Professional Documents
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ORIENT I OCCIDENT
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XXIX
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CLRAI, 2016
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ALEXANDRU MADGEARU1
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DEFENDING THE PASSES IN THE HAEMUS MOUNTAINS.
FROM CLAUSURA TO KLEISOURA
The word clausura with the meaning of small fortification which defends
a passageway was mentioned for the first time in an order given by emperor
Theodosius II in 443, which specified that one mission of the magister officiorum
was to provide every year a report about the state of the camps and of the clausurae
from each limes (super omni limite sub tua iurisdictione constituto, quemadmodum
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cluses et la frontire des Alpes, Bibliothque de lcole des Chartes, 109, 1951, 1, p. 5-31.
11 H. Ahrweiler, Recherches sur ladministration de lEmpire Byzantin aux IXe-XIe sicles,
Bulletin de Correspondance Hellnique, 84, 1960, p. 81-82; Eadem, La frontire et les frontires
de Byzance, in Actes du XIVe Congrs International des tudes Byzantines, 1, Bucarest, 1974,
p. 216-218; J. Ferluga, Le clisure bizantine in Asia Minore, Zbornik Radova Vizantolokog
Instituta, Belgrad, 16, 1975, 9-23; J. Haldon, H. Kennedy, The Arab-Byzantine Frontier in the
Eight and Ninth Centuries: Military Organisation and Society in the Borderlands, Zbornik
Radova Vizantolokog Instituta, Belgrad, 19, 1980, p. 85-86, 104-106; M. Grigoriou-Ioannidou,
Oi vyzantins..., p. 188-190; R. J. Lilie, The Byzantine-Arab Borderland from the Seventh to the
Ninth Century, in F. Curta (ed.), Borders, Barriers, and Ethnogenesis. Frontiers in Late Antiquity
and the Middle Ages (Centre for Medieval Studies. University of York. Studies in the Early Middle
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the first such kleisoura was established in 688, on the valley of the Strymon
River in Macedonia, south of Melnik. It was an action taken after the defeat
suffered by the Byzantine army in a pass near Philippopolis, in the war against
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the Proto-Bulgarians. From this kleisora evolved later the new province
(theme) Macedonia, extended between Nestos (Mesta) and Strymon (Struma)12.
By the middle of the 9th century, the kleisora as a military unit defended a
small frontier zone, not necessary in the mountains. Such new kleisorai
are attested at Mesembria and Sozopolis by the seals of their commanders, the
kleisourirxoi13. The function of kleisourirxo appears in the so-called
Taktikon Uspenskij, a list of functions dated around 812-813 according to the
most recent research of Tibor ivkovi. The function belonged to the commanders
of Charsianon in Cappadocia (Mualimkalesi) and Seleucia in Isauria (Silifke).
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During the 9th century, the function of kleisourirxo was also mentioned in
the Kleitorogion of Philotheos (a writing about the ranks), dated to 899. In this
list, the function was the first among the spatharocandidates with military duties.
The function was also recorded in the later lists, Taktikon Beneevi (934-944) and
Taktikon Scorialensis (971-975)14.
Regardless this particular evolution, the mountain passes continued to
be called kleisourai, like in the military treatises composed under Nikephor
Phokas15 and under Emperor Basil II: the land of the Bulgarians, in which there
are rugged, wooded mountain passes (kleisorai) with very narrow roads16.
Ages, 12), Brepols, Turnhout, 2005, p. 13-14.
12 Costantino Porfirogenito, De Thematibus, introduzione, testo critico, commento a
cura di A. Pertusi (Studi e Testi, 160), Vatican, 1952, p. 88 (XVII. 3); A. Stavridou-Zafraka, The
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development of the theme organisation in Macedonia, in Byzantine Macedonia. Identity, Image
and History. Papers from the Melbourne Conference, July 1995, ed. by J. Burke and R. Scott
(Byzantina Australiensia, 13), Melbourne, 2000, p. 128129; B. Krsmanovi, The Byzantine
Province in Change (on the Threshold between the 10th and the 11th Century), Belgrade, Athens,
2008, p. 129; F. Curta, Barbarians in Dark-Age Greece: Slavs or Avars ?, in Civitas divino-humana.
In honorem annorum LX Georgii Bakalov, ed. Ts. Stepanov, V. Vachkova, Sofia, 2004, p. 526-527.
13 I. Jordanov, Corpus of the Byzantine Seals from Bulgaria, Vol. 1: Byzantine Seals with
Geographical Names, Sofia, 2003, p. 119-121, 159-160; Idem, Corpus of the Byzantine Seals from
Bulgaria, Vol. 3, Sofia, 2009, p. 454-455, 520.
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Kaiser Basileios II. gegen die Bulgaren (976-1019), Kln, 2006, p. 182-183.
19 J. Napoli, R. Rebuffat, Clausurae..., p. 38; M. Grigoriou-Ioannidou, Oi vyzantins...,
p. 188.
20 Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, c. 29 (Greek text edited
by Gy. Moravcsik. English translation by R. J. H. Jenkins, Washington, 1967, p. 123/124);
Constantin Porfirogenetul, Carte de nvtur pentru fiul su Romanos, traducere de V. Grecu,
Bucureti, 1971, p. 41-42.
21 V. Beevliev, Zwei Bemerkungen zur historischen Geographie Nordostbulgariens. 1. He
Kleisura Beregabon, Studia Balcanica, Sofia, 1. Recherches de gographie historique, 1970,
p. 69-75; Idem, Die Byzantinische Heerstrasse Adrianopel-Verigava, in Actes du XI Congrs
International des Sciences Onomastiques (Sofia, 28. VI.- 4. VII. 1972), 1, Sofia, 1974, p. 127.
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by Theophanes Confessor, but not also by Nikephor, who preferred the classical
mbolo (entrance) in the relation of the war of 766. In another war, in 763, the
Byzantine army was able to invade Bulgaria because the kleisorai were left
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unguarded.22 The next battle fought in 811 by the Bulgarian army in a mountain
pass, that could be the same Vrbitsa, was something different, because the natural
fortification was improved by a wooden blockage. The word kleisora was not
mentioned in the relations about the battle, but the detailed description recorded in
the so-called Chronicle of the year 811 shows that the passage was blocked (the
Bulgarians made a deep ditch in front of a high wood structure).23 The experience
of this defeat was certainly known to emperor Leo VI, who wrote in his treatise of
art of war that the kleisorai must be occupied first by an advanced detachment,
to forbid that these narrow places will be taken by the enemy24. Similar advices
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were given by Kekaumenos, who recalled in this respect the victory won in 1042
in the Trebinje gorge by the Serbian zupan Stephen Vojslav against the duke of
the Dyrrachion theme25. In 971, the emperor John Tzimiskes was informed by
scouts that the Russians who occupied Bulgaria left unguarded the difficult and
narrow paths leading to Mysia called kleisorai. So, the Byzantine army was
able reach Preslav without resistance26. It is possible that this operation was in the
mind of the anonymous strategist who wrote some decades later about marching a
kleisora which is not defended by the enemy.27
In 1095, the Cumans attacked then Byzantine Empire. Anna Comnena
wrote how some Vlachs helped the invaders to find the way through the gorges
(kleisorai) in the Zygos mountains (Stara Planina), before they arrived to
Goloe (the present-day Lozarevo). Following the order of the emperor Alexios
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22 Theophanes, Chronographia, recensuit C. De Boor, Leipzig, 1883, p. 431, 436 (The
Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284-813, translated
with introduction and commentary by C. Mango and R. Scott, Oxford, 1997, p. 596, 603);
Nikephoros Patriarch of Constantinople Short History. Text, Translation, and Commentary by C.
Mango, Washington DC, 1990, p. 156/157 (c. 82).
23 P. Sophoulis, Byzantium and Bulgaria, 775-831 (East Central and Eastern Europe in the
Middle Ages, 450-1450, vol. 16), Leiden, Boston, 2011, p. 209-216.
24 The Taktika of Leo VI. Text, Translation and Commentary by G. T. Dennis (Corpus
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Military Technology, editor in chief C. J. Rogers, Oxford, New York, 2010, III, p. 379-380.
30 Ansbertus, Historia de expeditione Friderici imperatoris, ed. A. Chroust, in Monumenta
Germaniae Historica. Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum, Nova Series, tomus V, Berlin, 1928,
p. 35; Historia peregrinorum, ibidem, p. 136-138; E. Johnson, The Crusades of Frederick
Barbarossa and Henry VI, in A History of the Crusades, ed. by K. M. Setton, Madison, London,
vol. II, 1969, p. 100-101; B. Primov, The Third and Fourth Crusades and Bulgaria, tudes
Historiques, Sofia, 7, 1975, p. 49; V. Gjuzelev, Federico Barbarossa nei paesi bulgari, in Il
Barbarossa e i suoi alleati liguri-piemontesi. Atti del Convegno Storico Internazionale a cura di
G. C. Bergaglio, Gavi, 1987, p. 118.
31 Ansbertus, p. 37. For the meanings of the words befredus and propugnaculum and for
the description of these devices, see Ch. Du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis (...).
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is the same with Trayanova vrata, a fortification on the road between Sofia and
Philippopolis, near Stipon, present-day Ihtiman (not to be confounded with the
Troyan pass south of Love). Although does not belong to Stara Planina, this place
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is worth to be mentioned here because the relation of Ansbertus illustrates how a
mountain pass could be defended. The fortifications from Ihtiman are of Roman
origin, built in the second half of the fourth century32. Tsar Samuel won a great
victory against Basil II in 17th August 986 in that place, in an ambush which used
the advantages given by the mountain pass33.
In 1256, the offensive of the Byzantine army against the Bulgarian rebels in
Melnik reached the Rupel pass. The emperor Theodore II Laskaris had learned
that the rough terrain of Roupel, along which the Strymon flows and which is
hemmed in by two mountains so that a wagon can barely get through, while the
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river makes the passageway even narrower (the ordinary people call such places
defiles (kleisora) was guarded by a Bulgarian army of few horsemen but
many foot-soldiers. The Bulgarians also constructed gates in these defiles, secured
by levers and bars, so that they were impregnable because of the difficult nature
of the terrain, the measures they had taken, and the remaining fortification. When
the emperor learned that this was the case he went to the area with speed and
found things there just as he had expected. He therefore detached from the troops
an infantry contingent of reasonable size, ordering it to march on the mountain
above the Bulgarians, so that they might strike from above the Bulgarians who
were low down. They did what they were ordered to do quickly; the mountain was
overgrown with trees but was passable to the infantrymen. The emperor ordered
the cavalry to join battle directly in front of the gates. When the Bulgarians saw
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them shooting arrows from the mountains above and in control of a close battle
directly in front of them, and realized that they were in great difficulties, they
turned to fight and the emperors army followed them. Many men were put to the
sword there; others escaped to the Bulgarian army and brought them the news
of the emperors actions and all they had suffered.34 This relation is the best
Editio nova aucta pluribus verbis aliorum scriptorum a Leopold Favre, Niort, 1883-1887, vol. II,
p. 619-620; VI, p. 536.
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32 C. Jireek, Die Heerstrasse von Belgrad nach Constantinopel und die Balkanpsse.
Ein historische-geographische Studie, Praga, 1877, p. 31-33, 92-93; I. Dujev, propos de
lacte patriarcal de 1155, Revue des tudes Byzantines, 25, 1967, p. 62-63; P. Soustal, Tabula
Imperii Byzantini, Band 6. Thrakien (Thrake, Rodope und Haimimontos) (sterreichische
Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Denkschriften, 221), Wien,
1991, p. 190; C. Bjenaru, Minor Fortifications, p. 144-145.
33 The History of Leo the Deacon, p. 214-215 (X. 8); P. Stephenson, The Legend of Basil
the Bulgar-Slayer, Cambridge, 2003, p. 14; P. M. Strssle, Krieg, p. 108-109.
34 Georgios Akropolites, Historia, c. 58 (Opera, recensuit A. Heisenberg, vol. I, Leipzig,
1903, p. 116; George Akropolites, The History. Introduction, translation and commentary by R.
Macrides, Oxford, 2007, p. 289).
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description of a battle fought in a kleisoura (it was the place of the battle of 1014).
The expansion of the Romanian-Bulgarian state established by the Asan
brothers over a large area in the Balkan Peninsula led to assimilation of some
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Byzantine institutions and administrative elements, among whom the kleisoura. In
the charter bestowed to the city of Ragusa in 1230 by tsar John Asan II, a klisura
was a distinct territory, but it is not clear the meaning of the word in this context.
Like the towns, they were mentioned as places for free trade. Unfortunately, no
such klisura was mentioned with its name in the document, which is in fact the
single one that has recorded the Bulgarian klisura as a kind a small territory35.
From the Byzantine Greek language, the word kleisoura was borrowed by all
the Balkan peoples, Bulgarians, Serbs and Romanians, becoming the root of several
place-names Klisura in Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia (for instance, a
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village located south of the slopes of Stara Planina on the way to Troyan pass,
another one near Blagoevgrad, or that one from Macedonia, near Demir Kapija).
The monastery Klisura founded in 1240 is located between Pirot and Vratsa.
One of the most important settlements peopled by the Vlachs (Aromanians) is
Vlahoklisura, east of Kastoria, founded in the 15th century36. It is located near a
pass with strategic value. The name of the small town Klcyr in southern Albania
comes from Kleisura (recorded as Clausura in 1327 and as Qlisura in an Ottoman
tax register of 1432). The nearby mountain pass is still called Klisura37. The long
gorge of the Danube upstream of the Iron Gates is called Klisura, with a name of
medieval Serbian origin that was given after the expansion of the Serbian state
in this area occurred in 1291. This is the most known klisura, although it has no
relation with the original meaning of the word. In the ancient times, this part of the
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Danube stream was called Katarkta38.
Papacostea, volum ngrijit de O. Cristea, Gh. Lazr, Brila, 2008, p. 263-264; Idem, Word and
Power in Mediaeval Bulgaria (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, vol.
14), Leiden, Boston, 2011, p. 359.
36 G. Tsras, He Kleisora sta 1849, Makedonika. Syngramma periodikon tes Hetaireias
Makedonikon Spudon, Thessaloniki, 18, 1978, p. 220.
37 P. Soustal, J. Koder, Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Band 3. Nikopolis und Kephallenia
(sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Denkschriften,
150), Wien, 1981, p. 76, 182; G. Karaiskaj, Die Burg Kelcyra (Kleisura) in Albanien, in IXe
Congrs International dtudes Sud-Est Europennes. Rsums, Tirana, 2004, p. 190.
38 Theophylact Simocatta, VIII, 5.5 (ed. de Boor, Wirth, p. 292; trad. Mihescu, p. 162;
transl. Whitby, p. 216); A. Madgearu, Istoria militar, p. 222-223.
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