Kingdoms of the Barbarians

The sudden appearance of the Avars in Eastern Europe has been linked by some scholars to the westwards expansion of the Göktürks, although there is no direct evidence to prove it. However, the Göktürk defeat of the Hephthalites in AD 565 could certainly have been a late catalyst for Avar migration across the Pontic-Caspian steppe and into Pannonia.

For this latter location as the heart of their European empire they are often named the Pannonian Avars to differentiate them from the modern (and possibly unrelated) population of Avars of the Caucasus, but they were not alone in migrating westwards. The period witnessed a great expansion of the early Turkic tribes to the north-west of the Chinese kingdom.

Perhaps having already developed through proto-Mongoloid and Caucasian links (the latter via the Tocharians as shown in Göktürk origins), by the third and fourth centuries they were also spreading onto the Kazakh steppe where they experienced Indo-Iranian cultural influences and intermarriage. The Hunnic migration of the fourth century swept many of these early Turkic tribes along with them, with many others following in their wake.

The Avars were relatively late arrivals in the west. They had been pushed - or had escaped - to the north-eastern coast of the Caspian Sea by the mid-fifth century AD, while other Turkic groups such as the Bulgars, Onogurs, and Sabirs were already consolidating their grip on the Pontic-Caspian steppe and were integrating with the local Slavic population.

After a century of growth and stability, however, the Avars were a very large and powerful group in their own right. They swept in from the Kazakh steppe to dominate the Pontic-Caspian steppe and control areas of Pannonia and western Dacia (largely forming modern Hungary) from AD 558. Their domination was not complete though. The creation of Great Bulgaria around 632 saw them lose the Pontic steppe for at least a generation.

In some historical references it can be hard to be sure whether it is the Huns or the Avars who are being mentioned. To the civilisations who recorded these matters they were generally seen as being a continuation of the same endless supply of eastern barbarians. Some scholars took more pains to describe them in detail though, and modern scholars can generally use the date of the reference to determine whether it is for the Huns or Avars.

Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum describes both the Huns and the Avars, But why did Paul refer to the Huns as Vulgares? This term is generally taken to refer to the Bulgars, seemingly a major constituent part of the Hunnic empire and subsequently powerful on the Pontic steppe, but his readers knew he was referring instead to the Avars, especially as they were either dominating or being dominated by the Bulgars.

In the Historia Langobardorum the 'Hunni' are always the Avars, 'who were first called Huns, but afterward from the name of their own king: Avars'. Gregory of Tours, too, referred to the Avars as Huns, and a century later so did the Langobard who wrote the Origo. In Eastern Roman historiography of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, the use of the name Hunni for the Avars is common.

The Avars played a vital role in the development of the Slavs. There is general agreement among western scholars that the Avars were instrumental in the introduction of Slavs into the historical record. Just as the Huns caused the Germanic peoples (along with the Indo-Iranian Alani) to migrate and to develop new political groups, so too did the Avars cause the Slavs to move and to develop.

In fact the early, largely sedentary Slavs on the Pontic steppe had already been stirred up by the Huns, with large numbers drifting northwards to find refuge on the borders of the lands of the Balts. Some also drifted westwards, as shown by those groups which settled in Carinthia in the last two decades of the fifth century. But now Slavs became directly involved in events in Southern Europe, at least partially in the employ of the Avars, and probably having been moved into the region in sizeable numbers by the Avars.

The historical record for the Avars themselves is fragmentary and incomplete. Like many similar waves of invaders from the east they were illiterate despite forming a successful imperial elite, so the subsequent success of their Slav servants has largely overshadowed them. Twenty-first century archaeology is just starting to rebalance the books in that regard.

They were referred to as pseudo-Avars by Theophylact Simocatta, who considered the Rouran to be the true Avars. He described in rather exaggerated tones how these 'Avars' were formed of two different groups of Ogurs (possibly Onogurs, which would confirm a Turkic origin for the Avars) - the Var and the Chunni - and that they divided themselves away from the original eastern host to enter the Pontic steppe.

Whilst clearly describing an eastern nomadic origin, the description of two different groups involved in the formation of the Avars could be the result of a limited awareness of proto-Turks and Indo-Iranians joining forces or amalgamating in one form or another to form the Avars (and probably all of the other early Turkic groups).

Several others have linked the Avars to the Rouran without any particular evidence to support such a claim. Indeed, the most likely option is that the Avars were of the same early Turkic origin as the many other tribes which were exploding out of the east during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries. Many of these also exhibited traces of shared Mongoloid and Indo-Iranian heritage.

The Indo-Europeans and their various branches were the first horse-borne nomads. The Turks, Huns, Magyars, Mongols, and later nomads who followed the same way of life all, ultimately, learned from the Indo-Europeans while incorporating their descendants in their numbers - specifically in most cases the Indo-Iranians - and held them in high status whilst doing so.

European Kingdoms

Barbarians

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