The Byzantine Battle of Arcadiopolis
In the spring of 970 CE, the Byzantine Empire found itself in a precarious situation. Svyatoslav I, leader of the Rus (centered around Kiev) had conquered much of Bulgaria and was looking to acquire even more land. Other Bulgarians, still under the imperial fist of the Byzantines, saw in Svyatoslav a chance to find freedom. With a coalition army of Bulgarians, Pecheneg (Turkish Nomads) mercenaries, and his own Rus forces, Svyatoslav invaded the Byzantine province of Thrace (approximately Bulgaria and parts of Greece). With a possible force of 30,000 men, they conquered the fortified city of Philippoupolis (modern-day Plovdiv, Bulgaria), and began to raid and plunder their way toward Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), the Byzantine Empire’s capital.
(Svyatoslav by Fedor Solntsev, 1869, via creative commons and NYPL Digital Library)
