In the 50s of the VI century. The Slavs, taking advantage of the fact that the main forces of Byzantium were diverted to Italy, not only engaged in robbery in the northern provinces, but even captured the small city of Toper in Thrace (Rhodope province).
In addition to them, the borders of the empire in the north were threatened by the German "kingdoms" and the Huns. The imperial policy of "divide and rule" contributed to the weakening of these peoples, whom the Byzantine diplomats pitted against each other.
The Kuturgurs, a Hunnic tribe, together with the Slavs crossed the Danube on the ice, passing through the provinces of Scythia and Moesia, in 558, led by Khan Zabergan. Part of the troops with Zabergan moved to the capital, part to Greece, part tried to bypass the ground fortifications near the Thracian Chersonesos by sea on rafts.
But the Antes, who had been in alliance with the empire since 554, tried to clash with the Kuturgurs and devastated the land of the Sklavins, but, apparently, unsuccessfully, after them the Sandilha Utigurs entered the battles.
Avars in Europe
In the late 1950s, Avars appeared in the Black Sea steppes. The origin of the Avars can only be speculatively discussed. Like other nomadic peoples before and after them, on the way from the east, they underwent constant ethnic changes, including the defeated and joined in their composition.
The Avars, or the cliffs of the ancient Russian chronicle, were the Ural-Altai Turkic tribe. The Jujans (Avars) dominated Northern China, the Mongolian steppes and Altai, subjugating the Hunnic tribes from Eastern Turkestan, including the Turks proper - the Ashina tribe.
Hence the horror that the Hunnic tribes of Eastern Europe experienced when they learned about the Avar invasion of the European steppes. But military happiness in the steppe is changeable, and, as the protector Menander wrote, during the war with the Ashin Turks and the Chinese, the Zhuzhani or Ruranes (Avars) were defeated in 551 and 554, the Turks left the subordination of the Zhuzhan Khaganate and created their first Khaganate … Most of the Avars were forced to move to China and Korea, and a smaller part of the scattered tribes that were part of the Avar union moved to the West.
In 568, ambassadors of the Turkic Khaganate arrived in Constantinople, who told Emperor Justin II details about the Avars. This narration has come down to us in the "History" of Theophylact Simokatta. The Uar and Hunni tribes, which were once part of the Avar union, fled from the Turks to the west. As the ruler of the Turks boastfully declared:
“Avars are not birds, so that, flying through the air, they can avoid the swords of the Turks; they are not fish to dive into the water and disappear into the depths of the sea; they wander on the surface of the earth. When I end the war with the Hephthalites, I will attack the Avars, and they will not escape my forces."
In the steppes of the Caucasus, they met the Hunnic tribes, who took them for the Avars, and paid them appropriate honors. These tribes decided to take on the formidable name of the Avars. Such transfer of names is found more than once in the history of nomadic tribes. They chose a ruler for themselves, who received the title of kagan. Then they came to the Alans and thanks to them sent the first embassy to Constantinople, which arrived to the emperor Justinian in 558. Soon they were joined by the Tarniakh and Kotzaghir tribes fleeing from the Turks in the number of 10,000 soldiers. In total, 20 thousand of them were read, it was most likely about warriors, not counting women and children. In the middle of the VI century. this tribal union became an ally of Byzantium. The Avars, joining the warlike tribes of the steppes of Eastern Europe, destroyed and drove out the rebellious, so they ended up in the Carpathian region, the Danube and the Balkans. Here they are strengthening, waging incessant wars with neighbors.
Attempts by the Byzantines to locate them further from the capital region in the province of the Second Panonia were unsuccessful, the nomads of Khan Bayan tried to occupy lands on the border of the provinces of Upper Moesia and Dacia.
The Gepids were in alliance with the Sklavens. We know that the exiled pretender to the throne of the Lombards Ildigis in 549 fled to the Sklavens, and then to the Gepids, he fought for some time with the Romans in Italy and had an army of Lombards, Gepids and Sklavens, and he eventually went to live with the latter.
The defeat of the Gepids by the Lombards and their allies by the Avars and the departure of the Lombards to Italy from their dangerous allies left the Sklavens alone with the Avars. The latter conquered and subdued all the "barbarians" in this region.
But if Justinian the Great pursued a conciliatory policy towards the newcomers, gifting them endless embassies with gold, then the militant Justin II, who came to power, stopped this approach, thereby unleashing an endless war with the horsemen neighbors.
Army-people
What contributed to their military success?
The Avars were an army people. Despite the fact that they were at the same stage of development with their neighbors in Eastern Europe, their military-technological advantage ensured them dominance over them. The Avars are a people-army, united by a common struggle, first with the Turks, and then with other nomadic peoples on the way to Europe. The unconditional despotic power of the Khakan or Khagan ensured firm and unquestioning discipline for this ethnic entity, in contrast, for example, to their tributaries, the Slavs, who did not have strict control. Although they had a council of elders and nobles, who sometimes objected to the kagan.
They were all excellent riders: archaeological material suggests that, regardless of social status, all nomads had iron stirrups and a bit, which helped to use the striking power of long spears. The protection of their horses with "armor" made of felt gave them an edge over other competing riders.
The presence of stirrups, which it was they who brought to Europe, helped the riders alternately use either a bow or a spear, fastened with a belt behind their backs.
The low level of material culture also contributed to the desire to win and seize wealth, the Avars who arrived in Europe did not even have metal linings on their belts and bits, but used a horn. Their laminar armor (zaba) was also made of horn.
The retrospective method shows that members of the dominant tribe, the tribe of conquerors, did not engage in physical labor, slaves and dependent nomads looked after the cattle, slaves and women did housework. "Leisure" gave the riders the opportunity to constantly keep "shape" through training and hunting. All this made the Avar rider a dashing and fearless rider with Spartan discipline and upbringing. "Avars," wrote Maurice Stratigus, "are extremely vicious, resourceful and very experienced in wars."
To ensure long transitions in the war, the Avars drove with them a huge number of livestock, which increased their maneuverability. And there is no contradiction here. Large flocks or herds burden the movement of the cavalry army, but in the steppe, where food is extremely difficult to get, nomadic horsemen to reach the territory where they can feed, such help was needed. Moreover, speed is not required for such a movement.
Unlike other nomads, they fought in formation, and not in lava, placing themselves in separate units or measures (moira), as Mauritius Stratigus determined their formation in the Byzantine manner. Separate detachments were created on the basis of separate clans or tribes, which contributed to the cohesion of the detachment. The Avars were the first to throw subordinate peoples into battle, whether they were Huns, Slavs or Germans. They put their tributaries of the Slavs, called befulci, in front of the camp and forced them to fight, if the victory was on the side of the Slavs, they proceeded to beat the losers and plunder their camp, if not, they forced the Slavs to fight more actively. In the battle for Constantinople, the Slavs who escaped from the Romans, believing that they were probably traitors, the Avars simply killed. Kagan Bayan sent tributaries of the Kuturgurs in the amount of ten thousand horsemen to plunder Dalmatia.
When the Avars proper entered the battle, they fought it until the complete defeat of all enemy forces, not content only with breaking the first line. It is worth adding the psychological factor of waging war - the appearance of the Avar nomads amazed opponents, although there was no difference in clothing.
Avar yoke
The first Slavic tribes that fell under the control of the Avars after the Hunnic tribes were Sklavins. Structurally, the relationship between the Avars and the Slavs was built in different ways. Somewhere the Slavs and Avars lived together, somewhere the tributary Slavs were ruled by their leaders.
The conquerors subjected the Slavs to all violence, it was a real Avar yoke. The legendary news of the Russian chronicle says: when a noble arr (avarin) was going to go somewhere, he harnessed three or four Slavic women to a cart. Fredegest writes that every year the Avars went to winter in the places of settlement of the Slavs, they took the wives and daughters of the Slavs and used them, and at the end of wintering the Slavs had to pay tribute to them. When in 592 the kagan, during the siege of Sirmium, ordered the Slavs to build single-tree boats for the crossing, they worked with all their might under pain of punishment. In the war, the Avars put in front, as we wrote above, the army of the Slavs and forced them to fight.
And how did the relationship between the Avars and the Ants evolve?
Avars and Antes
At the same time, the Avars could not conquer the ants outright. The Antes were numerous tribes, and their material level and military knowledge were at a sufficiently high level, so it was not so easy to deal with them.
In the 50s, the Avars strengthened their power, fighting the Utigurs and Kuturgurs (Kutriguts), Gepids, in alliance with the Lombards, they made extermination campaigns against the Ants, possibly having traversed all their lands all the way to the Dniester. In 560, the Antes sent an embassy headed by Mezamer or Mezhimir (Μεζαμηρος), the son of one of the Antian princes or leaders of Idarizia, brother of Kelagast, with the aim of ransoming the prisoners and talking about peace. The translator of the Avar kagan, the kutrigur, having a personal dislike for the Slavs, interpreted the haughty speeches of the ambassadors as a threat of war, and the Avars, disregarding customs, killed the ambassadors, starting a new campaign against the Ants.
A little later, Khan Bayan sent an embassy to another leader of the Ants, Dobret (Δαυρέντιος), or Davrit (Δαυρίτας), demanding obedience and payment of tributes. Davrit and other leaders of the Antes arrogantly replied to the ambassadors:
“Was he born among people and is he warmed by the rays of the sun who will subdue our power? For we are accustomed to rule by someone else's (land), and not others by ours. And this is unshakable for us as long as there are wars and swords."
This belligerent response was completely in the tradition of the time. A quarrel arose between the leaders of the Antes and the ambassadors, the ambassadors were killed. As a result, the war began, which, most likely, went on with varying success, because Menander the Protector informs us that the kagan (khan) Bayan suffered a lot from the Slavs. That did not stop their ambassadors in 565 from boasting in Constantinople that they had pacified the barbarians and that they were not attacking Thrace.
The kagan tried to play back the situation with the ants in 577, when a huge army of the Slavs from one hundred thousand warriors, taking advantage of the war of the Romans in the east, crossed the Danube and devastated Thrace, Macedonia and Thessaly.
The Slavs plundered the entire territory, devastated Thrace and captured herds of royal horses, gold and silver.
Considering the named number, it must be assumed that the entire capable male population went on the campaign, to which the empire simply did not have the strength to resist. The Romans turned to Khan Bayan, and he, having received the gifts, decided to take advantage of the situation. The Avar army consisted of horsemen (Ιππέων), Menander indicates the number at 60 thousand (which raises great doubts). The Byzantines first ferried the army across the Danube in the area of modern Sremska Mitrovica, the soldiers crossed Illyria on foot and were again ferried on Roman ships across the Danube in the Grotsk region.
The kagan began to plunder the defenseless population, as it was believed that the Slavs, who had fought for a long time with Byzantium, had accumulated enormous wealth. Most likely, after these events, the Ants fall into tributary dependence on the kaganate for some time.
Nevertheless, difficulties with the crossing made it possible for the ants to provide effective resistance, so, in 580, the Avar ambassadors demanded that they be allowed to make a permanent crossing at Sirmia (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia) in order to be able to collect the promised tribute from the Slavs, but Emperor Tiberius did not allowed, realizing that, without a military force in the Balkans, Byzantium, with a bridge across the Sava River, would also become a prey for nomads.
By the way, on the way back the ambassadors were killed by the Slavs.
Slavs on the borders of the empire at the end of the 6th century
But already in 581, the Sclavins invaded Illyricum and Thrace, and two years later, experiencing pressure from the nomads, they begin not only to raid Byzantium, but move to its borders, the first settlers settled in Macedonia and Thessaly and even Greece, which angered John of Ephesus, who reported this.
At the same time, the military activity of the Avars on the borders of the empire is growing, their tributaries, the Slavs, set out on a campaign both independently and by order of the kagan. There is no doubt that many Sklavin tribes fell under the supreme power of the Avars. During the siege of Sirmia (Sremska-Mitrovitsa) and Singidon (Belgrade), the Slavs built single-tree boats to ferry the Khan's troops, hurrying, fearing to anger him, probably the majority of the infantry who besieged these cities were also Slavs.
In 585, there was an invasion of the Slavs, or Antes, who reached the Long Walls, that is, almost under Constantinople.
They were opposed by Scribon Comentiolus, a warrior from the squad of bodyguard-scribonaries. This was his debut as a military leader, he won a victory on the Ergina River (Ergena, the left tributary of the Maritsa). Having received the post of present or master of millitum presentis (commander of the entire expeditionary army), he led an even more decisive struggle against the Slavic invasions. In the vicinity of Adrianople, he met with the army of the Slavic prince Ardagast. Little is known who Ardagast is, perhaps his name comes from the Slavic god Radegast. The next year, Comentiolus himself launched a campaign against the Slavs, but how it ended is unknown, because at the same time the Avar invasion of Thrace began.
In 586, the kagan, together with the Sklavins, set out on a campaign to Constantinople, the Romans called for the help of the Ants, who devastated the lands of the Sklavins.
In 593, the stratilate of the East, Priscus, came out against the Slavs living on the Danube. The events took place in the area of the modern Ialovitsa River, the left tributary of the Danube (Romania). The army crossed at the town of Dorostola (town of Silistr, Bulgaria), and in the battle the soldiers defeated the Slavic leader Ardagast.
Priscus sent a large booty to the capital, but a detachment of Slavs attacked him. The Slavs switched to partisan tactics and constantly counterattacked, those of them who were captured behaved courageously, being tortured. As Theophylact Simokatta writes, "the barbarians, having fallen into their dying madness, seemed to rejoice in the torment, as if someone else's body was suffering from scourges." But to the aid of the Romans came a defector-Gepid, who lived in the Slavic land. He offered to deceive another "Ricks" of the Slavs, Musokiy (Μουσοκιος). At a sign from the Gepid, the Romans attacked the drunken warriors of Musokiy at night.
We see that different Slavic tribes are involved in the attacks on Byzantium, led by leaders such as Musokiy or Ardagast (Piragast), sometimes they raid together, more often on their own.
The winners also made a feast and were again attacked by the Slavs, barely repelling their attack. On the way back, the crossing of the Danube Priska was blocked by the Avar Khan, who, looking for a pretext for a clash, accused the Romans of attacking his subjects and ordered large hordes of Slavs to cross the Danube. Most likely, we are not talking about the fact that the Slavs of Musokiya or Ardagast obeyed the Avars, but in the Kagan's desire to consider all Slavs as his subjects, especially since this was a good reason to profit. Priscus gave him five thousand captured Slavs, and on such conditions returned to the capital.
But the hostilities did not stop, the Slavs were such a serious threat that the emperor Mauritius, contrary to the custom of withdrawing the army to the "winter quarters", began to keep it on the border within the "barbarians". He wanted to make the armies on the Danube live on self-sufficiency, at the same time he reduced the salaries of the soldiers. He put his brother Peter as commander in Odysse (Varna, Bulgaria), who fought with varying success. The Slavs ravaged the capital of Lower Moesia, Markianopolis (the village of Devnya, Bulgaria), but on the way back they were attacked by Peter, while his campaign across the Danube was unsuccessful. Priscus, who replaced him, launched a campaign against the Slavs in 598, but was forced to fight against the Avars, who besieged Singidon (Belgrade) and plundered Dalmatia. The empire tried in some way, by force or gifts, to pacify the Slavs, since the Avar Kaganate became its main enemy here. Fighting them was the main business of the state.
After the battle with the Avars at the mouth of the Yantra River, the right tributary of the Danube, in April 598, extremely unsuccessful for the Romans, a peace treaty was concluded between the Khagan and Byzantium in the city of Drizipere (Karishtyran) in Thrace, the parties to the treaty confirmed that the border between them was Danube, but the treaty allowed the Roman troops to cross the Danube against the Slavs. Obviously, not all Slavic tribes fell into tributary dependence on the Avars.
But when the Bavars opposed the Alpine Slavs living in the upper reaches of the Drava River, the kagan defended the tributaries and utterly defeated the enemy.
And in 592 the Avars asked the Byzantines to help them cross the Danube in order to punish the Slavs, most likely the Ants, who refused to pay tribute.
Meanwhile, the basileus Mauritius, who did not even pay the ransom for the full (the kagan executed 12 thousand prisoners), refused tribute to the Avars, tore up the treaty and sent the army on a campaign against the kagan, this campaign was directed to the heart of the nomadic state, the region of the middle Danube in Pannonia …
For almost fifty years of the 6th century, the Avars strengthened their power over the territories of the Danube, destroying some peoples, conquering and making others tributaries. Some of the Slavs fell under their rule, some were tributaries, and the other part fought them with varying success. In a constantly changing political environment, yesterday's enemies became allies, and vice versa.
But was there a symbiosis between the Avars and the Slavs? I think that here it is necessary to say: no. The exchange existed, the influence of fashion or weapons - yes, but there is no need to talk about symbiosis. This situation can be characterized as coexistence, where the key element of interaction was the "tormenting" of the Slavs who fell under their heel by the Avars, as well as representatives of other ethnic groups, less numerous than the Slavs.
Arrogance and ethno-chauvinism are characteristic of ethnic groups that are key in such formations as the Avar Khaganate. A look at the world through the prism of simple social concepts: lord, slave and enemy. At the same time, the slave did not have the same connotation that under classical slavery, under this term were all dependent: from prisoners to tributaries. The peak of the power of such associations simultaneously becomes the moment of sunset. So it happened with the Avars. More on this in the sequel.
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