TERRAZAS Y BALCONES

In our attempt to understand the presence of the Rhos in the Byzantine embassy we have to learn about the situation in the Byzantine Empire in the early ninth century. The period we are dealing with was a time when Theophilos, the last of the iconoclastic emperors ruled Byzantium. When in 829 this well-educated and ambitious sixteen-year-old son of the Michael the Amorian became the new ruler of the eastern Roman Empire, he took over a state in good shape. This does not mean that Byzantium was without problems. Since the beginning of the century the empire was tor- mented by wars, military defeats, even by major natural catastrophes like a violent earthquake. Almost none of these spared Theophilos’ eleven-year reign (he died 842): the wars with some of old enemies were still going on and leading to new, sometimes quite devastating, defeats, and the nasty persecutions of iconophiles conducted by the fanatical emperor were not good at all for the internal harmony of the state. Despite this misery the historians are willing to treat Theo- philos’ reign as a successful one: as a politician he was resourceful and able, had a good understanding of economy, his reform of the army gave it new strength and his activities as a builder and sup- porter of the arts and science created an image of a powerful kingdom, a positive image which was beneficial for the self-esteem of Byzantines

and which made a strong impression on the outside world.87_Criticised

by his contemporaries, especially churchmen, because of his fierce iconoclasm—he was called rather bad names: “fit tool of the devil”, “harsh in mind”, “demented in opinion”—but soon after his death he became the subject of radical rehabilitation.88

Despite the abilities of Theophilos, his Empire during the third decade of the ninth century saw many military defeats—Byzantium was losing not only battles but also territories. The enemies, besides the ambitious and sometimes lethal Danubian Bulghars, were vari- ous groups of Arabs expanding in different parts of the Mediterranean. In the 830s the Arabs were ravaging Asia Minor and though the Greeks managed to be victorious in some battles, the threat was not

87 _{Treadgold 1988:327ff.} 88 _{Makropoulos 1998:41.}

removed and soon became even more substantial.89 _{The first great}

loss was the strategic island of Crete conquered by marauding forces from Spain, then, in August 838, the great naval base in Amorium— also the town of origin of the Byzantine dynasty—on the Phrygian coast of Asia Minor, was sacked by an army from the Abbasid caliphate.

A far more dangerous development was going on in the west, where a jihad, the “holy war”, was heralded against the Greeks by the Aghlabids rulers in North Africa. Some parts of Sicily were seized by them and the coast of Calabria and Apulia was subjected to con- stant attack.

In 835 Theophilos made an attempt to re-conquer the occupied parts of Sicily but failed. The situation was hardly acceptable and for a while Theophilos was forced to leave the hated iconophiles alone and focus on real dangers. Unable to fight alone on all fronts, the Emperor decided to negotiate with those who were not openly hostile and could give assistance to the hard-tried Empire. In order to do so Constantinople launched a series of diplomatic actions. Embas- sies were dispatched, one to the Franks in the spring 839, another in the autumn of the same year to the court of Ummayad caliph in Spain, then, in early 840, to Venice; and finally in 842 once more to Germany.

The embassy to Spain was only a partial success. The Greeks, by playing on the Ummajad’s aspirations to represent the entire Islamic world, had at least managed to make them interested. The caliph in Cordova arranged his own embassy, put the celebrated poet al-Ghazal

at the head of it and despatched the envoys to Constantinople.90

There are, however, no traces of any positive results of this mission. The embassy to Venice was of a different sort. Here the Byzantines were negotiating with (in theory) their own subjects and because of this could expect real engagement from their side. They were not disappointed. The Doge, Pietro Tradonico, after being honoured by the Greeks with the title of spatharios, ordered that the fleet should be strengthened by building new ships, some of them of the Byzantine type, chelandia, and an expedition was sent to Taranto in southern Italy to fight occupant Islamic forces. This ambitious Venetian-

89 _{Whittow 1996:152.}

Byzantine undertaking ended in a catastrophe: the fleet was destroyed.91

Soon after this disaster the Byzantine fleet arrived and was equally

badly defeated in a battle near Calabria.92

The case of the embassy to Venice would have only marginal interest in our context if it were not for the presence at its head of a person which plays a most significant role in the Ingelheim story— Theodosios Babutzicos, courtier of Emperor Theophilos, a high mil- itary official and also the issuer of the three documents with the three seals that reached Denmark. Theodosios Babutzicos was once more employed to seek help from the Franks in early 842 when a new embassy was formed in Venice and dispatched to Trier, to the residence of the Emperor Lothar. It was well received but though the Franks accepted a real Byzantine princess offered to Lothar’s son, they gave nothing in return. While the embassy was in Trier the emperor Theophilos died. On his way back home patrikios Theodosios Babutzicos also died. The attempt of the Greeks to resolve the Sicilian problem had failed.

5. Why did the Rhos go to Byzantium and later join the Greek embassy?