Arrival in Europe In 557, the Avars sent an embassy to
Constantinople, presumably from the northern
Caucasus. This marked their first contact with the
Byzantine Empire. In exchange for gold, they agreed to subjugate the "unruly
gentes" on behalf of the Byzantines: subsequently they conquered and incorporated various nomadic tribes
Kutrigurs and
Sabirsand defeated the
Antes. By 562 the Avars controlled the lower
Danube basin and the steppes north of the Black Sea. By the time they arrived in the
Balkans, the Avars formed a heterogeneous group of about 20,000 horsemen. After the Byzantine Emperor
Justinian I bought them off, they pushed northwestwards into
Germania. However,
Frankish opposition halted the Avars' expansion in that direction. Seeking rich pastoral lands, the Avars initially demanded land south of the Danube in present-day
Bulgaria, but the Byzantines refused, using their contacts with the Göktürks as a threat against Avar aggression. The Avars turned their attention to the Carpathian Basin and to the natural defenses it afforded. The Carpathian Basin was occupied by the
Gepids. In 567 the Avars formed an alliance with the
Lombardsenemies of the Gepidsand together they destroyed much of the Gepid kingdom. The Avars then persuaded the Lombards to move into
northern Italy, an invasion that marked the last Germanic mass-movement in the
Migration Period. Continuing their successful policy of turning the various barbarians against each other, the Byzantines persuaded the Avars to attack the
Sclavenes in
Scythia Minor, a land rich with goods. After devastating much of the Sclavenes' land, the Avars returned to Pannonia after many of the khagan's subjects deserted to the Byzantine emperor.
Early Avar period (580–670) By about 580, the Avar Khagan
Bayan I had established supremacy over most of the
Slavic,
Germanic and
Bulgar tribes living in Pannonia and the Carpathian Basin. When the Byzantine Empire was unable to pay subsidies or hire Avar mercenaries, the Avars raided their Balkan territories. According to Menander, Bayan I commanded an army of 10,000 Kutrigur Bulgars and sacked
Dalmatia in 568, effectively cutting the Byzantine terrestrial link with northern Italy and western Europe. In the 580s and 590s, many of the imperial armies were busy fighting the Persians, and the remaining troops in the Balkans were no match for the Avars. By 582, the Avars had
captured Sirmium, an important city and former Roman capital in Pannonia. When the Byzantines refused to increase the stipend amount as requested by Bayan's son and successor
Bayan II, the Avars proceeded to capture
Singidunum (Belgrade) and
Viminacium. They suffered setbacks, however, during
Maurice's Balkan campaigns in the 590s. By 600 the Avars had established a nomadic empire ruling over a multitude of peoples and stretching from modern Austria in the west to the
Pontic–Caspian steppe in the east. After being defeated at the
Battles of Viminacium in their homeland, some Avars defected to the Byzantines in 602, but
Emperor Maurice decided not to return home as was customary. He maintained his army camp beyond the Danube throughout the winter, but the hardship caused the army to revolt, giving the Avars a desperately needed respite and they attempted an invasion of northern Italy in 610. The Byzantine civil war prompted a Persian invasion in the
Byzantine–Sasanian War, and after 615 the Avars enjoyed a free hand in the undefended Balkans. While negotiating with Emperor
Heraclius beneath the walls of Constantinople in 617, the Avars launched a surprise attack. While they were unable to capture the city centre, they pillaged the suburbs and took 270,000 captives. Payments in gold and goods to the Avars reached a sum of 200,000
solidi shortly before 626. In 626, the Avars cooperated with the
Sassanid force in the failed
siege of 626. After the defeat, the political and military power of the Avars declined. Byzantine and Frankish sources documented a war between the Avars and their western Slav clients, the
Wends. In the 630s,
Samo, the ruler of the first Slavic polity known as Samo's Tribal Union or
Samo's realm, increased his authority over lands to the north and west of the Khaganate at the expense of the Avars, ruling until his death in 658. The
Chronicle of Fredegar records that during Samo's rebellion in 631, 9,000 Bulgars led by
Alciocus left Pannonia to modern-day
Bavaria where
Dagobert I massacred most of them. The remaining 700 joined the Wends. At about the time of Samo's realm, Bulgar leader
Kubrat of the
Dulo clan led a successful uprising to end Avar authority over the Pannonian Plain, establishing
Old Great Bulgaria, or Patria Onoguria, "the homeland of Onogurs". The civil war, possibly a succession struggle in Onoguria between the Kutrigurs under Alciocus on one side and
Utigur forces on the other, raged from 631 to 632. After Alciocus fled to Bavaria, the power of the Avars' Kutrigur forces was shattered, and Kubrat established peace between the Avars and Byzantium in 632. According to
Constantine VII's 10th century work
De Administrando Imperio, a group of
Croats who had separated from the
White Croats in
White Croatia had also fought against the Avars, after which they organized the
Duchy of Croatia. The
Unknown Archon's people from Samo's realm were also resettled at this time.
Middle (670–720) and late (720–822) Avar periods depicting a warrior with his captive. Experts cannot agree if this warrior is Bulgar, Khazar or Avar With the death of Samo in 658 and Kubrat in 665, some Slavic tribes again came under Avar rule. Despite their father's advice, Kubrat's sons failed to maintain cohesion in Old Great Bulgaria which began to disintegrate. A few years later in the time of
Batbayan, Old Great Bulgaria dissolved into five branches. From western Onoguria the first group of folk moved to Ravenna under Alzeco in the 650s. According to Book II of the
Miracles of Saint Demetrius, a certain Avar Chagan seized his opportunity to coalesce in the regions further north in response to the secession of the Diocese of
Sirmium in the 670s by a "
Kuber" Chagan. :"Finally, the (Avar) Chagan, considering them to constitute a people with an identity of its own put, in accordance to the custom of his race, a chieftain upon them, a man by the name of Kouver. When Kouver (Chagan) learned from some of his most intimate associates the desire of the exiled Romans for their ancestral homes, he gave the matter some thought, then took them together with other peoples, i.e., the foreigners who had joined them, [as is said in the Book of Moses about the Jews at the time of their exodus,] with all their baggage and arms. According to what is said, they rebelled and separated themselves from the (Avar) Chagan. The (Avar) Chagan, when he learned this, set himself in pursuit of them, met them in five or six battles and, being defeated in each one by them, took flight and retired to the regions further north. After the victory, Kouver (Chagan), together with the aforementioned people, crossed the aforementioned river Danube, came to our regions and occupied the Keramesion plain." About this time,
Mark of Kalt records that in 677, the principality of
Ungvar (Ung fortress) was established in the regions further north where
Kotrag's group also fled following the chaos, and a third group of Onogur-Bulgarians led by Batayan was subdued by
Ziebel's emerging Khazar Empire according to
Nikephoros I of Constantinople. Under
Mauros, a fourth group of folk eventually settled in the present-day region of
North Macedonia. The fifth group from
Onogur, Bulgaria, led by Khan
Asparukh—the father of Khan
Tervel—settled permanently along the Danube (c. 679–681), establishing the
First Bulgarian Empire, stabilized by the victory at the
battle of Ongal south of the eastern Carpathians. The Bulgarians turned on Byzantium who had established an alliance with Ziebel's Khazars. Although the Avar empire had diminished to half its original size, the Avar-Slav alliance consolidated their rule west from the central parts of the mid-Danubian basin and extended their sphere of influence west to the
Vienna Basin. The new ethnic element marked by hair clips for pigtails; curved, single-edged sabres; and broad, symmetrical bows marks the middle Avar-Bulgar period (670–720). New regional centers, such as those near
Ozora and
Igar appeared. This strengthened the Avars' power base, although most of the Balkans lay in the hands of Slavic tribes since neither the Avars nor Byzantines were able to reassert control. There are very few sources that cover the last century of Avar history. They only talk about the relations between the Avars and Lombards but little about the internals of the khaganate, so information about the Carpathian Basin is mostly from archaeology. Even here, elites are almost invisible, and there is little evidence of nomadic behavior. This transformation is little understood, but may have something to do with population growth. A new type of ceramics—the so-called "
Devínska Nová Ves" pottery—emerged at the end of the 7th century in the region between the Middle Danube and the Carpathians. These vessels were similar to the hand-made pottery of the previous period, but wheel-made items were also found in Devínska Nová Ves sites. Large inhumation cemeteries found at
Holiare,
Nové Zámky and other places in Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia from the period beginning around 690 show that the settlement network of the Carpathian Basin became more stable in the Late Avar period. The most popular Late Avar motifs—
griffins and
tendrils decorating belts, mounts and a number of other artifacts connected to warriors—may either represent nostalgia for the lost nomadic past or evidence a new wave of nomads arriving from the Pontic steppes at the end of the 7th century. According to historians who accept the latter theory, the immigrants may have been either
Onogurs or
Alans. Anthropological studies of the skeletons point at the presence of a population with mongoloid features. In the early 8th century, a new
archaeological culture—the so-called "griffin and tendril" culture—appeared in the Carpathian Basin. Some theories, including the "double conquest" theory of archaeologist
Gyula László, attribute it to the arrival of new settlers, such as early
Magyars, but this is still under debate. Hungarian archaeologists László Makkai and András Mócsy attribute this culture to an internal evolution of Avars resulting from the integration of the Bulgar émigrés from the previous generation of the 670s. According to Makkai and Mócsy, "the material culture—art, clothing, equipment, weapons—of the late Avar/Bulgar period evolved autonomously from these new foundations". Many regions that had once been important centers of the Avar Empire had lost their significance while new ones arose. Although Avaric
material culture found over much of the northern Balkans may indicate an existing Avar presence, it probably represents the presence of independent Slavs who had adopted Avaric customs. Radovan Bunardžić dated Avar-Bulgar graves excavated in Čelarevo (near Sirmium), containing skulls with Mongolian features and Judaic symbols, to the late 8th century and 9th century.
Collapse and neighbouring provinces in the time of
Charlemagne (reigned 800–814) The gradual decline of Avar power accelerated. A series of Frankish campaigns, from 788, ended with the conquest of the Avar realm within a decade. Conflict between Avars and Franks began soon after the Frankish deposition of Bavarian duke
Tassilo III and the establishment of direct Frankish rule over
Bavaria in 788. At that time, the border between Bavarians and Avars was the
river Enns. An initial Avarian incursion into Bavaria was repelled, and Franco-Bavarian forces responded by taking the war to neighbouring Avarian territories, situated along the Danube, east of the Enns. The two sides fought near the river
Ybbs, on Ybbs Field (), where the Avars suffered defeat in 788. This heralded the rise of Frankish power and Avarian decline in the region. In 790, the Avars tried to negotiate a peace settlement with the Franks, but no agreement was reached. A Frankish campaign against the Avars, initiated in 791, ended successfully for the Franks. A large Frankish army, led by
Charlemagne, crossed from Bavaria into the Avarian territory beyond the Enns, and started to advance along the Danube in two columns, but found no resistance and soon reached the region of the
Vienna Woods, near the Pannonian Plain. No pitched battle was fought, since the Avars had fled before the advancing Carolingian army, while disease left most of the Avar horses dead. Tribal infighting began, showing the weakness of the khaganate. The Franks had been supported by the Slavs, who established polities on former Avar territory. Charlemagne's son
Pepin of Italy captured a large, fortified encampment known as "the Ring", which contained much of the spoils from earlier Avar campaigns. The campaign against the Avars again gathered momentum. By 796, the Avar chieftains had surrendered and became open to the acceptance of Christianity. In the meantime, all of Pannonia was conquered. According to the
Annales Regni Francorum, the Avars began to submit to the Franks in 796. The song "
De Pippini regis Victoria Avarica" celebrating the defeat of the Avars at the hands of
Pepin of Italy in 796 still survives. The Franks baptized many Avars and integrated them into the
Frankish Empire. In 799, some Avars revolted. In 804,
Bulgaria conquered the southeastern Avar lands in
Transylvania and southeastern Pannonia up to the Middle Danube, and many Avars became subjects of the
Bulgarian Empire. Khagan Theodorus, a convert to Christianity, died after asking Charlemagne for help in 805; he was succeeded by Khagan
Abraham, who was baptized as the new Frankish client (and should not be assumed from his name alone to have been
Khavar rather than Pseudo-Avar). Abraham was succeeded by Khagan (or
Tudun)
Isaac (Latin
Canizauci), about whom little is known. The Franks turned the Avar lands under their control into a
frontier march. The
March of Pannoniathe eastern half of the
Avar Marchwas then granted to the Slavic Prince
Pribina, who established the
Lower Pannonia principality in 840. Whatever was left of Avar power was effectively ended when the
Bulgars expanded their territory into the central and eastern portions of traditional Avar lands around 829. According to Pohl, an Avar presence in Pannonia is certain in 871, but thereafter the name is no longer used by chroniclers. Pohl wrote, "It simply proved impossible to keep up an Avar identity after Avar institutions and the high claims of their tradition had failed", although
Regino wrote about them in 889. The growing amount of archaeological evidence in
Transdanubia also presumes an Avar population in the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century. Archaeological findings suggest a substantial, late Avar presence on the
Great Hungarian Plain; however, it is difficult to determine their proper chronology. The preliminary results of the new excavations also imply that the known and largely accepted theory of the destruction of the Avar settlement area is outdated; a disastrous depopulation of the Avar Khaganate never happened. Byzantine records, including the "
Notitia episcopatuum", the "
Additio patriarchicorum thronorum" by
Neilos Doxapatres, the
Chronica by Petrus Alexandrinus and the "
Notitia patriarchatuum" mention the 9th century Avars as an existing Christian population. The Avars had already been mixing with the more numerous Slavs for generations, and they later came under the rule of external polities, such as the Franks, Bulgaria, and
Great Moravia. Fine presumes that Avar descendants who survived the
Hungarian Conquest in the 890s were likely absorbed by the Hungarian population. After the mid to late 8th-century Frankish conquest of Pannonia, Avar and Bulgar refugees migrated to settle in the area of Bulgaria and along its western periphery. The Avars in the region known as
solitudo avarorumcurrently called the Great Hungarian Plainvanished in an arc of three generations. They slowly merged with the Slavs to create a bilingual Turkic-Slavic-speaking people who were subjected to Frankish domination; the invading Magyars found this composite people in the late 9th century. The
De Administrando Imperio, written around 950 and based on older documents, states that "there are still descendants of the Avars in
Croatia, and are recognized as Avars". Modern historians and archaeologists until now proved the opposite, that Avars never lived in Dalmatia proper (including
Lika), that statement occurred somewhere in Pannonia, and the information belongs to the 9th century. There has been speculation that the modern
Avar people of the Caucasus might have an uncertain connection to the historical Avars, but direct descent from them is rejected or doubted by many scholars. == List of known khagans ==