Thessalonica had been attacked by the Slavs sometime in the early 600s – on that see the Miracles of Saint Demetrius (here & here). John Kaminiates was a Greek resident of the city three centuries later. This time, in 904, the city was being attacked (and was, in fact, sacked) by Muslim Arabs from across the Mediterranean in Tripoli.
Arabs sacking Thessalonica in 904
Thanks to John Kaminiates we have an account of these events in his “On the Capture of Thessalonica” (Εις την άλωσιν της Θεσσαλονίκης, Eis tēn alōsin tēs Thessalonikēs). The book was, apparently, written while John was in Arab captivity. The translation is by David Frendo and Athanasios Fotiou.
Chapter 6
“We have given an adequate description of the eastern and northern part of the city and also of the southern part. Now let us try to depict as best we can the general layout of the western part. There is another plain which starts at the Jetty Wall, follows the contour of the mountain on the right, borders the sea on the left and presents the beholder with a spectacle of beauty. For that part which can claim some proximity to both the city and the sea is plentifully irrigated, decked out with vineyards, copses and gardens and adorned with innumerable dwellings and chapels, most of which have been divided up and held in common by companies of monks, who practise every kind of virtue (!) and live for God alone, towards whom they strive and on account of whom they left the turmoil of civic life and undertook to follow the path that leads to Him alone.”
“After that, the plain extends inland for a great distance with mostly treeless vegetation, but with good agricultural land. It continues to stretch in a westerly direction until it reaches another range of lofty mountains, at which point is situated a city called Beroea. It is a famous city in its own right both with regard to its inhabitants and to all the other qualities on which a city pins its faith.”
“In its central portion tihis plain also contains a mixture of villages, some of whose inhabitants, the Drougoubitai and the Sagoudatoi as they are called, pay their taxes to the city, while others pay tribute to the Scythians* who live not far from the border. Yet the villages and their inhabitants live very dose to one another, and the close commercial relations that are maintained with the Scythians are a considerable asset to the citizens of Thessaloniki as well, especially when both parties stay on friendly terms with each other and refrain from any violent measures that lead to confrontation and armed conflict. They share a common lifestyle and exchange commodities in perfect peace and harmony, and this has been their policy for some not inconsiderable time past. Mighty rivers, rising from the land of the Scythians, divide among themselves the aforesaid plain, and they lavish much abundance on the city through supplying it with fish and through being navigable upstream by seagoing vessels, as a result of which a cunningly contrived assortment of profits from commodities flows down those waters.”
* note: By Scythians he means Bulgarians.
Chapter 20
“Nevertheless, when, after the strategies’ injury, all responsibility for our welfare devolved upon Niketas, he too plead his part to the best of his ability. He said that a great number of Sklavenes from the territories, both those who paid us tribute and those who who were under jurisdiction of the strategies of Strymon, had been instructed to come up to the city, so that thanks to their skill in archery we might perhaps not be found inferior even in weaponry to our enemies, but have at our disposal the means of repelling their first onslaught. And he eagerly set about accomplishing this plan. He wrote letters which he had dispatched thought the whole adjoining region. In these he urged the Sklavenes and their retainers to come to us with all speed, each man arming himself as heavily as he could. But only a few peasants responded to his appeal, a wholly inadequate force, few in number and totally unprepared for battle. This state of affairs had been brought about by the incompetence and dishonesty of the commanders who had been put in charge of the these men were more concerned with their own advantage that with the common good, habitually intriguing against their associates, madly intent on taking bribes and well-versed in the art of preferring this type of acquisition to all others. On two, three, indeed on several different occasions the aforesaid Niketas tried by means of a letter to frighten the strategies of Strymon into action, accusing him of procrastination and intimating that, if the city were to suffer any harm as a result of the present peril, he would denounce him to the emperor as solely responsible for what had happened. But the fellow clung just as obstinately as before to his habitual folly. Without fear or respect for God or man and thinking nothing of the destruction of so great a city, he resolved that neither he for his part, nor any of his subordinates, should come to our aid when we were in such dire straits. Instead, he misled us right up to the last day of the war into believing that he would appear at any moment, playing unknown to us, the accomplice in a plot to bring about our downfall , and laughing up his sleeve at the disaster which engulfed us.”
Chapter 21
“Thus, we were deceived in the hopes which we entertained of our Sklavene allies. Yet we were no mere handful of men but were easily up to the required numerical strength and far exceeded that of the barbarian army. Nevertheless, our complete inexperience of warfare and lack of previous training made an enemy attack the object of limitless fear and trepidation. And in particular it seemed to us a bad sign that we had not managed to contrives any means of defense against this contingency.”
“Meanwhile, recourse to flight would have been an ignoble act, since it would inevitably have resulted in the capture of the city and the theft of all the ornaments made of gold, silver and other valuable materials belonging to the places of worship already referred to, or in the destruction by fire of the holy churches themselves. At the same time, even if we contrived to avoid suffering harm at the hands of the barbarians, we would not know how to assuage the emperor’s displeasure. Yet, such a policy would have been bearable and would have guaranteed our safety, however much the bare mention of such things might have sounded like a fate worse than death to those individuals who had never really known the meaning of adversity. For a people used only to a soft and luxurious life style, and with no previous military training to have to take such momentous decisions, that was a thought that filled us with horror and fairly drove us to distraction.”
Chapter 25
“But when that wild beast had surveyed the entire extent of the wall and had noticed that the entrance to the harbour was barred by an iron chain and obstructed by the sunken hulks of a number of ships, he decided to launch his attack just at those points which he perceived to be free of those blocks of stone which, lurking on the seabed where they had earlier been placed, impeded the access of his ships and where his fleet would not be under heavier fire from that part of the wall which had already been built up to some considerable height. He chose a location, in fact, where a great depth of sea water beat against a particularly low stretch of wall, made a careful note of his position, and then, returning to his men, gave the signal for battle. They swooped down with their ships towards those points which had been described to them, letting out harsh and savage cries and rowing furiously in the direction of the wall. And banging on rawhide drums, they raised a fearful din, and they tried with many other kinds of bluff to frighten the defenders on the battlements. But those who were manning the wall shouted back even louder and invoked the aid of the saving weapon of the cross against the enemy forces. And they did this to such an effect that the barbarians, at the sound of so many people uttering a cry more fearsome than any they had previously heard, were dazed for a while and did not expect to achieve anything. Estimating the numbers of the citizens from the loudness of their shouts, they concluded that it would be no easy matter to enter the fray against such odds and to sack so great a city, the like of which they had never seen. Nevertheless, in order not to create the impression of having lost their nerve at the start of their offensive, they advanced neither fearlessly, nor with the rage which they later displayed, but with a certain blend of frenzy and fear, protecting themselves against their opponents by means of a barrage of missiles. Then their approach became more reckless and they strove to bring the fighting nearer, rousing themselves to fury like barking dogs and thoroughly enraged by the weapons that were hurled down at them from the wall. The citizens, in fact, were anything but remiss in their use of archery, and used it to great and conspicuous effect by stationing all the Sklavenes gathered from the neighbouring regions at those points from which it was easiest to shoot accurately and where there was nothing to deflect the momentum of their missiles.”
Chapter 41
“Exactly the same thing happened at the other gate, known as the Litaia Gate. Of the other gates, as we pointed out, those leading to the sea had been occupied in advance by the barbarians, whereas we ourselves had previousty blocked up three facing east, fearing in their case also the enemy’s strategem of setting fire to them, something which we had already experienced to our cost with the outer gates of the fortification. Consequently, people sensed helplessly that their escape was barred from all sides and floundered hopelessly about the streets, encountering death at every turn. Only a few, a mere handful, threw themselves from the walls at the western end of the harbour and leaped to safety. Certain others had saved their lives by surreptitiously slipping away through the gate near the Acropolis before disaster struck.
These men were the leaders of the Sklavenes, who had long been rehearsing this move, having previously gone so far as to steal the keys to the gates in question. But they should, in view of the critical nature of the situation, have allowed everyone who happened to be around at the time to avail himself of the opportunity to escape. Had they done so, many of those who happened to be in the area before the barbarians attacked would have avoided death. But they had no time for such a notion. They were far too busy looking after their own welfare, and in a move aimed exclusively at warding off danger from [to] themselves, they pushed the wings of the gate ajar and made a speedy exit, leaving one of their number on the spot to shut the gate behind them. In this way they treacherously undermined the safety of everybody on that occasion too, under the specious and lying pretext that they were not fleeing but were going to collect allies from the Strymon area, pretending that this was at the express command of the strategos.”
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