Battle of Spercheios

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Battle of Spercheios
Part of the Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars
Date 16 July 996 Location The Spercheios river, Greece Result Byzantine victory
Belligerents
Bulgarian Empire	Byzantine Empire
Commanders
Samuil of Bulgaria Gavril Radomir	Nikephoros Ouranos
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
at least 1,000 killed and 12,000 captured	Unknown

The battle of Spercheios (Bulgarian: битка при Сперхей, Greek: Μάχη του Σπερχειού) took place in 996 AD, on the shores of the river of the same name in present-day central Greece. It was fought between the Bulgarians led by Samuil and the Byzantines under the command of Nicephorus Ouranos. The Byzantines were victorious.

[edit] Origins of the conflict

After the major success of the Bulgarians in the battle of the Gates of Trajan in 986, Byzantium descended into a civil war, further exacerbated by the conflict with the Fatimids in Syria. Tsar Samuil took advantage of the situation and assumed the control of virtually the whole of the Balkan Peninsula, excluding the parts of Thrace closest to Constantinople, and southern Greece.^[1] He managed to seize many castles in the surroundings of Byzantium's second largest city Thessalonica.^[2] Every year he led campaigns against the Byzantines and plundered their territories. In 991 the Byzantines managed to capture the Emperor Roman but this did not stop Samuil who was now de facto the only Emperor. In 996 he ambushed and destroyed the forces of the strategos of Thessalonica and marched to the south, eventually reaching Corinth.^[3]

[edit] The battle

On his way back he met a Byzantine army on the opposite side of the Spercheios river, led by the Domestic of the East, Nikephoros Ouranos. Ouranos was appointed by Basil II for commander of all Balkan territories of the Byzantine Empire and gave him a large army to cope with the Bulgarians. He followed the Bulgarian army and confronted it after the Bulgarians went through the Thermopylae pass on the river of Sprecheios.^[4]

Due to heavy rainfalls, the river had swollen and flooded a large area on both shores. The Bulgarians camped on the southern shore and the Byzantines on the northern, separated from each other by the river. The two armies remained thus encamped for several days. Samuil was confident that the Byzantines could not cross, and neglected taking measures to protect his camp. Ouranos however, sought and found a ford, leading his army across during the night, and attacking the Bulgarians at dawn. The Bulgarians, caught at unawares, were not able to put up an effective resistance, and the larger part of their army was routed. Samuil himself was wounded in the arm and his capture seemed inevitable, but his resourcefulness saved him: he and his son Gavril Radomir mingled with the dead and pretended to have been killed. After nightfall they set off to Bulgaria and in the Pindus mountains gathered the remains of their army. Due to the difficult 400 km journey to Ochrid his arm healed at an angle of 140°. According to Yahaya of Antioch Nicephorus Ouranos returned to Constantinople with one thousand heads of Bulgarian soldiers and twelve thousand captives.^[5][6]

[edit] Aftermath

The battle was the first major defeat of the Bulgarian army. At first Samuil showed readiness for negotiations but upon the news of the death of Bulgaria's Emperor Roman in prison, he was proclaimed Emperor^[6][7] and continued the war. Although Samuil managed to recover and conquer Serbia, the Byzantines gradually took the lead in the war. In 1014 they decisively defeated the Bulgarians and four years later the country was thoroughly conquered.

[edit] References

• Йордан Андреев, Милчо Лалков, Българските ханове и царе, Велико Търново, 1996.
• Ioannes Scylitzes, Historia

[edit] Footnotes