Johannes PREISER-KAPELLER, Deliberate and forced mobility of Armenians in the early medieval Mediterranean and Near East (6th to 11th century)

Johannes Preiser-Kapeller; Österreichisch-Armenische Studiengesellschaft (ÖASG)

Draft for the Session “ETH06b: Early Medieval Migrations II: Migrations in Byzantium and Armenia”, European Social Science History Conference Vienna 2014 (Thursday 24 April 2014, 14.00 - 16.00) Introduction Armenian mobility in the early Middle Ages has found some attention in the scholarly community. This is especially true for the migration of individuals and groups towards the Byzantine Empire. A considerable amount of this research has focused on the carriers and histories of individual aristocrats or noble families of Armenian origin; the obviously significant share of these in the Byzantine elite has even led to formulations such as Byzantium being a “Greco-Armenian Empire”. While, as expected, evidence for the elite stratum is relatively dense, larger scale migration of members of the lower aristocracy (“azat”, within the ranking system of Armenian nobility, see below) or non-aristocrats (“anazat”) can also be traced with regard to the overall movement of groups within the entire Byzantine sphere. In contrast to the nobility, however, the life stories and strategies of individuals of these backgrounds very rarely can be reconstructed on the basis of our evidence. In all cases, the actual significance of an “Armenian” identity for individuals and groups identified as “Armenian” by contemporary sources or modern day scholarship (on the basis of onomastic material, for instance ) respectively the changeability of elements of identity (language, religious affiliation, naming practices) has found less attention in comparison with efforts to trace the “Armenian element” in Byzantium. Similar observations can be made with regard to scholarship on Armenian mobility into the spheres of the “Eastern” empire of Sasanian Persia and later the Arab Caliphate respectively the Islamic states; especially the change of the religious affiliation and the emergence of “Muslim Armenians” has caused some debate with regard to their qualification as “real” Armenians. For the Byzantine case, the magisterial article by Nina Garsoïan on “Problems of Armenian integration into the Byzantine Empire” (1998) has not only summed up earlier research, but has also highlighted the complexities and dynamics of identity and of spatial as well as “cultural” mobility. Regarding the Islamic World the most recently published three volumes by Seta B. Dadoyan, who already had written an important study on Armenians in the Fatimid Empire, equally have produced new insights into similar phenomena. On this basis, also an attempt to adapt recent approaches from migration history on the early medieval mobility of Armenians is possible. Within the field, the “Armenian diaspora” of course has found attention, but this is especially true for its development since the early modern period ; one has to mention here also the recent monograph by Sebouh Aslanian on the global trading diaspora of the Armenian of New Julfa in Persia in the 17th century. Yet, as we will demonstrate in this paper, concepts developed by historians of migrations in the last decades can be also be implemented effectively for earlier periods. Useful are of course also categories of a more traditional typology of migration such as duration, distance or scale (in terms of numbers of individuals) of mobility. But in order to illustrate the actual complexity of mobilities and identity construction as outlined by Garsoïan or Dadoyan, a “systems approach” towards migration phenomena seems promising. Therefore, we survey material on the interplay between socio-economic, political and spatial structures both in the “society of departure” and in the “receiving societies” , which very much defined the scope of action, and the actual agency of individuals and groups. Equally, we will try to identify networks established and/or used by individuals to effect mobility as well as integration within the social framework in the places of destination; yet, also these networks could also work as constraining factors. The character of evidence from our period of course does not allow for a systematic quantitative survey on a large sample, but enables us to accumulate “micro-histories” of individuals and smaller groups across the centuries, which may provide inferences on general trends and mechanisms. In the following, we will – mostly on the basis of Armenian, Greek and Latin sources – focus on Armenian migration towards the Byzantine Empire, but will also include episodes of mobility towards the imperial spheres in the east (Sasanian Persia, the Caliphate) within the life stories of some of the better documented individuals.

ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Aristocrats, mercenaries, clergymen and refugees. Deliberate and forced mobility of Armenians in the early medieval Mediterranean and Near East (6th to 11th century) Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Division for Byzantine Research, Institute for Medieval Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences/ Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz/ National Hellenic Research Foundation (Onassis-Fellow)1 (Email: Johannes.Preiser-Kapeller@oeaw.ac.at / Website: http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller) Draft for the Session ETH06b: Early Medieval Migrations II: Migrations in Byzantium and Armenia , European Social Science History Conference Vienna 2014 (Thursday 24 April 2014, 14.00 - 16.00) Introduction Armenian mobility in the early Middle Ages has found some attention in the scholarly community. This is especially true for the migration of individuals and groups towards the Byzantine Empire. A considerable amount of this research has focused on the carriers and histories of individual aristocrats or noble families of Armenian origin; the obviously significant share of these in the Byzantine elite has even led to formulations such as Byzantium being a Greco-Armenian Empire .2 While, as expected, evidence for the elite stratum is relatively dense, larger scale migration of members of the lower aristocracy azat , within the ranking system of Armenian nobility, see below or nonaristocrats anazat can also be traced with regard to the overall movement of groups within the entire Byzantine sphere. In contrast to the nobility, however, the life stories and strategies of individuals of these backgrounds very rarely can be reconstructed on the basis of our evidence. In all cases, the actual significance of an Armenian identity for individuals and groups identified as Armenian by contemporary sources or modern day scholarship (on the basis of onomastic material, for instance3) respectively the changeability of elements of identity (language, religious affiliation, naming practices) has found less attention in comparison with efforts to trace the Armenian element in Byzantium. Similar observations can be made with regard to scholarship on Armenian mobility into the spheres of the Eastern empire of Sasanian Persia and later the Arab Caliphate respectively the Islamic states; especially the change of the religious affiliation and the emergence of Muslim Armenians has caused some debate with regard to their qualification as real Armenians. For the Byzantine case, the magisterial article by Nina Garsoïan on Problems of Armenian integration into the Byzantine Empire has not only summed up earlier research, but has also highlighted the complexities and dynamics of identity and of spatial as well as cultural mobility.4 Regarding the Islamic World the most recently published three volumes by Seta B. Dadoyan, who already had This research was made possible also with the support of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation during a research stay at the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens, January-April 2014. 2 Charanis, Armenians in the Byzantine Empire, passim; Charanis, Transfer; Toumanoff, Caucasia and Byzantium 131– 133; Ditten, Ethnische Verschiebungen, bes. 124–127, 134–135; Haldon, Late Roman Senatorial Elite 213–215; Whitby, Recruitment 87–90, 99–101, 106–110; Isaac, The Army in the Late Roman East 132–135; Garsoïan, Problem; I. Brousselle, L´integration des Arméniens dans l´aristocratie byzantine aux IXe siècle, in: L´Arménie et Byzance 43– 54; Redgate, Armenians 236–241; Settipani, Continuité des élites, passim; Dédéyan (ed.), Histoire 300–304, 311–317. Relatively reliable in this regard seems the calculation in Kazhdan – Ronchey, L aristocrazia, –338, according to th-12th cent. Byzantium had a which 5– % of the civilian nobility and – % of the military families in Caucasian = Armenian or Georgian) background. 3 Cf. also Settipani, Continuité des élites 488, on typical names of various families of the Armenian aristocracy. 4 Garsoïan, Problem. 1 1 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller written an important study on Armenians in the Fatimid Empire, equally have produced new insights into similar phenomena.5 On this basis, also an attempt to adapt recent approaches from migration history on the early medieval mobility of Armenians is possible. Within the field, the Armenian diaspora of course has found attention, but this is especially true for its development since the early modern period6; one has to mention here also the recent monograph by Sebouh Aslanian on the global trading diaspora of the Armenian of New Julfa in Persia in the 17th century.7 Yet, as we will demonstrate in this paper, concepts developed by historians of migrations in the last decades can be also be implemented effectively for earlier periods. Useful are of course also categories of a more traditional typology of migration such as duration, distance or scale (in terms of numbers of individuals) of mobility. But in order to illustrate the actual complexity of mobilities and identity construction as outlined by Garsoïan or Dadoyan, a systems approach towards migration phenomena seems promising.8 Therefore, we survey material on the interplay between socio-economic, political and spatial structures both in the society of departure 9 and in the receiving societies 10, which very much defined the scope of action, and the actual agency of individuals and groups. Equally, we will try to identify networks established and/or used by individuals to effect mobility as well as integration within the social framework in the places of destination; yet, also these networks could also work as constraining factors.11 The character of evidence from our period of course does not allow for a systematic quantitative survey on a large sample, but enables us to accumulate micro-histories of individuals and smaller groups across the centuries, which may provide inferences on general trends and mechanisms.12 In the following, we will – mostly on the basis of Armenian, Greek and Latin sources – focus on Armenian migration towards the Byzantine Empire, but will also include episodes of mobility towards the imperial spheres in the east (Sasanian Persia, the Caliphate) within the life stories of some of the better documented individuals. THE SOCIETY OF DEPARTURE: EARLY MEDIEVAL ARMENIA BETWEEN EMPIRES AND FRONTIERS Geopolitical and socio-political parameters For migration as spatial phenomenon, geographical parameters of course very much matter (see also the maps below). Since the 1st century BC, the Armenian highlands constituted the peripheries of competing empires and a centre of confrontations between them; this position also influenced attitudes of observers from imperial elites towards them. Already Tacitus called the Armenians ambigua gens, 13 situated between the Roman and Iranian great powers and sustaining political and cultural connections to both sides. This dilemma became even stronger when the Armenians started to adopt Christianity since the beginning of the 4th century and (also in the eyes of the Iranian imperial centre) strengthened their ties to the new Christian Imperium Romanum of Constantine the Great and his successors,14 whereas the traditional social structure with Dadoyan, The Armenians I and II. Cf. for instance Hoerder, Cultures in Contact 174–177. 7 S. D. Aslanian, From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa. Berkeley – London – New York 2011. 8 Harzig and Hoerder, Migration History 78–114; Hoerder, Cultures in Contact 15–21; Hahn, Historische Migrationsforschung 21–36. 9 Harzig and Hoerder, Migration History 92–98. 10 Harzig and Hoerder, Migration History 102–110. 11 Harzig and Hoerder, Migration History 78–80. 12 Cf. S. Gylfi Magnússon – I. M. Szijárto, What is Microhistory? Theory and Practice. London – New York 2013. 13 Tacitus, Annales II 56, 1. 14 Cf. Seibt, Der historische Hintergrund. 5 6 2 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller its powerful aristocratic houses, which was very similar to that of ancient Iran15, was still strong.16 The struggle over Armenia at last lead to the partition of the country between Rome and the Sasanians in 387 AD and the abolishment of the Armenian kingship over the next decades. But in contrast to the European barbaricum17, the invention of the Armenian alphabet at the beginning of the 5th century initiated the emergence of a rich indigenous literature, which includes several important historiographical works. These texts provide us with a valuable view on three empires (Rome-Byzantium, Persia and, since the 7th century, the Arab Caliphate) from the perspective of individuals which lived on the edge of these powers. As I was able to show in earlier studies, especially the image of the Byzantine empire in the Armenian historiography of the period moved between admiration of an Christian Empire, its power and civilisation, and – after the divergence of theological interpretations in the mainstreams of Byzantine and Armenian Christianity had become obvious since the late 6th century – contempt for an heretic power of oppression, often in coalition with other enemies of Armenia.18 In an often-quoted passage of the history attributed to Sebēos (7th cent.) we encounter a very grim interpretation of the policy of the neighbouring empires (and the mobility they forced upon the military force of the country) vis-à-vis Armenia: At that time [around the year 591] the king of the Greeks t‛agawor Yunac‛ , Maurice, ordered a letter of accusation gir ambastanut‛iwn to be written to the Persian king [Xusrō ))] concerning all the Armenian princes and their troops: They are a perverse and disobedient race, he said: they are between us and cause trouble. Now come, ) shall gather mine and send them to Thrace; you gather yours and order them to be taken to the east. If they die, our enemies die; if they kill, they kill our enemies; but we shall live in peace. For if they remain in their own land, we shall have no rest. They both agreed.19 At the same time, Armenian historians were very well aware that especially the internal framework of political power allowed Byzantium, Persia or the Caliphate to exert their influence within the country or even to divide it into spheres of interest. Neither during the time of monarchic rule before 390/428 and after 884/885 (when the noble houses of Bagratuni and of Arcruni succeeded in the restoration of – again competing – monarchies, see also map 4 below20) nor during the period of direct imperial suzerainty over Armenia’s nobility, the fragmentation of the country’s political structures (again also promoted by the geographical fragmentation of the Armenian highlands, see map 1 below) allowed for the formation of a regional power centre which could compete with the empires on its borders.21 Armenian society, as far as we are able to reconstruct especially on the basis of the indigenous texts, was divided along the line noble (azat) – not noble (anazat; including craftsmen, peasant, merchants). The nobility was dominated by several dozens of houses (tun) of magnates (the naχarark‛), who based their power on their hereditary landed property worked by anazat, the number of their armed retainers from the lower aristocracy and their hereditary offices and positions of honours, which followed an elaborate ranking system, at the royal court.22 Within this framework, sources describe a Rubin, Nobility, esp. 240–248. Cf. also Redgate, Myth and Reality; Garsoïan, Interregnum, esp. viii-ix, also on the various Armenias existing in Late Antiquity – cf. also Garsoïan, Armenia in the fourth Century. 17 Halsall, Barbarian Migrations. 18 Preiser-Kapeller, Between New Jerusalem. Cf. also Garsoïan, Armenien. 19 Sebēos : Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and (oward-Johnston, Sebeos I, 31); Garsoïan, Marzpanate, 109; PreiserKapeller, Kaysr, 190–191; Thomson, Armenia, 169; Müller, Preiser-Kapeller and Riehle, Regesten, N. 108*; Garsoïan, Interregnum 4–5. 20 Cf. Garsoïan, Independent Kingdoms. 21 Cf. also Preiser-Kapeller, Kaysr, 200–201. 22 Cf. esp. Adontz and Garsoïan, Armenia; Redgate, Armenians; Garsoïan, The Aršakuni Dynasty. 15 16 3 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller constant struggle among the great houses for power and prestige, already in the period of Arsacid monarchy and even more afterwards. And already before the end of the kingdom (in 428 AD), the material and symbolic distinctions bestowed by superior external imperial powers (such as the emperor or the Great King) could become essential for the manifestation of rank and power within the Armenian aristocracy, even more so afterwards. Therefore, exterior powers almost always would find a faction within then nobility prepared, at least for some time, to support their schemes for control over the Armenian highland.23 A description of the ideal state of miabanut‛iwn (unity, concord) among the aristocracy has been given in the history of T‛ovma Arcruni (10th cent.), together with the insinuation of the decline of this unity and its consequences: For the Armenian princes with their hosts of knights and troops were still living in unison and harmony and concord, though in secret they had suspicions of treachery. But when discord began to insinuate itself within that unity, they grace of the divine power departed and withdrew. Concerted plans were disregarded in combat and in other matters affecting the administration of the country. … They sent letters and messengers to the Caliph secretly from each other.24 Discord (or anmiabanut‛iwn) is a far more prominent motif in Armenian historiography;25 it is the main reason of the failure of common actions against imperial powers.26 It also describes the state that prevailed in Armenia on the eve of the first Arab invasion.27Yet anmiabanut‛iwn did not only restrict the chances of collective action of the Armenian aristocracy, but also the stability of foreign domination; just as the Armenian kings, also the representatives installed by the imperial overlords were not able to enforce universal allegiance to the suzerain. Therefore, the structure of the Armenian society also allowed for a certain degree of flexibility in relations with the great powers. As Nina Garsoïan has stated: …the strength and permanence of the tun forged a social structure capable of surviving even in moments of political eclipse and the decentralized character of the society diminished its chances of total annexation. 28 This decentralized character permitted the adaptation to the separation between various rulers and spheres of interest of the neighbouring empires and the existence of multiple layers of authority and loyalty.29 Thus, one member of the Mamikonean clan (the most prominent tun in this period) could lead a rebellion in Persian Armenia in 450/451, whereas a kinsman served as imperial general in Roman Armenia; forming translocal families therefore could be one strategy for noble houses to maintain power.30 Individual noblemen and clans could gain a variety of options, and even the aristocracy at large could achieve a certain degree of autonomy for the country’s affairs if equilibrium between the neighbouring great powers or a momentary power vacuum would allow it. However, the number of options declined as soon as one imperial power achieved predominance in the region; then, individually or at large, the aristocracy sometimes had to choose between collaboration, resistance, or emigration. Adontz – Garsoïan, Armenia, Garsoïan, Marzpanate. T‛ovma Arcruni, Patmut‛iwn ))), Patkanean; tr. Thomson, –190). 25 Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 21, n. 154; Preiser-Kapeller, Kaysr, 200. 26 Sebēos c. , and : , –14, 87, 26 and 92, 22–24 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 21, 32 and 39); Preiser-Kapeller, Kaysr, 200–201. 27 Sebēos c. : , Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and (oward-Johnston, Sebeos I, 94). 28 Garsoïan, The Aršakuni Dynasty, ; cf. also Toumanoff, Studies, –259 (on the various aristocratic families); Whittow, Making of Byzantium, 201–203; Pohl, Staat und Herrschaft (on the concepts of state and statehood under such circumstances). 29 Cf. Kafadar, Between Two Worlds, 125–126, for this phenomenon; see also Garsoïan, Armenia in the fourth Century; Preiser-Kapeller, Kaysr, 201; Thomson, Armenia, 156–160 and 171–172; Greenwood, Armenian Neighbours, 333– 336; cf. also Hewsen, Atlas, map 63. 30 Ełišē )V: Tēr-Minasean; tr. Thomson, . On the issue of trans-local families see also (arzig and (oerder, Migration History 123–126. 23 24 4 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Deliberate and forced noble mobility31 Within this framework, noble mobility towards the neighbouring imperial spheres became an essential element of the strategies of individuals and of aristocratic houses. As Tim Greenwood has stated, recurring motives in the depiction of the deeds of Armenian aristocrats in our period are the service to an external authority, the titles and material rewards available to the individual princes and instances of direct contact between Emperor and client. 32 As I demonstrated in an earlier study, for the greatest nobles, their rank within the Armenian aristocracy became manifest due to its recognition by the Emperor, the Great King or the Caliph, performed in personal encounters either during imperial campaigns in Armenia or in most cases during receptions in the imperial capital. Especially Armenian sources emphasise that noblemen were permitted to stay near the monarch and dine with him and received material rewards from his hands. As within the court societies in Constantinople, Ctesiphon or Baghdad, the public display of proximity to an Emperor mattered. 33 Noble mobility towards one of the imperial spheres could become long-lasting or permanent if service for and integration into the elite of an empire seemed very attractive and/or if the alternative of remaining in Armenia respectively a part of Armenia under suzerainty of another imperial power was less inviting. This was especially the case when aristocrats or entire noble houses had compromised themselves in the eyes of local imperial authorities by participating in attempts to remove foreign suzerainty, often provoked by attempts of the imperial centre to enforce stronger political and economic control (Roman Armenia in the period of Justinian, Arab Armenia in the 8th and 9th century) or religious conformity (Persian Armenian in the 5th century, Byzantine Armenia in the 6th and 7th century). As I have demonstrated earlier and will also highlight below in the section on networks and mobility, under changing circumstances aristocrats were also willing to cross borders several times.34 Also measures of the imperial suzerain to enforce mobility by ordering the relocation of noblemen and their armed retinues to other theatres of war could motivate individuals to evade them by crossing borders. After the restoration of Xusro II on the Sasanian throne with the help of Emperor Maurice, Byzantium in 591 gained suzerainty over most of former Persarmenia up to a line near Dvin (see also map 2 below).35 The Emperor, eager to recover control over the Balkans in the face of the advance of the Avars and Slavs36, transferred many troops from the East to Thrace and also tried to recruit soldiers among the Armenians. Various aristocrats, convinced by means of promises and presents or of force, marched with their troops to Constantinople, presented themselves to the Emperor, and then fought against his enemies. But some For noble mobility in the Western Middle Ages cf. Hoerder, Cultures in Contact 60–62. Greenwood, Sebeos, 355. 33 Preiser-Kapeller, erdumn, ucht, carayut´iwn; Kelly, Later Roman Empire, 26; cf. also Elias, Die höfische Gesellschaft, 145–161; Magdalino, Court Society, 216. 34 Preiser-Kapeller, erdumn, ucht, carayut´iwn. 35 On this important treaty cf. Sim. V, 15, 2: 216, 10–13 und IV, 13, 24: 177, 23– de Boor and Wirth ; Sebēos c. : 84, 24–33 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 28–29); Narratio de rebus Armeniae § 94: 39, 235– Garitte ; T‛ovma Arcruni, Patmut‛iwn )), : Patkanean ; (onigmann, Ostgrenze, –37; Christensen, Iran, 445; Grousset, Arménie, 249 and 251–253; Goubert, Byzance, 167–170 and 290–302; Narratio de rebus Armeniae (Garitte) 236–237; Adontz and Garsoïan, Armenia, 179–182; Schreiner, Simokattes, 302, n. 590; Laurent and Canard, Arménie, 40–41; Whitby, Maurice, 304; Garsoïan, Marzpanate, 108–109; Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos II, 171; Beihammer, Nachrichten, 22–23 (n. 14); Garsoïan, Grand schisme, 264–267; idem, Armenien, 1191–1192; Redgate, Armenians, 157; Greatrex and Lieu, Eastern Frontier, 172–174 and 294, n. 54; Greenwood, Sebeos, 335 (with n. 51); Preiser-Kapeller, Magister Militum, 349–350; Thomson, Armenia, 169; Greenwood, Armenian Neighbours, 337; Müller, Preiser-Kapeller and Riehle, Regesten, N. 104; cf. esp. Hewsen, Atlas, map 69. 36 Cf. the paper by Johannes Koder in our session. 31 32 5 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller nobles reacted with rebellion and – after its failure – with flight into the Persian Empire.37 In the history attributed to Sebēos we find, as we have seen, an Armenian interpretation of the empire’s policy in the form of the letter allegedly written by Maurice to Xusro )) see above, . Sebēos also informs us that in the year the Emperor ordered the resettlement of 30,000 households from Armenia in Thrace, but this plan was not executed because of Maurice´s overthrow.38 Thus, while honourable and lucrative service to the Emperor abroad earned praise in the Armenian historiography, measures to enforce stronger imperial control and mobility were interpreted as plans to destroy the socio-political framework of the country. Limitations both to the presence of imperial authority (especially armed forces) and the spatial range of mobility in imperial service were also core conditions under which the Armenian nobility at large under the leadership of T ēodoros, lord of the house of Ṙštunik‛, exchanged Byzantine suzerainty for the Caliph´s one in : Now the prince of Ismael spoke with them and said: Let this be the pact of treaty between me and you for as many years as you may wish. I shall not take tribute from you for a three-year period. Then you will pay (tribute) with an oath, as much as you may wish. You will keep in your country 15,000 cavalry, and provide sustenance from your country; and I shall reckon it in the royal tax. I shall not request cavalry for Syria; but wherever else I command they shall be ready for duty. I shall not send amirs to (your) fortresses, nor an Arab army – neither many, nor even down to a single cavalryman. An enemy shall not enter Armenia; and if the Romans attack you I shall send you troops in support, as many as you may wish. I swear by the great God that I shall not be false. 39 Yet, as we learn later, also the Arab authorities enforced mobility on a considerable number of aristocrats and their families in order to guarantee their allegiance in the form of hostages; when the Armenian nobility in 656 decided to return to Byzantine suzerainty, this proved fatal for most of these individuals, while it had the desired effect on some of the aristocrats who abstained from changing the sides: Then when the king of Ismael [= the Caliph] saw that the Armenians had withdrawn from submission to them, they put to the sword all the hostages whom they had brought from that land, about 1,775 people. A few were left, in number about 22, who had not happened to be at that spot; they alone survived. But Mušeł, lord of the Mamikoneank‛ … , because he had four sons among the hostages with the Ismaelites, was therefore unable to withdraw from their service.40 Until the beginning of the 8th century, the Armenian nobility, reacting to changes in the balance of power between the Caliphate and Byzantium, switched sides several times before the Arabs achieved more permanent dominion in the Armenian highlands; the relatively beneficial conditions of the treaty of 653 were replaced by a more strict regime with garrisons especially in the strategically important frontier regions to Byzantium and an Arab governor (ostikan) residing in the country and enforcing also regular tax payments (see also map 3 below). As in most cases, different factions of the Cf. also Greenwood, Armenian Neighbours, 337–338. Sebēos c. : , –33 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 56); Grousset, Arménie, 264–265; Goubert, Byzance, 209–210; Charanis, Transfer 142; Ditten, Ethnische Verschiebungen, 134–135; Garsoïan, Marzpanate, 109–110; idem, Problem, 57; Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos II, 190–191; Greatrex and Lieu, Eastern Frontier 178–179; Preiser-Kapeller, Kaysr, 195; Müller, Preiser-Kapeller and Riehle, Regesten, N. 137. 39 Sebēos c : , 27–33 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 135– ; cf. also ρewond c. : (Ezean; tr. Arzoumanian, 53–54); Garsoïan, Arab Invasion, 121–122; Dadoyan, The Armenians I 56–57. 40 Sebēos c. : , –12 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 153); Grousset, Arménie, 304; Laurent and Canard, Arménie, 126–127, 242 and 402; Ter-Ghévondian, Prince d’Arménie; Kaegi, Conquest, ; Garsoïan, Arab Invasion, 122; Yuzbashian, Titres byzantins, 218; Redgate, Armenians, 168; Thomson and HowardJohnston, Sebeos II, 282–284; Preiser-Kapeller, Magister Militum, 359; idem, Hrovartak, 302, 311; Greenwood, Armenian Neighbours, 342–343; Müller, Preiser-Kapeller and Riehle, Regesten, N. 228a. On this phenomenon see now in general A. J. Kosto, Hostages in the Middle Ages. Oxford 2012. 37 38 6 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Armenia nobility reacted differently: while a group around the until then leading house of Mamikonean tried several times to remove Arab rule with violence, especially the increasingly important family of the Bagratuni followed a policy of collaboration with the Arab authorities.41 These put down all rebellions by force and executed or deported unruly individuals, often into far away regions of the Caliphate: When, however, the Mamikonean heard of the honours conferred upon Ašot Bagratuni and the latter s importance to (išam and to governor Merwan, they acted extremely insolently toward him, to the extent that Muhammad s son (Merwan) became aware of their contention. (Merwan) ordered their immediate arrest and sent Grigor and David, who were from the house of the Mamikonean, to the Caliph of the Ismaelites. He also wrote an accusation against them, stating that they were opponents of Ašot and agitators in his realm. The Caliph) ordered them to be taken to a desert place called Eman (= Yemen) and to be kept there in prison for the rest of their lives.42 Under such circumstances, migration into the Byzantine Empire was of course again an option. The historian ρewond reports for the year such a larger scale movement: Left without property and food, naked and barefoot, (the inhabitants of Armenia) were exposed to the horrors of famine. They left their country and fled to the Greek territory to seek refuge. The mass of the population, over twelve thousand men, women, and children, as we were told, migrated from their land under the leadership of Šapuh from the house of Amatunik‛, (amam his son, and other Armenian nobles with their cavalry. … As they crossed the river [Akampsis], the Greek Emperor Constantine [VI] was immediately notified. He called them unto him and gave the nobles and their cavalry high honours. (The Emperor) accommodated the bulk of the lower class people on good fertile lands.43 In the period under consideration, refugees were welcome, even in high numbers, if they could provide valuable manpower for military and economic purposes. Byzantium as (not so) desirable destination Besides the prospect to find more beneficial conditions for living or of simply avoiding acts of revenge by irritated imperial authorities, Byzantium as Christian polity was regarded an empire of different quality in comparison with Persia or the Caliphate. The 8th cent. historian Movsēs Xorenac‛i interprets the decision of King Aršak as well as his retainers to opt for Roman suzerainty in 387 along these lines (but highlighting also the significance of kinship ties): So Aršak left the native kingdom of his fathers, Ayrarat, and all the part of the Persian sector, and went to rule over the western regions of our country, in the Greek sector i bažnin Yunac‛ , not only because of his mother who was in the imperial capital i kayserakan k‛ałak‛ēn , but because he thought that it was better to rule over a smaller region and serve a Christian king than to control most (of the country) and submit to the yoke of heathens. The princes of Šapuh s sector followed him with their wives and sons, abandoning each one s possessions and villages and estates.44 A similar interpretation ρewond provides when describing the deliberate emigration of Armenians from the environs of Theodosiupolis on the occasion of an imperial campaign Cf. also Greenwood, Armenian neighbours. ρewond c. : Ezean; tr. Arzoumanian, ; Garsoïan, Arab )nvasion, . The removal or extinction of several noble families created also opportunities for immigrating (or also converted) Muslim elites to create regional power bases within historical Armenia, cf. Ter-Ghewondyan, The Arab Emirates; Dadoyan, The Armenians I 87–90. On interaction and cultural exchange between Christian Armenian and Muslim elites (which manifested itself also in the use of Arabic names within Christian noble houses), cf. also Jones, Between Islam and Byzantium. 43 ρewond c. : –169 (Ezean; tr. Arzoumanian, 149); Greenwood, Armenian Neighbours, 348; Redgate, Myth and Reality 291, also on the further development of this community. 44 Movs. Xor. ))), Abełean and Αarut‛iwnean; tr. Thomson, 304). 41 42 7 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller in the region in the 750s (accompanied also by the deportation of Muslim population into the Empire): … the king of the Greeks [Constantine V] moved from his imperial portals with a massive multitude of followers and arrived at the city called Theodosiupolis in the region of Karin. … Furthermore, he took the city troops and the local Saracens, along with their families, to the land of the Greeks. Many of the inhabitants of the same districts asked the king to allow them to follow him, in order to be relieved of the heavy yoke of servitude to the Arabs. Having secured permission from (Emperor Constantine V, the inhabitants of the Armenian districts) prepared themselves, packed their belongings and moved, placing their trust in the power of the dominical cross and in the glory of the King ark ay . They separated themselves (from the rest), left their homeland, and went to the country of the pious king.45 Yet, as already mentioned, doctrinal differences between Byzantine and Armenian Orthodoxy since the later 6th century led to an alienation between the two churches, accompanied by attempts of imperial authorities to enforce conformity with Constantinople during periods of Byzantine pre-dominance in the Armenian highlands in the 6th and 7th century.46 Afterwards, Byzantium could also be regarded as shelter of heresy and staying there could threaten the true faith of Armenian Christians (see also below on Byzantine persecutions of non-Chalcedonian Christians especially in the 10th cent.).47 Katholikos Αovhannēs Drasχanakertc‛i at the beginning of the th century for instance explained why he decided not to follow an invitation of the Emperor to Constantinople (in contrast to the Armenian king): I decided not to go, thinking that there might be people who might look askance at my going there, and assume that I sought communion with the Chalcedonians. It was for this reason that I did not wish to go, lest I might scandalize the minds of the weak.48 Therefore, we also find in the same work of ρewond, who describes the decision of the Armenians near Theodosiupolis to move to Byzantium by placing their trust into the Christian faith of its emperor, a different interpretation of the option to emigrate to the Empire under the foreign yoke of the kings of the Greeks in a later episode shortly before a revolt of the nobility against the Arabs in 774/775: Now all the Armenian nobles assembled at a certain place and made an oath to each other, agreeing with a solemn vow to live and die together. … Ašot son of Prince Sahak from the house of the Bagratids, did not take part in this dangerous enterprise, because he was full of wisdom and prudence. On the contrary, he kept counselling the rest to abandon the perilous enterprise … and think of their own security as well as that of their families. (e told them: … Even the Roman Empire was unable to raise its hand against this dragon (= the Arabs), and it still continues to tremble before it and has not dared to act against the dominical command. … you will be forced to flee from your land with your entire households … and live under the foreign yoke of the king of the Greeks. 49 Ecclesiastical and learned mobility Besides doctrinal issues, the Christianisation of the Roman Empire and of Armenia brought about also a new framework for mobility via the emergence of channels of ecclesiastical authority, pilgrimage and education. From the beginning of the establishment of an Armenian ecclesiastical hierarchy in the 4th century, its representatives were closely connected with neighbouring churches and ρewond c. : Ezean; tr. Arzoumanian, –124); Charanis, Transfer 144; Garsoïan, Problem 57. Cf. in general on this the magisterial study of Garsoïan, Grand schism. 47 Preiser-Kapeller, Between New Jerusalem. 48 Αovh. Drasχ. , § tr. Maksoudian, . 49 ρewond c. : –143 (Ezean; tr. Arzoumanian, 132); Garsoïan, Arab Invasion, 131. 45 46 8 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller church provinces. Until the end of the 4th century, the Senior Bishop later Katholikos of Armenia was ordained by the metropolitan of Caesarea in Cappadocia; Armenian hierarchs took part in the Ecclesiastical Councils of the 4th and 5th centuries in Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon. The Armenian clergy communicated also with ecclesiastics in Syria and Mesopotamia, in Georgia and Caucasian Albania and in Persia. These exchanges on doctrine and praxis of faith intensified in the period of Christological disputes between the 5th and the 7th century, when the Armenian church ultimately repudiated both the teaching of Nestorius (whose followers became most prominent in Persia) and of the Council of Chalcedon (the dogma of the Byzantine and later also of the Georgian Church) and sided with the mono/miaphysite Churches of Egypt and Syria, with the latter of the two contacts intensified (holding of a joint synod in Manzikert in 726, for instance). Many of these communications have been collected in the so-called Book of letters Girk T łt oc .50 From these letters and other sources we also learn that despite the rift between the churches in the 6th and 7th century and the Arab conquest of Armenia, contacts with the Byzantine church did not break down in the 8th and 9th centuries letter of Patriarch Germanos ) to Bishop Daniel of Siwnik [ca. , see below], exchange of letters with Patriarch Photios [between 862 and 886, see below]). In general, the picture of a united anti-Chalcedonian Christianity produced in the Armenian historiography does not withstand closer inspection as does the image of an united Armenian monarchy; the number of Armenian clergymen and laymen, who (and not only under Byzantine pressure) also in the 7th and 8th century and later on had sympathies for the Chalcedonian creed was not insignificant.51 Clerics and monks found also their way to Palestine before and after the Arab conquest, where we encounter a vivid Armenian community in and around Jerusalem; we also possess several Armenian mosaic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th century, which are among the oldest epigraphic testimonies in Armenian language at all.52 A text attributed to a Vardapet Anastas and dated to the 7th-10th century lists – for sure exaggerating – 70 churches and monasteries, which had been build or bought by Armenians in Jerusalem between the 4th and 7th century.53 At least several churches are mentioned in the exchange of letters between Modestos, the head of the Armenian community in at this time Persian-ruled Jerusalem, and Katholikos Komitas in Armenia from the year 617, included in the history attributed to Sebēos54. In his answer to Modestos, the Katholikos also explains the motivation and spiritual value of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and beyond: But know this, О beloved brother, no little consolation was conveyed to our people by the coming and going of those journeys. First, because they forgot all the troubles and sadness of this country. Secondly, because they cleansed their sins through repentance, fasts and mercy, through sleepless and unresting travelling by day and night. Thirdly, because they baptized their bodies in the water of holiness, in the fiery currents of the Jordan, whence the divine grace flowed to all the universe. For in the desire of their heart [the pilgrims] travelled around Mount Sinai, which in the times of Moses was close to God, [repeating] friend to friend the prophetic saying: 'Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob.' 55 That Armenian pilgrims and monks found Cf. for an overview on these issues and all sources Garsoïan, Grand schism. See most recently Garsoïan, Interregnum 55-104 (with references), and Garsoïan, Problem 104–109 (especially on the so-called Cat‛/Tzatoi, Armenian-speaking Chalcedonian communities, who somehow suffered from rejection both by the Armenian and the Byzantine-Greek Orthodoxy, see also Todt and Vest, Syria 456). Cf. also Redgate, Myth and Reality. 52 Greenwood, Armenian inscriptions 89-91; Vaux, Linguistic manifestations. 53 The Armenian Pilgrim Guide, transl. in: J. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades. Warminster 2002. Cf. also McCormick, Charlemagne´s Survey 57–59. 54 Sebēos c. -36: 116–121 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 70-76) 55 Sebēos c. : Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and (oward-Johnston, Sebeos I, 74) 50 51 9 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller also their way to the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai is documented by Armenian inscriptions and Armenian manuscripts56 as well as hagiographic sources: in the Narrationes de patribus Sinaïtis we find for the 7th century an Armenian monachos named Elissaios who saw a vision of fire above the altar almost every night.57 And later, the Narrationes mention a group of not less than 800 Armenians, who, together with a large number of Arabs, became witnesses of a fire vision on Mt. Sinai.58 But Armenian clergymen travelled even beyond the Arab and the Byzantine sphere to Italy and even to France and Central Europe, where we find their traces in Latin sources, as RalphJohannes Lilie has demonstrated in a recent paper (see below on the range of Armenian mobility). Thus, the geographical range of Armenian ecclesiastical mobility is comparable with the aristocratic one and deserves further research. Also learning in Armenian Church was strongly influenced both by Greek and Syriac Christianity, whose centres of education could be found in the Roman Empire. The establishment of such educational links was attributed by the 5th century historian Agatʿangełos already to the first Christian king of Armenia Trdat III in the early 4th century, who allegedly had founded schools in order to teach pupils in Syriac (yAsori dprutʿiwn) as well as in Greek (i Hellen).59 Soon after Mesrob Maštocʿ at the beginning of the 5th century had developed an alphabet for the Armenian language, a large scale translation activity from Syriac and from Greek started, which also influenced the linguistic development of Armenian literature –scholarship speaks of a (ellenising school especially in the 6th century.60 Still for Movsēs Xorenacʿi in the 8th century „Greece (was) the mother or nurse of all sciences .61 Armenians had studied at places of education in the Roman Empire already in the 4th century. Ammianus Marcellinus mentions that one of his schoolmates in Antioch in the 330s/340s was the princely heir of the Satrap of Corduene (in Southern Armenia), held as hostage in Syria.62 Another one of the (until the 6th century, see also below) hereditary Armenian Satraps in this regions was Thomas, who in the early 6th century was educated in the wisdom of the Greeks in Berytus and Antioch.63 The desire for Christian education intensified scholarly mobility. Koriwn, disciple and biographer of Mesrob Maštocʿ, in the early th century and the historian ρazar Pʿarpecʿi in the late 5th century studied in Constantinople, which the latter praises as source of flows of wisdom … . Prominent scholars from all parts of the Greek Empire hurry to go there .64 The famous 7th century scholar Anania of Širak reports in his so-called autobiography about his educational journey to Theodosiupolis (Erzurum) and 56 Cf. Vaux, Linguistic manifestations. See also M. Stone, The Greek Background of Some Sinai Armenian Pilgrims and Some Other Observations, in: M. Stone – Th. Samuelian (eds.), Mediaeval Armenian Culture. Chico 1983, 194-202; Redgate, Myth and Reality 285. 57 PmbZ nr. 1508; Narrationes de patribus Sinaïtis cap. XXXVII, p. 81. 58 Anonymi (PmbZ nr 10204); Narrationes de patribus Sinaïtis cap. XXXVIII, p. 81-82. 59 Agathangelos (armen.) § 840: 374 (ed. Thomson). 60 On the development of the Armenian alphabet now see the contributions in: W. Seibt – J. Preiser-Kapeller (eds.), The Creation of the Caucasian Alphabets as Phenomenon of Cultural History (Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung . Vienna . On the „(ellenising School see A. Terian, The (ellenizing School. )ts Time, Place, and Scope of Activities Reconsidered, in: N. G. Garsoïan – Th. F. Mathews – R. W. Thomson (ed.), East of Byzantium: Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period. Washington, D. C. 1982, 175–186; J. Weitenberg, Linguistic continuity in Armenian Hellenizing texts. Le muséon 110 (1997) 447-458 61 Movsēs Xorenacʿi ), Transl. Thomson ; A. Terian, Xorenacʿi and Eastern (istoriography of the (ellenistic Period. Revue des Études Arméniennes N. S. 28 (2001–2002) 101–141; R. W. Thomson, Constantinople in Early Armenian Literature, in: Hovannisian and Payaslian (ed.), Constant. 20–34; Preiser-Kapeller, Between New Jerusalem 65–66. 62 Ammianus Marcellinus 18, 6, 20; Treadgold, Early Byzantine Historians 52. 63 PLRE III s. v. Thomas 17; Joh. Eph. V. SS. Or. 21 (PO 17, 284-285). 64 Koriwn (§ 46, § 136–140 ed. Akinean ; ρazar Pʿarpecʿi : ed. Tēr Mkrtčʿean – S. Malχaseancʿ; transl. Thomson 37); Preiser-Kapeller, Between New Jerusalem 66–67. 10 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Trebizond in the 630s, where he studied especially mathematics with a teacher named Tychikos, who in turn under the Emperors Tiberius and Maurice had served in the Byzantine Army in Armenia, where he had learned the Armenian language, before his studies had led him to Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople (see also below and map 7).65 Non-elite mobility and borderlands Therefore, we encounter a multitude of voices regarding mobility and migration in the Armenian sources, often within the same text. But as indicated above, we are (besides pilgrims, who also may have come from a non-elite stratum of society) mostly informed about (military, ecclesiastical or educational) elite mobility and elite considerations. One example for the mobility of a craftsman from Armenia to Byzantium is Trdat, architect and mason, who according to the Armenian historian Stephan of Taron travelled to Constantinople and was entrusted with the restoration of the Hagia Sophia, which had been damaged by an earthquake in October 989. But to our disappointment, his accomplishment found no echo in the Byzantine sources, which mention the damage and reconstruction of the Hagia Sophia, but not Trdat. At the same time, we learn from Stephan of Taron that Trdat was the architect of the church of the Armenian Katholikos in Argina and the Cathedral of Ani for King Smbat II Bagratuni; we can therefore assume that he was closely entangled within the Armenian elite.66 But as we have seen, in many cases aristocrats moving across borders were accompanied by their retainers, both noble and not noble, and sometimes their families; bringing with him valuable manpower of course strengthened also the position of a nobleman in his negotiations with the authorities of his destination.67 Even more, imperial authorities relied on these networks of allegiance when attempting to mobilise larger numbers of soldiers or settlers for their purposes. Again, the period of Byzantine control over most of Armenia under Emperor Maurice between 590 and 602 provides an illustrating example: He (Emperor Maurice) further commanded all the cavalry from Armenia to assemble, and the chief nobles, (and those) who were experienced and capable of standing firm and fighting in battle in the line of spearmen. He also ordered other forces to be brought from the land of Armenia in great numbers, all of them willing and of elite stature; to be formed into battalions and that, equipped with arms, they should all cross to the land of Thrace against the enemy, and Mušeł Mamikonean as their general.68 But on another occasion during the reign for Maurice we also learn that these ties of allegiance between noble commander and retainers could also work to the detriment of imperial interests, since they enabled them to follow own interests also after having moved into the imperial sphere; in this episode, the Emperor has to use considerable diplomatic and material resources to separate the mass of soldiers from their aristocratic leader: At that time another command came from the Emperor to seek out again and find from Armenia elite armed cavalry, 2,000 in number, and put them under two reliable men, and to despatch them in great haste. They sought out and chose 2,000 armed men and put these 2,000 under two reliable men: 1,000 to Sahak Mamikonean und Cf. T. Greenwood, A Reassessment of the Life and mathematical Problems of Anania Širakacʿi. Revue des Études Arméniennes N. S. 33 (2011) 131–186. See also R. H. Hewsen, Science in Seventh-Century Armenia: Ananias of Sirak. Isis 59/1 (1968) 32-45. 66 PmbΒ nr ; Stephan von Taron Asołik ))), cap. , p. , -30 (Gelzer). 67 For an example of the re-location of non-elite population within Armenia by Katholikos Nersēs ))) the Builder (641-661), whose re-settled peasants on newly cultivated land, cf. Garsoïan, Interregnum 38 (with references). 68 Sebēos c. : , –22 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 36); Garsoïan, Marzpanate, 109; Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos II, 176 and 178; Preiser-Kapeller, Kaysr, 193–194 (with a new interpretation of this passage); Müller, Preiser-Kapeller and Riehle, Regesten, N. 108b. 65 11 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller , under the command of Smbat Bagratuni, son of Manuēl. … Sahak set out, brought his force to the palace, and presented himself to the king. But when Smbat reached Xałtik‛, he baulked, because his force had become frightened en route, not wishing to go to that place = Thrace in compliance with the king s request. The king was informed of these events. Then through letters (hrovartaks) and trustworthy messengers he promised with an oath to send him back promptly to his own country with great honour. He also promised great rewards and gifts to the troops, and in this way he cajoled them into reconciliation. They proceeded in unity and presented themselves to the king. The king fully equipped the troops and despatched them to the borders of Thrace; Smbat he sent in great honour back to the land of his own people with many gifts.69 Yet, also non-noble mobility was possible without or against the wishes of imperial authorities, especially since borders in this period were no iron curtains , often not even clearly defined. This was also true for the Roman-Persian border in the 6th century as described by Procopius in his book on buildings: On the way from Kitharizon to Theodosio(u)polis and the other Armenia lies a region called Chorzane; it extends over a march of three days and it is not separated from Persia by a lake, a river or mountains, which would impede the crossing of a pass but the borders of the two merge. Because of this the inhabitants, whether subjects of the Romans or of the Persians, do not fear one another or suspect mutual attacks but even engage in intermarriage, hold common markets for their daily needs and run their farms together. (11) Whenever the military commanders on each side lead an army against the other because their rulers instructed them to do so they find their neighbours unguarded. The densely populated settlements are very close to each other and from old times there were no mounds anywhere. 70 Emperor Justinian later tried to secure and control the frontier in this region (see also map 2 below) by the construction of a fortress, since Persian armies had criss-crossed the area relatively unimpededly in an earlier war. Especially where more densely settled areas met, there was also a higher frequency of cross-border interaction and of possible diffusion of information, also against the wishes of official authorities. Deserted or sparsely settled areas on the contrast may have constituted obstacles for the dispersion of information.71 The military handbook attributed to Emperor Maurice Strategikon ) from the period around 600 advises marching through less settled areas in order to conceal the movement of troops, but only for smaller scale armies.72 Supplying larger numbers of troops from less densely settled and less cultivated areas would have caused severe logistic problems. According to this logic, along the Byzantine-Arab frontier in the 7th and 8th century there emerged a zone of deserted and depopulated no-man´s-land, which should impede the advance of larger armies, especially of the Arabs towards Byzantine territory (see also map 3 below). A Syrian Chronicle from the year 775 describes the formation of this zone on the occasion of an Arab assault in 716/717: When a great and innumerable army of Arabs gathered and surged forwards to invade Roman territory, all the regions of Asia and Cappadocia fled from them, as did the whole area from the sea and by the Black Mountain and Lebanon as far as Melitene and by the river Arsanias [Murat Nehri] as far as Inner Armenia [the region of Theodosiupolis/Erzurum]. All this territory had been graced by Sebēos c. : , –34 (Abgaryan; tr.Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 38); Müller, Preiser-Kapeller and Riehle, Regesten, N. 89a and b. 70 Proc., De aed. III, 3, 3, 9–12 (ed. Dewing);transl. Winter – Dignas, Rome and Persia 208. 71 Cf. A. D. Lee: Information and Frontiers. Roman Foreign Relations in Late Antiquity. Cambridge 1993; N. J. E. Austin – N. B. Rankov: Exploratio: Military and Political Intelligence in the Roman World from the Second Punic War to the Battle of Adrianople. New York 1995. 72 Das Strategikons des Maurikios. Einführung, Edition und Indices von G. T. Dennis, Übersetzung von E. Gamillscheg (CFHB 17). Vienna 1981, I, 9, lns. 60–63: 106–107. 69 12 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller the habitations of a numerous population and thickly planted with vineyards and every kind of gorgeous tree; but since that time it has been deserted and these regions have not been resettled. 73 In fact, these areas did not remain unpopulated, but served as zone of transfer and refuge for several groups who wished to evade political or religious authorities. One of these was the dualistic sect of the Paulicians, which emerged in 6th century Armenia and appeared in the eastern frontier provinces of Byzantium since the 7th century; in the face of persecutions by the state, they migrated into this space between . Finally since the middle of the 9th century they even created their own polity around the fortress of Tephrike (today Divriği in Eastern Turkey) and fought the Byzantine as allies of the Emir of Melitene until their defeat in 871/872. Paulician groups, which included significant elements of Armenian origin, then in the 9th and 10th century were deported to the Balkans.74 As we have seen above, Byzantium on the contrast tolerated and even encouraged the settlement of Armenian aristocrats with their retinue in these territories; this process intensified since the early 10th century and contributed to the restoration of settlement and administrative structures when Byzantium re-expanded into the East; the newly established, relatively small military districts then were subsumed under the terminus mikra armenika themata .75 From there, benefiting from the fragmentation of political power in Caliphate since the 9th century, Byzantine suzerainty expanded again over most of Armenia in the second half of the 10th and first half of the 11th century, when one after the other of the princedoms and kingdoms which had emerged since the 9th century was turned into a province and its elites compensated with titles and possessions in the interior of Anatolia. These annexations in many cases were also accompanied by larger scale migrations of population into Byzantine Asia Minor, as the Continuator of Tʿovma Arcruni describes for the case of the Kingdom of Vaspurakan (around Lake Van) in the year 1022: They [the Byzantines] gave them gifts, appointed them at the royal court, gave them great cities in exchange for their cities and in return for their castles, impregnable fortresses and provinces, villages, estates, and holy hermitages. So the Artsrunik , descendants of (ayk [and] Senek erim, exchanged their ancestral homes in the year of the Armenian era, and moved into Greek territory with fourteen thousand men, not including women and children, passing under the yoke of servitude to the Romans. Likewise the Bagratid Gagik, son of King Yovhannes, also exchanged his ancestral [lands] in the year 490 of the same era, and went to Roman territory.76 J.-B. Chabot, Anonymi auctoris chronicon ad annum Christi 1234 pertinens (CSCO 109). Louvain 1937 (Nachdruck 1965), 156–157; The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles, introd., transl. and annotated by A. Palmer. Including two seventh-century Syriac Apocalyptic Texts, introd., transl. and annotated by S. Brock with added Annotation and an historical Introduction by R. Hoyland. Liverpool 1993, 62. Cf. also Haldon – Kennedy, Frontier; TerGhewondyan, The Arab Emirates 22–25; Dédéyan (ed.), Histoire 230–231. 74 N. G. Garsoïan, The Paulician Heresy. The study of the origin and development of Paulicianism in Armenia and the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire. Mouton, Den Haag 1967; C. Ludwig, Wer hat was in welcher Absicht wie geschrieben? Bemerkungen zur Historika des Petros Sikeliotes über die Paulikianer, in: Varia II (Poikila Byzantina 6). Bonn 1987, 149–227; Ter-Ghewondyan, The Arab Emirates 22–25; Redgate, Armenians 193–195; Dédéyan (ed.), Histoire 304–305; Dadoyan, Armenians 91–107. 75 Charanis, Armenians in the Byzantine Empire, passim; Haldon – Kennedy, Frontier; W. Seibt, „Armenika themata als terminus technicus der byzantinischen Verwaltungsgeschichte des 11. Jahrhundert. Byzantinoslavica 54 (1993) 134–141; G. Dédéyan, Reconquête territorial et immigration arménienne dans l´aire cilicienne sous les empereurs macédoniens (de 867 à 1028); in: Balard – Ducellier, Migrations 11–32; Dadoyan, The Armenians I 124–128. On migration of Armenians into Syria cf. Dadoyan, The Armenians II 10–20; Todt and Vest, Syria 360–361, 423, 456–457, and esp. G. Dédéyan, Le rôle des Arméniens en Syrie du Nord pendant la reconquête byzantine (vers 945–1031). Byzantinische Forschungen 25 (1999) 249–284. 76 Tʿovma Arcruni cont. )V, ; transl. Thomson –371. See also Seibt, Die Eingliederung von Vaspurakan; Felix, Byzanz und die islamische Welt 138–141; Charanis, Transfer 147. 73 13 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller In the case of Vaspurakan at least the demographic impact of these migrations described in the sources can also be checked against other evidence: an actual dramatic demographic decline in the region can be detected both in core drill data from Lake Van (using the sedimentation of charcoal as proxy for human activity) as well as in the rapid decline of building activity from the 10th century, the apex of Arcruni power as manifested in the famous church of Achtamar, to the 11th century (see below figs. 7 and 8).77 The political and religious tensions emerging from this large scale migration of Armenians into central Asia Minor in the 11th century and its longer term significance for the emerging of another Armenian polity in Cilicia have been studied in detail elsewhere and would deserve at least a paper of their own (see also map 5 below)78; I therefore close this section with this outlook into the period of the Crusades and continue with a more detailed inspection of the mobility and networks of several mobile Armenians. MOBILITIES AND NETWORKS Recent works of migration history have highlighted the significance of social networks, of the multiplexity of ties of ethnic or regional affiliation, of kinships, of politics or of economy between individuals, groups and organisations, which make up complex migration systems .79 While our evidence does not allow us to reconstruct such webs with equal detail as for the modern period, we are able to detect and map various categories of ties for individuals, which may hint at the general complexity of connections which made Armenian mobility possible. Networks of nobility and the military labour market of Byzantium As I demonstrated in an earlier study, the work of Procopius is a rich source for Armenian noble mobility across the Roman-Persian frontier and within the empire for the 6th century.80 Such an episode from the time around 530 illustrates several possible channels for the initiation and negotiation of mobility: At about the same time Narses and Aratius who at the beginning of this war, as I have stated above, had an encounter with Sittas and Belisarius in the land of the Persarmenians81, came together with their mother as deserters to the Romans; and the Emperor's steward, Narses, received them (for he too happened to be a Persarmenian by birth), and he presented them with a large sum of money. When this came to the knowledge of Isaac, their youngest brother, he secretly opened negotiations with the Romans, and delivered over to them the fortress of Bolum, which lies very near the limits of Theodosiupolis. For he directed that soldiers should be concealed somewhere in the vicinity, and he received them into the fort by night, opening stealthily one small gate for them. Thus he too came to Byzantium.82 The defection of the three brothers (who may have been members of the otherwise wellknown noble house of Kamsarakan) was facilitated through the connection to an See J. Preiser-Kapeller, A Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean? New results and theories on the interplay between climate and societies in Byzantium and the Near East in the Comnenian period, 11 th-13th century (forthcoming, draft online: http://www.academia.edu/6098723/A_Collapse_of_the_Eastern_Mediterranean). 78 Garsoïan, Problems, esp. 76-82, 111–124; J.-C. Cheynet, Les Arméniens de l´empire en Orient de Constantin X à Alexis Comnène (1059-1081), in: L´Arménie et Byzance 67–78; idem, Pouvoir et contestations, passim; W. Seibt, Stärken und Schwächen der byzantinischen Integrationspolitik gegenüber den neuen armenischen Staatsbürgern im 11. Jh., in: The Empire in Crisis ?. Byzantium in the 11th Century (1025-1081). Athens 2003, 331; Lebeniotes, Η ά σ , and esp. G. Dédéyan, Les Arméniens entre Grecs, Musulmans et Croisés: étude sur les pouvoirs arméniens dans le Proche-Orient méditerranéen (1068-1150), 2 vol.s. Lisbonne 2003. 79 On this term cf. Harzig and Hoerder, Migration History 87. 80 Preiser-Kapeller, erdumn, ucht, carayut´iwn. Cf. also H. Börm, Prokop und die Perser. Untersuchungen zu den römisch-sasanidischen Kontakten in der ausgehenden Spätantike. Stuttgart 2007. 81 Cf. Proc., Bella I, 12, 21–23: I, 101 (Dewing). 82 Proc., Bella I, 15, 31: I, 139 (Dewing 139). 77 14 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Armenian already well-established in the Byzantine elite – the famous eunuch Narses.83 It was additionally motivated by material rewards. And the movement of some members of the clan across the borders of course established a translocal kinship network which could be used by others. Procopius allows us also to trace the further carriers of Narses, Aratius and Isaac in the military service of Justinian, which led them sometimes together, sometimes far apart from each other across the entire empire from Armenia to Palestine and Southern Egypt and to Italy and the Balkans (see map 6 below). But their story also highlights the dangers of imperial service, since all three of them ultimately fell fighting for Byzantium: Narses in 543 after the battle of Anglon in Persarmenia, Isaak in 546 in Italy as prisoner of war of the Goths and Aratios in 552 fighting in Illyricum. 84 Under these auspices, the decision of a group of noblemen faced with the imperial desire to transfer them to the Balkans in the period of Maurice to extricate themselves from service to the king of the Greeks … , so that they too would not be obliged to die in the regions of Thrace, but could live or die for their own country 85 becomes comprehensible. The term which Armenian historians used to describe the relationship of allegiance and patronage between the Emperor or the Great King and the individual aristocrats is caṙayut‛iwn; this is the same term which describes the allegiance of the Armenian princes to their king in earlier times.86 In that way, the Emperor took the place of the Armenian king in this relationship. For the aristocrat, caṙayut‛iwn included the obligation for military service to his lord (tēr). But this relationship also included mutual commitments, which according to the Armenian tradition were sealed through a reciprocal oath (uχt, erdumn). As a result of this oath, one side took upon itself the duties of lordship and protection, and the other those of faithful service and obedience.87 As I demonstrated with several samples earlier, the new fiduciary relation was also manifested in ritual and material ways; the new retainer was honoured in a ceremonial reception at the court in Constantinople and received valuable presents.88 While this procedure originally did not include any written commitments when conducted between Armenian nobles, they very much paid attention to bind a foreign patron within his own respective legal system. Therefore, we read that representatives of Byzantium, Persia or the Caliphate swore the oath according to their own customs; in addition, within these more scripture-centred frameworks, Armenian noblemen also demanded written confirmations. The flexibility in the establishment of patronage ties was not unique to Armenia and its neighbours; Jonathan Karam Skaff in his recent monograph on Sui-Tang China and its Turko-Mongol Neighbors provides fascinating parallels for Eastern Eurasia for the same period, illuminating how these instruments offered the utilitarian advantage of extending a Sui-Tang emperor´s power to spaces within a large multiethnic empire that were beyond the reach of bureaucratic control. 89 Cf. PLRE III s. v. Narses I, p. 912-928, with further references. PLRE III s. v. Aratius, p. 103-104; PLRE III s. v. Isaaces 1; PLRE III s. v. Narses 2, p. 928-929, with sources and further references. 85 Sebēos c. : Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and (oward-Johnston, Sebeos I, 39). 86 Cf. Sebēos c. u. : , ; , and 25 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 32 and 33); Adontz and Garsoïan, Armenia, 349 and 516, n. 49; Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 518 (s. v.); Thomson and HowardJohnston, Sebeos II, 330 (s. v. submission – tsaṙayut‛iwn . 87 Adontz and Garsoïan, Armenia, , and , n. ; Garsoïan, The Aršakuni Dynasty, ; Mahé, Norme écrite; cf. also Pohl, Staat und Herrschaft, 11, on such commitments. 88Preiser-Kapeller, erdumn, ucht, carayut´iwn; see for instance Sebēos c. and : , –35 and 104, 22–27 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 34 and 55–56 and II, 189). 89 J. K. Skaff, Sui-Tang China and its Turko-Mongol neighbors. Culture, power, and connections, 580-800. Oxford 2012, 75 and 104. 83 84 15 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller One example of such a very mobile nobleman described in the history attributed to Sebēos is Atat Xoṙχoṙuni, who crossed the border into or out of the empire several times. He started his career as participant in a conspiracy against Persian rule in Eastern Armenia around the year 590; when this attempted rebellion failed, he crossed the border to Byzantium. There Emperor Maurikios received him with honours in Constantinople and gave him a command in the army fighting the Avars on the Balkans. But on his way to the troops, Atat Xoṙχoṙuni decided against joining this fight and fled across the Black Sea and Asia Minor back to Persian territory, where Great King Xusrō )) received him friendly. Yet, after some years in Persian services, Atat Xoṙχoṙuni planned to defect to Byzantium once again; this time, his intention was detected and Xusrō )) had him executed.90 The motivations behind such a step could be different—some aristocrats hoped for certain benefits, others would have no other choice. The initiative for a change in the caṙayut‛iwn could come from the respective nobleman as well as from an imperial authority trying to persuade a retainer of the opposing great power to defect. 91 Imperial authorities of course were anxious to impede such noble mobility when working against their interest. One instrument to do so was the demand of hostages, as did the Caliphate after its first agreement on suzerainty over Armenia with the nobility at large; nevertheless, a majority of the aristocracy defected to the emperor in 656 (see above). While it was impossible to stop such a mass defection without an equally massive use of force, individuals intending to cross borders could be impeded to do so when detected early enough – as in the case of Gurgēn Arcruni in , whose correspondence with the Byzantine emperor became known to Arab authorities, who had him arrested. 92 In the peace treaty of , Byzantium and Persia agreed that those who in time of peace (between the two empires) defected, or rather fled, from one to the other shall not be received, but every means shall be used to place them, even against their will, in the hands of those from whom they have fled. 93 Yet, already soon afterwards, the temptation to weaken the competing empire by depriving it of important clients was too strong for both signatories. The persisting importance of ties of kinship and ethnic affiliation in this regard is also documented for late periods; according to the 11th century Arab Melkite historian Yaḥyā of Antioch, the conquest of the Arab fortress of Rhobam in Northern Syria in 980 was brought about a female Armenian slave in the fortress, who got in contact with her relatives in the Byzantine Army and helped them to cross the walls and to occupy the citadel.94 But as we have indicated above in the case of the rebellion of Smbat Bagratuni and his troops against Emperor Maurice, the same networks of kinship and ethnic affiliation which had supported noble mobility in the interest of the empire could also be effective against them. One illustrative example comes again from Procopius in the shape of Artabanes, scion of the Armenian royal house of the Arsacids (see also map 6, below). He first appears in the year 538/539 in the region of Armenia interior, controlled by the Sebēos c. : –105 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 55) For the material gains from imperial service which surely enhanced its attractiveness cf. also Oikonomides, Title and Income, 202–206. 92 Tʿovma Arcruni, Patmutʿiwn ))), ed. Patkanean ; Transl. Thomson 67; Greenwood, Photius 130–132, und ders., Armenian Neighbours 351; Preiser-Kapeller, erdumn, ucht, carayut´iwn 160–161; Müller – Preiser-Kapeller – Riehle, Regesten Nr. 453. 93 Men. Prot., fr. 6, 1 (Blockley); Güterbock, Byzanz und Persien, 81–92; Greatrex and Lieu, Eastern Frontier, 132–133 (translation); Dignas and Winter, Rome and Persia, 142 (translation). 94 Cf. PmbZ nr 22695 (with sources); Müller and Beihammer, Regesten nr 766c. 90 91 16 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Romans; there the descendants of the last Arsacid king still had considerable possessions and traditional tax privileges.95 When these prerogatives were abolished and Armenia interior turned into a province by Emperor Justinian, the Armenian nobility stood up in an armed rebellion, which the magister militum Sittas was ordered to quell.96 Among these rebels was also Artabanes, who first excelled himself by murdering the imperial governor Akakios and then by killing Sittas in hand-to-hand combat.97 Yet, the imperial forces proved insurmountable, so that Artabanes and his clan had to flee to the Persian Empire, where contacts already had been established with Great King Xusrō ). But before , he and many noblemen returned to Roman soil, bowed to the Emperor and joined the imperial army; one can assume that the conditions for the imperial pardon had been negotiated in advance, although we receive no information on this. Together with his brother Ioannes, his cousin Gregorios and other troops of Armenian origin, Artabanes in 545/546 was sent to recently conquered North Africa. There they soon found themselves involved in the rebellion of the magister militum Guntharis (a commander of Germanic origin), who seized power in Carthago and declared himself independent from Constantinople. Artabanes with his troops joined Guntharis after having received some guarantees, but secretly plotted his assassination together with his relatives and the imperial official Athanasius.98 The plan succeeded in 546 and Artabanes was appointed magister militum per Africam by the emperor. Soon he returned to Constantinople according to his own wishes, where he planned to marry Praeiecta, a niece of Justinian, whom he had got to know in Africa after Guntharis had killed her first husband Areobindus. Thereby, he would have joined the imperial clan and could have hoped for even higher honours, after he had already received the consulate; according to Procopius, Artabanes even dreamed about obtaining the imperial crown (basileia). Yet, these hopes were balked when an earlier wife of Artabanes appeared in the capital und effected with the support of Empress Theodora that he received her back into his household. Frustrated, Artabanes let himself roped in into a conspiracy by his kinsman Arsakes together with another Armenian, Chanaranges, who intended to replace Justinian with his cousin Germanus. According to Procopius, Arsakes incited Artabanes to join the plot by reminding him that his fatherland was kept under strictest guard and exhausted by unwonted taxes, his father had been slain on the pretext of a treaty and covenant, and his whole family had been enslaved and was kept scattered to every corner of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, Artabanes would regard himself content when he only can be called a general of the Romans and consul. 99 The conspiracy was detected, yet Artabanes was not severely punished by Justinian; instead, already in 550 he was appointed magister militum per Thracias and sent first to Sicily and then to Northern Italy, where he served under the command of another prominent Armenian, the eunuch Narses. After 554, we lose his track in the sources. 95 Cf. Güterbock, Römisch-Armenien 12–20; Toumanoff, Studies 133–134; Blockley, Division; Greatrex, Partition; Greatrex – Lieu, Eastern Frontier 28–30; Preiser-Kapeller, Verwaltungsgeschichte 45–48; Garsoïan, Date; Dédéyan (Hrsg.), Histoire 178; Thomson, Armenia 157–159; Settipani, Continuité des élites 111–113; Ayvazyan, Armenian Military; vgl. auch Hewsen, Atlas, Karten 65 und 66. 96 Vgl. auch Proc., Bella II, 3, 35–36: 281 (ed. Dewing). 97 Proc., Bella II, 3, 25-26 (Ed. Veh). Cf. Also Adontz – Garsoïan, Armenia 142–164, 32*–34* und 37*–38*; Toumanoff, Studies 174–175, 196–197; Garsoïan, Marzpanate; Redgate, Armenians 155–156; Lounghis – Blysidu – Lampakes, Regesten Nr. 1078 and 1108; Preiser-Kapeller, Verwaltungsgeschichte 59–63; Preiser-Kapeller, Magister Militum; Preiser-Kapeller, erdumn, ucht, carayut´iwn 151–154, and Ayvazyan, Armenian Military. 98 Proc., Bella IV, 27, 11–19 (ed. Dewing). 99 Proc., Bella VII, 32, esp. 7: IV, 420–437, esp. 422–423 (Dewing); cf. also Meier, Das andere Zeitalter Justinians, 261– 262, on this conspiracy. 17 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller The life story of the noble migrant Artabanes as depicted by Procopius for mere 15 years demonstrates remarkable dynamics of Armenian noble mobility, both spatial and social, within 6th century Byzantium. On the one side, we observe a stunningly rapid integration into the imperial Roman elite and almost into the imperial family itself; on the other hand, Artabanes in the most crucial and dangerous moments of his career – the rebellion against Roman rule in Armenia interior, the plot to murder Guntharis and the conspiracy against Justinian – relies on networks established by kinship and common Armenian origin (see also fig. 1 and 2 below). As I demonstrated in an earlier paper, Artabanes is not a single case for Byzantium in this regard – and similar observations can be made for other Armenian noblemen who made their career in the Persian Empire after having defected from the Roman side such as Smbat Bagratuni, whom we have already encountered above with his rebellious troops in the time of Emperor Maurice. After leading another rebellion in Roman Armenia, deportation to Constantinople and (similarly to Artabanes) military service for the emperor in Africa, he defected to Persia and within a few years achieved a most honoured position at the court of the Sasanian Great King Xusrō ))., who awarded him with the title Xosrov Šum Xusrō´s joy . Also Smbat relied on an already existing networks of Armenian noblemen and their retinues in the service of the Sasanians.100 As ) will demonstrate in another study, the ability of the same Armenian noblemen to fit in both a the courts in Constantinople and in Ctesiphon was based on these networks, but also on an aristocratic koine , a language of ritual exchange mutually understandable across borders in order to establish and maintain ties of patronage and loyalty in the wide area from Byzantium to Central Asia. We also have cues that the Christian nobility in the Caucasus region considered itself to be part of a more far reaching noble tradition: in his history of the Armenians, Movsēs Xorenacʿi reports the stories of origin of 50 of the most important noble houses, which I systematically surveyed. More than % related themselves or were related by Xorenacʿi to the eponymous forefather of the Armenians (ayk respectively to other autochthonous ancestors. But a large number of families traced themselves back to royal or significant noble houses of neighbouring countries such as Georgia, Caucasian Albania, Mesopotamia or – most prominently – Persia. Connections to even more remote regions were created with ancient Israel respectively Canaan, Bulgaria or even the royal house of China (see also fig. 6 below).101 Therefore, mobility and trans-local connections were deeply integrated into the traditions of the Armenian nobility. The military labour market of Byzantium (as Dirk Hoerder called it in his paper for our sessions) provided opportunities for aristocrats and non-aristocrats also in the centuries after the Arab expansion.102 Around 750 K”šān al-Armanī, commander in Arab services in the region of Armenia IV, defected to Byzantium and was made strategos by Emperor Constantine V. He conquered and plundered Theodosiupolis (Erzurum); many of the captured Armenians were settled in Cappadocia. Together with some of them, Preiser-Kapeller, erdumn, ucht, carayut´iwn; Preiser-Kapeller, Vom Bosporus zum Ararat. On Smbat Bagratuni now see also Pourshariati, Decline and Fall 136–140, 275, 297–298, 303; Settipani, Continuité des élites 331–333. 101 Cf. J. Preiser-Kapeller, Heroes, traitors and horses. Mobile elite warriors in Byzantium and beyond, 500-1100 AD (forthcoming; draft online: http://www.academia.edu/6436110/Heroes_traitors_and_horses._Mobile_elite_warriors_in_Byzantium_and_beyond_ 500-1100_AD); idem, Byzanz als Brücke. Cf. also the royal Armenian, Arsacid parentage claimed for Emperor Basil I (867-886) in the biography created by his grandson Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos and adopted also in later historiography: Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur Liber quo Vita Basilii imperatoris amplectitur, rec. ). Ševčenko CFHB 42). Berlin 2011, c. 2–3: 10–19, esp. c. 3, lns. 23–24: 18 (he basileios riza). 102 Cf. also Garsoïan, Problem : the Armenian career par excellence was that of military service . 100 18 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller K”šān returned into the Arab sphere some years later, which again demonstrates the double-edged validity of ties of ethnic affiliation.103 Despite such defections, Byzantium in the 8th century employed Armenian noblemen in leading commanding positions on a significant scale; as Theophanes informs us for the year 778, during a successful campaign of the thematic armies of Anatolia against Germanikeia under the supreme command of Michael Lachanodrakon, the army of the thema Anatolikon was commanded by Artabasdos (maybe Artawazd Mamikonean, who left Armenia after a rebellion in 771), the Opsikion by Gregorios tu Musulakiu (maybe also a Mamikonean, son of Mušeł and the Bukellarion by Tatzates Tačat Anjevac‛i, who had defected to Byzantium around 750, but in 782 returned to Armenia, where he became presiding prince in Arab services and died in 785 in battle against the Khazars).104 Desired qualities for military men were of course strength and bravery. Theophylaktos Abastaktos, a soldier of Armenian origin, saved the life of Basil I in a battle against the Paulicians and received a position in the service of the Emperor. Theophylaktos became father of the future Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos.105 Early in the reign of Basil I´s son Leon VI (886-912) an Armenian nobleman Azatos or Azotos with the telling nickname Makrocheir with big hands , with long arms ) came to Constantinople with his retinue. His impressive stature (according to De them. XII, 5 he was gigantic ) prompted the emperor to make Makrocheir Exarchos of the guard regiment of the Exkubites. In 896, Azotos fell in the battle of Bulgarophygon against the Bulgarians.106 In the retinue of Azotos was also Melias (Arm. Mleh), who survived the Battle of Bulgarophygon and returned to Armenia. But around 904 he most probably was again in Byzantine services and fought together with Eustathios Argyros in the East. Shortly afterwards, both of them fell from favour. In 907/908, Melias together with four other Armenian nobleman, Ismael and the three brothers Baasakios, Krikorikes and Pazunes, was in exile at the court of the Emir von Melitene, but returned to the Byzantine Empire via the intermediation of Eustathios Argyros, who had regained imperial favour before. All five Armenians then received commands at the Eastern frontier. Leon VI made Melias turmarches of Euphrateia, ta Trypia and eremia – the deserted no-mans-land at the frontier (see also above). Between 909 and 912 Melias fortified and resettled the town of Lykandos together with his Armenian retinue, and used it as basis for further operations against the Arabs. In 917 Melias together with his retinue again fought the Bulgarians on the Balkans, where the Battle at the Acheloos ended with another byzantine defeat. He then executed further campaigns at the Eastern border; his greatest success was the conquest of Melitene in 934 together with Ioannes Kurkuas, equally of Armenian origin.107 These campaigns and migrations marked also the beginning of the emergence of the above-mentioned mikra armenika themata. At the same time, they PmbZ nr 4169, with further references. Theophanes 451,12-27; see also for Artabasdos PmbZ nr 640, for Gregorios tu Musulakiu PmbZ nr 2407; for Tatzates PmbZ nr , for Michael Lachanodrakon PmbΒ nr . See also ρewond c. : Ezean; tr. Arzoumanian, 143): Such circumstances forced Tačat to work his way back into the service of the Arab Caliph. The opportunity arose when the Arab army was blockaded by the Greeks, and Tačat asked the Arabs to hand him a written oath allowing his return to his country. )n return, Tačat promised to free the Arab troops from the blockade and lead them to their country. Upon hearing the proposition, the Caliph gave his full and prompt approval and offered Tačat all he wanted, under oath. Tačat , thus assured of receiving the required oath, departed from the Greek territory with his entire household, and delivered the Arab troops from the hands of the Greeks. Cf. also Tritle, Flight. 105 PmbZ nr 28180, with further references. 106 De them. XII, 5; PmbZ nr. 20643, with further references. 107 De them, XII, 20-22; Konst. Porph., DAI 50,139-148, p. 238–240; G. Dédéyan, Mleh le Grand, stratège de Lykandos. Revue des Études Arméniennes, N. S. 15 (1981) 73–102. Cf. also PmbZ nr 20723 (Baasakios), 21828 (Eusthatios Argyros), 22917 (Ioannes Kurkuas), 23566 (Ismael), 24198 (Krikorikes), 25041 (Melias), 26400 (Pazunes). 103 104 19 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller illustrate the impact of network mechanisms similar to those we have inspected for the earlier period. Networks of learning and commerce Some information on non-military networks across borders in the 7th century we obtain from two texts of the already mentioned Armenian scholar Anania of Širak. In one he describes how he as young student in the 630s, dissatisfied with the quality of education in his homeland, set out for Byzantium to find an adequate instructor. He first travelled to Theodosiupolis/Karin (Erzurum) and the in the province of Armenia quarta (the region around Martyrupolis/today Silvan), where he studied with a scholar named Kʿristosatur, who could not satisfy his appetite for knowledge. Therefore, Anania intended to move to Constantinople, but on the way near Trebizond he encountered another group of Armenian students, who (after a maritime voyage to Sinop) where on their way home. They recommend to him a professor of mathematics named Tychikos, who lived in Trebizond. As already mentioned above, Tychikos had served in the Byzantine Army in Armenia, where he had learned the Armenian language, before his studies had led him to Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople. With him Anania now studied for several years before returning to Armenia. In another short text, Ananias describes the journey of a kinsman to Balḫ in modern-day Afghanistan, where he purchased a very valuable pearl, which he then profitably sold piece for piece to several business partners on his way back to native Širak (a rare evidence for Armenian commerce in this period, see also below on the range of Armenian mobility). 108 If we visualise the connections outlined in Anania´s biographical narratives, we detect a multiplex, despite the briefness of both accounts already relatively complex network of ties of education, commerce, kinship, authority and patronage (see fig 3, below). The backbone of Anania´s longer account is of course the network of education, consisting of ties between teachers and disciples. A simple quantitative analysis makes the central position of Tychikos of Trebizond visible; he also provides connection to the centres of classic education in the Mediterranean, which Ananias himself never visited, but also obtained from his prestige as teacher in Armenia (see fig. 4 below). The wide connections integrated in the life story of a man who himself actually never travelled far beyond the borders of his homeland become also visible if we take a look at the spatial structure of the narratives. Also here, we can quantify the centrality of localities with regard to their betweenness ; the Armenian capital of Dvin emerges as most important node of intermediation between West and East in Anania´s narratives (see map 7, below), thereby corresponding to the description of the city´s relevance in the work of Procopius (see below).109 The existence of such connections also after the Arab expansion is documented for Stepʿannos of Siwnikʿ, who between 713 and 717 travelled to Constantinople in order to learn the Greek and the Latin language and to study in the library of the (agia Sophia. He translated several theological works (Dionysios Areopagites, Gregorios of Nyssa) into Armenian, also with the support of a courtier of Armenian origin, the hypatos and Cf. new T. Greenwood, A Reassessment of the Life and mathematical Problems of Anania Širakacʿi. Revue des Études Arméniennes, N. S. 33 (2011) 131–186, also with English translations of all relevant texts. 109 For the methodological background cf. J.Preiser-Kapeller, Medieval Entanglements: Trans-Border Networks in Byzantium and China in Comparison, c. 300-900 (forthcoming; see also: http://www.academia.edu/3792891/Medieval_Entanglements_TransBorder_Networks_in_Byzantium_and_China_in_Comparison_c._300-900) 108 20 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller kenarios David110. Furthermore, Stepʿannos became involved in theological debates with Patriarch Germanos I, who also handed over to him a letter to the Armenian church; afterwards he also travelled to Rome (and allegedly also to Athens) before returning to Armenia, where he became bishop of Siwnik.111 His itinerary is most instructive for the possibilities still existing for mobile scholars in the early 8th century. But places of (Greek) education also still existed within the new Arab sphere of power Armenia was now part of; between and , a Dawitʿ from Taron translated some works of Basil of Caesarea in Damascus on the order of Prince Hamazasp Mamikonean, as we are informed in the colophon of manuscript from the Matenadaran in Erewan. We may also assume the existence of a larger Armenian colony in the city which at this time became the centre of the Umayyad Caliphate.112 Both Stepʿannos and Dawitʿ also document an overlap between connections of learning and aristocratic networks towards and within the centres of imperial power, which opened important channels for their mobility. RECEIVING SOCIETIES: ARMENIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE BYZANTINE SPHERE As we have demonstrated, service in the Byzantine Empire could provide ample opportunities for material and symbolic rewards; even newcomers could be integrated into the military and court elite relatively fast. The significant share of individuals and families of Armenian background in the Byzantine elite highlighted also in earlier scholarship illustrates the mobile Armenians´ ability and the Byzantine society´s capability for integration. As mentioned above, Nina Garsoïan in 1998 provided a magisterial synthesis on The Problem of Armenian )ntegration into the Byzantine Empire 113; this gives us the freedom to concentrate on some selected aspects of special interest within the framework of migration history, documented by various sample cases. Linguistic aspects Language, of course, played a significant role for the ability to fit into Byzantine society in all social contexts.114 While, as we have seen, many of the leading aristocrats may have spoken Greek already before their moving into the Empire or even had studied in one of the Greek institutions of learning115, these cannot be assumed for all migrants, especially of non-elite backgrounds, but also for noblemen.116 Procopius tells the sorry fate of one Gilacius during the Gothic wars in Italy: Now there had been with John a certain Gilacius of the Armenian race (Armenios genos), commander of a small force of Armenians. This Gilacius did not know how to speak either Greek or Latin or Gothic or any other language except Armenian alone. When some of the Goths happened upon this man, they enquired who he might be. For they were quite averse to killing every man who came in their way, lest they be compelled to destroy each other in fighting at night, as might easily happen. For him, see PmbΒ nr ; W. Seibt, Κ ά ς – ein „neuer W“rdenträger am (of des byzantinischen Kaisers. Handes Amsorya 88 (1974) 369–380. 111 R. W. Thomson, Constantinople in Early Armenian Literature, in: Hovannisian and Payaslian (ed.), Constant. 34–36; PmbΒ nr. ; Seibt, Κ ά ς. 112 Matenadaran ms nr 822. 113 Garsoïan, Problem. 114 Garsoïan, Problem 101–103. See also Vaux, Linguistic manifestations. 115 Cf. also Greenwoord, Corpus, and Vaux, Linguistic manifestations on testimonies of Greek language skills in medieval Armenia. 116 A most interesting testimony of an Armenian trying to learn Greek is a papyrus containing Greek in Armenian script, now in the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris (inventory number BnF Arm 332); it can be dated only roughly between the 5th and 7th cent., cf. J. Clackson, A Greek Papyrus in Armenian Script. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 129 (2000) 223-258; idem, New Readings on the Armeno-Greek Papyrus BnF 332 Arm. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 141 (2002) 116. 110 21 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller But he was able to make them no answer except indeed that he was Gilacius, a general (Gilakios strategos); for his title which he had received from the emperor he had heard many times and so had been able to learn it by heart. The barbarians, accordingly, perceiving by this that he was an enemy, made him a prisoner for the moment, but not long afterwards put the man to death. 117 While bilingualism may not always have been live-saving, being fluent not only in Greek, but also in Armenian was of advantage also in the service of the emperor, especially in his diplomatic dealings with Armenia. One hermeneutes sent on three diplomatic missions to the princedom of Taron in Western Armenia by Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos (himself of an Armenian background, as we have seen) was the protospatharios Krinites, who in turn may have stemmed from an Armenian family (a Prokopios Krinites commanded a unit of Armenians against the Bulgarians in 894; if the hermeneutes was a descendant, maintaining Armenian language skills had proven beneficial for this family).118 A counterpart to Krinites from the Armenian side may have been Theodoros, hermeneutes of the Armenians in the negotiations of the princes of Taron with Emperor Leon VI, ca. 898-900.119 But also other individuals made their Armenian linguistic background visible; around 1000, a Mχit‛ar together with a Philippos used a bilingual seal, which had a Greek inscription on one side ( Lord help me Machitarios and Philip ) and an Armenian one on the other side ( Of me, servant [of God], Mχit‛ar, and of Philip ). Most probably it was a private seal, maybe of two business partners; but the purpose of its bilingualism remains unclear.120 A clear statement was the sponsoring of an evangeliary in Armenian language by one Αovhannēs, protospatharios and proximos of the Dux Theodorokanos, which according to the colophon was finished by the writer (and probably monk) Kirakos in the year 1007 in Adrianople in Thrace; it also contains a miniature of the donator, but with a later Greek inscription, which identified a Dishypatos Photeinos as donator, while the original Armenian scripture had been erased.121 Religious aspects – saints and heretics122 This evangeliary of course also raises the questions after the religious affiliation of Armenian migrants respectively the change of affiliation. As we have seen above, Byzantine and Armenian Orthodoxy trod different theological paths especially since the 6th century, a process which reached a first climax around 700. From the Byzantine side, testimony to this are several canons against Armenian ecclesiastical practices proclaimed by the Council in Trullo (Quinisextum) in 692 (Canon 32, against the used of unmixed wine by the Armenians in the liturgy; Canon 33, against the Armenian custom to ordain only descendants of priestly families as priests; Canon 56, against the eating of cheese and eggs on Saturdays and Sundays during lent; Canon 99, against the custom to cook meat and distribute it among the priests and worshipers on certain festive days).123 Beyond all doctrinal issues, these regulations very much intervened into customary practices both of Armenian clerics and of laymen when living under Byzantine Proc. Bell. VII, 26, 24-27: 384-386 (Dewing); PLRE III s. v. Gilacius. Konst. Porph. DAI 43, 135-140, 169-179; PmbZ nr 24200. See also s. v. Prokopios Krinites (PmbZ nr 26760): and Kurtikios (PmbZ nr 24215); Garsoïan, Problem 101; Martin-Hisard, Constantinople. 119 PmbZ nr 27644; Konst. Porph. DAI 43, 41f.; Martin-Hisard, Constantinople. 120 Coulie – Nesbitt, A Bilingual Rarity 121-123; PmbZ nr 25473 and 26662; Vaux, Linguistic manifestations. 121 PmbZ nr 28486 and 23701, with further references; see also Vaux, Linguistic manifestations. 122 On Byzantine-Armenian polemics in general cf. Garsoïan, Problem 66–82. 123 Concilium Quinisextum (ed. Ohme) 220-224, 248-250, 286 and esp. p. 64–80 on the background to these canons. 117 118 22 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller authority.124 Even more, Canon 72 of the Trullanum declared: An orthodox man is not permitted to marry a heretical woman, nor an orthodox woman to be joined to a heretical man. But if anything of this kind appear to have been done by any [we require them] to consider the marriage null, and that the marriage be dissolved. 125 By that time, followers of the mainstream of the Armenian Church had clearly qualified as heretics, while in the time of Justinian the (planned) marriage between the Armenian Artabanes and the emperor´s niece (see above) still would not have aroused any canonical issues. From 700 onwards, on the contrast, any intention to intermarry with the Byzantine elite at least in theory would have necessitated a formal acceptance of Orthodoxy.126 Another question of course was the general tolerance of Armenian non-Chalcedonian communities and especially clerics on Byzantine soil. Armenian sources report two episodes of downright persecution of Armenian clergymen for the 10th century: in the 930s in the time of the Armenian King Abas I vast numbers of monks were expelled from Roman territory for the sake of orthodoxy. Coming to our land, they built many monasteries: first Kamrjajor, then the monastery called Horomosin – as if they had come from the regions of the Romans-and Dpravank'. It is said that the [monastery] of the Holy Mother of God of Sanahin was built by them. It remains unclear if this persecution was commanded by the imperial centre or had a more local character; the information that one of the communities, who fled and founded the Kamrjajor-Monastery, came from Egrisi (Western Georgia), clearly the periphery of the Byzantine-Orthodox sphere, suggests the later variant. 127 Clearly from local initiative of a Byzantine Metropolitan arose a further persecution of non-Chalcedonian clergymen in the city of Sebasteia in Cappadocia in 986: … and the Metropolitan of Sebasteia started to disquiet the Armenian people because of their faith. And since he had the power in his hands, we started to plague the priests because of their faith; and he also ordered to bring the protopresbyter of the city of Sebasteia in iron chains to the court of the emperor. And they killed the protopresbyter Gabriel after they had tortured him in the dungeon … . This happened in the year of the [Armenian] Era [= th th March 25 986 – March 24 987]. And besides other priests also the two [Armenian] bishops of Sebasteia and Larissa, Sion and Yovhannēs, due to the intrigues of the same Metropolitan accepted the Council of Chalcedon and seceded themselves from the unity with the Armenians. And since then the prohibited the bell-ringing of the Armenians in the city of Sebasteia until the time when Emperor Basil [II] came to the east. 128 This imperial intervention in favour of the Armenian Church took place in the year 1000/1001, when Basil II on his campaign to secure the territories of the deceased prince David of Tao passed through Sebasteia. It also lets the story about the martyrdom of the priest Gabriel in Constantinople ring hollow, since the integration of Armenians and Armenian territories was one of the main aims of imperial politics in this period.129 As mentioned above, there was also a considerable share of pro-Chalcedonian Armenians during and after the period of alienation in the 6th-7th centuries. Others would have opted for Chalcedon in order to achieve better integration into the Byzantine elite after having moved to the empire. In any case, an Armenian background On this period cf. also M. Nichanian, Byzantine Emperor Philippikos-Vardanes. Monothelite Policy and Caucasian Diplomacy, in: Hovannisian and Payaslian (ed.), Constant. 39–51. 125 Concilium Quinisextum (ed. Ohme)262-264. 126 Garsoïan, Problem 86 and 95. 127 Vardan c. 46 [p. 88]; transl. Thomson 188; PmbZ nr 20006, 28465, 28466. 128 Stephan von Taron Asołik ))), cap. , p. , Gelzer . Cf. Also PmbΒ nr Gabriel , nr Siōn and nr Αōhannēs . 129 Stephan von Taron Asołik ))), cap. , p. 10,6-11 (Gelzer). Cf. Also PmbZ nr 30574; Garsoïan, Problem 70–71, 85–86; Holmes, Basil II. Cf. also Todt and Vest, Syria 423, on the popularity of Basil II in other Armenian sources. 124 23 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller was not a priori an impediment to count as pious man even in the eyes of the most rigorous defenders of Byzantine Orthodoxy. One case in support is Arsaber, until 808 Patrikios and Kuaistor (the highest judicial official) under Emperor Nikephoros I (a position which equally suggests a sound background in Greek education); his daughter Theodora married the later Emperor Leon V the Armenian in this case, the byname was clearly used to indicate heresy, as we will see below). Theodoros Studites, leading figure of the venerators of the icons during the second period of Iconoclasm, mentions Arsaber between 821 and 824 in a letter to Theodora as a pious man (indicating Orthodoxy and pro-Icon sympathies).130 Another pious aristocrat of possible Armenian background was Konstantinos Lips; under Emperor Leon VI he served in several embassies to Armenia. His daughter was about to marry Apoganem, the brother of prince Grigor I of Taron, who died before the marriage ceremony. In 907 Lips founded the (of course Byzantine Orthodox) monastery in Constantinople named after him, which was consecrated with the emperor present.131 Even to sainthood rose Mary the Younger (of Bizye); according to her Vita, her father was a powerful man in Megale Armenia and around the beginning of the reign of Emperor Basil I (867-886) came to Constantinople, where also Mary was born in ca. 875. Around 888 she married a Drungarios Nikephoros, whom she got to know on the domain of her brother-in-law Bardas Bratzes (equally of Armenian background) in Mesene in Thrace. She had four sons, Orestes, Bardanes as well as the twins Baanes and Stephanos (so two children received Greek and two Armenian names). Her husband received a command in Bizye after he had distinguished himself in the war against the Bulgarians. After a pious life and plagued by her husband, Maria died in 902.132 Another Armenian Byzantine saint was )oseph, who had already lived as eremite on Mt. Athos when St. Euthymios the Younger arrived there in ca. 859; Ioseph continued his ascetic life as companion of Euthymios and was also ordained as priest before he died in ca. 870. His corpse did not decay and segregated Myron.133 While the presence of a large number of monks from Georgia (where the church had separated itself from the Armenians at the beginning of the 7th century and had joined the Chalcedonian camp) on Mt. Athos especially since the foundation of the Monastery of )viron of the )berians = Georgians in ca. is well-known, also the Armenian background of some Athonite monks is documented.134 One of this, a Theoktistos, signed a charter of 1035 in Armenian letters ) have signed with my own hand, Theoktistos right below the Greek subscription of Theoktistos, Abbot of the Esphigmenu-monastery and also Protos of Mt. Athos (1015-ca. 1040); this had led Hr. Bartikian to the assumption that this Abbot Theoktistos himself had signed a second time in Armenian and therefore was of Armenian background – a hypothesis not accepted by the main editors of this volume of the Actes of the Megiste Laura. But at least we encounter here a Chalcedonian Athonite monk writing Armenian.135 Even two Patriarchs of Constantinople in our period of consideration were (probably) of Armenian background. A clear case is the last Iconoclastic Patriarch Ioannes VII Theod. Stud. Ep. 538 (Fatouros); PmbZ nr 600. PmbZ nr 23815, with further references. 132 The Life of St. Mary the Younger, transl. by A. Laioi, in: A.-M. Talbot ed. , (oly Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints’ Lives in English Translation. Washington, D. C. 1996, 239–289; PmbZ nr 24910, nr 27066. On naming practices see also Garsoïan, Problem 96–99. 133 PmbZ nr. 23511, with further references. 134 On Georgian monasticism in Byzantium since the 9 th century cf. B. Martin-Hisard, L´Athos, l´Orient et le Caucase au XIe siècle, in: A. Bryer – M. Cunningham (eds.), Mount Athos and Byzantine Monasticism. Aldershot 1996, 239–248, and also E. Tchoidze, Enas Georgianos proskynetes ston byzantio kosmo tou 9ou aiona: o Agios Ilarion o Georgianos. Athens 2011. 135 Actes de Lavra, Nr. 29, l. 20 (p. 374); PmbZ nr 28057. 130 131 24 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Grammatikos (837-843), whose father Pankratios was of noble Armenian origin )oannes´ brother had the more typical name Arsaber).136 The other candidate is Patriarch Photios himself (858–867/878–886). Son of Sergios and Eirene, both steadfast venerators of icon even in the face of imperial persecution, and brother of Tarasios, Konstantinos, Theodoros and Sergios so no Armenian names in the family anymore , Photios in two letters to the Ašot ) Bagratuni in / (one preserved only in Armenian translation) called himself of related blood syngenous aimatos) with the Armenian king. This has been interpreted at as least consciousness of (and in this case, deliberate allusion to) an Armenian background. In any case, also the (numerous) opponents of Photios have used his foreign blood ethnikou haimatos) and looks as argumentum ad hominem; one source, for instance, called him Chazaroprosopos Khazar-Face .137 That also Armenian could be used as indicator for a both foreign and heterodox background in pejorative intention is clear for instance in the case of Emperor Leon V (813–820), the Armenian , also called Amalekites . Born as son of a Bardas, he rose to the imperial throne after a military career; he had four sons Basileios, Gregorios, Theodosios and the oldest Symbatios (the Armenian name Smbat , who was renamed Constantine on the occasion of his crowning as co-emperor. While this may indicate an effort to fit in by abandoning too obvious signs of Armenian identity, Leon´s initiative to re-vitalise Iconoclasm earned him enduring bad press in Byzantine historiography, including his bynames.138 This possible double meaning of Armenian as both foreign and non-orthodox is also evident from the Georgian Vita Ioannis et Euthymii hiberica, who mentions a certain Gvirpel, who was the financial official of a Georgian prince and became monk in the Iviron-Monastery on Mt. Athos, after he had converted to Orthodoxy and was rebaptized cum Armenius esset, as we read in the Latin translation of the text.139 Language, religion and identity in Bari, 990 Again, all these samples more or less pertain to the elite stratum of society. One of the rare examples for the interplay between non-elite individuals of Armenian and other backgrounds on Byzantine soil constitutes a charter produced in Bari in Southern Italy in the late 10th century.140 As we have seen above, not only single Armenian commanders, but larger number of Armenian troops served in Byzantine Italy from the 6th century onwards (see also below); from the end of the 9th century onwards, we also have information on the settlement of Armenians in re-conquered areas of Southern Italy.141 The document of interest was written in 990 by the Latin clericus Caloiohannes Cf. PmbZ nr 3199, 602 and 5862, with further references. Photios, ep. 284, 81-84; Ps.-Symeon 674, 19; Dorfmann-Lazarev, Arméniens; M. E. Shirinian, Armenian Elites in Constantinople. Emperor Basil and Patriarch Photius, in: Hovannisian and Payaslian (ed.), Constant. 53–72, with full references also on the Armenian origin of Emperor Basil ), for whom was claimed an Arsacid, royal Armenian parentage, see also above); Greenwood, Photius; PmbZ nr 6253, 6665, 1450, 8623, 4442, 7237, 3999, 7700 and 6672, with further references. 138 Turner, Leo V; PmbZ nr 4244, with further references. 139 Vita beati patris nostri Iohannis atque Euthymii, et oratio de probatis eorum moribus, conscripta a pauperculo Georgio presbytero et monacho, Latin transl. by P. Peeters, Histoires monastiques géorgiennes, I. Vie des Ss. Jean et Euthyme. AnBoll 36-37 (1917–1919) § 56, p. 50,12; PmbZ nr 22534. On the re-baptism of Armenians see also Garsoïan, Problem 72–73. 140 On this region and Byzantine Italy in general see also M. McCormick, The Imperial Edge: Italo-Byzantine Identity, Movement and Integration, A.D. 650-950, in H. Ahrweiler and A. E. Laiou (eds.), Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire. Washington, D.C., 1998, 17-52. 141 G. Dédéyan, Le stratège Symbatikios et la colonisation Arménienne dans la thème de Longobardie, in: Ravenna da capitale imperiale a capitale esarcale, in: Atti del XV)) Congresso internazionale di studio sull’alto medioevo, Ravenna, 6–12 giugno 2004. Spoleto 2005, vol. I, 461–493; cf. also Garsoïan, Problem 56–57, with further references; PmbZ nr 27443. 136 137 25 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller from Bari, who explained: his father Dumnellus had bought several pieces of property some years before in the plain of Celia near Bari from the Armenian women Bartisky, daughter of Moiseo Pascike and wife of the Armenian Corcus. After the death of Dumnellus Caloiohannes inherited this property, but lost the charter on the land sales. One of these pieces of land was (wrongfully) sold to the clericus Mele, son of the Armenian presbyterus Simagon. Iohannes, son of Mele, sold a part of this piece to Cricori, the son of the Armenian Achanus. Caloiohannes now successfully demanded the return of the property from Iohannes, but agreed to allow Cricori the further cultivation of the land he had bought due to his poverty. For the confirmation of this agreement Iohannes presented as mediator another Cricori, son of the Armenian Petrosi. The charter was signed by five witnesses, among these Leo, who signed in Greek, the sacerdos Husep, who subscribed in Armenian, and three further individuals (Andrea presbiter, Falcus presbiter and Iohannes), who subscribed in Latin.142 A visualisation of the social network emerging from the information in this documents (see fig. 5 below) clearly demonstrates that despite a considerable amount of commercial and legal interaction between various ethnic backgrounds (indicated in the text by ethnonyms and/or languages of subscription we encounter members of an Armenian colony acting within a predominantly Armenian milieu, where people have Armenian names, write and speak) Armenian (although at least some of them were bi- or even trilingual up to a certain degree in order to execute the commercial and legal deals with their Latin and Greek neighbours and attend or work as Armenian priests of unspecified denomination). According to the document, the Armenian community in Bari was present there at least in the second generation, but maybe even longer (since the late 9th century? ; it is therefore hard to estimate the actual timespan of co-habitation of these groups which antedated the range of interaction (and non-interaction) documented in our text. Intermarriage, not deducible from the charter of 990, can be at least assumed for another clericus armenus in Bari named Moseses, who before 1009 had built a Church of St. George in Bari. He died before October 1011, when his widow Archontissa (a Greek name) made a contract with his son Andreas (from his first wife) on the heritage. Archontissa was supported by her relative, the ek prosopu Silvester. The charter was produced by the clergymen and notarius Bisantius and subscribed by four witnesses: the archidiaconus Madelmus, the clergyman Romualdus, Amatos, and another Romualdus, son of the protospatharius Pardus; here, the heritage of the Armenian priest is negotiated within a predominantly Greek-Latin milieu.143 These relatively detailed views on the interactions between different ethnicities in the Byzantine province within the non-elite stratum of society (although the clergymen and notarii definitely constituted leading figures of their local communities) are sporadic and therefore even more tantalising with regard to the modification or confirmation of linguistic, onomastic and religious aspects of identity. We also do not get any information on the possible pressure towards doctrinal conformity, for instance, from the side of state authorities. Byzantium, Armenians and Armenian mobility at large Beyond possible religious antagonisms mentioned also above, the already discussed case of Artabanes Arsakides had illustrated the possible tensions between the desire to integrate into the Byzantine elite and the imperial pull towards conformity on an 142 Codice diplomatico barese: Vol. IV: Pergamene di S. Nicola di Bari, ed. F. Nitti Di Vito, Bari 1900, Nr. 4, p. 8–10. Cf. also Achanus (PmbZ nr 20092), Cricori (nr 21354), Iohannes (nr 23493), Caloiohannes (nr 21223), Bartisky (nr 20834), Moiseo Pascike (nr 25415), Corcus (nr 21348), Mele (nr 25031), Simagon (nr 27078), Iohannes (nr 23493), Cricori (nr 21355), Petrosi (nr 26550), Leo (nr 24305), Husep (nr 22644). 143 Codice diplomatico barese: Vol. IV: Pergamene di S. Nicola di Bari, ed. F. Nitti Di Vito, Bari 1900, Nr. 9, p. 18,13f.; Nr. 11, p. 21–24; PmbZ nr 25429, 20549, 20392, 27076. 26 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller individual level. The background to the rebellion amidst which we first encounter Artabanes in the sources demonstrates similar tensions between the imperial regime and Armenian communities at large. As mentioned above, within the Western Armenian territories which came under Roman suzerainty under the conditions of agreements with the Sasanians in the 4th century, the Arsacids and other noble families enjoyed several privileges and some agree of autonomy, especially in the South-western regions, which where under the rule of indigenous princes called Satraps in the sources (see also above for two of these princes studying in Antioch and Berytus). After more than a century of special status, Justinian decided to bring about a full integration of these territories into the military and provincial framework of the Empire. The Satrapies and Armenia interior (the homeland of Artabanes) were put under the control of a magister militum per Armeniam; a few years later, all these areas together with two already existing Armenian provinces were organised into four new provinces (Armenia I-IV) and the autonomy of the Satraps and noble houses was abolished. In his Novella XXXI, the Emperor made clear that he considered the Satrapies an institution alien to the Roman order: This title (Satrap) is not derived from the Romans or from our predecessors, but was introduced by another power [the Persians]. 144 Even more, a new tax regime and the Roman law system were introduced; in an edict Concerning the order of inheritance among the Armenians De Armeniorum successione, 535) and in the Novella XXI (De Armeniis ut ipsi per omnia sequantur romanorum leges, 536), Emperor Justinian tried to apply the Roman law on the whole of Roman Armenia, desiring that the land of the Armenians should prosper altogether and should differ in no way from our realm. 145 Also within the new military and administrative framework, individuals of Armenian background played as significant role; this very much made sense from an imperial point of view, as also Malalas indicates concerning the new magister militum per Armeniam Sittas, who enrolled indigenous scriniarii and made them his own military scriniarii in accord with an imperial rescript, having requested the Emperor to enrol natives since they knew the regions of Armenia. 146 Also the first governors of Armenia interior as province were recruited among the Armenian aristocracy, as Procopius tells us, but not from the long-established houses, but from noblemen who recently had defected from the Persian side: That Symeones (a Persarmenian aristocrat) who had given (the fortress of) Pharangion into the hands of the Romans persuaded the Emperor Justinian … to present him with certain villages of Armenia. And becoming master of these places, he was plotted against and murdered by those who had formerly possessed them. … And when the Emperor heard this, he gave over the villages to Amazaspes, the nephew of Symeones, and appointed him archon of the Armenians. This Amazaspes, as time went on, was denounced to the Emperor Justinian by one of his friends, Akakios by name, on the ground that he was abusing the Armenians and wished to give over to the Persians Theodosiupolis and certain other fortresses. After telling this, Akakios, by the Emperor s will, slew Amazaspes treacherously, and himself secured the arche over the Armenians by the gift of the Emperor.147 Akakios148 was appointed as governor of the province of Armenia interior (or Armenia prima in , as we also know from Justinian’s Novella XXX) on the reorganization of Adontz and Garsoïan, Armenia, 134 (translation) and 35* (Greek text). Adontz and Garsoïan, Armenia, 142–164, 32*–34* and 37*–38* (Greek texts of the two laws); Güterbock, RömischArmenien, 43–58; Lounghis et al., Regesten, N. 1078 and 1108; Dédéyan (ed.), Histoire, 196–197; Thomson, Armenia, 167–168. 146 Mal. 18, 10: 359, 12–14 (Thurn); Greatrex and Lieu, Eastern Frontier, 84; Preiser-Kapeller, Magister Militum, 349. 147 Proc., Bella II, 3, 1–6: I, 270–271 (Dewing). 148 PLRE s. v. Acacius 1, p. 8-9. 144 145 27 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Roman Armenia and the creation of four Armenian provinces.149 Less clear is the meaning of archon of the Armenians, the office Amazaspes150 received from the Emperor; Adontz expressed the opinion that Amazaspes was already appointed governor of the province of Armenia interior in 532.151 )n any case, the promotion of these newcomers together with the other imperial measures, incited the representatives of the autochthonous Armenian nobility to violent resistance; Symeones was murdered by those who had formerly possessed the villages he had received from the emperor. And as we have seen above, Akakios was killed by Artabanes and a large scale armed rebellion broke out. The insurgents also made contact with the Sasanian Great King Xusrō I, to whom they also escaped after the failure of their rebellion, and complained against Justinian. We hear Procopius’ words from the mouth of the fugitive Arsacids at the Sasanian court, but they may as well reflect the opinion of the Armenians: Justinian has turned everything in the world upside down und wrought complete confusion. … For what thing which was before forbidden has he not done? Or what thing which was well established has he not disturbed? Did he not ordain for us the payment of a tax which did not exist before, and has he not enslaved our neighbours, the Tzani, who were autonomous, and has he not set over the king of the wretched Lazi a Roman magistrate? – an act neither in keeping with the natural order of things nor very easy to explain in words. 152 The example of the Satrapies and Armenia interior demonstrates what imperial pressure towards conformity and control could imply for the traditional framework of noble power in Armenia: the gradual reduction of autonomy, the installation of military and administrative structures, the displacement of the noble families from the region and their (attempted) integration into the empire’s elite were the crucial steps of the integration of Western Armenia into the empire as a province.153 This modus operandi was applied by the empire also in following centuries vis-à-vis the noble houses of Armenia if the empire had the opportunity to win the upper hand in the struggle for the control of the country for a longer time, as it did in the late 10th/early 11th century, as we have seen above. Finally, imperial authorities were not only anxious to impose control on individuals and population within their borders, but also on their mobility within and beyond. We have already mentioned above the contractual clause of the Byzantine-Persian peace treaty of 562 regarding the limitation of defections by the imperial powers, which would have pertained especially also to Armenians, as the earlier experiences in the period of Justinian had taught. Another interesting example of imperial legislation in this regard is a rescript of Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas from the year 964 to an anonymous official, maybe the commander of the region of Lykandos (a region re-settled by the Armenians under Melias 50 years before, see above), where also the Monastery of Lakape (mentioned in the text) was located. This official had informed the emperor about several problems in this region, especially also on the habit of Armenian possessors of military estates to leave their property frequently without permission for longer periods 149 Adontz and Garsoïan, Armenia, 133–136 and 143–144; Greatrex and Lieu, Eastern Frontier, 100; Preiser-Kapeller, Magister Militum, 349; Lounghis et al., Regesten, N. 1108 and 1111. 150 PLRE III s. v. Amazaspes. 151 Adontz and Garsoïan, Armenia, 138–139. 152 Proc., Bella II, 3, 38–40: I, 280–281 (Dewing); on the accusation of being a ruthless revolutionary, which Procopius expresses against Justinian on several occasions, cf. Meier, Das andere Zeitalter Justinians 198–199. 153 Cf. also Faroqhi, Ottoman Empire, : Only after a certain lapse of time were the sons of former dynasts-turnedOttoman-dignitaries appointed to serve in faraway provinces, while the territories held by their fathers or grandfathers were integrated into the Ottoman imperial structure, and now administered by people with no previous links to the localities concerned. 28 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller (to ton Armenion astaton kai polyplanes); Nikephoros II Phokas ordered that property left by Armenian soldier should become property of the state already after three years (and not after 30 years as in other cases) and could be distributed among refugees or other soldiers anew after this period in order to teach the Armenians that they not had the freedom to leave and settle somewhere else and to return according to their own wishes, since otherwise panta ta armenika all the Armenian thematic armies, see also above on the mikra Armenika themata would dissolve.154 Once Armenian groups had migrated to Byzantium, the empire of course wanted to maintain its military and agricultural manpower; even more than individual acts of defection, unauthorised mobility on a larger scale threatened the very existence of the newly established defence perimeter at the frontier. At the same, from a modern point of view it may seem surprising that even an absence of three years was tolerable by the authorities. But such relatively high limits for the absence of individuals before their property rights or other aspects of their legal status underwent a modification we also encounter in the Armenian ecclesiastical legislation; they therefore allow some inferences on the extension of (deliberate or forced) mobility at large. The Armenian Church was especially concerned with the preservation of bonds of matrimony in the case of a longer term absence of one of the spouses. According regulations were made at a Council in the capital of Dvin in 648, after the first period of Arab incursions in the country, which had brought about larger scale displacement of people. These canons then remained valid over the centuries and were also included in th cent. According to these the important Lawcode of Mχit‛ar Goš from the late regulations, one was allowed to remarry after seven years, if the other spouse had been taken captive and her or his whereabouts remained unknown. While this rule regarding forced mobility pertained to both gender, the same seven-years period was applied in cases where one spouse deliberately left home – for commerce or other purposes – and was reported death; this canon acts on the assumption that only the man would undertake such a journey, while the wife would remain behind (and would be allowed to take another husband after seven years). Finally, the regulation would also be effective if the wife found out that her husband had taken another wife in his place of destination; after seven years she would be free to marry again (one wonders if the wife of Artabanes bothered to come to Constantinople in order to claim here marital rights in advance of the elapse of a similar deadline, see above).155 The continuous validity of these canons once more documents the significance of both forced and deliberate mobility in early medieval Armenian society, but also the possible dissolving effects of mobility on social ties established in the society of origin. THE SPATIAL RANGE OF ARMENIAN MOBILITY: FROM ICELAND (?) TO CENTRAL ASIA Finally, also some observations regarding the spatial range of Armenian mobility in this period shall be made, beginning with Western Europe.156 As we have seen above, during the Gothic wars of Justinian a considerable number of Armenian commanders and 154 Nicolas Svoronos, Les novelles des empereurs Macédoniens concernant la terre et les stratiotes. Introduction – edition – commentaires. Édition posthume et index établis par P. Gounaridis. Athens 1994, Nr. 9, 170–173, esp. 170, lns. 1-11; Eric McGeer, The Land Legislation of the Macedonian Emperors. Translation and Commentary (Medieval Sources in Translation 38). Toronto 2000, 87–89; Müller – Beihammer, Regesten nr 720. See also PmbZ nr 31466, and Garsoïan, Problem 63. 155 Mxit‛ar Goš, Dastanagirk‛, transl. Thomson ch. , -137 (ch. 14) and 249-250 (ch. 206), with references for the older canons. See also Mardirossian, Le livre des canons. 156 In McCormick, Origins, we find only four reference to Armenia or Armenians, which does not correspond to the actual significance of Armenian mobility across the Mediterranean in this period. 29 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Armenian troops fought in Italy (as they did in Africa, see above).157 We find them in Italy also in the following decades and centuries (as we have seen for the case of Bari), especially in the centre of Byzantine rule in Ravenna. A magister militum Bahan served there in and was mentioned as glorious filius noster in a letter of Pope Gregory the Great.158 A Paulacis, son of Stephanus and miles numeri Arminiorum an Armenian regiment stationed there) made a donation to the church of Ravenna in November 639.159 And for the same period between 625 and 644 an Exarchos of Armenian background Isaak is documented in a Greek inscription in San Vitale.160 Around the same time, the acts of the Council in the Lateran 649 where signed by „Thalassius abba presbyter venerabilis monasterii Armenissarum , who presided over the Monastery of Renati in Rome, which since the end of the 6th century is documented as home of monks from the East, but whose Armenian character was established only recently in decades before 649.161 For the presence of Armenian clergymen in Western Europe beyond Italy we have a testimony in the 10th book (cap. 24) of the history of Gregory of Tours, where he reports the arrival of an Armenian bishop named Simeon in 591 in his hometown, who had been a prisoner of the Persians and reported about the war between Byzantines and Sasanians in the East. In the same year Eusebius quidam negotiator genere Syrus, a merchant of Syrian origin, was elected bishop of Paris, as Gregory reports (cap. 26)162; both episode highlight the still strong connections across the late antique Mediterranean in this period. Less unambiguous are later testimonies for a group of „curious saints, as RalphJohannes Lilie has called them, who show up in several places in Western Europe especially in the later 10th and 11th century and are ascribed an Armenian origin in the Latin sources, which, together with all other details of their life before their arrival in Western Europe, can hardly be verified (as Lilie explains, Armenia seems to have been included as Ort exotischer Frömmigkeit in these traditions in several cases)163; among these saint are:  Davinus (PmbZ nr 21445), of noble Armenian origin, who allegedly had travelled to Jerusalem and from there to Rome and died in Lucca while on his way to Santiago de Compostela.  Macarius of Gent (PmbZ nr 24806), an Armenian and allegedly archiepiscopus of Antioch, who in 1011 arrived with three companions in Gent in Flanders on a pilgrimage and died there after one year in the monastery of St. Bavo.  Gregorius (PmbZ nr 22479), of noble Armenian origin and archiepiscopus of Nicopolis in Armenia before fleeing from this burden together with two monks (PmbZ nr 22479), who accompanied him to Italy and across the Alps to France, where he lived as eremite in Pithiviers (80 km south of Paris) for seven years.  Jorius (PmbZ nr , allegedly from Armenia maior and bishop of Mt. Sinai , mentioned in a grave inscription in Béthune in Northern France, where he died on July 26th 1033: Obiit beatus Jorius VII KL. Augusti. Venit de Armenia majore. Et Cf. also Cl. Mutafian, L´immigration arménienne en Italie, in: Balard – Ducellier, Migrations 33–41; L. B. Zekiyan, Le Colonie Armene del medio evo in Italia e le relazioni cultural Italo-Armene, in: Atti del primo simposio internazionale di arte Armena (Bergamo, 28-30 giugna 1975). Venice 1978, 803–929, esp. 813–847. 158 PLRE III s. v. Bahan; Greg., Ep. IX 99. 159 Zekiyan, Le Colonie Armene 814-815; PLRE III s. v. Paulacis (Marini, P. Dip. 95). 160 Zekiyan, Le Colonie Armene 815 (with citation of inscription); PLRE III A, s. v. Isaacius 8 (with further references); Garsoïan, Problem 97. 161 Mansi X, 903; PmbZ nr 7253. 162 Gregory of Tours: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 1,1: Gregorii Turonensis Opera. Teil 1: Libri historiarum X, ed. B. Krusch – W. Levison. Hannover 1937, 515, lns. 10-12 and 519, ln. 15. 163 R.-J. Lilie, Sonderbare Heilige. Zur Präsenz orthodoxer Heiliger im Westen während des 11. Jahrhunderts. Millenium 5 (2008) 225–259 157 30 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller fuit episcopus de monte Sinaï. Pater ejus Stephanus, et mater ejus Helena, VII fratres fuerunt Macarius. Ab Incarnatione mill. trigesimus III. (cited after PmbZ nr. 23588)  Symeon (PmbZ nr 27518), allegedly born in Armenia as son of a nobleman and magister militum , who joined a monastery and later became eremite. He travelled to Jerusalem and from there to Rome, where he was acknowledged as of orthodox faith by Pope Benedict VII (974-983) himself. Symeon travelled via Pisa and Lucca to Santiago de Compostela and after his return lived in the Monastery of Polirone near Mantua, where he died in 1016. Three of these Armenian bishops – Peter, Abraham und Stephan – in the 11th century even found their way to Iceland, as a Latin source reports.164 At least we find in a manuscript of the bishopric of Autun in Burgundy from the late 10th century a LatinArmenian glossary of more than 90 words (including termini for days, numbers, holy objects and body parts), which at least documents interest for this language, if not a presence of Armenians there.165 These cases provide some impression of the limits of Armenian mobility to the West in this period. As we have seen, the spheres of the imperial competitors of Byzantium in the East frequently provided refuge for individuals fallen from imperial favour – and over long periods, the lion´s share for Armenian territories was under Persian and later Arab suzerainty. As within the Byzantine Empire, Armenian mobility in the Sasanian Empire or in the Caliphate (see also above the cases for hostages and exile) often was not deliberate.166 We lack a systematic survey of deportations as we possess it for Byzantium with the study of Hans Ditten, but – as indicated in the alleged letter of Emperor Maurice to Great King Xusrō )) cited by Sebēos – especially also the Persians relocated Armenian population. In 610, the population of recently conquered Theodosiupolis (Erzurum) was resettled to Media on the order of the Great King.167 Around the same time, Smbat Bagratuni, the „Joy of Xusrō on a campaign at the borders between Iran and Central Asia encountered descendants of Armenians deported by the Persians (together with people from the Roman Empire, esp. the Syrian provinces) some decades ago; the episode is also an interesting example for the gradual loss and revitalisation of linguistic and religious elements of Armenian identity: There was in that country a community deported from Armenia and settled on the edge of the great desert which extends from T'urk'astan and Delhastan. They had forgotten their own language, lost the use of writing, and lacked the priestly order. There was also there a group of Kodrik' who had been taken captive with our own men; and furthermore not a few from the Greek empire and from the region of Syria. The community of Kodrik' were infidels. But over the Christians there shone a great light. They were confirmed in the faith and learned to write and speak their language. A certain presbyter among them who was named Abel was appointed to priestly rank in that land. 168 Similar to the Armenians, who found Α. R. Dachkevytch, Les Armeniens en )slande au X)е siecle. Revue des Études Arméniennes, N. S. 20 (1986/97) 321336; Redgate, The Armenians 233; Presumably via Viking intermediation, also Arab coins minted in Arminiyah in the 860s and 890s found their way into hoards in Cuerdale (Lancashire, England), Domburg (Walcheren, Netherlands) and Muizen (Antwerp, Belgium), cf. McCormick, Origins 349–350, 821 and 827 (with references). 165 A. E. Redgate, An Armenian physician at the early tenth-century court of Louis III of Provence? The case of the Autun Glossary. Al-Masāq 19 (2007) 83-98; Redgate, Myth and Reality 296. 166 Ditten, Ethnische Verschiebungen; Charanis, Transfer; Pourshariati, Decline and Fall passim; M. Tahar Mansouri, Déplacement forcé et deportation de populations sur les frontières orientales entre Byzance et l´Islam (VIIe-Xe siècles), in: Balard – Ducellier, Migrations 107–114. 167 Sebēos c. : -112 (Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and Howard-Johnston, Sebeos I, 64). 168 Sebēos c. : Abgaryan; tr. Thomson and (oward-Johnston, Sebeos I, 44, with fn. 275 on the unclear identify of the Kodrik'. 164 31 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller themselves at the Byzantine border in Thrace, also these Armenians were re-located to the extreme limits of Persian imperial power; the forced mobility of Armenian population was sometimes equally far-ranging as the deliberate one of secular and ecclesiastical elites. As indicated in the canons of the Synod of Dvin discussed above, also commerce could be one motive of mobility. The situation of Armenia in between imperial spheres also increased its mercantile significance; a law of the year 408/409 limited trade at the Roman-Persian border to the cities of Nisibis and Kallinikon (in Mesopotamia) as well as the Armenian capital Artaxata.169 In the 6th century, the new capital of Dvin functioned as hub of commerce as reported by Procopius, who claimed the city attracted merchants from „India and the neighbouring regions of Iberia [Eastern Georgia] and from practically all the nations of Persia and some from those under Roman sway .170 Significantly, neither in 591 nor in 630, when they had to cede the lion´s share of Armenia to Byzantium, the Persians were prepared to give up the control over Dvin. For the 7th century, also the above mentioned story of Ananias of Širak included in his Mathematical Problems about a relative, who acquired a precious pearl in Balḫ in central Asia and then sold it piece per piece on his route home to Širak in the cities of Ganjak, Naχčavan and again Dvin highlights some commercial connections to the East (see above). Balḫ as place of activity of Armenian merchants connects them also to the networks of the Silk road and to the trading diaspora of the Iranian Sogdians, who between the 6th and 8th century were the most important intermediaries between China and Central Asia respectively Iran.171 The connection of Armenia to trans-regional Eurasian mercantile networks is also testified through Sasanian seals for merchandise found in Dvin and stemming from the city of Ardaxšir-Xvarrah Firuzābād in the province of Provinz Fars; from there also existed maritime connections to the Persian Gulf, especially via the harbour Rev Ardaxšir.172 This city is also mentioned in the so-called Armenian Geography from the second half of the 7th century, equally attributed to Anania of Širak173; in its core, the text is a translation of the Geography of Ptolemy, but complemented with many contemporary information, which provide an impression of the geographical horizon of Armenian scholarship, but also mercantile interests in this period. )n the Geography V, , Rev Ardaxšir is listed as important harbour at the Persian Gulf, but also as source of pearls, which are distinguished according to their quality and value. Again, Balḫ and the regions of Central Asia are described in greater detail (V, 34), especially also the Sogdians, who are mentioned as „rich and industrious traders on the routes between )ran and China, which is mentioned as source of silk, saffron and various spices. But in the Armenian Geography , also the range of Armenian knowledge about Western regions is documented; it contains relatively contemporary information on the appearance of the Bulgarians under Asparuch at the lower Danube. )n )taly, the famous city of Ravenna (III, 6) is mentioned – an important place of Armenian service in the Byzantine Empire, as we have seen. For the same period, we also possess another text sometimes attributed to Ananias of Širak, the Armenian )tinerary (Młonačʿapʿk)174, which can be dated in the years between 638 and 762; it Codex Justinianus 4, 63, 4 (ed. Krueger). Proc. Bell. Pers 2, 25, 1-3; Garsoïan, Interregnum 31-33, also on later Arab descriptions of the mercantile significance of Dvin. See also Manandian, Trade and Cities. 171 É. de La Vaissière, Sogdian traders: a history. Leiden 2005. 172 Cf. V. G. Lukonin, Political, Social and Administrative Institutions, Taxes and Trade, in: The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 3: The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanid Periods, Part 2. Cambridge 1983, 681–746; T. Daryaee, The Persian Gulf Trade in Late Antiquity. Journal of World History 14, No. 1 (2003) 1–16, esp. 14–15. 173 Armenian Geography (Hewsen). 174 Edited and translated in Armenian Geography (Hewsen). 169 170 32 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller contains descriptions and distances for six routes from Dvin in different parts of the world, from the Persian Gulf to the Caucasus, from Eastern Iran to Rome and the Atlantic Ocean. Some central axes of long distance Armenian mobility in the early Middle Ages once again become visible (see map 8 below). CONCLUSION The various types of Armenian mobility we encounter in our sources hint at different frameworks of networks and infrastructures , which permitted, but also somehow channelled mobility. The mobility of aristocrats took place within networks of allegiance, kinship and ethnic affiliation, which had been established between Armenia and the courts and administrative as well as military elites of the neighbouring great powers. The (both structural and imaginary) connections between ecclesiastical institutions, monasteries and places of veneration and education are reflected in the mobility of clergymen, pilgrims and scholars. Networks of commerce were based on the routes between places of production and markets, but also on relations of exchange and trust. The re-location of thousands of soldiers or the resettlement of ten thousands of refugees or deportees finally made highest demands on state infrastructures of transport, supply and distribution, then also of administrative control and taxation. These various network were entangled; aristocrats or clergymen travelled along mercantile routes or on commercial ships, private and public transport of commodities and individuals were closely connected; Armenian mobility at large was often one effect of the traditional connections of allegiance within a society dominated by the aristocracy – when retainers followed their lord into the armed services of an empire or fled with him across the border. We also observe not only a multiplexity of networks, but also of combinations of elements of Armenian identity intertwined between self-definitions and attribution by others) with regard to language (the bilingual seal of Machitarios and Philippos), naming (the twins Baanes and Stephanos of St. Mary of Bizye) or religion (nonChalcedonian monks ejected from the Roman Empire founding a monastery called of the Romans in the realm of the Bagratuni , highlighting the inextricableness of spatial and cultural mobility.175 Armenian mobility was equally both a chance and a challenge for the neighbouring great powers, who tried to attract, but also to control Armenian mobility, to profit from, but also to limit the strength of ties of allegiance and ethnic affiliation, who wished for individuals with bilingual skills, but also of unquestionable loyalty and, in the case of Byzantium, religious conformity . Several microhistories also uncover the tension between Armenian-ness attributed by contemporary sources (also in pejorative intention) or modern scholarship (maybe only on the basis of a typical Armenian name and the actual relevance of such attributions for the identity and personal agency of an individual the Armenian identity of Photios beyond its usage in a diplomatic letter being one prominent case example). As I have focused on Armenian mobility into Byzantium, the analysis of all these phenomena of course would profit from a stronger comparison with cases of Armenian mobility into the Sasanian and Islamic spheres (Fatimid Egypt providing some most interesting material, as a first survey of literature had shown to me176); a further discussion of these aspects with colleagues working on Islamic world and also a comparison with other cases of mobility covered in the double-session at the ESSHC is therefore highly desirable. 175 176 Cf. St. Greenblatt, Cultural Mobility: A Manifesto. Cambridge 2009. Dadoyan, The Armenians II 65–143; Halm, Die Kalifen von Kairo, passim; Halm, Kalifen und Assassinen, passim. 33 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Maps and Figures Map 1, from: The Armenian History attributed to Sebeos, translated, with Notes, by R. W. THOMSON, historical Commentary by J. HOWARD-JOHNSTON, Assistance from T. GREENWOOD (Translated Texts for Historians). 2 Bände, Liverpool 1999. 34 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Map 2: The Roman-Persian border in Armenia and Northern Mesopotamia, 387 and 591 AD (from: http://commons.wikimedia.org) 35 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Map 3: Armenia under Arab suzerainty, 654-750 AD (from: Hewsen, Atlas) 36 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Map 4: Armenia in the period of the Kingdoms of the Bagratuni and Arcruni, 884-962 AD (from: Hewsen, Atlas) 37 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Map 5: The Byzantine expansion in the East and the re-settlement of Armenian population from the annexed kingdoms into Cappadocia, first half of the 11th century (from: TAVO, B VII 18) 38 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Map 6: The itineraries of Artabanes Arsakides and the three brothers Narses, Aratios and Isaak in the military service of Emperor Justinian (and beyond), 530-554 AD (map created with QuantumGIS by J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2014) 39 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Map 7: Connections between localities through the mobility of individuals documented in the texts of Anania of Širak, th cent. (visualisation created with the help of the software tools ORA* and QuantumGIS*, J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2013) 40 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Map 8: Long distance routes described in the Armenian Itinerary Młonačʿapʿk , ca. (map created by J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2013 on the basis of GoogleEarth*) 41 CE ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Fig. 1: The social networks of Artabanes Arsakides as documented in Procopius (red nodes: Armenians, blue nodes: Roman, green nodes: Germanic origin, yellow: Persians, grey nodes: localities; red links: kinship, green links: allegiance and patronage, blue links: joint military service, purple links: conflicts, yellow links: conspiracies, grey links: temporary presence at locality; graph created with the help of ORA*, J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2014) Fig. 2: The social networks of Artabanes Arsakides as documented in Procopius (red nodes: Armenians, blue nodes: Roman, green nodes: Germanic origin, yellow: Persians, grey nodes: localities; red links: kinship, yellow links: conspiracies; graph created with the help of ORA*, J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2014) 42 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Fig. 3: The connections between individuals (red) and localities (yellow) as documented in the biographical narratives of Ananias of Širak, th cent. (graph created with the help of ORA*, J. PreiserKapeller, 2014) Fig. 4: The network of links of education in the biographical narratives of Ananias of Širak, th cent.; nodes are sized according to strength of their ties (graph created with the help of ORA*, J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2014) 43 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Fig. 5: The social network emerging from a charter in Bari (Southern Italy), 990 (purple nodes: Armenians, blue: Latins, orange: Greeks; red links: kinship, green links: commercial interaction, blue links: juridical interaction) (graph created with the help of ORA*, J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2014) Fig. 6: The origins of noble houses of Armenia as reported in the historical work of Movsēs Xorenacʿi (5th/8th cent. AD; graph: J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2013) 44 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller Fig. 7: The sedimentation of charcoal in layer of the core drill data from Lake Van as proxy for human activity (graph: J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2014) Fig. 8: Number of documented major construction works in the region around Lake Van (Turkey), 6 th-16th cent. (data collected from Thierry, Monuments; graph: J. Preiser-Kapeller, 2014) 45 ESSHC 2014/Draft J. Preiser-Kapeller References cited in abbreviation Sources and translations Agathangelos (Thomson) Al-Baladhuri (tr. Hitti) Armenian Geography (Hewsen) Buzandaran Patmut‛iwnk‛ Buzandaran Patmut‛iwnk‛ tr. Garsoïan Concilium Quinisextum (ed. Ohme) Const. Porph., De admin. imp. De admin. imp. (tr. Belke and Soustal) Const. Porph., De cer. Ełišē Tēr-Minasean) Ełišē tr. Thomson ρewond Ezean ρewond tr. Arzoumanian Mal. (Thurn) Men. Prot. (Blockley) Mich. Syr. (Chabot) Movsēs Kałankatuac‛i Arak‛elyan Movsēs Kałankatuac‛i tr. Dowsett Movs. Xor. Abełean and Αarut‛iwnean Movs. Xor. (tr. Thomson) Mxit‛ar Goš, Dastanagirk‛ Agathangelos, History of the Armenians. Ed. and transl. by R. W. Thomson. Albany, 1976. The Origins of the Islamic State. 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