5. Menander the Guardsman[75], The History[76]

[75] Menander the Guardsman (or Menander Protector): Byzantine historian, was born in Constantinople in the middle of the 6th century CE. The little that is known of his life is contained in the account of himself quoted in the Suda.39 He at first took up the study of law, but abandoned it for a life of pleasure. When his fortunes were low, the patronage accorded to literature by the Emperor Maurice, at whose court he was a military officer (hence the epithet Protector, which denotes his military function), encouraged him to try writing history.

[76] The History: Menander took as his model Agathias who like him had been a jurist, and his history begins at the point where Agathias leaves off. It embraces the period from the arrival of the Kutrigurs40 in Thrace during the reign of Justinian in 558 down to the death of the emperor Tiberius in 582 CE. Considerable fragments of the work are preserved in the Excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus and in the Suda.

5.1 [Fr. 4.2 (Exc. de Sent. 3)]

5.1.1 When Silzibul[77], the leader of the Turks, learned of the flight of the Avars[78] and the damage they had caused to Turkish possessions at their departure, as is naturally the case with barbarians he declared boastfully that, “They are not birds that they can take to the sky to escape the swords of the Turks, nor are they fish that they can take to the water and hide in the depths of the sea; but they must travel the earth. When I have ended the war with the Ephthalites, I shall attack the Avars and they shall not escape my might”. It is said that with this boast Silzibul continued his war against the Ephthalites.[79]41

[77] Silzibul: Silzibul (or Sizabul) recorded by Menander and Sinjibū recorded by Dīnawarī are also generally acknowledged to be Shidianmi 室點密. This may be correct, because Sinjibū’s deeds were similar to those of Shidianmi, and Silzibul and Sinǧibū can be taken as different transcriptions of the same name; to both are attributed the same deeds, which accord with those of Stembis as recorded by Theophylact Simocatt. Shidianmi 室點密 himself received orders from the Khan Mugan 木杆, together with his son Datou 達頭, to lead his troops on a western expedition against the Hephthalites. He made an alliance with Khusrō I and destroyed the state of the Hephthalites before 558 CE, and divided the Hephthalites’ territory along the middle of the Amu Darya. Then he defeated the Avars and the Ogurs, led troops to wipe out the remaining Hephthalites north of the Amu Darya, and pursued and eliminated the Ogurs who escaped west, i.e., the Pseudo-Avars, in 562-567 CE.

[78] Avars: The story of the Avars (Abaroi, Avari, or Avares) is chiefly recorded in Byzantine historical materials, according to which the Türks defeated the Avars, a nomadic horse-riding tribe, in the middle of the sixth century. Of the Avar remnants, some fled to Taugast, others to Mucri. After that, the Türks defeated the Ogors, another nomadic horse-riding tribe. The remnants of the latter, who were also called Avars or Pseudo-Avars in Byzantine texts having usurped the Avars’ name, fled west and sought refuge within the boundaries of Byzantine Empire. They were the very Avars who petitioned Justinian I [r. 527-565] for sanction to live in the west of present-day Hungary in 558. Their forces later steadily increased and they conquered the Gepids and the Lombards, defeated Sigibert [561-575], king of the Franks in 566, and controlled a vast area, which was centered about the valley of the Danube and extended east to the Black Sea, north to the Baltic Sea, and west to the Elbe River. They were the biggest threat to Byzantium and the western Germanic peoples until they were conquered by Pepin the Younger [r. 752-768] and Charlemagne [r. 768-814] during the period from 790 to 796 CE.

[79] In the middle of the sixth century, the Türks arose in North Asia. Their chief, Tumen 土門, defeated the Tiele 鐵勒 on behalf of the Rouran 柔然, for which service Tumen 土門 requested to form a matrimonial alliance with the Rouran 柔然, but was insulted by the Rouran 柔然 Khan, A’nagui 阿那瓌 [r. 520-552]. Enraged, Tumen 土門 attacked and defeated A’nagui 阿那瓌 in 552 CE, whereupon A’nagui 阿那瓌 committed suicide. As a result of repeated defeats by the Türks, the Khanate of the Rouran 柔然 underwent a complete collapse, with all its territories occupied by the Türks. Thus, the western border of the Türks came to adjoin the Hephthalites. Meanwhile, in the west, Khusrau I [r. 531-579], after ascending the throne, made a series of political, economic, and military reforms, resulting in the strengthening of Sassanian Persia. Khusrau I, while fighting against Byzantium for hegemony over the Mediterranean, formed a matrimonial alliance with the Türks, in order to prevail jointly over the Hephthalites. Between the end of the fifties and the beginning of the sixties of the sixth century, the joint forces of the Türks and Persians launched a pincer attack against the Hephthalites, who suffered complete defeat and destruction. The Türks and Persians divided the lands of the Hephthalites, with the Amu Darya as their border. It was achieved through cooperation between the Persians and the Turks, though both sides claimed the major role, which the present passage suggests Menander gave to the Türks.

5.2 [Fr. 6.1 (Exc. de Leg. Rom. 3)]

5.2.1 At the following meeting the Zikh[80] began to boast and exalt king Khosro[81], saying that he was invincible and adorned with many victories; that from the time when he had assumed the tiara, he had conquered about ten peoples and made them tributary; that he had destroyed the power of the Ephthalites and had defeated very many kings; that the barbarians there were in wonderment and awe of him; and that properly and rightly he was proclaimed king of kings.[82]42

[80] Zikh, a Persian envoy.

[81] Khosro (Khusrau I): Emperor of the Sassanian Empire, son of Kavād I, reigned from 531 to 579.

[82] The Turkish view regarding who conquered the Ephthalites is different (cf. Fr. 10.1 = 5.3). Presumably “many kings” refers to the barons of the former Ephthalite territory who had given allegiance to the Persian king. Although the singling out of the Ephthalites, who were the Persiansʼ most formidable enemy after the Romans and had been recently destroyed, is understandable, this and the following claim probably betray a degree of apprehension about the Turks, which may well have brought the Persians to negotiations. In stressing the title King of Kings (βασιλεὺς βασιλέων = Shahanshah) the Zikh is not advancing any claim to supremacy over the Roman Emperor, whom the Persians called qaisar.43

5.3 [Fr. 10.1 (Exc. de Leg. Gent. 7)]

5.3.1 At the beginning of the fourth year[83] of Justinʼs reign an embassy from the Turks came to Byzantium. As the power of the Turks increased, the Sogdians, who were earlier subjects of the Ephthalites and now of the Turks, asked their king to send an embassy to the Persians, to request that the Sogdians be allowed to travel there and sell raw silk to the Medes.[84] Sizabul[85] agreed and dispatched Sogdian envoys, whose leader was Maniakh[86]. When they reached the king of the Persians, they asked that they be given permission to sell the raw silk there without any hindrance. The Persian king, who was not at all pleased by their request, being reluctant to grant free access from there to that area of Persia, put off his reply until the next day and kept postponing it. After a series of postponements, as the Sogdians were pressing insistently for a reply, Khosro summoned a council to discuss the matter. Katulph[87], the Ephthalite, who, because the king had raped his wife, had betrayed his own tribe to the Turks (and who in the meantime had left them and joined the Medes), advised the Persian king not to return the silk, but to buy it, paying the fair price for it, and to burn it in the fire before the very eyes of the envoys, so that he would not be held to have committed an injustice but that it would be clear that he did not wish to use raw silk from the Turks. So the silk was burned, and the Sogdians returned to their homeland not at all pleased with what had happened.[88]44

[83] I.e. late 568-early 569.

[84] On the overthrow of the Ephthalites see no. 5. “Medes” here refers to Persia.

[85] Sizabul, i.e., Silzibul.

[86] Maniakh is apparently a Turkish name.

[87] Katulph: It is suggested that the name should be Κάτουλγος = Turkish Kutlug (Fortunate).45

[88] Menander appears to identify two fears on the part of the Persians: a fear of Turkish expansion southwards, and a desire to keep as much as possible of the lucrative silk-trade (through the southern routes), now the Ephthalites, the old middlemen on the northern route, had been eliminated.46

5.3.2 When the Sogdians told Sizabul what had occurred, he himself sent another embassy to the Persians, since he wished to establish friendly relations between them and his own state. When this second Turkish embassy arrived, the king, after discussion with the Persian high officials and with Katulph, decided that because of the untrustworthy nature of the Scythians[89] it was completely against Persian interest to establish friendly relations with the Turks. At this he ordered that some of the envoys be poisoned, so that henceforth they would refuse to come there. The majority of the Turkish envoys, all but three or four, were murdered by a deadly poison mixed in with their food. A report was circulated amongst the Persians that the Turkish envoys had been killed by the stifling dryness of Persia, because their own land was often covered with snow and they could not survive away from cold weather. Although the survivors of the plot suspected a different explanation, when they returned to their own country they noised about the same version as the Persians. Sizabul, however, who was a shrewd and intelligent man, recognised what had been done and realised the truth, that the envoys had been killed by treachery. This was the cause of the hostility between the Persians and the Turks.[90]47

[89] Here “Scythians” is not used as a synonym for “Turks”, but refers in general to all the nomadic inhabitants of Scythia. The view that nomads were untrustworthy was shared with the Romans.48

[90] After the alliance of the two states splintered, according to Menander, the Türks first sent envoys to Byzantium in 568 CE to conspire to attack the Persians, and attempted to open up a trade route directly with the West. The above-mentioned matters were learned by Zemarchus, the envoy of Byzantium, when he paid a return visit in the same year. According to Zemarchus’ report, he saw, with his own eyes, that Sizabul marched against the Persians. This was the prelude to hostility between the Türks and Persians.49

5.3.3 Maniakh, the leader of the Sogdians, took this opportunity and advised Sizabul that it would be better for the Turks to cultivate the friendship of the Romans and send their raw silk for sale to them because they made more use of it than other people. Maniakh said that he himself was very willing to go along with envoys from the Turks, and in his way the Romans and Turks would become friends. Sizabul consented to this proposal and sent Maniakh and some others as envoys to the Roman Emperor carrying greetings, a valuable gift of raw silk and a letter.[91](Look for the letter in the Excerpts on Letters.)50

[91] Relations between the Romans and the Sogdians had perhaps opened about twenty years earlier, and, in fact, relations with Transcaucasia may have existed for much longer.51 The Romans had already attempted to deprive the Persians of their income from silk by using the Ethiopians as middlemen, an attempt which failed. By the time of Maniakhʼs embassy they had the silkworm, eggs of which had been smuggled in during Justinianʼs reign; and, indeed, Theophanes of Byzantium (Fr. 3) says that Justin showed such silk to the Turkish envoys, to their astonishment.52 But an industry apparently did not develop.53

5.3.4 Carrying this letter Maniakh set out on his journey. He travelled very many roads and traversed very many lands, over huge mountains reaching near the clouds, through plains and woods, over marshes and rivers. Then he crossed the Caucasus and finally came to Byzantium.[92] When he entered the palace and came before the Emperor, he did everything according to the law of friendship. He handed over the letter and the gifts to those who were sent to receive them and he asked that the toil of his journey not be in vain.54

[92] Theophanes [Chron. a.m. 6064]55 adds the detail that he travelled via the land of the Alans (to the north-east of the Caucasus).56

5.3.5 When the Emperor read the letter, written in Scythian[93], through an interpreter, he most willingly granted an audience to the embassy. He then questioned the envoys about the leadership of the Turks and their location. They replied that they had four principalities, but power over the whole people was vested in Sizabul alone.[94] Furthermore, they said, the Turks had conquered the Ephthalites and made them tributary.[95] “You have, therefore”, asked the Emperor, “made all the power of the Ephthalites subject to you”? “Completely”, replied the envoys. The Emperor then asked, “Do the Ephthalites live in cities or villages”? The envoys: “My Lord, that people lives in cities”.[96] “Then”, said the Emperor, “it is clear that you have become master of these cities”. “Indeed”, said the envoys. The Emperor asked, “Tell us how large a multitude of Avars revolted from Turkish rule and whether any remain subject to you”. “There are, O Emperor, some who still adhere to us. Those who fled number, I think, around twenty thousand”. Then the envoys enumerated the tribes subject to the Turks and asked the Emperor for peace and an offensive and defensive alliance between the Romans and the Turks. They added that they were also very willing to crush those enemies of the Roman state who were pressing upon their territory.[97] As they were speaking Maniakh and those with him raised their hands on high and swore upon their greatest oath that they were saying these things with honest intent. In addition they called down curses upon themselves, even upon Sizabul and upon their whole race, if their claims were false and could not be fulfilled. In this way the Turkish people became friends of the Romans and established these relations with our state.57

[93] Cahun suggests that the letter was in the old Turkish script and remarks that it is noteworthy that the Romans had a translator who could read it.58 However, Menander never clearly uses “Scythian” specifically of the Turks, and it would be remarkable if the Romans had such a person available. More likely “Scythian” is used in a loose way for the languages of Central Asia, so that the actual language cannot be identified; and perhaps Menander did not know what it was. One of the languages of the settled peoples, such as Sogdian, is more likely.59

[94] That is, Sizabul was senior Khagan over the four groups that comprised the Western Turks.60

[95] Contrast the claim of the Persian envoy Yesdegusnaph at Fr. 6.1.61 Justin is here clearly exploring the Persian claim.62

[96] If this were the case, their monarch too would have had a capital. It is inevitable that nomadic tribes gradually settle down after they enter farming areas, and the Hephthalites would not have been an exception. However, the Hephthalites had their capital after the 520s CE, at the earliest.

[97] The Turks expected both trade-relations and cooperation from the Romans against their mutual enemies. It is clear from Fr. 13.563 that the Persians were to be a prime target, but it is also clear from the reaction of Turxanthus (Fr. 19.1)64 that the Turks also aimed at the Avars, which would bring them too close to Roman territory for the Romansʼ comfort. Theophanes of Byzantium Fr. 265 says that the Turks asked the Romans not to admit the Avars and they complied with the request.66