Diplomacy gone to seed: a history of Byzantine foreign relations, A.D. 1047-57

International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Jan, 2004 by Paul A. Blaum

According to Aristakes of Lastivert, the Emperor treated Peter with the utmost respect and awarded him a considerable pension, but still feared to send him back to Ani, lest he become the point person in a rising against Byzantium. Peter's gilded captivity ended when the Emperor yielded to the entreaties of Atom, son of Senek' erim, former Ardzrunian king of Vaspurakan, and one of the two Armenian kings of Sebaste (modern Sivas) in Byzantine territory. At Atom's request, Constantine IX allowed Peter to reestablish his see at Sebaste, where Atom provided him a residence in the monastery of the Holy Cross. Matthew of Edessa notes that ... he [Peter] was not able to go to the city of Ani, but went and lived in the city of Sebastia, near the son of Senek'erim, in great splendor." (15)

Constantine IX, to his credit, paid sharp attention to the Caucasus, putting great stock in his relations with the Georgians. He assumed the role of benefactor for the Georgian saint Keorki (George) Mthatsmidel, who became abbot of the Iberian monastery on Mt. Athos about the year 1051. At the request of the Georgian queen mother Mariam, Constantine IX granted the monastery a yearly payment of one pound of gold in perpetuity. The foreign policy implications of this were not without moment given the immense value attached by Byzantium to allies from the Caucasus. 16 Constantine IX took special pains to cultivate Liparit IV Orbelian, high constable of Georgia under the king Bagrat IV and a member of the eminent Liparitid-Orbeli family, an offshoot of the celebrated Armenian house of Mamikonian. He had recently wrested from Bagrat IV control of the southwestern half of Georgia--and at this point was the second most powerful man in the Georgian kingdom. With good reason, the Arab chronicler Ibn al-Athir calls him "king of the Abasgians [i.e. Georgians]." Liparit, called Liparites by Byzantine writers, was at the same time a quasi-Byzantine functionary with the prestigious rank of magistros (and possibly also curopalates). During the Turkish ghazwa of 1048, he had brought numerous reinforcements to the Byzantines and directed the Christian center at Kapetrou, which the Georgian Chronicles locates between the fortresses of "Ordro" (Ordorou or Osortrou) and "Ukumi," the Byzantine Comium or Castrocomium. It is worth noting that Michael Attaliates makes Liparit the Christian commander-in-chief in the great battle against Ibrahim Inal. Equal to the fray, Liparit fought heroically but was taken prisoner and sent as a trophy of war to Toghrul Beg, then residing at Isfahan in Iran. According to the Armenian historians, the Byzantine generals, Katakalon Kekaumenos and Aaron, had left him in the lurch at Kapetrou; Aristakes specifically accuses Aaron, vestis and katepano (governor) of Vaspurakan. These charges are refuted by the indefatigable efforts made by Constantine IX to secure Liparit's release from Muslim captivity.

John Scylitzes writes that the Emperor was inconsolable at the capture of Liparit. He thus sent to Toghrul Beg an ambassador named George Drosus, hypogrammateus or undersecretary to Aaron, who by this time appears to have succeeded Katakalon Kekaumenos as governor of Iberia and Ani. Drosus brought splendid gifts and large sums of money to ransom Liparit and was otherwise entrusted with arranging a peace with the sultan. Approached in this way, Toghrul Beg felt a surge of generosity and sent back Liparit to the Emperor, preferring, writes Scylitzes, "to be a great sovereign instead of a miserable trafficker." The sultan, according to Scylitzes' Byzantine contemporary Attaliates, released Liparit because he admired his courage and greatness of spirit. Toghrul Beg gave the Emperor's ransom money to Liparit and set him free with the recommendation that henceforth he show himself a friend to the Turks and cease to make war upon them. The Georgian Chronicles--which vaguely corroborate the Byzantine account--tell us that Liparit kept troth with his pledge to Toghrul and thereafter maintained friendship with both the sultan and the Emperor in Constantinople.