Avar Khaganate - Kiev - history - catalog of articles - unconditional love. Avars When the Avar Khaganate was founded

The peoples who left the historical map in the last millennium often did not leave behind written sources. The only evidence for their existence is archaeological evidence. This is the case with the history of the Avar Khaganate. Much in the life of the people and their state remains mysterious.

The emergence of the Avars in Europe

The Avars settled in the Carpathian region. This was facilitated by the Great Migration. On the territory of modern Hungary, the tribe had a strong political power. Information about the Avars was preserved only in the chronicles of Byzantium and the Frankish state.

It is known that in 568 the Lombards moved to the territory of Northern Italy, forming Lombardy there. Avars came to their former place on both banks of the Danube River. It was they who at one time helped the Lombards to oust the Germanic tribe of the Gepids from the desired lands.

Avar envoys first came to Europe in 558. They wanted to enter the territory of the Byzantine Empire. To do this, the envoys asked for help from the ruler of the Alans. A little later, the ambassadors arrived in Constantinople. Sources note that men wore hairstyles with ribbons of different tones woven into their hair. It was a distinctive attire for nomads. The Avars' ambassador offered the Byzantine emperor military assistance in exchange for land grants.

At that time, the main rival of Byzantium was the state of the Franks. Another danger was the appearance of the Slavs in the Carpathian basin. The Avars became a profitable ally for Constantinople.

Before you find out when the Avar Khaganate was founded, it is worth understanding the territory of the tribe. At first, the Avars were offered land on the site of modern Serbia, but they refused them. They asked to settle in Dobruja, which lay along the banks of the Danube. The plain was more suitable for the nomadic people. But the tribe did not stay here for long. Then there was the already well-known alliance with the Lombards and a settlement in Pannonia. The formation of the state began.

Avar Khaganate: creation

After fixing on the new territory, the tribe created its own state association. It was called "Avar Khaganate". Bayan is considered the first known ruler. Neighboring tribes also fell under his control: Gepids, Slavs. By the end of the 6th century, other peoples joined the kaganate, for example, the Kutrigurs, the Zabenders.

Since Byzantium was occupied with the war with the Persians, the Avars with the Slavs carried out devastating raids on the lands of the lower Danube. They were owned by Constantinople. In 591, the Avars were driven out of the Balkan lands. Military skirmishes between the Khagan Bayan and the Byzantines were of an alternate nature.

In the 7th century, a state was established on the western border side of the Avar Khaganate. It lasted thirty-five years, but brought a lot of harm to the Avars and Franks. It was founded by the Slavs in alliance with the Frankish merchant Samo. The collapse of the warlike state was associated with the death of its head.

In the middle of the 7th century, a crisis occurred in the Khaganate itself due to the termination of the former dynasty. The Kutriguro-Bulgarians were aiming for the throne. They raised an uprising within the state, which the Avars managed to suppress. As a result, the Kutriguro-Bulgarians were ousted from the lands of the Khaganate.

In the seventies, the Proto-Bulgarians settled along the Danube. They created a separate state association called Great Bulgaria. The Avar Khaganate maintained friendly relations with them. The country existed until the 9th century. There is evidence that the son of the Bulgarian Khan Kuvrat moved with his people to the lands of the Avars. This was due to the appearance of the Khazars in the southern Russian steppes. The tribes mixed with each other, which could not but affect the ethnic type of the Avars. The Khazar and Avar Khaganates existed at the same time. Only the state of the Khazars lasted until the 11th century.

Origin of the people

There are several versions of the origin of the Avars. According to one of them, the tribes came from Central Asia. There they were known as Juan-Juan. According to the second - the tribes came out of Central Asia.

Many researchers believe that the Avars were not isolated, they were an ethnically mixed people. This is evidenced by the found graves. In some, large burial grounds were arranged with a separate burial of people and horses (the customs of the Mongoloids), in others, legs and skulls of horses were found (typical of the Iranian peoples).

The study of the skulls also showed that Avars with Mongoloid and Caucasoid features lived at the same time. The Avars entered into a marriage alliance with all peoples. They could well have mixed with the Sarmatians who lived on the territory of Hungary, as well as with the Slavs. They called themselves obrovs.

Society

The society is known thanks to the research of burials, which are located on the territory of modern Hungary and neighboring powers.

Approximate hierarchy in society:

the kagan was in power;
katun - the first wife of the ruler;
tudun, yugur - governors of the ruler who ruled over certain lands;
tarkhans - tribute collectors in the country;
leaders of tribes, clans;
warriors are the largest part of the population.

Judging by the late burials, a strong stratification began in society. There are many graves with scarce inventory. Wealthy nobles were sometimes buried in wooden coffins. Ordinary residents were wrapped in material that rotted in the ground.

The Avars did not have a developed institution of slavery. For domestic work, they could use captured warriors from other tribes or ruined fellow tribesmen.

Settlement and occupation

Several hundred settlements have been found that date back to the 7th-9th centuries. The most impressive excavations were carried out near Dunaujváros in Hungary. The remains of thirty-seven dwellings were found there. They looked like semi-dugouts with wooden walls. Inside each house there was a stove-heater. Many dwellings are equipped with grain pits. In such settlements, the Avars lived during the cold season, when they returned from summer pastures. In warm weather, they grazed cattle, moving from place to place, so they used easily portable yurt-like structures.

The Avars were engaged in semi-nomadic cattle breeding. Gradually they settled down, turning to agriculture.

Horses played an important role in their lives. The animals were of eastern origin, they were fast, suitable for movement on the steppes and sandy soils. The tribe also raised sheep, chickens, goats. The remains of the shell are found during excavations. From plant crops, millet, wheat, and later - rye and oats were grown.

culture

The Avars knew runic writing, but there is no evidence that they used it for correspondence. Symbols were carved in order to protect themselves from troubles or to designate the owner of a particular item.

The language can only be judged by the names of kagans, ambassadors and titles. They are of Turkish origin. However, it was not the Avars who could give such names and titles, but those who wrote about them.

Beliefs

Almost nothing is known about the beliefs of the peoples of the Avar Khaganate. According to the sources, they were idolaters, they had shamans. Judging by the burials, they believed in the afterlife. The deceased person was left food, weapons and a horse. For a ritual purpose, a quiver with ten arrows was left to the soldiers.

Art

Representatives of the kaganate were famous for their ability to cut bones. They also created carpets, fabrics, carried out artistic processing of gold and silver. The creations of the Avars have not been preserved. During the excavations, decorations were found, but they are attributed to the work of the masters of the East.

Men wore belts with plaques. These attributes are different. The quiver, the sword of the leader were covered with gold, the rest of the soldiers - with silver. Vegetation, figures of people, an image of a struggle between animals were used as an ornament.

The Avars made pottery, including on the potter's wheel, and fired it in kilns. But the ornament was almost not applied to it.

Franco-Avar War

Charlemagne became the leader of the Franks in 768. His power began to grow. They conquered the Saxons, part of the Slavic tribes. He began the forcible introduction of Christianity among the population. For the Franks, the Avars remained the most dangerous opponents. Two strong states tried to live in peace, in 780 they exchanged embassies.

But this did not prevent the Khaganate in 788 from concluding an alliance against the Franks with the Bavarian prince Tassilo. Allied troops were defeated. This accelerated the defeat of the Avar Khaganate. Karl decided to deal with the unfaithful neighbors as soon as possible. He took up the fortification of cities, including Regnsburg.

In 791, the army of Charles opposed the Avars. The Kaganate was attacked from two sides: Pepin (son of Charles) led troops from Italy, the leader of the Franks was heading along the Danube. The Saxons decided to come to the aid of the Avars. They raised an uprising, flooding the rear of the Franks with blood. But strife began within the kaganate. This led to the death of the kagan.

Fall of the Khaganate

In 796, the Avar ambassadors swore allegiance to Charlemagne. But until 803 there were protests against the Franks. At the same time, the Bulgarian Khan Krum attacked the lands of the Khaganate. So the Avar state was completely defeated. The conquered people accepted Khan Krum as their ruler and assimilated with the Proto-Bulgarians.

The defeat of the Avar Khaganate (9th century) endowed the Franks with western lands, and the Bulgarians with eastern territories. The winners drew the border along the middle Danube. The remnants of the conquered people dissolved in stronger states.

However, references to the Avar kingdom are found in sources from the middle of the 9th century, for example, in the Treaty of Verdun in 843. In it, the kingdom is called part of the empire of Charles.

The history of the origin of the Avar Khaganate is connected with the Great Migration of Peoples. The state association forced even Byzantium to reckon with itself. The state existed for two centuries, preserving many settlements and graves on the territory of modern Hungary and other neighboring countries. They are also mentioned in the "Tale of Bygone Years" as a proud people who were waiting for death.

5 784

Formation of the Avar Khaganate

In the second half of the 6th century, the balance of power in the Danube and the Northern Black Sea region was disturbed by the arrival of new conquerors. Central Asia, like an immense womb, continued to spew out nomadic hordes. This time it was Avars.

Their leader Bayan took the title of kagan. At first, under his command there were no more than 20,000 horsemen, but then the Avar horde was replenished with warriors from the conquered peoples. The Avars were excellent riders, and it was to them that the European cavalry owed an important innovation - iron stirrups. Having acquired greater stability in the saddle thanks to them, the Avar riders began to use heavy spears and sabers (still slightly curved), more suitable for hand-to-hand equestrian combat. These improvements gave the Avar cavalry significant impact power and stability in close combat.

At first, it seemed difficult for the Avars to gain a foothold in the Northern Black Sea region, relying only on their own forces, so in 558 they sent an embassy to Constantinople with an offer of friendship and alliance. The inhabitants of the capital were especially struck by the wavy, braided hair of the Avar ambassadors, and the dandies of Constantinople immediately brought this hairstyle into fashion under the name “Hunnic”. The envoys of the kagan frightened the emperor with their strength: “The greatest and strongest of the nations is coming to you. The Avar tribe is invincible, it is able to repel and exterminate opponents. And therefore it will be useful for you to accept the Avars as allies and acquire excellent defenders in them.

And so, having strengthened their horde with the Bulgar tribes of Kutrigurs and Utigurs, the Avars attacked the Antes, who at that time were in the position of Byzantine vassals. Military happiness was on the side of the kagan. The Ants were forced to enter into negotiations with Bayan. The embassy was headed by a certain Mezamer (Mezhemir?), obviously an influential Antes leader. The Ants wanted to agree on the ransom of their relatives, captured by the Avars. But Mezamer did not appear before the kagan in the role of a petitioner. According to the Byzantine historian Menander, he behaved arrogantly and even "impudently". Menander explains the reason for this behavior of the Antic ambassador by the fact that he was "an idle talker and a braggart", but, probably, it was not only the properties of Mezamer's character. Most likely, the Antes were not completely defeated, and Mezamer sought to make the Avars feel their strength. He paid for his pride with his life. One noble Bulgarin, apparently well aware of the high position of Mezamer among the Antes, suggested that the kagan kill him in order to then "fearlessly attack the enemy's land." Bayan followed this advice and, indeed, the death of Mezamer disorganized the resistance of the Antes. The Avars, says Menander, “began to ravage the land of the Antes more than ever, without ceasing to plunder it and enslave the inhabitants.”

The emperor looked at the robbery perpetrated by the Avars over his vassals through his fingers. One Turkic leader just at that time accused the duplicitous policy of the Byzantines towards the barbarian peoples in the following expressions: themselves." So it was this time. Resigned to the fact that the Avars had penetrated into Pannonia, Justinian set them on the enemies of Byzantium in this region. In the 560s, the Avars exterminated the Gepid tribe, devastated the neighboring regions of the Franks, pushed the Lombards into Italy and, thus, became the masters of the Danubian steppes.

For better control over the conquered lands, the victors created several fortified camps in different parts of Pannonia. The political and religious center of the Avar state was the hring - the residence of the kagan surrounded by a ring of fortifications, located somewhere in the northwestern part of the interfluve of the Danube and Tisza. Treasures were also kept here - gold and jewelry captured from neighboring peoples or received "as a gift" from the Byzantine emperors. During the time of the Avar domination in the Middle Danube (until approximately 626), Byzantium paid the kagans about 25 thousand kilograms of gold. Most of the coins of the Avars, who did not know money circulation, were melted down into jewelry and vessels.

The Slavic tribes living in the Danube fell under the rule of the kagan. They were mainly Antes, but also a significant part of the Sclaveni. The wealth plundered by the Slavs from the Romans greatly attracted the Avars. According to Menander, Khagan Bayan believed that “the Sclaven land abounds in money, because the Sclaveni robbed the Romans from ancient times ... their land was not devastated by any other people.” Now the Slavs were robbed and humiliated. The Avars treated them like slaves. Memories of the Avar yoke then remained for a long time in the memory of the Slavs. "The Tale of Bygone Years" left us a vivid picture of how obry (Avars) "primuchisha dulebs": the conquerors harnessed several Duleb women to a cart instead of horses or oxen and rode them. This unpunished mockery of the wives of the dulebs is the best example of the humiliation of their husbands.

From the Frankish chronicler of the 7th century. Fredegar, we also learn that the Avars “every year came to spend the winter with the Slavs, took the wives of the Slavs and their daughters to their bed; in addition to other oppressions, the Slavs paid tribute to the Huns (in this case, the Avars. - S. Ts.).

In addition to money, the Slavs were obliged to pay a blood tax to the Avars, participating in their wars and raids. In the battle, the Slavs stood in the first line of battle and took the main blow of the enemy. The Avars at that time stood in the second line, near the camp, and if the Slavs overcame, then the Avar cavalry rushed forward and captured the prey; if the Slavs retreated, then the enemy, exhausted in battle with them, had to deal with fresh Avar reserves. “I will send such people to the Roman Empire, the loss of which will not be sensitive to me, even if they are completely dead,” Bayan declared cynically. And so it was: the Avars minimized their losses even with major defeats. So, after the crushing defeat by the Byzantines of the Avar army on the Tisza River in 601, the Avars themselves made up only a fifth of all prisoners, half of the remaining captives were Slavs, and the other half were other allies or subjects of the kagan.

Recognizing this proportion between the Avars and the Slavs and other peoples who were part of their kaganate, Emperor Tiberius, when concluding a peace treaty with the Avars, preferred to take hostage the children not of the kagan himself, but of the "Scythian" princes, who, in his opinion, could influence the kagan in the event if he wanted to disturb the peace. And indeed, by Bayan's own admission, the military failure frightened him mainly because it would lead to a drop in his prestige in the eyes of the leaders of the tribes subordinate to him.

In addition to direct participation in hostilities, the Slavs ensured the crossing of the Avar army across the rivers and supported the land forces of the kagan from the sea, and experienced Lombard shipbuilders, specially invited by the khagan, were mentors of the Slavs in maritime affairs. According to Paul the Deacon, in 600, the Lombard king Agilulf sent shipbuilders to the kagan, thanks to which the "Avars", that is, the Slavic units in their army, took possession of "a certain island in Thrace." The Slavic fleet consisted of one-tree boats and rather roomy boats. The art of building large warships remained unknown to Slavic sailors, since as far back as the 5th century, the prudent Byzantines passed a law that punished anyone who dared to teach the barbarians about shipbuilding by death.

Avars and Slavs invading the Balkans

The Byzantine Empire, which abandoned its Antes allies to the mercy of fate, had to pay dearly for this betrayal, which is, in general, common for imperial diplomacy. In the last quarter of the 6th century, the Antes resumed their invasions of the empire as part of the Avar horde.

Bayan was angry with the emperor for not receiving the promised places for settlement on the territory of the empire; in addition, Emperor Justin II (565–579), who ascended the throne after the death of Justinian I, refused to pay tribute to the Avars. In retaliation, the Avars, together with the Antian tribes dependent on them, from 570 began to raid the Balkans. The Sclavens acted independently or in alliance with the kagan. Thanks to the military support of the Avars, the Slavs were able to begin mass settlement of the Balkan Peninsula. Byzantine sources that tell about these events often call the invaders Avars, but according to archaeological data, there are practically no Avars in the Balkans south of modern Albania, which leaves no doubt about the purely Slavic composition of this colonization stream.

The early medieval anonymous chronicle of the city of Monemvasia, expressing sadness about the humiliation of the "noble Hellenic peoples", testifies that in the 580s the Slavs captured "the whole of Thessaly and all of Hellas, as well as Old Epirus and Attica and Euboea", as well as most of the Peloponnese, where they held out for over two hundred years. According to the Patriarch of Constantinople Nicholas III (1084-1111), the Romans did not dare to appear there. Even in the 10th century, when Byzantine rule over Greece was restored, this area was still called the “Slavic land”*.

* In the 30s of the 19th century, the German scientist Fallmerayer noticed that modern Greeks, in essence, are descended from the Slavs. This statement caused a heated discussion in scientific circles.

Of course, Byzantium ceded these lands after a stubborn struggle. For a long time, its forces were fettered by the war with the Iranian Shah, therefore, on the Danube front, the Byzantine government could rely only on the hardness of the walls of the fortresses there and the stamina of their garrisons. Meanwhile, many years of clashes with the Byzantine army did not pass without a trace for the military art of the Slavs. The sixth-century historian John of Ephesus notes that the Slavs, those savages who previously did not dare to appear from the forests and did not know any other weapon than throwing spears, now learned to fight better than the Romans. Already during the reign of Emperor Tiberius (578-582), the Slavs made their colonization intentions quite clear. Having filled the Balkans up to Corinth, they did not leave these lands for four years. Local residents were taxed in their favor.

Fierce wars with the Slavs and Avars were waged by Emperor Mauritius (582–602). The first decade of his reign was marked by a sharp deterioration in relations with the kagan (Bayan, and then his successor, who remained nameless for us). The quarrel broke out over some 20,000 gold coins, which the kagan demanded to be attached to the sum of 80,000 solidi paid to him annually by the empire (payments resumed from 574). But Mauritius, an Armenian by origin and a true son of his people, bargained desperately. His intractability becomes clearer when you consider that the empire was already giving the Avars a hundredth of its annual budget. In order to make Mauritius more compliant, the kagan marched with fire and sword all over Illyricum, then turned east and went to the Black Sea coast in the area of the imperial resort of Anchiala, where his wives soaked in the famous warm baths to their heart's content. Nevertheless, Mauritius preferred to suffer losses of millions than to give up even gold in favor of the kagan. Then the Avars set the Slavs against the empire, who, “as if flying through the air,” as Theophylact Simokatta writes, appeared at the Long Walls of Constantinople, where, however, they suffered a painful defeat.

Byzantine warriors

In 591, a peace treaty with the Shah of Iran untied Mauritius's hands to settle matters in the Balkans. In an effort to seize the military initiative, the emperor concentrated in the Balkans, near Dorostol, large forces under the command of the talented strategist Priscus. The Kagan protested against the military presence of the Romans in the area, but, having received the answer that Priscus had arrived here not for a war with the Avars, but only to organize a punitive expedition against the Slavs, he fell silent.

The Slavs were led by the Sclaven leader Ardagast (probably Radogost). With him there was a small number of soldiers, since the rest were engaged in robbery of the surroundings. The Slavs did not expect an attack. Priscus managed to cross unhindered to the left bank of the Danube at night, after which he suddenly attacked Ardagast's camp. The Slavs fled in panic, and their leader barely escaped by jumping on an unsaddled horse.

Prisk moved deep into the Slavic lands. The guide of the Roman army was a certain Gepid, who converted to Christianity, knew the Slavic language and was well aware of the location of the Slavic detachments. From his words, Priscus learned that another horde of Slavs was nearby, led by another leader of the Sklavens, Musoky. In Byzantine sources, he is called "rix", that is, the king, and this makes one think that the position of this leader among the Danubian Slavs was even higher than the position of Ardagast. Prisk again managed to quietly approach the Slavic camp at night. However, this was not difficult to do, for the “rix” and all his host were dead drunk on the occasion of the funeral feast in memory of the deceased brother Musokia. The hangover was bloody. The battle resulted in a massacre of sleeping and drunken people; Musokie was captured alive. However, having won the victory, the Romans themselves indulged in drunken revelry and almost shared the fate of the vanquished. The Slavs, having come to their senses, attacked them, and only the energy of Genzon, the commander of the Roman infantry, saved the army of Priscus from extermination.

Further successes of Priscus were prevented by the Avars, who demanded that the captured Slavs, their subjects, be handed over to them. Priscus considered it best not to quarrel with the kagan and satisfied his demand. His soldiers, having lost their prey, almost rebelled, but Priscus managed to calm them down. But Mauritius did not listen to his explanations and removed Priscus from the post of commander, replacing him with his brother Peter.

Peter had to start over again, because during the time he took command, the Slavs again flooded the Balkans. The task he faced of squeezing them across the Danube was facilitated by the fact that the Slavs scattered around the country in small detachments. And still, the victory over them was not easy for the Romans. So, for example, the most stubborn resistance was put up by some six hundred Slavs, whom Peter's army ran into somewhere in northern Thrace. The Slavs returned home accompanied by a large number of prisoners; booty was loaded onto many wagons. Noticing the approach of the superior forces of the Romans, the Slavs first of all began to kill captured men capable of carrying weapons. Then they surrounded their camp with wagons and sat inside with the remaining prisoners, mostly women and children. The Roman cavalry did not dare to approach the wagons, fearing the darts that the Slavs threw from their fortifications at the horses. Finally, the cavalry officer Alexander forced the soldiers to dismount and storm. The hand-to-hand combat went on for quite some time. When the Slavs saw that they could not stand, they slaughtered the remaining prisoners and were, in turn, exterminated by the Romans who broke into the fortifications.

Having cleared the Balkans from the Slavs, Peter tried, like Priscus, to transfer hostilities beyond the Danube. The Slavs this time were not so careless. Their leader Piragast (or Pirogoshch) set up an ambush on the other side of the Danube. The Slavic army skillfully disguised itself in the forest, “like some kind of grape forgotten in the foliage,” as Theophylact Simokatta poetically expresses. The Romans began the crossing with several detachments, dispersing their forces. Piraghast took advantage of this circumstance, and the first thousand soldiers of Peter, who crossed the river, were completely destroyed. Then Peter concentrated his forces at one point; Slavs lined up on the opposite bank. Opponents showered each other with arrows and darts. During this exchange of fire, Piraghast fell, hit by an arrow in the side. The loss of the leader led the Slavs into confusion, and the Romans, having crossed to the other side, completely defeated them.

However, Peter's further campaign deep into the Slavic territory ended in defeat for him. The Roman army got lost in waterless places, and the soldiers were forced to quench their thirst with wine alone for three days. When, finally, they came to some river, then any semblance of discipline in the half-drunk army of Peter was lost. Not caring about anything else, the Romans rushed to the coveted water. The dense forest on the other side of the river did not arouse the slightest suspicion in them. Meanwhile, the Slavs hid in more often. Those Roman soldiers who first ran to the river were killed by them. But to refuse water was worse than death for the Romans. Without any order, they began to build rafts to drive the Slavs away from the coast. When the Romans crossed the river, the Slavs fell on them in a crowd and put them to flight. This defeat led to the resignation of Peter, and the Roman army was again led by Priscus.

Considering the forces of the empire weakened, the kagan, together with the Slavs, invaded Thrace and Macedonia. However, Priscus repulsed the invasion and launched a counteroffensive. The decisive battle took place in 601 on the river Tisza. The Avaro-Slavic army was overturned and thrown into the river by the Romans. The main losses fell on the share of the Slavs. They lost 8,000 men, while the Avars in the second line lost only 3,000.

The defeat forced the Antes to renew their alliance with Byzantium. The enraged kagan sent one of his close associates against them with significant forces, ordering to destroy this recalcitrant tribe. Probably, the settlements of the Antes suffered a terrible defeat, since their very name from the beginning of the 7th century is no longer mentioned in the sources. But the total extermination of the Ants, of course, did not happen: archaeological finds speak of a Slavic presence in the interfluve of the Danube and Dniester throughout the entire 7th century. It is only clear that the punitive expedition of the Avars dealt an irreparable blow to the power of the Antian tribes.

Despite the success achieved, Byzantium could no longer stop the Slavicization of the Balkans. After the overthrow of Emperor Mauritius in 602, the empire entered a period of internal turmoil and foreign policy failures. The new emperor Phocas, who led the soldiers' rebellion against Mauritius, did not leave military-terrorist habits even after he put on the purple imperial robe. His rule was more like a tyranny than a legitimate authority. He used the army not to defend the borders, but to rob his subjects and suppress discontent within the empire. Sasanian Iran immediately took advantage of this, occupying Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and the Byzantine Jews actively helped the Persians, who beat the garrisons and opened the gates of the cities to the approaching Persians; in Antioch and Jerusalem they massacred many Christian inhabitants. Only the overthrow of Phocas and the accession of the more active emperor Heraclius made it possible to save the situation in the East and return the lost provinces to the empire. However, completely occupied with the fight against the Iranian Shah, Heraclius had to come to terms with the gradual settlement of the Balkan lands by the Slavs. Isidore of Seville writes that it was during the reign of Heraclius that "the Slavs took Greece from the Romans."

The Slavic navy took part in the siege of Constantinople undertaken by the Khagan in alliance with the Iranian Shah Khosrow II in 618. The Kagan took advantage of the fact that Emperor Heraclius, together with the army, was at that time in Asia Minor, where he returned from a deep three-year raid through the territory of Iran. The capital of the empire was thus protected only by the garrison.

The Kagan brought with him an 80,000-strong army, which, in addition to the Avar horde, included detachments of the Bulgars, Gepids and Slavs. Some of the latter, apparently, came with the kagan as his subjects, others as allies of the Avars. Slavic boats arrived at Constantinople along the Black Sea from the mouth of the Danube and settled on the flanks of the kagan's army: on the Bosphorus and in the Golden Horn, where they were dragged by land. The Iranian troops, who occupied the Asian shore of the Bosporus, played a supporting role - their goal was to prevent the return of the army of Heraclius to the aid of the capital.

The first attack took place on July 31st. On this day, the kagan tried to destroy the walls of the city with the help of battering rams. But the stone throwers and "turtles" were burned by the townspeople. A new assault was scheduled for 7 August. The besiegers surrounded the city walls in a double ring: lightly armed Slavic soldiers were in the first battle line, followed by the Avars. This time, the kagan instructed the Slavic fleet to bring a large landing force to the shore. As Fyodor Sinkell, an eyewitness of the siege, writes, the kagan “managed to turn the entire Golden Horn Bay into dry land, filling it with monoxyls (one-tree boats. - S.Ts.), carrying peoples of different tribes.” The Slavs performed mainly the role of rowers, and the landing force consisted of heavily armed Avar and Iranian soldiers.

However, this joint assault by land and sea forces ended in failure. The Slavic fleet suffered especially heavy losses. The naval attack somehow became known to the patrician Vonos, who led the defense of the city. Probably, the Byzantines managed to decipher the signal fires, with the help of which the Avars coordinated their actions with the allied and auxiliary detachments. Pulling warships to the supposed place of attack, Vonos gave the Slavs a false signal with fire. As soon as the Slavic boats went to sea, the Roman ships surrounded them. The battle ended with the complete defeat of the Slavic flotilla, and the Romans somehow set fire to the ships of the enemies, although the "Greek fire" had not yet been invented *. It seems that a storm completed the defeat, due to which the deliverance of Constantinople from danger was attributed to the Virgin Mary. The sea and the coast were covered with the corpses of the attackers; Among the bodies of the dead, Slavic women who took part in the naval battle were also found.

* The earliest evidence of the successful use of this flammable liquid dates back to the time of the siege of Constantinople by the Arabs in 673.

The surviving Slavic sailors, apparently, who were in Avar citizenship, the kagan ordered to be executed. This cruel act led to the collapse of the allied army. The Slavs, who were not subordinate to the kagan, were indignant at the massacre of their relatives and left the Avar camp. Soon, the kagan was forced to follow them, since it was pointless to continue the siege without infantry and fleet.

The liberation of the Slavs from the power of the Avar Khaganate

The defeat of the Avars under the walls of Constantinople served as a signal for uprisings against their dominion, which Bayan had once feared so much. In the next two or three decades, most of the tribes that were part of the Avar Khaganate, and among them the Slavs and Bulgars, threw off the Avar yoke. The Byzantine poet George Pisida stated with satisfaction:

... the Scythian kills the Slav, and he kills him.

They are covered in blood from mutual murders,

and their great indignation pours out into battle.

A mortal blow to the Avar Khaganate was inflicted by Charlemagne.

After successful campaigns across the Rhine at the end of the 8th century, he extended his power to the Slavic tribes of Obodrites and Wilts. The Frankish chronicler calls them "our Slavs".

In 791, the united Franco-Langobardo-Slavic army, led by the Slav Vonomir, invaded Pannonia and inflicted a severe defeat on the Avars.

Six years later, Charles himself went on a campaign against the Avars, in alliance with the Bulgarian Khan Krum. Hring (the residence of the kagan) was captured, the khagan died in internecine turmoil, and his treasures fell into the hands of the Franks. In 796, the Avar tudun (the second person in the kaganate) surrendered to Charles and converted to Christianity. According to one Byzantine source of the 9th century, the Avars themselves spoke of the reasons for their defeat: “At first, because of a quarrel that deprived the kagan of faithful and truthful advisers, power fell into the hands of wicked people. Then the judges were corrupted, who were supposed to defend the truth before the people, but instead fraternized with hypocrites and thieves; the abundance of wine gave rise to drunkenness, and the Avars, having weakened physically, also lost their minds. Finally, the passion for trade began: the Avars became traders, one deceived the other, brother sold brother. This ... and became the source of our shameful misfortune.

Nevertheless, the final conquest of the Avars dragged on for several years. The kagan was baptized only in 805, after three unsuccessful uprisings against Frankish rule. The Avars could no longer stand up for themselves, and now the Slavs, who settled these lands in large numbers, oppressed the remnants of the Avar population. In 811, Charles sent an army to Pannonia to sort out quarrels between them. But the matter was not settled, and subsequently the Slavs and Avars sent ambassadors to Aachen, who personally sued before Charles. The last embassy of the Avars to the Franks went in 823, after which this people is no longer mentioned in the sources as an independent ethnic group. Under the Verdun division of the empire of Charlemagne (843), among other lands, the “Avar Kingdom”, already inhabited mainly by Slavs, also ceded to the East Frankish Empire.

The defeat of the Avar horde by the Franks was so crushing that it caused contemporaries the impression of the complete disappearance of the Avars as a people. Latin-language monuments of the 9th century. they call the former Avar lands solitudines Avarorum, that is, the "Avar desert". According to the Frankish chronicler, “the place where the kagan’s palace was is so wild and empty that you won’t notice even a trace of human dwellings here.” The death of the mighty Avar state was remembered even in Russia. “The Tale of Bygone Years” notes on this occasion: “There were obry (Avars. - S. Ts.) great in body, but proud in mind, and God destroyed them, they all died, not a single obryn remained, and there is a saying in Russia to this day day: perished like a find.

After the death of the Avar Khaganate, the Slavs became the main population of the middle Danube. They were the owners of the local lands until the invasion of the Hungarians at the end of the 9th-beginning of the 10th centuries.

A nomadic empire that existed in Eastern Europe in the 6th-9th centuries, created by the Khagan Bayan, the leader of the Turkic Avars tribe. At first, the kaganate was the westernmost province of the huge Turkic khaganate, and after the collapse it became a separate power. The territory of the Avar Khaganate was quite large for that time. The Avars owned the territories of modern Hungary, Austria, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and partly Switzerland. The Avars were excellent warriors, so many states of Europe, including the Byzantine Empire, sought to conclude an alliance with them. Byzantium, concluding an alliance with the Avars, provided them with their best lands, in exchange for an alliance and protection of the empire from the attacks of its neighbors. The Avars fought on the side of Byzantium against the Slavs, Germans, Franks, Goths, Gepids. But the kagans, replacing each other on the throne, also changed their policy. Some khagans even broke off the alliance with Byzantium and attacked Constantinople. For example, in 626, the Avars supported the Persians in the Byzantine-Persian war. When the Byzantine army fought with Persia, the Avars, in alliance with the Slavs, stormed some cities and towns of the Byzantines, then besieged Constantinople, but unsuccessfully.

Civil strife, constant wars with neighbors, the suppression of uprisings of conquered peoples, the defeat at the walls of Constantinople in 626 and the attack of the Franks from the west significantly weakened the Khaganate. The unsuccessful assault on the capital of Byzantium was especially strong, the Avars lost many people, and the army was significantly weakened. The Avar Khaganate begins to disintegrate, first the Turkic tribe of the Bulgars separates from the empire. A few years later they create their own Khaganate. After the Bulgars, the Croats separated. Taking advantage of the weakening of the Khaganate, the king of the Franks, Charlemagne, makes a campaign in the country of the Avars. The Avars decided not to give up and make an alliance with the Saxons. The Saxons decided to make an uprising behind enemy lines. However, such a move did not help the Avars, in the kaganate there were internecine warriors between the heirs. The Franks took the Avars by surprise and defeated their army, captured the horde of the kagan. The Franks took away all the treasures collected by the Avars over the centuries. The remaining Avars fled, but after a short time they revolted against the Frankish empire. Charlemagne had to repeat the campaign in the country of the Avars and pacify them. The last Avar Khagan swore allegiance to the king of the Franks and converted to Christianity. The former Avar possessions along the Danube were conquered by the Bulgarian Khan Krum.

Thus, the once formidable Avar Khaganate, which had instilled fear in all of Europe for several centuries, was destroyed.

Formation of the Avar Khaganate

Their leader Bayan took the title of kagan. At first, under his command there were no more than 20,000 horsemen, but then the Avar horde was replenished with warriors from the conquered peoples. The Avars were excellent riders, and it was to them that the European cavalry owed an important innovation.— iron stirrups. Having acquired greater stability in the saddle thanks to them, the Avar riders began to use heavy spears and sabers (still slightly curved), more suitable for hand-to-hand equestrian combat. These improvements gave the Avar cavalry significant impact power and stability in close combat.

Byzantium intended to use the Avars to fight other barbarians. The imperial diplomats reasoned as follows: "Whether the Avars will win or be defeated, in both cases, the benefit will be on the side of the Romans." An alliance was concluded between the empire and the kagan on the terms of providing the Avars with land for settlement and paying them a certain sum of money from the imperial treasury. But Bayan was by no means going to be an obedient tool in the hands of the emperor. He rushed to the Pannonian steppes, so attractive to nomads. However, the way there was covered by a barrier from the Antian tribes, prudently put up by Byzantine diplomacy.

And so, having strengthened their horde with the Bulgar tribes of Kutrigurs and Utigurs, the Avars attacked the Antes, who at that time were in the position of Byzantine vassals. Military happiness was on the side of the kagan. The Ants were forced to enter into negotiations with Bayan. The embassy was headed by a certain Mezamer (Mezhemir?), obviously an influential Antes leader. The Ants wanted to agree on the ransom of their relatives, captured by the Avars. But Mezamer did not appear before the kagan in the role of a petitioner. According to the Byzantine historian Menander, he behaved arrogantly and even "impudently". Menander explains the reason for this behavior of the Antic ambassador by the fact that he was "an idle talker and a braggart", but, probably, it was not only the properties of Mezamer's character. Most likely, the Antes were not completely defeated, and Mezamer sought to make the Avars feel their strength. He paid for his pride with his life. One noble Bulgarin, apparently well aware of the high position of Mezamer among the Antes, suggested that the kagan kill him in order to then "fearlessly attack the enemy's land." Bayan followed this advice and, indeed, the death of Mezamer disorganized the resistance of the Antes. The Avars, says Menander, “began to ravage the land of the Antes more than ever, without ceasing to plunder it and enslave the inhabitants.”

For better control over the conquered lands, the victors created several fortified camps in different parts of Pannonia. Khring was the political and religious center of the Avar state.— the residence of the kagan surrounded by a ring of fortifications, located somewhere in the northwestern part of the interfluve of the Danube and Tisza. This is where treasures were kept.— gold and jewelry captured from neighboring peoples or received "as a gift" from the Byzantine emperors. During the time of the Avar domination in the Middle Danube (until approximately 626), Byzantium paid the kagans about 25 thousand kilograms of gold. Most of the coins of the Avars, who did not know money circulation, were melted down into jewelry and vessels.

The Slavic tribes living in the Danube fell under the rule of the kagan. They were mainly Antes, but also a significant part of the Sclaveni. The wealth plundered by the Slavs from the Romans greatly attracted the Avars. According to Menander, Khagan Bayan believed that "the Sclaven land abounds in money, because the Sclavens have long plundered the Romans ... their land was not devastated by any other people." Now the Slavs were robbed and humiliated. The Avars treated them like slaves. Memories of the Avar yoke then remained for a long time in the memory of the Slavs. "The Tale of Bygone Years" left us a vivid picture of how obry (Avars) "primuchisha dulebs": the conquerors harnessed several Duleb women to a cart instead of horses or oxen and rode them. This unpunished mockery of the wives of the dulebs is the best example of the humiliation of their husbands.

From the Frankish chronicler of the 7th century. Fredegar, we also learn that the Avars “every year came to spend the winter with the Slavs, took the wives of the Slavs and their daughters to their bed; in addition to other oppressions, the Slavs paid the Huns (in this case, the Avars.- S. Ts.) tribute.

In addition to money, the Slavs were obliged to pay a blood tax to the Avars, participating in their wars and raids. In the battle, the Slavs stood in the first line of battle and took the main blow of the enemy. The Avars at that time stood in the second line, near the camp, and if the Slavs overcame, then the Avar cavalry rushed forward and captured the prey; if the Slavs retreated, then the enemy, exhausted in battle with them, had to deal with fresh Avar reserves. “I will send such people to the Roman Empire, the loss of which will not be sensitive to me, even if they are completely dead,”— Bayan declared cynically. And so it was: the Avars minimized their losses even with major defeats. So, after the crushing defeat by the Byzantines of the Avar army on the Tisza River in 601, the Avars themselves amounted to only a fifth of all prisoners, half of the remaining captives were Slavs, and the other— other allies or subjects of the kagan.

Avars and Slavs invading the Balkans

Bayan was angry with the emperor for not receiving the promised places for settlement on the territory of the empire; in addition, Emperor Justin II (565-579), who ascended the throne after the death of Justinian I, refused to pay tribute to the Avars. In retaliation, the Avars, together with the Antian tribes dependent on them, from 570 began to raid the Balkans. The Sclavens acted independently or in alliance with the kagan. Thanks to the military support of the Avars, the Slavs were able to begin mass settlement of the Balkan Peninsula. Byzantine sources that tell about these events often call the invaders Avars, but according to archaeological data, there are practically no Avars in the Balkans south of modern Albania, which leaves no doubt about the purely Slavic composition of this colonization stream.

Of course, Byzantium ceded these lands after a stubborn struggle. For a long time, its forces were fettered by the war with the Iranian Shah, therefore, on the Danube front, the Byzantine government could rely only on the hardness of the walls of the fortresses there and the stamina of their garrisons. Meanwhile, many years of clashes with the Byzantine army did not pass without a trace for the military art of the Slavs. The sixth-century historian John of Ephesus notes that the Slavs, those savages who previously did not dare to appear from the forests and did not know any other weapon than throwing spears, now learned to fight better than the Romans. Already during the reign of Emperor Tiberius (578-582), the Slavs quite clearly expressed their colonization intentions. Having filled the Balkans up to Corinth, they did not leave these lands for four years. Local residents were taxed in their favor.

Fierce wars with the Slavs and Avars were waged by Emperor Mauritius (582-602). The first decade of his reign was marked by a sharp deterioration in relations with the kagan (Bayan, and then his successor, who remained nameless for us). The quarrel broke out over some 20,000 gold coins, which the kagan demanded to be attached to the sum of 80,000 solidi paid to him annually by the empire (payments resumed from 574). But Mauritius, an Armenian by origin and a true son of his people, bargained desperately. His intractability becomes clearer when you consider that the empire was already giving the Avars a hundredth of its annual budget. In order to make Mauritius more compliant, the kagan marched with fire and sword all over Illyricum, then turned east and went to the Black Sea coast in the area of the imperial resort of Anchiala, where his wives soaked in the famous warm baths to their heart's content. Nevertheless, Mauritius preferred to suffer losses of millions than to give up even gold in favor of the kagan. Then the Avars set the Slavs against the empire, who, “as if flying through the air,” as Theophylact Simokatta writes, appeared at the Long Walls of Constantinople, where, however, they suffered a painful defeat.

Byzantine warriors

The Kagan brought with him an 80,000-strong army, which, in addition to the Avar horde, included detachments of the Bulgars, Gepids and Slavs. Some of the latter, apparently, came with the kagan as his subjects, others as allies of the Avars. Slavic boats arrived at Constantinople along the Black Sea from the mouth of the Danube and settled on the flanks of the kagan's army: on the Bosphorus and in the Golden Horn, where they were dragged by land. Iranian troops, who occupied the Asian shore of the Bosporus, played a supporting role - their goal was to prevent the return of the army of Heraclius to help the capital.

The first attack took place on July 31st. On this day, the kagan tried to destroy the walls of the city with the help of battering rams. But the stone throwers and "turtles" were burned by the townspeople. A new assault was scheduled for 7 August. The besiegers surrounded the city walls in a double ring: lightly armed Slavic soldiers were in the first battle line, followed by the Avars. This time, the kagan instructed the Slavic fleet to bring a large landing force to the shore. As Fyodor Sinkell, an eyewitness of the siege, writes, the kagan “managed to turn the entire Golden Horn Bay into land, filling it with monoxyls (one-tree boats. - S.Ts.), carrying peoples of different tribes.” The Slavs performed mainly the role of rowers, and the landing force consisted of heavily armed Avar and Iranian soldiers.

* The earliest evidence of the successful use of this flammable liquid dates back to the time of the siege of Constantinople by the Arabs in 673.

The liberation of the Slavs from the power of the Avar Khaganate

... the Scythian kills the Slav, and the latter kills him.
They are covered in blood from mutual murders,
and their great indignation pours out into battle.

A mortal blow to the Avar Khaganate was inflicted by Charlemagne.
After successful campaigns across the Rhine at the end of the 8th century, he extended his power to the Slavic tribes of Obodrites and Wilts.The Frankish chronicler calls them "our Slavs".

In 791, the united Franco-Langobardo-Slavic army, led by the Slav Vonomir, invaded Pannonia and inflicted a severe defeat on the Avars.

The defeat of the Avar horde by the Franks was so crushing that it caused contemporaries the impression of the complete disappearance of the Avars as a people. Latin-language monuments of the 9th century. they call the former Avar lands solitudines Avarorum, that is, the "Avar desert". According to the Frankish chronicler, “the place where the kagan’s palace was is so wild and empty that you won’t notice even a trace of human dwellings here.”The death of the mighty Avar state was remembered even in Russia. The Tale of Bygone Years notes on this occasion: “There were obry (Avars. - S. Ts.) great in body, but proud in mind, and God destroyed them, they all died, not a single obryn remained, and there is a saying in Russia to this day day: perished like a find.

Plan
Introduction
1. History
1.1 Franco-Avar War
1.2 Disappearance of the Avars

2 Administration
3 Economy
4 Art
5 Army
5.1 Armament
5.2 Tactics

6 List of Avar Khagans
Bibliography

Introduction

The Avar Khaganate is a state on the territory of modern Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania and Serbia, which existed from 562 to 823. Founded by the Avar Khagan Bayan.

1. History

The history of the Avar Khaganate usually begins in 567. Under Khagan Bayan I, the Avars, in alliance with the Lombards, destroyed the kingdom of the Gepids and entrenched themselves on the Middle Danube. The capital of the kaganate was hring on the territory of Timisoara.

In 582, the Avars captured the strategic Byzantine outpost of Sirmium, and the next year, Singidun and devastated Illyria

In 597 Avars captured Dalmatia, flooding it with Croats. In 599 they besiege Tomis on the Black Sea coast.

Around 600, the Avars, together with the Horutan Slavs, settled Inner Norik.

In 618, the Avars, together with the Slavs, besiege Thessalonica.

In 623, the Western Slavs, led by Samo, raised an uprising against the Avars. After the victory of the uprising, the former Frankish merchant was elected prince. He waged successful wars with the Avars and the Franks - in particular, after the victory in 631, he won the lands inhabited by the Lusatian Serbs from the Franks.

In 626, the Avars supported Persia in the Iranian-Byzantine war and, at the head of the Slavic armies, laid siege to Constantinople. The Byzantines defeated the Avars due to the fact that the Slavs could not provide the Avars with assault ships of the proper quality, and then, offended by the kagan, who was angry about this, they left the place of deployment. The Avars, without the Slavic infantry and assault boats, were unable to take such a well-fortified city as Constantinople.

As a result of the defeat of the Avars near Constantinople in 626, the Kutrigurs separated from the Khaganate. In 631, the Avars temporarily suppressed the uprising of the Kutrigurs. Khan Alzek, after an unsuccessful attempt to seize the throne in the Avar Khaganate, leaves the Khaganate with his horde. By 632, Khan Kubrat, having united the Kutrigur, Utigur and Onogur tribes, created the medieval state of Great Bulgaria, finally ousting the Avars from the Northern Black Sea region and the Lower Danube.

By 640, the Croats had driven the Avars out of Dalmatia. Probably, the following words from the poems of George Pisid refer to this event: A Scythian (i.e. Avars) kills a Slav and dies himself, so they fight in blood until mutual destruction.

1.1. Franco-Avar War

The Avar Khaganate suffered a final defeat at the end of the 8th century as a result of the Franco-Avar war. In 788, the Bavarian duke Tassilon III managed to conclude an alliance with the Avars against the Franks. However, in the same year, their army was defeated and Bavaria became part of the Frankish state. Then Karl developed a plan for the final reprisal against the Avars. This marked the beginning of a long struggle between the Franks and the Khaganate.

In 791, the Franks launched a major counteroffensive against the Avars, in which Slavic detachments also took part, including the Karantans (presumably one of the ancestors of the Slovenes, Croats). The Frankish troops marched in two columns: one, under the leadership of Charlemagne, captured the Avar border fortifications in the lower reaches of the Rab, the other, led by Charles's son - Pepin (d. 810) - moved from the Friulian lowland and, having reached the upper Sava, captured the Avar hring.

Already these first failures led to internal unrest, which resulted, among other things, in the murder of the yugur and the kagan, which allowed the Friulian margrave Erich in 796 to inflict a decisive blow on the Avars and take the capital of the kaganate - the main hring of the Avar tribe, which was probably located in Transylvania (Ring). The Franks won a complete victory, which eliminated the political independence of the Avar Khaganate. Wagon trains with treasures accumulated by the Avars over the centuries went to Aachen. The situation was aggravated by the active anti-Avar position of the Proto-Bulgarians. Despite the hopeless situation, the Avars - in the vast majority - did not want to either admit their defeat or migrate to a safe place, but, on the contrary, fiercely resisted, as a result of which the losses were so catastrophic that they could never recover from them. Almost all the nobility perished.

Nevertheless, the Avars did not resign themselves to defeat for a long time. In 797 they rebelled, and the Franks were forced to repeat the campaign, again crowned with success. At the end of 797, the Avar ambassadors again swore allegiance to Charlemagne. However, the uprising rose again in 799, and in 802 Frankish officials were killed. Separate performances of the Avars against the Franks took place until 803. In 803-804. Bulgarian ruler Khan Krum captured all the Avar lands up to the Middle Danube. The Avars themselves within these territories were clearly quickly assimilated, probably due to the kinship of the ethnic groups of the Avars and Proto-Bulgarians. In 798, a bishopric was established in Salzburg, which preached the Christian religion to the Avars. In 805, the kagan himself accepted the new faith. In the same year, the Bulgarian Khan Krum conquered the lands of the Timochan from the Avar Khaganate.

1.2. Disappearance of the Avars

Turning the remnants of the Avars into their vassals and placing a baptized kagan at their head, the Franks granted them, within the Eastern Mark, part of the region, with a center near Savaria (now the city of Szombathely, which belongs to Hungary). Soon, the Quarantans began to penetrate here. Their onslaught was so intense that in 811 the Franks were forced to defend the Avars. The last time, as a separate tribe that was in vassal dependence on the Franks, the Avars are mentioned in sources dated 822. Six years later, during the administrative reforms of the Frankish state, they were turned into royal subjects. During the ninth century the Avars are gradually dissolving among the Slavic and German settlers who have flooded into the Transdanubia.

In 899, the Hungarians captured Pannonia, with whom the remnants of the Avars merge.

The expression of the Russian chronicle is widely known - “Die like obra (obre)”; so they say about something that died, disappeared without a trace. The meaning of this saying is that the punishing hand of the Lord is able to pay tribute to such seemingly invincible, arrogant and reveling in their impunity people like the Avars:

2. Administrative management

The supreme power belonged kagan elected by the popular assembly. The governor of the kagan was tudun, who was probably the ruler of a separate part of the country, and yugur(possibly the chief priest). On behalf of the kagan, tribute was collected in the country by the so-called tarkhans(most likely to know). Behind the tarkhans - down the hierarchical ladder - were the leaders of tribes and clans. The role of tribal elders was significant in the life of both each tribe and the kaganate as a whole. At least half of the above terms have a Turkic etymology. The same stable Türkic background can also be traced in the analysis of the Avar anthroponyms that have come down to us, which, however, cannot serve as convincing evidence in favor of the Türkic-speaking of the Avars proper, who came out of Asia. The latter - the "physical" Avars - represented the dominant elite in the kaganate, while being in a minority compared to the "ideological" Avars (that is, those who did not have Avar roots, self-identified with the Avar ethnos and defended the interests of the kaganate), not to mention those who did not identify themselves with Avaria in any way, did not show the slightest interest in its strengthening and elevation, but still had to pay tribute and obey the will of the kagan.

3. Economy

The economic system of the Khaganate was weak and based on nomadic pastoralism; agriculture among the Avars was not developed, and there was a kaganate at the expense of dependent tribes.

Slavery among the Avars was not widespread. This is indicated, in particular, by the fact that at the end of the VI century. Avars, capturing about 10 thousand prisoners, killed them all. It is also known that most of the captive inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula, settled by the Avars in Srem, soon became free. These settlers, who had in the VII century. of their prince appointed by the kagan, were considered by the Avars as a separate "people". In fact, they turned into one of the military-tribal divisions of the kaganate.

The quality of jewelry testifies to the high level of development of jewelry art among the Avars. The Avars were good bone carvers, made magnificent carpets, embroideries, fabrics, and were engaged in artistic processing of silver and wood. Throughout Europe, the famous Avar belts with rich metal fittings were in great demand. The art of the Avars, in many respects, was a continuation of the so-called "Scythian animal style" with its small plasticity and stylized images of fantastic animals, as a rule, in dynamic poses, among which the griffin is often found. Researchers have noticed a certain Byzantine influence on the jewelry art of the Avars. In general, judging by the things discovered by archaeologists, the Avar culture has both proto-Turkic and Iranian, as well as Chinese features. The successful development of jewelry among the Avars was affected by the fact that it was in demand in the Khaganate, since the Avars concentrated in their hands a huge number of items made of precious metals, including coins of Byzantine coinage.

From the middle of the VI century. The Byzantines paid tribute to the Khaganate in gold. The total amount of the annual tribute reached 80 thousand gold solidi, and starting from 599 it increased to 100 thousand. Over time, these amounts became insufficient. At the beginning of the 7th century Byzantine emperors paid the Avars "for peace" annually 120 thousand solidi. Until 626, the Avar Khagan was paid about 6 million solidi, which corresponded to 25 tons of gold. This myriad of coins did not enter circulation. Probably, the Avars melted them to make jewelry, a small part was divided among the leaders.