Anonymus 22

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexM
FloruitE IX
Dates811 (taq) / 802 (tpq)
ReligionChristian
EthnicityArab
LocationsDebelton (Haemimontus);
Mesembria (Haemimontus) (topographical);
Adrianoupolis (Macedonia);
Adrianoupolis (Macedonia) (workplace)
OccupationEngineer
Textual SourcesTheophanes Confessor, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1883-85, repr. Hildesheim/NewYork, 1980); tr. and comm. C. Mango and R. Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Oxford 1997 (chronicle);
Zonaras = Ioannis Zonarae Epitome Historiarum, libri XIII-XVIII, ed. Th. Büttner-Wobst, (Bonn, 1897) (history)

Anonymus 22 was an Arab, who had received baptism; he was a skilled engineer; under the emperor Nikephoros I (Nikephoros 8) he was stationed at Adrianople (Ἄραβα γάρ τινα προσελθόντα τῷ βαπτισμάτι πάνυ ἔμπειρον μηχανικῆς ὑπάρχοντα στρατεύσας ἐν Ἀδριανουπόλει κατέστησεν); the emperor Nikephoros I (Nikephoros 8) allegedly failed to give him adequate support or encouragement and in fact cut his pay; when Anonymus 22 complained, the emperor had him beaten; Anonymus 22 therefore deserted to the Bulgars (ἐδίδαξεν αὐτοὺς πᾶσαν μαγγανικὴν τέχνην) and passed on to them his engineering skills; as a result in 812 the Bulgars, then under Krum 1, invested Mesembria with siege engines (ἐν μηχανήμασι μαγγανικῶν καὶ ἑλεπόλεων) and captured Mesembria and then Debelton and with them great quantities of military supplies, including Greek fire and the equipment for using it: Theoph. AM 6305, cf. Zon. XV 17. 17-18 (Ἄραψ γάρ τις μηχανικὸς καὶ περὶ ταύτας (sc. ἑλεπόλεις) δεξιὸς).

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