15 apr 811 anni - Battle of Marcianopolis of 811

Descrizione:

Since 806, Roman light cavalry, which most comprise by mercenaries like Daylamites, Arabs, and Goths, used local knowledge and experience to begin a campaign that would have been unthinkable a decade before, the Fabian strategy. They realied that the Bulgars were too strong to be beaten openly in the field at this point, and the best way is refusing to give battle, instead relying on small strikes and denial of land to the opponent, to worn down and weaken them.

Into practice, Nikephoros unleashed his Bedawi mercenaries into the themes of Moesia and Dacia, and ordered them to make the regions uninhabitable. Fields were destroyed, towns burned, the remaining population gathered up as swordpoint and marched south into Imperial held lands. The Bulgars were forced to take refuge in the walled cities they had captured, with Krum moving from troublespot to troublespot trying stop the raiders, but in this he failed.

The most infamously, however, the Bedawi sought out every well they could find and poisoned them. Dead animals were dumped into the water supplies of multiple towns that couldn’t be taken by force, either by sneaking inside at night to cause havoc, or simply through brief raids.

This pattern continued as time dragged on. Every winter Krum would cross the Danube north to settle down and regroup for the next year’s campaign, and the raiders would return to Roman lands to do the same. Come spring both would return, and the chase would resume. With Moesia so devastated Krum was unable to come far enough south to drive the Romans back behind the Hemus mountains again, nor to lay siege to the Phrourions from which the raiders operated.

The war degerated to a campaign of maneuver and counter-maneuver, and throughout it all Krum was drained of men, money, and horses. In 809 though as October came Krum got a lucky break. He learned where the raiders were going to be, before they had actually set off. Moving quickly the Bulgar khan got to the region first and set up an ambush. When the three thousand Bedawi arrived they were set upon by the Bulgars, and slaughtered to the last man.

It was a good time however, as the campaign campaign had significantly weakened Krum’s position, both militarily and politically. Bulgar nobles were growing tired of the endless border war with the Romans, that had started off so profitable, but now was dragging on far too long and leaving both sides exhausted. This came to a head in 810, when several important Bulgar nobles revolted. Krum was forced to remain north of the Danube to quell their uprisings, and Nikephoros took the opportunity to march north.

The Bulgars controlled twenty phrourions in the region, and all of the major cities. Nikephoros moved north slowly, carefully surrounding each fortress he reached before setting it to a siege, leaving behind a force of men to maintain the position, and then moved on. By the end of 810 he had retaken eight phrourions, and he had secured cities as far north as Mesembria.

Krum returned south in 811, and met Nikephoros' army as the latter approached Marcianopolis. This time Nikephoros deployed his heavy infantry mixed with his light, and the charge of Krum’s kataphractoi was defeated, and the Bulgars were then broken by a counter-charge of Romans cavalry. The Bulgars retreated from the field, having now lost their first significant battle to this point in the war. Nikephoros reoccupied Marcianopolis without incident when the Bulgar garrison deserted.

But that winter his tactics caught up with him. The water supply of Marcianopolis had not been completely purified, and disease ravaged his soldiers, leaving nearly a quarter of his twenty-five thousand man army dead, and half bedridden.

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