The Avars were a confederation of heterogeneous (diverse or varied) people consisting of Rouran, Hephthalites, and Turkic-Oghuric races who migrated to the region of the Pontic Grass Steppe (an area corresponding to modern-day Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan) from Central Asia after the fall of the Asiatic Rouran Empire in 552 CE. They are considered by many historians to be the successors of the Huns in their way of life and, especially, mounted warfare. They settled in the Huns’ former territory and almost instantly set upon a course of conquest. After they were hired by the Byzantine Empire to subdue other tribes, their king Bayan I (reigned 562/565-602 CE) allied with the Lombards under Alboin (reigned 560-572 CE) to defeat the Gepids of Pannonia and then took over the region, forcing the Lombards to migrate to Italy.
The Avars eventually succeeded in establishing the Avar Khaganate, which encompassed a territory corresponding roughly to modern-day Austria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria down to and including parts of Turkey. The departure of the Lombards for Italy in 568 CE removed another hostile people from Pannonia, enabling Bayan I to expand his territories with relative ease and found the empire which lasted until 796 CE, when the Avars were conquered by the Franks under Charlemagne.
Origins & Migration
The precise origin of the Avars (like that of the Huns) is debated, but many historians, such as Christoph Baumer, link them with the Rouran Khaganate of Mongolia, north of China. The first mention of the Avars in Roman history comes from Priscus of Panium in 463 CE, who mentions the Avars in connection with a tribe known as the Sabirs who appear to be a subset of the Huns. The Hunnic Empire which Attila established was in the process of disintegrating at this time (c. 463 CE), beginning with the Hun defeat by Ardaric of the Gepids in 454 CE at the Battle of Nedao.
Following Nedao, other nations that had been subjugated by the Huns rose against them, and the Hunnic Empire was dismantled by 469 CE. Whether the Avars mentioned by Priscus are the same coalition as those who fled Mongolia in 552 CE is debated
Contact with Rome
Justinian I (482-565 CE) received the embassy and agreed to hire them to fight against other troublesome tribes. The Avars performed their duties admirably and expected continued payment from the empire. They wanted their own homeland to settle where they could feel secure from the pursuing Turks. The king of the Avars, Bayan I, tried to lead his people south of the Danube River but was prevented by the Romans. He then led the Avars north but encountered resistance from the Franks under their king Sigebert I. They continued as nomads in the service of Rome until the death of Justinian in 565 CE. Bayan I then turned his attention to Pannonia or, according to other sources, was invited to go there by Justin II to displace the Gepids.
The Lombards under Alboin were already in Pannonia in conflict with the Gepids who controlled most of the region. Bayan I wanted to take the capital city of Sirmium but did not know the region and needed the help of those more familiar with it. He allied himself with Alboin and the Lombards and, in 567 CE, the two armies joined to crush the Gepids between them
Rise of the Avar Empire
Although Sirmium remained untaken, the Avars now controlled most of Pannonia and the Lombards found that the deal they had brokered earlier was an unfortunate one for them. Alboin tried to form an alliance with the Gepids against the Avars by marrying Cunimund’s daughter Rosamund whom he had taken after the battle. It was now too late, though, as the Avars were simply too powerful to contest. In 568 CE, Alboin led his people out of Pannonia to Italy where, in 572 CE, he would be assassinated in a plot hatched by his wife to avenge her father.
The Assassination of Alboin
Under Bayan I’s leadership, the Avars expanded across Pannonia in every direction and, through conquest, enlarged their empire. A number of Slavic people had followed the Avars into Pannonia, and these were now subjects of Avar rule and seemed to be treated with the same lack of regard accorded the Kutrighur soldiers Sinor mentions.
The Avars established their headquarters near Attila’s old capital of a hundred years before and fortified it. It was known as The Ring. Now well established in Pannonia, Bayan fought the Franks of Sigebert again and defeated them in 570. A dozen years later Bayan attacked Byzantine territory and seized the city of Sirmium on the Sava River. He followed this with further campaigns against the Byzantines, the Avars taking Singidunum (Belgrade) and ravaging Moesia until they were defeated near Adrianople in 587.
Avar Conquest
With Sirmium now taken, and operating efficiently from The Ring, Bayan I continued his conquests. They operated in warfare with tactics similar to those used by the Huns a century before. Like the Huns, the Avars were expert horsemen. The stirrup greatly enhanced the already formidable Avar cavalry and made them the most feared and invincible mounted military force since the Huns.
Justin II had begun a war against the Sassanids in 572 CE and, with imperial forces drawn to the east, Bayan I invaded further into Byzantine territories. He demanded higher and even higher tribute and defeated the imperial armies sent against him. It was not until 592 CE, with the conclusion of the empire’s war with the Sassanids, that the emperor Maurice was able to send an army of adequate force against Bayan I. The Avars were driven from the Balkans and back into Pannonia by the imperial troops under the general Priscus, almost to their capital. The Avars would most likely have been destroyed en masse were it not for the insurrection in Constantinople known as Phocas’ Rebellion in 602 CE.
Bayan I was succeeded by his son (whose name is not known) who attempted to carry on his father’s empire. In 626 CE he led a campaign against Constantinople, allied with the Sassanid Empire, in a land and sea attack. The formidable defenses of the Theodosian Walls (built under the reign of Theodosius II, 408-450) repelled the land attack, while the Byzantine fleet defeated the naval assault, sinking many of the Avar ships. The campaign was a complete failure and the surviving Avars returned home to Pannonia.
The Decline of the Avar Empire
The emperor at this time was Heraclius (reigned 610-641 CE), who immediately stopped the payments to the Avars. When Bayan’s son died in 630 CE, the Bulgars of the region rose in revolt and civil war broke out between the Avars and the Bulgars. Although the Avars won this struggle, the conflict was costly and the power of the Avars declined.
When Charlemagne of the Franks rose to power in 768 CE, the Avars were in no position to challenge him. Charlemagne conquered the neighboring Lombards in 774 CE and then moved on the Avars but had to halt his campaign to deal with a revolt by the Saxons. Instead of taking advantage of this reprieve to strengthen their defenses and mobilize, the Avars fought among themselves and the conflict finally broke into open civil war in 794 CE in which the leaders of both factions were killed.
The subordinate authority left in charge offered the remnants of the Avar Empire to Charlemagne, who accepted, but then attacked anyway in 795 CE, taking The Ring easily and carrying off the hoard of Avar treasure. The empire officially ended in 796 CE with the official surrender and, after that date, the Avars were ruled by the Franks. The Avars revolted in 799 CE but were crushed by the Franks by 802/803 CE and, afterwards, merged with other people.
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The Norwegian navy paints barcodes on the sides of its ships so that when they return to port they can scandinavian.
China just beat the US in Women’s Volleyball
Learning and researching old American tunes, particularly those on banjo is sort of a rollercoaster. You’ll find some old tune with a very
title and it’s surprisingly innocent in its origin. Then you’ll see a song like ‘Oh Susannah’ and you’ll find some of the most racist lyrics ever in the original printing. Seriously, major CW’s for anybody that wants to study the history of the banjo.Greetings!
I used to go by SterlingPooper around here (which is a pun on a company called Sterling Cooper from the show Mad Men). NO MORE!
Uh, I just got sick of typing the word poop and looking at the word poop and associating that with myself. Shiny new username, feels good.
Removed by mod
Wife’s making me sign a Do Not Worm clause where I’m to euthanize her in case she turns into a worm.
US Immigration denied my aunt because she can’t provide DNA based proof that her adopted daughter is hers
if anyone tells you immigrating to the US is too easy, ask them for a blood sample on the spot. you don’t have to do anything with it (assuming they follow through), just ask them to see if it’s an “easy” request to themAs a Chinese person I formally give everyone the pass to use tofu as a substitute for whatever you want. Tofu as a cream substitute? Go for it. Tofu as a substitute for meat? Awesome. This weird anti-vegan tofu purism discussion about vegans using tofu “wrong” is so annoying. It’s literally a block of coagulated soy milk, it doesn’t have emotions.
reads bullshit jobs
yeah but mine isn’t bullshit i do stuff to help people and doing this thing was my dream
1 year later
Horror is learning that a Hexbear lives close to you.
True horror is learning that several Hexbears probably live pretty dang fuckin’ close to you
idk if a therapy session is the best place to go off on a Maoist Third Worldist rant, but you do you I guess
This tagline is directed at me personally and I don’t like it
I’ve never seen Twitter this bad. they must have updated the algorithm because every time I open it it’s a new slew of blue check zionists, racist meme accounts, or straight up nazi posts. maybe it just took longer to get to me, but it’s real bad now.
twitter is dead. X is cryptobro stormfront. it’s time to let go
it is every single post now. literally every post is holocaust denial, rabid racism and antisemitism, or some other wild chuddery. it’s like a switch was flipped.
The internet needs to be destroyed
I have never seen anything like it, just a singularity of online alternate realities endlessly collapsing toward Hitlerism
It’s so fucking bad
Been on there tonight and I’ve never been more
by this platformThis time it was because I discovered the self-hating queers and blue-check reactionaries engaging in the pentup_pup discourse
If you don’t already know, definitely do not look it up, I’m actually serious, don’t
They have finely-tuned the rage-baiting algorithm for each individual perfectly
My indifference to many forms of crime under liberal capitalist law can be summed up if one takes “those who live by the sword will die by the sword” as an instruction rather than a condemnation. Those who live by violence can hardly be taken seriously when they complain about being brought down by violence, and so many acts of theft, fraud, and corruption are simply engaging capitalists on the terms the capitalists themselves established. Capitalism’s authority derrives entirely from it’s ability to enforce it’s own laws and norms through overwhelming violence. When it fails to do so it is the fault of capitalism, not of the crooks who accepted capitalism’s challenge. If you claim monopoly of force you have also set out a challenge and terms; anyone who can cut you down can take what you have with exactly the same degree of righteousness that you had when you cut down the prior owners.
Which is to say, the capitalists took what they have by violence, they hold it by violence, and they justify themselves only by their ability to meet out violence. If your violence is superior to theirs, then by their own law you have every right to slit their bellies and eat their livers and when they whine for justice you can thow “vae victis!” In their faces and sleep well at night.
Eternal reminder that access to dental care in the US is used as a means of stratifying people by income and enforcing a visible brand of low status on poor people in the form of damaged teeth. Bad teeth are just as effective as a tattoo or burning brand at signifying that someone is (slurs against impoverished people) and the massively inaccessible cost of dental care makes that mark permanent. While this may not have been intentionally constructed by any person or group of people, “The purpose of a machine is what it does”, and systematically denying fundamental medical care to poor people ruthlessly enforces America’s class and income stratification.
Fellas is it gay and 1984 to point out that Trump and JD Vance are weirdos.
