The first Avar embassy to Justinian
Fleeing the Turks, the Avars reached the steppes north of the Caucasus and, through the Alan chief Sarosius and the Roman commander in Lazica, sent envoys to Constantinople. The head of the embassy, Kandikh, offered Justinian the alliance of the “invincible” Avars in return for gifts, yearly payments and land; the emperor sent rich gifts and an envoy to turn them against the empire’s enemies — the beginning of Avar–Byzantine relations.
- Date
- between 557 and 558exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Steppes north of the Caucasus, near the Alansapproximate locationtoday: Stavropol Krai, Russia (location approximate) · Eastern Europe
- Route
- Avar camp north of the Caucasus → Constantinople
- Participants
- Avars, Alans, Justinian I, Byzantine Empire
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Avar embassy; Kandikh; Kandich; Candich; Sarosius; Valentinus; Varchonites; Кандих; Саросий; Валентин; Вархониты; Обры
Theophanes the Confessor records that the whole of Constantinople ran out to see the Avar envoys, for no one there had seen such people: they wore their hair very long at the back, tied with ribbons and braided, and otherwise dressed like the other Huns. According to Menander Protector, the Avars, after long wanderings, had come to the Alans and asked their ruler Sarosius to introduce them to the Romans; Sarosius informed Justin, son of Germanus, who commanded the troops in Lazica, and Justinian ordered the embassy to be sent on to the capital. The head of the embassy, Kandikh, declared that the greatest and strongest of peoples had come, able to destroy any enemy of the empire, but that the Avars would be friends of Rome only in return for precious gifts, yearly payments and fertile land to settle.
The aged Justinian, after addressing his council, chose diplomacy over war. He sent the Avars cords worked with gold, couches, silk garments and other costly gifts, and dispatched the swordbearer Valentinus to bind them to the empire and set them against its enemies; no land was granted. The Avars soon made war on the Utigurs and on the Zali, a Hunnic people, and broke the power of the Sabirs; then they plundered the Antes. Between 561 and 563 they reached the lower Danube, and in 567–568 they settled in the Carpathian Basin.
Who these Avars were is debated. The Turks later called them runaway slaves, “Varchonites” of the Var and Chunni tribes who had usurped the famous Avar name, while many historians, supported by recent genetic studies, trace the core of the Avars to the steppes of Mongolia and the Rouran empire destroyed by the Turks. Theophanes places the embassy in the year from September 557 to August 558, between the earthquake of 14 December 557 and the plague that began in February 558 — hence the interval; Ernst Stein and Walter Pohl date it to about January 558, while others put it later, in 558/559 or, like R. C. Blockley, in 559–560.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Bumin overthrows the Rouran: the Turkic Khaganate is foundedbetween February and March 552 · Central and Northern Asiathe Avars had fled west from the Turks, who destroyed the Rouran in 552
Consequences
- The Avars ravage the lands of the Antesbetween 560 and 562 · Eastern Europeafter the alliance with Justinian the Avars subdued the steppe peoples and plundered the Antes
- The Avars settle in the Carpathian Basinbetween 567 and 568 · Western and Central Europea decade later the Avars settled in the Carpathian Basin
Related events
- Saragurs, Urogi and Onogurs reach the Pontic steppec. 463 · Eastern EuropePriscus had first mentioned the Avars around 463; whether they were the same people is disputed
- The Rouran Khaganate dominates the steppe402–552 · Central and Northern Asiamany historians and genetic studies link the Avars with the Rouran
- Reign of Justinian I1 August 527 – 14 November 565 · Balkans and AnatoliaJustinian received the Avar envoys and paid them to fight the empire’s enemies in the steppe
- Embassies of Maniakh and Zemarchus: the Turks ally with Byzantium568 – between 570 and 571 · Central and Northern Asiain 568 the Turkic envoys told Justin II that some 20,000 Avars had escaped their rule
- The Turks take Bosporusbetween 576 and 577 · Eastern EuropeTurxanthus reproached the Romans for their treaty with the Avars, the Turks’ runaway slaves
Same participants
- Alan raid of 135135 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Alans
- Reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan531–579 · Middle East and Egyptvia Justinian I
- Christianization of the Nubian kingdoms543–580 · Africavia Justinian I
Adjacent events in the thread
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britainbetween 410 and 449 – between 550 and 625
Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Justinian I1 August 527 – 14 November 565
Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan531–579
- Abraha’s expedition against Mecca: the Year of the Elephantbetween 552 and 571
Africa
Central and Northern Asia
South Asia
- Varahamihira compiles the Pancha-siddhantikabetween 505 and 587
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Chenla absorbs Funanbetween 550 and 600 – between 627 and 637
- The inscriptions of Purnavarman, king of Taruma in western Javabetween 400 and 600
- Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eobetween 152 and 600
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
North America
- Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- The burning of Teotihuacan’s ceremonial centrebetween 550 and 650
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Pannonian Avars
- Wikipedia (English): Justin (consul 540)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Авары
- Менандр Византиец. Продолжение истории Агафиевой / Пер. С. Дестуниса // Византийские историки Дексипп, Эвнапий, Олимпиодор, Малх, Петр Патриций, Менандр, Кандид, Ноннос и Феофан Византиец. — СПб., 1860. — Отрывки 4–6.
- Blockley R. C. The History of Menander the Guardsman. — Liverpool: Francis Cairns, 1985. — Fr. 5.1–5.2.
- The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor / Transl. C. Mango, R. Scott. — Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. — AM 6050.
- Pohl W. The Avars: A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567–822. — Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018. — P. 21–23.
- Чичуров И. С. Византийские исторические сочинения: «Хронография» Феофана, «Бревиарий» Никифора. — М.: Наука, 1980. — Прим. 96