That beats my CK2 fanfic.
Time to step up my AAR writing game, I guess.
EDIT: It's rare I get to make that comment twice in the same discussion.
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
That beats my CK2 fanfic.
Time to step up my AAR writing game, I guess.
EDIT: It's rare I get to make that comment twice in the same discussion.
Well, that wasn't how it happen. You see, "first" time Bayan fled into England, where united Angles and created first english kingdom. But then Death gave him Spear of Destiny and returned him back in time, because he completed some task for her.
No, really, one of the best alt-history texts I read was built on this premise.
I mean, definitly Avar Khaganate was powerful, definitly it was multiethnical, and definitly there was slavic subjects of Avars there. Quite possible (and even I'd say very probable) there was big metisization. And definitly Avars made a crucial part in Slavic colonization, opening ways for it, and, quite possible, also resettling some tribes.
And, with some kind of problems in slavic historiography, if you want, well, REALLY hard, and ready to stretch facts and testimonies (there is a brilliant prase on russian for this kind of activity - "pull on the owl on the globe", "натягивать сову на глобус"), you can defend everything, and therefore there are a cites from different works defending the very different positions.
Hmmm. I was looking sometime ago for English analogue, and I'm not sure it's fit.
If Urban Dictionary says it right, "shoehorning" is an art of slipping something unrelated into discussion, like, as I get here and start to discuss comparable linguistics of Native American languages or China national politics. Example from UD: "We were talking about the upcoming music festival when all of a sudden Harry and Arnold entered the conversation, continuously shoe-horning trump and politics".
"Pull on the owl on the globe", as I'm using it here and in common speak, is a different kind of art - it's an art of twisting, shadowing and far-stretching arguments to allow your version to be seen at least plausible.
Well yes, it's just a broad "squeezing something somewhere". But in this context it would fit the owl phrase. Found this example, very relevant, lol:
I.e. the very thing OP has been doing - taking semi-relevant things and putting together to fit an idea.
Last edited by a moderator:
To his defence - it's not just him. You can take any insane idea about pre-12 century slavs, and, if it doesn't include space invaders and powerful sorcerers, there is a reputable paper defending this idea.
Oh, I know. And every bookstore in Russia has a shelf with these "sensations" to enlighten the masses about the Truth which the government doesn't tell.
I spoke about scientifically reputable papers.
And, as far as I can tell, government-hiding conspiracy theories aren't so popular here.
Popular enough to get sold, I'd say. Like stuff written by writers like Konyaev, not historians. One of his books about Romanovs annotated like this - historians knew but didn't tell you, here is a book about all these things that they didn't tell you.
Basically known events mixed with alternative opinions and hyphotesises presented as facts.
Not enough for widespread conspiracy theories, but enough for wonderful discussions on the internet. Like "Tsar Ivan Christ's Fool (Ivan the Terrible was actually his father) documented these events, blahblahblah.... and this is why the Kosovo Field battle is an episode of Russian history, not Serbian history".
Last edited by a moderator:
You do not read carefully. Baltic languages now occupy little space. But who said that the Baltic languages were also very rare in antiquity? We are talking about antiquity.
Why were the Baltic girls first? Because the Balts were attacked first.
This drawing is from Wikipedia. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Балтийские_языки
The boundaries of the settlement of the ancient Balts:
according to archeology
on balt hydronims
Last edited:
You will save your Atlantis for children. Your whole version, that a small impoverished tribe, having multiplied numerically captured half of Europe, is completely untenable.
Kolomiytsev brings many more arguments.
- The population of Pripyat was quite a bit, they did not have a population explosion.
- They did not have good weapons.
- They did not have a single leader. Procopius of Caesarea to help you.
- There are no graves with burning in the Balkans and in Pannonia. Ants burned their deads
- Penkovo's poor and impoverished culture could not compete with the brilliant Pannonian culture created by the Germans.
- In Pannonia, Penkovian antiquities were found, but in regions where life was not sugar and border areas where no one had lived before.
- On the contrary, the potter's wheel supersedes primitive stucco pots in the 7th century in regions that are closer to the Baltic Sea. At the same time, the construction of fortresses, the beginning of which is from Pannonia, is spreading.
- The version that the Slavs captured the defenseless Balkans was completely contrived.
The Romans conducted large-scale campaigns that led to the devastation of Sclavinia. The descendants of the warriors of Sparta and Athens, Alexander the Great did not so easily surrender
Last edited:
Kolomiytsev considers the Avar direct descendants of the Royal Scythians. Based on some words and ornaments in animal style. For this part, I do not agree with him. I believe that the Indo-Europeans-Yuezhi Altai were destroyed by the Hunnu in the III century BC. Although the animal style of the Scythians was popular with the Hunnu.It is all a very interesting supposition, but I'd rather put Scythians or Sarmatians over Avars in this case
European historians claim that the Greeks made Scythian ornaments, but in fact the Scythians themselves made such ornaments. Without any Persians and Greeks
He believes that after the conquests the remnants of the past ethnos do not disappear. For example, the Mongoloid among the Avars persisted throughout the entire period of their statehood, it turns out the Avar clans did not mix even with each other. There was a clear hierarchy, and the Slavs were not allowed to the top of power.
Avars also brought advanced combat skills to Europe:
1) stirrups, this greatly improved their fighting characteristics, they were able to use trick riding,
they used the cavalry for the first time in the world.
3) They brought in some siege-making skills, such as trebushet, other skills were borrowed from the Romans, captured by the Roman siege towers.
4) Unlike the Turks, they paid a lot of attention to water vehicles. Therefore, I thought that the Rus ibn Rousse were swimming on ships, and the Khazars could not swim. Also, the Rus Ibn Ruste have sharovars and Sabers Suleiman
Last edited:
No, we don't. We're speaking about early medieval. Difference is about two centuries at least. If you check dating of baltic hydronimes, you'll notice that they're predating Avars for century at best.
Still, even on this map of highest distribution of baltic toponims and archeology you'll notice that avars would make a turn to get there for girls - as far they came through Crimea. The first place they would meet baltic tribes would be on Bavaria - and, by Kolomiytsev' supposition, Avars just resettled this places with Balkan tribes.
Also keep in mind that we're speaking about forests and marshes (Kolomiytsev himself highlight it). Not the best terrain for steppe cavalry.
In a thousand of years without opposition? Why not?
It's far more probable then genius linguistically slaver girl society.
Just in case - it's supposition, speculated by Kolomiytsev (exactly because he needed to show technological superiority of Avars), but never proofed.
...not something highly known for steppe cavalry of the date.
...not something steppe cultures are known for.
...and also lived on marsh island.
Once again - Ibn Ruste never seen Rus. He compilled some sources, embellished them (as it's a tradition of arabian, and, actually, medieval literature), and created a text to entertain a reader.
Just in case: you're not claiming that they invented cavalry, and speak about sabres?
Ahm... a people who needed to run for two thirds of Eurasia should decide that Toba experience is SAD?
UPD: And, again, just in case. I read carefully. If I disagree Kolomyitsev it's exactly because I read carefully, just not only him, and don't feel myself obliged to agree with him or his argumentation.
Please, keep it in mind.
Last edited:
At first they claimed that there were no Balts outside the current habitat.
Nestor spoke of the Golyads tribe far beyond the current habitat.
Well, let's hear what Kolomiytsev writes
Nestor spoke of the Golyads tribe far beyond the current habitat.
Well, let's hear what Kolomiytsev writes
Slavic language, from the point of view of experts, has always looked very suspicious. Undoubtedly, he is close to Balt dialects. The similarity is so obvious that a significant part of linguists defended the idea of Balto-Slavic unity. It was supposed that both languages spun off from the Indo-European tree, even in indivisible form. With this approach, imaginary Balto-Slavs were represented as a language community. Roughly speaking, they were seen by one people in a common area. Gradually began to accumulate differences. Initially, this process led to the formation of two dialect zones. Then the distance between them became so impressive that the dialects turned into separate, albeit related languages. However, when scientists, using lexico-statistical methods, tried to calculate the period of their divergence, they obtained a date indicating the deepest antiquity of both adverbs - thirteen centuries BC. It turned out that the Slavs and the Balts, if relatives, are extremely distant. Their single ancestors lived in prehistoric times. True, there were always those experts who denied the common root in principle. They considered the Slavic and Baltic languages as completely independent branches of the Indo-European trunk. As for their similarities, he was explained by the long dwelling of two peoples in the neighborhood. As a result, they say, a linguistic union emerged, within which adverbs influenced each other. Both points of view, both recognizing the Balto-Slavic unity, and denying it, nevertheless, transfer the birth of the Slavic language into the distant darkness of centuries, at least a thousand or more years before the birth of Christ.
Historians, however, this approach is not too happy. The fact is that in both cases, two areas had to appear on the toponymic map at once - one with Baltic areas, the other with Slavic names of geographical objects: rivers, lakes, mountains and the like. And the Balta ancestral home was revealed immediately. The ancient Balts occupied vast spaces from the coast of the sea of the same name to the middle reaches of the Dnieper, the headwaters of the Volga and the Vistula valley. It is a huge country in the North-East of Europe. The zone of the oldest Slavic toponyms was planned to be found in the neighborhood, but for a long time it was not possible to do it, and when they finally found it, no one believed this discovery. Academician Oleg Trubachev excavated the earliest of the Slavic names where they were least expected to see them - on the banks of the Danube, inside the Carpathian Basin. Scientists were aware that the Slavs could not occupy those places in the ancient period. Otherwise, the chroniclers and ancient cartographers would know them, since much of the area where the traces of an elusive tribe showed up was part of the mighty Roman Empire. Not to mention the fact that the Danube ancestral homeland of the Slavs was cut off by impassable mountains from the range of the Balts. The people who lived in those regions could not contact with their linguistic relatives who lived on the other side of the Carpathian ridge.
Scientists began to diligently seek a way out of the impasse. They came up with the idea that the Slavs were not just people who gradually dispersed from the Balts or had once formed a language union with them, but that part of the Baltic tribes affected by foreign strangers. Apparently, it was assumed that with this method of combining Slavic speech, the process of its emergence could be significantly accelerated. Then, they say, they would not have had to present an area where this ethnic group was hiding from all for a thousand years. They began to search for the culprit of accelerated Slavic glottogenesis. At first, they sinned on the Iranians. All the steppe Indo-European tribes — Scythians, Savromats, Sarmatians, Alans, and so on — were often referred to the latter. They were considered the closest relatives of the formidable Aryan conquerors who once conquered India and Iran. Since the Baltic tribes in antiquity, as shown by the toponymic marks, spread as far as the shores of the Pripyat and the Desna, why not allow the southern part of this community to fall regularly under the influence of the nomads? The version seemed to be quite logical, but exactly until the linguists did not find out that there are actually few Iranian vocabulary in the Slavonic dialect, much less than it is found in the Baltic languages. Some "steppe" presence was felt only in terms related to pagan rituals, as well as in the names of heavenly patrons. What is obviously not enough to recognize the Slavs as the irted Balts.
The investigations of Henrik Birnbaum, with which we have become acquainted, have created additional difficulties for historians. It was necessary to take into account the explicit parallels between the Slavic and Tokharian vocabulary and, most incredibly, it was necessary to take into account the serious "Altai" influence on the phonetics and, in part, the morphology of the incomprehensible Pre-Slavic Leviathan. In fact, an American linguist pointed out exactly where that steppe people came from, which could influence the Balts to turn them into Slavs. It turned out that the unexpected "forefather" granted from the East of the Great Steppe. Only there he had the opportunity to give his speech a "Far Eastern" accent, later presented to them by the Slavs. According to common sense, the role of one of the progenitors of the Slavic phenomenon is ideally suited only for Avars. Unlike the Huns or Bulgars, they actually came from the territory of North-West China, where for thousands of years, together with the Mongoloids of Transbaikalia, they were part of the Hunnic tribe union. Within its framework, a linguistic union could emerge, bringing together Indo-European and Altaic dialects. Prerequisites for the folding of a unique language were opened, whose vocabulary would remotely resemble Tokharian and Indo-Iranian, and the peculiarities of the pronunciation and structure of words resembled those that distinguished Far Eastern aborigines.
However, the recognition of Avars as the second, after the Balts, as the parent of the Slavs resolves only a small part of the scientific difficulties. The problem of "who" seems to be removed. But then there is a mass of other, no less complex issues. First of all: "how", "where", "when" and, most importantly, "why". Indeed, how did the Avar rulers manage to force certain Baltic tribes to radically change their dialects? Where and when did it happen? Why is the new speech so fond of the inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin, and then almost all Eastern Europeans? Note that the historical circumstances seem to be not in favor of the Avar version. The nomads swept too rapidly across the lands to the North of the Black Sea, within whose borders one could then hear the Baltic language.
Judge for yourself: a runaway horde appeared in the Caucasus in 558. The newcomers unleashed the war with the Antes, the first European farmers who met them on their way to the West, not earlier than 560 years. But six years after that, they captured the leader of Austrasia, Sigebert, and receive territory for settlement on the banks of the Elbe. A year later, in alliance with the Lombards, they smash the Gepidic kingdom and acquire ownership of Transylvania. In the spring of 568, due to the departure of the Allies to Italy, they already get the whole Carpathian Basin, where they move. As for the Dnieper region, this traditional habitat of the Baltic tribes, it seems, was not too interested in Asian fugitives. At least, when the Turkic army invades the Crimea in 576, it does not meet with resistance from the Avars in the Pontic steppes. And although the Turks already soon after 581 left the Black Sea coast forever, Avar power here is not immediately restored. According to the Byzantine chronicles, at the very beginning of the 7th century the Antes felt themselves to be a completely independent people. They dared to speak out against the Danube Slavins, who were in citizenship of Bayan. In other words, the fleeing horde passed through the Dnieper region like a bright comet, blinding everyone for a moment and singing its surroundings with its heat, but immediately hiding behind the high wall of the Carpathian Mountains.
Meanwhile, the Slavic language could not have emerged later than 602 years. Since the mass invasion of the Avars and the tribes subordinate to them on the Balkan Peninsula fit into a rather narrow time span of the years 602-650. Only in this period could a new dialect be distributed throughout the Balkan lands. Hence, the birth of the mysterious Leviathan should be attributed to the era when the Avars were rapidly moving to the West, not too much concerned about retaining the Dnieper and Dniester expanses. The Baltic tribes seem to have remained at the same time in the east of our continent. However, their language, mixed with Avar, suddenly became the most popular in the steppe Empire. I wonder what kind of way out of this logical maze will offer our guides? How do they explain the incredible speed of addition of the Proto-Slavic adverb, as well as the reason for its unprecedented demand? Let's go back to the cozy living room and hear what the experienced detectives are talking about.
- In any investigation, Holmes, there is nothing better than its completion! It seems to me a reward for hard work. When, after long and sometimes painful searches, everything begins to take shape by itself, as if by magic. As if the last puzzles of a giant puzzle are finally finding their rightful place. Take, for example, the riddle of the Slavic language. Based on its surprising unity, which was observed until the IX century, we came to the conclusion that this adverb was formed inside the Avar Kaganate. There was no other place where its carriers could closely communicate with each other, thereby maintaining the incredible integrity of the Proto-Slavic Leviathan. Now, having studied the origin of the Avars, we received confirmation of our assumption from a completely unexpected side. It turned out that in the speech of the Slavs linguists revealed a slight Far Eastern "accent" in the almost complete absence of the Turkic-Mongolian vocabulary. Everything indicates that the Indo-European people became one of the Slavic "fathers", but with certain Altai features. Other candidates for this role, except for avars, are not even visible on the horizon. It seems that all the circumstances are in favor of your version, Sherlock. However, there remains one last obstacle, which, nevertheless, so far seems to me insurmountable. It’s all because of the incredible swiftness of the birth of a new speech, if, of course, we understand a certain Balto-Avar mix under the Proto-Slavic language. As early as the beginning of 558, no one on the continent could hear distant North Chinese nomads, and by the summer of 602 Christ, the Slavonic Leviathan, which arose not without the participation of aliens, had already begun its triumphal march through the Balkans. Do you want to assure everyone that the adverb of our heroes has taken shape in some forty years, the lifetime of one or two generations? But this is simply unreal!
- You, doctor, happy ending the investigation? To me, the final is the most boring stage of this fascinating journey. Everything is as clear as day. Finally, all the details and mechanisms perfectly matched each other, and the logical flywheel starts working with the precision of a Swiss watch. One link chain pulls the following. Only blind people manage to overlook this connection. However, most people are exactly that. To my lot, instead of solving complex intellectual problems, I get a dismal mission: to stick the nose of the blind at the obvious. I feel like an old school teacher, proving to negligent students for the thousandth time that two and two are four, and there cannot be seven or ten. My dear friend, ever since we came to the conclusion that the Proto-Slavic language has spread to the European continent thanks to the structures of the Avar Kaganate, for me this has not become a mystery. The simplest logical chain, as strong as the anchor cable used by the British fleet, leads to answers to all our questions. Link number one - this is the conclusion that the incredible spread of the Slavic dialect across the expanses of our continent happened thanks to the creation of an empire of alien nomads here. The question is: what kind of people or what social stratum could become the carrier of a new speech within the steppe state? Given the complex composition of the population of Kaganat, the diversity of ethnic groups that occupied certain provinces within the Carpathian basin and beyond, we have no choice but to recognize that the only unifying element of this diverse community was Avar "governors." They are the "supervisors", who were appointed by the steppe inhabitants to control the landowners and artisans. This is the second link of our indissoluble logical chain.
- I do not argue: those people whom the nomads sent to look after the conquered tribes seem to be the best candidates in order to spread a single means of communication across the vast expanses of Eastern Europe. But for this to happen, they themselves must be one people, moreover, different from the Avars. I am confused here at once by several circumstances. Obviously, the Avar "governors" were quite numerous. Their graves are found in almost every cemetery of any of the smallest settlements inside the Carpathian Basin. In aggregate, there are probably even more of them than the Avars themselves. Especially if we agree that the same people ruled dependent tribes outside the nuclear territory of Kaganat. It seems that the "supervisors" will soon have their own original style of jewelry, nicknamed Martyn archeologists. In this case, their traces are perfectly visible not only in the Basin, but also in the Balkans, on the banks of the Dnieper and Desna, as well as in the Masurian Lake District and elsewhere. The number of "guards" themselves with such a wide coverage of the territories should be in the hundreds of thousands. As soon as we recognize them as one people with their unique speech, different from the Avar language, the question immediately arises: what kind of a tribe, where and when was it conquered by aliens? Of course, starting from the elements of material culture, the descendants of the Gepids could be suspected of these people. At least, the East Germans had the most significant influence on their appearance. But if we attribute to the so-called "governors" the spread of the pre-Slavic dialect, then the roots of these people should definitely be sought to the East of the Carpathian Mountains. The Balt base of Leviathan will certainly lead us to the Dnieper region. However, on this path a problem arises, huge and impassable as an abyss. On the eve of the appearance of the Avars, those edges were occupied by modest "potted" tribes: the Dulebs of Volyn, the Croats of the Carpathians, the ants of the Ukrainian Forest-Steppe and the north of Poddesye. None of the local nations is as close to the future Avar henchmen. In addition, they all remained in their places when the nomads retired inside the Carpathian Basin. Where, then, did the hundreds of thousands of "overseers" emerge from the conquered tribes, who adorned themselves and their wives with Hepidian palmate fibulae, but at the same time spoke a broken Baltic dialect? What a strange "balts" surfaced in the immediate environment avars?
- You know, Watson, the children's game "cold-hot"? So, you stopped right in front of the immediate otgadki. She literally burns your hands. To touch it you did not have one small step. Indeed, if the Slavic language had developed among the Aboriginal Hollows, it would not have shown proximity to the Balt dialects. For the most common means of communication on the shores of the Middle Danube in the previous era were West Germanic languages, especially Langobard, East Germanic, in particular, Gepidic, and, of course, coarse provincial Latin. Balt speech before the advent of Avars did not sound here at all. From here there is a logical conclusion that it is impossible to dispute - the “governors” emerged thanks to those Eastern Europeans who were taken along by the Asian fugitives, hiding behind the wall of the Carpathian Mountains. This is the third link in our chain.
“Holmes, it’s not for nothing that we spent so much time around the development of the Avar Khaganate!” Almost with a magnifying glass in their hands, we studied the traces of any more or less noticeable migrations to the West from the current Ukrainian and Belarusian lands. The Avars, in fact, intended to take the farmers from the banks of the Dnieper and Dniester with them to Europe with them. But let's take into account a number of objective factors. First of all, the transience of processes. Nomads started the campaign against the Ants no earlier than 560 years. She had to go on for at least a couple of years, right? Therefore, the steppe people launched a war with the Dulebs and Croats even later, approximately in 562. All right In the same period, according to the testimony of the chronicles, the Avars make a raid on the territory of the Frankish kingdom. We have assumed that, according to its results, a certain part of semi-abandoned lands on the borders with Australia, most likely somewhere in the area of present-day Silesia, are being diverted to nomads. It was there that the fugitives began to create their base of support. In fact, the steppe inhabitants had to spray their efforts on two fronts at once. On the one hand, they continued fighting against the East European aborigines in order to capture the captives and convert those into slavery, for what else could be obtained from these unfortunate people besides themselves. On the other hand, by the forces of the subjugated, they pierced the route along the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains towards their central European base. Already in 566, the Avars were able to move the army to the West and defeat Sigebert's army. Under a peace treaty, nomads receive their former Thuringian possessions — well-maintained lands on the banks of the river Elbe. Of course, they were going to move there and their new subjects from among the subordinate East Europeans. Moreover, the traces of these people are visible in Bohemia and in Thuringia. But the further course of events thwarted these plans. The war began with gepis, after which the Avars inherited the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, as well as the mass of the local population, much more skillful and developed than the Dnieper-Dniester aborigines. Surely, the nomads was not up to them. Moreover, they immediately rolled another gift of Destiny - a year later they got Pannonia with a mass of cities inhabited by descendants of Roman provincials. It was necessary to establish their own orders in the huge Middle Danube lowland, so suddenly fallen into their hands. In addition, it was necessary to strengthen the defensive line throughout the Carpathian ridge, in anticipation of a possible aggression of the vengeful Turks. There were so many tasks that I would not be surprised if I knew that the fugitives at that time completely abandoned the Ukrainian forest-steppe.
- Perhaps it all happened, as you describe, colleague.
- You see, Holmes! In any case, archaeological finds convince us that the majority of Eastern Europeans remained in their former places. None of the local cultures disappear as a result of the invasion of the Avars. With regard to the promotion of these people to the West, it is noticeable except on the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, up to the valley of the Elbe River. Inside the Carpathian Basin, Prague residents and Penkovo were in small numbers, and were settled in the most remote and undeveloped areas. With their help, Avars patched holes in their mountain defensive line. But similar to their unenviable geographical position completely eliminates the idea that the royal nomads could assign such a responsible mission to them, as the management of dependent tribes. Honestly, backward and primitive aborigines in Eastern Europe had neither experience nor discipline. The descendants of the Gepidian aristocrats or the nomadic allies were much more suitable for this assignment.
- Avars could hardly trust them completely. Although, of course, the managers of them would have gone an order of magnitude better than from the Antes or Dulebs, who did not know any firm state power in their country. However, Watson, you have forgotten a few more categories of Eastern Europeans, caught up with the fugitives inside the Carpathian Basin.
“Holmes, I know that together with the Avars there appeared their captives — the home slaves of nomads, as well as women, probably used as concubines.” But neither one nor the other category of slaves is suitable for our searches. These people could not be a separate people, and even with their own unique language. Domestic slaves - perhaps the most powerless and despised group of the population. Who will entrust them with the management of conquered tribes? As for the concubines, the women in this position, as a rule, soon forget their origin and native speech, completely dissolving in the society of the conquerors. In addition, they are representatives of the weaker sex, and we are looking for warriors, in almost all similar to the Avars.
- Home slaves really don't suit us. First, since this social group among steppe inhabitants has never been too numerous. Breeding livestock, and in general, nomadic farming in principle does not require an excess of workers. Therefore, the institution of slavery in its pure form within the community of nomads did not receive much development. Secondly, these people could not leave offspring.
“But for what reason?”
“You see, doctor, the way of life of the nomadic horde suggests that all adult men go on long hikes from time to time.” Who will leave their women alone with slaves, if the latter have the manhood? Remember, the story told by Herodotus, about how the wives of the Scythians betrayed them with their servants, and from this connection a whole generation of free people grew. The bike ends with a passage that since then the royal nomads have blinded the home slaves. In reality, of course, of the blind, the workers are useless. But the eunuchs may well milk the mares, and shear the sheep, and prepare firewood for the hearth.
- Ill decision!
- But quite practical from the point of view of the steppe people. Especially if they did not experience difficulties with the influx of new slaves, as was the case in the Avar Khaganate. In any case, it is clear that this category of people could not become Avar "governors." But the concubines are perfect for our case. More precisely, not even they themselves, but their male offspring. The illegitimate sons of the Avars from their slaves are the people we need, Watson. Slavic language was born in the harems of the steppe and nowhere else. This conclusion is the key link of our indissoluble logical chain.
- Mercy, Holmes, your harem hypothesis resolves only one of our difficulties, but immediately creates new ones, and even in a huge amount. As far as I know, the chronicles do not report anything about harems among alien nomads. What makes you think that they existed in nature? Even if the fugitives took some Eastern European girls as concubines, why should we think that this was a mass phenomenon? How could these captives, recruited from different tribes, be able to acquire a single language? Why was the Balto-Avar mix, and not, for example, the broken speech of Gepids, Langards or Latin, become such a means of communication? After all, if you look at the largest number of slaves, and, consequently, slaves, the Avars got themselves already inside the Carpathian Basin, where the descendants of the Germans or Romans were ten times more than the migrants from Scythia? I see the main problem in the fact that your version still does not explain the swiftness of the formation of Pro-Slavic Leviathan. You devote too little time to create it to be believed in your idea. New languages add up over the centuries. You put a maximum of forty years on the whole process. It does not happen!
- Questions of you, Watson, poured out of a horn of plenty. I will try to answer all of them in order. Why do I think avars had harems? It's elementary, my friend! Let's start with the fact that polygamy, as a marriage institute, is known to almost all ancient nomadic tribes: Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Huns. Suffice it to recall at least the voluptuate Attila and his absurd death in bed with a young Burgundian princess. When we turn our attention to the East of the Steppe, take a look at the area from which the Avars came, we find that all the nomads of the local nomads, successively replacing each other: the Huns, Syanbians and Jujans, had harems. The Chinese rulers of the era of Wei, by the way, also brought themselves a considerable number of wives and concubines. In those parts, this state of affairs was perceived as the norm. Zhuzhansky Kagan Anaguy (I hope, did not forget him?) Demanded from the Wei emperor to pay more attention to his daughter, who became one of the latter’s wives. Simply put, he forced the Chinese ruler to sleep with her. But it had never occurred to him to ensure that she became the one and only spouse. It is unlikely that the Avars in the few years that they needed to travel from Asia to Europe could change their marriage customs, could they? Among other things, Simokatta, telling us the story of the magician Bokolabry, who seduced one of the wives of the famous Bayan, thus confirms the fact that the latter had a harem. But since this was not forbidden to Avar leaders, why should we consider that the prohibition to have many wives extended to ordinary warriors? I believe that the number of women was limited only by the possibility of their maintenance. Meanwhile, the wealth of the Avar tribe with its arrival in Europe grew from victory to victory.
- Holmes, I do not deny that the Avars had polygamy. But where is the evidence of the representatives of the "pot" tribes getting into their harems?
- Oh, if the victorious nomads abandoned the young inhabitants of Scythia, I would be very surprised by this circumstance. Since always and at all times, conquerors consider the fair sex from among the conquered peoples as their legitimate prey. Believe me, this is inherent in human nature. No religion or school of philosophy can change this approach. When the European conquistadors invaded the American continent, they were instantly overgrown with harems filled with beautiful Aboriginal people, and no exhortations by the priests could fix anyone. Meanwhile, we are talking about zealous Christians. In 1545, after some half a century after the discovery of America, a complaint from the chaplain serving in Paraguay lay on the table of the Spanish king: the holy father complained in her: "Here only the poor have five or six concubines, twenty to thirty-forty, and others up to seventy. " If the Avar conquest of Eastern Europe can find some analogies in the history of mankind, then, of course, most of all it is like the colonization by Europeans of the New World. As there a bunch of conquistadors in armor, with gunshot arquebuses in their hands conquered a whole continent, and here a handful of "iron riders", taking advantage of superiority in arms, subjugated the multimillion population of half of our continent. Why should we think that nomads who came from afar behaved differently to the backward and unarmed Eastern Europeans than the Spaniards and the Portuguese in relation to the Indians?
The discovery of the Mississippi River by the conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1541. Artist William Powell
- Sherlock, these are just general considerations, you can't get down to business.
- Well, in this case, we turn to the specifics. The chronicles show that the Avars showed a keen interest in Eastern European ladies. The Tale of Bygone Years writes about violence against Duleb women, and the Chronicle of Fredegara reports that the Huns “sleep with their wives and daughters” of squads. The ancient authors have very little information about what actually happened in the kingdom of alien steppe inhabitants, but even these crumbs for some reason all the time hint to us that the nomads were not indifferent to the weaker sex of their dependent tribes. That in general does not surprise me. Now take a look at the archaeological finds. Ukrainian researcher Oleg Prikhodnyuk reports on the subject of interest to us: “The features of Slavic culture on Avar burial grounds from Hungary, where the center of the Avar Kaganate was located, are particularly tangible. 18 burns. Among urns there are pots of Slavic forms. Burials according to the cremation rite are also known at other Avar burial grounds. So Simon Dyulo from Dunayvaros r Ascopal 1000 burial grounds of which 100 were blasted. Two cremations at the Pecs burial ground revealed Nagy Elizabeth. , along with which women are buried according to the rite of burning. Agnes Shosh assumes that female burnings accompanying men are evidence that, together with dead Avar men, women were buried Its Eastern Slavic origin. " Notice, Watson, we have more than evidence that Eastern European girls, along with Avar gentlemen, got into the territory of the Carpathian Basin, we have evidence that in some places they lived quite compactly, since there were almost half of female all burials of the necropolis. It should also take into account the fact that not all slaves held grandfather's funeral rituals. Surely, there were those of them who accepted the traditions of the victors. That is, when an urn with ashes is found at Avar cemeteries, one should be aware that, as a rule, these are traces of Eastern European women of the earliest wave, who have not yet abandoned their native customs.
Eastern European girl in the early Middle Ages
Fine, Holmes.” Suppose I am ready to admit that some of the Duleb, Croatian and Ante women fell into the Avar community. But after all they there could completely dissolve. Then they would not need their own special language. It would have been treated with the Avar language. Even those Hungarian archaeologists who discovered female cremation among the burials of the newcomers, do not dare to say definitely - they belong to their legitimate wives or concubines.
- Precisely concubines. The status of official wives was unavailable for slave women.
- But why did you get this?
“Didn’t we, Watson, discover such amazing features of Avar society as its isolation and division into closed clans?” The aliens almost did not mix even with each other. That allowed anthropologists to distinguish their individual types, including the pronounced Mongoloids, as early as the burial grounds of the 7th-8th centuries. As is known, a child inherits appearance not only from the father, but also from the mother. If the Avars married Aborigines and recognized their children, then within two or three generations all the anthropological groups would be blurred. But that did not happen. Consequently, the Avars liked local girls, but they could not take them as spouses according to the customs of the tribe. The solution was found at the institute of concubines and the creation of a separate harem from the natives.
- Of course, you will argue that this has become a mass phenomenon, as a result of which Avar bastards did not yield in number to the legitimate sons of the Avars?
- Let us turn to the only analogy that suits our case - the European conquest of America. Here is what Conquista researcher Andrei Kofman writes: “On expeditions, an impressive column of gift beauties usually followed a military convoy and porters. Almost all of the famous conquistadors had indidean co-women. When the conquistador settled in his Encomiende, he often surrounded himself with a real harem. the sexual conquest "of the New World was not long in coming. By the middle of the 16th century, the first generation of half breeds, half-breeds conceived by Indians from the Spaniards, had grown up. How many were there? There are no statistics on this subject, o indirect evidence suggests that there were no less than a thousand and twenty or thirty.To, Pedro de Valdivia’s expedition to Chile (1540) had 159 Spaniards and 226 Métis, and in the 1980s, Métis populations inhabited Métis in Argentina. " The Russian ethnographer Sergei Serov supplements his information: "Care for" racial purity ", thus, could not prevent the mass breeding process that began in America from the very first years of the conquest of America. The pace of this process was so fast that in Paraguay, where the Spanish colonists had whole harems of up to 20-30 concubines, in 1575 the half-castes could put up a detachment of 3,000 soldiers, while the Spaniards only 200 people. " Today it is the mestizos, not the "whites" or the Indians, not to mention the descendants of the black slaves from the African continent, make up the majority of the population in many Latin American countries: Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Colombia, and so on. Exceptions from this series are few.
“And yet, Holmes, there were differences in the position of the European colonists of the New World and the Avar hordes that came from Asia. The first groups of Spaniards and Portuguese migrated to the American mainland with virtually no women. Ten men on the ships accounted for one or two representatives of the weaker sex. The nomads, apparently, managed to keep their second halves along the course of the flight.
- However, how many women they had can only guess. Hardly much. Long crossings through the mountains and deserts are detrimental to women's health. Suppose there was one wife for each simple warrior, the nobles had three or five. We agree with the fact that Avar wives as a whole numbered 30 thousand. For fugitives, this result can be considered a great success. It is unlikely, however, that after the tragic upheavals, women in the horde were distributed extremely evenly. It means that someone had many of them, but there were also such nomads who did not get a single one. Their friends fell into the hands of the Turks. Finally, after a long journey and a series of tests, Avars reach Eastern Europe. Before them are numerous and almost unarmed tribes. Easy trophy for the steppe. At the same time, local women seemed to be quite attractive to newcomers, because they belonged to a similar racial type. Who under such circumstances could keep sexually hungry men from capturing concubines? I doubt that the Avar kagan, even if he really wanted to, was able to stop the hunt for captives. Warriors left without wives believed that Heaven itself sent them this long-awaited booty. The rest did not want to fall behind them. If each of the soldiers got himself only one slave, in the aggregate there were twenty thousand, if two or three, then up to sixty thousand. We assume that the average slave was also 30 thousand, as well as wives. It draws on a small tribe. Notice, Watson, I call the most modest figures, not at all as impressive as the Spanish priest in a note on the harem of Paraguay.
- However, do you think, Holmes, that the withdrawal of so many women should have affected the demographic situation in Scythia? Meanwhile, archaeologists do not observe a decrease in the number of the local population after the passage of the Avars over their lands.
- I remember, Watson, we thought about how many people could live in Eastern Europe in the middle of the VI century. We then estimated the number of Antes at half a million, Croats at 400 thousand, dulebs and north by 300 thousand each. In total, the four tribes that were attacked by newcomers in 560-562 had approximately one and a half million people, half of whom were women. Subtracting the little girls and old women from them, it turns out that about half a million Eastern Europeans were of reproductive age, ready to leave offspring. Of course, not all of them could be interested in Avars. With low life expectancy in the early Middle Ages, in the difficult living conditions of the "pottery" tribes, women over 25 years old were already mothers of two or three children and looked unattractive sexually. Most likely, the steppe dwellers were attracted by girls and young girls from 12-13 to 20 years. They became their prey. I believe a significant part of the ladies from this age group could get into the hands of nomads. But was this the cause of the demographic catastrophe among the aborigines? Not at all. Thirty thousand is a drop in the ocean. Even if we imagine that the Avars captured not thirty, but one hundred thousand local girls, this is not more than one fifth of all local women of reproductive age. In addition, the population in Eastern Europe at this time was governed primarily by the number of developed lands. Children left exactly as much as they could feed. Therefore, soon the local people easily repaired losses.
- Lord, but we are talking about very young creatures, in fact about children?
- Believe me, Watson, it is this age and sex category that always and at all times is primarily interested in slave traders. The mentality of adolescents, especially girls, is very plastic, they more easily adapt to the new world, adapt themselves to the way of life they are completely unaccustomed to. The stress associated with the loss of loved ones is not so deep in them, because in traditional societies they are taught from an early age to think that one day they will have to go to the husband's tribe. An adult woman who loses her beloved spouse and her children is a much more problematic object in this regard. She falls into depression and may even commit suicide; it was not for nothing that the Greeks admired the loyalty of the Sklavinian and Ants' wives. I think the Avars easily figured out the situation, and with the wealth of choice that opened before them, they selected for their harem primarily young girls. Of course, the difference in mentality of newcomers and Aboriginal people created a number of additional difficulties. Look at the problem, doctor, through the eyes of a nomad. It was necessary to pull the mamarash girl out of a close, dirty and smelly hole, wash her, teach her to basic hygiene, put on a suitable dress, comb her hair, and most importantly, teach her language and everything that a nomad companion can do. In addition, there was a gigantic difference in the sexual traditions of Eastern Europeans and those who came from the borders of the Middle Kingdom. In the Chinese Taoist culture, which infused all the pores of Juan society, women valued experience and sophistication in love games, knowledge of sexual techniques and the ability to use various drugs. There, it was considered normal for a man to be in bed with several wives, concubines, and maids. Moreover, inexperienced girls learned from more mature women, watching the process of intercourse. In that part of our continent, where the fugitives came, there was a cult of virginal integrity, and group sex seemed the pinnacle of immorality. It’s not for nothing that The Tale of Bygone Years, even if in a very disguised form, has preserved evidence that it was at the same time engaged with several Duleb's wives to work on something so bad. We will not condemn anyone from the height of modernity, this is just an ordinary conflict of worldviews, inevitable when two very different civilizations clash. In fact, the young captives were faced with a cardinal breakdown of consciousness. The rejection of some traditions in favor of other customs, initially shocking. An additional difficulty was that the men who had captured the girls were full of men had no time to train and educate their concubines. They fought with their brothers and fathers, at the same time organizing the laying of the road to the West through the Carpathian wilderness. To their passions, they got only in short periods of rest between long periods of military affairs.
Avar women's costume. Reconstruction
- Are you hinting at the fact that under such conditions the captives kept everyone together, in one big camp?
- What other options were there? Legitimate wives, faithful companions of steppe warriors, would hardly have been delighted with the appearance of intimidated rivals in their tents. Even less did they want to teach those useful skills and see that they did not run away. Therefore, it took a separate camp, where they looked after the captives, and also taught them Avar speech, showed how they cook their favorite dishes of nomads, learned steppe songs and dances with them, demonstrated the art of pleasing their husbands in bed and the like. The honorable mission was most likely assigned to elderly Avar women who, if not to them, should pass on their experience to the youth. Now put yourself in the place of these unfortunate young creatures. Undoubtedly, they were in a state of shock. Just yesterday, they had one life — in parent dugouts, among familiar and familiar landscapes. Today, they were taken to the steppe, vigilantly guarded, alien vile old women inspire something strange and indecent. On the one hand, they do not seem to be offended, they are fed to their fullness, dressed, they are probably presented with jewelry, they do not make them work hard from dawn until dusk. On the other hand, with all that, their future is foggy, and the status is not clear. They are not wives, but concubines. Men give them a little time, and each of them has several girls. Accepting such a relationship brought up in different traditions of a young lady, probably, was not easy. Crying and open the soul of a young captive could only that of her friends in misfortune. For they were all in a similar position. There is, however, a reasonable question: in what language could they speak with each other? After all, the slaves belonged to four different tribes, whose adverbs were not similar among themselves.
“So where did the Balt base of the Pro-Slavic Leviathan come from!”
- This feature of the new language in general should be considered a slight whim of the mocker-History. Since the Avars moved to Europe from the East, the first agricultural tribes, which they came across on a long journey, were the Ante-Penkovtsy and the North-Kolochinians. The common means of communication for them was the Baltic language. She became the foundation of the adverb that began to take shape in the Avar harem. Begin the nomadic conquest of the region from another region, they were the first to attack the Croats or Dulebs, perhaps the East Germanic vocabulary would form the basis of Leviathan. Young antkies and northerners invented their secret language, which was not understandable to their Avar mentors. Moreover, even if there were some people from the Ants and Northerners in the camp who were in the service of the nomads, but who were not trusted by the captives, they also could not figure out what they were talking about. For some reason, it is considered that speech is created exclusively for contacts. It is true, but not all. Often a language appears as a means of isolating a group of people. It is a kind of password that gives access to the team of initiates, but at the same time closes the way for strangers there. In the stressful conditions in which the young captives turned out to be, they could not help creating their secret brotherhood, or, if you like, sisterhood. Membership in this community provided a new secret language. Moreover, since slaves actively taught Avar speech, they heard its sound every day. The development of her secret language actually coincided with a period of intensive memorization of the steppe vocabulary. Of course, one could not overlap the other. Some of the phonetic features of the nomadic dialect were immediately adopted by a new means of communication. Compare this quite obvious version of the formation of a new language with what was proposed by other researchers. Henrik Birnbaum, referring to the opinion of his American colleague, believed that "the Altai rulers transferred their pronunciation habits" when they tried to express themselves in the words of their subjects. "This pronunciation was heard by Slavs in whom it gradually became fashionable, which is not surprising given the high social status of their masters." Here that no thought, then a clear mistake. The hosts do not stoop to teach the language of their slaves. On the contrary, the latter are desperately trying to understand the speech of their own masters. But all that manages to master the slaves in such conditions is a primitive pidgin. The simplest means of communication, bungled on the principle: "My your understand." And then, whose language should Avars learn? Antsky? Dulebsky? Croatian? Gepidic? Lombard? Latin? Greek? They had so many subjects and they spoke so many dialects that the aliens would have gone mad if they tried to act in accordance with the ideas of Birnbaum. The Avar harem's concubines were in a completely different position. With them specifically engaged in the study of the master language. You must admit that it’s one thing when a slave on the plantation hears a dozen or two words and a completely different thing is the purposeful training of girls who have a lot of free time and a great desire to understand the speech of their men. Under these conditions, it was not difficult for the first wave of slave girls to parallelly invent a second, secret language. However, after a couple of years, when a stream of young Croat and dulebok poured into the harem, the former captives as old-timers already fully devoted them to the rules of the game and passed on a great secret speech skills that outsiders could not understand. So the Proto-Slavic Leviathan was born.
- You want to say that at first it was a means of communication for Avar slave girls from Penkovo and Kolochin girls. That is why a significant part of his vocabulary has Baltic roots. Then this secret language became a distinctive feature of the entire Avar harem, which was replenished with representatives of the Prago-Korchak tribes. The concubines lived in one large camp and accompanied their masters in their campaigns. It is possible that since 562 they have already been moved to the West, to those regions where the Avars created their basic base for a breakthrough on the Elbe. When the Carpathian Hollow departed to the newcomers, the prisoners were delivered in an organized manner to a new country. Perhaps there they were already settled in a number of places, but by that time the girls felt like one community and had a fully established speech. New slaves of Gepid and Lombard descent who came to such settlements faced a close-knit sisterhood and accepted its traditions. By the way, the East German and West German vocabulary is quite visible in the Proto-Slavic language. So, the newcomers of the harems were able to enrich it with their vocabulary.
- In fact, scientists vaguely imagine what happened at the end of the VI century, even with the main part of the Avar horde, not like with the notorious harem. Perhaps the aliens did not immediately occupy the area between the Danube and the Tisza, which would later become their home. At least as early as 584-586, the Byzantines observed nomads headed by their kagan in the territory of the provinces of Moesia and Malaya Scythia, that is, in the area of present-day Northern Bulgaria and Dobrudzhi. Perhaps, the Tisa-Danube interfluve in the previous period was overgrown with forest wilds and without preliminary clearing was not suitable for the life of nomads. Therefore, we can only guess where in the early period the victorious steppe dwellers and, consequently, the beautiful concubines accompanying them, were acquired. However, there are things that you can safely say. One of these axioms suggests that since the Avars were sleeping with their captives, children were born from this connection. The first generation of Avar bastards conceived in 560-562 years. Therefore, we have assumed that the young half-breeds could have been directly involved in the campaign of 579 years against the sklavins. It was quite a suitable site for the shelling of fifteen or eighteen-year-old boys. Avar-European mestizo from birth assimilated at once two languages as relatives - father and mother. Meanwhile, their mothers, as I hope you already understood, spoke in the balto-steppe mix, now known to us by the name of the Proto-Slavic dialect. It is extremely important that the bastards felt like a separate community, stuck somewhere in the middle between the royal nomads and the tribes conquered by them. In full avars they were not taken. But they also never considered themselves despicable slaves. Listen to what ethnographer Sergey Serov writes about a similar situation of the Spanish-Indian half-breeds: “But gradually, with the increase in the number of metis, primarily in cities, ports, mine settlements (in those centers where Spaniards played the leading role), a separate social group, or rather, into groups that stand culturally outside Spanish and Amerindian, but are associated - genetically and culturally - with both. " Characteristically, the white colonialists of Latin America led their descendants from the aboriginal people to the same mission that the Avars placed on their own bastards - to be in charge of the mass of the conquered population. The only difference was that the latter had their own special language, inherited by them from the inhabitants of the harems, who now served them as a means of self-identification, of separating themselves from others, including, first of all, “fathers”.
- Holmes, you are all the time using the situation created during the colonization of the New World as an example. But as far as I know, the mestizos did not have their own special language?
- Appeared. And not even one, but several. Listen, Watson, that the omniscient Wikipedia writes, for example, about Canadian half-breeds: "Metis is a word of French origin (metis), akin to Spanish and Portuguese" mestizo "(from Latin mixtitius" mixed "). Metis of Canada, as well as their brothers in Latin America, formed during the contacts of men (hunters, military) of European (initially mainly French) origin with women of local Indian tribes. In the first decades, breeding was quite common in Quebec itself before the arrival of the Girls of the King (meaning the group of brides organized from Europe.) Then the Quebec mestizos gradually dissolved in the more numerous white population of the province, and in the less populated regions the mestizas formed a special ethnic group that was different from both the Indians and the white. Michafe, which is not a pidzhin, since its structure is complex, which testifies to the excellent knowledge of the mestizo of both languages - the Cree (from the tribe of which the Europeans most often took wives), as well as French - the language fathers of children of mixed origin. " Another thing is that the development of the American continent came at once from a variety of centers. Even the most successful of the European colonialists - the Spaniards - acted not with a clenched fist, but with scattered groups of conquistadors who went on risky expeditions at their own expense in the hope of rich booty. In each of these areas, these adventurers encountered a wide variety of Indian tribes and, accordingly, a diverse language environment. Therefore, only Spanish could become a common means of communication for Latin American mestizo. However, the European-Indian half-breeds have developed a number of their own adverbs. One, like Michif, is in Western Canada, the other in Guatemala, Bolivia and Ecuador. So this phenomenon is not uncommon. In Eastern Europe, in contrast, the conquest of the natives was carried out by the unified army of Bayan. Apparently, accompanied by her huge harem in the form of a separate camp of slaves. The ideal conditions for creating a new dialect, which, like Michichu in Canada, soon became the hallmark of all Avar bastards.
- I admit, Holmes, your version looks logical and slim. Moreover, it relies on direct analogies of the times of the conquest of America. But I still confused by the transience of linguistic processes in the framework of the harem hypothesis. A new language should be formed here not even in forty, but in some unfortunate ten years. I'm afraid linguists will not support such bold ideas.
- You see, Watson, I am talking about the way of adding a new adverb, about which these specialists learned not so long ago, only after the dissertation of the Danish scientist Peter Bakker (Peter Bakker) in 1994. And now far from all linguists have heard of him. Some of them continue to deny the very possibility of the formation of the two languages of a full third. Notice, doctor, high-grade. That is, not pidzhin, which serves as a means of primitive communication, but quite developed and in no way inferior to the initial dialects. A professor at Aarhus University, the oldest in Denmark, Associate Professor Bakker called such a means of communication mixed or intertwined language (Mixed language - Interwineed language). Now more than a dozen of them are known. The discoverer of the phenomenon insists that "mixed languages are the result of mixing populations." Simply put, it is the property of mestizos. In order for them to take shape, you need a community of people who are equally fluent in the two source languages. At the same time, bearers of such adverbs socially, as it were, occupy an intermediate position between those ethnic groups that the primary adverbs presented to them. In such a case, the Mixed language serves them for self-affirmation, separation from both communities. Take, for example, the Mednov language, which originated on Medny Island in the chain of Commander Islands of the Bering Sea. Creoles became its inventors - descendants of Russian industrialists from Aleutian women. Of course, these people were below the Russian colonists, but above the Aleuts, which they were very proud of. This is what Viki says about this adverb: “Typologically Aleutian-Mednov language is an independent linguistic structure, not reducible to any of the source languages. The phonological system is a compromise between Aleutian and Russian; morphology, organized on agglutinative principle, Aleut traits; syntax - a compromise combination of Aleutian and Russian. From the Aleutian language there are roots of words, a two-drop system of a name, possessive indicators of a name, the absence of adjectives, word azovatelnye suffixes of the verb and the name, object and demonstrative pronouns, prepositions, many syntax; of Russian - verb inflection, analytical constructs for expressing the future tense, modal words, personal (subjective), pronouns, adverbs, free word order ". However, there is no general rule for mixed languages in this regard. They can take one vocabulary as a basis, but they can take fifty-fifty. The main thing is that they take a part of linguistic forms from one language, a part from another, making up a third, independent adverb. If scientists clearly did not see both initial principles, they would never have guessed that there is a Mixed language in front of them, it is so indistinguishable from the original means of communication. Do you know where I'm going, colleague?
- Of course. Since the Avar language was unknown to linguists, they could not figure out how the pre-Slavic speech was formed. Therefore, they puzzled over the strange similarity of the latter with the Baltic dialects. On the one hand, a lot in common. On the other hand, there are many differences. And most importantly, it was not clear where the carriers of the Proto-Slavic Leviathan were hiding, given that they had to separate from the Balts for another fifteen hundred years before Christ. In fact, of course, we are not dealing with the slow divergence of the two languages from the mythical Balto-Slavic basis, but with a fundamentally different way of the emergence of a new means of communication. Ordinary lexico-statistical methods in this case will not work.
- Now listen, Watson, what experts write about the terms of education Mixed language. Russian linguists Nikolai Vakhtin and Yevgeny Golovko report on this issue: “The formation of“ mixed languages ”usually occurs swiftly, during the life of one or two generations. Somewhat coarsening the situation, one can say that one generation“ invents ”the language (continuing to speak two , of which one is native), for the next generation a new language (mixed) is already a native language and serves as a means of intragroup communication. The "parents" of a mixed language are also known and used in communication with other groups; lneyshem one of the source language is usually less prestigious, ceases to be used, so do not know mednovtsy "pure" Aleutian, British Gypsies do not know the "real" Gypsy, and so on. "
- In our particular case, this means that already the first generation of Avar bastards did not know the language of the Ants, Croats, Dulebs or North. For them, the mother tongue was the mother tongue, and the Avar language was the language of the fathers. But since they were not considered to be full-fledged Avars, they began to cultivate their particular position, they were proud of how the Spanish-Indian half-breeds began to flaunt the name of mestizo. Accordingly, they soon had their own style of jewelry, also designed to highlight this social group. They didn’t even have to invent a language - for them mothers, concubines from Avar harems did it. Nevertheless, I still have some doubts about the harem hypothesis. Very quickly this mix was formed. Experts speak of one or two generations, you, Holmes, devote a miserable ten years to the whole process.
- In fact, languages develop much faster - in three or four years. Children invent them, as a rule. And yet do not go out of childhood. Therefore, young girls in the Avar harem - an exemplary environment for the emergence of a new means of communication.
- Well, you, Sherlock, enough. Where are the languages with their complex structure, and where are the children with their immature mind ?!
- Come on, Watson! Did you not play Indians or bandits in your childhood? Did you not have to invent your secret speech, inaccessible to the understanding of moms and dads, grandmothers and grandfathers? Understand that the adult seems extremely difficult, the child perceives as a game. He learns new languages without any difficulties, especially if it happens in the form of direct live and interesting communication. Young, not clogged with excess knowledge, the mind absorbs everything like a sponge. Georgy Vinogradov, a children's language researcher, thinks: "A period of seven to twelve or thirteen is characterized by the greatest originality, pressure of forces, brightness - this is the period of" flowering and flourishing complexity "... The second half, especially its end, is characterized by the development of choral beginning in children, their careers in the life of their environment, persistent isolation from the life and life of adults. Their games and their customs, their right and their society, their folklore and their language - this is what separates children in the period of "flowering and blossoming complexity" from the world adults. The isolation is once again emphasized by the desire of children to create a new language that would enable fuller and more imperfect for adults to carry out plans, tasks and aspirations related to their social life ... The need for a means of communication incomprehensible to the uninitiated gives birth to secret languages. "
“We all played these games in Holmes, as a child, but why compare the primitive" secret "dialects of a children's band and the complex structure of mixed languages that require remarkable effort from their creators.
“In that case, Watson, I have to disappoint you.” Children are able not only to add a new mixed language from two languages, but also to invent such language forms that were not found in any of the original variants. About such an incident, in particular, is reported in the magazine "Language" linguist Carmel O'Shennessy of the University of Michigan. She studied the new language, which appeared literally before her eyes in the children of the Australian Aboriginal Valbiri tribe. Here is a brief retelling of the journal material: “In her article, a linguist from the University of Michigan described the mixed language spoken by the natives in the north of Australia, in the Tanami Desert. Analyzing the verbal constructs of this language, called light valbiri, O'Shennessy concluded that this language is really a full-fledged language, not pidgin, and that it came about because local children studied two languages at once. Investigating how children in the village of Liamanu learned languages, Carmel O'Shennesi discovered that they had invented a new temporary category. Ria, which is neither in English, nor in valbiri, nor in Kriol. As an example of non-future time, O'Shennessy quotes the phrase Nganimpa-ng gen wi-m si-m worm mai aus-ria. (We also saw worms at home). In the wi form, we can recognize English we, “we”, in the form si is the English verb see, “see”, but the ending m is an innovation. It means that the action took place in the past or is happening now, but not refers to the future. The English pronoun with the auxiliary verb I'm ("I" in the present tense) has been reinterpreted in the "I" of a non-future tense. The system of times is a fundamental thing for any language, so scientists believe that they are dealing with a new language that was not forty years ago. In 1948, the Australian government decided to resettle the overcrowded village of Yuendumu, and 550 people were forcibly transported to the town that later became the village of Lajamanu. Jundumu was spoken in the language of valbiri, one of the most well-studied and common Australian languages. Now about 4 thousand Australians speak it. The new village, Liamana, was placed in a difficult-to-reach area, so it is almost out of touch with its nearest neighbors most of the year, from December to May. There is an elementary school in Liamana, but to continue their education, the children leave for Darwin, located 900 kilometers to the north. Teaching is in English. The young villagers are well acquainted with the two languages - valbiri and English, as well as with cryol, pidzhin Northern territory of Australia. Pidzhinom scientists call the means of communication, which occurs when both speakers are well aware of their language and almost do not know the language of the interlocutor. In such cases, at first, communication is almost completely absent, but gradually, during communication, primitive rules arise - the change of language is lost, but the word order crystallizes. The use of pidgin is initially limited to the sphere in which the contact takes place, most often with trade transactions. A mixed language arises among bilinguals, for example, if two tribes begin to live in the same village. Children born in mixed marriages can create a mixed language based on the languages of the parents. "How do you like this last conclusion, Watson?
- Smitten on the spot. I didn’t even keep in my thoughts that twelve-fourteen-year-old children have similar language talents!
“Only they have them, Watson.” I suppose there is one or another gang of children behind each of the mixed languages. For only at their disposal a lot of free time for games and communication. Later, from the age of 14-15, they are beginning to be attracted to the work and cares of the adult world, teenage groups fall apart, and potential “inventors” have no time for language creativity. In other words, such a gang invents its means of communication for some two or three years, in the interval from 12 to 15 short years. Previously, they simply did not have time to master all the riches of their native language. Later - they no longer care. But when the Avars gathered in their harem thousands of young Eastern Europeans, whom they began to teach their language and customs, they involuntarily created the most ideal conditions for adding another, initially secret adverb. For the girls just had to oppose themselves to strangers, to unite with the companions in misfortune. Collective activities, light non-burdensome work, accepted in the nomad community, even more united the slave women and allowed them to improve their own speech. Of course, the Proto-Slavic Leviathan developed further, already inside the Carpathian Basin, where it became the property of Avar bastards.
- Which at a certain moment of time became the main pillar of the Avar Kaganate.
- Absolutely. Fate was extremely favorable to these half-breeds. If in the Americas, infections brought by Europeans: smallpox, measles, groups, bubonic plague, cholera and malaria, from which the natives did not have immunity, destroyed up to 90% of the indigenous Indian population, in Eastern Europe the picture was exactly the opposite. Here a series of epidemics in the first place hit the aliens themselves. More struck the Asiatic fugitives as early as in 597, when seven sons of the kagan were killed at once and without counting simple warriors - "with very strong heat and inflammation, the fertile parts were covered with boils." Judging by the pathogens extracted from the Avar remains, nomadic people were mostly plagued by leprosy and bubonic plague. Of course, they mowed and mestizos, but to a lesser extent, since many of them inherited innate immunity from their mothers. At the very beginning of the 7th century, the weakened Avar army suffers a number of crushing defeats from the Byzantines. Probably, the number of aliens in that period decreases by several times. It is no coincidence that archaeologists rarely find burial places of nomads of this period. Under these conditions, the army of the Kaganate was formed mainly at the expense of the bastards. Even if the originally legal wives and Eastern European concubines had the same number, in the second and third generations the half-bloods became many times more than pure-blooded avars. It was affected, on the one hand, by the disease, on the other, by the fact that the mestizas were born from both the mestizos and the masters, while, for understandable reasons, the latter’s ability to reproduce was limited only by their own community. Illegally born "sons of the Huns", noticed by the Frankish chronicler, replaced their royal fathers in the ranks. The fact that the half-breeds had taken the brunt of the battles, writes Fredegar. Of course, he sees the state of affairs in the steppe state, observing it only from one side, from the West, but I think that the replacement of the mestizas of Asian nomads was going everywhere. Just because there was no one to replace them. The army of Kaganat became a platform where the Proto-Slavic speech constantly sounded, where it developed and improved. The half-breeds themselves soon realize their power and try to declare themselves in a loud voice. Already in 623 they revolt in the western lands. By the way, the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas collapsed as a result of similar processes. First, the Creoles and mestizos together came out against the Spanish crown. Then the mestizos, being the majority, began to tidy up the power in their hands. In some places after this the Indians tried to overthrow the rule of the mestizos. However, there is nothing eternal under the Moon and the end of the Avar Kaganate was predetermined by the very course of History. However, this kingdom did not disappear without a trace - the result of its existence was the incredible spill of pre-Slavic speech on our continent. The language that emerged in the harems of the all-powerful steppe, outlived its arrogant "fathers" and became the property of many nations.
- "How bizarrely sometimes the deck is shuffled!" - said one writer on a similar occasion. Who would have thought that one unsuccessful battle of Juzhana Kagan Anaguya against his former subjects in the steppes to the North of China would create an all-destroying avalanche that swept Europe and forever changed her face. If I had been told about this before the start of our investigation, I would not have believed it. Historians have diligently sought the invisible people among the backward and wild tribes of the eastern part of our continent in the post-Hun period. Meanwhile, the ancestors of the Slavs and distributors of this language were the illegitimate sons of the Avars, in turn, the former descendants of the famous Huns and even more famous Scythians.
“Hopefully, Watson, you will still learn some lessons from our exciting adventure.” What seemed distant may turn out to be close. Alien - relatives. Enemies are ancestors. In the historical canvas, everything is so closely intertwined with a thousand threads that one fragment cannot be removed from there without destroying the integrity of the pattern. It is necessary to look at the past with wide open eyes, not trying to embellish someone and keep silent about something. Only then can one see the real world of living people of flesh and blood, loving and suffering, killing and saving. Among those who lived in the era of Antiquity and the Middle Ages there were different people: good and bad, peaceful and aggressors, pahari and nomads, masters and robbers. But they are all our ancestors, they all deserve the attention of descendants. Without them, there would be no us. If you and I, the doctor, helped someone to see their roots, then it was not for nothing that we agreed to be guides. It is a pity that the journey ends. But I do not say "goodbye" to everyone, perhaps we will meet again.
Historians, however, this approach is not too happy. The fact is that in both cases, two areas had to appear on the toponymic map at once - one with Baltic areas, the other with Slavic names of geographical objects: rivers, lakes, mountains and the like. And the Balta ancestral home was revealed immediately. The ancient Balts occupied vast spaces from the coast of the sea of the same name to the middle reaches of the Dnieper, the headwaters of the Volga and the Vistula valley. It is a huge country in the North-East of Europe. The zone of the oldest Slavic toponyms was planned to be found in the neighborhood, but for a long time it was not possible to do it, and when they finally found it, no one believed this discovery. Academician Oleg Trubachev excavated the earliest of the Slavic names where they were least expected to see them - on the banks of the Danube, inside the Carpathian Basin. Scientists were aware that the Slavs could not occupy those places in the ancient period. Otherwise, the chroniclers and ancient cartographers would know them, since much of the area where the traces of an elusive tribe showed up was part of the mighty Roman Empire. Not to mention the fact that the Danube ancestral homeland of the Slavs was cut off by impassable mountains from the range of the Balts. The people who lived in those regions could not contact with their linguistic relatives who lived on the other side of the Carpathian ridge.
Scientists began to diligently seek a way out of the impasse. They came up with the idea that the Slavs were not just people who gradually dispersed from the Balts or had once formed a language union with them, but that part of the Baltic tribes affected by foreign strangers. Apparently, it was assumed that with this method of combining Slavic speech, the process of its emergence could be significantly accelerated. Then, they say, they would not have had to present an area where this ethnic group was hiding from all for a thousand years. They began to search for the culprit of accelerated Slavic glottogenesis. At first, they sinned on the Iranians. All the steppe Indo-European tribes — Scythians, Savromats, Sarmatians, Alans, and so on — were often referred to the latter. They were considered the closest relatives of the formidable Aryan conquerors who once conquered India and Iran. Since the Baltic tribes in antiquity, as shown by the toponymic marks, spread as far as the shores of the Pripyat and the Desna, why not allow the southern part of this community to fall regularly under the influence of the nomads? The version seemed to be quite logical, but exactly until the linguists did not find out that there are actually few Iranian vocabulary in the Slavonic dialect, much less than it is found in the Baltic languages. Some "steppe" presence was felt only in terms related to pagan rituals, as well as in the names of heavenly patrons. What is obviously not enough to recognize the Slavs as the irted Balts.
The investigations of Henrik Birnbaum, with which we have become acquainted, have created additional difficulties for historians. It was necessary to take into account the explicit parallels between the Slavic and Tokharian vocabulary and, most incredibly, it was necessary to take into account the serious "Altai" influence on the phonetics and, in part, the morphology of the incomprehensible Pre-Slavic Leviathan. In fact, an American linguist pointed out exactly where that steppe people came from, which could influence the Balts to turn them into Slavs. It turned out that the unexpected "forefather" granted from the East of the Great Steppe. Only there he had the opportunity to give his speech a "Far Eastern" accent, later presented to them by the Slavs. According to common sense, the role of one of the progenitors of the Slavic phenomenon is ideally suited only for Avars. Unlike the Huns or Bulgars, they actually came from the territory of North-West China, where for thousands of years, together with the Mongoloids of Transbaikalia, they were part of the Hunnic tribe union. Within its framework, a linguistic union could emerge, bringing together Indo-European and Altaic dialects. Prerequisites for the folding of a unique language were opened, whose vocabulary would remotely resemble Tokharian and Indo-Iranian, and the peculiarities of the pronunciation and structure of words resembled those that distinguished Far Eastern aborigines.
However, the recognition of Avars as the second, after the Balts, as the parent of the Slavs resolves only a small part of the scientific difficulties. The problem of "who" seems to be removed. But then there is a mass of other, no less complex issues. First of all: "how", "where", "when" and, most importantly, "why". Indeed, how did the Avar rulers manage to force certain Baltic tribes to radically change their dialects? Where and when did it happen? Why is the new speech so fond of the inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin, and then almost all Eastern Europeans? Note that the historical circumstances seem to be not in favor of the Avar version. The nomads swept too rapidly across the lands to the North of the Black Sea, within whose borders one could then hear the Baltic language.
Judge for yourself: a runaway horde appeared in the Caucasus in 558. The newcomers unleashed the war with the Antes, the first European farmers who met them on their way to the West, not earlier than 560 years. But six years after that, they captured the leader of Austrasia, Sigebert, and receive territory for settlement on the banks of the Elbe. A year later, in alliance with the Lombards, they smash the Gepidic kingdom and acquire ownership of Transylvania. In the spring of 568, due to the departure of the Allies to Italy, they already get the whole Carpathian Basin, where they move. As for the Dnieper region, this traditional habitat of the Baltic tribes, it seems, was not too interested in Asian fugitives. At least, when the Turkic army invades the Crimea in 576, it does not meet with resistance from the Avars in the Pontic steppes. And although the Turks already soon after 581 left the Black Sea coast forever, Avar power here is not immediately restored. According to the Byzantine chronicles, at the very beginning of the 7th century the Antes felt themselves to be a completely independent people. They dared to speak out against the Danube Slavins, who were in citizenship of Bayan. In other words, the fleeing horde passed through the Dnieper region like a bright comet, blinding everyone for a moment and singing its surroundings with its heat, but immediately hiding behind the high wall of the Carpathian Mountains.
Meanwhile, the Slavic language could not have emerged later than 602 years. Since the mass invasion of the Avars and the tribes subordinate to them on the Balkan Peninsula fit into a rather narrow time span of the years 602-650. Only in this period could a new dialect be distributed throughout the Balkan lands. Hence, the birth of the mysterious Leviathan should be attributed to the era when the Avars were rapidly moving to the West, not too much concerned about retaining the Dnieper and Dniester expanses. The Baltic tribes seem to have remained at the same time in the east of our continent. However, their language, mixed with Avar, suddenly became the most popular in the steppe Empire. I wonder what kind of way out of this logical maze will offer our guides? How do they explain the incredible speed of addition of the Proto-Slavic adverb, as well as the reason for its unprecedented demand? Let's go back to the cozy living room and hear what the experienced detectives are talking about.
- In any investigation, Holmes, there is nothing better than its completion! It seems to me a reward for hard work. When, after long and sometimes painful searches, everything begins to take shape by itself, as if by magic. As if the last puzzles of a giant puzzle are finally finding their rightful place. Take, for example, the riddle of the Slavic language. Based on its surprising unity, which was observed until the IX century, we came to the conclusion that this adverb was formed inside the Avar Kaganate. There was no other place where its carriers could closely communicate with each other, thereby maintaining the incredible integrity of the Proto-Slavic Leviathan. Now, having studied the origin of the Avars, we received confirmation of our assumption from a completely unexpected side. It turned out that in the speech of the Slavs linguists revealed a slight Far Eastern "accent" in the almost complete absence of the Turkic-Mongolian vocabulary. Everything indicates that the Indo-European people became one of the Slavic "fathers", but with certain Altai features. Other candidates for this role, except for avars, are not even visible on the horizon. It seems that all the circumstances are in favor of your version, Sherlock. However, there remains one last obstacle, which, nevertheless, so far seems to me insurmountable. It’s all because of the incredible swiftness of the birth of a new speech, if, of course, we understand a certain Balto-Avar mix under the Proto-Slavic language. As early as the beginning of 558, no one on the continent could hear distant North Chinese nomads, and by the summer of 602 Christ, the Slavonic Leviathan, which arose not without the participation of aliens, had already begun its triumphal march through the Balkans. Do you want to assure everyone that the adverb of our heroes has taken shape in some forty years, the lifetime of one or two generations? But this is simply unreal!
- You, doctor, happy ending the investigation? To me, the final is the most boring stage of this fascinating journey. Everything is as clear as day. Finally, all the details and mechanisms perfectly matched each other, and the logical flywheel starts working with the precision of a Swiss watch. One link chain pulls the following. Only blind people manage to overlook this connection. However, most people are exactly that. To my lot, instead of solving complex intellectual problems, I get a dismal mission: to stick the nose of the blind at the obvious. I feel like an old school teacher, proving to negligent students for the thousandth time that two and two are four, and there cannot be seven or ten. My dear friend, ever since we came to the conclusion that the Proto-Slavic language has spread to the European continent thanks to the structures of the Avar Kaganate, for me this has not become a mystery. The simplest logical chain, as strong as the anchor cable used by the British fleet, leads to answers to all our questions. Link number one - this is the conclusion that the incredible spread of the Slavic dialect across the expanses of our continent happened thanks to the creation of an empire of alien nomads here. The question is: what kind of people or what social stratum could become the carrier of a new speech within the steppe state? Given the complex composition of the population of Kaganat, the diversity of ethnic groups that occupied certain provinces within the Carpathian basin and beyond, we have no choice but to recognize that the only unifying element of this diverse community was Avar "governors." They are the "supervisors", who were appointed by the steppe inhabitants to control the landowners and artisans. This is the second link of our indissoluble logical chain.
- I do not argue: those people whom the nomads sent to look after the conquered tribes seem to be the best candidates in order to spread a single means of communication across the vast expanses of Eastern Europe. But for this to happen, they themselves must be one people, moreover, different from the Avars. I am confused here at once by several circumstances. Obviously, the Avar "governors" were quite numerous. Their graves are found in almost every cemetery of any of the smallest settlements inside the Carpathian Basin. In aggregate, there are probably even more of them than the Avars themselves. Especially if we agree that the same people ruled dependent tribes outside the nuclear territory of Kaganat. It seems that the "supervisors" will soon have their own original style of jewelry, nicknamed Martyn archeologists. In this case, their traces are perfectly visible not only in the Basin, but also in the Balkans, on the banks of the Dnieper and Desna, as well as in the Masurian Lake District and elsewhere. The number of "guards" themselves with such a wide coverage of the territories should be in the hundreds of thousands. As soon as we recognize them as one people with their unique speech, different from the Avar language, the question immediately arises: what kind of a tribe, where and when was it conquered by aliens? Of course, starting from the elements of material culture, the descendants of the Gepids could be suspected of these people. At least, the East Germans had the most significant influence on their appearance. But if we attribute to the so-called "governors" the spread of the pre-Slavic dialect, then the roots of these people should definitely be sought to the East of the Carpathian Mountains. The Balt base of Leviathan will certainly lead us to the Dnieper region. However, on this path a problem arises, huge and impassable as an abyss. On the eve of the appearance of the Avars, those edges were occupied by modest "potted" tribes: the Dulebs of Volyn, the Croats of the Carpathians, the ants of the Ukrainian Forest-Steppe and the north of Poddesye. None of the local nations is as close to the future Avar henchmen. In addition, they all remained in their places when the nomads retired inside the Carpathian Basin. Where, then, did the hundreds of thousands of "overseers" emerge from the conquered tribes, who adorned themselves and their wives with Hepidian palmate fibulae, but at the same time spoke a broken Baltic dialect? What a strange "balts" surfaced in the immediate environment avars?
- You know, Watson, the children's game "cold-hot"? So, you stopped right in front of the immediate otgadki. She literally burns your hands. To touch it you did not have one small step. Indeed, if the Slavic language had developed among the Aboriginal Hollows, it would not have shown proximity to the Balt dialects. For the most common means of communication on the shores of the Middle Danube in the previous era were West Germanic languages, especially Langobard, East Germanic, in particular, Gepidic, and, of course, coarse provincial Latin. Balt speech before the advent of Avars did not sound here at all. From here there is a logical conclusion that it is impossible to dispute - the “governors” emerged thanks to those Eastern Europeans who were taken along by the Asian fugitives, hiding behind the wall of the Carpathian Mountains. This is the third link in our chain.
“Holmes, it’s not for nothing that we spent so much time around the development of the Avar Khaganate!” Almost with a magnifying glass in their hands, we studied the traces of any more or less noticeable migrations to the West from the current Ukrainian and Belarusian lands. The Avars, in fact, intended to take the farmers from the banks of the Dnieper and Dniester with them to Europe with them. But let's take into account a number of objective factors. First of all, the transience of processes. Nomads started the campaign against the Ants no earlier than 560 years. She had to go on for at least a couple of years, right? Therefore, the steppe people launched a war with the Dulebs and Croats even later, approximately in 562. All right In the same period, according to the testimony of the chronicles, the Avars make a raid on the territory of the Frankish kingdom. We have assumed that, according to its results, a certain part of semi-abandoned lands on the borders with Australia, most likely somewhere in the area of present-day Silesia, are being diverted to nomads. It was there that the fugitives began to create their base of support. In fact, the steppe inhabitants had to spray their efforts on two fronts at once. On the one hand, they continued fighting against the East European aborigines in order to capture the captives and convert those into slavery, for what else could be obtained from these unfortunate people besides themselves. On the other hand, by the forces of the subjugated, they pierced the route along the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains towards their central European base. Already in 566, the Avars were able to move the army to the West and defeat Sigebert's army. Under a peace treaty, nomads receive their former Thuringian possessions — well-maintained lands on the banks of the river Elbe. Of course, they were going to move there and their new subjects from among the subordinate East Europeans. Moreover, the traces of these people are visible in Bohemia and in Thuringia. But the further course of events thwarted these plans. The war began with gepis, after which the Avars inherited the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, as well as the mass of the local population, much more skillful and developed than the Dnieper-Dniester aborigines. Surely, the nomads was not up to them. Moreover, they immediately rolled another gift of Destiny - a year later they got Pannonia with a mass of cities inhabited by descendants of Roman provincials. It was necessary to establish their own orders in the huge Middle Danube lowland, so suddenly fallen into their hands. In addition, it was necessary to strengthen the defensive line throughout the Carpathian ridge, in anticipation of a possible aggression of the vengeful Turks. There were so many tasks that I would not be surprised if I knew that the fugitives at that time completely abandoned the Ukrainian forest-steppe.
- Perhaps it all happened, as you describe, colleague.
- You see, Holmes! In any case, archaeological finds convince us that the majority of Eastern Europeans remained in their former places. None of the local cultures disappear as a result of the invasion of the Avars. With regard to the promotion of these people to the West, it is noticeable except on the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, up to the valley of the Elbe River. Inside the Carpathian Basin, Prague residents and Penkovo were in small numbers, and were settled in the most remote and undeveloped areas. With their help, Avars patched holes in their mountain defensive line. But similar to their unenviable geographical position completely eliminates the idea that the royal nomads could assign such a responsible mission to them, as the management of dependent tribes. Honestly, backward and primitive aborigines in Eastern Europe had neither experience nor discipline. The descendants of the Gepidian aristocrats or the nomadic allies were much more suitable for this assignment.
- Avars could hardly trust them completely. Although, of course, the managers of them would have gone an order of magnitude better than from the Antes or Dulebs, who did not know any firm state power in their country. However, Watson, you have forgotten a few more categories of Eastern Europeans, caught up with the fugitives inside the Carpathian Basin.
“Holmes, I know that together with the Avars there appeared their captives — the home slaves of nomads, as well as women, probably used as concubines.” But neither one nor the other category of slaves is suitable for our searches. These people could not be a separate people, and even with their own unique language. Domestic slaves - perhaps the most powerless and despised group of the population. Who will entrust them with the management of conquered tribes? As for the concubines, the women in this position, as a rule, soon forget their origin and native speech, completely dissolving in the society of the conquerors. In addition, they are representatives of the weaker sex, and we are looking for warriors, in almost all similar to the Avars.
- Home slaves really don't suit us. First, since this social group among steppe inhabitants has never been too numerous. Breeding livestock, and in general, nomadic farming in principle does not require an excess of workers. Therefore, the institution of slavery in its pure form within the community of nomads did not receive much development. Secondly, these people could not leave offspring.
“But for what reason?”
“You see, doctor, the way of life of the nomadic horde suggests that all adult men go on long hikes from time to time.” Who will leave their women alone with slaves, if the latter have the manhood? Remember, the story told by Herodotus, about how the wives of the Scythians betrayed them with their servants, and from this connection a whole generation of free people grew. The bike ends with a passage that since then the royal nomads have blinded the home slaves. In reality, of course, of the blind, the workers are useless. But the eunuchs may well milk the mares, and shear the sheep, and prepare firewood for the hearth.
- Ill decision!
- But quite practical from the point of view of the steppe people. Especially if they did not experience difficulties with the influx of new slaves, as was the case in the Avar Khaganate. In any case, it is clear that this category of people could not become Avar "governors." But the concubines are perfect for our case. More precisely, not even they themselves, but their male offspring. The illegitimate sons of the Avars from their slaves are the people we need, Watson. Slavic language was born in the harems of the steppe and nowhere else. This conclusion is the key link of our indissoluble logical chain.
- Mercy, Holmes, your harem hypothesis resolves only one of our difficulties, but immediately creates new ones, and even in a huge amount. As far as I know, the chronicles do not report anything about harems among alien nomads. What makes you think that they existed in nature? Even if the fugitives took some Eastern European girls as concubines, why should we think that this was a mass phenomenon? How could these captives, recruited from different tribes, be able to acquire a single language? Why was the Balto-Avar mix, and not, for example, the broken speech of Gepids, Langards or Latin, become such a means of communication? After all, if you look at the largest number of slaves, and, consequently, slaves, the Avars got themselves already inside the Carpathian Basin, where the descendants of the Germans or Romans were ten times more than the migrants from Scythia? I see the main problem in the fact that your version still does not explain the swiftness of the formation of Pro-Slavic Leviathan. You devote too little time to create it to be believed in your idea. New languages add up over the centuries. You put a maximum of forty years on the whole process. It does not happen!
- Questions of you, Watson, poured out of a horn of plenty. I will try to answer all of them in order. Why do I think avars had harems? It's elementary, my friend! Let's start with the fact that polygamy, as a marriage institute, is known to almost all ancient nomadic tribes: Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Huns. Suffice it to recall at least the voluptuate Attila and his absurd death in bed with a young Burgundian princess. When we turn our attention to the East of the Steppe, take a look at the area from which the Avars came, we find that all the nomads of the local nomads, successively replacing each other: the Huns, Syanbians and Jujans, had harems. The Chinese rulers of the era of Wei, by the way, also brought themselves a considerable number of wives and concubines. In those parts, this state of affairs was perceived as the norm. Zhuzhansky Kagan Anaguy (I hope, did not forget him?) Demanded from the Wei emperor to pay more attention to his daughter, who became one of the latter’s wives. Simply put, he forced the Chinese ruler to sleep with her. But it had never occurred to him to ensure that she became the one and only spouse. It is unlikely that the Avars in the few years that they needed to travel from Asia to Europe could change their marriage customs, could they? Among other things, Simokatta, telling us the story of the magician Bokolabry, who seduced one of the wives of the famous Bayan, thus confirms the fact that the latter had a harem. But since this was not forbidden to Avar leaders, why should we consider that the prohibition to have many wives extended to ordinary warriors? I believe that the number of women was limited only by the possibility of their maintenance. Meanwhile, the wealth of the Avar tribe with its arrival in Europe grew from victory to victory.
- Holmes, I do not deny that the Avars had polygamy. But where is the evidence of the representatives of the "pot" tribes getting into their harems?
- Oh, if the victorious nomads abandoned the young inhabitants of Scythia, I would be very surprised by this circumstance. Since always and at all times, conquerors consider the fair sex from among the conquered peoples as their legitimate prey. Believe me, this is inherent in human nature. No religion or school of philosophy can change this approach. When the European conquistadors invaded the American continent, they were instantly overgrown with harems filled with beautiful Aboriginal people, and no exhortations by the priests could fix anyone. Meanwhile, we are talking about zealous Christians. In 1545, after some half a century after the discovery of America, a complaint from the chaplain serving in Paraguay lay on the table of the Spanish king: the holy father complained in her: "Here only the poor have five or six concubines, twenty to thirty-forty, and others up to seventy. " If the Avar conquest of Eastern Europe can find some analogies in the history of mankind, then, of course, most of all it is like the colonization by Europeans of the New World. As there a bunch of conquistadors in armor, with gunshot arquebuses in their hands conquered a whole continent, and here a handful of "iron riders", taking advantage of superiority in arms, subjugated the multimillion population of half of our continent. Why should we think that nomads who came from afar behaved differently to the backward and unarmed Eastern Europeans than the Spaniards and the Portuguese in relation to the Indians?
The discovery of the Mississippi River by the conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1541. Artist William Powell
- Sherlock, these are just general considerations, you can't get down to business.
- Well, in this case, we turn to the specifics. The chronicles show that the Avars showed a keen interest in Eastern European ladies. The Tale of Bygone Years writes about violence against Duleb women, and the Chronicle of Fredegara reports that the Huns “sleep with their wives and daughters” of squads. The ancient authors have very little information about what actually happened in the kingdom of alien steppe inhabitants, but even these crumbs for some reason all the time hint to us that the nomads were not indifferent to the weaker sex of their dependent tribes. That in general does not surprise me. Now take a look at the archaeological finds. Ukrainian researcher Oleg Prikhodnyuk reports on the subject of interest to us: “The features of Slavic culture on Avar burial grounds from Hungary, where the center of the Avar Kaganate was located, are particularly tangible. 18 burns. Among urns there are pots of Slavic forms. Burials according to the cremation rite are also known at other Avar burial grounds. So Simon Dyulo from Dunayvaros r Ascopal 1000 burial grounds of which 100 were blasted. Two cremations at the Pecs burial ground revealed Nagy Elizabeth. , along with which women are buried according to the rite of burning. Agnes Shosh assumes that female burnings accompanying men are evidence that, together with dead Avar men, women were buried Its Eastern Slavic origin. " Notice, Watson, we have more than evidence that Eastern European girls, along with Avar gentlemen, got into the territory of the Carpathian Basin, we have evidence that in some places they lived quite compactly, since there were almost half of female all burials of the necropolis. It should also take into account the fact that not all slaves held grandfather's funeral rituals. Surely, there were those of them who accepted the traditions of the victors. That is, when an urn with ashes is found at Avar cemeteries, one should be aware that, as a rule, these are traces of Eastern European women of the earliest wave, who have not yet abandoned their native customs.
Eastern European girl in the early Middle Ages
Fine, Holmes.” Suppose I am ready to admit that some of the Duleb, Croatian and Ante women fell into the Avar community. But after all they there could completely dissolve. Then they would not need their own special language. It would have been treated with the Avar language. Even those Hungarian archaeologists who discovered female cremation among the burials of the newcomers, do not dare to say definitely - they belong to their legitimate wives or concubines.
- Precisely concubines. The status of official wives was unavailable for slave women.
- But why did you get this?
“Didn’t we, Watson, discover such amazing features of Avar society as its isolation and division into closed clans?” The aliens almost did not mix even with each other. That allowed anthropologists to distinguish their individual types, including the pronounced Mongoloids, as early as the burial grounds of the 7th-8th centuries. As is known, a child inherits appearance not only from the father, but also from the mother. If the Avars married Aborigines and recognized their children, then within two or three generations all the anthropological groups would be blurred. But that did not happen. Consequently, the Avars liked local girls, but they could not take them as spouses according to the customs of the tribe. The solution was found at the institute of concubines and the creation of a separate harem from the natives.
- Of course, you will argue that this has become a mass phenomenon, as a result of which Avar bastards did not yield in number to the legitimate sons of the Avars?
- Let us turn to the only analogy that suits our case - the European conquest of America. Here is what Conquista researcher Andrei Kofman writes: “On expeditions, an impressive column of gift beauties usually followed a military convoy and porters. Almost all of the famous conquistadors had indidean co-women. When the conquistador settled in his Encomiende, he often surrounded himself with a real harem. the sexual conquest "of the New World was not long in coming. By the middle of the 16th century, the first generation of half breeds, half-breeds conceived by Indians from the Spaniards, had grown up. How many were there? There are no statistics on this subject, o indirect evidence suggests that there were no less than a thousand and twenty or thirty.To, Pedro de Valdivia’s expedition to Chile (1540) had 159 Spaniards and 226 Métis, and in the 1980s, Métis populations inhabited Métis in Argentina. " The Russian ethnographer Sergei Serov supplements his information: "Care for" racial purity ", thus, could not prevent the mass breeding process that began in America from the very first years of the conquest of America. The pace of this process was so fast that in Paraguay, where the Spanish colonists had whole harems of up to 20-30 concubines, in 1575 the half-castes could put up a detachment of 3,000 soldiers, while the Spaniards only 200 people. " Today it is the mestizos, not the "whites" or the Indians, not to mention the descendants of the black slaves from the African continent, make up the majority of the population in many Latin American countries: Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Colombia, and so on. Exceptions from this series are few.
“And yet, Holmes, there were differences in the position of the European colonists of the New World and the Avar hordes that came from Asia. The first groups of Spaniards and Portuguese migrated to the American mainland with virtually no women. Ten men on the ships accounted for one or two representatives of the weaker sex. The nomads, apparently, managed to keep their second halves along the course of the flight.
- However, how many women they had can only guess. Hardly much. Long crossings through the mountains and deserts are detrimental to women's health. Suppose there was one wife for each simple warrior, the nobles had three or five. We agree with the fact that Avar wives as a whole numbered 30 thousand. For fugitives, this result can be considered a great success. It is unlikely, however, that after the tragic upheavals, women in the horde were distributed extremely evenly. It means that someone had many of them, but there were also such nomads who did not get a single one. Their friends fell into the hands of the Turks. Finally, after a long journey and a series of tests, Avars reach Eastern Europe. Before them are numerous and almost unarmed tribes. Easy trophy for the steppe. At the same time, local women seemed to be quite attractive to newcomers, because they belonged to a similar racial type. Who under such circumstances could keep sexually hungry men from capturing concubines? I doubt that the Avar kagan, even if he really wanted to, was able to stop the hunt for captives. Warriors left without wives believed that Heaven itself sent them this long-awaited booty. The rest did not want to fall behind them. If each of the soldiers got himself only one slave, in the aggregate there were twenty thousand, if two or three, then up to sixty thousand. We assume that the average slave was also 30 thousand, as well as wives. It draws on a small tribe. Notice, Watson, I call the most modest figures, not at all as impressive as the Spanish priest in a note on the harem of Paraguay.
- However, do you think, Holmes, that the withdrawal of so many women should have affected the demographic situation in Scythia? Meanwhile, archaeologists do not observe a decrease in the number of the local population after the passage of the Avars over their lands.
- I remember, Watson, we thought about how many people could live in Eastern Europe in the middle of the VI century. We then estimated the number of Antes at half a million, Croats at 400 thousand, dulebs and north by 300 thousand each. In total, the four tribes that were attacked by newcomers in 560-562 had approximately one and a half million people, half of whom were women. Subtracting the little girls and old women from them, it turns out that about half a million Eastern Europeans were of reproductive age, ready to leave offspring. Of course, not all of them could be interested in Avars. With low life expectancy in the early Middle Ages, in the difficult living conditions of the "pottery" tribes, women over 25 years old were already mothers of two or three children and looked unattractive sexually. Most likely, the steppe dwellers were attracted by girls and young girls from 12-13 to 20 years. They became their prey. I believe a significant part of the ladies from this age group could get into the hands of nomads. But was this the cause of the demographic catastrophe among the aborigines? Not at all. Thirty thousand is a drop in the ocean. Even if we imagine that the Avars captured not thirty, but one hundred thousand local girls, this is not more than one fifth of all local women of reproductive age. In addition, the population in Eastern Europe at this time was governed primarily by the number of developed lands. Children left exactly as much as they could feed. Therefore, soon the local people easily repaired losses.
- Lord, but we are talking about very young creatures, in fact about children?
- Believe me, Watson, it is this age and sex category that always and at all times is primarily interested in slave traders. The mentality of adolescents, especially girls, is very plastic, they more easily adapt to the new world, adapt themselves to the way of life they are completely unaccustomed to. The stress associated with the loss of loved ones is not so deep in them, because in traditional societies they are taught from an early age to think that one day they will have to go to the husband's tribe. An adult woman who loses her beloved spouse and her children is a much more problematic object in this regard. She falls into depression and may even commit suicide; it was not for nothing that the Greeks admired the loyalty of the Sklavinian and Ants' wives. I think the Avars easily figured out the situation, and with the wealth of choice that opened before them, they selected for their harem primarily young girls. Of course, the difference in mentality of newcomers and Aboriginal people created a number of additional difficulties. Look at the problem, doctor, through the eyes of a nomad. It was necessary to pull the mamarash girl out of a close, dirty and smelly hole, wash her, teach her to basic hygiene, put on a suitable dress, comb her hair, and most importantly, teach her language and everything that a nomad companion can do. In addition, there was a gigantic difference in the sexual traditions of Eastern Europeans and those who came from the borders of the Middle Kingdom. In the Chinese Taoist culture, which infused all the pores of Juan society, women valued experience and sophistication in love games, knowledge of sexual techniques and the ability to use various drugs. There, it was considered normal for a man to be in bed with several wives, concubines, and maids. Moreover, inexperienced girls learned from more mature women, watching the process of intercourse. In that part of our continent, where the fugitives came, there was a cult of virginal integrity, and group sex seemed the pinnacle of immorality. It’s not for nothing that The Tale of Bygone Years, even if in a very disguised form, has preserved evidence that it was at the same time engaged with several Duleb's wives to work on something so bad. We will not condemn anyone from the height of modernity, this is just an ordinary conflict of worldviews, inevitable when two very different civilizations clash. In fact, the young captives were faced with a cardinal breakdown of consciousness. The rejection of some traditions in favor of other customs, initially shocking. An additional difficulty was that the men who had captured the girls were full of men had no time to train and educate their concubines. They fought with their brothers and fathers, at the same time organizing the laying of the road to the West through the Carpathian wilderness. To their passions, they got only in short periods of rest between long periods of military affairs.
Avar women's costume. Reconstruction
- Are you hinting at the fact that under such conditions the captives kept everyone together, in one big camp?
- What other options were there? Legitimate wives, faithful companions of steppe warriors, would hardly have been delighted with the appearance of intimidated rivals in their tents. Even less did they want to teach those useful skills and see that they did not run away. Therefore, it took a separate camp, where they looked after the captives, and also taught them Avar speech, showed how they cook their favorite dishes of nomads, learned steppe songs and dances with them, demonstrated the art of pleasing their husbands in bed and the like. The honorable mission was most likely assigned to elderly Avar women who, if not to them, should pass on their experience to the youth. Now put yourself in the place of these unfortunate young creatures. Undoubtedly, they were in a state of shock. Just yesterday, they had one life — in parent dugouts, among familiar and familiar landscapes. Today, they were taken to the steppe, vigilantly guarded, alien vile old women inspire something strange and indecent. On the one hand, they do not seem to be offended, they are fed to their fullness, dressed, they are probably presented with jewelry, they do not make them work hard from dawn until dusk. On the other hand, with all that, their future is foggy, and the status is not clear. They are not wives, but concubines. Men give them a little time, and each of them has several girls. Accepting such a relationship brought up in different traditions of a young lady, probably, was not easy. Crying and open the soul of a young captive could only that of her friends in misfortune. For they were all in a similar position. There is, however, a reasonable question: in what language could they speak with each other? After all, the slaves belonged to four different tribes, whose adverbs were not similar among themselves.
“So where did the Balt base of the Pro-Slavic Leviathan come from!”
- This feature of the new language in general should be considered a slight whim of the mocker-History. Since the Avars moved to Europe from the East, the first agricultural tribes, which they came across on a long journey, were the Ante-Penkovtsy and the North-Kolochinians. The common means of communication for them was the Baltic language. She became the foundation of the adverb that began to take shape in the Avar harem. Begin the nomadic conquest of the region from another region, they were the first to attack the Croats or Dulebs, perhaps the East Germanic vocabulary would form the basis of Leviathan. Young antkies and northerners invented their secret language, which was not understandable to their Avar mentors. Moreover, even if there were some people from the Ants and Northerners in the camp who were in the service of the nomads, but who were not trusted by the captives, they also could not figure out what they were talking about. For some reason, it is considered that speech is created exclusively for contacts. It is true, but not all. Often a language appears as a means of isolating a group of people. It is a kind of password that gives access to the team of initiates, but at the same time closes the way for strangers there. In the stressful conditions in which the young captives turned out to be, they could not help creating their secret brotherhood, or, if you like, sisterhood. Membership in this community provided a new secret language. Moreover, since slaves actively taught Avar speech, they heard its sound every day. The development of her secret language actually coincided with a period of intensive memorization of the steppe vocabulary. Of course, one could not overlap the other. Some of the phonetic features of the nomadic dialect were immediately adopted by a new means of communication. Compare this quite obvious version of the formation of a new language with what was proposed by other researchers. Henrik Birnbaum, referring to the opinion of his American colleague, believed that "the Altai rulers transferred their pronunciation habits" when they tried to express themselves in the words of their subjects. "This pronunciation was heard by Slavs in whom it gradually became fashionable, which is not surprising given the high social status of their masters." Here that no thought, then a clear mistake. The hosts do not stoop to teach the language of their slaves. On the contrary, the latter are desperately trying to understand the speech of their own masters. But all that manages to master the slaves in such conditions is a primitive pidgin. The simplest means of communication, bungled on the principle: "My your understand." And then, whose language should Avars learn? Antsky? Dulebsky? Croatian? Gepidic? Lombard? Latin? Greek? They had so many subjects and they spoke so many dialects that the aliens would have gone mad if they tried to act in accordance with the ideas of Birnbaum. The Avar harem's concubines were in a completely different position. With them specifically engaged in the study of the master language. You must admit that it’s one thing when a slave on the plantation hears a dozen or two words and a completely different thing is the purposeful training of girls who have a lot of free time and a great desire to understand the speech of their men. Under these conditions, it was not difficult for the first wave of slave girls to parallelly invent a second, secret language. However, after a couple of years, when a stream of young Croat and dulebok poured into the harem, the former captives as old-timers already fully devoted them to the rules of the game and passed on a great secret speech skills that outsiders could not understand. So the Proto-Slavic Leviathan was born.
- You want to say that at first it was a means of communication for Avar slave girls from Penkovo and Kolochin girls. That is why a significant part of his vocabulary has Baltic roots. Then this secret language became a distinctive feature of the entire Avar harem, which was replenished with representatives of the Prago-Korchak tribes. The concubines lived in one large camp and accompanied their masters in their campaigns. It is possible that since 562 they have already been moved to the West, to those regions where the Avars created their basic base for a breakthrough on the Elbe. When the Carpathian Hollow departed to the newcomers, the prisoners were delivered in an organized manner to a new country. Perhaps there they were already settled in a number of places, but by that time the girls felt like one community and had a fully established speech. New slaves of Gepid and Lombard descent who came to such settlements faced a close-knit sisterhood and accepted its traditions. By the way, the East German and West German vocabulary is quite visible in the Proto-Slavic language. So, the newcomers of the harems were able to enrich it with their vocabulary.
- In fact, scientists vaguely imagine what happened at the end of the VI century, even with the main part of the Avar horde, not like with the notorious harem. Perhaps the aliens did not immediately occupy the area between the Danube and the Tisza, which would later become their home. At least as early as 584-586, the Byzantines observed nomads headed by their kagan in the territory of the provinces of Moesia and Malaya Scythia, that is, in the area of present-day Northern Bulgaria and Dobrudzhi. Perhaps, the Tisa-Danube interfluve in the previous period was overgrown with forest wilds and without preliminary clearing was not suitable for the life of nomads. Therefore, we can only guess where in the early period the victorious steppe dwellers and, consequently, the beautiful concubines accompanying them, were acquired. However, there are things that you can safely say. One of these axioms suggests that since the Avars were sleeping with their captives, children were born from this connection. The first generation of Avar bastards conceived in 560-562 years. Therefore, we have assumed that the young half-breeds could have been directly involved in the campaign of 579 years against the sklavins. It was quite a suitable site for the shelling of fifteen or eighteen-year-old boys. Avar-European mestizo from birth assimilated at once two languages as relatives - father and mother. Meanwhile, their mothers, as I hope you already understood, spoke in the balto-steppe mix, now known to us by the name of the Proto-Slavic dialect. It is extremely important that the bastards felt like a separate community, stuck somewhere in the middle between the royal nomads and the tribes conquered by them. In full avars they were not taken. But they also never considered themselves despicable slaves. Listen to what ethnographer Sergey Serov writes about a similar situation of the Spanish-Indian half-breeds: “But gradually, with the increase in the number of metis, primarily in cities, ports, mine settlements (in those centers where Spaniards played the leading role), a separate social group, or rather, into groups that stand culturally outside Spanish and Amerindian, but are associated - genetically and culturally - with both. " Characteristically, the white colonialists of Latin America led their descendants from the aboriginal people to the same mission that the Avars placed on their own bastards - to be in charge of the mass of the conquered population. The only difference was that the latter had their own special language, inherited by them from the inhabitants of the harems, who now served them as a means of self-identification, of separating themselves from others, including, first of all, “fathers”.
- Holmes, you are all the time using the situation created during the colonization of the New World as an example. But as far as I know, the mestizos did not have their own special language?
- Appeared. And not even one, but several. Listen, Watson, that the omniscient Wikipedia writes, for example, about Canadian half-breeds: "Metis is a word of French origin (metis), akin to Spanish and Portuguese" mestizo "(from Latin mixtitius" mixed "). Metis of Canada, as well as their brothers in Latin America, formed during the contacts of men (hunters, military) of European (initially mainly French) origin with women of local Indian tribes. In the first decades, breeding was quite common in Quebec itself before the arrival of the Girls of the King (meaning the group of brides organized from Europe.) Then the Quebec mestizos gradually dissolved in the more numerous white population of the province, and in the less populated regions the mestizas formed a special ethnic group that was different from both the Indians and the white. Michafe, which is not a pidzhin, since its structure is complex, which testifies to the excellent knowledge of the mestizo of both languages - the Cree (from the tribe of which the Europeans most often took wives), as well as French - the language fathers of children of mixed origin. " Another thing is that the development of the American continent came at once from a variety of centers. Even the most successful of the European colonialists - the Spaniards - acted not with a clenched fist, but with scattered groups of conquistadors who went on risky expeditions at their own expense in the hope of rich booty. In each of these areas, these adventurers encountered a wide variety of Indian tribes and, accordingly, a diverse language environment. Therefore, only Spanish could become a common means of communication for Latin American mestizo. However, the European-Indian half-breeds have developed a number of their own adverbs. One, like Michif, is in Western Canada, the other in Guatemala, Bolivia and Ecuador. So this phenomenon is not uncommon. In Eastern Europe, in contrast, the conquest of the natives was carried out by the unified army of Bayan. Apparently, accompanied by her huge harem in the form of a separate camp of slaves. The ideal conditions for creating a new dialect, which, like Michichu in Canada, soon became the hallmark of all Avar bastards.
- I admit, Holmes, your version looks logical and slim. Moreover, it relies on direct analogies of the times of the conquest of America. But I still confused by the transience of linguistic processes in the framework of the harem hypothesis. A new language should be formed here not even in forty, but in some unfortunate ten years. I'm afraid linguists will not support such bold ideas.
- You see, Watson, I am talking about the way of adding a new adverb, about which these specialists learned not so long ago, only after the dissertation of the Danish scientist Peter Bakker (Peter Bakker) in 1994. And now far from all linguists have heard of him. Some of them continue to deny the very possibility of the formation of the two languages of a full third. Notice, doctor, high-grade. That is, not pidzhin, which serves as a means of primitive communication, but quite developed and in no way inferior to the initial dialects. A professor at Aarhus University, the oldest in Denmark, Associate Professor Bakker called such a means of communication mixed or intertwined language (Mixed language - Interwineed language). Now more than a dozen of them are known. The discoverer of the phenomenon insists that "mixed languages are the result of mixing populations." Simply put, it is the property of mestizos. In order for them to take shape, you need a community of people who are equally fluent in the two source languages. At the same time, bearers of such adverbs socially, as it were, occupy an intermediate position between those ethnic groups that the primary adverbs presented to them. In such a case, the Mixed language serves them for self-affirmation, separation from both communities. Take, for example, the Mednov language, which originated on Medny Island in the chain of Commander Islands of the Bering Sea. Creoles became its inventors - descendants of Russian industrialists from Aleutian women. Of course, these people were below the Russian colonists, but above the Aleuts, which they were very proud of. This is what Viki says about this adverb: “Typologically Aleutian-Mednov language is an independent linguistic structure, not reducible to any of the source languages. The phonological system is a compromise between Aleutian and Russian; morphology, organized on agglutinative principle, Aleut traits; syntax - a compromise combination of Aleutian and Russian. From the Aleutian language there are roots of words, a two-drop system of a name, possessive indicators of a name, the absence of adjectives, word azovatelnye suffixes of the verb and the name, object and demonstrative pronouns, prepositions, many syntax; of Russian - verb inflection, analytical constructs for expressing the future tense, modal words, personal (subjective), pronouns, adverbs, free word order ". However, there is no general rule for mixed languages in this regard. They can take one vocabulary as a basis, but they can take fifty-fifty. The main thing is that they take a part of linguistic forms from one language, a part from another, making up a third, independent adverb. If scientists clearly did not see both initial principles, they would never have guessed that there is a Mixed language in front of them, it is so indistinguishable from the original means of communication. Do you know where I'm going, colleague?
- Of course. Since the Avar language was unknown to linguists, they could not figure out how the pre-Slavic speech was formed. Therefore, they puzzled over the strange similarity of the latter with the Baltic dialects. On the one hand, a lot in common. On the other hand, there are many differences. And most importantly, it was not clear where the carriers of the Proto-Slavic Leviathan were hiding, given that they had to separate from the Balts for another fifteen hundred years before Christ. In fact, of course, we are not dealing with the slow divergence of the two languages from the mythical Balto-Slavic basis, but with a fundamentally different way of the emergence of a new means of communication. Ordinary lexico-statistical methods in this case will not work.
- Now listen, Watson, what experts write about the terms of education Mixed language. Russian linguists Nikolai Vakhtin and Yevgeny Golovko report on this issue: “The formation of“ mixed languages ”usually occurs swiftly, during the life of one or two generations. Somewhat coarsening the situation, one can say that one generation“ invents ”the language (continuing to speak two , of which one is native), for the next generation a new language (mixed) is already a native language and serves as a means of intragroup communication. The "parents" of a mixed language are also known and used in communication with other groups; lneyshem one of the source language is usually less prestigious, ceases to be used, so do not know mednovtsy "pure" Aleutian, British Gypsies do not know the "real" Gypsy, and so on. "
- In our particular case, this means that already the first generation of Avar bastards did not know the language of the Ants, Croats, Dulebs or North. For them, the mother tongue was the mother tongue, and the Avar language was the language of the fathers. But since they were not considered to be full-fledged Avars, they began to cultivate their particular position, they were proud of how the Spanish-Indian half-breeds began to flaunt the name of mestizo. Accordingly, they soon had their own style of jewelry, also designed to highlight this social group. They didn’t even have to invent a language - for them mothers, concubines from Avar harems did it. Nevertheless, I still have some doubts about the harem hypothesis. Very quickly this mix was formed. Experts speak of one or two generations, you, Holmes, devote a miserable ten years to the whole process.
- In fact, languages develop much faster - in three or four years. Children invent them, as a rule. And yet do not go out of childhood. Therefore, young girls in the Avar harem - an exemplary environment for the emergence of a new means of communication.
- Well, you, Sherlock, enough. Where are the languages with their complex structure, and where are the children with their immature mind ?!
- Come on, Watson! Did you not play Indians or bandits in your childhood? Did you not have to invent your secret speech, inaccessible to the understanding of moms and dads, grandmothers and grandfathers? Understand that the adult seems extremely difficult, the child perceives as a game. He learns new languages without any difficulties, especially if it happens in the form of direct live and interesting communication. Young, not clogged with excess knowledge, the mind absorbs everything like a sponge. Georgy Vinogradov, a children's language researcher, thinks: "A period of seven to twelve or thirteen is characterized by the greatest originality, pressure of forces, brightness - this is the period of" flowering and flourishing complexity "... The second half, especially its end, is characterized by the development of choral beginning in children, their careers in the life of their environment, persistent isolation from the life and life of adults. Their games and their customs, their right and their society, their folklore and their language - this is what separates children in the period of "flowering and blossoming complexity" from the world adults. The isolation is once again emphasized by the desire of children to create a new language that would enable fuller and more imperfect for adults to carry out plans, tasks and aspirations related to their social life ... The need for a means of communication incomprehensible to the uninitiated gives birth to secret languages. "
“We all played these games in Holmes, as a child, but why compare the primitive" secret "dialects of a children's band and the complex structure of mixed languages that require remarkable effort from their creators.
“In that case, Watson, I have to disappoint you.” Children are able not only to add a new mixed language from two languages, but also to invent such language forms that were not found in any of the original variants. About such an incident, in particular, is reported in the magazine "Language" linguist Carmel O'Shennessy of the University of Michigan. She studied the new language, which appeared literally before her eyes in the children of the Australian Aboriginal Valbiri tribe. Here is a brief retelling of the journal material: “In her article, a linguist from the University of Michigan described the mixed language spoken by the natives in the north of Australia, in the Tanami Desert. Analyzing the verbal constructs of this language, called light valbiri, O'Shennessy concluded that this language is really a full-fledged language, not pidgin, and that it came about because local children studied two languages at once. Investigating how children in the village of Liamanu learned languages, Carmel O'Shennesi discovered that they had invented a new temporary category. Ria, which is neither in English, nor in valbiri, nor in Kriol. As an example of non-future time, O'Shennessy quotes the phrase Nganimpa-ng gen wi-m si-m worm mai aus-ria. (We also saw worms at home). In the wi form, we can recognize English we, “we”, in the form si is the English verb see, “see”, but the ending m is an innovation. It means that the action took place in the past or is happening now, but not refers to the future. The English pronoun with the auxiliary verb I'm ("I" in the present tense) has been reinterpreted in the "I" of a non-future tense. The system of times is a fundamental thing for any language, so scientists believe that they are dealing with a new language that was not forty years ago. In 1948, the Australian government decided to resettle the overcrowded village of Yuendumu, and 550 people were forcibly transported to the town that later became the village of Lajamanu. Jundumu was spoken in the language of valbiri, one of the most well-studied and common Australian languages. Now about 4 thousand Australians speak it. The new village, Liamana, was placed in a difficult-to-reach area, so it is almost out of touch with its nearest neighbors most of the year, from December to May. There is an elementary school in Liamana, but to continue their education, the children leave for Darwin, located 900 kilometers to the north. Teaching is in English. The young villagers are well acquainted with the two languages - valbiri and English, as well as with cryol, pidzhin Northern territory of Australia. Pidzhinom scientists call the means of communication, which occurs when both speakers are well aware of their language and almost do not know the language of the interlocutor. In such cases, at first, communication is almost completely absent, but gradually, during communication, primitive rules arise - the change of language is lost, but the word order crystallizes. The use of pidgin is initially limited to the sphere in which the contact takes place, most often with trade transactions. A mixed language arises among bilinguals, for example, if two tribes begin to live in the same village. Children born in mixed marriages can create a mixed language based on the languages of the parents. "How do you like this last conclusion, Watson?
- Smitten on the spot. I didn’t even keep in my thoughts that twelve-fourteen-year-old children have similar language talents!
“Only they have them, Watson.” I suppose there is one or another gang of children behind each of the mixed languages. For only at their disposal a lot of free time for games and communication. Later, from the age of 14-15, they are beginning to be attracted to the work and cares of the adult world, teenage groups fall apart, and potential “inventors” have no time for language creativity. In other words, such a gang invents its means of communication for some two or three years, in the interval from 12 to 15 short years. Previously, they simply did not have time to master all the riches of their native language. Later - they no longer care. But when the Avars gathered in their harem thousands of young Eastern Europeans, whom they began to teach their language and customs, they involuntarily created the most ideal conditions for adding another, initially secret adverb. For the girls just had to oppose themselves to strangers, to unite with the companions in misfortune. Collective activities, light non-burdensome work, accepted in the nomad community, even more united the slave women and allowed them to improve their own speech. Of course, the Proto-Slavic Leviathan developed further, already inside the Carpathian Basin, where it became the property of Avar bastards.
- Which at a certain moment of time became the main pillar of the Avar Kaganate.
- Absolutely. Fate was extremely favorable to these half-breeds. If in the Americas, infections brought by Europeans: smallpox, measles, groups, bubonic plague, cholera and malaria, from which the natives did not have immunity, destroyed up to 90% of the indigenous Indian population, in Eastern Europe the picture was exactly the opposite. Here a series of epidemics in the first place hit the aliens themselves. More struck the Asiatic fugitives as early as in 597, when seven sons of the kagan were killed at once and without counting simple warriors - "with very strong heat and inflammation, the fertile parts were covered with boils." Judging by the pathogens extracted from the Avar remains, nomadic people were mostly plagued by leprosy and bubonic plague. Of course, they mowed and mestizos, but to a lesser extent, since many of them inherited innate immunity from their mothers. At the very beginning of the 7th century, the weakened Avar army suffers a number of crushing defeats from the Byzantines. Probably, the number of aliens in that period decreases by several times. It is no coincidence that archaeologists rarely find burial places of nomads of this period. Under these conditions, the army of the Kaganate was formed mainly at the expense of the bastards. Even if the originally legal wives and Eastern European concubines had the same number, in the second and third generations the half-bloods became many times more than pure-blooded avars. It was affected, on the one hand, by the disease, on the other, by the fact that the mestizas were born from both the mestizos and the masters, while, for understandable reasons, the latter’s ability to reproduce was limited only by their own community. Illegally born "sons of the Huns", noticed by the Frankish chronicler, replaced their royal fathers in the ranks. The fact that the half-breeds had taken the brunt of the battles, writes Fredegar. Of course, he sees the state of affairs in the steppe state, observing it only from one side, from the West, but I think that the replacement of the mestizas of Asian nomads was going everywhere. Just because there was no one to replace them. The army of Kaganat became a platform where the Proto-Slavic speech constantly sounded, where it developed and improved. The half-breeds themselves soon realize their power and try to declare themselves in a loud voice. Already in 623 they revolt in the western lands. By the way, the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas collapsed as a result of similar processes. First, the Creoles and mestizos together came out against the Spanish crown. Then the mestizos, being the majority, began to tidy up the power in their hands. In some places after this the Indians tried to overthrow the rule of the mestizos. However, there is nothing eternal under the Moon and the end of the Avar Kaganate was predetermined by the very course of History. However, this kingdom did not disappear without a trace - the result of its existence was the incredible spill of pre-Slavic speech on our continent. The language that emerged in the harems of the all-powerful steppe, outlived its arrogant "fathers" and became the property of many nations.
- "How bizarrely sometimes the deck is shuffled!" - said one writer on a similar occasion. Who would have thought that one unsuccessful battle of Juzhana Kagan Anaguya against his former subjects in the steppes to the North of China would create an all-destroying avalanche that swept Europe and forever changed her face. If I had been told about this before the start of our investigation, I would not have believed it. Historians have diligently sought the invisible people among the backward and wild tribes of the eastern part of our continent in the post-Hun period. Meanwhile, the ancestors of the Slavs and distributors of this language were the illegitimate sons of the Avars, in turn, the former descendants of the famous Huns and even more famous Scythians.
“Hopefully, Watson, you will still learn some lessons from our exciting adventure.” What seemed distant may turn out to be close. Alien - relatives. Enemies are ancestors. In the historical canvas, everything is so closely intertwined with a thousand threads that one fragment cannot be removed from there without destroying the integrity of the pattern. It is necessary to look at the past with wide open eyes, not trying to embellish someone and keep silent about something. Only then can one see the real world of living people of flesh and blood, loving and suffering, killing and saving. Among those who lived in the era of Antiquity and the Middle Ages there were different people: good and bad, peaceful and aggressors, pahari and nomads, masters and robbers. But they are all our ancestors, they all deserve the attention of descendants. Without them, there would be no us. If you and I, the doctor, helped someone to see their roots, then it was not for nothing that we agreed to be guides. It is a pity that the journey ends. But I do not say "goodbye" to everyone, perhaps we will meet again.
Last edited:
First, let's try to figure out who actually took the Balkan Peninsula from the Greeks? Slavists, beginning with Pavel Šafarik and Lubor Niederle, stubbornly attribute this feat to our ancestors. But did the unarmed tribes of the northern plowmen really oust the Byzantines from their native land? Agree that with the available scenario, this action looks like something from the field of non-scientific fiction. According to the most modest estimates, in the Balkans, taking into account Constantinople, in the middle of the 6th century AD, there were three to three and a half million people calling themselves "Romans." And most of them lived in cities, surrounded by strong walls. They had a firm government in the face of the divine basil. They were guarded by the most advanced army of their time, podnatorevshaya in wars with the Persians, Vandals, Ostrogoths and Bulgars.
What could the tribes found on the other side of the Danube oppose to this force? Unfriendly, scattered, few, devoid of leaders and weapons, how did they manage to crush the impregnable Byzantine strongholds? It is known that the northern peoples of the Sclavins and the Ants began to seep into the Balkans from as early as 527, that is, from the very beginning of the rule of the famous Justinian. But until the middle of the century, these barbarians did not win special laurels on the slippery path of plunder and robbery; most of their expeditions turned out to be a total failure. Soon the Antes concluded an allied treaty with the Empire and stopped vexing their southern neighbors. The entire burden of the raids fell on the shoulders of only Sklavins. The most successful for these robbers was the period of 548-551, when the Greek army was transferred to Italy against the Ostrogoths and the Balkan lands were left completely without protection. But even then the military successes of the barbarians were very modest. For four years of continuous raids of the Sklavin, and that mainly with cunning, they managed to capture only one small fortress of Taper, the exact location of which even the wise Procopius did not know. Of the major cities in this period, no one was hurt. Only the rural districts became the prey of the robbers. It is important that the Sklavins did not even try to make a dent in the famous Danube Limes. No local fortress or even a detached tower was taken by invaders. Therefore, immediately after the end of the Italic war, the Byzantines easily restored their order in the Balkans, reliably strengthening the northern border. The robbers from the other side of Istra for a long time lost the opportunity to practice their black business.
By the third quarter of the 6th century, hordes of Slavins, as the records indicate, had risen to one hundred thousand people. Not bad for banal robbers, but too little to openly confront the multi-million Byzantium, whose army even in the period of decline was one and a half times larger, moreover, it basically consisted of horsemen: horse archers and cataphractaries. In addition, neither the armament nor the tactics of the northern aggressors underwent major changes. As before, we are dealing with poorly organized crowds that are scattered into many small gangs operating predominantly in mountainous areas, the goals of which are not to occupy cities and fortresses, without which it is impossible to capture the local edges, but to the traditional plunder of the rural area, the seizure of mining and captives. The Danube brigands, of course, brought the Byzantines a lot of trouble, but they did not undermine the foundations of the Empire, because they did not reject its territory. Before the Avars appeared in the region, Constantinople did not lose a single inch of Balkan land. On the contrary, from the moment of the departure of the Huns, he was constantly acquiring new possessions, eventually reaching the line of the Danube-Sava and even temporarily taking possession of the "Sirmiysky Island". The first alarm bell for the Empire sounded when commander Tiberius suffered an unexpected defeat from alien nomads and was forced to concede to them a large part of the Second Pannonia, retaining only the capital of the province, the city of Sirmio, for the Byzantines. Probably, this failure seemed to the Greeks as an accidental coincidence of fatal circumstances. They still did not hold avars for their equal opponents and allowed joint operations with the steppe people to intimidate ungrounded sklavins.
However, the payment for such carelessness followed immediately. As soon as the Avars completed military operations in Wallachia, their army again appeared in the vicinity of Sirmium. This is how it was according to Menander: "Bayan, the khan of the Avars, after he sent to the king Targitia that year to receive the money assigned (they reached annually up to eighty thousand gold) and after Targitiy returned to him with a cargo, for that money bought, as well as with money, in a shameful and barbaric way, violated the contract concluded with Tiberius immediately after he was elevated to Caesarian dignity, although he had no reason to start a war, did not consider it necessary to even invent some false pretext to that. all army ha Gan came to the bank of Saya (Sava), between Sirmium and Singidon, and set out to build a bridge. He planned to seize the city of Sirmius. , before his design was discovered, he assembled in Upper Pannonia, on Istra, many heavy vessels and built (of them?) long warships, not according to the rules of the shipbuilding art, but as a means allowed. He put a lot of rowing warriors on them, who, indiscriminately, barbarously, no matter how they hit, hit the water with oars, and let them go along the river at once, with the whole army he went mountain on Sirmiysky island and arrived on the banks of Saya "
The border of Byzantium and Kaganat. Lilac color indicates the disputed territory of the Second Pannonia. Indicated are approximate construction sites for pontoon bridges.
As it turns out from this text, Byzantium already from 574 regularly pays nomads to the nomads, and their sum reaches 80 thousand solidi. These are not one-time "gifts" to you in the form of fabrics and trinkets than Justinian got rid of steppe inhabitants, but a constant tribute, very tangible for the imperial treasury. From the epoch of Attila, Constantinople has not been subjected to such humiliations. But the Avars, apparently, even this was not enough. They by all means wanted to capture Sirmium and began to build pontoon bridges on the Sava River, cutting off this city from all sides from the imperial supply. Many historians believe that the builders of the barbarian ships, like the oarsmen on them, respectively, and the creators of these ships of the two floating bridges were none other than our ancestors.
However, in this case, Menander does not name the subjects of Bayan. We can only guess that these were “sklavins”. His colleague, the Syrian writer John of Ephesus, also attributes all these actions to a "vile people called Avars." Here is what this author notes: "After thirteen years of reign, Emperor Justin died, after him the victorious Tiberius became autocrat, who was a caesar with him for four years. after the death of Justin, and in every possible way tried to destroy the bridge, but they could not immediately do this, as the people who had seized it sat down, asking him to give them the city of Sirmium, on this bank of the river, to settle in it, threatening what in case of failure they will fight with him and will devastate his state. But he did not agree to obey them, began to collect (the troops) and watch when the time came so that they could fight the war. They also built another bridge, which, as they say, never before was; they did it in preparation for the bad. "
Sirmium city layout
If not forgotten, the third year of the reign of Tiberius is 581 in our chronology. It was at this time that huge crowds of Slavins, according to the words of John of Ephesus, rush to the Balkans, "settle down and live in the Romanian regions, without worries and fear." It turns out that we are dealing with a double blow to the Byzantines: the Avars besieged Sirmium, while the Sklavins robbed Illyria and Thrace, which in itself involuntarily suggests that the actions of those and others could be coordinated with each other. Modern historians, however, a similar version of the perception of events, as a rule, reject outright. Sergei Alekseev saw only a coincidental coincidence: "In the late autumn of 580, the Slovene (as he calls the chronicles of the Slavins) again invaded the Empire. The third and most powerful Slovenian invasion began in the 6th century. The events took place at such a convenient time for Bayan that you can it would have been thinking about conspiring with Slovenes. But this is not so - the Danubians and Avars were still enemies. Starting the invasion, the Slovenia were guided by their own interests. "
It is difficult to argue with the fact that the Danube quarters pursued first of all their own selfish interests. But whether they coordinated their actions or not with the nomads - the question is not so simple. In John Biklarsky we find: "In the third year (of the reign) of Emperor Tiberius, he is the eleventh year of King Leovigild: Avars are reflected from the borders of Thrace and capture parts of Greece and Pannonia." Further, as we remember, the same author tells about the atrocities of the Slavins in Illyricum and Thrace. If by Pannonia we mean the region of the city of Sirmium, then we have to admit that the Visigoth bishop is talking about the same campaign of 581 years. But then his "Avars", who attacked Greece, turn into "sklavins" from the work of John of Ephesus, who "in the third year after the death of Emperor Justin, in the reign of Emperor Tiberius went the cursed people of the Sklavins and went through all Hellas, the region of Thessaloniki and all of Thrace" . It turns out that from this moment the chroniclers confuse the two peoples among themselves, the actions of some are attributed to others. But what made them so rude to be wrong?
Let's try again to restore the sequence of events. Approximately about 576 years, the hordes of the Slavins were rampant in the Balkans. Tiberius persuades Bayan to attack their lands and sends his fleet to help. Avars destroy Wallachia. However, they did subjugate themselves with sklavins or not, we do not know. But the most important ferries across the Danube, they undoubtedly occupied. As the passages in the Southern Carpathians in the area of the Iron Gate. Imagine the difficult situation after which the Northern Danube natives found themselves. Of course, in their right to disobey Bayan and not to pay him tribute. But now they could not travel freely from one bank of the great river to another. Having set up border guards along the Danube, the nomads cut the Sklavinian tribes in half, some of them remained on Byzantine territory, the other - in former places of residence. The newcomers from the East had the strongest lever of pressure on the Danube barbarians. After all, the robbers, after successful raids, needed somewhere to hide from the wrath of the Byzantines, they needed bases for rest, places for sheltering booty and prisoners. Meanwhile, they were all on the other side of the great river. Therefore, when, in 581, Bayan besieged Sirmium, and, at the same time, crowds of barbarians attacked the Balkan provinces, the Byzantines began to suspect something. Of course, they did not have solid evidence that all this was planned by the ingenious kagan, but vague doubts involuntarily slipped into their heads.
The Avars behaved as if they were trying in every way to dispel these vile suspicions. Kagan swore that he was not building a bridge against the Greeks, but in order to repeat the campaign against the Slavins, "their enemies and the Romans." He asserted that "the abuses were offended by the fact that they did not want to pay him a certain tribute every year." At the same time, he threatened to unleash a war if the Byzantines prevented him from building a bridge, and demanded to send his envoys to Tiberius. The local Romans, however, did not believe him, but diplomats, according to Menander, were still taken to Constantinople: “The Avar envoys on arrival in the capital asked the emperor to prepare for the khan and for the troops of the Avar court on Istra to cross them against the Slavins; they represented that the khan, relying on friendship with him, is already building a bridge on Saja and wants to destroy the common, his and Roman, enemies of the sklavins. After such a declaration, the emperor immediately understood the khan's intention to conquer Sirmium, he knew that the khan was building the bridge with the goal that The emperor, who relied on the world existing with the Avars, did not make the necessary preparations for the protection of Sirmius. Not having troops, not only sufficiently oppose the Avar force, but also the smallest, because everything the regiments were busy with the war with the Persians in Armenia and in Mesopotamia, he pretended not to understand the idea of Khan. He said that he himself wanted them to go to the Sklavins who had plundered the Roman provinces a lot; but that this time is not the most favorable for such an enterprise Avars, because the Turks have already set up a camp near Kherson, and that if the Avars pass Istres, it will immediately be noticed by the Turks; that now it is better for them to resist the campaign and postpone it until another time; that he will soon learn the thoughts of the Turks, where they intend to turn and will inform the khan. "
Now it was the turn of the nomads to disbelieve the Byzantines. It is possible that the Avar intelligence on the eve of the reported and the distemper in the Turkic Kaganate and the readiness of the enemies to leave the Crimea. Most likely, in unleashing hostilities around Sirmium, the alien nomads were firmly convinced that the pursuers would no longer strike the rear of them. At least, this time the eternal threat did not bother the Avars at all. And the envoy, who took the money of Tiberius under the promise to keep Bayan from the war, actually advised the kagan to continue the siege. Perhaps he paid for it. Diplomatic mission suffered from the attack of robbers. Menander reports: "Traveling through the Illyrian region, along with the few Romans who accompanied him, he (the envoy) was killed by Sklavins who made assaults on those places." Were there really killers of the northern barbarians, or in this case there was a dramatization by the vengeful Greeks, who learned about the intrigues of the ambassador, we do not know. In any case, this death did not stop the war.
A new nomadic diplomat by the name of Solakh, who had arrived after him, without any hesitation, offered Basil to hand over the city of Sirmium to the Avars. In response, courtesy of Bayan offered to release its residents and defenders with the property that they can bear on themselves. Tiberius refused such a bold offer. The war continued, although the Romans clearly lacked the strength to resist the army of the kagan. In Menander, this campaign is described in excerpts, however, of them, too, the Byzantines were completely helpless: “The battle lasted for three days between the Romans and the Avars, and no Roman army appeared on the bridge in Dalmatia, although it was defenseless. Apsih (Bayan commander), who had previously occupied the bridge with the Avar army, rendered such neglect to the Romans that he crossed over to another bridge, and another joined the force of Bayanova. The Romans who were in Sirmia suffered a terrible famine. The complete lack of food supplies made them fucking things disgusting. The enemy made a bridge (the second?) through Sai. Solomon, the chief of Sirmium, managed things without proper activity, showed no strategic abilities. The inhabitants of the city were in despair, they mourned their fate and reproached the Roman commanders. there were few troops. When these circumstances reached the king of Tiberius, considering it most advantageous that the inhabitants of Sirmium should not become subject to the enemy along with the city, he wrote to Theognid so that he would stop the war on such conditions that the inhabitants All of them came alive from the city, taking nothing of their own with them but one dress. These conditions were accepted; hostilities ceased so that the city would be ceded by the Romans to the Avars, and the Avars would be ceded to the Romans by the inhabitants without their property. Over the past three years, Hagan demanded gold, which he did not receive as usual and which the Romans paid him, in order that he should not act against them. The amount of paid gold coins stretched annually to eighty thousand. "
However, negotiations on the release of Sirmium dragged on, because the gold was not delivered immediately. As a result, according to John of Ephesus, many citizens could not be saved: “The emperor was forced to send another person, Calisterius, the prehori’s eparch, to the Avars. He went and handed over the city to them, as he believed that it was better than if he was taken from battle and power, after two years of oppression and such severe hunger, that after all the animals and all living things they ate even cats and the like, in bitter need, which was no less than the one in Samaria, as the Scriptures instruct us They also spoke of the pity that these barbarians showed to people tormented by hunger there, which was amazing and served as a denunciation for Christians who do not pity their comrades and have no mercy for their flesh, because when they entered the city and saw the deadly torment of the people who were in it, they pity them and given bread for food and wine to drink. But since they were exhausted by hunger for a long two years, they ate hungrily and immediately died. Those who were alive left and left the city, and the barbarians took the city and settled in him".
The painting by the Monophysite bishop from the city of Ephesus is truly amazing. It is necessary to understand the subtleties of the psychology of the Byzantines, in order to fully marvel at the quoted passage. For the Greeks and Romans, any barbarians were akin to two-legged beasts: dirty, wild, bloodthirsty, and cruel. The most disgusting of these semi-animals have always been nomads. What the ancient authors write about the atrocities of the Huns, killing even old people and babies, not sparing neither pregnant women nor priests, is impossible to read without a shudder. And suddenly - such a passage. The barbarians who had besieged the city for two years and, finally, rushed into it, instead of murder and pogroms, were engaged in trying to feed and save the Romans. Notice, without the least benefit for themselves, for the survivors of the treaty remained Byzantine subjects. Human-loving nomads - this is something new for ancient literature.
The capture of the city of Sirmium by the Avars made an indelible impression on his contemporaries. As Serbian historians Bugarski and Ivanisevic (Ivan Bugarski, Vujadin Ivanišević) write: "The consequences of the fall of the capital of Pannonia in 582 were far-reaching, they led to the end of the disintegration of the civil and military power of the empire north of Sava and the Danube." Figuratively speaking, the unsinkable ship of the Byzantine defense received the first serious breach. He was still afloat, but the crew on the deck already felt uncomfortable. Shortly after concluding a treaty with the nomads, the emperor Tiberius was about to die and handed over the royal diadem to one of his commanders, Mauritius, after giving his daughter to him as a wife. Opinions about the new basil were divided. Byzantine historians, mostly, sang his praises. Here, for example, as Menander evaluates him: “Tiberius Caesar appointed Mauritius as commander of the East. He was not nurtured in military works, but was a reasonable man, serious and thorough. Combining the most opposite properties, high spirit with meekness, he was not proud and arrogant. The supreme power, having sought such a husband as Mauritius was, multiplied by experience its glory. " Our contemporaries are sometimes much more restrained in compliments. George Vernadsky writes: "His (Tiberias) successor on the throne was Mauritius, an Armenian by origin and a miser of liking."
The gold solid of the emperor Mauritius Tiberias
Both were probably true - the future emperor was born in the province of Cappadocia, the majority of whose population were Armenians, and according to some information, the lord's father was a simple gardener, and greed, which must be confessed, did not occupy the last place among the traits of the latter-day the emperor. This disadvantage, however, was balanced by many other advantages. Clever, seasoned and judicious, a lover of poetry and a patron of various sciences, Mauritius would undoubtedly become an excellent ruler of Byzantium at a different, more peaceful time. But he got a difficult period. Avars have already tasted fresh Roman blood. Convinced of the inability of the Empire to resist them, they began to create a cash cow from a great power. Listen to the follower of Menander's writing about the ambitions of the newcomers, a chronicler named Theophylact Simokatta: "they didn’t dare to commit to their youthful audacity. They were Huns, they lived along the coast of Istra, the most disloyal, insatiable tribe of all nomads. a significant city, they sent an embassy to the emperor of Mauritius. It was Sirmium, a city constantly mentioned and praised by the Romans living in Europe ... When the city was in the hands of the Huns, an armistice was concluded so that military actions stealing, peace came and everyone could safely go about their business.The conditions for the Romans were the most humiliating: after a series of such grievous misfortunes, as if the judges of any contest, they presented the barbarians as glorious gifts for the brilliant feat of eighty thousand gold and pledged each year through merchants contribute this amount with silver and colorful clothes. But this truce lasted no more than two years, for the kagan, so called by the Huns, began to behave proudly and contemptuously towards the Romans. "
The king of the barbarians, as if all the time, was probing the limits of compliance of the Byzantines: he demanded a curiosity for himself - an Indian elephant, then he made the Greeks build a golden bed for him. Mauritius fulfilled all the whims of the kagan, but he soon returned the gifts, as if they were some trinkets. "Moreover, he demanded that over eighty thousand gold romays pay him another twenty thousand a year. The emperor denied him this. Then the gunn disdained all the treaties and cast his vows to the wind. And at once, lifting the pipe, dear to the battles, he He began to gather his strength. He suddenly attacked and captured the city of Singidun, the former unfortified, devoid of any military equipment, because thanks to the world all of Thrace was completely unconcerned: the world does not have vigilance and does not inspire insight. The ode spent time outside the walls, in the fields, because the harvest forced them to do so, it was already summer, and they gathered their wealth from the fields to be able to live. The enemy began to pursue them, but the barbarian took the city not without a fight: at the gates of the city, and many avars were destined to die, and they won, as they say, a cadmish (I mean, pyrrhoic) victory. The enemies devastated and robbed many other neighboring cities. They took them without any difficulty: unexpected was this misfortune, unexpectedly it fell on neither . Taking Augusta and Viminaky (these were well-known cities under the jurisdiction of the prefect of Illyria), he immediately went with the army further, plundered Anhial, and all the surrounding villages betrayed the devastation. "
Balkan province of Byzantium. The red line marks cities taken by avars to 583-584 years.
This already smacked of a real large-scale disaster. Taken by the barbarians, the cities of Singidum and Viminacia were strongholds of the Illyrian defense, their loss passed into the hands of the nomads the entire western part of the Balkan Peninsula. The famous resort of Anchial on the Black Sea coast in the area of present-day Burgas opened up a direct road to Constantinople for the army of steppe men. Mauritius hurried to conclude peace on winners: “The following year, Elpidios (a Byzantine official) was appointed for the embassy with the same purpose. He was sent to the Avars and, coming to the Kagan, asked to send an ambassador to the Emperor and another twenty thousand gold coins were added to the payments. Kagan approved this proposal and sent Elpidius to the Caesar as ambassador of Targitia, a prominent member of the Avar tribe. They both came to the emperor and concluded a contract and an agreement on the terms that the Romans would pay another twenty thousand gold annually to the eighty thousand gold, and if they do not do so by their negligence, then there will be war with them again. Thus, it seemed, the treaty was again concluded and a truce came. ”
According to Theophylact Simokatty, the Avars alone campaigned against the Empire of 583–584 against the Empire, it was with their king that the Greeks negotiated peace. John of Ephesus, in “Church History,” notices, however, other participants in the conflict. We will listen to him: “And the wild people of barbarians, ugly, with braided hair, rebelled again. They - those who call Avars - splashed out and left the East. And also the Western people rebelled - Sklavins and other peoples, called the Lombards; They were also subordinate to the khan, the king of the Avars. They attacked, captured two cities and many Roman fortresses and told the inhabitants of this region: “Go out, sow and harvest - only half of the tax we will take from you.” Agree, the evidence is more than curious First, the Syrian writer Eh reports that the Avars did not treat the inhabitants of the occupied regions in the way their predecessors did the Huns, whose whole thoughts were reduced to looting and hijacking of the population, but as their own subjects to whom they also intended to halve taxes. Secondly, among the tribes subordinate to nomadic tribes, the bishop from Ephesus notices Sklavins and Lombards. Some researchers believe that in the latter case we are talking about those who went to Northern Italy. However, it is possible that the Syrian writer by this nickname called Alboin’s former subjects who remained in Pannonia, that is, the very people that Austrian historian Peter Stadler called “Svevs”.
Indeed, archaeologists discover within the Carpathian Basin a multitude of peoples of Germanic origin. They live in designated areas, they have their own armed elite. Did the Avars not attract this population to the campaigns against the Byzantines? Surely, the "German" units were present in the army of Bayan. But an amazing thing, the Greek authors for some reason never mention them. The phrase about the "Lombards", subordinate to the khan, from John of Ephesus is the only one of its kind. Neither he nor any of his colleagues said a word about it. Does this fact mean that the former Germans never again fought under the Avar banners? Or is everything much simpler: the terms "Lombards" and "Gepids" did not fundamentally suit the Byzantines as applied to the former inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin and the Greeks began to use a different name to designate Avar subjects of the Germanic root? But then what?
Now, regarding the "sklavinov" from the same text. Who did the Syrian author mean by that name? Until now, as we have established, this nickname was given by the Greeks to celebrate the Danube Aboriginal people, representatives of the Hypothestia culture. But could it be considered that in 584 they were already "subordinate to the khan, the king of the Avars," as the bishop-monophysite believes? Or is it about a different nation? In fact, historians engaged in Avar-Byzantine wars of the end of the 6th century began to suspect that a variety of tribes appeared under the name "sklavins" in the annals of this period. The obvious fact brought them to this thought: the chronicles showed the varying degree of dependence of the mentioned tribe on the Avar Kagan. Some "sklavins" for some reason unquestioningly carried out the orders of the nomadic king, others acted at their own peril and risk, and others - at all allowed themselves hostile attacks, like the robbers who killed the Avar envoy.
It was believed that the closer to the center of the Avar Kaganate the tribes lived, the more subordinate they were. The American researcher Georgy Vernadsky writes the following about this: "The Pannon Slavs suffered especially under the Avar oppression. The position of the other Slavic tribes was not as miserable as their Pannon brothers." He was echoed by the Russian historian Gennady Litavrin: “The Pannon Slavs fell under the rule of the Avars in the 60s ... Being probably in a strong degree of dependence in the center of the territory of the Khanate (in the Tisza basin), the Slavs maintained some autonomy at its periphery. The ethnic majority of the Khan’s subjects made tribute and performed labor duties in their favor (in particular, they built ships for the Avar army, built crossings over the rivers.) But the Slavs of Pannonia, who had raided the Empire with Avars, sought independence The Sagans of the former Roman province of Dacia, who lived along with the remnants of the Romanized local population and occupied mostly the territory between the Danube and the Carpathians, especially the Slavs made frequent long-distance campaigns to the Empire, reaching almost the walls of Constantinople itself. VI - early VII century, the empire organized several major expeditions against the "Dacian" Slavs. At the same time, though unsuccessfully, the Avar Khan also claimed power over them. "
As you can see, faced with the phenomenon of varying degrees of subordination of the chronicles of the Sklavins to the Avar tsar, historians developed the concept of two Slavic communities: the "Pannon" and the "Dacian". The "potted" tribes, who were inside the Carpathian Basin, were brought to the first. Scientists did not dare to challenge their complete dependence on the nomads, although they stated here that they allegedly wanted to be free. As for the former "sklavins" of the Byzantine chronicles, that is, the population of the hypothetical culture of Wallachia and Moldova, they began to call him "Dacian" Slavs to distinguish them from the compulsory brothers. These tribes, according to scientists, were completely free, because the claims of power over them by the Avar Kagan were "unsuccessful." We will not argue with the Slavists so far. For simplicity, the perception of the events of the end of the 6th century, let us take this theory into service. With the only amendment that will call these people all the same "sklavinami", as the Byzantine authors did, and not the Slavs, as modern specialists want to rename them.
Russian explorer Sergei Alekseev went even further, he calls the Danube Aborigines "Slovenes" using the term of the oldest Russian chronicle. And this is how, from his point of view, the relations of these people with alien nomads looked like: “But his greatest achievement (Bayan) was an alliance with Slovenes. Cooperation with them began during the campaign of 581–582. But then it could not to take any organized form — mutual insults were too fresh in their memory. Now, when the Avars and the Danubians were headed by new leaders, and they were tied to a common enmity with the Empires, a close alliance became quite achievable. , were d I Kaganate irreplaceable help in the fight against it. On the other hand, the Slovenian princes must have counted on the support and patronage of the Avars. that not very well-informed authors from the very beginning perceived the union of the Danubians and the Avars as the subordination of all the Kagan slogans ... The obvious fallacy of some evidence and the ambiguity of others suggests that Roma are wrong in principle, iticheskih concepts interpreted Avar-Slovenian Union. But it is possible that their delusion stemmed from the fact that the kagan, claiming to have power over "every people," himself fed on such opinions. Of course, there were also directly subordinate to the Kagan Sloven - the northern and southern Moravians. They entered the army of the kagan and carried out his orders. But in the Avar army there were other, "Eastern" Slovenes - which was definitely perceived by the Romans as a sign of humility. In fact, the essence of the Avar-Slovenian agreement reached in 583 was as follows. Kagan was recognized as a general commander ("voivod", in Slavic terminology) of the combined forces in the war against the Empire. That is why the Danubians carried out his military orders and at times were part of his army - but remained completely politically independent. Some kind of coordination was simply necessary for Slovenian detachments scattered across the Balkan Peninsula. That is why they agreed to Kagan, having resorted to him as a center of power and an independent arbitrator. It is not clear, however, how effective the command of the kagan was. It is clear that only those leaders who directly signed the pact showed real military submission to him. All this does not mean, of course, that the Kaganate did not at all exert any political influence on the Lower Danube Slovene. The delivery of military power to the kagan gave him the opportunity to somehow intervene in the tribal life of words, to manipulate them, primarily in his relations with the Empire. The kaganate, as a much stronger and more durable formation than the Danube or ephemeral Dulebian union, inevitably played a leading role in partnership with them. Moreover, the kaganat turned into a natural center of attraction for small clans and tribes scattered around the Balkans. Slovenia south of the Danube fell into real dependence much faster than their Dacian relatives. The Avars were partly confused with Slovenes on both sides of the river; elements of Avar material culture penetrated to the Slovens. "
The stubborn unwillingness of modern authors to recognize the dependence of future Slavs on the Avar Kagan makes them cunning and unscrew all the time. How to explain that the Byzantine chroniclers directly indicate that these tribes fought on the orders of Bayan? Everything is simple - in reality, it turns out, there was an "Avar-Slovene Union", within which the Sklavins submitted to the Kagan in the war, but were completely independent in their peaceful life. Foolish Romais naively "misinterpreted, in their political terms, interpreted" this pact. It seemed to them that the Danube aborigines fell under the influence of the Avar Kaganate. But this, of course, in principle could not be. Archaeologists also thought that the tribes living "on both sides of the river", that is, on the territory of Romania and Bulgaria began to actively penetrate elements of Avar culture: weapons, combat belts, and so on. Yes, the “Avars were partly mixed” with the local inhabitants, Alexeyev reluctantly admits, but it must have been happening, it is only within the framework of the same notorious “union”. Who thought the other is wrong.
We will not argue with anyone. Just open the ancient chronicles, and read what is written in them. And then ponder what this information means. Theophylact Simokatta, whose nickname some researchers translate as a “snub-nosed cat,” complains that the contract with the Kagan gave the Greeks only a brief respite: “But after some short period of time the good of this world was violated and the Avars tribe attacked again, but not openly, and even more fraudulently and criminally. They incited the tribe of Slavins, which destroyed most of the Romanian land and, as if flying (by air), with an avalanche went up to the so-called Long Walls (fortifications on the outskirts of Constantinople), on the head azah (citizens) destroying everything. Therefore, basil in fear placed guard on the Long walls, and the military forces that he had with him, brought out of the capital, trying to create (yet) one significant barrier around the city It was then Komentiol (Byzantine commander) and the responsible command was entrusted; after entering Thrace, he drove away the hordes of Slavins, reached the river called Erginia (a tributary of the Maritsa), and suddenly appeared before the Sklavins, attacked them decisively and caused the great beating of the barbarians ... then on pr the procession of the summer, he gathered romeyskoy forces went to Adrianople and ran into Ardagast that led the vast hordes sklaviny with prey - many prisoners and magnificent trophies. At the end of the night (Komentiol), early in the morning, he approached the fortress of Ansin and bravely entered the battle with the barbarians. The enemies retreated and were put to flight. They were expelled from all Astika (region in Thrace). The feat of the Romans kept the captive day light. And the strategist sang the triumphant pean (song in honor of the gods) and set up a trophy. "
All researchers agree that Ardagast headed the Dacian Slavins. The name of the leader, Αρδαγαστος, is clearly not Slavic: the root-Gast is often found in Germanic nicknames. For example, in the IV century, the commander Arbogast (Arbogastes), originally from the Franks, did not become the Western Roman emperor for the small. His complete namesake Arbogast of Strasbourg in the VII century, headed the corresponding bishopric, the Catholic Church recognized him as saint. The Byzantine commander Anagast, the son of Anegiskla, by origin, apparently from the Vandals, who in 467 killed the last Hunnic prince Dengizikh, is also widely known. Besides them, the story also knows a considerable number of German names with a similar ending: Arvagastes, Cunigastus, Harvigast, and the like, including the well-known modern name Gaston. All this did not prevent the individual historians from “cross over” the leader of the Slavins in Radogost. Perhaps, I leave without commenting the stubborn desire of the Slavists to hear the echoes of their native speech in at least one of the names of the Danube leaders. Understanding people, and so everything is clear. The manic persistence of fanatics of the Slavic idea makes them a kind of religious sect, which means that the arguments of reason over these people are no longer authoritative. At least, science in such attempts did not even spend the night. The citizens of the above-mentioned Tsar did indeed live along the north bank of the Danube, which we can still see with you, for it does not immediately disappear from the pages of the chronicles. It means that before us is actually the ruler of the hypoteshtinsky tribes.
But it was his Byzantines who were suspected of acting on the instructions of Bayan. For example, one Theophanes writes in his Letopisi concerning these events: “Meanwhile, the kagan did not hesitate to break peace with deceit. He armed the Slavins among the peoples who reached the Long Walls, making a great robbery.” Yes, and the subsequent description of Theophylact Simokatty leaves no doubt who, according to the Byzantines, unleashed a conflict: in order to get an annual monetary tribute from the Romais, which, by virtue of the treaty, was collected here every year for the kagan. This aroused the ire of the emperor, who understood that the Avars exposed him to obvious mockery: oh tribute and all kinds of gifts and income as if to preserve peace, but on the other - did not pay attention to it, devastated Europe and made the cities uninhabited. "
In other words, basil directly laid on Bayan the full responsibility for the activities of Ardagast. Thus, the Byzantines, already in the year 584, that is, five years after the famous great march into Wallachia of the Avar horsemen, considered the "Dacian" sklavins to be nomadic subjects. This approach caused a new outbreak of conflict: “Therefore Targiti was exiled to the island of Chalkitida for six months under strict supervision — for so long he continued to burn with the ire of the emperor, who threatened to issue an order for the execution of the ambassador. Many of the neighboring cities, including Rateria, Bononia, Akis, Dorostol, Zaldapy, Pannasy, Markianopolis and Tropea, captured them and brought many difficulties to him (kagan). repentance passed into his hands. True, he was greatly helped by the great enthusiasm of the entire advancing army, which usually appears when the enemy fails. "
I note that as a result of the entry into hostilities of the main forces of the Kagan army in 585, the Avars managed almost unbelievable: they captured a good half of the Danube Limes fortresses, capturing the capital of the province of Lower Moesia, the city of Markianopol. Moreover, the Avar-Sklavin horde did not calm down on this achievement. It spread widely throughout the Balkan Peninsula, reaching the Peloponnese in the South. Judging by the chronicle, which is called “The Miracles of St. Demetrius,” a certain squad of 5,000 people of Sklavins “entirely composed of selected and experienced warriors” appeared in this period under the walls of Thessalonica. Although this "chosen color of the people of the Sklavins", as it is called in the chronicles, failed to crush the impregnable walls of one of the most powerful Greek fortresses, the aliens caught up with fear on the local inhabitants there. But much more lucky barbarian unit, stormed at the same time, Corinth, an important stronghold that blocked the road to the Peloponnese for northerners.
The famous Austrian explorer of the early Middle Ages, Walter Paul, believes that the Baslavian detachment led by the Avar leader besieged this bastion. The American historian Kenneth Setton from Princeton, on the contrary, emphasizes the role of the Kutrigur Bulgarians as the main striking force of the army advancing in the South. Archaeologists perfectly see the layer of fires and destruction in Corinth, but the number of materials that can be directly connected with the Slavs, from their point of view, is not too impressive. Listen to what Sergei Alekseev writes about this: "Traces of Slavic culture in Corinth are scarce, but they exist. Corruption with the" Prague "vessels is known, earrings of" Antsky "type have been found. At that time, as things created by the hands of masters from Keszthely, here are an order of magnitude more. It seems that those who captured the strategically important fortress came to its walls from the very depths of the Avar Kaganate, that is, from the inner Carpathian basin. Academician Valentin Sedov, who writes: “Historical materials indicate that the majority of Slavic settlers in the Balkan Peninsula and the Peloponnese were sent from the Middle Danube lands. This was not the case for all Avar-Slavic military units that were formed in this region.” It turns out that the bulk of the conquerors of Illyria and Greece were supplied by those whom Russian historians call the "Pannon Slavs".
Corinthian Acropolis
Another famous Byzantine chronicle, the Monemvasian Chronicle, describes the successful penetration of the barbarians into the extreme South of the Balkan Peninsula and the displacement of the Hellenes from there. This is what it says: "And during the second invasion, he (the Avar Khagan) captured all of Thessaly and All Hellas, like Old Epirus and Attica and Eubey. Finally, having also attacked the Peloponnese, they (the Avars) seized it with power and, rejecting and having humiliated the noble Hellenic peoples, settled on it themselves. Those who managed to avoid their bloodthirsty hands scattered who where. For example, the city of Patras moved the kalavars to Reggio, argei to the island called Orovi, and the Corinthians moved to the island by the name of Aegina. It was then that the Laconians, having left their native land, alone sailed on Sicily - they also live on it, at the place named Demenna, instead of Lacedaemonians as Demennites, but retaining their Laconian language, while others, finding a hard-to-reach spot on the sea coast, building a fortified city and naming it Monemvasia - for the reason that he has the only entrance for those who go to him, settled in this city with their own bishop, while herdsmen and herdsmen settled in the stony places lying nearby; recently they became known as tsakonam (mountaineers?). So, the Avars, who had taken possession of the Peloponnese and settled on it, held out (here) for two hundred and eighteen years, not subject to the Romans to the basil, or to anyone else, namely from 6096 from the creation of the world, which was the sixth year of the reign of Mauritius, until 6313, which was the fourth year of the reign of Nicephorus the Elder. "
Peloponnese Peninsula. The cities of Corinth, Patras, Argos and Monemvasia, the historical regions of Laconia, Attica, Euboea and Tsaconia, which are mentioned in the Monemvasia Chronicle, are highlighted.
So, according to the authors of this chronicle, a tribe called "Avars" invaded Greece in 587 (the "sixth year of the reign of Mauritius") and lived in those places for more than two centuries, later being called "sklavins" and "tsakonami" . By the way, still in the Peloponnese to the North of the city of Monemvasia is located the historical region of Tsakoniya, whose inhabitants speak a special dialect of the modern Greek language. According to the chronicles, the ancient aborigines of the Peloponnese, called in the text "noble Hellenic peoples", were forced to flee from these places, settling everywhere, up to Sicily. Historians, however, deny the exodus of the Greeks from the territory of their ancestral homeland. They believe that the cities of the peninsula, and the rest of Greece, were not long under the barbarians. The same Corinth, in their opinion, returned under the control of the Byzantine basilus a couple of years after the assault. However, the threat of complete loss of the Balkans did not pass. It is about this period of time that Evagrius Scholastic writes in his chronicle: "While this happened, the Avars twice reached the so-called Long Walls, devastated and plundered Syngidon, Anchial, all of Greece and other cities and fortresses, because the army was mostly was in the East. "
At the same time, whoever really opposed the Roma - the “herdsmen of the herds,” that is, the nomads, or the “farmers,” by whom our Slavic ancestors are usually understood, the main trophies still went to the Avar kagan. Listen to what John of Ephesus writes about this: "And the people of the Sklavins plundered everything - and church utensils and big ciboriums (sheds above the altar) - dragged them away on strong chariots, such as the civorium of the Corinthian church: sat under it ... In the end they (sklavins) broke down the wall; (they broke into the city of Anchial) and found purple (robes) there, those that Anastasia, the wife of Emperor Tiberius, arrived in the baths and dedicated to the local church. Their khan was taken and put on, saying: "The king of the Romans desires this or not, but, behold, GUSTs him to give me. "
What could the tribes found on the other side of the Danube oppose to this force? Unfriendly, scattered, few, devoid of leaders and weapons, how did they manage to crush the impregnable Byzantine strongholds? It is known that the northern peoples of the Sclavins and the Ants began to seep into the Balkans from as early as 527, that is, from the very beginning of the rule of the famous Justinian. But until the middle of the century, these barbarians did not win special laurels on the slippery path of plunder and robbery; most of their expeditions turned out to be a total failure. Soon the Antes concluded an allied treaty with the Empire and stopped vexing their southern neighbors. The entire burden of the raids fell on the shoulders of only Sklavins. The most successful for these robbers was the period of 548-551, when the Greek army was transferred to Italy against the Ostrogoths and the Balkan lands were left completely without protection. But even then the military successes of the barbarians were very modest. For four years of continuous raids of the Sklavin, and that mainly with cunning, they managed to capture only one small fortress of Taper, the exact location of which even the wise Procopius did not know. Of the major cities in this period, no one was hurt. Only the rural districts became the prey of the robbers. It is important that the Sklavins did not even try to make a dent in the famous Danube Limes. No local fortress or even a detached tower was taken by invaders. Therefore, immediately after the end of the Italic war, the Byzantines easily restored their order in the Balkans, reliably strengthening the northern border. The robbers from the other side of Istra for a long time lost the opportunity to practice their black business.
By the third quarter of the 6th century, hordes of Slavins, as the records indicate, had risen to one hundred thousand people. Not bad for banal robbers, but too little to openly confront the multi-million Byzantium, whose army even in the period of decline was one and a half times larger, moreover, it basically consisted of horsemen: horse archers and cataphractaries. In addition, neither the armament nor the tactics of the northern aggressors underwent major changes. As before, we are dealing with poorly organized crowds that are scattered into many small gangs operating predominantly in mountainous areas, the goals of which are not to occupy cities and fortresses, without which it is impossible to capture the local edges, but to the traditional plunder of the rural area, the seizure of mining and captives. The Danube brigands, of course, brought the Byzantines a lot of trouble, but they did not undermine the foundations of the Empire, because they did not reject its territory. Before the Avars appeared in the region, Constantinople did not lose a single inch of Balkan land. On the contrary, from the moment of the departure of the Huns, he was constantly acquiring new possessions, eventually reaching the line of the Danube-Sava and even temporarily taking possession of the "Sirmiysky Island". The first alarm bell for the Empire sounded when commander Tiberius suffered an unexpected defeat from alien nomads and was forced to concede to them a large part of the Second Pannonia, retaining only the capital of the province, the city of Sirmio, for the Byzantines. Probably, this failure seemed to the Greeks as an accidental coincidence of fatal circumstances. They still did not hold avars for their equal opponents and allowed joint operations with the steppe people to intimidate ungrounded sklavins.
However, the payment for such carelessness followed immediately. As soon as the Avars completed military operations in Wallachia, their army again appeared in the vicinity of Sirmium. This is how it was according to Menander: "Bayan, the khan of the Avars, after he sent to the king Targitia that year to receive the money assigned (they reached annually up to eighty thousand gold) and after Targitiy returned to him with a cargo, for that money bought, as well as with money, in a shameful and barbaric way, violated the contract concluded with Tiberius immediately after he was elevated to Caesarian dignity, although he had no reason to start a war, did not consider it necessary to even invent some false pretext to that. all army ha Gan came to the bank of Saya (Sava), between Sirmium and Singidon, and set out to build a bridge. He planned to seize the city of Sirmius. , before his design was discovered, he assembled in Upper Pannonia, on Istra, many heavy vessels and built (of them?) long warships, not according to the rules of the shipbuilding art, but as a means allowed. He put a lot of rowing warriors on them, who, indiscriminately, barbarously, no matter how they hit, hit the water with oars, and let them go along the river at once, with the whole army he went mountain on Sirmiysky island and arrived on the banks of Saya "
The border of Byzantium and Kaganat. Lilac color indicates the disputed territory of the Second Pannonia. Indicated are approximate construction sites for pontoon bridges.
As it turns out from this text, Byzantium already from 574 regularly pays nomads to the nomads, and their sum reaches 80 thousand solidi. These are not one-time "gifts" to you in the form of fabrics and trinkets than Justinian got rid of steppe inhabitants, but a constant tribute, very tangible for the imperial treasury. From the epoch of Attila, Constantinople has not been subjected to such humiliations. But the Avars, apparently, even this was not enough. They by all means wanted to capture Sirmium and began to build pontoon bridges on the Sava River, cutting off this city from all sides from the imperial supply. Many historians believe that the builders of the barbarian ships, like the oarsmen on them, respectively, and the creators of these ships of the two floating bridges were none other than our ancestors.
However, in this case, Menander does not name the subjects of Bayan. We can only guess that these were “sklavins”. His colleague, the Syrian writer John of Ephesus, also attributes all these actions to a "vile people called Avars." Here is what this author notes: "After thirteen years of reign, Emperor Justin died, after him the victorious Tiberius became autocrat, who was a caesar with him for four years. after the death of Justin, and in every possible way tried to destroy the bridge, but they could not immediately do this, as the people who had seized it sat down, asking him to give them the city of Sirmium, on this bank of the river, to settle in it, threatening what in case of failure they will fight with him and will devastate his state. But he did not agree to obey them, began to collect (the troops) and watch when the time came so that they could fight the war. They also built another bridge, which, as they say, never before was; they did it in preparation for the bad. "
Sirmium city layout
If not forgotten, the third year of the reign of Tiberius is 581 in our chronology. It was at this time that huge crowds of Slavins, according to the words of John of Ephesus, rush to the Balkans, "settle down and live in the Romanian regions, without worries and fear." It turns out that we are dealing with a double blow to the Byzantines: the Avars besieged Sirmium, while the Sklavins robbed Illyria and Thrace, which in itself involuntarily suggests that the actions of those and others could be coordinated with each other. Modern historians, however, a similar version of the perception of events, as a rule, reject outright. Sergei Alekseev saw only a coincidental coincidence: "In the late autumn of 580, the Slovene (as he calls the chronicles of the Slavins) again invaded the Empire. The third and most powerful Slovenian invasion began in the 6th century. The events took place at such a convenient time for Bayan that you can it would have been thinking about conspiring with Slovenes. But this is not so - the Danubians and Avars were still enemies. Starting the invasion, the Slovenia were guided by their own interests. "
It is difficult to argue with the fact that the Danube quarters pursued first of all their own selfish interests. But whether they coordinated their actions or not with the nomads - the question is not so simple. In John Biklarsky we find: "In the third year (of the reign) of Emperor Tiberius, he is the eleventh year of King Leovigild: Avars are reflected from the borders of Thrace and capture parts of Greece and Pannonia." Further, as we remember, the same author tells about the atrocities of the Slavins in Illyricum and Thrace. If by Pannonia we mean the region of the city of Sirmium, then we have to admit that the Visigoth bishop is talking about the same campaign of 581 years. But then his "Avars", who attacked Greece, turn into "sklavins" from the work of John of Ephesus, who "in the third year after the death of Emperor Justin, in the reign of Emperor Tiberius went the cursed people of the Sklavins and went through all Hellas, the region of Thessaloniki and all of Thrace" . It turns out that from this moment the chroniclers confuse the two peoples among themselves, the actions of some are attributed to others. But what made them so rude to be wrong?
Let's try again to restore the sequence of events. Approximately about 576 years, the hordes of the Slavins were rampant in the Balkans. Tiberius persuades Bayan to attack their lands and sends his fleet to help. Avars destroy Wallachia. However, they did subjugate themselves with sklavins or not, we do not know. But the most important ferries across the Danube, they undoubtedly occupied. As the passages in the Southern Carpathians in the area of the Iron Gate. Imagine the difficult situation after which the Northern Danube natives found themselves. Of course, in their right to disobey Bayan and not to pay him tribute. But now they could not travel freely from one bank of the great river to another. Having set up border guards along the Danube, the nomads cut the Sklavinian tribes in half, some of them remained on Byzantine territory, the other - in former places of residence. The newcomers from the East had the strongest lever of pressure on the Danube barbarians. After all, the robbers, after successful raids, needed somewhere to hide from the wrath of the Byzantines, they needed bases for rest, places for sheltering booty and prisoners. Meanwhile, they were all on the other side of the great river. Therefore, when, in 581, Bayan besieged Sirmium, and, at the same time, crowds of barbarians attacked the Balkan provinces, the Byzantines began to suspect something. Of course, they did not have solid evidence that all this was planned by the ingenious kagan, but vague doubts involuntarily slipped into their heads.
The Avars behaved as if they were trying in every way to dispel these vile suspicions. Kagan swore that he was not building a bridge against the Greeks, but in order to repeat the campaign against the Slavins, "their enemies and the Romans." He asserted that "the abuses were offended by the fact that they did not want to pay him a certain tribute every year." At the same time, he threatened to unleash a war if the Byzantines prevented him from building a bridge, and demanded to send his envoys to Tiberius. The local Romans, however, did not believe him, but diplomats, according to Menander, were still taken to Constantinople: “The Avar envoys on arrival in the capital asked the emperor to prepare for the khan and for the troops of the Avar court on Istra to cross them against the Slavins; they represented that the khan, relying on friendship with him, is already building a bridge on Saja and wants to destroy the common, his and Roman, enemies of the sklavins. After such a declaration, the emperor immediately understood the khan's intention to conquer Sirmium, he knew that the khan was building the bridge with the goal that The emperor, who relied on the world existing with the Avars, did not make the necessary preparations for the protection of Sirmius. Not having troops, not only sufficiently oppose the Avar force, but also the smallest, because everything the regiments were busy with the war with the Persians in Armenia and in Mesopotamia, he pretended not to understand the idea of Khan. He said that he himself wanted them to go to the Sklavins who had plundered the Roman provinces a lot; but that this time is not the most favorable for such an enterprise Avars, because the Turks have already set up a camp near Kherson, and that if the Avars pass Istres, it will immediately be noticed by the Turks; that now it is better for them to resist the campaign and postpone it until another time; that he will soon learn the thoughts of the Turks, where they intend to turn and will inform the khan. "
Now it was the turn of the nomads to disbelieve the Byzantines. It is possible that the Avar intelligence on the eve of the reported and the distemper in the Turkic Kaganate and the readiness of the enemies to leave the Crimea. Most likely, in unleashing hostilities around Sirmium, the alien nomads were firmly convinced that the pursuers would no longer strike the rear of them. At least, this time the eternal threat did not bother the Avars at all. And the envoy, who took the money of Tiberius under the promise to keep Bayan from the war, actually advised the kagan to continue the siege. Perhaps he paid for it. Diplomatic mission suffered from the attack of robbers. Menander reports: "Traveling through the Illyrian region, along with the few Romans who accompanied him, he (the envoy) was killed by Sklavins who made assaults on those places." Were there really killers of the northern barbarians, or in this case there was a dramatization by the vengeful Greeks, who learned about the intrigues of the ambassador, we do not know. In any case, this death did not stop the war.
A new nomadic diplomat by the name of Solakh, who had arrived after him, without any hesitation, offered Basil to hand over the city of Sirmium to the Avars. In response, courtesy of Bayan offered to release its residents and defenders with the property that they can bear on themselves. Tiberius refused such a bold offer. The war continued, although the Romans clearly lacked the strength to resist the army of the kagan. In Menander, this campaign is described in excerpts, however, of them, too, the Byzantines were completely helpless: “The battle lasted for three days between the Romans and the Avars, and no Roman army appeared on the bridge in Dalmatia, although it was defenseless. Apsih (Bayan commander), who had previously occupied the bridge with the Avar army, rendered such neglect to the Romans that he crossed over to another bridge, and another joined the force of Bayanova. The Romans who were in Sirmia suffered a terrible famine. The complete lack of food supplies made them fucking things disgusting. The enemy made a bridge (the second?) through Sai. Solomon, the chief of Sirmium, managed things without proper activity, showed no strategic abilities. The inhabitants of the city were in despair, they mourned their fate and reproached the Roman commanders. there were few troops. When these circumstances reached the king of Tiberius, considering it most advantageous that the inhabitants of Sirmium should not become subject to the enemy along with the city, he wrote to Theognid so that he would stop the war on such conditions that the inhabitants All of them came alive from the city, taking nothing of their own with them but one dress. These conditions were accepted; hostilities ceased so that the city would be ceded by the Romans to the Avars, and the Avars would be ceded to the Romans by the inhabitants without their property. Over the past three years, Hagan demanded gold, which he did not receive as usual and which the Romans paid him, in order that he should not act against them. The amount of paid gold coins stretched annually to eighty thousand. "
However, negotiations on the release of Sirmium dragged on, because the gold was not delivered immediately. As a result, according to John of Ephesus, many citizens could not be saved: “The emperor was forced to send another person, Calisterius, the prehori’s eparch, to the Avars. He went and handed over the city to them, as he believed that it was better than if he was taken from battle and power, after two years of oppression and such severe hunger, that after all the animals and all living things they ate even cats and the like, in bitter need, which was no less than the one in Samaria, as the Scriptures instruct us They also spoke of the pity that these barbarians showed to people tormented by hunger there, which was amazing and served as a denunciation for Christians who do not pity their comrades and have no mercy for their flesh, because when they entered the city and saw the deadly torment of the people who were in it, they pity them and given bread for food and wine to drink. But since they were exhausted by hunger for a long two years, they ate hungrily and immediately died. Those who were alive left and left the city, and the barbarians took the city and settled in him".
The painting by the Monophysite bishop from the city of Ephesus is truly amazing. It is necessary to understand the subtleties of the psychology of the Byzantines, in order to fully marvel at the quoted passage. For the Greeks and Romans, any barbarians were akin to two-legged beasts: dirty, wild, bloodthirsty, and cruel. The most disgusting of these semi-animals have always been nomads. What the ancient authors write about the atrocities of the Huns, killing even old people and babies, not sparing neither pregnant women nor priests, is impossible to read without a shudder. And suddenly - such a passage. The barbarians who had besieged the city for two years and, finally, rushed into it, instead of murder and pogroms, were engaged in trying to feed and save the Romans. Notice, without the least benefit for themselves, for the survivors of the treaty remained Byzantine subjects. Human-loving nomads - this is something new for ancient literature.
The capture of the city of Sirmium by the Avars made an indelible impression on his contemporaries. As Serbian historians Bugarski and Ivanisevic (Ivan Bugarski, Vujadin Ivanišević) write: "The consequences of the fall of the capital of Pannonia in 582 were far-reaching, they led to the end of the disintegration of the civil and military power of the empire north of Sava and the Danube." Figuratively speaking, the unsinkable ship of the Byzantine defense received the first serious breach. He was still afloat, but the crew on the deck already felt uncomfortable. Shortly after concluding a treaty with the nomads, the emperor Tiberius was about to die and handed over the royal diadem to one of his commanders, Mauritius, after giving his daughter to him as a wife. Opinions about the new basil were divided. Byzantine historians, mostly, sang his praises. Here, for example, as Menander evaluates him: “Tiberius Caesar appointed Mauritius as commander of the East. He was not nurtured in military works, but was a reasonable man, serious and thorough. Combining the most opposite properties, high spirit with meekness, he was not proud and arrogant. The supreme power, having sought such a husband as Mauritius was, multiplied by experience its glory. " Our contemporaries are sometimes much more restrained in compliments. George Vernadsky writes: "His (Tiberias) successor on the throne was Mauritius, an Armenian by origin and a miser of liking."
The gold solid of the emperor Mauritius Tiberias
Both were probably true - the future emperor was born in the province of Cappadocia, the majority of whose population were Armenians, and according to some information, the lord's father was a simple gardener, and greed, which must be confessed, did not occupy the last place among the traits of the latter-day the emperor. This disadvantage, however, was balanced by many other advantages. Clever, seasoned and judicious, a lover of poetry and a patron of various sciences, Mauritius would undoubtedly become an excellent ruler of Byzantium at a different, more peaceful time. But he got a difficult period. Avars have already tasted fresh Roman blood. Convinced of the inability of the Empire to resist them, they began to create a cash cow from a great power. Listen to the follower of Menander's writing about the ambitions of the newcomers, a chronicler named Theophylact Simokatta: "they didn’t dare to commit to their youthful audacity. They were Huns, they lived along the coast of Istra, the most disloyal, insatiable tribe of all nomads. a significant city, they sent an embassy to the emperor of Mauritius. It was Sirmium, a city constantly mentioned and praised by the Romans living in Europe ... When the city was in the hands of the Huns, an armistice was concluded so that military actions stealing, peace came and everyone could safely go about their business.The conditions for the Romans were the most humiliating: after a series of such grievous misfortunes, as if the judges of any contest, they presented the barbarians as glorious gifts for the brilliant feat of eighty thousand gold and pledged each year through merchants contribute this amount with silver and colorful clothes. But this truce lasted no more than two years, for the kagan, so called by the Huns, began to behave proudly and contemptuously towards the Romans. "
The king of the barbarians, as if all the time, was probing the limits of compliance of the Byzantines: he demanded a curiosity for himself - an Indian elephant, then he made the Greeks build a golden bed for him. Mauritius fulfilled all the whims of the kagan, but he soon returned the gifts, as if they were some trinkets. "Moreover, he demanded that over eighty thousand gold romays pay him another twenty thousand a year. The emperor denied him this. Then the gunn disdained all the treaties and cast his vows to the wind. And at once, lifting the pipe, dear to the battles, he He began to gather his strength. He suddenly attacked and captured the city of Singidun, the former unfortified, devoid of any military equipment, because thanks to the world all of Thrace was completely unconcerned: the world does not have vigilance and does not inspire insight. The ode spent time outside the walls, in the fields, because the harvest forced them to do so, it was already summer, and they gathered their wealth from the fields to be able to live. The enemy began to pursue them, but the barbarian took the city not without a fight: at the gates of the city, and many avars were destined to die, and they won, as they say, a cadmish (I mean, pyrrhoic) victory. The enemies devastated and robbed many other neighboring cities. They took them without any difficulty: unexpected was this misfortune, unexpectedly it fell on neither . Taking Augusta and Viminaky (these were well-known cities under the jurisdiction of the prefect of Illyria), he immediately went with the army further, plundered Anhial, and all the surrounding villages betrayed the devastation. "
Balkan province of Byzantium. The red line marks cities taken by avars to 583-584 years.
This already smacked of a real large-scale disaster. Taken by the barbarians, the cities of Singidum and Viminacia were strongholds of the Illyrian defense, their loss passed into the hands of the nomads the entire western part of the Balkan Peninsula. The famous resort of Anchial on the Black Sea coast in the area of present-day Burgas opened up a direct road to Constantinople for the army of steppe men. Mauritius hurried to conclude peace on winners: “The following year, Elpidios (a Byzantine official) was appointed for the embassy with the same purpose. He was sent to the Avars and, coming to the Kagan, asked to send an ambassador to the Emperor and another twenty thousand gold coins were added to the payments. Kagan approved this proposal and sent Elpidius to the Caesar as ambassador of Targitia, a prominent member of the Avar tribe. They both came to the emperor and concluded a contract and an agreement on the terms that the Romans would pay another twenty thousand gold annually to the eighty thousand gold, and if they do not do so by their negligence, then there will be war with them again. Thus, it seemed, the treaty was again concluded and a truce came. ”
According to Theophylact Simokatty, the Avars alone campaigned against the Empire of 583–584 against the Empire, it was with their king that the Greeks negotiated peace. John of Ephesus, in “Church History,” notices, however, other participants in the conflict. We will listen to him: “And the wild people of barbarians, ugly, with braided hair, rebelled again. They - those who call Avars - splashed out and left the East. And also the Western people rebelled - Sklavins and other peoples, called the Lombards; They were also subordinate to the khan, the king of the Avars. They attacked, captured two cities and many Roman fortresses and told the inhabitants of this region: “Go out, sow and harvest - only half of the tax we will take from you.” Agree, the evidence is more than curious First, the Syrian writer Eh reports that the Avars did not treat the inhabitants of the occupied regions in the way their predecessors did the Huns, whose whole thoughts were reduced to looting and hijacking of the population, but as their own subjects to whom they also intended to halve taxes. Secondly, among the tribes subordinate to nomadic tribes, the bishop from Ephesus notices Sklavins and Lombards. Some researchers believe that in the latter case we are talking about those who went to Northern Italy. However, it is possible that the Syrian writer by this nickname called Alboin’s former subjects who remained in Pannonia, that is, the very people that Austrian historian Peter Stadler called “Svevs”.
Indeed, archaeologists discover within the Carpathian Basin a multitude of peoples of Germanic origin. They live in designated areas, they have their own armed elite. Did the Avars not attract this population to the campaigns against the Byzantines? Surely, the "German" units were present in the army of Bayan. But an amazing thing, the Greek authors for some reason never mention them. The phrase about the "Lombards", subordinate to the khan, from John of Ephesus is the only one of its kind. Neither he nor any of his colleagues said a word about it. Does this fact mean that the former Germans never again fought under the Avar banners? Or is everything much simpler: the terms "Lombards" and "Gepids" did not fundamentally suit the Byzantines as applied to the former inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin and the Greeks began to use a different name to designate Avar subjects of the Germanic root? But then what?
Now, regarding the "sklavinov" from the same text. Who did the Syrian author mean by that name? Until now, as we have established, this nickname was given by the Greeks to celebrate the Danube Aboriginal people, representatives of the Hypothestia culture. But could it be considered that in 584 they were already "subordinate to the khan, the king of the Avars," as the bishop-monophysite believes? Or is it about a different nation? In fact, historians engaged in Avar-Byzantine wars of the end of the 6th century began to suspect that a variety of tribes appeared under the name "sklavins" in the annals of this period. The obvious fact brought them to this thought: the chronicles showed the varying degree of dependence of the mentioned tribe on the Avar Kagan. Some "sklavins" for some reason unquestioningly carried out the orders of the nomadic king, others acted at their own peril and risk, and others - at all allowed themselves hostile attacks, like the robbers who killed the Avar envoy.
It was believed that the closer to the center of the Avar Kaganate the tribes lived, the more subordinate they were. The American researcher Georgy Vernadsky writes the following about this: "The Pannon Slavs suffered especially under the Avar oppression. The position of the other Slavic tribes was not as miserable as their Pannon brothers." He was echoed by the Russian historian Gennady Litavrin: “The Pannon Slavs fell under the rule of the Avars in the 60s ... Being probably in a strong degree of dependence in the center of the territory of the Khanate (in the Tisza basin), the Slavs maintained some autonomy at its periphery. The ethnic majority of the Khan’s subjects made tribute and performed labor duties in their favor (in particular, they built ships for the Avar army, built crossings over the rivers.) But the Slavs of Pannonia, who had raided the Empire with Avars, sought independence The Sagans of the former Roman province of Dacia, who lived along with the remnants of the Romanized local population and occupied mostly the territory between the Danube and the Carpathians, especially the Slavs made frequent long-distance campaigns to the Empire, reaching almost the walls of Constantinople itself. VI - early VII century, the empire organized several major expeditions against the "Dacian" Slavs. At the same time, though unsuccessfully, the Avar Khan also claimed power over them. "
As you can see, faced with the phenomenon of varying degrees of subordination of the chronicles of the Sklavins to the Avar tsar, historians developed the concept of two Slavic communities: the "Pannon" and the "Dacian". The "potted" tribes, who were inside the Carpathian Basin, were brought to the first. Scientists did not dare to challenge their complete dependence on the nomads, although they stated here that they allegedly wanted to be free. As for the former "sklavins" of the Byzantine chronicles, that is, the population of the hypothetical culture of Wallachia and Moldova, they began to call him "Dacian" Slavs to distinguish them from the compulsory brothers. These tribes, according to scientists, were completely free, because the claims of power over them by the Avar Kagan were "unsuccessful." We will not argue with the Slavists so far. For simplicity, the perception of the events of the end of the 6th century, let us take this theory into service. With the only amendment that will call these people all the same "sklavinami", as the Byzantine authors did, and not the Slavs, as modern specialists want to rename them.
Russian explorer Sergei Alekseev went even further, he calls the Danube Aborigines "Slovenes" using the term of the oldest Russian chronicle. And this is how, from his point of view, the relations of these people with alien nomads looked like: “But his greatest achievement (Bayan) was an alliance with Slovenes. Cooperation with them began during the campaign of 581–582. But then it could not to take any organized form — mutual insults were too fresh in their memory. Now, when the Avars and the Danubians were headed by new leaders, and they were tied to a common enmity with the Empires, a close alliance became quite achievable. , were d I Kaganate irreplaceable help in the fight against it. On the other hand, the Slovenian princes must have counted on the support and patronage of the Avars. that not very well-informed authors from the very beginning perceived the union of the Danubians and the Avars as the subordination of all the Kagan slogans ... The obvious fallacy of some evidence and the ambiguity of others suggests that Roma are wrong in principle, iticheskih concepts interpreted Avar-Slovenian Union. But it is possible that their delusion stemmed from the fact that the kagan, claiming to have power over "every people," himself fed on such opinions. Of course, there were also directly subordinate to the Kagan Sloven - the northern and southern Moravians. They entered the army of the kagan and carried out his orders. But in the Avar army there were other, "Eastern" Slovenes - which was definitely perceived by the Romans as a sign of humility. In fact, the essence of the Avar-Slovenian agreement reached in 583 was as follows. Kagan was recognized as a general commander ("voivod", in Slavic terminology) of the combined forces in the war against the Empire. That is why the Danubians carried out his military orders and at times were part of his army - but remained completely politically independent. Some kind of coordination was simply necessary for Slovenian detachments scattered across the Balkan Peninsula. That is why they agreed to Kagan, having resorted to him as a center of power and an independent arbitrator. It is not clear, however, how effective the command of the kagan was. It is clear that only those leaders who directly signed the pact showed real military submission to him. All this does not mean, of course, that the Kaganate did not at all exert any political influence on the Lower Danube Slovene. The delivery of military power to the kagan gave him the opportunity to somehow intervene in the tribal life of words, to manipulate them, primarily in his relations with the Empire. The kaganate, as a much stronger and more durable formation than the Danube or ephemeral Dulebian union, inevitably played a leading role in partnership with them. Moreover, the kaganat turned into a natural center of attraction for small clans and tribes scattered around the Balkans. Slovenia south of the Danube fell into real dependence much faster than their Dacian relatives. The Avars were partly confused with Slovenes on both sides of the river; elements of Avar material culture penetrated to the Slovens. "
The stubborn unwillingness of modern authors to recognize the dependence of future Slavs on the Avar Kagan makes them cunning and unscrew all the time. How to explain that the Byzantine chroniclers directly indicate that these tribes fought on the orders of Bayan? Everything is simple - in reality, it turns out, there was an "Avar-Slovene Union", within which the Sklavins submitted to the Kagan in the war, but were completely independent in their peaceful life. Foolish Romais naively "misinterpreted, in their political terms, interpreted" this pact. It seemed to them that the Danube aborigines fell under the influence of the Avar Kaganate. But this, of course, in principle could not be. Archaeologists also thought that the tribes living "on both sides of the river", that is, on the territory of Romania and Bulgaria began to actively penetrate elements of Avar culture: weapons, combat belts, and so on. Yes, the “Avars were partly mixed” with the local inhabitants, Alexeyev reluctantly admits, but it must have been happening, it is only within the framework of the same notorious “union”. Who thought the other is wrong.
We will not argue with anyone. Just open the ancient chronicles, and read what is written in them. And then ponder what this information means. Theophylact Simokatta, whose nickname some researchers translate as a “snub-nosed cat,” complains that the contract with the Kagan gave the Greeks only a brief respite: “But after some short period of time the good of this world was violated and the Avars tribe attacked again, but not openly, and even more fraudulently and criminally. They incited the tribe of Slavins, which destroyed most of the Romanian land and, as if flying (by air), with an avalanche went up to the so-called Long Walls (fortifications on the outskirts of Constantinople), on the head azah (citizens) destroying everything. Therefore, basil in fear placed guard on the Long walls, and the military forces that he had with him, brought out of the capital, trying to create (yet) one significant barrier around the city It was then Komentiol (Byzantine commander) and the responsible command was entrusted; after entering Thrace, he drove away the hordes of Slavins, reached the river called Erginia (a tributary of the Maritsa), and suddenly appeared before the Sklavins, attacked them decisively and caused the great beating of the barbarians ... then on pr the procession of the summer, he gathered romeyskoy forces went to Adrianople and ran into Ardagast that led the vast hordes sklaviny with prey - many prisoners and magnificent trophies. At the end of the night (Komentiol), early in the morning, he approached the fortress of Ansin and bravely entered the battle with the barbarians. The enemies retreated and were put to flight. They were expelled from all Astika (region in Thrace). The feat of the Romans kept the captive day light. And the strategist sang the triumphant pean (song in honor of the gods) and set up a trophy. "
All researchers agree that Ardagast headed the Dacian Slavins. The name of the leader, Αρδαγαστος, is clearly not Slavic: the root-Gast is often found in Germanic nicknames. For example, in the IV century, the commander Arbogast (Arbogastes), originally from the Franks, did not become the Western Roman emperor for the small. His complete namesake Arbogast of Strasbourg in the VII century, headed the corresponding bishopric, the Catholic Church recognized him as saint. The Byzantine commander Anagast, the son of Anegiskla, by origin, apparently from the Vandals, who in 467 killed the last Hunnic prince Dengizikh, is also widely known. Besides them, the story also knows a considerable number of German names with a similar ending: Arvagastes, Cunigastus, Harvigast, and the like, including the well-known modern name Gaston. All this did not prevent the individual historians from “cross over” the leader of the Slavins in Radogost. Perhaps, I leave without commenting the stubborn desire of the Slavists to hear the echoes of their native speech in at least one of the names of the Danube leaders. Understanding people, and so everything is clear. The manic persistence of fanatics of the Slavic idea makes them a kind of religious sect, which means that the arguments of reason over these people are no longer authoritative. At least, science in such attempts did not even spend the night. The citizens of the above-mentioned Tsar did indeed live along the north bank of the Danube, which we can still see with you, for it does not immediately disappear from the pages of the chronicles. It means that before us is actually the ruler of the hypoteshtinsky tribes.
But it was his Byzantines who were suspected of acting on the instructions of Bayan. For example, one Theophanes writes in his Letopisi concerning these events: “Meanwhile, the kagan did not hesitate to break peace with deceit. He armed the Slavins among the peoples who reached the Long Walls, making a great robbery.” Yes, and the subsequent description of Theophylact Simokatty leaves no doubt who, according to the Byzantines, unleashed a conflict: in order to get an annual monetary tribute from the Romais, which, by virtue of the treaty, was collected here every year for the kagan. This aroused the ire of the emperor, who understood that the Avars exposed him to obvious mockery: oh tribute and all kinds of gifts and income as if to preserve peace, but on the other - did not pay attention to it, devastated Europe and made the cities uninhabited. "
In other words, basil directly laid on Bayan the full responsibility for the activities of Ardagast. Thus, the Byzantines, already in the year 584, that is, five years after the famous great march into Wallachia of the Avar horsemen, considered the "Dacian" sklavins to be nomadic subjects. This approach caused a new outbreak of conflict: “Therefore Targiti was exiled to the island of Chalkitida for six months under strict supervision — for so long he continued to burn with the ire of the emperor, who threatened to issue an order for the execution of the ambassador. Many of the neighboring cities, including Rateria, Bononia, Akis, Dorostol, Zaldapy, Pannasy, Markianopolis and Tropea, captured them and brought many difficulties to him (kagan). repentance passed into his hands. True, he was greatly helped by the great enthusiasm of the entire advancing army, which usually appears when the enemy fails. "
I note that as a result of the entry into hostilities of the main forces of the Kagan army in 585, the Avars managed almost unbelievable: they captured a good half of the Danube Limes fortresses, capturing the capital of the province of Lower Moesia, the city of Markianopol. Moreover, the Avar-Sklavin horde did not calm down on this achievement. It spread widely throughout the Balkan Peninsula, reaching the Peloponnese in the South. Judging by the chronicle, which is called “The Miracles of St. Demetrius,” a certain squad of 5,000 people of Sklavins “entirely composed of selected and experienced warriors” appeared in this period under the walls of Thessalonica. Although this "chosen color of the people of the Sklavins", as it is called in the chronicles, failed to crush the impregnable walls of one of the most powerful Greek fortresses, the aliens caught up with fear on the local inhabitants there. But much more lucky barbarian unit, stormed at the same time, Corinth, an important stronghold that blocked the road to the Peloponnese for northerners.
The famous Austrian explorer of the early Middle Ages, Walter Paul, believes that the Baslavian detachment led by the Avar leader besieged this bastion. The American historian Kenneth Setton from Princeton, on the contrary, emphasizes the role of the Kutrigur Bulgarians as the main striking force of the army advancing in the South. Archaeologists perfectly see the layer of fires and destruction in Corinth, but the number of materials that can be directly connected with the Slavs, from their point of view, is not too impressive. Listen to what Sergei Alekseev writes about this: "Traces of Slavic culture in Corinth are scarce, but they exist. Corruption with the" Prague "vessels is known, earrings of" Antsky "type have been found. At that time, as things created by the hands of masters from Keszthely, here are an order of magnitude more. It seems that those who captured the strategically important fortress came to its walls from the very depths of the Avar Kaganate, that is, from the inner Carpathian basin. Academician Valentin Sedov, who writes: “Historical materials indicate that the majority of Slavic settlers in the Balkan Peninsula and the Peloponnese were sent from the Middle Danube lands. This was not the case for all Avar-Slavic military units that were formed in this region.” It turns out that the bulk of the conquerors of Illyria and Greece were supplied by those whom Russian historians call the "Pannon Slavs".
Corinthian Acropolis
Another famous Byzantine chronicle, the Monemvasian Chronicle, describes the successful penetration of the barbarians into the extreme South of the Balkan Peninsula and the displacement of the Hellenes from there. This is what it says: "And during the second invasion, he (the Avar Khagan) captured all of Thessaly and All Hellas, like Old Epirus and Attica and Eubey. Finally, having also attacked the Peloponnese, they (the Avars) seized it with power and, rejecting and having humiliated the noble Hellenic peoples, settled on it themselves. Those who managed to avoid their bloodthirsty hands scattered who where. For example, the city of Patras moved the kalavars to Reggio, argei to the island called Orovi, and the Corinthians moved to the island by the name of Aegina. It was then that the Laconians, having left their native land, alone sailed on Sicily - they also live on it, at the place named Demenna, instead of Lacedaemonians as Demennites, but retaining their Laconian language, while others, finding a hard-to-reach spot on the sea coast, building a fortified city and naming it Monemvasia - for the reason that he has the only entrance for those who go to him, settled in this city with their own bishop, while herdsmen and herdsmen settled in the stony places lying nearby; recently they became known as tsakonam (mountaineers?). So, the Avars, who had taken possession of the Peloponnese and settled on it, held out (here) for two hundred and eighteen years, not subject to the Romans to the basil, or to anyone else, namely from 6096 from the creation of the world, which was the sixth year of the reign of Mauritius, until 6313, which was the fourth year of the reign of Nicephorus the Elder. "
Peloponnese Peninsula. The cities of Corinth, Patras, Argos and Monemvasia, the historical regions of Laconia, Attica, Euboea and Tsaconia, which are mentioned in the Monemvasia Chronicle, are highlighted.
So, according to the authors of this chronicle, a tribe called "Avars" invaded Greece in 587 (the "sixth year of the reign of Mauritius") and lived in those places for more than two centuries, later being called "sklavins" and "tsakonami" . By the way, still in the Peloponnese to the North of the city of Monemvasia is located the historical region of Tsakoniya, whose inhabitants speak a special dialect of the modern Greek language. According to the chronicles, the ancient aborigines of the Peloponnese, called in the text "noble Hellenic peoples", were forced to flee from these places, settling everywhere, up to Sicily. Historians, however, deny the exodus of the Greeks from the territory of their ancestral homeland. They believe that the cities of the peninsula, and the rest of Greece, were not long under the barbarians. The same Corinth, in their opinion, returned under the control of the Byzantine basilus a couple of years after the assault. However, the threat of complete loss of the Balkans did not pass. It is about this period of time that Evagrius Scholastic writes in his chronicle: "While this happened, the Avars twice reached the so-called Long Walls, devastated and plundered Syngidon, Anchial, all of Greece and other cities and fortresses, because the army was mostly was in the East. "
At the same time, whoever really opposed the Roma - the “herdsmen of the herds,” that is, the nomads, or the “farmers,” by whom our Slavic ancestors are usually understood, the main trophies still went to the Avar kagan. Listen to what John of Ephesus writes about this: "And the people of the Sklavins plundered everything - and church utensils and big ciboriums (sheds above the altar) - dragged them away on strong chariots, such as the civorium of the Corinthian church: sat under it ... In the end they (sklavins) broke down the wall; (they broke into the city of Anchial) and found purple (robes) there, those that Anastasia, the wife of Emperor Tiberius, arrived in the baths and dedicated to the local church. Their khan was taken and put on, saying: "The king of the Romans desires this or not, but, behold, GUSTs him to give me. "
Do not think that the Byzantines gave the Balkans to the barbarians without resistance. The heirs of the glory of Sparta and Athens, the descendants of the warriors of Alexander of Macedon and the grandchildren of Roman legionnaires were fashioned from the wrong pastry in order to immediately bail before the aliens. The Eastern Roman Empire survived the invasion of Attila’s fierce Huns not at all to capitulate to the new wave of “fugitives from the East”, as the Avars suddenly raised in Constantinople were insulting. The city on the Bosphorus invented new ways to stop the onslaught of arrogant kosopletov. However, in general, the situation of the Byzantine state by the end of the 80s of the 6th century looked hopeless. Enemies — Persians, Avars, and Lombards — surrounded the once vast realm of Justinian on all sides, methodically tearing it piece by piece. Mauritius focused its efforts primarily on the eastern front, considering its main adversary to be Sassanian Iran. From the European nomads, for the time being, he preferred to buy off, only sometimes making timid attempts to knock them out of the captured Balkan territories. Italy didn’t have enough strength at all, because basil sent large sums of money to Frankish leaders, persuading them to take the Apennine peninsula away from the Lombards. The Franks took gold willingly, but fought over the Alps without enthusiasm, as if doing a favor to the Constantinople monarch.
The Byzantine Empire in the ring of enemies in the second half of the 80s of the 6th century
The famous Hungarian archaeologist Ishtvan Bona believes that the Avars during this period considered the lands of Northern Bulgaria to be their own possessions, and there some part of their horde constantly wandered: "Historical surveys show that in the last third of the VI century the Avars still decided whether their new home. They then laid claim to the area between the Lower Danube and the Balkan Mountains, occupying the territories of Mesia and Little Scythia in 584-586. " However, already in 587 the Byzantines made the first attempt to clear the Balkan Peninsula from uninvited guests. Theophylact Simokatta describes this campaign in detail. At the head of the imperial troops was put commander Komentiol, a Thracian by origin, a guards officer by experience, and an obliging fool in essence. Possessing insignificant military talents and a shallow mind, he made a brilliant career in Mauritius, thanks to personal dedication and readiness, without hesitation, to execute any order. This man successfully failed several diplomatic missions, but he defeated the sklavins of Ardagast under the walls of Adrianople and, therefore, went to the favorites at the basilica. To help him, two lower-ranking commanders were allocated — the taxi drivers Martin and Cust — and these three commanders began to prepare a campaign for the Avars.
The theater of military operations of the Byzantine-Avar conflict of 587. The cities mentioned in the Theophylact Simokatta Chronicle are highlighted.
Having arranged a review of the troops from the Thracian city of Anhial (now the Bourgas region in southern Bulgaria), the strategists selected the most efficient horsemen, numbering six thousand, from a ten-thousand-strong army and, dividing them into three units, led to the North. Calculation was done on suddenness and he was almost justified. Caste with his unit went to the area of the city of Zaldapa (Zaldapa), found the barbarians completely unprepared for the war, attacked them, captured valuable trophies, but unfortunately for the Greeks, could not save them - the nomads recaptured their prey while trying to ship it to the South. It seems that these places were already deep relics of the steppe people. Especially since Martin’s detachment, going to the outskirts of the famous Tom (Tomis), sung by Ovid, who was bored here in exile, found a similar picture - a lot of nomads who were completely unprepared for war and among them left the kagan rate completely defensive. "As if from the abyss of the sea, death appeared before the barbarians, as if an enemy army was absorbed by some tide of the sea," writes Symokatt, satisfied with the turn of events. He only complains that by some miracle Bayan himself managed to escape from captivity on an overgrown reed island in the middle of the lake. Moreover, according to deserters, the Avar king returned to his camp only on the fifth day. However, on this reserve of good fortune, set aside by the Fate of the Byzantines in this campaign, ended.
Komentiol himself started the initial part of the campaign under the walls of Markianopol, without doing anything worthwhile. There, Caste and Martin, with the troops entrusted to them, came to join up with their commander. The commanders realized that the Avars, having recovered from the first shock, would prepare a retaliatory strike and tried to hinder him, taking passes in the “mountains of Gema”, that is, where the spurs of the Stara Planina mountain range stretch towards the Black Sea, and taking control bridges over the local rivers. As a result of the maneuvers, however, the detachment of Caste was ambushed and was captured along with his boss. The Avars marched along the old Roman road along the sea shore, and, having broken the resistance of the Greek fortifications defending the local fortifications, found themselves deep in the rear of the Comentiola army. "As if from some dungeons of disasters, the Hagan sent a huge army to the Romans to devastate all of Thrace." The leader of the Thracian militia, the taxi-ranks Ansimut, retreated with his warriors to Constantinople, hoping to hide behind the Long Walls, but was also captured. The nomads, meanwhile, took the Appiaria fortress (Appiaria) on the Danube border. Worst of all, under the walls of its walls the steppe inhabitants captured a warrior named Busas. When the townspeople, despite their previous merits, did not want to buy it back, he, in exchange for his life, taught the steppe men to build wall-breaking machines. As Feofan writes: "The barbarians, having learned through this siege art, enslaved many cities and returned with great loot."
Komentiol hardly collected his army, scattered in the woods along the slopes of Stara Planina, and even, thanks to the night transition, had another chance to take the kagan by surprise. But the army, mortally fearful of the steppe enemies, panicked only because one of the drivers of the convoy, seeing that a bale with a load fell from the front mule, began to shout loudly to his comrade: "Turn, turn, brother." This was enough to ensure that the vaunted Romanian army, together picking up the call, immediately went on the run, although no one pursued it. Nothing more remarkable happened this year. The population, knowing the real state of affairs, openly slandered about the basil, believing it was precisely his culprit of all misfortunes. “The Byzantines, having learned that Kast was taken prisoner by the barbarians, began to strongly revile Mauritius,” says Theophanes. Avars besieged several large fortresses of Thrace, including the city of Philippopolis, but failed to take them. When Mauritius withdrew several new units from the eastern front and entrusted general campaign management to disgraced commander John Mistakon (Usach), he managed to stop the Avar onslaught under Adrianople, breaking the advanced nomad troops. That is where the war ended that year.
The dynamics of cash payments Byzantium Avar kaganat
The empire continued to pay Bayan a tribute, which reached up to 100 thousand gold a year during this period. The exorbitant burden fell on the treasury and Mauritius all the time was looking for ways to ease the financial position of the power. However, his desire to save on the maintenance of soldiers provoked a riot in the eastern army, fighting against the Persians. The uprising was crushed with great difficulty. But it was still not possible to save money. It seemed that the Byzantine Empire was breathing its last and is about to fall, torn by deep internal contradictions and besieged by ruthless external enemies. Only a miracle could save her, but it was it that happened at that moment.
Unexpected distemper broke out in Persia, where the renowned commander Bahram Chubin (called Wahram in the Byzantine chronicles), offended by his king, overthrew his offender in Iran in 590, the legitimate шахahshah of Iran Ormuzd IV (Hormisd). The last Khosrov’s son fled to Byzantium and asked for help from Mauritius, promising to give the Empire all the disputed lands. Vasilevs supported the exile. Already in the year 591, the united Persian-Byzantine army was able to regain the throne of Khosrov II, and finally a lasting peace was established between the Romanies and the Persians under the most favorable conditions for Byzantium. The emperor received a long-awaited opportunity to come to grips with European affairs.
The preparation of a large-scale campaign against the avars began. Mauritius was going to lead him personally in order to restore his authority, shaken in the army. All the forces available to the Greeks were transferred to the Balkan Peninsula. The beginning of the military campaign was organized almost like a parade: "his bodyguards walked in front of him. The fighting system stretched out in length, and the emperor rejoiced at the sight of the troops passing in front of him. The main striking force was at the end. The shaft of the cross of Christ (this relic was returned the day before Basil was new Iranian shahinshakh) was raised high on a golden spear and moved ahead of the emperor and the army surrounding him. " Obviously, Mauritius was so confident in the success of the expedition that he became the head of an improvised "crusade" against the pagans. Under other conditions, it was a huge risk, because in the event of a defeat, the strategist always became extreme, and if he was a monarch, he risked losing not only his head, but also his crown. Apparently, the Byzantines believed that the Persian war, which had distracted their main forces, still hindered the destruction of the Avars. Now, when the latter was finished, and the whole color of the vaunted army of the Romans was set against the nomads, the daring newcomers had no chance.
Regarding when this grand campaign happened, the opinions of historians differ. At Simokatta it is said that the nomination began in the “ninth year of the reign of the emperor of Mauritius,” that is, we are talking about a period of time from August 14, 590 to August 13, 591. However, a number of researchers believe that the Roma would not have been able to transfer troops from the East so quickly, because peace with Persia was concluded only in the autumn of 591 years. Although in this case the exact date is not so important. Since the expedition, in spite of a very solemn look, did not work out from the very beginning. As soon as the army moved out of the capital, a solar eclipse occurred, which in ancient times was considered a bad sign. Astronomers, by the way, tell us that this celestial phenomenon falls on March 19, 592. Bad omens and further pursued the campaigners — the wild boar, jumping out of the forest, nearly knocked over a horse with Mauritius in the saddle, then the basil barely escaped during the storm, then the imperial horse broke its belly, then the woman gave birth to a monster without arms and legs, but with fish tail. After a whole series of bad omens, the Constantinople ruler "was extremely saddened and confused by the events that took place, imbued with fear about the future." In this situation, Mauritius allowed himself to be persuaded to return to the capital under the specious pretext of receiving ambassadors, and handed over the leadership of the army to one of the most talented commanders of the era, Priscu. On this, strictly speaking, the "crusade" against the nomads was completed. It would seem that nothing terrible happened, but the hapless monarch in the army finally gained a reputation as a notorious coward.
While Mauritius remained at the head of the failed expedition, another incident happened, which I would like to dwell on in more detail. This is how Simokatta describes him: “On the next day, three people from the tribe of Slavins, who had no iron weapons or any military devices, were captured by the emperor’s bodyguards. They were only kithars (musical instrument like gusli), and nothing else they did not carry with them. The emperor began to ask them what tribe they were destined to live for and for what reason they are within the Romanian limits. They answered that by tribe they were sklavin, they live on the edge of the western Ocean, that kagan sent to them donkeys in order to gather military force, and sent honorary gifts to their tribal rulers. They accepted the gifts, but refused allied assistance to him, insistently indicating that they were hampered by distance, and they were sent to the Kagan as hostages, as if as proof that this journey lasts fifteen months. But the Hagan, having forgotten all the laws in relation to the ambassadors, decided to fix them any difficulties in returning. They heard, they said, that the Romanian people, both in wealth and humanity, are, so to speak, the most glorious ; therefore, having deceived (kagan), they chose an opportune moment and left for Thrace. They wear Kifar because they are not accustomed to dressing their bodies with iron weapons - their country does not know iron, and therefore lives peacefully and without insurrection because they play on liras, because they are not trained to blow pipes. Those for whom war is an unknown thing, naturally, they said, more intensively indulge in musical activities. After listening to their stories, the emperor admired their tribe, and the barbarians themselves, who fell into his hands, he honored the gracious welcome and food. Surprised by the size of their bodies and the beauty of their members, he sent them to Herakleia. "
This story is very fond of domestic and foreign Slavists. With its help, they strive to prove that the Slavic tribes at this time already settled throughout the continent - right up to the shores of the Baltic Sea, which the Romans considered to be the Gulf of the Western Ocean. It must be said that the anecdote about savages who did not know iron, beautiful in body and face, engaged in music instead of wars and battles, was extremely popular among the Byzantines. Probably, the ancient Greek myth about the country of blissful hyperboreans transformed in this form in the early Middle Ages, with the only difference being that from now on the latter were called "sklavins". Theophanes the Confessor tells him almost word for word, with the only difference being that he had unarmed northerners "walked eighteen months." If this story was based on a real incident, then you have to admit that the Avar Kagan knew in advance about the coming attack of the Romans and collected military force from the entire European North in advance.
Surprisingly, the nomads were not at all afraid that from now on they were left alone in the confrontation with Constantinople. Nor was they embarrassed by the military parade with the demonstration of the newly found instrument for the execution of Jesus. Since the following events were written in Simokatta’s work: “Kagan demanded an increase in contractual contributions from Caesar, when the emperor did not pay attention to these barbarian speeches, the kagan immediately decided to start a war against him. Therefore, he ordered the Sklavins to build a large number of light ships, in order to prepare the crossing over the Istr. The residents of Singhidin, with their frequent raids, destroyed the work of the Slavins, setting fire to all that they had prepared for the device of the crossing. As a result, the barbarians laid siege to Singidun. was already brought to an extremely difficult position and had very weak hopes of salvation. Suddenly, on the seventh day, the kagan ordered the barbarians to stop the siege and come to him. Having listened to his order, the barbarians removed the siege from the city, taking with him as a ransom two thousand gold gifts , a gold-laid table and clothes. "
Further events developed rapidly: “Kagan, having passed five parasangs, camped near the city of Sirmium, and crowds of Slavins began to prepare wooden shuttles (“ monoxyls ”) so that the kagan could cross the river called Saos. He was in a hurry with this campaign, according to his order, they tried their best to give him the opportunity to cross: the fear of the chiefs set over them forced them to do it. When these light vessels were made and handed over to the Kagan, the barbarian army crossed the neighboring river. ordering their military forces, ordered parts of them to quickly move forward and terrorize the roomers with the swiftness of their invasion. "
Sklavinsky shuttle "monoksil", in translation - "single-tree", cut down from the trunk of a single tree
Judging by the dates indicated in Theophan's chronicle, the new campaign began a couple of years after the "great march of Mauritius" which ended in complete embarrassment. Therefore, we are talking about 593-594 AD. Note that the Avars are not at all afraid of the increased Byzantines, but in fact they themselves start a war with them, demanding from the Greeks an increase in the shameful tribute. Singidun, however, by this time has already returned to the Romans. But the latter do not feel themselves masters here. Barbarians easily managed to surround their city, and after only seven days he was "brought to an extremely difficult position and had very weak hopes of salvation." Is this not clear evidence of how precarious the position of the Byzantines became in the Upper Moesia? Only separate fortresses belonged to them here, the whole rural district was occupied by strangers.
As for the Slavins mentioned in the text, according to the logic of the Slavists, they should be understood as Pannonic tribes. First, both ferries were prepared near Pannonia or even on its territory: under Singhidunom and under Sirmi. Secondly, these people unconditionally fulfill the orders of the Avar king, even to the detriment of their direct interests. It is noteworthy that these Sklavins are so dependent that Avar bosses, who are very afraid, are put on them to speed up the work. Kagan was obviously in a hurry. He had to ship all the troops to the other side of Sava before the appearance of Priscus's army. The capacity of the Sklavinskaya monoksil, as you can see in the photo with your own eyes, is not too large. At such a "single-tree" one could at best transport several riders with weapons and armor at best. Therefore, it took many boats and the ferry was carried out continuously, night and day. When the hordes of the barbarians were on the southern shore, they, without hesitation, rushed towards the enemy.
The Byzantines tried to stop the invasion of the barbarians on the Proclani pass, near the Iron Gate, but embarrassed by great losses, the imperial warriors fled from there already on the second night. Then the steppe invaded Thrace, captured Anhial, and burned, for no reason, the church of the martyr Alexander, as the chronicles claim. Finally, the two opposing armies met under the walls of Heraclea. The battle, however, was short-lived: “Suddenly seeing the enemy army, Priscus did not postpone the moment of collision. However, joining the kagan army, he immediately showed the enemy rear, due to the huge number of opposing troops, unable to offer the necessary resistance in battle And along with the foot army, the romeysky stratig retired to Didimotih. Then, arriving in Tzurul, he turned the city into a shelter for his troops. The barbarians, having besieged Priska, stormed the city hard. the sad end, and experienced the greatest confusion at the news of what happened. "
Alas, the commander Priscus and his glorious warriors "immediately showed the enemy rear". Speaking more simply, the vaunted army of the Romans, all the power of which at that time was collected in the Balkans against the steppe inhabitants, could not withstand the frontal impact of the enemy and fled. That was already a complete disaster! The best imperial forces gathered in Europe and handed the most promising strategist, but in the very first battle all this power was scattered downwind and the remnants of the Byzantine troops fled to the capital in panic and took refuge in the Tzurulum fortress, located on the outside of the Long Walls, nearby from this fortification. The barbarians besieged Priscus and he could not stretch for a long time, because in this small citadel, by definition, there was not enough food for the whole army. Over Byzantium hung a dark shadow of complete military collapse. It is not surprising that the basilus "became disheartened, fearing a sad end." The trick came to the rescue. Mauritius persuaded one officer to voluntarily be captured with a false letter from the emperor, stating that everything was going according to plan: while Priscus diverted the forces of his enemies, the Byzantine fleet with an invading army set out to destroy Avar lands. Believing the thrown message, the nomads lifted the siege and retreated back home. The empire was saved.
The fear that the steppe people had overtaken the Greeks under Herakleia and Tzurullah, however, did not force them to completely abandon plans for the liberation of the Balkans. But, taught by previous defeats, the Romans began to act much more carefully. Mauritius changed tactics. Since the Avars so far turned out to be too tough for him, he undertook to pacify those tribes whom historians called the "Dacian Slavs", that is, the classical sklavins of the Ipoteshtin culture. The status of these people was really uncertain. Although the kagan had a serious influence on them, they were not considered his subjects. At least, the Avars themselves strove to disown these robbers every time they went to rob the Danube. This circumstance and hurried to take advantage of basil. Here is what Simokatta writes about: “With the onset of late autumn, the stratig (Priscus) disbanded his camp and returned to Byzantium. The Romans, not engaged in military service, scattered across Thrace, earning food for themselves in the villages (this is about the militia). With the onset of spring Stratig was sent by the emperor to Istra, so that the tribes of the Sklavins, having met with his handicap in crossing the Istres, willy-nilly left Thrace alone. The emperor repeatedly told Priscus that the barbarians would not keep calm if the Romans were not careful. By guarding Istr. Prisk, he took over the command of the equestrian forces, and Gentzon was placed at the head of the foot troops. Thus, in the middle of spring, the Romanian troops gathered around Heraclea. "
Historians traditionally date this period of the Byzantines from 593-594 years. But it is possible that the events unfolded a little later, in 595 years after the birth of Christ. Having received a direct order from Constantinople, Priscus moved to the Danube, in the region of Dorostol. This caused open discontent of the Avar Kagan. The leader of the steppe men sent an ambassador to the Byzantine army, named Koch, who was speaking before the Greek warriors, reproaching them in violating the peace treaty: "Istres sees the war spectacle, the fortified camp and the iron of the belted Priscus, shortly before, as the bride who brought the world to Avars and romayam ". Under the terms of the agreement, the Byzantine army must not have entered the neutral zone along the southern bank of the Danube. At least, as Simokatta writes: "Such a speech made a very heavy impression on the army." Apparently, the Greeks understood that they were the first to break the conditions of peace with the nomads. But Priscus said, "that the war has been launched against the Sklavins, and that at the same time the oaths and treaties with the Avars remain in force, as well as the war with the hets." Perhaps the Byzantines jumped at the fact that the status of the Danube robbers in the contract was not clearly defined.
It is curious that in this passage the chronicler for the first time puts an equal sign between the Danube Sclavins and gethes. If they did not forget, the Greeks called the hets of the Thracian tribes that lived between the Carpathians and the Black Sea on both banks of Istra. Now Simokatta calls this name new inhabitants of the same places, "Dacian Slavs" in the terminology of Russian historians. After all, they settled in the same place where their predecessors lived - on the lands of northern Bulgaria, Wallachia and Moldova. It seems that the Byzantine chronicler felt that the ethnonym "Sklavins" in his era had become too vague and uncertain. So he seeks to clarify it as much as possible. Indeed, the Byzantine commander did not seek to declare war on the subjects of the Avar Kagan who lived inside the Carpathian Basin, because he did not want to cause the anger of the steppe king. Meanwhile, these people, too, very often were called "sklavins." There was a need to specify more specifically who Prisk is going against. Here is a chronicler and revived the ancient name of the local Aborigines.
Be that as it may, after negotiations ended in vain, the Byzantines decided to cross the Danube: “The twelfth day came after that, and having built ships, crossed the river. Having heard that Ardagast gathered crowds of alien slaves who wanted to profit from their prey, Prisk in the middle of the night began to hike Ardagast, having lost his dreams as a result of the growing noise, quickly woke up, jumped on his bare horse and rushed into flight. Then the barbarian suddenly attacked the Romans and, jumping off his horse, tried to try his luck in a foot battle, but not having the strength to withstand a reciprocal attack, he turned to flight, fleeing through some impassable place. In these habitual movements for him, Ardagast overtook his opponents. But then he was unlucky: for some accident, the barbarian flew on the trunk of a huge tree and fell. Here he would have become a very desirable prey for his pursuers, if the river did not serve him as a salvation: having crossed it, he avoided danger.Romei, having made huge crowds of claves with sword food, devastated the country that was under the power of Ardagast, and prisoners taken alive, they otgipchiv wooden pads, sent to Byzantium. "
Let's take a closer look at what the chronicler told us. Prisk with the army crossed the Danube in the Dorostol area and suddenly attacked the Slavins. The local tribes submitted to the leader Ardagast, who was once defeated by Komentiol under the walls of Adrianople, for the locality on the other side of the river Simokatta is called "the country under the rule of Ardagast." Obviously, we are talking about Wallachia, its population most often robbed its neighbors. More precisely, the tribes opposing Prisca most likely lived in the area between the Ialomitsy and Argesh rivers, that is, in the Southeast of Muntenia. Since this area is directly adjacent to the Danube opposite Dorostol, and, according to the story of Simokatta, the Byzantine strategist attacked the barbarians on the second day after the crossing. Among other things, we have a description of how the leader of the Danube Aborigines, who was caught off guard, fought. On the one hand, he jumps on a horse to attack the Romans. On the other - his horse turns out to be bareback and getting close to the enemy, the leader of the Slavins jumps to the ground to fight on foot. Note that we are talking about an experienced warrior, who led a significant detachment of warriors in a long march. Even if he was not a full-fledged rider, what then to speak about his fellow tribesmen? Without a doubt, these people fought on foot. The mystery is the fate of Ardagast. Although the text of Simokatty brave warrior escaped by throwing himself into the river and sailing to the other side, no one heard anything more about him. One of two things - either the glorified knight died in further battles, or after that defeat lost forever his power over his fellow countrymen.
Approximate routes of Priscus and Peter's campaigns to the lands of the Slavins
The first captured prey Priscus sent as a gift to the emperor and his family, which almost caused a revolt of soldiers who understood that they were deprived of their share of trophies. The strategist hardly calmed down the warriors, saying that in this way they would prove their success. By the way, the prisoners and trophies that they delivered to Tatimer and three hundred soldiers were hardly intercepted on the sixth day of the journey, "when the Romans camped at noon without care and without any precautions, and the horses pinched the grass, suddenly a group of" some Sclavins attacked them. . Most likely, the incident happened already to the South of the Danube, which explains the relaxation of the Byzantines who believed in their native land. But then it turns out that those Sklavinian robbers attacked them, who managed to settle on the other side of Istra, in the Lower Moesia. Only in time, the romei infantry came to the rescue allowed to save the loot and deliver it to the emperor. Mauritius was extremely pleased with the first, after a series of defeats, the success of the troops in Europe. He even ordered a prayer of thanksgiving on this occasion. As for Tatimer, the commander of the Romaev detachment, his historians often declare him a baptized Slav in the Byzantine service. However, as the authors of “Svoda” rightly point out, the name he bore, in all likelihood, was not Slavic. Root * mer- has always been popular in this regard among the Germans. For example, Filimer is the third Gothic king in Jordan; Chlodomer is a Frankish ruler from the Merovingian dynasty according to Gregory of Tours.
From the clumsy attempts of modern researchers to hear on the banks of the Danube of the 6th century at least one Slavic nickname we will return to the adventures of the Byzantine army in the lands of present-day Wallachia. As Feofan writes about this: "Meanwhile, Priscus, having become self-confident, penetrated far into the inner areas of the Slavins." His detachment approached the Ilovaki River (Ηλιβακία) (apparently to Ialomitsa), and the reconnaissance crossed over to the other side. Good luck again accompanied Roma. They stumbled upon a group of Slavins and easily dispersed it. Barbarians hid in the thickets of reeds. The Greeks wanted to set it on fire, but because of the humidity the flame did not flare up. But then one Gepid, a religious Christian, ran across to their side, pointing the path through the marshes and happily betraying his yesterday's comrades. Alexander, the head of intelligence, tortured them, trying to find out information, "but the barbarians, falling into despair and waiting for death, did not pay attention to the torment, as if this suffering and blows of the scourge related to someone else's body." But the real treasure for the Romans turned out to be a Gepidian defector. Without any coercion, he said that "the prisoners are Musokiya's subjects (Μουσοκιος), whom the barbarians in their own language call" Riks ", that this Musokiy is thirty parasangs from them (about 180-210 kilometers), which he sent prisoners to as scouts, in order to expose the Roman forces that he had heard of what Ardagast had recently suffered. " Gepid volunteered to give the barbarians rewards into the hands of the Romans. He came to Musokiy and begged him for single-tree shuttles, ostensibly in order to save the surviving warriors of Ardagast. In fact, he moved the Paspiry (most likely the Buzau, the right tributary of the Siret) to the Byzantine soldiers across the river. Musokiy at that time was commemorating his deceased brother. He and his warriors were dead drunk. Priscus attacked them in the middle of the night, staged a bloody massacre, captured a huge booty and many prisoners, including the riks Musokia himself.
True, then, believing in the final defeat of the enemies, the Greeks almost paid for it: "The defeated sklavins gathered together and in turn repaid the Romans for this attack. And this retribution would be harder than the previous attack of the Romans, if they were not Gentzon won the battle, gathering foot troops around him. In the morning Priscus put several of the chiefs of the detachments on a stake, and others from heavily-armed soldiers subjected to cruel scourging. " An unpleasant surprise awaited the winners of the Slavins in the message delivered by Tatimer from Constantinople. The emperor ordered the army to winter on the north bank of the Danube. Warriors openly rebelled: "They said that the cold here is unbearable, and countless crowds of barbarians are invincible." Prisk barely calmed them down, promising to return to the south bank. "The troops refused to continue to remain in a barbarous country - they were afraid, as if the barbarians, suddenly rebelled, did not take their prey away."
But, as it turned out, on the banks of the Danube, the Romans were waiting for an even more formidable danger: "After three days Priscus was given to know that the kagan wanted to attack the Romanian lands and that he ordered crowds of sklavins to cross the Istres; in terrible rage he could barely bear the romean armies covered themselves with such great glory. " In this case, "sklavins" probably already meant the Pannonian subjects of the kagan, since the Dacian tribes, defeated by the Romans on the eve, could hardly gather new "crowds" so quickly. In fact, the army of Bayan locked the Byzantines in the country of the Slavins, threatening to attack them during the crossing of the great river. Prisk was afraid of open confrontation with the Avars and sent to the headquarters of the Khagan a clever negotiator - doctor Fedor. In turn, many notable Avars, including Targitia, persuaded Bayan not to start a war with the Greeks, "they said that he was angry with them unfairly." Simply put, from the point of view of representatives of the Avar nobility, the Byzantines, having attacked the Sklavins of Wallachia, did not violate the terms of the peace treaty.
Hagan himself had a different opinion on this subject. Bayan spoke of Prisc’s actions as follows: “After all, he invaded my land and made unlawful attacks on my subjects. May the fruits of good luck be common.” In other words, the Avar king claimed that Wallachia was part of his domain, and therefore he expected at least his share in the extraction of the Byzantines. This rather cynical proposal, in turn, seemed fair to Priscu, and he persuaded the soldiers to share trophies. According to Theophylact Simokatta: “Because of this, the Romans gave the Kagan prisoners of war to the barbarians, depriving him of his share in other booty, and this ended the dispute. thousands of barbarians and returned to Drizipers. A stratig arrived in Byzantium. For all this Mauritius scolded Priscus and reproached him with frivolity and mistakes, believing that he was foolishly giving the barbarian loot. " Meanwhile, Theophanes clarifies the essence of this operation: "Prisk gave the Kagan prisoners for the right of free crossing. But he left the rest of the booty and safely crossed the river." As we can see, the Byzantines found themselves in a kind of trap on the northern coast of Istra, since the Avars considered part of the territories of the Lower Moesia their possessions and were not going to let the Romans through them without redemption. Infuriated by the concession of prisoners and Priscus’s refusal to winter in the country of the Slavins, the basil removes the victorious strategist from the army and appoints his brother Peter to take his place.
According to the already familiar pattern, let us look again at the information that has become known to us from the Byzantine Chronicles. So, having crushed Ardagast, Priscus was not satisfied with this and moved into the depths of the country of the Slavins. Most likely, the hostilities unfolded in Northeastern Muntenia, on the banks of the Buzau River, and it is customary to identify the chronicle-like Paspiry with it. But even if scientists are mistaken about this and the matter was just east of, on the banks of the Siret River, this does not fundamentally change anything. In any case, it is clear that Priscus could not move too far to the North. The region of Ardagast and the country Musokiya divided the distance of two hundred kilometers, not more. Thus, the Byzantine army acted at the junction of two historical provinces: Wallachia and Moldova, just in the center of the region occupied by the Hypotestinian tribes. Roughly speaking, at the end of his expedition, Prisk penetrated approximately where the riders of Bayan began their "great march" of 579 years. Once there was a Davrit bet. Now here is ruled by someone Musoky. The name of this man is clearly not Slavic, the closest analogy to him is found in the Steppe: Baty's brother-in-law was called Musuk, which means “Cat” in the language of the nomads. Belarusian historian Sergei Rassadin asserts: "So, Μουσικιο, is probably the Greek record of the princely name of Turkic origin, Mus (uk)." Slavicists even more confused the title “Riks”, and in the text of Simokatta it is said that the leader of the Slavins is called “barbarians in their own language”. It is known that the Celts, the Goths ("reiks") and even the late Huns called their own monarchs, it suffices to recall the widow-queen named Boariks in Savirs. But in the lexicon of the Slavs such a word never existed. It turns out that these incomprehensible Danube sklavins, judging by their names and titles, stubbornly did not want to express themselves in the Slavic dialect.
It is curious that Simokatta calls Musokiya exclusively "Riks", while Ardagast calls him only a military leader. One gets the impression that the first was the supreme leader of all the Slavins, and the second was headed by a small tribe that lived between the Arges and Ialomitsi rivers, and was subordinate to him. At least, Musokiy reacted to the defeat of Ardagast's subjects, as if he were his misfortune, and immediately singled out boats to rescue the remnants of the army. Some scholars declare Musokiya the head of the Dulebian tribal alliance. The version is built on such a shaky foundation, about which even talking funny. The 10th century Arab historian Al-Masudi mentions a certain Slavic king, Majak in the country of Valinan, to whom "all the Slavic kings" had obeyed. A number of researchers somehow compared the last region with Volyn, and Majak with Musokiy. Sergey Alekseev, for example, prefers to talk about "the Duleb tribal union under the leadership of Musokiya-Madzhak".
But let's look at least a little brain. Riks Musokiy from the Danube Slavins appeared only after the campaign of Bayan in 579, before Davrit ran all here. Priscus's expedition took place in 594, at the latest, in 595. So, the new leader did not rule long - five or six years. Naturally, Prisk did not reach Volyn, most likely, he did not even wander into Moldova, confining himself to the lands of Eastern Muntenia. Meanwhile, Musok, according to the chronicles, immediately learns about the defeat of Ardagast and immediately sends his intelligence to meet Priscus's army. So quickly the Sklavinsky tsar could react to events only if he himself constantly lived near the Danube. Thus, about Volyn in connection with him there can be no talk, this ruler was directly in Wallachia. In addition, Musokiy proved to be an extremely weak commander. Conducting a commemoration, he relaxed and allowed to destroy his army, as a result of which both his people and himself were captured. About such would-be rulers do not lay down legends, the memory of such a loser could not be preserved for centuries. In Musokiy, we have a very short-lived kings who lived on the Lower Danube, who ruled for less than six years, showed himself to be a complete insignificance and a drunkard, who eventually became a miserable slave of Avar nomads.
After more than three centuries, the Arabic writer Al-Masudi literally wrote the following: "Of these tribes, one had formerly ancient power (over them), its king was called Majak, and the tribe itself was called Valinana. All other tribes of Sakaliba submitted to this tribe in ancient times, for the (supreme) power was with him and the other kings obeyed him. Then follows the Sakalib tribe Astabrana, whom the king is now called Saklaih, another tribe called Dulab, the king called them Vanjelava, then the tribe called Bamdzhin, and the king called Azan; this tribe is the most courageous between Sakaliba and the most skillful in horsemanship. Another tribe called Manaban, and the king is called Zanbir. Then the tribe called Sarbin; this Sakalib tribe is formidable (for its opponents) for reasons whose mention would be long, qualities whose presentation would be lengthy, and because of their lack of a law to which they obeyed, followed by a tribe called Marava, then a tribe called Harvatin, then a tribe called Sasin and a tribe named Khashanin; then a tribe named Barandjabin. ”As we can see, only some tribes from the list of Arab historians can be identified (Dulebs, Serbs, Croats), most of the names look absolutely fantastic. Ruler Majak (in another transcription - Mayak) is not a name, and, most likely, the title. However, even if it was a specific leader, in this context he looks no more real than the king of Peas from Russian folk tales. What does this almost mythological monarch have with a very specific historical person, let and not with Glorified by the Musokiy who lived at the end of the 6th century on the Lower Danube? Only people with extremely developed, on the verge of illness, imagination can connect them into a single whole. Only domestic Slavists can do that.
The very uncertain status of the Danube clavines attracts attention. When it is profitable for him, the kagan recognizes them as his subjects, but on the other hand, he does not wish to bear full responsibility for their activities. The Byzantines, too, are fully aware of the duality of the rights of nomads in relation to northern looters. On the one hand, the imperial troops invade the lands of the latter, despite the protests of the steppe inhabitants, on the other, Priscus agrees to surrender the captive barbarians to the Kagan. All this looks as if the Avars have already begun to conquer these people, but have not succeeded in it yet. The classies of Wallachia are not yet full-fledged subjects of the kagan, but are already under his protection.
Paradoxical as it may sound, however, the Byzantine campaigns across the Danube proved to be beneficial primarily to the Avar Khagan. And not only because, without engaging in battle, he acquired his share of the loot. Listen to what Sergei Alekseev writes on this occasion: “The defeat of Sloven (the Danube Sclavins) as a whole was in the hands of the Avars. With the defeat of Radogost (Ardagast) and the capture of Musok (Musokiya), the kagan gained real power over the Danube, remaining for them for some time is the only organizing force. " Indeed, having eliminated the most influential tribal leaders, the Greeks, unwittingly, pushed the local Aborigines into the firm embrace of the steppe king. He received a monopoly on power to the North of the Danube.
Another interesting question arises: why did the emperor insist on hibernating his army so much in the lands of the Slavins? After all, this order almost caused a rebellion among his soldiers and put Priscus in an extremely difficult position. The answer is rooted in the personality of the Byzantine basil. The cowardly Mauritius considered himself to be a major theorist of the art of war, perhaps he was. He wrote a book called The Strategic. In her, reflecting on the ways of war with various barbarians, Mauritius comes to the following conclusions regarding the Slavins and the Ants: "Attacks on them must be made better in winter, when they cannot easily hide because of the nakedness of the trees, and the snow produces traces of runaways and their families live in misery, being almost naked, and, moreover, the rivers, having frozen, become surmountable. "
Considering that until then the Byzantines had never attempted to invade the possession of the Danube aborigines in the winter period, it can be assumed that the author of the Strategiston relies on the combat experience of the Avar Kagan of Bayan, who subsequently defeated the Ants and then the Sklavins. In addition, the wintering of the army in foreign lands greatly facilitated the position of the treasury. The emperor, however regrettable to admit, was a fair miser. However, what sounds great in theory does not always work in practice. Resistance of the Byzantine soldiers, in comparison with the Avar riders, left much to be desired. The Greeks used to spend the winter in warm barracks, outside the walls of fortified cities. To meet the cold in a country where people do not build houses, but live in earthen holes, warm themselves by campfires in the open field, look for food among the snow-covered forests and cramps - this was a test to which the vaunted imperial warriors were not morally ready.
The Byzantine Empire in the ring of enemies in the second half of the 80s of the 6th century
The famous Hungarian archaeologist Ishtvan Bona believes that the Avars during this period considered the lands of Northern Bulgaria to be their own possessions, and there some part of their horde constantly wandered: "Historical surveys show that in the last third of the VI century the Avars still decided whether their new home. They then laid claim to the area between the Lower Danube and the Balkan Mountains, occupying the territories of Mesia and Little Scythia in 584-586. " However, already in 587 the Byzantines made the first attempt to clear the Balkan Peninsula from uninvited guests. Theophylact Simokatta describes this campaign in detail. At the head of the imperial troops was put commander Komentiol, a Thracian by origin, a guards officer by experience, and an obliging fool in essence. Possessing insignificant military talents and a shallow mind, he made a brilliant career in Mauritius, thanks to personal dedication and readiness, without hesitation, to execute any order. This man successfully failed several diplomatic missions, but he defeated the sklavins of Ardagast under the walls of Adrianople and, therefore, went to the favorites at the basilica. To help him, two lower-ranking commanders were allocated — the taxi drivers Martin and Cust — and these three commanders began to prepare a campaign for the Avars.
The theater of military operations of the Byzantine-Avar conflict of 587. The cities mentioned in the Theophylact Simokatta Chronicle are highlighted.
Having arranged a review of the troops from the Thracian city of Anhial (now the Bourgas region in southern Bulgaria), the strategists selected the most efficient horsemen, numbering six thousand, from a ten-thousand-strong army and, dividing them into three units, led to the North. Calculation was done on suddenness and he was almost justified. Caste with his unit went to the area of the city of Zaldapa (Zaldapa), found the barbarians completely unprepared for the war, attacked them, captured valuable trophies, but unfortunately for the Greeks, could not save them - the nomads recaptured their prey while trying to ship it to the South. It seems that these places were already deep relics of the steppe people. Especially since Martin’s detachment, going to the outskirts of the famous Tom (Tomis), sung by Ovid, who was bored here in exile, found a similar picture - a lot of nomads who were completely unprepared for war and among them left the kagan rate completely defensive. "As if from the abyss of the sea, death appeared before the barbarians, as if an enemy army was absorbed by some tide of the sea," writes Symokatt, satisfied with the turn of events. He only complains that by some miracle Bayan himself managed to escape from captivity on an overgrown reed island in the middle of the lake. Moreover, according to deserters, the Avar king returned to his camp only on the fifth day. However, on this reserve of good fortune, set aside by the Fate of the Byzantines in this campaign, ended.
Komentiol himself started the initial part of the campaign under the walls of Markianopol, without doing anything worthwhile. There, Caste and Martin, with the troops entrusted to them, came to join up with their commander. The commanders realized that the Avars, having recovered from the first shock, would prepare a retaliatory strike and tried to hinder him, taking passes in the “mountains of Gema”, that is, where the spurs of the Stara Planina mountain range stretch towards the Black Sea, and taking control bridges over the local rivers. As a result of the maneuvers, however, the detachment of Caste was ambushed and was captured along with his boss. The Avars marched along the old Roman road along the sea shore, and, having broken the resistance of the Greek fortifications defending the local fortifications, found themselves deep in the rear of the Comentiola army. "As if from some dungeons of disasters, the Hagan sent a huge army to the Romans to devastate all of Thrace." The leader of the Thracian militia, the taxi-ranks Ansimut, retreated with his warriors to Constantinople, hoping to hide behind the Long Walls, but was also captured. The nomads, meanwhile, took the Appiaria fortress (Appiaria) on the Danube border. Worst of all, under the walls of its walls the steppe inhabitants captured a warrior named Busas. When the townspeople, despite their previous merits, did not want to buy it back, he, in exchange for his life, taught the steppe men to build wall-breaking machines. As Feofan writes: "The barbarians, having learned through this siege art, enslaved many cities and returned with great loot."
Komentiol hardly collected his army, scattered in the woods along the slopes of Stara Planina, and even, thanks to the night transition, had another chance to take the kagan by surprise. But the army, mortally fearful of the steppe enemies, panicked only because one of the drivers of the convoy, seeing that a bale with a load fell from the front mule, began to shout loudly to his comrade: "Turn, turn, brother." This was enough to ensure that the vaunted Romanian army, together picking up the call, immediately went on the run, although no one pursued it. Nothing more remarkable happened this year. The population, knowing the real state of affairs, openly slandered about the basil, believing it was precisely his culprit of all misfortunes. “The Byzantines, having learned that Kast was taken prisoner by the barbarians, began to strongly revile Mauritius,” says Theophanes. Avars besieged several large fortresses of Thrace, including the city of Philippopolis, but failed to take them. When Mauritius withdrew several new units from the eastern front and entrusted general campaign management to disgraced commander John Mistakon (Usach), he managed to stop the Avar onslaught under Adrianople, breaking the advanced nomad troops. That is where the war ended that year.
The dynamics of cash payments Byzantium Avar kaganat
The empire continued to pay Bayan a tribute, which reached up to 100 thousand gold a year during this period. The exorbitant burden fell on the treasury and Mauritius all the time was looking for ways to ease the financial position of the power. However, his desire to save on the maintenance of soldiers provoked a riot in the eastern army, fighting against the Persians. The uprising was crushed with great difficulty. But it was still not possible to save money. It seemed that the Byzantine Empire was breathing its last and is about to fall, torn by deep internal contradictions and besieged by ruthless external enemies. Only a miracle could save her, but it was it that happened at that moment.
Unexpected distemper broke out in Persia, where the renowned commander Bahram Chubin (called Wahram in the Byzantine chronicles), offended by his king, overthrew his offender in Iran in 590, the legitimate шахahshah of Iran Ormuzd IV (Hormisd). The last Khosrov’s son fled to Byzantium and asked for help from Mauritius, promising to give the Empire all the disputed lands. Vasilevs supported the exile. Already in the year 591, the united Persian-Byzantine army was able to regain the throne of Khosrov II, and finally a lasting peace was established between the Romanies and the Persians under the most favorable conditions for Byzantium. The emperor received a long-awaited opportunity to come to grips with European affairs.
The preparation of a large-scale campaign against the avars began. Mauritius was going to lead him personally in order to restore his authority, shaken in the army. All the forces available to the Greeks were transferred to the Balkan Peninsula. The beginning of the military campaign was organized almost like a parade: "his bodyguards walked in front of him. The fighting system stretched out in length, and the emperor rejoiced at the sight of the troops passing in front of him. The main striking force was at the end. The shaft of the cross of Christ (this relic was returned the day before Basil was new Iranian shahinshakh) was raised high on a golden spear and moved ahead of the emperor and the army surrounding him. " Obviously, Mauritius was so confident in the success of the expedition that he became the head of an improvised "crusade" against the pagans. Under other conditions, it was a huge risk, because in the event of a defeat, the strategist always became extreme, and if he was a monarch, he risked losing not only his head, but also his crown. Apparently, the Byzantines believed that the Persian war, which had distracted their main forces, still hindered the destruction of the Avars. Now, when the latter was finished, and the whole color of the vaunted army of the Romans was set against the nomads, the daring newcomers had no chance.
Regarding when this grand campaign happened, the opinions of historians differ. At Simokatta it is said that the nomination began in the “ninth year of the reign of the emperor of Mauritius,” that is, we are talking about a period of time from August 14, 590 to August 13, 591. However, a number of researchers believe that the Roma would not have been able to transfer troops from the East so quickly, because peace with Persia was concluded only in the autumn of 591 years. Although in this case the exact date is not so important. Since the expedition, in spite of a very solemn look, did not work out from the very beginning. As soon as the army moved out of the capital, a solar eclipse occurred, which in ancient times was considered a bad sign. Astronomers, by the way, tell us that this celestial phenomenon falls on March 19, 592. Bad omens and further pursued the campaigners — the wild boar, jumping out of the forest, nearly knocked over a horse with Mauritius in the saddle, then the basil barely escaped during the storm, then the imperial horse broke its belly, then the woman gave birth to a monster without arms and legs, but with fish tail. After a whole series of bad omens, the Constantinople ruler "was extremely saddened and confused by the events that took place, imbued with fear about the future." In this situation, Mauritius allowed himself to be persuaded to return to the capital under the specious pretext of receiving ambassadors, and handed over the leadership of the army to one of the most talented commanders of the era, Priscu. On this, strictly speaking, the "crusade" against the nomads was completed. It would seem that nothing terrible happened, but the hapless monarch in the army finally gained a reputation as a notorious coward.
While Mauritius remained at the head of the failed expedition, another incident happened, which I would like to dwell on in more detail. This is how Simokatta describes him: “On the next day, three people from the tribe of Slavins, who had no iron weapons or any military devices, were captured by the emperor’s bodyguards. They were only kithars (musical instrument like gusli), and nothing else they did not carry with them. The emperor began to ask them what tribe they were destined to live for and for what reason they are within the Romanian limits. They answered that by tribe they were sklavin, they live on the edge of the western Ocean, that kagan sent to them donkeys in order to gather military force, and sent honorary gifts to their tribal rulers. They accepted the gifts, but refused allied assistance to him, insistently indicating that they were hampered by distance, and they were sent to the Kagan as hostages, as if as proof that this journey lasts fifteen months. But the Hagan, having forgotten all the laws in relation to the ambassadors, decided to fix them any difficulties in returning. They heard, they said, that the Romanian people, both in wealth and humanity, are, so to speak, the most glorious ; therefore, having deceived (kagan), they chose an opportune moment and left for Thrace. They wear Kifar because they are not accustomed to dressing their bodies with iron weapons - their country does not know iron, and therefore lives peacefully and without insurrection because they play on liras, because they are not trained to blow pipes. Those for whom war is an unknown thing, naturally, they said, more intensively indulge in musical activities. After listening to their stories, the emperor admired their tribe, and the barbarians themselves, who fell into his hands, he honored the gracious welcome and food. Surprised by the size of their bodies and the beauty of their members, he sent them to Herakleia. "
This story is very fond of domestic and foreign Slavists. With its help, they strive to prove that the Slavic tribes at this time already settled throughout the continent - right up to the shores of the Baltic Sea, which the Romans considered to be the Gulf of the Western Ocean. It must be said that the anecdote about savages who did not know iron, beautiful in body and face, engaged in music instead of wars and battles, was extremely popular among the Byzantines. Probably, the ancient Greek myth about the country of blissful hyperboreans transformed in this form in the early Middle Ages, with the only difference being that from now on the latter were called "sklavins". Theophanes the Confessor tells him almost word for word, with the only difference being that he had unarmed northerners "walked eighteen months." If this story was based on a real incident, then you have to admit that the Avar Kagan knew in advance about the coming attack of the Romans and collected military force from the entire European North in advance.
Surprisingly, the nomads were not at all afraid that from now on they were left alone in the confrontation with Constantinople. Nor was they embarrassed by the military parade with the demonstration of the newly found instrument for the execution of Jesus. Since the following events were written in Simokatta’s work: “Kagan demanded an increase in contractual contributions from Caesar, when the emperor did not pay attention to these barbarian speeches, the kagan immediately decided to start a war against him. Therefore, he ordered the Sklavins to build a large number of light ships, in order to prepare the crossing over the Istr. The residents of Singhidin, with their frequent raids, destroyed the work of the Slavins, setting fire to all that they had prepared for the device of the crossing. As a result, the barbarians laid siege to Singidun. was already brought to an extremely difficult position and had very weak hopes of salvation. Suddenly, on the seventh day, the kagan ordered the barbarians to stop the siege and come to him. Having listened to his order, the barbarians removed the siege from the city, taking with him as a ransom two thousand gold gifts , a gold-laid table and clothes. "
Further events developed rapidly: “Kagan, having passed five parasangs, camped near the city of Sirmium, and crowds of Slavins began to prepare wooden shuttles (“ monoxyls ”) so that the kagan could cross the river called Saos. He was in a hurry with this campaign, according to his order, they tried their best to give him the opportunity to cross: the fear of the chiefs set over them forced them to do it. When these light vessels were made and handed over to the Kagan, the barbarian army crossed the neighboring river. ordering their military forces, ordered parts of them to quickly move forward and terrorize the roomers with the swiftness of their invasion. "
Sklavinsky shuttle "monoksil", in translation - "single-tree", cut down from the trunk of a single tree
Judging by the dates indicated in Theophan's chronicle, the new campaign began a couple of years after the "great march of Mauritius" which ended in complete embarrassment. Therefore, we are talking about 593-594 AD. Note that the Avars are not at all afraid of the increased Byzantines, but in fact they themselves start a war with them, demanding from the Greeks an increase in the shameful tribute. Singidun, however, by this time has already returned to the Romans. But the latter do not feel themselves masters here. Barbarians easily managed to surround their city, and after only seven days he was "brought to an extremely difficult position and had very weak hopes of salvation." Is this not clear evidence of how precarious the position of the Byzantines became in the Upper Moesia? Only separate fortresses belonged to them here, the whole rural district was occupied by strangers.
As for the Slavins mentioned in the text, according to the logic of the Slavists, they should be understood as Pannonic tribes. First, both ferries were prepared near Pannonia or even on its territory: under Singhidunom and under Sirmi. Secondly, these people unconditionally fulfill the orders of the Avar king, even to the detriment of their direct interests. It is noteworthy that these Sklavins are so dependent that Avar bosses, who are very afraid, are put on them to speed up the work. Kagan was obviously in a hurry. He had to ship all the troops to the other side of Sava before the appearance of Priscus's army. The capacity of the Sklavinskaya monoksil, as you can see in the photo with your own eyes, is not too large. At such a "single-tree" one could at best transport several riders with weapons and armor at best. Therefore, it took many boats and the ferry was carried out continuously, night and day. When the hordes of the barbarians were on the southern shore, they, without hesitation, rushed towards the enemy.
The Byzantines tried to stop the invasion of the barbarians on the Proclani pass, near the Iron Gate, but embarrassed by great losses, the imperial warriors fled from there already on the second night. Then the steppe invaded Thrace, captured Anhial, and burned, for no reason, the church of the martyr Alexander, as the chronicles claim. Finally, the two opposing armies met under the walls of Heraclea. The battle, however, was short-lived: “Suddenly seeing the enemy army, Priscus did not postpone the moment of collision. However, joining the kagan army, he immediately showed the enemy rear, due to the huge number of opposing troops, unable to offer the necessary resistance in battle And along with the foot army, the romeysky stratig retired to Didimotih. Then, arriving in Tzurul, he turned the city into a shelter for his troops. The barbarians, having besieged Priska, stormed the city hard. the sad end, and experienced the greatest confusion at the news of what happened. "
Alas, the commander Priscus and his glorious warriors "immediately showed the enemy rear". Speaking more simply, the vaunted army of the Romans, all the power of which at that time was collected in the Balkans against the steppe inhabitants, could not withstand the frontal impact of the enemy and fled. That was already a complete disaster! The best imperial forces gathered in Europe and handed the most promising strategist, but in the very first battle all this power was scattered downwind and the remnants of the Byzantine troops fled to the capital in panic and took refuge in the Tzurulum fortress, located on the outside of the Long Walls, nearby from this fortification. The barbarians besieged Priscus and he could not stretch for a long time, because in this small citadel, by definition, there was not enough food for the whole army. Over Byzantium hung a dark shadow of complete military collapse. It is not surprising that the basilus "became disheartened, fearing a sad end." The trick came to the rescue. Mauritius persuaded one officer to voluntarily be captured with a false letter from the emperor, stating that everything was going according to plan: while Priscus diverted the forces of his enemies, the Byzantine fleet with an invading army set out to destroy Avar lands. Believing the thrown message, the nomads lifted the siege and retreated back home. The empire was saved.
The fear that the steppe people had overtaken the Greeks under Herakleia and Tzurullah, however, did not force them to completely abandon plans for the liberation of the Balkans. But, taught by previous defeats, the Romans began to act much more carefully. Mauritius changed tactics. Since the Avars so far turned out to be too tough for him, he undertook to pacify those tribes whom historians called the "Dacian Slavs", that is, the classical sklavins of the Ipoteshtin culture. The status of these people was really uncertain. Although the kagan had a serious influence on them, they were not considered his subjects. At least, the Avars themselves strove to disown these robbers every time they went to rob the Danube. This circumstance and hurried to take advantage of basil. Here is what Simokatta writes about: “With the onset of late autumn, the stratig (Priscus) disbanded his camp and returned to Byzantium. The Romans, not engaged in military service, scattered across Thrace, earning food for themselves in the villages (this is about the militia). With the onset of spring Stratig was sent by the emperor to Istra, so that the tribes of the Sklavins, having met with his handicap in crossing the Istres, willy-nilly left Thrace alone. The emperor repeatedly told Priscus that the barbarians would not keep calm if the Romans were not careful. By guarding Istr. Prisk, he took over the command of the equestrian forces, and Gentzon was placed at the head of the foot troops. Thus, in the middle of spring, the Romanian troops gathered around Heraclea. "
Historians traditionally date this period of the Byzantines from 593-594 years. But it is possible that the events unfolded a little later, in 595 years after the birth of Christ. Having received a direct order from Constantinople, Priscus moved to the Danube, in the region of Dorostol. This caused open discontent of the Avar Kagan. The leader of the steppe men sent an ambassador to the Byzantine army, named Koch, who was speaking before the Greek warriors, reproaching them in violating the peace treaty: "Istres sees the war spectacle, the fortified camp and the iron of the belted Priscus, shortly before, as the bride who brought the world to Avars and romayam ". Under the terms of the agreement, the Byzantine army must not have entered the neutral zone along the southern bank of the Danube. At least, as Simokatta writes: "Such a speech made a very heavy impression on the army." Apparently, the Greeks understood that they were the first to break the conditions of peace with the nomads. But Priscus said, "that the war has been launched against the Sklavins, and that at the same time the oaths and treaties with the Avars remain in force, as well as the war with the hets." Perhaps the Byzantines jumped at the fact that the status of the Danube robbers in the contract was not clearly defined.
It is curious that in this passage the chronicler for the first time puts an equal sign between the Danube Sclavins and gethes. If they did not forget, the Greeks called the hets of the Thracian tribes that lived between the Carpathians and the Black Sea on both banks of Istra. Now Simokatta calls this name new inhabitants of the same places, "Dacian Slavs" in the terminology of Russian historians. After all, they settled in the same place where their predecessors lived - on the lands of northern Bulgaria, Wallachia and Moldova. It seems that the Byzantine chronicler felt that the ethnonym "Sklavins" in his era had become too vague and uncertain. So he seeks to clarify it as much as possible. Indeed, the Byzantine commander did not seek to declare war on the subjects of the Avar Kagan who lived inside the Carpathian Basin, because he did not want to cause the anger of the steppe king. Meanwhile, these people, too, very often were called "sklavins." There was a need to specify more specifically who Prisk is going against. Here is a chronicler and revived the ancient name of the local Aborigines.
Be that as it may, after negotiations ended in vain, the Byzantines decided to cross the Danube: “The twelfth day came after that, and having built ships, crossed the river. Having heard that Ardagast gathered crowds of alien slaves who wanted to profit from their prey, Prisk in the middle of the night began to hike Ardagast, having lost his dreams as a result of the growing noise, quickly woke up, jumped on his bare horse and rushed into flight. Then the barbarian suddenly attacked the Romans and, jumping off his horse, tried to try his luck in a foot battle, but not having the strength to withstand a reciprocal attack, he turned to flight, fleeing through some impassable place. In these habitual movements for him, Ardagast overtook his opponents. But then he was unlucky: for some accident, the barbarian flew on the trunk of a huge tree and fell. Here he would have become a very desirable prey for his pursuers, if the river did not serve him as a salvation: having crossed it, he avoided danger.Romei, having made huge crowds of claves with sword food, devastated the country that was under the power of Ardagast, and prisoners taken alive, they otgipchiv wooden pads, sent to Byzantium. "
Let's take a closer look at what the chronicler told us. Prisk with the army crossed the Danube in the Dorostol area and suddenly attacked the Slavins. The local tribes submitted to the leader Ardagast, who was once defeated by Komentiol under the walls of Adrianople, for the locality on the other side of the river Simokatta is called "the country under the rule of Ardagast." Obviously, we are talking about Wallachia, its population most often robbed its neighbors. More precisely, the tribes opposing Prisca most likely lived in the area between the Ialomitsy and Argesh rivers, that is, in the Southeast of Muntenia. Since this area is directly adjacent to the Danube opposite Dorostol, and, according to the story of Simokatta, the Byzantine strategist attacked the barbarians on the second day after the crossing. Among other things, we have a description of how the leader of the Danube Aborigines, who was caught off guard, fought. On the one hand, he jumps on a horse to attack the Romans. On the other - his horse turns out to be bareback and getting close to the enemy, the leader of the Slavins jumps to the ground to fight on foot. Note that we are talking about an experienced warrior, who led a significant detachment of warriors in a long march. Even if he was not a full-fledged rider, what then to speak about his fellow tribesmen? Without a doubt, these people fought on foot. The mystery is the fate of Ardagast. Although the text of Simokatty brave warrior escaped by throwing himself into the river and sailing to the other side, no one heard anything more about him. One of two things - either the glorified knight died in further battles, or after that defeat lost forever his power over his fellow countrymen.
Approximate routes of Priscus and Peter's campaigns to the lands of the Slavins
The first captured prey Priscus sent as a gift to the emperor and his family, which almost caused a revolt of soldiers who understood that they were deprived of their share of trophies. The strategist hardly calmed down the warriors, saying that in this way they would prove their success. By the way, the prisoners and trophies that they delivered to Tatimer and three hundred soldiers were hardly intercepted on the sixth day of the journey, "when the Romans camped at noon without care and without any precautions, and the horses pinched the grass, suddenly a group of" some Sclavins attacked them. . Most likely, the incident happened already to the South of the Danube, which explains the relaxation of the Byzantines who believed in their native land. But then it turns out that those Sklavinian robbers attacked them, who managed to settle on the other side of Istra, in the Lower Moesia. Only in time, the romei infantry came to the rescue allowed to save the loot and deliver it to the emperor. Mauritius was extremely pleased with the first, after a series of defeats, the success of the troops in Europe. He even ordered a prayer of thanksgiving on this occasion. As for Tatimer, the commander of the Romaev detachment, his historians often declare him a baptized Slav in the Byzantine service. However, as the authors of “Svoda” rightly point out, the name he bore, in all likelihood, was not Slavic. Root * mer- has always been popular in this regard among the Germans. For example, Filimer is the third Gothic king in Jordan; Chlodomer is a Frankish ruler from the Merovingian dynasty according to Gregory of Tours.
From the clumsy attempts of modern researchers to hear on the banks of the Danube of the 6th century at least one Slavic nickname we will return to the adventures of the Byzantine army in the lands of present-day Wallachia. As Feofan writes about this: "Meanwhile, Priscus, having become self-confident, penetrated far into the inner areas of the Slavins." His detachment approached the Ilovaki River (Ηλιβακία) (apparently to Ialomitsa), and the reconnaissance crossed over to the other side. Good luck again accompanied Roma. They stumbled upon a group of Slavins and easily dispersed it. Barbarians hid in the thickets of reeds. The Greeks wanted to set it on fire, but because of the humidity the flame did not flare up. But then one Gepid, a religious Christian, ran across to their side, pointing the path through the marshes and happily betraying his yesterday's comrades. Alexander, the head of intelligence, tortured them, trying to find out information, "but the barbarians, falling into despair and waiting for death, did not pay attention to the torment, as if this suffering and blows of the scourge related to someone else's body." But the real treasure for the Romans turned out to be a Gepidian defector. Without any coercion, he said that "the prisoners are Musokiya's subjects (Μουσοκιος), whom the barbarians in their own language call" Riks ", that this Musokiy is thirty parasangs from them (about 180-210 kilometers), which he sent prisoners to as scouts, in order to expose the Roman forces that he had heard of what Ardagast had recently suffered. " Gepid volunteered to give the barbarians rewards into the hands of the Romans. He came to Musokiy and begged him for single-tree shuttles, ostensibly in order to save the surviving warriors of Ardagast. In fact, he moved the Paspiry (most likely the Buzau, the right tributary of the Siret) to the Byzantine soldiers across the river. Musokiy at that time was commemorating his deceased brother. He and his warriors were dead drunk. Priscus attacked them in the middle of the night, staged a bloody massacre, captured a huge booty and many prisoners, including the riks Musokia himself.
True, then, believing in the final defeat of the enemies, the Greeks almost paid for it: "The defeated sklavins gathered together and in turn repaid the Romans for this attack. And this retribution would be harder than the previous attack of the Romans, if they were not Gentzon won the battle, gathering foot troops around him. In the morning Priscus put several of the chiefs of the detachments on a stake, and others from heavily-armed soldiers subjected to cruel scourging. " An unpleasant surprise awaited the winners of the Slavins in the message delivered by Tatimer from Constantinople. The emperor ordered the army to winter on the north bank of the Danube. Warriors openly rebelled: "They said that the cold here is unbearable, and countless crowds of barbarians are invincible." Prisk barely calmed them down, promising to return to the south bank. "The troops refused to continue to remain in a barbarous country - they were afraid, as if the barbarians, suddenly rebelled, did not take their prey away."
But, as it turned out, on the banks of the Danube, the Romans were waiting for an even more formidable danger: "After three days Priscus was given to know that the kagan wanted to attack the Romanian lands and that he ordered crowds of sklavins to cross the Istres; in terrible rage he could barely bear the romean armies covered themselves with such great glory. " In this case, "sklavins" probably already meant the Pannonian subjects of the kagan, since the Dacian tribes, defeated by the Romans on the eve, could hardly gather new "crowds" so quickly. In fact, the army of Bayan locked the Byzantines in the country of the Slavins, threatening to attack them during the crossing of the great river. Prisk was afraid of open confrontation with the Avars and sent to the headquarters of the Khagan a clever negotiator - doctor Fedor. In turn, many notable Avars, including Targitia, persuaded Bayan not to start a war with the Greeks, "they said that he was angry with them unfairly." Simply put, from the point of view of representatives of the Avar nobility, the Byzantines, having attacked the Sklavins of Wallachia, did not violate the terms of the peace treaty.
Hagan himself had a different opinion on this subject. Bayan spoke of Prisc’s actions as follows: “After all, he invaded my land and made unlawful attacks on my subjects. May the fruits of good luck be common.” In other words, the Avar king claimed that Wallachia was part of his domain, and therefore he expected at least his share in the extraction of the Byzantines. This rather cynical proposal, in turn, seemed fair to Priscu, and he persuaded the soldiers to share trophies. According to Theophylact Simokatta: “Because of this, the Romans gave the Kagan prisoners of war to the barbarians, depriving him of his share in other booty, and this ended the dispute. thousands of barbarians and returned to Drizipers. A stratig arrived in Byzantium. For all this Mauritius scolded Priscus and reproached him with frivolity and mistakes, believing that he was foolishly giving the barbarian loot. " Meanwhile, Theophanes clarifies the essence of this operation: "Prisk gave the Kagan prisoners for the right of free crossing. But he left the rest of the booty and safely crossed the river." As we can see, the Byzantines found themselves in a kind of trap on the northern coast of Istra, since the Avars considered part of the territories of the Lower Moesia their possessions and were not going to let the Romans through them without redemption. Infuriated by the concession of prisoners and Priscus’s refusal to winter in the country of the Slavins, the basil removes the victorious strategist from the army and appoints his brother Peter to take his place.
According to the already familiar pattern, let us look again at the information that has become known to us from the Byzantine Chronicles. So, having crushed Ardagast, Priscus was not satisfied with this and moved into the depths of the country of the Slavins. Most likely, the hostilities unfolded in Northeastern Muntenia, on the banks of the Buzau River, and it is customary to identify the chronicle-like Paspiry with it. But even if scientists are mistaken about this and the matter was just east of, on the banks of the Siret River, this does not fundamentally change anything. In any case, it is clear that Priscus could not move too far to the North. The region of Ardagast and the country Musokiya divided the distance of two hundred kilometers, not more. Thus, the Byzantine army acted at the junction of two historical provinces: Wallachia and Moldova, just in the center of the region occupied by the Hypotestinian tribes. Roughly speaking, at the end of his expedition, Prisk penetrated approximately where the riders of Bayan began their "great march" of 579 years. Once there was a Davrit bet. Now here is ruled by someone Musoky. The name of this man is clearly not Slavic, the closest analogy to him is found in the Steppe: Baty's brother-in-law was called Musuk, which means “Cat” in the language of the nomads. Belarusian historian Sergei Rassadin asserts: "So, Μουσικιο, is probably the Greek record of the princely name of Turkic origin, Mus (uk)." Slavicists even more confused the title “Riks”, and in the text of Simokatta it is said that the leader of the Slavins is called “barbarians in their own language”. It is known that the Celts, the Goths ("reiks") and even the late Huns called their own monarchs, it suffices to recall the widow-queen named Boariks in Savirs. But in the lexicon of the Slavs such a word never existed. It turns out that these incomprehensible Danube sklavins, judging by their names and titles, stubbornly did not want to express themselves in the Slavic dialect.
It is curious that Simokatta calls Musokiya exclusively "Riks", while Ardagast calls him only a military leader. One gets the impression that the first was the supreme leader of all the Slavins, and the second was headed by a small tribe that lived between the Arges and Ialomitsi rivers, and was subordinate to him. At least, Musokiy reacted to the defeat of Ardagast's subjects, as if he were his misfortune, and immediately singled out boats to rescue the remnants of the army. Some scholars declare Musokiya the head of the Dulebian tribal alliance. The version is built on such a shaky foundation, about which even talking funny. The 10th century Arab historian Al-Masudi mentions a certain Slavic king, Majak in the country of Valinan, to whom "all the Slavic kings" had obeyed. A number of researchers somehow compared the last region with Volyn, and Majak with Musokiy. Sergey Alekseev, for example, prefers to talk about "the Duleb tribal union under the leadership of Musokiya-Madzhak".
But let's look at least a little brain. Riks Musokiy from the Danube Slavins appeared only after the campaign of Bayan in 579, before Davrit ran all here. Priscus's expedition took place in 594, at the latest, in 595. So, the new leader did not rule long - five or six years. Naturally, Prisk did not reach Volyn, most likely, he did not even wander into Moldova, confining himself to the lands of Eastern Muntenia. Meanwhile, Musok, according to the chronicles, immediately learns about the defeat of Ardagast and immediately sends his intelligence to meet Priscus's army. So quickly the Sklavinsky tsar could react to events only if he himself constantly lived near the Danube. Thus, about Volyn in connection with him there can be no talk, this ruler was directly in Wallachia. In addition, Musokiy proved to be an extremely weak commander. Conducting a commemoration, he relaxed and allowed to destroy his army, as a result of which both his people and himself were captured. About such would-be rulers do not lay down legends, the memory of such a loser could not be preserved for centuries. In Musokiy, we have a very short-lived kings who lived on the Lower Danube, who ruled for less than six years, showed himself to be a complete insignificance and a drunkard, who eventually became a miserable slave of Avar nomads.
After more than three centuries, the Arabic writer Al-Masudi literally wrote the following: "Of these tribes, one had formerly ancient power (over them), its king was called Majak, and the tribe itself was called Valinana. All other tribes of Sakaliba submitted to this tribe in ancient times, for the (supreme) power was with him and the other kings obeyed him. Then follows the Sakalib tribe Astabrana, whom the king is now called Saklaih, another tribe called Dulab, the king called them Vanjelava, then the tribe called Bamdzhin, and the king called Azan; this tribe is the most courageous between Sakaliba and the most skillful in horsemanship. Another tribe called Manaban, and the king is called Zanbir. Then the tribe called Sarbin; this Sakalib tribe is formidable (for its opponents) for reasons whose mention would be long, qualities whose presentation would be lengthy, and because of their lack of a law to which they obeyed, followed by a tribe called Marava, then a tribe called Harvatin, then a tribe called Sasin and a tribe named Khashanin; then a tribe named Barandjabin. ”As we can see, only some tribes from the list of Arab historians can be identified (Dulebs, Serbs, Croats), most of the names look absolutely fantastic. Ruler Majak (in another transcription - Mayak) is not a name, and, most likely, the title. However, even if it was a specific leader, in this context he looks no more real than the king of Peas from Russian folk tales. What does this almost mythological monarch have with a very specific historical person, let and not with Glorified by the Musokiy who lived at the end of the 6th century on the Lower Danube? Only people with extremely developed, on the verge of illness, imagination can connect them into a single whole. Only domestic Slavists can do that.
The very uncertain status of the Danube clavines attracts attention. When it is profitable for him, the kagan recognizes them as his subjects, but on the other hand, he does not wish to bear full responsibility for their activities. The Byzantines, too, are fully aware of the duality of the rights of nomads in relation to northern looters. On the one hand, the imperial troops invade the lands of the latter, despite the protests of the steppe inhabitants, on the other, Priscus agrees to surrender the captive barbarians to the Kagan. All this looks as if the Avars have already begun to conquer these people, but have not succeeded in it yet. The classies of Wallachia are not yet full-fledged subjects of the kagan, but are already under his protection.
Paradoxical as it may sound, however, the Byzantine campaigns across the Danube proved to be beneficial primarily to the Avar Khagan. And not only because, without engaging in battle, he acquired his share of the loot. Listen to what Sergei Alekseev writes on this occasion: “The defeat of Sloven (the Danube Sclavins) as a whole was in the hands of the Avars. With the defeat of Radogost (Ardagast) and the capture of Musok (Musokiya), the kagan gained real power over the Danube, remaining for them for some time is the only organizing force. " Indeed, having eliminated the most influential tribal leaders, the Greeks, unwittingly, pushed the local Aborigines into the firm embrace of the steppe king. He received a monopoly on power to the North of the Danube.
Another interesting question arises: why did the emperor insist on hibernating his army so much in the lands of the Slavins? After all, this order almost caused a rebellion among his soldiers and put Priscus in an extremely difficult position. The answer is rooted in the personality of the Byzantine basil. The cowardly Mauritius considered himself to be a major theorist of the art of war, perhaps he was. He wrote a book called The Strategic. In her, reflecting on the ways of war with various barbarians, Mauritius comes to the following conclusions regarding the Slavins and the Ants: "Attacks on them must be made better in winter, when they cannot easily hide because of the nakedness of the trees, and the snow produces traces of runaways and their families live in misery, being almost naked, and, moreover, the rivers, having frozen, become surmountable. "
Considering that until then the Byzantines had never attempted to invade the possession of the Danube aborigines in the winter period, it can be assumed that the author of the Strategiston relies on the combat experience of the Avar Kagan of Bayan, who subsequently defeated the Ants and then the Sklavins. In addition, the wintering of the army in foreign lands greatly facilitated the position of the treasury. The emperor, however regrettable to admit, was a fair miser. However, what sounds great in theory does not always work in practice. Resistance of the Byzantine soldiers, in comparison with the Avar riders, left much to be desired. The Greeks used to spend the winter in warm barracks, outside the walls of fortified cities. To meet the cold in a country where people do not build houses, but live in earthen holes, warm themselves by campfires in the open field, look for food among the snow-covered forests and cramps - this was a test to which the vaunted imperial warriors were not morally ready.
Last edited:
I'm kinda asking you NOT to make everybody hear what Kolomytsev said, as book we're talking about is a piece of literature and kinda long ("harem hypothesis" part of your post is 70K characters without blanks long, for crying it loud), so-called "historical detective", but present the thesis and show proofs.
So! There is a lingustical proof that Baltic and Slavic languages splitted out (or, quite the opposite, influenced each other), at least 1300 years BC. Until you take time travel hypothesis, Avars aren't here until, the best one, 565 AD.
Still. Baltic harem girlish language would only be fused from Baltic and Avar languages, with a little influence from german and greek.
Avar language, as we agree, would be mongolian. Tocharian language isn't Mongolian or Altaic (even if you accept Altaic family hypothesis, which is exactly as problematic as balt-slavic is). It's indo-european language, linked to Celtic and Germanic. And mongol influence aren't shown in praslavic language.
I believe it's enough to discourage "harem theory".
So! There is a lingustical proof that Baltic and Slavic languages splitted out (or, quite the opposite, influenced each other), at least 1300 years BC. Until you take time travel hypothesis, Avars aren't here until, the best one, 565 AD.
Still. Baltic harem girlish language would only be fused from Baltic and Avar languages, with a little influence from german and greek.
Avar language, as we agree, would be mongolian. Tocharian language isn't Mongolian or Altaic (even if you accept Altaic family hypothesis, which is exactly as problematic as balt-slavic is). It's indo-european language, linked to Celtic and Germanic. And mongol influence aren't shown in praslavic language.
I believe it's enough to discourage "harem theory".
These hydronyms are not so ancient. Because for the West part the East Germans lived: Vandals, Rugi, Heruli and others.
After the devastation of these lands by the Huns, there was no people left. Vacant lands occupied Balts. The Slavs were the second wave
With the Mongols, I would be more careful, because they appear late on the eve of the death of the Uygur Kaganate in the 9th century. According to the Chinese chronicles, the Mongols are an offshoot of the Heishui Mohe, Black River Mohe. Mohe considered Manchus, they lived near the Amur River, Black River
But what about the words khorugv (banner) and telega (cart)? Boyarin is similar to the Turkic bai er (Rich man)
Last edited:
Not so ancient like what? Like Avar Kaganate?
On 5th century hydronyms were already set. Look at archeology map, when baltic were pushed out.
Maybe; mongolian languages (just in case - not mongol khel, but languages of Mongol group) existed in 5th century, it's supposed that Rouran Kaganate used it (on par with others) and we don't exactly know what Avars speak. Quite possible they spoke some tungus language. Still, my point stands - protoslavic have very little borrowing from altaic languages as a whole, not even to speak about mongolian.
Borrowing from turkic languages DO exist (and khorugv is borrowed through turkic, not from mongol languages directly - as there is "kh" there), but there are quite a few of them.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baltic_cultures_600-200_BC_SVG.svg?uselang=ru
That's iron age baltic archeology. Vandals came on 2nd century BC. Rugii - 2nd century AD. Heruls came around Baltic lands.
So, no. Balts were there first.