List of Maps

Timeline

Preface

1. Approaching the Avars

1.1. Marginal Europeans?

1.2. Sources and Prejudices

1.3. Steppe Research and Its Methodological Problems

2. The Avar Migration

2.1. Constantinople 558

2.2. The Empire and the Steppe Peoples

2.3. Fugitives from the East

2.4. Avars or Pseudo-Avars?

2.5. The Advance of the Avars

2.6. Byzantium and the Turks

2.7. The Discovery of Europe

2.8. Decisive Years

2.9. 568: A Turning Point

3. The New Power, 567-90

3.1. The First Attack on Sirmium

3.2. Between Peace and War

3.3. Baian's Alliance with Byzantium

3.4. The Conquest of Sirmium

3.5. 583/84: Avar Raids and Symbolic Politics

3.6. 585/86: Slavic Raids and the Bookolabras Affair

3.7. 587: The War in Thrace

3.8. The Carpathian Basin in the Later Sixth Century: The Archaeological Evidence

3.9. Cultures around Keszthely

4. Avars and Slavs

4.1. Slavs before the Avars: Perceptions and Origins

4.2. The Saint and the Barbarians

4.3. Slavic Campaigns and Memories of Avars on the Greek Peninsula

4.4. The Obor and His Slavs

4.5. Avar Rule and Slavic Expansion

4.6. Becoming Slavs

5. The Balkan Wars of Maurice, 591-602

5.1. Maurice's Campaign and the Date of the Wars

5.2. The Avars on the Offensive

5.3. 593: Attacks on the Slavs North of the Danube

5.4. 594: The Limits of the Slavic War

5.5. 595: The Illyrian War

5.6. The Avars' Western Policy and the Slavs

5.7. 598: Only the Plague Can Stop the Avars

5.8. 599: The Khagan under Pressure

5.9. 600-602: The End of Imperial Politics on the Danube

6. Life and Organization in the Avar Empire

6.1. Nomads, Warriors, Steppe Peoples

6.2. "Their Life Is War"

6.3. The Early Avar Khaganate

6.4. The Avars and Byzantium

6.5. Avar Gold: Prestige, Gifts, Representation

6.6. Logades and Warriors

6.7. Forms of Production and Distribution

6.8. Exchanges and Their Limits

6.9. Religion and Ritual

6.10. The Development of Identities in the Avar Empire

7. The Seventh Century

7.1. Consolidation and New Offensives

7.2. The Surprise Attack on the Emperor

7.3. 626: The Siege of Constantinople

7.4. Samo

7.5. Croat Migrations?

7.6. Alciocus and Kuvrat

7.7. Kuver and Asparukh

7.8. Continuity and Cultural Change

8. The Century of the Griffin

8.1. Ways of Life in Archaeological Evidence

8.2. The Hierarchy of the Late Avar State

8.3. Limes Certus: The Avars and the West

8.4. The Collapse of Avar Power

8.5. Why Did the Avars Disappear?

8.6. Conclusion

Appendix: Amount of Subsidies Paid by Byzantiumto the Avars

Abbreviations

Notes

Sources

Bibliography

Index