For similar conflicts, see Sieges of Constantinople and Rus'-Byzantine Wars.

Siege of Constantinople by the Rus
Part of Rus'-Byzantine Wars
Greeks using their lethal fire, from the Madrid Skylitzes manuscript.
Date 941 Location Constantinople (Tsargrad) Result Byzantine victory
Combatants
Byzantine Empire	Kievan Rus'
Commanders
Romanus I Lecapenus	Igor I of Kiev

Rus'-Byzantine Wars
830s – 860 – 907 – 941 – 968–71 – 988 – 1024 – 1043

The Rus'-Byzantine War of 941 took place during the reign of Igor of Kiev.^[1] The Khazar Correspondence reveals that the campaign was instigated by the Khazars, who wished revenge on the Byzantines after the persecutions of the Jews undertaken by Emperor Romanus I Lecapenus.

The Rus' and their allies, the Pechenegs, disembarked on the northern coast of Asia Minor and swarmed over Bithynia in May 941.^[2] As usual, they seemed to have been well informed that the imperial capital stood defenseless and vulnerable to attack: the Byzantine fleet had been engaged against the Arabs in the Mediterranean, while the bulk of the imperial army had been stationed along the eastern borders.

Lecapenus arranged a defense of Constantinople by having fifteen retired ships outfit with throwers of Greek fire fore and aft. Igor, wishing to capture these Greek vessels and their crews but unaware of the fire-throwers, had his fleet surround them. Then, at an instant, the Greek-fire was hurled through tubes upon the Rus and their allies: Liudprand of Cremona wrote: "The Rus, seeing the flames, jumped overboard, preferring water to fire. Some sank, weighed down by the weight of their breastplates and helmets; others caught fire." The captured Rus were beheaded.

The Byzantines thus managed to dispel the Rus' fleet but not to prevent the pagans from pillaging the hinterland of Constantinople, venturing as far south as Nicomedia. Many atrocities were reported: the Rus' were said to have crucified their victims and to have driven nails into their heads.

In September John Tzimiskes and Bardas Phocas, two leading generals, speedily returned to the capital, anxious to repel the invaders. The Kievans promptly transferred their operations to Thrace, moving their fleet there. When they were about to retreat, laden with trophies, the Byzantine navy under Theophanes fell upon them.

Greek sources report that the Rus' lost their whole fleet in this surprise attack, so that only a handful of boats returned back to their bases in the Crimea. The captured prisoners were taken to the capital and beheaded. Khazar sources add that the Rus' leader managed to escape to the Caspian Sea, where he met his death fighting the Arabs.

These reports may have been exaggerated, because Igor was able to mount a new naval campaign against Constantinople as early as 944/945. The Chersonese Greeks alerted the emperor about the approaching Kievan fleet. This time, the Byzantines hastened to purchase peace and concluded a treaty with Kievan Rus. Its text is quoted in full in the Primary Chronicle.

Notes

References

• Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Vol. 1. Blackwell, 1998.
• Golb, Norman and Omeljan Pritsak. Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982.
• Kendrick, Thomas D. A History of the Vikings. Courier Dover Publications, 2004. ISBN 0-486-43396-X.
• Logan, Donald F. The Vikings in History 2nd ed. Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0-415-08396-6
• Mosin, V. "Les Khazars et les Byzantins d'apres l'Anonyme de Cambridge." Revue des Études Byzantines 6 (1931): 309-325.
• Uspensky, Fyodor. The History of the Byzantine Empire, vol. 2. Moscow: Mysl, 1997.
• Zuckerman, Constantine. "On the Date of the Khazar’s Conversion to Judaism and the Chronology of the Kings of the Rus Oleg and Igor." Revue des Études Byzantines 53 (1995): 237-270.