The Gepids seek to retake their lost capital at Sirmium, all while dealing with a resurgent Roman empire and ambitious new players on the board.

Here’s what the Balkans looked like in 535 CE. Note the key cities on either side of the Danube, as well as the arrival of new peoples on the borders of the empire: the Antes, Sclaveni, and Bulgars.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to A history of Romania.

Season 1, Episode 25: Free-for-all

Last time, we saw the Mediterranean world rearrange itself after the collapse of the Hunnic confederation and that of the western Roman empire. In this climate, the Gepids established a kingdom on the lands of the original province of Dacia and became the most powerful player north of the Danube in the early 6^th century. Meanwhile, the Romans experienced a period of recovery and prosperity, giving them the time and resources to think about reconquering the lost lands of the West.

Before emperor Justinian could send his forces abroad, he needed to secure his borders. His predecessors had done much to reinforce the Danube frontier once the Goths had left the region; between the 490s and 520s, the south bank of the river had received new towers, forts, and naval garrisons. Yet Justinian favoured an active defense and wanted to place Roman soldiers on the north bank of the Danube to monitor the movement of barbarian peoples and engage them before they could reach the empire’s frontiers.

The problem, of course, was that the lands beyond the Danube were controlled by the Gepids, but the emperor figured that diplomacy could get him what he wanted. The very same year he ascended to the throne, in 527, Justinian forged an alliance with the Gepid king, offering him subsidies in return for his military support, and asked him to attack the city of Sirmium. If you’ll recall from last episode, Sirmium was located just south of the Danube and had served as the Gepid capital for eighteen years before the Goths had captured it. The Gepid king was happy to gain subsidies and the emperor’s approval for expanding his realm; unfortunately for him, though, his army was unable to breach Sirmium’s defenses and was repulsed.

While the Gepids were fighting the Goths, the Romans ferried troops on the north bank of the Danube. This may have been part of the deal – the Gepids getting Sirmium in exchange for the Romans getting a few bridgeheads across the river – or it may have been simple opportunism from Justinian. Whatever the case, imperial forces set up camp in the old cities of Lederata, Drobeta, and Sucidava, which had been abandoned after the Huns had sacked them eighty years earlier. Roman soldiers now turned these ruined settlements into fortified positions by erecting towers and walls. The extension of imperial power north of the Danube was a sign of the empire’s renewed strength – and its ambitions.

Justinian was able to send forces beyond the river partly because he could rely on barbarian allies to defend other parts of the Balkans. His most important allies were the Heruli, a Germanic people which we’ve mentioned in passing in previous episodes. The Heruli had been part of Attila’s confederation, and though they had managed to establish a small kingdom for themselves after the collapse of Hunnic power, the neighbouring Lombards eventually attacked them, decimated their army, and killed their king. The political hierarchy of the Heruli crumbled, and their communities were left adrift as they faced the imminent arrival of the victorious Lombards. Some of these communities fled to Italy to serve the Goths, others sought refuge amongst the Gepids, and others went to the empire as supplicants.

The imperial authorities were glad to receive them and settled them on the border with the Gothic kingdom in the western Balkans. The empire didn’t have the forces to fully garrison this frontier, so it reinforced its position by legitimizing the Heruli as its subjects and turning their warriors against its enemies.

In 528, a year after Justinian’s alliance with the Gepids, the emperor convinced the Herule elite to convert to Christianity in exchange for more land along the frontier. The Herule king, his relatives, and chieftains travelled to Constantinople and were baptized; the emperor himself acted as their sponsor, meaning that he assisted them in this ceremony which initiated them to Christianity. By converting them to the imperial faith, Justinian hoped to bind the Heruli more tightly to the Roman system, and by acting as their sponsor, he hoped to ensure their loyalty.

It’s important to note that the Heruli were not settled as foederati, but as xymmachoi. You see, for the past five hundred years, the term foederati referred to barbarians who received subsidies and fought for the Romans as allies. But in the last century, as the empire was beset by more crises and had fewer resources, the foederati gained more importance and influence in the Roman military; they gradually shifted from independent allied forces, to an indispensable part of the imperial army. By Justinian’s reign, foederati troops were settled within the empire, received a regular salary from the government, could be called upon at will by the state, and were commanded by imperial generals just the same as the rest of the army; as such, there wasn’t a huge difference between barbarian foederati warriors and regular Roman soldiers.

The old type of foederati was now referred to as xymmachoi; these were independent allied forces assisting the Roman army, and both the Gepids and the Heruli fell into this category. It’s true that the Heruli lived inside the borders of the empire while the Gepids had their own kingdom, but the important point was that they were both allies who received subsidies in return for participating in military campaigns whenever they were called upon by the emperor.

The fact that the Romans had to make a distinction between foederati and xymmachoi shows the continued Romanization of the barbarian world. Clear distinctions between the Romans and their neighbours had eroded over the past few centuries of close contact, as the empire relied more on barbarians, and as barbarians adopted more Roman ways. In the Balkans, the difference between a foederati settler and a provincial Roman was not at all clear-cut. But a xymmachoi was clearly an outsider.

To further reinforce the Danube frontier, Justinian founded a new city in the diocese of Dacia, which comprised the western part of the Balkans. Now, you might be surprised to hear that there’s a territory called Dacia inside the empire; didn’t the Romans abandon it like two centuries ago? Well, let’s take a little detour to understand the situation, and you can refer to the map in this episode’s description to better visualise what I’m about to say.

When emperor Aurelian abandoned the original province of Dacia north of the Danube, he carved out a new province of Dacia south of the river to obscure the fact that he had lost territory. Then, when Diocletian reorganized the empire, he split this province in half to increase administrative efficiency; the northern half bordering the Danube became Dacia Ripensis, while the southern half nestled in the mountains became Dacia Mediterranea. Constantine then continued his predecessor’s reforms and established the diocese of Dacia, which encompassed the region west of Thrace. In this way, though the original province of Dacia had disappeared, it left a legacy within the empire, as its name was still used. Yet besides the name, there was also a concrete link between the original province north of the river and the present diocese to the south: the refugees which had fled into the empire when Dacia had been abandoned had settled in the area, and Diocletian’s reforms had forced them to remain in place; as such, a substantial number of people in the Diocese of Dacia must have been descended from the provincials who had lived in the original province.

Now in the 6^th century, Justinian chose this diocese as his centrepiece in the Balkans, and built a new city in its midst, which he humbly called “Justiniana Prima.” In 535, both the prefect of Illyricum and the archbishop of Thessaloniki were stationed in Justiniana Prima; in effect, the emperor’s political and ecclesiastical representatives in the Balkans relocated from Greece towards the frontier, about five days’ march from the Danube. With this move, Justinian was signalling that this region was an inalienable part of the empire; his archbishop was there to tend to Dacia’s parishioners, who were just as much citizens of the empire as those living in Greece; and if any invaders penetrated the buffer zone defended by the Heruli, his prefect would not allow them to ravage the region, but would stop them at Justiniana Prima, whose location had been chosen to control the routes leading to Constantinople. It was clear to everyone that the empire’s authority was extending further north, and that it was once again taking an active role along the Danube.

And the region did indeed need the attention, as raiders had been striking Roman positions along the river on and off for the past few decades. I haven’t yet mentioned these raiders in our narrative because their attacks had not seriously threatened the area, but they now deserve a fuller introduction. So, let’s talk about the Antes, Sclaveni, and Bulgars.

The Antes and Sclaveni were two distinct peoples who spoke similar languages from the Slavic family. Their ancestors had lived somewhere between the lands south of Baltic Sea and the steppes north of the Black Sea. They’d been isolated from the Roman world so far, since the Sarmatians, then the Goths, and then the Huns had stood between them and the empire. They do seem to have had particularly close relation with the Goths, as several Slavic words are of Gothic origin, such as knyaz, meaning prince, metch, meaning sword, and chlem, meaning helmet. For a period, these peoples also came under Hunnic domination, but their relationship seems to have been more superficial, limited to paying tribute and sending warriors to fight for their overlords.

After the collapse of Hunnic power in the 450s, the Antes and Sclaveni began migrating southwards, for reasons that are still unknown to us. They may have faced pressure from peoples deeper in the steppes, or they may have learned of the empire’s riches from the Huns and wanted to get closer to the Romans. Whatever the reason, by the end of the 5^th century, the Sclaveni had migrated between the Carpathian Mountains and the Danube, while the Antes had settled East of the mountains along the coast of the Black Sea.

These peoples had a similar culture and way of life. They lived in dispersed villages practicing agriculture and herding, crafting pottery, and smelting iron. Yet they didn’t have the opportunity to develop advanced crafts, as they regularly relocated their settlements, probably when the land they cultivated was depleted of nutrients and they went in search of more fertile fields for their crops and animals. They were also probably exploring their new surroundings at this point, searching for the best place to settle. These migrants of course brought their religion with them too; they worshipped a supreme god of thunder and sacrificed bulls and other animals to him, while also venerating other divinities, especially ones associated with rivers.

The Antes and Sclaveni weren’t united under a single leader, nor even under powerful chieftains. In fact, they seem to have had a particularly democratic spirit, as all the men in a village came together in council to decide on important matters. These peoples also don’t seem to have had professional warriors. Their men fought on foot with lances and small shields, without any armor, and some only wearing pants. Starting in the early 6^th century, bands of Antes and Sclaveni warriors began raiding the Gepid kingdom to their West and the Roman empire to their South; yet these raiders operated in small groups that didn’t coordinate their actions, and so were relatively easily repulsed.

As for the Bulgars, we have much less information about them at this time. We do know that they were a nomadic, Turkic-speaking people from the steppes of Central Asia. Sometime in the 5^th century, they began migrating westwards due to pressure from other nomadic peoples on the steppe. We unfortunately know extremely little about their customs, religion, and the way they organized their communities during this period. Yet evidence shows that their families grazed their herds on the steppe north of the Black Sea, and that groups of mounted warriors rode down the coast towards the Roman empire to gain loot and glory. As such, they passed by the Antes and Sclaveni and, in the late 5^th and early 6^th centuries, sometimes raided the empire and sometimes acted as mercenaries employed by the emperor.

And so, Roman soldiers defending the Danube were faced with assaults from various bands of Antes and Sclaveni on foot and Bulgars on horseback. Though they attacked around the same region and around the same time, these peoples weren’t acting in concert. Rather, they understood that, by attacking alongside each other, they had a better chance of overcoming imperial defenses, but their bands of warriors acted as they wished independently of each other. When they did manage to invade the empire, these raiders stole food and goods, enslaved provincials, and killed anyone who resisted.

It’s interesting to note that the Romans who were enslaved by the Antes and Sclaveni didn’t remain enslaved for their entire lives, as was the case in the empire. Instead, after a certain amount of time – our sources don’t mention an exact number – these enslaved individuals were given the choice of paying their own ransom and returning to their people, or of gaining their freedom and living amongst the Antes and Sclaveni as friends and neighbours.

Though the Antes, Sclaveni, and Bulgars had begun raiding the empire in the early 6^th century, they intensified their attacks in the 530s to such an extent that almost every year brought a new attack. A particularly devastating raid occurred in 533; a Roman general was killed, and the invaders roamed the Balkans for a considerable time before they were repulsed. Such successful raids brought wealth and fame to the warriors who led them, and in the case of the Antes and Sclaveni, the leaders of these bands began to acquire more influence in their communities and gather more power for themselves; gradually, a new class of warrior-leaders was emerging amongst their people.

Gepids, Heruli, Lombards, Antes, Sclaveni, and Bulgars – the world north of the Danube had become incredibly fragmented following the collapse of the Hunnic confederation. Whereas in the early 5^th century, Attila had united the barbarian world into a monolithic threat to the empire, now in the early 6^th century, rival groups of Germanic, Turkic, and Slavic tribes competed with one another along the Danube for influence and wealth.

Justinian made sure to deal with them using not only force, but diplomacy as well. Whenever he had the chance, the emperor looked to pay these barbarians to fight for him instead of facing their assaults. One barbarian who particularly enjoyed working for the empire was a Gepid chieftain named Mundo who operated independently of the Gepid king in the porous zone south of the Danube between the Goths, Gepids, Heruli, and Romans. In 529, Justinian had sent him representatives to discuss what it would take to get him on the side of the empire. Mundo went to Constantinople, met the emperor, and was made magister militum per Illyricum, basically a general in the Balkans. Over the next two years, he used his own Gepid warriors and collaborated with the Heruli to repulse several raids across the Danube, mainly fighting the Bulgars.

In 532, his employer, Justinian, faced a grave threat to his regime. Unpopular policies and hated advisors brewed discontent in the streets of his capital, and when the emperor refused to listen to his people, Constantinople rioted. The masses rallied around the phrase “Nika,” meaning “conquer,” and besieged Justinian in the imperial palace. Facing the very real possibility of losing his crown – and his head – Justinian resorted to drastic measures. He ordered his general Belisarius and his barbarian magister militum Mundo to come to Constantinople with their forces. The two men then proceeded to brutally suppress the riotous citizens of the capital, killing around 30,000 people. Justinian thus secured his throne, but he did so through the horrendous slaughter of thousands of men, women, and children.

That same year, in 532, the emperor spied an opportunity to retake lost imperial lands in Africa. You see, the Vandal kingdom ruling the area had undergone a power struggle, as a member of the royal family had deposed the sitting king. That now-deposed king appealed to Justinian for help, who promptly ordered an expedition to restore him to the throne; Justinian’s real goal, of course, was to reinstate the king as a puppet and, in reality, rule the lands of North Africa himself. In 533, general Belisarius led a force of Romans, Heruli, and other barbarian xymmachoi onto the shores of the Vandal kingdom, surprised the defenders, and quickly captured the region. Within a year, the other lands ruled by the Vandals – Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands – were also retaken. The empire had pounced during a moment of weakness, reconquered the prosperous lands of North Africa, and extended its reach deep into the western Mediterranean. The Vandal kingdom which had contributed so much to the collapse of the western Roman empire, was now gone.

As soon as this campaign was done, another opportunity presented itself to Justinian. The teenage king of the Gothic kingdom of Italy had unexpectedly died, and a relative of his took the throne, but, in the process, murdered a Roman ally at court. Using this as a pretext, Justinian ordered Belisarius to take his army from North Africa and invade Italy. At the same time, he told Mundo to advance from the Balkans into Gothic Dalmatia, thus creating a two-pronged invasion.

Belisarius landed in Sicily in 535 and quickly captured it, but Mundo faced a tougher challenge. He marched up the Adriatic coast and managed to capture the largest city in the region, but the Goths killed his son in battle. Enraged, the Gepid general retaliated with a devastating attack and inflicted heavy casualties on his enemies, but as he pursued them, he himself was killed. Undaunted by this setback, Justinian appointed a new general to continue the war.

And so, in the summer of 536, one Roman army crossed from Sicily into the heel of Italy, while another marched from Dalmatia towards the Alps. Over the next four years, imperial forces danced with Gothic ones in a campaign of maneuver and sieges. In the end, the empire recaptured Rome, Ravenna, and all the cities in between, though the Goths retained control of the plains of northern Italy. By 540, both sides were exhausted and didn’t have the resources nor the will to continue fighting; so, the Romans and Goths signed a truce, though neither was happy with the result.

As the empire was campaigning overseas, the Gepids sought to improve their own position. They had never taken their eyes off of Sirmium, and now that the Goths were preoccupied with the Romans, they saw their chance to strike. In 536, the Gepid king Elemund marched an army towards the city, expelled its garrison, and took it over. This opportunistic move by the Gepids angered Justinian, since he wanted to take all Gothic-held territory for himself. So, he stopped paying subsidies to the Gepids and sent a force against Sirmium in 538. But the Gepids held firm, repulsed the imperial attack, and forced Justinian to reinstate their former deal: the Gepids once more became xymmachoi, receiving subsidies in exchange for military support – and they also got to keep their long-coveted prize, Sirmium.

Next time, the Gepid kingdom and the Roman empire will work to maintain their gains while dealing with the arrival of yet another player on the stage – one which will pose an existential threat to both of them.