Armenia was often a focal point in the struggle between the emperors of Constantinople and Arab warlords in the 7th century. The timeline is convoluted, but Armenia was largely wrested out of Constantinople’s sphere of influence and brought under the sway of the Arabs due to successive attacks and invasions that occurred around 640, 643, and 650. By that point, despite remaining strongholds of resistance, the Arabs considered the region to be generally conquered. Medieval Armenians, however, put more focus on the date, 653, when the Armenian nobleman and regional military commander, Theodore Rshtuni, submitted to the eventual founder of the Umayyad Dynasty, Mu’awiya (r. 661-680). Although most of Armenia was under Arab influence by the time Mu’awiya became caliph, the emperors of Constantinople were able to maintain some buffer zones of loyalty and resistance in the Armenian borderlands. Notably, Emperor Constans II of Constantinople (r. 641-668/669) managed to claw back some influence in Armenia around 657 or 658, and his successors maintained ambitions for the region. His son, Emperor Constantine IV (r. 668-685), for his part, was too bogged down keeping an eye on the events concerning Avars, Slavs, Khazars and Bulgars to devote any time to Armenia, and he achieved peace with Mu’awiya after fending off the Umayyad leader’s unsuccessful siege of Constantinople between 674-678. Yet, the peace ended during the reign of his son, Emperor Justinian II (r. 685-695, 705-711), who sent troops to the Armenian front.
Border tensions, as well as other diplomatic disputes between Emperor Justinian II and his Umayyad counterpart, Abd al-Malik (r. 685-705), ultimately led to military conflict. War broke out around the end of the year, 692, and, once again, the region of Armenia was a focus of the conflict. Justinian II gathered a large force at the major coastal city of Sebastopolis, positioning them for a campaign near the Armenian theater of war. This did not escape the notice of the Arab forces, who also marched on Sebastopolis. During the standoff, the Arabs were able to entice a large force of disgruntled Slavic warriors to turn against the army of Justinian II, swinging the balance of power in the region heavily in the favor of the Arab forces. Soon after, a battle was commenced in which the Arabs inflicted a catastrophic defeat on the forces that Justinian II had stationed near Sebastopolis. A chronicler named Theophanes (c. 750s-818) described the Arab commander’s recruitment of the Slavic warriors, and the brutal imperial retaliation after the defeat. He wrote, “He sent him a purse loaded with nomismata and, deceiving him with many promises, persuaded him to desert to the Arabs with 20,000 Slavs. Then Justinian massacred the remaining Slavs (and their wives and children) at Leukate, a precipitous place by the sea on the gulf of Nikomedia. In this year [Sep. 693-Aug. 694] Sabbatios the prince of Armenia, after learning of the Roman defeat, surrendered to the Arabs. Also, inner Persia (known as Khorasan) came under their control” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entries for Annus Mundi 6184 and 6185).
After the decisive defeat of Justinian II’s forces at Sebastopolis, the remaining influence that Constantinople had in Armenia plummeted. Yet, despite the consolidation of Umayyad authority in the region, not everyone was happy with Arab rule. In particular, the aforementioned chronicler, Thophanes, made mention of a certain Sabinos who was said to have led some kind of violent resistance that targeted Arabs in Armenia at that time. Sabinos’ methods, however, may have been too much, even for the Umayyad Dynasty’s foes in Constantinople. Curiously, Theophanes described Sabinos more like a horrifying killer than as a resistance leader or a righteous rebel. Theophanes wrote, “A dangerous man, Sabinos by name, rose up there and killed many Arabs—almost including Hajjaj himself—but was finally drowned in a river” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6185). As the quote conveys, Sabinos’ reign of terror reportedly ended when the mysterious figure met his demise in a watery grave. His death brought some much-needed stability to the region, which allowed Arab forces to concentrate their attacks on other areas of Constantinople’s Byzantine Empire.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Judas Leads the Multitude, by T’oros Roslin (Armenian, active 1256-1268), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the Walters Art Museum).
Sources:
- Theophanes, The Chronicle of Theophanes, translated by Harry Turtledove. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, edited by Oliver Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Armenia/The-marzpans#ref481353
