Battle of Beroia

The Battle of Beroia (modern Stara Zagora) was fought between the Pechenegs and Emperor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143) of the Byzantine Empire in the year 1122 in what is now Bulgaria, and resulted in the disappearance of the Pecheneg people as an independent force.

Background
In 1091, the Pechenegs had invaded the Byzantine Empire, and had been crushingly defeated by John II's father Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) at the Battle of Levounion. This defeat had meant the almost total extinction of all the Pechenegs who had taken part in the expedition; however, some Pecheneg groups had not been involved in the invasion. Attacked again in 1094 by the Cumans, many of the remaining Pechenegs were slain or absorbed. Yet even so, some bands continued in their independence.

In 1122, Pechenegs from the Russian steppes invaded the Byzantine Empire by crossing the Danube frontier into Byzantine territory. According to Michael Angold, it is possible that their invasion took place with the connivance of Vladimir Monomakh (r. 1113–1125), the ruler of Kiev, given that the Pechenegs had once been his auxiliaries. It is recorded that the remnants of the Oghuz and the Pechenegs had been expelled from Russia in 1121. The invasion posed a serious threat to Byzantine control over the northern Balkans. Emperor John II Komnenos of Byzantium, determined to meet the invaders in the field and drive them back, transferred his field army from Asia Minor (where it had been engaged against the Seljuk Turks) to Europe, and prepared to march north.

Battle
The Byzantine emperor gathered his forces near Constantinople, and set out to meet the Pecheneg army as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the Pechenegs had crossed the Haemus Mountains (Balkan Mountains) and encamped themselves near the city of Beroia in Thrace. The emperor at first offered the Pecheneg chiefs presents, offering to grant them a treaty that was favourable to their interests. The Pechenegs were successfully duped by this deception, and were as a result taken by surprise when the Byzantines suddenly launched a major attack on their defensive wagon laager. The Pechenegs fought as waves of horse archers, firing arrows continuously. They relied on their wagon laager as a rallying point, depot for arrow resupply and a point of last defence. The battle was hard fought and John was wounded in the leg by an arrow. However, the Byzantines forced the Pechenegs back and penned them in their laager. This defence proved effective, and it was not until John led the Varangian Guard, the elite heavy infantry force of the Byzantine emperors, against the wagons that their protection was breached. The Varangians, armed with their distinctive Danish axes, hacked their way through the Pecheneg circle of wagons, collapsing the Pecheneg position and causing a general rout in their camp. The Byzantine victory was complete, and the Pecheneg survivors were taken captive and enlisted into the Byzantine army.

Aftermath


The Byzantine victory effectively destroyed the Pechenegs as an independent force. For some time, significant communities of Pechenegs remained in Hungary, but eventually the Pechenegs ceased to be a distinct people and were assimilated by neighbouring peoples such as the Bulgarians and Magyars. For the Byzantines, the victory did not immediately lead to peace since the Hungarians attacked Branitshevo, the Byzantine outpost on the Danube, in 1128. Yet, the victory over the Pechenegs, and later the Hungarians, ensured that much of the Balkan peninsula would remain Byzantine, which in turn allowed John to concentrate on extending Byzantine power and influence in Asia Minor and the Holy Land.