Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

323 Vassilios Christides. The Cycle of the Arab-Byzantine Struggle in Crete... Krateros’ expedition appears in a rather incoherent way in three miniatures (Figs. 86, 87, 88). In the first miniature (fig. 86, fol. 40v, top), Krateros’ soldiers (Ρωμαιοι) appear armed with arches battling against theAndalusians (Κρητες). TheAndalusians retreat in disorder. Although Krateros’ name is not written, a prominent Byzantine leader dressed in blue attire and holding a lance, is obviously he. In the second miniature (fig. 87, fol. 40v bottom), under the caption “Kρητες φονεύουσι τους Ρωμαίους”, the Byzantine soldiers appear overcrowded in a miserable mass, suffering a humiliating defeat. The thirdminiature (fig. 88, fol. 41r, top) is a combinationof twonon-consecutive scenes. The first scene illus- trates a naval battle between Krateros’ forces and the Cretan Arabs, and the seconddepicts the hanging ofKraterus on a pole, on the islandofKos. Although Skylitzes’ text does not mention any such confrontation in Krateros’ expedition and instead it reports an unopposed landing of the Byzantines, such a confrontation couldhave takenplace. Perhaps another literary text could have inspired its artistic depiction. Again, the painter made no effort to clearly disassociate the two different scenes which did not coincide chronologically. The painter did not even draw a thin line separating the second scene which has no pictorial relationship with the first. Actually, the beholder would not have understood the sequence of the two scenes, i.e. the defeat of Krateros in a naval battle and his conse- quent flight on the island of Kos and execution by hanging, had he not read Skylitzes’ text or the caption in this miniature. The painter of our illumination divided the two scenes awkwardly. The naval battle occupied most of the space fromthe left endof the beholder to the far right where he squeezed the second scene.Nodividing line appears whichwas necessary, especially since the first scene, the naval battle, took place in the sea and the second on land, i. e. the island of Kos.Most probably the painter used a stereotypedmodel in fixed form for the naval battle, sacrificing most of the available space and thus reducing the part left for the second scene. The painter of this naval battle could have provided us with some useful details in his illustration concerning naval technology, since it is in Skylitzes’ manuscript that we have one of the few Byzantine illus- trations of the use of Greek fire by warships. 1 38 Unfortunately, there 1 Skylitzes, Grabar-Manoussakas, fol. 34v bottom, p. 35.