Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians.—Part

I.

The Bulgarians.—Origin, Migrations, And Settlement Of The
Hungarians.—Their Inroads In The East And West.—The Monarchy Of
Russia.—Geography And Trade.—Wars Of The Russians Against The
Greek Empire.—Conversion Of The Barbarians.

Under the reign of Constantine the grandson of Heraclius, the
ancient barrier of the Danube, so often violated and so often
restored, was irretrievably swept away by a new deluge of
Barbarians. Their progress was favored by the caliphs, their
unknown and accidental auxiliaries: the Roman legions were
occupied in Asia; and after the loss of Syria, Egypt, and Africa,
the Caesars were twice reduced to the danger and disgrace of
defending their capital against the Saracens. If, in the account
of this interesting people, I have deviated from the strict and
original line of my undertaking, the merit of the subject will
hide my transgression, or solicit my excuse. In the East, in the
West, in war, in religion, in science, in their prosperity, and
in their decay, the Arabians press themselves on our curiosity:
the first overthrow of the church and empire of the Greeks may be
imputed to their arms; and the disciples of Mahomet still hold
the civil and religious sceptre of the Oriental world. But the
same labor would be unworthily bestowed on the swarms of savages,
who, between the seventh and the twelfth century, descended from
the plains of Scythia, in transient inroad or perpetual
emigration. 1 Their names are uncouth, their origins doubtful,
their actions obscure, their superstition was blind, their valor
brutal, and the uniformity of their public and private lives was
neither softened by innocence nor refined by policy. The majesty
of the Byzantine throne repelled and survived their disorderly
attacks; the greater part of these Barbarians has disappeared
without leaving any memorial of their existence, and the
despicable remnant continues, and may long continue, to groan
under the dominion of a foreign tyrant. From the antiquities of,
I. Bulgarians, II. Hungarians, and, III. Russians, I shall
content myself with selecting such facts as yet deserve to be
remembered. The conquests of the, IV. Normans, and the monarchy
of the, V. Turks, will naturally terminate in the memorable
Crusades to the Holy Land, and the double fall of the city and
empire of Constantine.

1 (return) [ All the passages of the Byzantine history which
relate to the Barbarians are compiled, methodized, and
transcribed, in a Latin version, by the laborious John Gotthelf
Stritter, in his “Memoriae Populorum, ad Danubium, Pontum
Euxinum, Paludem Maeotidem, Caucasum, Mare Caspium, et inde Magis
ad Septemtriones incolentium.” Petropoli, 1771-1779; in four
tomes, or six volumes, in 4to. But the fashion has not enhanced
the price of these raw materials.]

I. In his march to Italy, Theodoric 2 the Ostrogoth had trampled
on the arms of the Bulgarians. After this defeat, the name and
the nation are lost during a century and a half; and it may be
suspected that the same or a similar appellation was revived by
strange colonies from the Borysthenes, the Tanais, or the Volga.
A king of the ancient Bulgaria, 3 bequeathed to his five sons a
last lesson of moderation and concord. It was received as youth
has ever received the counsels of age and experience: the five
princes buried their father; divided his subjects and cattle;
forgot his advice; separated from each other; and wandered in
quest of fortune till we find the most adventurous in the heart
of Italy, under the protection of the exarch of Ravenna. 4 But
the stream of emigration was directed or impelled towards the
capital. The modern Bulgaria, along the southern banks of the
Danube, was stamped with the name and image which it has retained
to the present hour: the new conquerors successively acquired, by
war or treaty, the Roman provinces of Dardania, Thessaly, and the
two Epirus; 5 the ecclesiastical supremacy was translated from
the native city of Justinian; and, in their prosperous age, the
obscure town of Lychnidus, or Achrida, was honored with the
throne of a king and a patriarch. 6 The unquestionable evidence
of language attests the descent of the Bulgarians from the
original stock of the Sclavonian, or more properly Slavonian,
race; 7 and the kindred bands of Servians, Bosnians, Rascians,
Croatians, Walachians, 8 &c., followed either the standard or the
example of the leading tribe. From the Euxine to the Adriatic, in
the state of captives, or subjects, or allies, or enemies, of the
Greek empire, they overspread the land; and the national
appellation of the slaves 9 has been degraded by chance or malice
from the signification of glory to that of servitude. 10 Among
these colonies, the Chrobatians, 11 or Croats, who now attend the
motions of an Austrian army, are the descendants of a mighty
people, the conquerors and sovereigns of Dalmatia. The maritime
cities, and of these the infant republic of Ragusa, implored the
aid and instructions of the Byzantine court: they were advised by
the magnanimous Basil to reserve a small acknowledgment of their
fidelity to the Roman empire, and to appease, by an annual
tribute, the wrath of these irresistible Barbarians. The kingdom
of Crotia was shared by eleven Zoupans, or feudatory lords; and
their united forces were numbered at sixty thousand horse and one
hundred thousand foot. A long sea-coast, indented with capacious
harbors, covered with a string of islands, and almost in sight of
the Italian shores, disposed both the natives and strangers to
the practice of navigation. The boats or brigantines of the
Croats were constructed after the fashion of the old Liburnians:
one hundred and eighty vessels may excite the idea of a
respectable navy; but our seamen will smile at the allowance of
ten, or twenty, or forty, men for each of these ships of war.
They were gradually converted to the more honorable service of
commerce; yet the Sclavonian pirates were still frequent and
dangerous; and it was not before the close of the tenth century
that the freedom and sovereignty of the Gulf were effectually
vindicated by the Venetian republic. 12 The ancestors of these
Dalmatian kings were equally removed from the use and abuse of
navigation: they dwelt in the White Croatia, in the inland
regions of Silesia and Little Poland, thirty days’ journey,
according to the Greek computation, from the sea of darkness.

2 (return) [ Hist. vol. iv. p. 11.]

3 (return) [ Theophanes, p. 296-299. Anastasius, p. 113.
Nicephorus, C. P. p. 22, 23. Theophanes places the old Bulgaria
on the banks of the Atell or Volga; but he deprives himself of
all geographical credit by discharging that river into the Euxine
Sea.]

4 (return) [ Paul. Diacon. de Gestis Langobard. l. v. c. 29, p.
881, 882. The apparent difference between the Lombard historian
and the above-mentioned Greeks, is easily reconciled by Camillo
Pellegrino (de Ducatu Beneventano, dissert. vii. in the
Scriptores Rerum Ital. (tom. v. p. 186, 187) and Beretti,
(Chorograph. Italiae Medii Aevi, p. 273, &c. This Bulgarian
colony was planted in a vacant district of Samnium, and learned
the Latin, without forgetting their native language.]

5 (return) [ These provinces of the Greek idiom and empire are
assigned to the Bulgarian kingdom in the dispute of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction between the patriarchs of Rome and
Constantinople, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 869, No. 75.)]

6 (return) [ The situation and royalty of Lychnidus, or Achrida,
are clearly expressed in Cedrenus, (p. 713.) The removal of an
archbishop or patriarch from Justinianea prima to Lychnidus, and
at length to Ternovo, has produced some perplexity in the ideas
or language of the Greeks, (Nicephorus Gregoras, l. ii. c. 2, p.
14, 15. Thomassin, Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. i. l. i. c. 19,
23;) and a Frenchman (D’Anville) is more accurately skilled in
the geography of their own country, (Hist. de l’Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. xxxi.)]

7 (return) [ Chalcocondyles, a competent judge, affirms the
identity of the language of the Dalmatians, Bosnians, Servians,
Bulgarians, Poles, (de Rebus Turcicis, l. x. p. 283,) and
elsewhere of the Bohemians, (l. ii. p. 38.) The same author has
marked the separate idiom of the Hungarians. * Note: The
Slavonian languages are no doubt Indo-European, though an
original branch of that great family, comprehending the various
dialects named by Gibbon and others. Shafarik, t. 33.—M. 1845.]

8 (return) [ See the work of John Christopher de Jordan, de
Originibus Sclavicis, Vindobonae, 1745, in four parts, or two
volumes in folio. His collections and researches are useful to
elucidate the antiquities of Bohemia and the adjacent countries;
but his plan is narrow, his style barbarous, his criticism
shallow, and the Aulic counsellor is not free from the prejudices
of a Bohemian. * Note: We have at length a profound and
satisfactory work on the Slavonian races. Shafarik, Slawische
Alterthumer. B. 2, Leipzig, 1843.—M. 1845.]

9 (return) [ Jordan subscribes to the well-known and probable
derivation from Slava, laus, gloria, a word of familiar use in
the different dialects and parts of speech, and which forms the
termination of the most illustrious names, (de Originibus
Sclavicis, pars. i. p. 40, pars. iv. p. 101, 102)]

10 (return) [ This conversion of a national into an appellative
name appears to have arisen in the viiith century, in the
Oriental France, where the princes and bishops were rich in
Sclavonian captives, not of the Bohemian, (exclaims Jordan,) but
of Sorabian race. From thence the word was extended to the
general use, to the modern languages, and even to the style of
the last Byzantines, (see the Greek and Latin Glossaries and
Ducange.) The confusion of the Servians with the Latin Servi, was
still more fortunate and familiar, (Constant. Porphyr. de
Administrando, Imperio, c. 32, p. 99.)]

11 (return) [ The emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, most
accurate for his own times, most fabulous for preceding ages,
describes the Sclavonians of Dalmatia, (c. 29-36.)]

12 (return) [ See the anonymous Chronicle of the xith century,
ascribed to John Sagorninus, (p. 94-102,) and that composed in
the xivth by the Doge Andrew Dandolo, (Script. Rerum. Ital. tom.
xii. p. 227-230,) the two oldest monuments of the history of
Venice.]

The glory of the Bulgarians 13 was confined to a narrow scope
both of time and place. In the ninth and tenth centuries, they
reigned to the south of the Danube; but the more powerful nations
that had followed their emigration repelled all return to the
north and all progress to the west. Yet in the obscure catalogue
of their exploits, they might boast an honor which had hitherto
been appropriated to the Goths: that of slaying in battle one of
the successors of Augustus and Constantine. The emperor
Nicephorus had lost his fame in the Arabian, he lost his life in
the Sclavonian, war. In his first operations he advanced with
boldness and success into the centre of Bulgaria, and burnt the
royal court, which was probably no more than an edifice and
village of timber. But while he searched the spoil and refused
all offers of treaty, his enemies collected their spirits and
their forces: the passes of retreat were insuperably barred; and
the trembling Nicephorus was heard to exclaim, “Alas, alas!
unless we could assume the wings of birds, we cannot hope to
escape.” Two days he waited his fate in the inactivity of
despair; but, on the morning of the third, the Bulgarians
surprised the camp, and the Roman prince, with the great officers
of the empire, were slaughtered in their tents. The body of
Valens had been saved from insult; but the head of Nicephorus was
exposed on a spear, and his skull, enchased with gold, was often
replenished in the feasts of victory. The Greeks bewailed the
dishonor of the throne; but they acknowledged the just punishment
of avarice and cruelty. This savage cup was deeply tinctured with
the manners of the Scythian wilderness; but they were softened
before the end of the same century by a peaceful intercourse with
the Greeks, the possession of a cultivated region, and the
introduction of the Christian worship. The nobles of Bulgaria
were educated in the schools and palace of Constantinople; and
Simeon, 14 a youth of the royal line, was instructed in the
rhetoric of Demosthenes and the logic of Aristotle. He
relinquished the profession of a monk for that of a king and
warrior; and in his reign of more than forty years, Bulgaria
assumed a rank among the civilized powers of the earth. The
Greeks, whom he repeatedly attacked, derived a faint consolation
from indulging themselves in the reproaches of perfidy and
sacrilege. They purchased the aid of the Pagan Turks; but Simeon,
in a second battle, redeemed the loss of the first, at a time
when it was esteemed a victory to elude the arms of that
formidable nation. The Servians were overthrown, made captive and
dispersed; and those who visited the country before their
restoration could discover no more than fifty vagrants, without
women or children, who extorted a precarious subsistence from the
chase. On classic ground, on the banks of Achelous, the greeks
were defeated; their horn was broken by the strength of the
Barbaric Hercules. 15 He formed the siege of Constantinople; and,
in a personal conference with the emperor, Simeon imposed the
conditions of peace. They met with the most jealous precautions:
the royal gallery was drawn close to an artificial and
well-fortified platform; and the majesty of the purple was
emulated by the pomp of the Bulgarian. “Are you a Christian?”
said the humble Romanus: “it is your duty to abstain from the
blood of your fellow-Christians. Has the thirst of riches seduced
you from the blessings of peace? Sheathe your sword, open your
hand, and I will satiate the utmost measure of your desires.” The
reconciliation was sealed by a domestic alliance; the freedom of
trade was granted or restored; the first honors of the court were
secured to the friends of Bulgaria, above the ambassadors of
enemies or strangers; 16 and her princes were dignified with the
high and invidious title of Basileus, or emperor. But this
friendship was soon disturbed: after the death of Simeon, the
nations were again in arms; his feeble successors were divided
and extinguished; and, in the beginning of the eleventh century,
the second Basil, who was born in the purple, deserved the
appellation of conqueror of the Bulgarians. His avarice was in
some measure gratified by a treasure of four hundred thousand
pounds sterling, (ten thousand pounds’ weight of gold,) which he
found in the palace of Lychnidus. His cruelty inflicted a cool
and exquisite vengeance on fifteen thousand captives who had been
guilty of the defence of their country. They were deprived of
sight; but to one of each hundred a single eye was left, that he
might conduct his blind century to the presence of their king.
Their king is said to have expired of grief and horror; the
nation was awed by this terrible example; the Bulgarians were
swept away from their settlements, and circumscribed within a
narrow province; the surviving chiefs bequeathed to their
children the advice of patience and the duty of revenge.

13 (return) [ The first kingdom of the Bulgarians may be found,
under the proper dates, in the Annals of Cedrenus and Zonaras.
The Byzantine materials are collected by Stritter, (Memoriae
Populorum, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 441-647;) and the series of their
kings is disposed and settled by Ducange, (Fam. Byzant. p.
305-318.]

14 (return) [ Simeonem semi-Graecum esse aiebant, eo quod a
pueritia Byzantii Demosthenis rhetoricam et Aristotelis
syllogismos didicerat, (Liutprand, l. iii. c. 8.) He says in
another place, Simeon, fortis bella tor, Bulgariae praeerat;
Christianus, sed vicinis Graecis valde inimicus, (l. i. c. 2.)]

15 (return) [—Rigidum fera dextera cornu Dum tenet, infregit,
truncaque a fronte revellit. Ovid (Metamorph. ix. 1-100) has
boldly painted the combat of the river god and the hero; the
native and the stranger.]

16 (return) [ The ambassador of Otho was provoked by the Greek
excuses, cum Christophori filiam Petrus Bulgarorum Vasileus
conjugem duceret, Symphona, id est consonantia scripto juramento
firmata sunt, ut omnium gentium Apostolis, id est nunciis, penes
nos Bulgarorum Apostoli praeponantur, honorentur, diligantur,
(Liutprand in Legatione, p. 482.) See the Ceremoniale of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, tom. i. p. 82, tom. ii. p. 429, 430,
434, 435, 443, 444, 446, 447, with the annotations of Reiske.]

II. When the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over Europe,
above nine hundred years after the Christian aera, they were
mistaken by fear and superstition for the Gog and Magog of the
Scriptures, the signs and forerunners of the end of the world. 17
Since the introduction of letters, they have explored their own
antiquities with a strong and laudable impulse of patriotic
curiosity. 18 Their rational criticism can no longer be amused
with a vain pedigree of Attila and the Huns; but they complain
that their primitive records have perished in the Tartar war;
that the truth or fiction of their rustic songs is long since
forgotten; and that the fragments of a rude chronicle 19 must be
painfully reconciled with the contemporary though foreign
intelligence of the imperial geographer. 20 Magiar is the
national and oriental denomination of the Hungarians; but, among
the tribes of Scythia, they are distinguished by the Greeks under
the proper and peculiar name of Turks, as the descendants of that
mighty people who had conquered and reigned from China to the
Volga. The Pannonian colony preserved a correspondence of trade
and amity with the eastern Turks on the confines of Persia and
after a separation of three hundred and fifty years, the
missionaries of the king of Hungary discovered and visited their
ancient country near the banks of the Volga. They were hospitably
entertained by a people of Pagans and Savages who still bore the
name of Hungarians; conversed in their native tongue, recollected
a tradition of their long-lost brethren, and listened with
amazement to the marvellous tale of their new kingdom and
religion. The zeal of conversion was animated by the interest of
consanguinity; and one of the greatest of their princes had
formed the generous, though fruitless, design of replenishing the
solitude of Pannonia by this domestic colony from the heart of
Tartary. 21 From this primitive country they were driven to the
West by the tide of war and emigration, by the weight of the more
distant tribes, who at the same time were fugitives and
conquerors. 2111 Reason or fortune directed their course towards
the frontiers of the Roman empire: they halted in the usual
stations along the banks of the great rivers; and in the
territories of Moscow, Kiow, and Moldavia, some vestiges have
been discovered of their temporary residence. In this long and
various peregrination, they could not always escape the dominion
of the stronger; and the purity of their blood was improved or
sullied by the mixture of a foreign race: from a motive of
compulsion, or choice, several tribes of the Chazars were
associated to the standard of their ancient vassals; introduced
the use of a second language; and obtained by their superior
renown the most honorable place in the front of battle. The
military force of the Turks and their allies marched in seven
equal and artificial divisions; each division was formed of
thirty thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven warriors, and the
proportion of women, children, and servants, supposes and
requires at least a million of emigrants. Their public counsels
were directed by seven vayvods, or hereditary chiefs; but the
experience of discord and weakness recommended the more simple
and vigorous administration of a single person. The sceptre,
which had been declined by the modest Lebedias, was granted to
the birth or merit of Almus and his son Arpad, and the authority
of the supreme khan of the Chazars confirmed the engagement of
the prince and people; of the people to obey his commands, of the
prince to consult their happiness and glory.

17 (return) [ A bishop of Wurtzburgh submitted his opinion to a
reverend abbot; but he more gravely decided, that Gog and Magog
were the spiritual persecutors of the church; since Gog signifies
the root, the pride of the Heresiarchs, and Magog what comes from
the root, the propagation of their sects. Yet these men once
commanded the respect of mankind, (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xi.
p. 594, &c.)]

18 (return) [ The two national authors, from whom I have derived
the mos assistance, are George Pray (Dissertationes and Annales
veterum Hun garorum, &c., Vindobonae, 1775, in folio) and Stephen
Katona, (Hist. Critica Ducum et Regum Hungariae Stirpis
Arpadianae, Paestini, 1778-1781, 5 vols. in octavo.) The first
embraces a large and often conjectural space; the latter, by his
learning, judgment, and perspicuity, deserves the name of a
critical historian. * Note: Compare Engel Geschichte des
Ungrischen Reichs und seiner Neben lander, Halle, 1797, and
Mailath, Geschichte der Magyaren, Wien, 1828. In an appendix to
the latter work will be found a brief abstract of the
speculations (for it is difficult to consider them more) which
have been advanced by the learned, on the origin of the Magyar
and Hungarian names. Compare vol. vi. p. 35, note.—M.]

19 (return) [ The author of this Chronicle is styled the notary
of King Bela. Katona has assigned him to the xiith century, and
defends his character against the hypercriticism of Pray. This
rude annalist must have transcribed some historical records,
since he could affirm with dignity, rejectis falsis fabulis
rusticorum, et garrulo cantu joculatorum. In the xvth century,
these fables were collected by Thurotzius, and embellished by the
Italian Bonfinius. See the Preliminary Discourse in the Hist.
Critica Ducum, p. 7-33.]

20 (return) [ See Constantine de Administrando Imperio, c. 3, 4,
13, 38-42, Katona has nicely fixed the composition of this work
to the years 949, 950, 951, (p. 4-7.) The critical historian (p.
34-107) endeavors to prove the existence, and to relate the
actions, of a first duke Almus the father of Arpad, who is
tacitly rejected by Constantine.]

21 (return) [ Pray (Dissert. p. 37-39, &c.) produces and
illustrates the original passages of the Hungarian missionaries,
Bonfinius and Aeneas Sylvius.]

2111 (return) [ In the deserts to the south-east of Astrakhan
have been found the ruins of a city named Madchar, which proves
the residence of the Hungarians or Magiar in those regions.
Precis de la Geog. Univ. par Malte Brun, vol. i. p. 353.—G.——This
is contested by Klaproth in his Travels, c. xxi. Madschar, (he
states) in old Tartar, means “stone building.” This was a Tartar
city mentioned by the Mahometan writers.—M.]

With this narrative we might be reasonably content, if the
penetration of modern learning had not opened a new and larger
prospect of the antiquities of nations. The Hungarian language
stands alone, and as it were insulated, among the Sclavonian
dialects; but it bears a close and clear affinity to the idioms
of the Fennic race, 22 of an obsolete and savage race, which
formerly occupied the northern regions of Asia and Europe. 2211
The genuine appellation of Ugri or Igours is found on the western
confines of China; 23 their migration to the banks of the Irtish
is attested by Tartar evidence; 24 a similar name and language
are detected in the southern parts of Siberia; 25 and the remains
of the Fennic tribes are widely, though thinly scattered from the
sources of the Oby to the shores of Lapland. 26 The consanguinity
of the Hungarians and Laplanders would display the powerful
energy of climate on the children of a common parent; the lively
contrast between the bold adventurers who are intoxicated with
the wines of the Danube, and the wretched fugitives who are
immersed beneath the snows of the polar circle.

Arms and freedom have ever been the ruling, though too often the
unsuccessful, passion of the Hungarians, who are endowed by
nature with a vigorous constitution of soul and body. 27 Extreme
cold has diminished the stature and congealed the faculties of
the Laplanders; and the arctic tribes, alone among the sons of
men, are ignorant of war, and unconscious of human blood; a happy
ignorance, if reason and virtue were the guardians of their
peace! 28

22 (return) [ Fischer in the Quaestiones Petropolitanae, de
Origine Ungrorum, and Pray, Dissertat. i. ii. iii. &c., have
drawn up several comparative tables of the Hungarian with the
Fennic dialects. The affinity is indeed striking, but the lists
are short; the words are purposely chosen; and I read in the
learned Bayer, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. x. p. 374,) that
although the Hungarian has adopted many Fennic words, (innumeras
voces,) it essentially differs toto genio et natura.]

2211 (return) [ The connection between the Magyar language and
that of the Finns is now almost generally admitted. Klaproth,
Asia Polyglotta, p. 188, &c. Malte Bran, tom. vi. p. 723, &c.—M.]

23 (return) [ In the religion of Turfan, which is clearly and
minutely described by the Chinese Geographers, (Gaubil, Hist. du
Grand Gengiscan, 13; De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 31,
&c.)]

24 (return) [ Hist. Genealogique des Tartars, par Abulghazi
Bahadur Khan partie ii. p. 90-98.]

25 (return) [ In their journey to Pekin, both Isbrand Ives
(Harris’s Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. ii. p. 920,
921) and Bell (Travels, vol. i p. 174) found the Vogulitz in the
neighborhood of Tobolsky. By the tortures of the etymological
art, Ugur and Vogul are reduced to the same name; the
circumjacent mountains really bear the appellation of Ugrian; and
of all the Fennic dialects, the Vogulian is the nearest to the
Hungarian, (Fischer, Dissert. i. p. 20-30. Pray. Dissert. ii. p.
31-34.)]

26 (return) [ The eight tribes of the Fennic race are described
in the curious work of M. Leveque, (Hist. des Peuples soumis a la
Domination de la Russie, tom. ii. p. 361-561.)]

27 (return) [ This picture of the Hungarians and Bulgarians is
chiefly drawn from the Tactics of Leo, p. 796-801, and the Latin
Annals, which are alleged by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori, A.D.
889, &c.]

28 (return) [ Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 6, in 12mo.
Gustavus Adolphus attempted, without success, to form a regiment
of Laplanders. Grotius says of these arctic tribes, arma arcus et
pharetra, sed adversus feras, (Annal. l. iv. p. 236;) and
attempts, after the manner of Tacitus, to varnish with philosophy
their brutal ignorance.]