All Battles 
Emperors 
Abbasid invasion of Asia Minor |
year: 782 |
| Invasion of a huge Arab army that reached the outskirts of Constantinople | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
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enemy: Arabs (Abbasids)
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location: Multiple conflicts in various locations in NW Asia Minor
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accuracy:
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battle type: Pitched Battle |
war: Abbasid invasions of Asia Minor |
modern country:
Turkey |
| ▼ The Byzantines(emperor: Irene of Athens) | ▼ The Enemies | |
| Commander: | Staurakios, Michael Lachanodrakon | Harun al-Rashid |
| Forces: | Much smaller army | 95,793 men |
| Losses: |
| Background story: |
| In 778, the newly appointed strategos of the Thrakision thema, Michael Lachanodrakon, took the initiative and attacked first the Arabs (who at that period every summer launched large-scale looting raids in Asia Minor). He marched against Germanikeia, which he could not capture, but won battles, destroyed fortresses and returned with many booty and many civilian captives, mainly Christian Syrians (Jacobites). Next year Lachanodrakon campaigned again in Abbassid territory and destroyed the frontier fortress Hadath (the old Greek town Adata). After this, and for the next 3 years, the Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi organized raids with large forces deep in the Byzantine Asia Minor, but Lachanodrakon managed to repel successfully most of these attacks. |
The Battle: |
 Harun al-Rashid The leader of the campaign was the teenage son of the caliph Harun al-Rashid. He was young but competent and the Caliph took care to send experienced officers to accompany him. On 9 February 782, Harun departed Baghdad; the Arabs crossed the Taurus Mountains by the Cilician Gates, and advanced into Phrygia. There, Harun left his lieutenant, the hadjib al-Rabi ibn Yunus, to besiege Nakoleia and guard his rear, while another force, reportedly 30,000 men, under al-Barmaki was sent to raid the rich western coastlands of Asia Minor. Harun himself, with the main army, advanced to the Opsician Theme, in NW Asia Minor. The defense of the Byzantines was coordinated by the eunuch Staurakios, whose strategy was to avoid an immediate confrontation. In the meantime, the Thracesians under Lachanodrakon confronted al-Barmaki at a place called Darenos, but were defeated and suffered heavy losses (15,000 men). As Harun was approaching to Bosporus, the imperial tagmata under the Domestic of the Schools Antonios were assembled for battle in Nicomedia. But Harun bypassed them, and advanced to the town of Chrysopolis, across the Bosporus Strait from Constantinople itself. Lacking ships to cross the Bosporus and hesitating, for some reason, to assault Constantinople, he turned back. After plundering the Byzantine capital’s Asian suburbs, marched to the South, along the valley of the Sangarius River, east of Nicaea. But there he was surrounded by the forces of the troops under Antonios in his rear and of the Bucellarians under their general Tatzates to his front. He was in a difficult position, but then Tatzates, an Armenian prince who had defected from his Arab-ruled homeland to the Byzantines in 760 and was closely associated with the iconoclast regime of Constantine V, secretly contacted him and made a deal to let him go betraying the Byzantines. Harun kept the deal secret and asked for negotiations. Empress Irene dispatched a delegation of three of her most senior officials: the domestikos Antonios, the magistros Peter, and the Logothetes Staurakios himself. Confident of their military position, they neglected to secure promises for their safety or hostages of their own, so that when they arrived in the Arab camp, they were taken prisoners. Irene had no choice but to sign a humiliating peace treaty. The two states concluded a three-year truce in exchange for a heavy annual tribute—the Arab sources mention various amounts between 70,000 and 100,000 gold nomismata, while one also adds 10,000 pieces of silk. |
Aftermath: |
| Al-Rashid returned to Baghdad in triumph with many loot. But the success was rather disproportionately small in relation to the size of the Arabian force. It was a humiliating treaty for Byzantium, but things could be much worse. For Irene, the defeat and Tatzates’ betrayal helped her to stabilize on the throne because she could easily get rid of iconoclastic generals such as Lachanodrakon. In 785, hostilities resumed when Irene stopped paying her annual tribute. |
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