The Emperor Whose Nose Was Cut
and the Bulgarian Caesar
Zahari Zlatev
Extended
resume
The beginning of the eighth century was an
interesting period in the early Middle Age European history mainly because of
the Arabian attempts to invade Europe. The
Arabs continued to be a great danger for the most powerful European state, the
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium).
Bulgaria
and Khazaria were still great powers in South-Eastern Europe. The state of the
Avars in Pannonia,
which was very powerful about hundred years ago, was becoming weaker and
weaker. Many Christian states were already established in Western
Europe. These states started to gather strength, but they would
become real powers in the continent only after one or two centuries. This is
the stage on which the events described in this book took place.
Justinian II, who was only sixteen years old
when he became emperor in year 695, was one of the most controversial figures
in the whole history of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The young and very ambitious ruler wanted very much to exceed the great
achievements of the glorious emperor with the same name, Justinian I, who ruled
very successfully the empire more than hundred and fifty years before him. The
start of Justinian’s reign was indeed nearly triumphant. He won great
victories against the Arabs and the Slavs. His agricultural laws were remarkable.
He succeeded to gather 165 Eastern bishops in 691-692 to a great Synod in which
among other things the family relations of the priests were regulated. The most
important of these rules was the fact that the celibacy was not a requirement
for the priests. They could marry. However, there was one important exception:
the priests were not allowed to marry prostitutes. Finally, Justinian had also
a passion for building and in this field he could righteously compare himself
with his famous predecessor Justinian I.
However, soon many problems arose. Pope Sergius
I did not accept the decisions of the great Synod from 691-692. The priests in
the countries in Western Europe were not
allowed to marry. The requirement for celibacy remained and this is giving great
problems for the catholic priest even in our days. Justinian tried arrest the
Pope for the refusal to follow his orders, He wanted to bring the Pope in Constantinople, to condemn him and to send him in exile
to Chersonesos in Taurica (as his grand-father Constans II did with Pope
Martine in year 653). This attempt was not successful. Thus, Justinian did not
succeed to enforce the decisions of the great Synod from 691-692 in the
countries of the Western Europe.
Soon after that failure many others of his
actions ended with failures too. The taxies had to be increased in order to
finance the numerous and very expensive building projects started by the too
ambitious and still very young emperor. A rebellion was raised in Constantinople, Justinian was dethroned, his face was
mutilated (his nose was slit) and he was send in exile to Chersonesos in
Taurica.
The belief that a man with a mutilated face
will never succeed to regain his throne was the reason for performing such an
act. However, the emperor, who lost his nose, was nevertheless dreaming to
return to Constantinople and to become again
an emperor. Nine years he conspired and fought unceasingly for regaining the
highest title in the empire. On the tenth year he succeeded with the help of
the Bulgarian ruler Tervel. However, he had neither learned many new things nor
forgotten his old and too ambitious plans during the exile in Chersonesos in
Taurica. Furthermore and this turned out to be fatal for him, he was seeking
revenge against all his enemies, absolutely all, without any exception.
Therefore, his destiny was sealed. After several years another rebellion was
raised. Justinian was defeated and executed. On the other hand, it became quite
clear that mutilation of the face did not guarantee that the mutilated person
will not attempt to regain his throne. Therefore, this kind of punishment of
dethroned rulers was never used in the further history of the Eastern
Roman Empire.
Justinian was one of the most tragic rulers of
the Eastern Roman Empire. He was deeply
religious and his intentions were good, his intentions were indeed always good.
However the end results of all his efforts to perform the right actions were in
most of the cases failures and disasters. In this book I tried to emphasize
fact that this extremely unhappy ruler of the empire intended always to perform
good and right actions. However, he demanded too much from his servants, from
all of his servants. They had to be perfect. Therefore, Irina was quite right
when she said about him in this book: ‘Justinian should have been born in
a perfect world and he should have been living there. Our world is
unfortunately by far not perfect’.
All events in this book, which are related to
Justinian and which happened in Khazaria, Bulgaria and Constantinople, are
based on real historical facts and most of them are described in the first
volume of the history of Byzantium in three volumes, which written by John
Julius Norwich and published by Penguin Books in 1990. The only exception is
the Justinian’s hijacking from Pliska by the representatives of the clan
Vokil. This event was introduced in the book only in order to justify better
the strong relations between Justinian and Tervel, which are well-documented
and continued until the death of the poor emperor.
After stopping the Khazars in 670 and winning
over the Roman army and fleet in 680, Bulgaria
became a great power in South-eastern Europe.
Nevertheless, Bulgaria
was not the first choice of Justinian when was forced to leave the empire. His
decision to escape to Khazaria, when his life in Chersonesos in Taurica was in
danger, was dictated by the close relations, which his father, Constantine IV,
had with this state. Indeed Constantine
supported the Khazars in 670. Later he
attacked Bulgaria
in 680. Therefore, the escape of the emperor who lost his nose to Khazaria was
quite natural, but not the correct one. Fortunately, Justinian understood soon
that it was a wrong and dangerous move, a completely wrong and very dangerous
move. Killers were sent to Phanagoria to murder him. Nevertheless, he was very
fortunate, because he succeeded to escape to Bulgaria, where he was supported in
his efforts to regain his throne.
Tervel was the ruler of Bulgaria at
that time. His grand-father Kubrat spent many years in the Great Palace
in Constantinople. There he and many leaders
of the clan Dulo became Christians in year 619. They and their descendants
remain Christians. After Kubrat, the Bulgarian rulers from the dynasty Dulo
remained Christians, admired the empire and always tried to improve the
relations between Bulgarians and Romans. No ruler from the dynasty Dulo started
a war against the Roman Empire.
Therefore, the arrival of Justinian to Bulgaria was a
turning point in his life. He was strongly supported by Tervel and with his
help succeeded to regain his title. The military help given by Tervel to
Justinian was a historical fact documented in several chronicles from the
Middle Age. It is also historically true that Justinian rewarded richly
Tervel’s soldiers, proclaimed Tervel a Caesar and gave to him the region
Zagoria to the South of the Haemos
Mountain. The historians
from the Middle Age mentioned on several places that Tervel had to marry
Justinian’s daughter, because at that time only a member of the imperial
family could become a Caesar. However, no information about the marriage of the
Roman princess and the Bulgarian ruler is given in the chronicles from the
Middle Age. The solution presented in this book (Justinian ordered the murder
of his own daughter) is a fiction. I wanted to emphasize by this action the
obsessive desire of Justinian to keep always what he promised and swore; to
keep it at any price.
Rodelinde, Irina, Zoie, Totila, Zessa,
Anastasios and Kubrat Junior are fictitious characters. The same is true for
the Tervel’s advisors Beruk, Organa, Rean and Sabin as well as for his
wife Chinara. However, Stefan is a historical person. It is mentioned in some
chronicles from the Middle Age that a man named Stefan performed the
negotiations with the Bulgarians after the arrival of Justinian and his friends
in Tomis.
From the above description it becomes clear
that the main events in this book are based on real historical facts and fiction
is used only in order firstly to connect in a more solid way the single
episodes recorded in different chronicles from the Middle Age and secondly to
justify better the behaviour of the two major characters in this book, the
Bulgarian khana-subigi Tervel and the Roman emperor Justinian.
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Department of Atmospheric Environment, National Environmental Research Institute (Denmark)