sea"⁸. That is, the Slavic tribes managed to defeat two detachments of imperial soldiers in one campaign, sacked many localities and fortresses in Thrace, and then destroyed the garrison of the city along with its entire male population. Even if we consider that these were prototypes of the Slavic vigilantes⁹, that is, the best warriors, their success still seems incredible. It is also possible that the short resistance of the inhabitants of the city was due to the small amount of provisions.

Clearly the bloody war in Italy was draining the resources of the empire, but it is equally clear that the plague also played a significant role before the Slavs invaded Thrace, for example causing famines in 542 and in 545-546¹⁰. This could not but affect the military contingent on the very frontier of the empire. If relatively small groups of Slavs were able to inflict such great damage on the province, and even to turn to flight the Byzantine professional detachments of soldiers, there must be obvious problems with morale. Some scholars have singled out a certain cruelty of the Slavs¹¹, which does seem to have been present, but the oppressive atmosphere caused by the plague and famine, which was felt by the common soldiers of Byzantium, should not be overlooked.

The number of people in Thrace, however, continued to be substantial relative to the other Byzantine possessions in the Balkans, for it was from this that recruits would be gathered for Narses' campaign to Italy in 552.

However, from this very moment the proportion of barbarians in the imperial army will begin to increase significantly¹², which may indirectly indicate a considerable decrease in population. The city of Topor itself would be rebuilt and fortified by Justinian, and a gallery would even be built on the vaults of the walls (Proc. BG XI.14-17)¹³.

However, this successful campaign of the Slavs had far more serious consequences than the simple destruction of the borderlands and residential areas. According to S.V. Alekseev, the invasion was carried out at the instigation of King Totila of Ostgoth¹⁴. If so, Totila partially achieved his goals and delayed the campaign of the Byzantine army in Italy, until 552. But there were other consequences. The Slavs began to make their raids on the empire more and more often, began to gradually settle in the Balkans. The process of gradual colonization of the Balkans by Slavic tribes, who came to the lands where plague and famine were raging, began. As John of Ephesus writes in his Ecclesiastical History, in a few decades they would play quite a tangible role in this region¹⁵.

Thus, considering the Slavic invasion of Thrace in 550 against the background of the empire's losses from the Justinian plague allows us to look more deeply into this event and to see new reasons for the success of this invasion.