Monoxyla, Slavs, Bulgars, and the Coup Organised by Artemios-Anastasios 11(719)

Abstract

This paper looks at the collaboration of Bulgars and Slavs in the attempt
made by Emperor Artemios-Anastasios II, exiled in Thessalonike, to regain
the throne in 719. It shows that the theories of historians who argue that the
“Bulgarians of Thessalonike” and the Slavs with their monoxyla collaborated
in Artemios’s venture do not hold water, because there is no evidence of the
presence of (Proto)Bulgarians in central Macedonia in this period, and the
reference to monoxyla in Patriarch Nikephoros’s account does not necessarily
mean that Slavs were also involved, because Nikephoros does not mention
Slavs and monoxyla together. If monoxyla were used in Artemios’s attempt,
they could have been used only by the (Danubian) Bulgars of Moisia, who
would have come to his aid in them along the Rivers Tudja, Hebros, and the
latter’s tributary, the Ergines, as far as Tzouroulon, whence they would have
travelled the short distance to Herakleia (in Thrace) to meet Artemios on his
way from Thessalonike.