.

Dedicated to the military history and civilization of the Eastern Roman Empire (330 to 1453)


"Time in its irresistible and ceaseless flow carries along on its flood all created things and drowns them in the depths of obscurity."

- - - - Princess Anna Comnena (1083–1153) - Byzantine historian

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

The Amphibious Assault on Alexandria - The Battle for Africa


300 Roman Ships Attack Alexandria

dromon (from Greek δρόμων, dromōn,lit.'runner') was a type of galley and the most important warship of the Eastern Roman Navy from the 5th to 12th centuries AD, when they were succeeded by Italian-style galleys. It was developed from the ancient liburnian, which was the mainstay of the Roman navy during the Empire.
Image from twcenter.net


The Death of the Ancient World

The Beginning of the End 
for Roman Africa, Part IV


If we had to pick a date for the fall of the ancient world I think September, 642 AD is as good as any. In that month the traitorous elements in the Roman Government surrendered the great fortress city of Alexandria to the Muslim invaders ending over 600 years of Roman rule.

The striking thing about the entire Arab invasion of Egypt was that Roman forces were scattered all over the country and were defeated one by one. It is what I have said for years, most "generals" are worthless bureaucrats who are vaguely aware they should point their army in the general direction of the enemy first before attacking.


Roman Cavalry


The Empire Strikes Back

In September 642 Alexandria opened its gates to the Muslims even though the city had never been breeched during the so-called "siege".

Once the Muslims took over along came the tax collectors who eagerly drained the Christian Egyptians of their money. A group of leading citizens of Alexandria wrote secretly to the Emperor Constans in Constantinople, begging him to reconquer Egypt and save them from Arab oppression.

Roman tax collectors were no saints, so the Muslim tax collectors must have been especially vicious to provoke this reaction.

The Emperor began gathering a Roman fleet of 300 ships to re-take Alexandria. This operation illustrates the power of the Roman Empire even after years and years of fighting against Arab armies.

We have next to no information as to the make up of this strike force. How many infantry? how many cavalry? etc. 

We can speculate. If 50 extra soldiers were loaded on to each ship times 300 ships we have an army of perhaps 15,000 men. This number is in line with a normal Eastern Roman strike force.

The Roman fleet was commanded by the admiral Manuel. Arab historians refer to him as Manuel the eunuch. Was he a palace favorite chosen for his loyalty or a professional military man? We will never know.


Roman soldiers 6th and 7th century


Click to enlarge map

Landing in Alexandria

The Roman Navy had complete command of the sea. A large fleet was assembled with the greatest possible secrecy. No Arab vessels sailed the Mediterranean and so no warning of the invasion reached Egypt.

Suddenly one morning in the autumn of 645, a fleet of 300 ships was seen bearing down on the harbor of Alexandria. Roman troops were soon disembarked and the small 1,000 man Arab garrison was put to the sword.

Roman troops once again manned the walls of Alexandria, and the city acknowledged its allegiance to Caesar.

"I'm Surrounded By Idiots."

Scar (The Lion King)


Again and again and AGAIN in the early Arab campaigns we saw the power of rapidly moving Blitzkrieg style Muslim forces. The Arabs were anxious to fight in open country. They skillfully drew their enemies out of their fortifications and then defeated them in the open desert.

So what did the idiot Roman commander do? 

Rather than secure the walled fortress of Alexandria against attack, he sent his troops far away from the safety of the city to fan out across the lower Nile delta. 

An Opportunity lost.  A powerful fortress-city of Alexandria could be endlessly supplied by the Roman Navy. That would have prevented Arabs from advancing up the coast to Libya and Carthage. From that secure fortress the Romans could build outwards to re-take and fortify Egyptian towns one-by-one.

Instead, the Muslim commander Amr ibn al Aasi arrived at the city of Babylon and "delayed" there in order to draw the Romans even deeper into Egypt.


Bedouin Warrior. The Romans may have faced troops much like this man.

The Battle of Nikiou / Alexandria

So again, instead of staying safely behind the massive walls of Alexandria, Manuel appears to have taken most of the Roman Army on a 100 mile march away from Alexandria to Nikiou.

Reaching Nikiou the Romans encountered an Arab army of about 15,000 men.

Again we lack details, but a bloody battle followed the outcome of which was long in doubt. Eventually the Romans gave way. As soon as they commenced to retire, their retreat became a rout.

Eventually the Romans reached Alexandria in complete confusion after fleeing the Arabs for 100 miles. Even so they entered the city and closed the gates in the face of the Arabs.

It should be noted that there was no massacre of the defeated Romans. It appears that for 100 miles the Roman Army was still a large enough force to keep the Arabs at bay.

Alexandria Falls Again

The exact manner of how Alexandria was taken this second time is still open to debate.

The most probable account seems to be the Commander of one of the gates secretly communicated with Amr offering to open the gate to the Arabs. Such treachery might have been from a Copt whose family or himself had been a victim of religious persecution by the Orthodox Roman government.

The Arabs burst into the city which was given up to massacre, plunder and arson. When half the city had been destroyed, Amr gave the order to halt the carnage.

A portion of the Roman Army reached their ships and put out to sea. But their commander Manuel and many of his troops were killed.

This second capture of Alexandria took place sometime in the Summer of 646. The campaign had lasted about nine months.

Rome had now permanently lost Egypt.

The Copts appear to have largely remained neutral. The Copt Patriarch Benjamin was said to have secured an interview with Amr telling him that Manuel was supported by the Orthodox Church, not the Copts.

In an interesting side note, after the Arab victory a number of Coptic villages complained to Amr that they had not only not joined the rebellion, but that they were plundered by Roman Army for supplies without any payment. By treaty the Muslims were supposed to protect them but did not. Amr immediately admitted the justice of their claims and ordered compensation to be paid for their losses.



Click to enlarge map


The Roman Province of Egypt

The Battle for Africa

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Friday, March 8, 2024

Defending The Roman Frontier - Random Thoughts




Defending The Roman Frontier


My thoughts have turned to the many, varied and often tiny Roman border outposts.

Think of the many American Westerns with small and always undermanned frontier forts. The local garrisons were on alert 24-7 against Indian raids targeting local farmers and commercial traffic.

The borders of the Roman Empire were enormous. Protecting Roman citizens from barbarian raids was as close to impossible as you can get. 

Doubtless there were thousands of stories to be told of heroism, slaughter and sacrifice, but those stories are all lost to the mists of time.



The grand strategy of the empire was, on the whole, defensive. 

The Sahara, Euphrates, Danube, and Rhine were natural frontiers, and it was exceptional when the Romans launched new campaigns of conquest. If territory was added, it was to shorten the frontier, or to improve a vulnerable part of the frontier. 

The basic principle of defense was deterrence: wherever the enemy attacked, he would always find a professional, heavily armed Roman force that often outnumbered him. Except for the desert frontier, the limes usually consisted of a clear line where the enemy had to stay away from (e.g., Hadrian's Wall or the river Danube).

However, sometimes the line was attacked. The soldiers in the watchtowers signaled the invasion to the nearby forts. The watchtowers themselves were lost, but the invaders would immediately have to face with Roman forces from nearby forts.

Almost always, this was sufficient to deal with the situation. If the attackers were able to reach and loot a city, they would be massacred on their way home. The final act of every attempt to attack the empire was Roman retaliation against the native population.


Reconstruction of a Limes tower in Germany.



The Roman Fortress of 
Qasr Bashir in Jordan


Qasr Bashir is an extremely well preserved Roman fortress that lies in the Jordanian desert. 

Qasr Bshir belongs to the chain of forts and watchtowers that is known as the Limes Arabicus and was meant to protect the province of Arabia against roaming desert nomads. They were not extremely dangerous or exceptionally violent, but their dromedaries made them swift, and if trouble arose, they could pillage large parts of the Roman countryside. The Limes Arabicus had to counter this threat, and Mobene was one of the fortifications.

Built at the beginning of the fourth Century AD and known as Mobene, the walls of Qasr Bashir still stand intact, at a height of up to 20 feet in places, while the main entrance remains to this day. The huge corner towers still rise up two stories from the ground.

It is likely that Qasr Bashir was originally home to an auxiliary cavalry unit, charged with defending the Roman frontier and keeping the peace in the surrounding area.
 



Think of the word "Porous"

The Danube Limes was not a solid wall defending the Empire's frontier.  Rather it a was a series of fortified cities, small forts and watchtowers.  

The Limes was porous with assorted invading Slavs, Huns or Avars pouring through on raids dedicated to looting or conquest.  In theory the Roman/Byzantine strongpoints would slow down invaders allowing for troops stationed close by to push the enemy back over the border. 

Reconstruction of a Balkan Roman frontier strongpoint.


The southern harbor of the Roman fortress of Boreum in Libya.  What is left of the citadel is to the right.


The military post of Boreum was about as far from anything that resembled civilization as you could find under either Rome or Byzantium.

I suspect any commander assigned to this remote post was on the shit list in Constantinople. "Here is your new posting. We will relieve you in about 20 years."

The area was so remote that the historian Procopius reports in the 500s that civil servants from Libya who were promoted to posts in Constantinople had problems communicating with government staff.  They spoke only Latin and did not speak Greek.

As a frontier town, Boreum was mentioned by Ptolemy of Alexandria about 130 A.D. 

The main job of the garrison was to keep inland tribes from causing trouble with the coastal farming communities.



The Walls of Ceuta, in 
what was Byzantine Morocco

Currently ruled by Spain, the ancient Royal Walls originally date back to the 5th century.  Ceuta's location has made it an important commercial trade and military way-point for many cultures, beginning with the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC, who called the city Abyla

It was not until the Romans took control of the region in AD 42 that the port city, then named Septa, assumed an almost exclusive military purpose. It changed hands again approximately 400 years later, when Vandal tribes ousted the Romans. It then fell into the hands of the Visigoths, and finally it would become the western most outpost of the Eastern Roman Empire.
.
Around 710, as Muslim armies approached the city, its Byzantine Governor, Julian changed his allegiance, and exhorted the Muslims to invade the Iberian Peninsula.



6th Century Eastern Roman Cavalry


Monday, November 20, 2023

Debasing of the Quaestorship



Corruptus in Extremis

  • Looting the treasury was, and is, a favorite hobby of kings, presidents and government officials.
  • In his Secret History Procopius unloads of the massive corruption of Emperor Justinian and his dictatorial rule.
  • The endless wars and building programs of Justinian drained the Imperial Treasury forcing the Emperor to financially rape his subjects and confiscate estates.



By Procopius of Caesarea
500 - 554 AD
The Secret History

He also had contrived other ways of plundering his subjects (which I will now describe as well as I can) by which he robbed them, not all at once, but little by little of their entire fortunes. First he appointed a new municipal magistrate, with the power to license shopkeepers to sell their wares at whatever prices they desired: for which privilege they paid an annual tax. 

Accordingly, people buying their provisions in these shops had to pay three times what the stuff was worth, and complainants had no redress, though great harm was thus done; for the magistrates saw to it that the imperial tax was fattened accordingly, which was to their advantage. Thus the government officials shared in this disgraceful business, while the shopkeepers, empowered to act illegally, cheated unbearably those who had to buy from them, not only by raising their prices many times over, as I have said, but by defrauding customers in other unheard-of ways.

Again he licensed many monopolies, as they -are called; selling the freedom of his subjects to those who were willing to undertake this reprehensible traffic, after he had exacted his price for the privilege. To those who made this arrangement with him, he gave the power to manage the business however they pleased; and he sold this privilege openly, even to all the other magistrates. And since the Emperor always got his little share of the plundering, these officials and their subordinates in charge of the work, did their robbing with small anxiety.

As if the formerly appointed magistrates were not enough for this purpose, he created two new ones; though the municipal Prefect had formerly been able to look after all criminal charges. His real reason for the change was, of course, so that he could have additional informers, and thus misuse the innocent with more celerity. Of the two new officials, one, nominally appointed to punish thieves, was called Praetor of the People; the other was charged with the punishment of cases of pederasty, illegal intercourse with women, blasphemy, and heresy; and his official name was Quaestor.


Emperor Justinian I
Reign 527 to 565 AD


Now the Praetor, whenever he found anything very valuable among the stolen goods that came to his notice, was supposed to give it to the Emperor and say that no owner had appeared to claim it. In this way the Emperor continually got possession of priceless goods. And the Quaestor, when he condemned persons coming before him, confiscated as much as he pleased of their properties, and the Emperor shared with him each time in the lawlessly gained riches of other people. For the subordinates of these magistrates neither produced accusers nor offered witnesses when these cases came to trial, but during all this time the accused were put to death, and their properties seized without due trial and examination.

Later, this murdering devil ordered these officials and the municipal Prefect to deal with all criminal charges on equal terms: telling them to vie with each other to see which of them could destroy the most people in the shortest time. And one of them asked him at once, they say, "If somebody is sometime denounced before all three of us, which of us shall have jurisdiction over the case?" Whereupon he replied, "Whichever of you acts faster than the rest."

Thus shamelessly he debased the Quaestor's office, which former emperors almost without exception had held in high regard, taking care that the men they appointed to it were experienced and wise, law-abiding, and uncorruptible by bribes; since otherwise it would be a calamity to the state, if men holding this high office were ignorant or avaricious.

But the first man that this Emperor appointed to the office was Tribonian, whose actions I have fully related elsewhere. And when Tribonian departed from this world, Justinian seized a portion of his estate, though a son and many other children were left destitute when the fellow ended the final day of his life. Junilus, a Libyan, was next appointed to this office: a man who had never even heard the law, for he was not a rhetorician; he knew the Latin letters, but as far as Greek went, he had never even gone to school, and was unable to speak the language. Frequently when he tried to say a Greek word, he was laughed at by his servants. And he was so damned greedy for base gain, that he thought nothing of publicly selling the Emperor's decrees. For one gold coin he would hold out his palm to anybody without hesitation. And for not less than seven years' time the State shared the ridicule earned by this petty grafter.

When Junilus completed the measure of his life, Constantine was appointed Quaestor: a man not unacquainted with law, but exceeding young, and without actual experience in court; and the most thievish bully among men. Of this person Justinian was very fond, and became his bosom friend, since through him the Emperor saw he could steal and run the office as he wished. Consequently, Constantine had great wealth in a short time, and assumed an air of prodigious pomp, with his nose in the clouds despising all men; and even those who wanted to offer him large bribes had to entrust them to those who were in his special confidence, to offer him together with their requests; for it was never possible to meet or talk with him, except when he was running to the Emperor or had just left him, and even then he trotted by in a great hurry, lest his time be wasted by somebody who had no money to give him. This is what the Emperor did to the quaestorship.


Procopius of Caesarea


quaestor ("investigator") was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.

From 440 onward, the office of the quaestor worked in conjunction with the praetorian prefect of the East to oversee the supreme tribunal, or supreme court, at Constantinople. There, they heard appeals from the various subordinate courts and governors.

Emperor Justinian I also created the offices quaesitor, a judicial and police official for Constantinople, and quaestor exercitus (quaestor of the army), a short-lived joint military-administrative post covering the border of the lower Danube. The quaestor sacri palatii survived long into the Byzantine Empire, although its duties were altered to match the quaesitor by the 9th century AD, who was a judicial officer in charge of resolving various disputes.

The office survived into the 14th century as a purely honorific title.


Wednesday, July 12, 2023

The Surrender of Alexandria - The Battle for Africa


The Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Lighthouse was badly damaged in the earthquake of 956, and then again in 1303 and 1323. The two earthquakes in 1303 and 1323 damaged the lighthouse to the extent that the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta reported no longer being able to enter the ruin, when he visited it in 1349 AD. Finally the stubby remnant disappeared in 1480, when the then-Sultan of Egypt, Qaitbay, built a medieval fort on the larger platform of the lighthouse site using some of the fallen stone.


The Death of the Ancient World

The Beginning of the End 
for Roman Africa, Part III


If we had to pick a date for the fall of the ancient world I think September, 642 AD is as good as any. In that month the traitorous elements in the Roman Government surrendered the great fortress city of Alexandria to the Muslim invaders ending over 600 years of Roman rule and ending a local culture that dated back to 3150BC.

Alexandria was crucial to maintaining Imperial Roman control over the region, based on its large Greco-Egyptian population and economic importance. The population of Alexandria was heavily influenced by both the cultural and religious views of their Roman rulers; nevertheless, the rural population spoke Coptic, rather than Greek, which was more common in the coastal cities.

The Romans relied on Egypt as the main center of food production for wheat and other foodstuffs. Alexandria also functioned as one of Rome's primary army and naval bases, as there was normally a significant imperial garrison stationed in the city.

A Reign of Terror

When the Arabs invaded they faced a divided Roman Empire. The Emperor Heraclius had appointed Cyrus as both the Chalcedonian Patriarch of Alexandria (who was unrecognized by the Egyptians) and the praefectus Aegypti. Cyrus began a ten-year-long reign of terror in an attempt to bring the Egyptians to Chalcedonianism, forcing them to pray in secret and torturing many to death. 

The Coptic PopePope Benjamin I, was in hiding throughout this, and ruthlessly but unsuccessfully pursued by Cyrus.


Map of the Middle East on the eve of the Muslim invasions.


Roman-Byzantine reenactor infantryman from the age Justinian. The Roman infantry facing the Arabs 100 years later might have looked much like this soldier. 

The March to Alexandria

The striking thing about the entire Arab invasion of Egypt was that Roman forces were scattered all over the country and were defeated one by one. It is what I have said for years, most "generals" are worthless bureaucrats who are vaguely aware they should point their army in the general direction of the enemy first before attacking.

The Romans had already seen the lightning fast Arab attacks in Syria and Palestine. Though it goes against the grain to give up land to an enemy, like the Russians in 1812, the smart move would have been to fall back and not engage. Rather to gather all Roman troops behind the walls of Alexandria. 

The Arabs had no siege equipment to attack a huge walled city. Once inside the city the Romans would be standing shoulder to shoulder with their entire army. They would be invulnerable to any meaningful attack and could be endlessly re-supplied by the entire Roman Navy.

The Arabs would have been blocked from advancing. If they tried to march up the Libyan coast they would have been caught in a vice between the Roman Army in Carthage and Libya and the garrison in Alexandria.

Once the Arabs had run out of steam, and the Roman army had been reinforced, the Romans could have advanced out of Alexandria and started to retake Egyptian provinces.

Sadly, this was not to be, and Rome lost Egypt and all of North Africa as a result.

Click to enlarge
The Alexandria Campaign
Map from The Great Arab Conquests by General Sir John Bagot Glubb

The Muslim commander Amr ibn al Aasi started moving north from the captured fortress of Babylon.

A skirmish with the Romans took place 40 miles to the north of Babylon at Tarrana. The Romans were driven back after a sharp engagement. 

Ten miles further on the Arabs found themselves opposite the fortress and city of Nikiou which lay on the east bank of the Nile. The Arabs were obliged to cross the river in order to attack it. An active and enterprising commander might have sallied from the town and disrupted the river crossing or attacked the Arabs when they were halfway across defeating them. 

Instead, panic seized the garrison which evacuated the city in confusion and scrambled into boats and escape down river. The Arabs rushed to attack killing many Roman soldiers on the shore and in the water.

The city which was surrounded with fortifications was left undefended. The Arabs entered the city putting many of the inhabitants to the sword. This massacre took place on May 13, 641. They then raided surrounding villages, killing and plundering indiscriminately. It is probable that is action was taken as a deliberate act of policy to terrorize the local population that vastly outnumbered the invaders. If the locals rose up the Arab's communication lines with Babylon would be cut.

The Arabs were able to capture numerous places like Nikiou. These places were also deliberately plundered and the people massacred. 

It should be noted that in attacking Babylon the Arabs attacked Romans . . . that is to say the Orthodox Church Party. But the attacks around Nikiou were directed against the Copts, the native born Egyptians who were the victims of Roman persecutions.

After a few days in Nikiou, Amr ibn al Aasi resumed his march on Alexandria. A few miles to the north his advanced guard encountered a considerable Roman army and was severely handled. The Arabs were forced to flee and take refuge on some high ground where they were virtually surrounded. Amr hastened up with the main body and drove the Romans back. 

The Roman force was the remaining field army, commanded by Theodore, from the defeat at Heliopolis the year before.

Reinforcements had arrived from Constantinople. A few miles north of Damanhour another battle took place with The Romans eventually withdrawing. 

At Kariun, Theodore took up a defensive position and very heavy fighting followed. One historian noted that the Copts and the Greeks had joined forces against the Muslims. The Arab massacres convinced the Copts that they had nothing to gain from changing Masters.

The Battle of Kariun lasted for ten days. 

This was a slugfest battle of attrition, not one of swift movement or flanking attacks. Even so, in July 641 Théodore marched his Roman troops in good order back behind the walls of Alexandria. 

The Romans did not flee the Arabs. It is worthy to note that the Arabs had NO DESIRE to attack the Romans as they redeployed into the city. To not attack a retreating foe means the Arabs feared additional battle.

Colorized photo of a Bedouin warrior holding
 a spear / lance, late 1800s to early 1900s.
(pinterest.com)

The Siege of Alexandria

Alexandria was one of the greatest cities in the world. Founded by Alexander the Great 1,000 years before, it contained well over one million people. Egypt was an immensely wealth country, and Alexandria had long been its capital. The lighthouse above the harbor was one of the seven wonders of the world. Once the granary of Imperial Rome, the Nile Delta now played the same part in the economy of Constantinople.

The whole of this massive city was surrounded by massive walls and towers, against which such missiles as the Arabs possessed were utterly ineffectual. One side of the city was defended by the sea and the Roman Navy. Also, the Arabs could not boast of a single ship. The Romans had total control. The landward side was protected by Lake Mareotis and by a number of canals. The result was the only unimpeded approach for an attack was on a comparatively narrow front from the east. 

Following the withdrawal of the Romans into the city, Amr launched a hasty and ill-advised assault on the city walls, and was met with a bloody repulse. The Arabs were forced to withdraw to a distance out of range of the ballistae mounted on the ramparts where they pitched camp.

Amr appears to have appreciated his utter inability to take so great a fortress by storm. With the Romans in total control of the sea, Alexandria could have held out for years. 

In 626 Constantinople itself has just withstood a siege from the Persian Army and Avars, aided by large numbers of allied Slavs. Heavy siege equipment was used against Constantinople. Something the Arabs lacked. The result was a Roman victory.

In a few weeks the Nile River would start to rise. Amr had no interest in campaigning in a Delta filled with water. He left a largeish detachment southeast of the city to keep the Romans inside the city walls and prevent them from re-establishing their authority in the Delta. 

He then marched across the Delta eastward to Sakha and the down to Tuka and Damsis back to Babylon. All three towns were walled and had Roman garrisons which closed their gates as the Arabs approached. Unable to deal with masonry walls, the Muslims passed them by. The open countryside and villages were plundered and their crops burned. After this rather unsuccessful attempt to terrorize the Delta, Arm returned to Babylon. 


Whenever possible the Arab campaigns avoided mountains and wetlands in favor of fighting in the open desert. The very wet Egyptian Delta with its many streams and canals made it difficult for the Arabs to move rapidly like they did in Syria.


The Campaign That Never Happened

The unsuccessful terror attacks in the Delta illustrate that the Arabs were only really successful in the open countryside. 

British General John Bagot Glubb speculated on what the Romans might have done in Egypt. At this stage the Arabs could not fight in the Delta nor the Romans fight in the desert. He suggested that the Romans should have remained on the defensive and only defend the Delta within the irrigated and cultivated areas. The Romans should have worked immediately to fortify towns and villages beginning with those settlements at the edge of the desert border. 

The locals in these towns should have been trained and armed to defend themselves assisted by small groups of regular soldiers here and there. Further back in central positions mobile columns of Roman soldiers should have been positioned to rapidly respond and repulse any Arab raids. The inhabitants in the front line could have been told to just hang on for 12 hours and reinforcements would arrive.

The Arabs liked to travel and fight in the desert, but there is no food there. Arab forces depended on the cultivated areas for supplies. An energetic defense of the cultivated areas would have put great pressure on the Arabs for the very basics. Glubb felt this type of aggressive defense would buy time for the Romans to build up their field armies.

The problem with Glubb's idea is it required a loyal local population. Though the Egyptian Copts were starting to turn against the Muslims, there was no love for the Greek speaking population in the cities nor any love for their Greek speaking armies.

So we are back to my original idea above that all Roman troops should have redeployed into Alexandria where they could hold out for years.


Late Roman Empire Cavalry
The basic look of the Roman cavalry during the Arab invasions would have not changed all that much. The heavy Cataphract units would have more armor and other units would have less for better mobility. The armored cavalry would act as the mailed fist of any Roman field army.



Solidus of Heraclius Constantine (right) 
with his father Heraclius (left)


Anarchy in Constantinople

The great general and Emperor Heraclius died in February, 641 in the middle of the Battle for Egypt. 

Before his death Heraclius was preparing reinforcements. He declared his intention to lead this force in person to reconquer Egypt. But the sick 66 year old Emperor was not the man he was when he crushed the Persian Empire years before in the 620s. How the Egyptian campaign would have turned out is interesting to speculate on.

With the death of Heraclius there was soon anarchy in the royal family. Often called Constantine III, he was crowned co-emperor by his father on 22 January 613. Constantine became senior emperor when his father died on 11 February 641. But the new 29 year old Emperor died of tuberculosis, ruling for only three months. 

Just to put a nail in the coffin of Roman Africa, before he died Constantine III recalled from exile Cyrus to advise him on Egypt.  As the Patriarch of Alexandria, Cyrus had tortured and murdered Coptic Christians for ten years. 

No sooner was Constantine dead than Martina, the hated widow of Heraclius' incestuous marriage, caused her fifteen-year-old son Heracleonas to be proclaimed sole Emperor. But Constantine had left two young sons. The eldest Constans was twelve years old. 

The Senate in Constantinople sided against Martina and the population rose in revolt. 

Valentine, the commander of the army in Asia Minor, marched on Constantinople and forcibly crowned Constans as co-emperor.

The Empire was briefly "ruled" by a set of 15 and 12 year old Emperors.

The rule of Martina and her sons was brief. The historian Theophanes states they were ousted by the Senate, and there is some evidence to suggest that the Senate acted following riots instigated by the aristocratic Blue faction. A seventh-century inscription found in the walls of Byzantium references the role that the Blues had within this insurrection, saying "The fortune of Constantine our God-protected ruler and of the Blues is victorious."

The sources all report that some manner of the Byzantine practice of mutilating defeated enemies to prevent them from reclaiming the throne was undertaken at the defeat of Martina and her sons, possibly the first time such occurred, although they disagree on the exact nature of these mutilations. 

Theophanes says that the tongue of Martina and the nose of Heraclonas were cut off. John of Nikiû reports that Theodore "had Martina and her three sons, Heraclius, David, and Martinus, escorted forth with insolence, and he stripped them of the imperial crown, and he had their noses cut off, and he sent them in exile to Rhodes" in 642.

This left a 12 year old on the Roman throne.



Treason at the Highest Levels

Heraclius committed his adult life to saving the Roman Empire, first against the Persians and then against the Muslim Arab invasions.

The child "Emperors" had no clue what to do. The puppet masters of the child Emperors appeared eager to give away Roman North Africa as long as they could protect their money and power in Constantinople. To me this was treason.

Once Constantine died, Martina sent Cyrus back to Egypt. Martina was engrossed in the palace intrigues to place her son on the throne, and we can assume she was anxious to terminate the war with the Arabs and surrender Egypt.

The spineless Cyrus was good for murdering and torturing Egyptian Copts but not much else. He eagerly persuaded both Martina and the young Heracleonas of the necessity of surrender. He pressed for surrender so energetically that it went beyond mere execution of his official instructions.

Meanwhile violence broke out in Alexandria. The reinforcements sent by Constantinople were divided against each other, some supporting the claims of Martina and some the claims of the sons of Constantine. 

Soon conflicts broke out in the streets of Alexandria between supporters of the two factions. The Blue and Green circus factions in Constantinople were also represented in Alexandria and backed those fighting in the streets. Looting and arson was rampant in the city.

Click to enlarge
The Roman Empire in 650AD
After the Conquest of Egypt

Having been reappointed Patriarch and Imperial Governor of Egypt, Cyrus landed in Alexandria on September 14, 641. He was greeted with great popular enthusiasm by the mostly Greek Orthodox population of the city. With the Muslims outside the walls and factional fighting in the streets, the people hoped for stability and security. 

Little did they know that Cyrus had come back not to defend the people but to abandon them.

In October, 641 Cyrus set out for Babylon to meet Amr ibn al Aasi with the intention of surrendering Alexandria and all of Egypt. He had apparently not told anyone in Alexandria his intentions. The people still believed he was there to save them.

Had Cyrus received authority from the Emperor to surrender? If so from which Emperor did he get his authority: the 15 year old Heracleonas? or the 12 year old Constans? or from the incestuous and intriguing Emperess Martina?

Amr had returned to the fortress of Babylon after a rather unsuccessful campaign through the northern Delta leaving Egypt half conquered. If the aged Heraclius had lived long enough to carry out his plan of personally commanding an army in Egypt then resistance might have been prolonged indefinitely.

As it is, on November 8, 641 Cyrus signed an agreement with Amr to surrender all of Egypt.

The treaty stipulated that the people of Egypt pay a tax of two dinars per man and that Christians and Jews be allowed to freely worship. An armistice was to last for 11 months until September 642. During this period the Arabs would not attack Alexandria, and the Roman army would evacuate the city by sea taking its possession with it. The Romans promised never to return to Egypt.

When the populace of heard of the surrender, the people were seized with furious indignation. Mobs of people ran through the city streets to the palace with the object of lynching the Patriarch

For a short time Cyrus was in imminent danger. Cyrus persuaded his critics that surrender actually saved their lives.

Meanwhile the treaty was ratified by the child Emperor Heracleonas in Constantinople. This was one of his last acts. In November 641 he was overthrown in a military coup d'état carried out by the supporters of Constans. 

Empress Martina had her tongue amputated, Emperor Heracleonas had his nose cut off and they were driven into exile.

Despite of the surrender, many Roman garrisons in the Delta refused to open their gates to the Muslims. Even though they were abandoned by Constantinople, it took the Arabs till July 642 to subdue the Delta.

In September 642 Alexandria opened its gates to the Muslims even though the city had never been breeched during the so-called "siege". Some 600 years of Roman control of Egypt was terminated.

Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot GlubbKCBCMGDSOOBEMC

As far as I am concerned Glubb Pasha's 1964 book The Great Arab Conquests is the Holy Grail on the Arab invasions. 

Glubb was fluent in Arabic and able to read the original documents. In addition he was commander of the British Arab Legion and personally campaigned on the very ground the Romans and Muslims fought over. Because the "history" of the early invasions is a jumbled mess I have been using Glubb Pasha's dates and timeline for events.


(The Great Arab Conquests)    (Siege of Alexandria 641)

(Heraclius Constantine)    (David, son of Heraclius)