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Priscus (magister militum)

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For other people named Priscus (disambiguation), see Priscus (disambiguation) (disambiguation).
Priscus
AllegianceEast Roman Empire
Service/branchEast Roman army
Rankmagister militum per Orientem & per Thracias, comes excubitorum
Battles/warsMaurice's Balkan campaigns, Roman–Persian Wars
RelationsSon-in-law of Emperor Phocas and Leontia

Priscus or Priskos (Greek: Πρίσκος, died 613) was a leading East Roman (Byzantine) general during the reigns of the Byzantine emperors Maurice (r. 582–602), Phocas (r. 602–610) and Heraclius (r. 610–641). Under Maurice, he distinguished himself in the campaigns against the Avars and their Slavic allies in the Balkans. Absent from the capital at the time of Maurice's overthrow and murder by Phocas, he was one of the few of Maurice's senior aides who were able to survive unharmed into the new regime, remaining in high office and even marrying the emperor's daughter. Priscus however also negotiated with and assisted Heraclius in the overthrow of Phocas, and was entrusted with command against the Persians in 611–612. After the failure of this campaign, he was deposed and tonsured, dying shortly after.

Under Maurice

Gold solidus of Emperor Maurice.

Priscus first appears in the sources when he was appointed, in late 587 or early 588, to command in the east as magister militum per Orientem replacing Philippicus. He only reached the east in spring, and assumed his new command at Monocarton in April.[1][2] Priscus immediately ran into trouble with the soldiers: his haughty manner in refusing to mingle with them made him unpopular, and when a decree by Maurice which reduced army pay by a quarter was announced, the soldiers mutinied on Easter day, 18 April 588. Priscus not only failed to restore order, but was himself attacked and forced to flee to Constantina, while the soldiers elected the dux of Phoenice, Germanus, as their leader. Priscus' attempts from Constantina to calm the soldiers by employing the local bishops as mediators and rescinding the decree also failed. Philippicus was restored to command by Maurice, while Priscus returned to Constantinople.[2][3][4]

Despite this debacle, in the same summer he was entrusted with the post of magister militum for Thrace, and tasked with campaigning against the Avars at the head of an improvised force. Outnumbered by the Avars, he was forced to retreat, allowing them to sack the city of Anchialos. Outflanked, Priscus retreated to Tzurullum, where he was besieged by them until they were persuaded to leave with threats from Maurice of an attack against their homeland, and by payment of a ransom in gold.[3][5] Priscus disappears for the next few years, as he fell into disfavour with Maurice. By 593 he had recovered his position, as a letter by Pope Gregory the Great which congratulates him on returning to the emperor's favour testifies. He had also been given the honorary rank of patrikios.[6][7]

Map of the northern Balkans during the 6th century.

In spring 593 he was re-appointed in command as commander of the cavalry, with Gentzon leading the infantry. Both generals campaigned with success against the Slavic tribes preparing to cross the Danube under their leaders Ardagastus and Musocius. Crossing the river, both Slavic hosts were annihilated in surprise night attacks. At the same time however, Priscus also reportedly quarreled with his men over the distribution of the considerable amount of booty captured.[8][9][10] Maurice also sent orders for the army to winter north of the river, but this caused great resentment and unrest amongst the soldiers. Priscus chose to disobey the emperor's order and crossed again with his army to winter in the southern bank.[11][12] In the autumn of 593, he was replaced by Maurice with Peter. Before the latter could assume command however, Priscus arranged for a truce with the Avar khagan, to whom he returned all captives, a fact for which he was criticized by Maurice.[8]

In late 594 however, after Peter was heavily defeated by the Slavs,[13] he was again appointed to command as magister militum of Thrace, a post he held for several years. In 595 he marched up the Danube, crossing the river and marching along its northern bank to Novae, despite the khagan's protests, before sending his fleet to relieve the city of Singidunum from an Avar siege.[8][14] After these events, the Avars turned west, raiding Dalmatia and then campaigning against the Franks, leaving the Danube border relatively quiet for a period of a year and a half.[15] Consequently, when they resumed their operations with a large invasion in autumn 597, they caught Priscus, who was probably operating with his army at the eastern Stara Planina, off guard. They advanced quickly, and even managed to bottle up and besiege Priscus and his men at the port of Tomi, until the approach of a freshly-raised army under Comentiolus forced them to abandon the siege on Easter, 30 March 588.[16][17]

Priscus however remained strangely inactive, and Comentiolus' inexperienced army was routed. The Avars advanced south into Thrace, but their army was decimated by a plague and a treaty was quickly concluded, which the Byzantines used to regroup and prepare a new campaign.[18] Thus, in the summer of 599, the two armies of Priscus and Comentiolus headed west along the Danube. While Comentiolus guarded the rear and the operational base of Singidunum, Priscus invaded the Avar homeland in Pannonia, devastating their lands and inflicting four major defeats upon the Avars and their allies. Tens of thousands of Avars and their subjects were killed, and 8,000 Slavs, 3,000 Avars and 6,200 other barbarians taken prisoners according to Theophylact Simocatta.[17][19][20] It was a remarkable act of aggressive defence, in the words of Michael Whitby, "without parallel in the sixth century" for the Danube frontier, and which essentially wan the decided the war for Byzantium.[17][19]

After this success, which secured the Balkans, Maurice intended to consolidate Roman control by bringing in Armenian settlers who would be given land in exchange for military service. To this end, Priscus was sent to Armenia to recruit men and their families.[21] In 602, Maurice again ordered his troops on the Danube frontier to winter north of the river. Again this provoked widespread discontent, and when Peter, who had replaced Priscus, refused to bow down and rescind the order, an outright mutiny broke out. The army chose the officer Phocas as its new leader and marched down to Constantinople. Without any credible military forces of his own, Maurice had to flee, but was captured with his family and executed by Phocas, who now became emperor.[22][23]

Under Phocas

Gold solidus of Emperor Phocas.

Being absent from Constantinople, and retaining still a large measure of support within the soldiery, Priscus was the only one of Maurice's senior generals who managed to survive into the new regime.[24] While Comentiolus and Peter were executed and Philippicus was banished to a monastery,[25] In the winter of 602/603 he was made comes excubitorum, commander of the imperial bodyguard. In 606 he also married Phocas' daughter Domentzia, becoming the effective heir-apparent to the childless ruler, but soon fell into disfavour when the citizenry of the capital began erecting statues in his honour.[24][26][27]

Phocas' rule lacked in legitimacy and was resented by the populace and the elites of the Empire. His prestige further eroded when the Persian shah Khosrau II (r. 590–628) declared war, and when the Byzantine forces suffered their first defeats.[28][29] According to a later tradition, Priscus sent a letter to the Exarch of Africa, Heraclius the Elder, urging him to revolt. This is probably later invention, but if true, it would indicate the level of dissent even within Constantinople.[30] At any rate, in 608 Africa rose in revolt, and the Exarch's son, Heraclius the Younger, was dispatched against Constantinople at the head of a fleet. Unopposed by Phocas' forces, he landed at Hebdomon outside the capital on 3 October, and marched to the capital, where pro-Heraclian riots had broken out.[31] At this juncture, Priscus pretended to be ill, and withdrew to his mansion, where he called the excubitores and his own retainers (bucellarii), thus depriving Phocas of his major armed support. He is also recorded by John of Nikiu to have safeguarded the women of Heraclius' family from retribution by Phocas.[32][33]

Under Heraclius

Gold solidus of Heraclius.

Heraclius now became emperor, although one chronicler claims that the crown was first offered to Priscus, who declined.[34][35] As commander of the excubitores, protopatrikios (first among the patrician order) and one of the few senior and influential officials with ties to past regimes, Priscus represented a potential threat to Heraclius.[36] Nevertheless, facing a critical situation in the East, where the Persians had overrun much territory and were raiding Anatolia, Heraclius appointed Priscus in command of the Anatolian army in the autumn of 611. The Persian general Shahin captured Caesarea in Cappadocia, only to be blockaded and besieged there by Priscus. Heraclius himself decided to visit the army camp at Caesarea during winter, but Priscus refused to meet him, on the pretext of an illness. This snub alienated Heraclius from his general, and when Shahin and his army managed to break out and escape in summer, Priscus was recalled to Constantinople, ostensibly to become godfather to the emperor's son, Heraclius Constantine.[35][37][38][39] At the capital, he was removed from his post as comes excubitorum, which went to Heraclius' cousin Nicetas, while command in Anatolia went to the other surviving general of Maurice, Philippicus, brought out of retirement. Priscus was brought before the Senate and accused by Heraclius of treason. In the end, he was tonsured as a monk and confined in the Monastery of the Chora, where he died in 613.[24][35][40][41]

Assessment

Priscus comes across as an able and versatile military leader. In many instances his operations against the Slavs resemble the prescriptions of the most influential Byzantine military manual, the Strategikon ascribed to Maurice.[42] Despite his reputation as a strict disciplinarian and his aloof stance which led to the mutiny of 588,[35] in later campaigns he showed ability in dealing with the soldiers and calming their discontent.[24]

Our major Byzantine source for the period, Theophylact Simocatta, displays a marked bias in favour of Priscus, especially in its account of the Balkan campaigns, where the other generals are denigrated and made to appear incompetent, with their achievements regularly belittled while Priscus' successes are extolled and his defeats glossed over. This may be due to the fact that Simocatta relied for this period on a semi-official "campaign log" compiled during the years of Phocas, when Priscus was pre-eminent while most of his rivals were either executed or in exile.[43][44]

References

  1. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), pp. 1052–1053
  2. ^ a b Greatrex & Lieu (2002), p. 170
  3. ^ a b Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 1053
  4. ^ Whitby (1998), pp. 154, 286–288
  5. ^ Whitby (1998), pp. 151–155
  6. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), pp. 1053–1054
  7. ^ Whitby (1998), pp. 153, 158
  8. ^ a b c Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 1054
  9. ^ Whitby (1998), pp. 158–160
  10. ^ Curta (2001), pp. 100–102
  11. ^ Curta (2001), p. 103
  12. ^ Whitby (1998), pp. 159–160
  13. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), pp. 1009–1010
  14. ^ Whitby (1998), p. 161
  15. ^ Whitby (1998), pp. 161–162
  16. ^ Whitby (1998), p. 162
  17. ^ a b c Treadgold (1997), p. 234
  18. ^ Whitby (1998), pp. 162–163
  19. ^ a b Whitby (1998), p. 164
  20. ^ Curta (2001), p. 99
  21. ^ Whitby (1998), pp. 167–168, 177
  22. ^ Treadgold (1997), p. 235
  23. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), pp. 1031–1032
  24. ^ a b c d Kazhdan (1991), p. 1722
  25. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), pp. 324, 1010–1011, 1025
  26. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 1056
  27. ^ Treadgold (1997), p. 239
  28. ^ Kaegi (2003), pp. 37, 39
  29. ^ Treadgold (1997), p. 236–239
  30. ^ Kaegi (2003), pp. 42–43
  31. ^ Kaegi (2003), pp. 43–49
  32. ^ Kaegi (2003), p. 43
  33. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 1056–1057
  34. ^ Kaegi (2003), p. 52
  35. ^ a b c d Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 1057
  36. ^ Kaegi (2003), p. 70
  37. ^ Treadgold (1997), pp. 287–288
  38. ^ Kaegi (2003), pp. 68–69
  39. ^ Greatrex & Lieu (2002), pp. 188–189
  40. ^ Kaegi (2003), pp. 69–70
  41. ^ Treadgold (1997), p. 289
  42. ^ Curta (2001), p. 50, 58–59
  43. ^ Whitby (1998), pp. 93, 98–105
  44. ^ Curta (2001), p. 56

Sources

  • Curta, Florin (2001), The Making of the Slavs - History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521802024
  • Greatrex, Geoffrey; Lieu, Samuel N. C. (2002), The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars (Part II, 363–630 AD), Routledge, ISBN 0-415-14687-9
  • Kaegi, Walter Emil (2003), Heraclius: emperor of Byzantium, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521814596
  • Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
  • Martindale, John R.; Jones, A.H.M.; Morris, John (1992), The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire - Volume III, AD 527–641, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521201608 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  • Treadgold, Warren T. (1997), A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, ISBN 0804726302
  • Whitby, Michael (1998), The Emperor Maurice and his Historian – Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198229453

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