David IV and Nikephoros Phokas

Abstract

2021 marks the 1060th anniversary of the liberation of Crete, when one of the greatest Byzantine general Nikephoros Phokas seized the island from the Muslims. The same year marks 900 years since the battle of Didgori, where the greatest king of Georgia, David IV the Builder, won his most famous victory. The present paper is dedicated to these two historical figures, more precisely, it aims to draw parallels and find common features between them.

There is evidence indicating that Nikephoros Phokas had personal connections with Georgians, who participated in his wars against the Muslims. Nikephoros must have been the emperor who presented David III of Tao’s “upper lands”, thus ending the old dispute between the empire and the Tao kingdom, described by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, by splitting along the Aras line and ceding northern Basian to the Georgians. Nikephoros Phokas was well acquainted with all three Georgian monks living on Mount Athos – John, Euthymios and Tornikios.

It would not be a mistake to assume that David the Builder had access to the history of the Phokas family and other writings about Nikephoros Phokas. Moreover, David’s chronicler must have read the poem by Theodosius the Deacon about the conquest of Crete by Nikephoros Phokas, as evidenced by a semantically identical passage in both works.

It can be argued that David IV used the rich military-theoretical legacy of Nikephoros Phokas since he effectively used a detailed and practical Byzantine manual – De velitatione bellica, which was based on the emperor’s records and commissioned by Nikephoros himself. The Georgian king took these tactics to new heights and expanded them creatively.

As it is shown in the paper, Nikephoros Phokas and David the Builder had much in common: they were both strict and just and equally aroused admiration from their supporters and fear from opponents; aroused equally the admiration of their supporters and the fear of opponents; both of these monarchs deeply believed in God and lived ascetically; neither tolerated the transgressions of their Church and restrained them; they both equally loved and respected the monks; both were famous generals and tireless campaigners; both were inspired by the same ideology and were the epitomes of warrior Christianity.