Oleg, though a pagan, granted free toleration to Christianity, and reciprocated the presents and friendly messages he received from the emperor.

But at length Oleg, having consolidated his realms, and ambitions of still greater renown, wealth and power, resolved boldly to declare war against the empire itself, and to march upon Constantinople.

The warriors from a hundred tribes, each under their feudal lord, were ranged around his banners.
For miles along the banks of the Dnieper at Kief, the river was covered with barges, two thousand in number.

An immense body of cavalry accompanied the expedition, following along the shore.
The navigation of the river, which poured its flood through a channel nearly a thousand miles in length from Kief to the Euxine, was difficult and perilous.

It required the blind, unthinking courage of semi-barbarians to undertake such an enterprise.