The Avars settle in the Carpathian Basin
Allied with the Lombards, the Avars of khagan Bayan destroyed the kingdom of the Gepids and, when the Lombards left for Italy, took over the whole Carpathian Basin, where their khaganate ruled for more than two centuries.
- Date
- between 567 and 568exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Carpathian Basinapproximate locationtoday: Hungary and neighbouring countries · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Avars, Bayan I, Lombards, Alboin
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Avar Khaganate; Аварский каганат; Lombard–Gepid War; Гепиды
The Avars, horsemen from the eastern steppe fleeing the Turks, first appeared on the Byzantine frontier around 557–558 and were at first paid by Justinian to fight other nomads. In 566 the Lombard king Alboin made an alliance with Bayan against the Gepids, promising the Avars the Gepid lands; in 567 the Gepids were crushed and their king Cunimund was killed. In 568 the Lombards left Pannonia for Italy, and the Avars became masters of the whole middle Danube basin.
From there the khaganate dominated the Slavs of Central Europe, extorted tribute from Byzantium, took Sirmium (582) and in 626 besieged Constantinople. Its power was broken by Charlemagne’s campaigns of 791–796; Avars are last mentioned in Frankish sources in 822.
Connections
Consequences
- Lombard invasion of Italy2 April 568 – 572 · Western and Central EuropeThe Lombards left Pannonia to their powerful new neighbours, the Avars
Related events
- The Avars ravage the lands of the Antesbetween 560 and 562 · Eastern EuropeBefore settling in Pannonia the Avars had subdued the Antes and other peoples of the Pontic steppe
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe high point and the turning point of the power of the Avar khaganate
Same participants
- Avar campaign against the Antes602 · Eastern Europevia Avars
Same place
- Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basinbetween 894 and 895 – 907 · Western and Central Europe
Adjacent events in the thread
- Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Eastern Europe
- The Avars ravage the lands of the Antesbetween 560 and 562
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
Balkans and Anatolia
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554
- Plague of Justinian541–549
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Pannonian Avars
- Wikipedia (English): Lombard–Gepid War (567)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Аварский каганат
- Wikipedia (Russian): Лангобардско-гепидская война (566—567)
- Pohl W. The Avars: A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567–822. — Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018.