Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

from roman to post-roman 721
of the Avars. Widespread Slav raiding began in 577, and Tiberius’ only
response was to employ the Avars, who had their own quarrel with the
Slavs, to attack Slav territory. This revealed the extent of Roman weakness,
and the Avars renewed their attempts on Sirmium, eventually capturing the
city in 581/2 after a three-year blockade. 66 In the first decade of Maurice’s
reign the Avars re-enacted the attacks of Attila’s Huns: like them, they were
capable of capturing fortified cities, at least north of the Stara Planina, and
as long as the Persian war continued, there was little that the Romans could
do but purchase a peace, at a price that rose from 80,000 to 100,000 solidi in
584. At the same time Slav raiding continued, partly encouraged by the
Avars but also partly stimulated by fear of them. Slav bands reached the
Long Walls of Constantinople in 584, Thessalonica was briefly attacked in
586, and their raiding extended as far south as Athens, Corinth and into the
Peloponnese. 67 In the 590s the termination of the Persian war allowed a
greater concentration on Balkan affairs, and the narrative of Roman campaigns
suggests a gradual reassertion of control across the countryside to
the south of the Danube, the reopening of communications with isolated
cities that had survived the years of ravaging, and the extension of the war
to the north of the Danube to instil in Slavs and Avars a fear of Roman
power; attention was paid to their enemies’ military capabilities, aspects of
Avar organization and equipment were copied, suitable tactics and strategies
were devised, and by 602 it appeared that the Romans had begun to
dominate the Slavs on the lower Danube and to create dissension within
the Avar federation based in Pannonia. 68
iv. from roman to post-roman
So far, the progress of this chapter has been dictated by the sequence of
invaders whose activities determined the pace and direction of developments.
On the other hand, although lack of evidence makes it difficult to
analyse the region’s history from the perspective of its Roman inhabitants,
some attempt must be made if the fundamental changes in population and
organization that occurred at the end of the Roman period are to be understood.
If in the early fifth century the northern Balkans were already a war
zone trampled by tribal bands and Roman armies, the southern Balkans
and in particular peninsular Greece had as yet escaped severe damage. A
survey of the history of Athens from the Gothic attack in 396 to the Slav
arrival in the 580s is divided into three phases – ‘prosperity, decline and disaster’
– and, although Athens had certain unique features, this paradigm is
clearly of much wider application in the southern province of Achaea. 69
66 Menander frr. 21, 25, 27. 67 Theophylact i.3.1–7.6; Whitby, Maurice 140–51.
68 Whitby, Maurice 156–65, 176–81. 69 Frantz (1988) ch. iv.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008