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Rus' Siege of Constantinople
In summer 860 CE, a Rus' fleet from the Kiev area reached the Bosporus via the Black Sea while Byzantium was at war with the Abbasids, besieging Cons…
Timeline
- 860Black Sea · Black SeaRus' leaders Askold and Dir led about two hundred ships from the Dnipro River into the Black Sea, sailing south toward the Byzantine capital and launching a surprise attack while the empire's main forces were on campaign against the Abbasids.
- 860Bosporus Strait · ByzantiumThe Rus' fleet operated around the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara, imposing a naval blockade on Constantinople; the city's defenders and Emperor Michael III responded hastily, and Patriarch Photios organized religious processions to pray for protection.
- 860Constantinople · ByzantiumThe Rus' forces withdrew without launching a major siege; Byzantium attributed the victory to the protection of the Virgin Mary. Thereafter the empire strengthened its Black Sea defenses and laid diplomatic groundwork for later missionary work among the Rus'.
Sources
- Rus attack on Constantinople, 860 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kievan-Rus
- The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text — Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor (trans.) (1953)