13 avr. 803 - Dalmatia Campaign

Description:

The failed siege of Nicopolis forced Nikephoros to face the reality that there was no way for him to defeat the Bulgars in the field without significant reinforcement. The rest of year 802, Nikephoros was running around between locations, and gathered an army of able-bodied men, mercenaries and Slavs.

Nikephoros left Stobi in March 803 with an army of thirty-thousand, since the Bulgars were now firmly entrenched in both Dacia and Moesia, Nikephoros instead turned toward Dalmatia, which was under attack by the Croats.

While the Roman Slavs had largely assimilated with their Greek neighbors, converting to Christianity, and even adopting Greek as a second language, the Croats had not. They had invaded the province of Dalmatia during the eighth century, and by now were almost completely in control of it. This region had been ignored by previous Emperors, as more pressing issues consumed the Empire that time. Now however the remnants of the province, the coast, was also under attack.

The Croats fought primarily in ambush, which the mountainous country of Dalmatia was excellent for. But their first attempt was a dismal failure. Arab scouts discovered the force of eight thousand Slavic warriors without being discovered themselves, and Nikephoros proceeded to surround the site and attack. Two thousand Croats were killed, and the rest taken prisoner. Marching onward with his prisoners Nikephoros arrived at Epidarum, where he sold all the prisoners into slavery to Venetian merchants, using the captured gold to give bonuses to the soldiers.

The rest of the year was conducted in raids launched from coastal cities, which found Croat settlements or bands, and destroyed them. Captives were sold into slavery, and the dwellings burned alone saw nearly thirty thousand Croats killed or captured.

By the end of the year the Croat chieftains were in desperate straits, and realizing they had bought high on Roman weakness they begged for peace. Nikephoros' terms were harsh. The Croats had to acknowledge Roman sovereignty, pay a harsh tribute to Rome, some eight thousand pounds of gold or an equal number of slaves, and supply nearly ten thousand auxiliaries to the Roman army; these soldiers would be commanded by Slavic Roman officers, not by Croats chiefs.

The Croats refused the terms, and instead turned to Krum, who had used to raid Macedon and even Thrace, for help. Krum responded, marching into Dalmatia with nearly twenty thousand troops, and began his own campaign against the Romans. Krum however, his own campaign was designed to drive the Romans from the coast, rather than supporting Croats, and as such he devastated the countryside as well, reducing the Roman positions to their coastal cities, which the Bulgars could not take.

But Roman reprisals against the Croats continued, with another ten thousand being captured and sold into slavery by year’s end.

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