VIKING RUS ATTACK ON ANATOLIA: 818. First recorded raid on the Byzantine empire by the Viking Rus of Kiev.

. They plundered the northern coast of Anatolia (818). The Rus are described as "the people known to everyone for their barbarity, ferocity, and cruelty". According to the text, they attacked Propontis (i.e. the Bosphoros: probably aiming for Constantinople) before turning east and raiding Paphlagonia. When they fell upon the town of Amastris, it was through the intercession of St. George (d. 806) that helped the inhabitants to survive the raid. BYZANTINE EMPIRE REACTION TO RUS ATTACK NAVAL BASES: 818. The Basileus (emperor) Leo V subsequently created two new military commands on the Black Sea coast, both with naval squadrons as well as land troops: the Theme [thema, province] of Paphlagonia on the north Anatolian coast, capital inland at Gangra, and the Ducate of Chaldia in north-east Anatolia, capital at Trebizond. o NOTE: Besides the three naval themata proper (Cibyrrhaeots, Samos and the Aegean Sea), there were naval squadrons posted to a number of non-naval themes: Sicily, Calabria, Peloponnese, Hellas, and, in the Black Sea, Paphlagonia.

FRANKISH EMPIRE: May 18, 839. Ingelheim. Envoys from the Greeks sent by the Emperor Theophilus (829-842) came. They were Theodosius, metropolitan bishop of Chalcedon, and Theophanus the Spatharius and they brought gifts worthy for an emperor, and a letter. The Emperor received them with due ceremony on 18 May at Ingelheim. The purpose of their mission was to confirm the treaty of peace and perpetual friendship and love between the two emperors and their subjects (the previous treaty was between his predecessor and Charlemagne in 812). They also brought congratulations and exultation in the Lord on the victories that our Emperor had gained with Heavens help in his wars against foreign peoples. Theophilus in friendly fashion urged the Emperor and his subjects to offer up thanks to God for all these victories. He also sent with the envoys some men who said they meaning their whole people [gens] were called Russians (earliest evidence of the name Rus, identifying Scandinavians in lands east of the Baltic. The term khan has been used for chiefs of the Slavs and the Huns.) and had been sent to him by their king whose name was the Khagan for the sake of friendship, so they claimed. Theophilus requested in his letter that the Emperor in his goodness might grant them safe conducts to travel through his empire and any help or practical assistance they needed to return home, for the route by which they had reached Constantinople had taken them through primitive tribes that were very fierce and savage and Theophilus did not wish them to return that way in case some disaster befell them FRANKISH EMPIRE: May. When the Emperor investigated more closely the reason for the Rus coming here, he discoverd that they belonged to the people of the Swedes (who were well enough known to the Frankish court since the mission of St. Anskar from 829 onwards). He suspected that they had really been sent as spies to this kingdom of ours rather than as seekers of our friendship, so he decided to keep them with him until he could find out for certain whether or not they had come in good faith. He lost no time in sending a letter to Theophilus through the same envoys to tell him all this, and to add that he had received them willingly for the sake of his friendship for Theophilus and that if they were found to be genuine, he would supply them with means to return to their own fatherland without any risk of danger and send them home with every assistance, but if not, he would send them with envoys of ours back to Theophilus for him to deal with as he might think fit. RUS: 860. The foreign policy of the Riurikids under Rurik (Riurik) (862-879) and his successors was directed toward creating stable commercial relations with one of the largest markets in the known world, the Byzantine Empire. From 860 to 1043 the Vikings (and later Slavicized Riurikids) attacked the Byzantine Empire six times (860, 907, 941, 944, 971, and 1043). Most of the campaigns resulted in commercial treaties regularizing trade between Kievan Rus and Constantinople. Each year the Riurikids spent the winter collecting tribute from subject tribes, and in the spring the commercial delegation sailed to Constantinople, where it spent the summer trading their furs, honey, wax, and slaves for Byzantine finery (glass, jewelry, hazelnuts, spices). Commercial contact with the Greek

empire via the so-called road from the Varangians to the Greeks helped introduce the Eastern Slavs to Greek culture, diplomacy, and religion BYZANTIUM RUS ATTACK: 860. The Rus attack Constantinople. In contrast to Viking activity in the west, which was characterized primarily by raiding and large-scale colonization, the Rus town network and subsequent tribal organization were designed for trade. By c. 850 the Vikings had established a complex commercial network stretching from Lake Ladoga to the Islamic Caliphate and by early 10th century, extended their reach southward to Byzantine Empire via Kiev and east through intermediaries along the middle Volga in Bulgaria (why the Prince wants Bulgaria in 960s and Byzantines kill him) Subject tribes living along river systems supplied the Rus with the furs, wax, honey, and slaves that they would further exchange for Islamic silver coins (dirhams), glass beads, silks, and spices in southern markets BYZANTIUM RUS ATTACK ON CONSTANTINOPLE - PROPHECY: The Byzantines believed based on the writings of a 7th century Syriac author writing in the name of a fourth century Bishop of Patara Pseudo-Methodius - that they were acting out events foretold in sacred writings, and empire and capital were closely bound up with the fate of mankind. Sudden strikes against the City by barbarians such as the Rus in 860 were interpreted as divine punishment for its sins RUS: 862. Viking state in Russia is founded under Rurik, first in Novgorod then at Kiev. Vikings were exelled from Rus in 859 but 3 years later, a confederation of Slavs and Finns invited the Viking Riurik and his clan to come and rule over them. Establishing a base first at Staraia Ladoga and then Riurikovo Gorodishche, Riurik proceeded to create tributaries of the Slavic tribes to the west, in Pskov, and to the northeast in Beloozero.