1 I thank Alice-Mary Talbot, Denis Sullivan, and the two anonymous readers for making valuable suggestions on earlier versions of this paper.

2 Leon the Deacon, History books 8-9, ed. Hase, C. B., Leonis Diaconi Caloënsis Históriáé libri decem (Bonn 1828)Google Scholar. Skylitzes, Ioannes, Synopsis of Histories: Ioannes Tzimiskes, ed. Thurn, I., Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis Historiarum (Berlin and New York 1973) 284–313 Google Scholar. For the historical context, see Stephenson, P., Byzantium’s Balkan frontier: a political study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204 (Cambridge 2000) 51–55 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for the battle, Haldon, J., The Byzantine wars (Stroud, Gloucestershire 2008) 149-57Google Scholar.

3 Haldon, Byzantine wars, 151, 214.

4 Howard-Johnston, J., ‘The De administrando imperio: a re-examination of the text and a re-evaluation of its evidence about the Rus’, in Kazanski, M. et al., (eds), Les centres proto-urbain russes entre Scandinavie, Byzance et Orient (Paris 2000) 301-36Google Scholar, here 302-3.

5 E.g. Karpozilos, A., Βυζαντινοί ίστορικοί каі χρονογράφοι, II (Athens 2002) 477-8Google Scholar,481-2 summarizing previous opinions. Kiapidou, E.-S., Ή Σύνοψη Ίστοριών τοϋ Ίωάννη Σκυλίτζη каі оі τηγγές της (811-1057) (Athens 2010) 103-10Google Scholar, 343, 365, hedges the question whether Skylitzes used Leon, but leans towards the negative.

6 E.g. Terras, V., ‘Leo Diaconus and the ethnology of the Kievan Rus’, Slavic Review 24 (1965) 395–406 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 396; McGrath, S., ‘The battles of Dorostolon (971): rhetoric and reality,’ in Miller, T. S. and Nesbitt, J., (eds), Peace and war in Byzantium: essays in honor of George T. Dennis, S.J. (Washington D.C. 1995) 152-64Google Scholar, here 153. See also below.

7 Theodosii diaconi de Creta capta, ed. Criscuolo, H., (Leipzig 1979)Google Scholar.

8 Holmes, C., Basil II and the governance of empire (976-1025) (Oxford 2005) ch. 4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, focuses on the coverage of the following reign, but the same bias is in Kiapidou, ΉΣννοψη Ίστοριών, 95-103 (who, at 112-14, questions Holmes’ postulation of a pro-Skleros source). The Introduction in Talbot, A.-M. and Sullivan, D. F., The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine military expansion in the tenth century (Washington D.C. 2005) 31-6Google Scholar, focuses almost exclusively on the Phokas question.

9 Morris, R., ‘Succession and usurpation: politics and rhetoric in the late tenth century,’ in Magdalino, P., (ed.), New Constantines: the rhythm of imperial renewal in Byzantium, 4th -13th centuries (Aldershot 1994) 199–214 Google Scholar, here 210.

10 McCormick, M., Eternal victory: triumphal rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West (Cambridge and Paris 1986) 174 Google Scholar.

11 ‘As for Camillus, whether it was because of the magnitude of his accomplishment... or because he contracted a lofty idea of himself from all those congratulating him, he developed an attitude that was antithetical to lawful boundaries and civil authority. He celebrated a triumph in a grandiose manner, harnessing four white horses to a chariot and driving it through Rome.’

12 Respectively: Kaldellis, A., The Christian Parthenon: classicism and pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens (Cambridge 2009) 97-100Google Scholar; and Anagnostakis, I., ‘To επεισόδιο της Δανιηλίδας: Πληροφορίες καημερινού βίου ή μυθοπλαστικά στοιχεία;’ in Angelidi, C. G., (ed.), Ήκαημερινη ζωή στο Βυζάντιο: Τομές καί συνέχειες στήν έλληνισπκή каі ρωμαϊκή παράδοση (Athens 1989) 375-90Google Scholar. I have discussed many other examples of this literary practice in other publications.

13 Kaldellis, Parthenon, 183-4, 200-5.

14 See below for the triumphal aspect.

15 Leon, History 9.9; tr. Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon, 197.

16 Dionysios of Halikarnassos, Roman Antiquities 6.13; for the sources and discussion, see Ogilvie, R. M., A commentary on Livy, Books 1-5 (Oxford 1965) 283-9Google Scholar, including references to other battlefield appearances by the Dioskouroi.

17 See the Index Locorum in Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon, 262.

18 W. K. Pritchett, ‘Military epiphanies,’ in idem, The Greek state at war, Part III: Religion (Berkeley 1979) 11-46.

19 Skylitzes, Ioannes, Synopsis of Histories: loannes Tzimiskes 17 (p. 309)Google Scholar. For problems in locating this church, see Holmes, , Basil II, 218 Google Scholar n. 113.

20 θεία έπικουρία could be used for other types of divine assistance; see, e.g. Life of Elias the Younger 14, ed. Taibbi, G. R., Vita di Sant’Elia il Giovane (Palermo 1962) 20 Google Scholar.

21 Delehaye, H., Les légendes grecques des saints militaires (Paris 1909) 15 Google Scholar. He was sometimes confused with St Theodoras Teron (the ‘recruit’ rather than the ‘general’), whose feast day was 17 February.

22 Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon, 196 n. 43, citing Dölger, F., ‘Die Chronologie des grossen Feldzuges des Kaisers Johannes Tzimiskes gegen die Russen,’ BZ 32 (1932) 275-92Google Scholar, here 290-1. For the cult of St Theodoros, see Walter, C., The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition (Aldershot 2003) 44–66 Google Scholar. Walter (133) generally notes the parallel with the Dioskouroi (and cites previous bibliography).

23 Haldon, Byzantine wars, 156.

24 Leon, History 9.12. For a seal by a katepano of Theodoroupolis found at Preslav, see Cheynet, J.-C. in Wortley, J. (ed.), John Skylitzes: a synopsis of Byzantine history, 811-1057 (Cambridge 2010) 293 Google Scholar n. 69.

25 Theodoretos of Kyrrhos, Ecclesiastical History 5.24; for the battle, see Williams, S. and Friell, G., Theodosius: the empire at bay (New Haven and London 1994) 134-5Google Scholar.

26 The general Mousilikes, about to attack the Saracens in Sicily in 882 AD, called on St Ignatios ‘and saw him, visible to the eye, in the air, as if sitting upon a white horse, bidding him to advance the army on the right flank’: Nikitas David Paphlagon, The Life of St Ignatios in PG 105 col. 564 (I thank Charis Messis for the reference); for this text, see now Tamarkina, I., ‘The date of the Life of the Patriarch Ignatius reconsidered’, BZ 99 (2006) 615-30Google Scholar. More remotely similar descriptions are in the Life of St Basileios the Younger: Sullivan, D., Talbot, A.-M., McGrarn, S., The Life of St Basil the Younger: introduction, critical edition and annotated English translation (Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. forthcoming)Google Scholar.

27 E.g. Leon VI, Taktika 17.110. The manuals are all about obtaining information secretly from the enemy and, conversely, keeping the state of your forces unknown to him.

28 On this point, see Holmes, , Basil II, 149 Google Scholar and passim. For the same problem in an ancient compiler-historian, see Sacks, K. S., Diodorus Siculus and the First Century (Princeton 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Tr. Wortley, Skylitzes, 281-2.

30 Cf. Livy 30.29; Appianos, Punic Wars 7.39.

31 Herodotos 7.208; Prokopios, Wars 2.21.

32 Leon, History 6.11; tr. Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon, 158.

33 Polybios 14.1.13; Appianos, Spanish Wars 43; Plutarch, Sertorius 3.2: ‘Wearing Celtic dress and acquiring the most common expressions of their language in order to be able to handle whatever conversations he found himself in, he mingled among the barbarians; seeing some crucial things for himself and hearing about others through report, he returned to Marius.’

34 Leon, History 9.1. See Ranee, P., ‘The date of the military compendium of Syrianus Magister (formerly the sixth-century Anonymus Byzantinus),’ BZ 100 (2007) 701-37Google Scholar, here 721.

35 Plutarch, Pompeius 35.5; cf. Appianos, Mithridatic War 103. This may have been derived from the panegyrical history of Theophanes of Mytilene, who was emphasizing the parallels between his patron Pompeius and Alexander the Great: Rawson, E., Intellectual life in the Late Koman Republic (London 1985) 108-9Google Scholar; Migliorati, G., ‘Teofane di Mitilene fonte di Diodoro Siculo: Sui frammenti della “Bibliotheca Historka” intorno a Pompeo,’ in Valvo, A. and Manzoni, G., (eds), Analecta Brixiana: Contributi dell’Istituto di filologia e storia dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan 2004) 105-24Google Scholar, here 117-18, 123; and Östenberg, I., Staging the world: spoils, captives, and representations in the Roman triumphal procession (Oxford 2009) 148 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Ioannes Zonaras, Chronicle 12.23, ed. Pinder, M., loannis Zonarae Annales, II (Bonn 1844) 596 Google Scholar; tr. Banchich, T. M. and Lane, E. N., The History of Zonaras from Alexander Severus to the Death of Theodosius the Great (London and New York 2009) 54 Google Scholar, slightly modified. At 109 n. 68, Banchich admits that we do not know the source of this story. In discussing Amazons, Prokopios, Wars 8.3.10, says that in his own time, after many Hunnic raids, ‘the Romans search through the bodies of the fallen (‘Ρωμαΐοι διερευνώμενοι τών πεπτωκότων τά σώματα) and find women among them.’

37 Ed. Dujčev, I., ‘La chronique byzantine de l’an 811,’ TM 1 (1965) 205-54Google Scholar, here 213; tr. in Stephenson, P., ‘“About the emperor Nikephoros and how he leaves his bones in Bulgaria”: A context for the controversial “Chronicle of 811”’, DOP 60 (2006) 87-109Google Scholar, here 89.

38 Holmes, , Basil II, 134-5Google Scholar.

39 Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon, 11 (their notes document his use of ancient sources, as does the Index locorum at 262-1); also Hoffmann, L., ‘Geschichtsschreibung oder Rhetorik? Zum logos parkleitikos bei Leon Diakonos,’ in Grünbart, M., (ed.), Theatron: Rhetorische Kultur in Spätantike und Mittelalter (New York and Berlin 2007) 105-39Google Scholar, here 106 n. 6 for previous studies. For the Homeric template, see Markopoulos, A., ‘#Ζητήματα κοινωνικοΰ φύλου στον Λέοντα τον Διάκονο,’ in Kalamanis, S. et al., (eds), Ένθύμ-ησις Νικολάου M. Παναγιωτάκη (Herakleio, Greece 2000) 475-93Google Scholar, here 488.

40 For example, Leon says that ‘the Rus, governed by their habitual ferocity and passion, attacked the Romans with a charge, bellowing as if possessed, but the Romans rushed to meet them with discipline and practical skill’: History 8.10; tr. Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon, 185-6, slightly modified. This may reflect how Trojans and Achaians approach each other at the beginning of book 3 of the Iliad, although there are no verbal parallels and Leon’s language for describing the Roman advance echoes Byzantine strategic thinking: Dennis, G. T., ‘The Byzantines in battle,’ in Tsiknakis, K., (ed.), To εμπόλεμο Βυζάντιο (9ος-12ος ai.) (Athens 1997) 165-78Google Scholar. However, if Homeric influence is allowed, it is not clear to whom the allusion should be attributed.

41 Leon the Deacon, History 6.9-10, 8.2, 8.3, 9.7. For the meaning of this term, see the theories listed by Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon, 194 n. 40. For Leon’s speeches in general, see Hoffmann, ‘Geschichtsschreibung oder Rhetorik?’ 130-1. I am focusing here on the campaign itself and not the negotiations leading up to it in 6.8-11, which include speeches of their own.

42 Skylitzes, Synopsis: Tzimiskes 9 (pp. 295-6). He also refers perfunctorily to an exchange of messages before the outbreak of the war: Tzimiskes 5 (p. 288).

43 Skylitzes, , Synopsis: Tzimiskes 11 (pp. 298-9)Google Scholar.

44 Skylitzes, , Synopsis: Tzimiskes 15 (pp. 305-6)Google Scholar. Here I omit Leon and Skylitzes’ accounts of the negotiations that followed the Rus’ surrender, reported in similar terms by the two historians.

45 Leon, History 8.1.

46 Leon, History 8.2.

47 Leon, History 8.8.

48 Leon, History 9.6. See Terras, ‘Leo Diaconus and the ethnology of the Kievan Rus’; and my own study Ethnography in Byzantium (in preparation).

49 Respectively: Leon, History 2.6, 3.1, 5.3.

50 E.g. Leon, History 4.5, 4.6, 5.1-2.

51 Leon, History 6.8-9.

52 The digression in Leon, History 7.7, on the battle of Anchialos (917 AD) and the blinding of Leon Phokas, presumably derives from such sources.

53 Cross, S. H. and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, O. P., tr., The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian text (Cambridge, MA 1953) 87–90 Google Scholar. Cf.Shepard, J., ‘Some problems of Russo-Byzantine relations c. 860-1050,’ Slavonic and East European Review 52 (126) (1974) 10-33Google Scholar, here 23.

54 E.g. Roueché, C., ‘Byzantine writers and readers: storytelling in the eleventh century,’ in Beaton, R. (ed.), The Greek novel AD 1-1985 (London 1988) 123-33Google Scholar; McGeer, E., Sowing the dragon’s teeth: Byzantine warfare in the tenth century (Washington D.C. 1995) 219-23Google Scholar. Kazhdan, A. noted the militarization of the imperial image in this period: ‘The aristocracy and the imperial idea’, in Angold, M., (ed.), The Byzantine aristocracy IX to XII centuries (Oxford 1984) 43–57 Google Scholar; idem and A. W. Epstein, Change in Byzantine culture in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Berkeley 1985) 110-16; now Angelov, D. G., ‘Emperors and patriarchs as ideal children and adolescents: literary conventions and cultural expectations’, in Papaconstantinou, A. and Talbot, A.-M., (eds), Becoming Byzantine: children and childhood in Byzantium (Washington D. C. 2009) 85-125Google Scholar, here 108.

55 Skylitzes, , Synopsis: Tzimiskes 10 (p. 298)Google Scholar, not in Leon.

56 Leon, History 9.9; tr. Talbot and Sullivan The History of Leo the Deacon, 196-7.

57 Skylitzes, , Synopsis: Tzimiskes 15 (p. 306)Google Scholar.

58 Skylitzes, , Synopsis: Tzimiskes 16 (pp. 307-8)Google Scholar.

59 Leon, History 6.3.

60 Morris, ‘Succession and usurpation’, 209.

61 That type of Quellenforschung is less popular now. See, e.g. Sacks, Diodorus; Holmes, , Basil II Google Scholar, on Skylitzes. The earlier passages in Leon are History 4.3, 5.6.

62 Leon, History 9.11; see below for the description of Svjetoslav.

63 Leon, History 9.12; Skylitzes, Synopsis: Tzimiskes 18 (p. 310), whence the quotation.

64 Pentcheva, B. V., Icons and power: the Mother of God in Byzantium (University Park, PA 2006)Google Scholar, passim, esp. 345, 534.

65 As Pentcheva, Icons and power, implies.

66 Cameron, A., ‘The history of the image of Edessa: the telling of a story,’ Harvard Ukrainian Studies 7 (1983) 80–94 Google Scholar.

67 Skylitzes, , Synopsis: Tzimiskes 9 (p. 297)Google Scholar.

68 Östenberg, Staging the World, 208 n. 77.

69 Plutarch, Camillas 6; cf. Livius 5.22; Dionysios, Roman Antiquities 13.3.3. See, in general, Basanoff, V., Evocatio: Étude d’un rituel militaire romain (Paris 1947)Google Scholar; Blomart, A., ‘Die Evocatio und der Transfer “fremder” Götter von der Peripherie nach Rom’, in Cancik, H. and Rüpke, J., (eds), Römische Reichsreligion und Provinzialreligion (Tübingen 1997) 99-111Google Scholar; Gustafsson, G., Evocation deorum: historical and mythical interpretations of ritualised conquests (Uppsala 2000)Google Scholar.

70 Östenberg, Staging the world, 79-90 (esp. 90) and 270-2.

71 For a sceptical reading, see Beard, M., The Roman triumph (Cambridge, MA 2007) 85–92 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the evolution of the Byzantine triumph, see McCormick, Eternal victory, 131-230.

72 Leon, History 9.9, tr. Talbot and Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon, 197-8; also in Skylitzes, , Synopsis: Tzimiskes 17 (pp. 308-9)Google Scholar.

73 For the Theotokos on Tzimiskes’ coins, see Carr, A. W., ‘The Mother of God in public,’ in Vassilaki, M., (ed.), Mother of God: representations of the Virgin in Byzantine art (Milan and Athens 2000) 324-37Google Scholar, here 326; Pentcheva, Icons and power, 34-5.

74 Niketas Choniates, History 19, 158; ed. van Dieten, I. A., Nicetae Choniatae Historia (Berlin and New York 1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75 Niketas Choniates, History 190-1; tr. Magoulias, H. J., O city of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit 1984) 107-8Google Scholar, modified. Pentcheva, Icons andpower, 69 notes that the Mother of God manifests her power through an icon this time (still in the dream however).

76 For such tragicomedy in Choniates, see Kaldellis, A., ‘Paradox, reversal and the meaning of history,’ in Simpson, A. and Efthymiades, S., (eds), Niketas Choniates: a historian and a writer (Geneva 2009) 75–99 Google Scholar.

77 Leon, History 8.6; Skylitzes, , Synopsis: Tzimiskes 9 (pp. 296-7)Google Scholar, here unnamed.

78 Maxfield, V. A., The military decorations of the Roman army (London 1981) 76-9Google Scholar; Östenberg, Staging the world, 204, for the triumphal aspect.

79 See, in general, Ljubarskij, J. N., ‘Man in Byzantine historiography from John Malalas to Michael Psellos’, DOP 46 (1992) 177-86Google Scholar.

80 Leon, History 9.11.

81 Östenberg, Staging the world, 130-5.

82 In general, see Ranee, ‘The date of the military compendium’, 708.