1. Historical background

From the middle of the 9th century the Arab-Byzantine fight over the dominance in Asia Minor were for the first time connected to the harsh religious policy of the Byzantine Empire against the heresies. More specifically, in the frame of a strict orthodox policy enforced after the final restoration of the icons (March 843), the persecutions against the Paulicians were intensified; they were consequently forced to move towards the eastern side of the Arab-Byzantine frontier, in the region of Upper Euphrates, seeking security in the Arab lands. The Arab emir of Melitene ‘Amr al-Aqta’ finally ceded the the area north of Melitene, where they settled as an autonomous political and religious community, which was under the protection of the Arabs, in exchange for the Paulicians’ military services. Under this alliance, the Paulicians organized, from 843 onwards, raids against the Byzantine Empire, sometimes supporting the Arab troops and sometimes acting by themselves. Through these raids they gradually strengthened in terms of military, economic and political power of their state, rendering it a noteworthy adversary of the Empire.

The military activity of the Paulicians reached its peak when their leader was Chrysocheir (863-872), in a period in which the Arab, occupied with their internal quarrels caused by the plots inside the court of the Abbasids, were unable to organize any attack to the west. Before 869 Chrysocheir made raids in Asia Minor and reached up to Nikomedeia, Nicaea and Ephesus.

In order to face the immediate threat against the Byzantine territory, emperor Basileios I sent an embassy to Tephrike in 869, led by Petros Sikeliotes, which negotiated for nine months the signing of a peace treaty with the Paulicians. Finally, the embassy only managed to exchange prisoners, since Chrysocheir demanded, according to the Byzantine sources, by the Byzantine emperor to put the whole of Asia Minor under the control of the Paulicians. This forced Basil I to turn all his attention to the eastern border and to lead himself, in the spring of 871, a campaign against Tefrike, capital of the state of the Paulicians. This campaign was not successful and the emperor himself was nearly captured by the Paulicians. Encouraged by the failure of Basil I the Paulicians campaigned in 972, led by Chrysocheir, against the Byzantine territory, aiming once more to strengthen their position in the area of Asia Minor.¹

2. Beginning and outcome of the campaign

In 872 the leader of the Paulicians Chrysocheir left Tefrike in order to make a campaign against the Byzantine Empire. With his troops he advanced until Ankara² and the area of Kommata, that is between Ankara and the lake Tatta (today Tuz Golu) in southern Galatia, which he pillaged extensively. Next, having gained rich loot from the Byzantine lands, he took the road back to his lands, following the road which led from Ankara to Sevasteia via Tabia.³

Whereas the Paulicians raided Galatia, Emperor Basil I was in Constantinople. Right after he heard of the event, he ordered his son-in-law and domestikos of the scholae Christophoros⁴ to follow Chrysocheir as he was returning to Tephrike.⁵ The Byzantine troops reached at Siboron (today Karamadara) at the moment Chrysocheir’s camp was a bit more to the east, at Agranes (near today Muşalem Kale). From there Christophoros ordered the strategoi of the themes of Armeniakon and Charsianon to follow the Paulicians until Bathys Ryax (today passage of Kalınırmak) in northern Cappadocia, west of Sevasteia and to inform him whether Chrysocheir was about to sent troops against the themes of Armeniakoi or Charsianon. The Paulicians had already camped in Bathys Ryax, when the generals (strategoi) of Armeniakon and Charsianon arrived at night with their troops on the forested hill of Zogoloenos, above the camp of the Paulicians. There, taking advantage of the warlike enthusiasm of their troopers,⁶ they finally made an attack just before sunrise, notwithstanding the fact that the domestikos of the scholae Christophoros had ordered them to return without engaging the Paulicians. In the battle that followed the Paulicians were routed and the Byzantine forcers persecuted them in a distance of thirty miles towards the northeast, until the hill called Konstantinou Vounos (it is probably identified with Yildiz Dagi)⁷ near Sevasteia, killing many of them. During this pursuit Chrysocheir was also killed and his head was sent to Emperor Basil I in Constantinople.⁸

3. Consequences of the campaign

The most important event which took place during the 872 campaign of the leader of the Paulicians Chrysocheir against the Byzantine lands of Asia Minor was his battle with the Byzantine troops at Bathys Ryax. The formers not only did not allow the Paulicians to fulfil the goal of their campaign, that is the strengthening of their presence in the area of Asia Minor, but also led them to an absolute defeat, during which their military forces suffered severe losses and their leader was mortally wounded.

The death of Chrysocheir triggered great disturbance in the state of the Paulicians and brought about its rapid weakening, something which gave Basil I the chance to immediately proceed in a more dynamic campaign against the Paulicians, but also their Arab allies.⁹ The climax, concerning the Paulicians, of all this military effort was the fall and destruction of their capital Tephrike, a few years later, in the spring/summer of 878¹⁰ or in the summer of 879.¹¹ With the sack of Tefrike by the Byzantines, the Paulicians’ state was finally destroyed and the military threat they presented for the Byzantine Empire was neutralized. However, Paulicians continued to exist as a religious sect, since there is information for its survival during the 10th and 11th centuries.