89 THE EARLY

SIXTH-CENTURY
BALKAN WARS
Alexander Sarantis

Background1

With the death of Attila the Hun in 453 and the departure of Theoderic the Ostro-
goth from the Balkans to Italy in 488, the major Hunnic and Gothic threats to the
Balkans subsided. In contrast to the mid-fifth century, the barbarian world of the
sixth century was not characterized by powerful tribal confederations such as those
led by Attila and Theoderic. Instead, it was politically divided, with Bulgar, Bospo-
rus Hun, Kutrigur Hun, Utigur Hun, and unspecified Hunnic groups inhabiting
regions north of the Black Sea; Slavic groups such as the Antae and Sklaveni occu-
pying what is now Wallachia, north of the lower Danube; and Germanic Gepid,
Gothic, Herul, and Lombard groups living in the Pannonian provinces of western
Illyricum, which had fallen out of imperial control in the mid-fifth century. This
meant that during the reigns of Anastasius (491–518) and Justinian (527–565) bar-
barian attacks on the Balkans were not as severe as they had been previously;
rather, they were usually periodic, transitory raids by small groups who returned
north of the Danube once they had exacted sufficient booty and manpower
resources to justify their expeditions.
At the same time, the imperial government had a tighter grip on the society,
economy, and military administration of the Balkan provinces in the Justinianic
period than it had done in the fifth century. Systematic fortification work, started
during the reign of Anastasius, was continued and completed by Justinian. Justinian
also instituted a series of administrative reforms, projecting central imperial control
more firmly over the lower Danube frontier zone in Thrace and over the northern

1
Modern discussions: Poulter (2007); Whitby (2000); Sarantis (2016).

The Encyclopedia of Ancient Battles, First Edition. Edited by Michael Whitby and Harry Sidebottom.
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
2 The Eastern Roman Empire

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MAP 89.1 Barbarian tribes north of the Balkans.

Illyrian provinces of Dacia Mediterranea and upper Moesia in Illyricum. These poli-
cies gave the Roman emperors a platform from which they could better defend the
Balkans from barbarian attacks. Large armies were regularly deployed in the Bal-
kan provinces to confront barbarian raiders and expel them from the empire. The
following represent the major confrontations between barbarian attackers and
imperial forces in the first half of the sixth century.

Horreum Margi (505)2

The Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy was founded by Theoderic in the early 490s fol-
lowing his victory over the Scirian king Odovacer, who had been the latest in a
series of barbarian chieftains to seize control over the remnants of the western
Roman empire. Theoderic spent the following years extending his kingdom, prin-
cipally into regions north of Italy such as Raetia. In 504 one of his generals, Pitzas,
captured Sirmium from the Gepids, a Germanic group who also occupied lands in
the former Roman province of trans-Danubian Dacia. Further east, a Gepid war-
lord named Mundo had gained control over an area of upper Moesia in the vicinity
2
Sources: Jord. Get. 58.300–301; Marcellinus Comes Chronicle year 505. Modern discussions: Pohl
(1980) 290–293; Croke (1982a); Sarantis (2010).
 The Early Sixth-Century Balkan Wars 3

Huns
Sirmium

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Thermopylae

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MAP 89.2 The Balkans in the time of Anastasius.

of the confluence of the Danube and Morava rivers. He had defected from the
Gepid kingdom following its defeat by the Goths in 488. Mundo’s followers were
allegedly a motley crew of “outlaws, ruffians and robbers” (Jord. Get. 58.301) but
must have been a professional fighting force, given their ability to take on and
defeat a Roman army.
In 505 Anastasius dispatched a large army to upper Moesia to wrest control of the
region from Mundo. The army was commanded by the magister militum per Illyricum
4 The Eastern Roman Empire

(master of soldiers for Illyricum), Sabinianus, and comprised 10,000 Bulgar federate
troops in addition to the Illyrian field army, which habitually numbered 15,000.
This army met Mundo’s Gepid rebel forces near the city of Horreum Margi. The
initial encounter was inconclusive, but the arrival of the Gothic general Pitzas at
the head of 2,000 infantry and 500 cavalry swung the battle in Mundo’s favor and
the Roman army was routed.
The battle cemented the domination of the middle Danube by the Mundo–
Gothic axis, which prevented the occupation of southern Pannonia by the Gepids
or Lombards. The Goths were to remain in control of Pannonia until their defeat
by the Romans in Dalmatia in 536, during the first Gothic War. Having served the
Gothic kingdom of Italy until the death of Theoderic in 526, Mundo traveled to
Constantinople and was appointed magister militum per Illyricum in 529.

The Hun invasion (528)3

In 528 two Hun armies crossed the Danube and poured into the lower Danube
plain. They inflicted crushing defeats on the frontier forces of the provinces of
lower Moesia and Scythia Minor, which were led by the duces Justin and Baduarios;
the former was killed in the fighting. After these victories, one Hunnic army
crossed the Haemus mountains and entered the Thracian plain, where it was con-
fronted by a Roman army comprising three divisions: the lower Moesian frontier
forces, now led by Constantiolus; the Thracian field army commanded by Godilas;
and the Illyrian field army commanded by Askum the Hun. The Roman army sur-
rounded and defeated the Huns, killing large numbers of them and reclaiming the
booty the Huns had seized on their raid.
Despite this success, the three Roman generals were ambushed by the other
Hun army on their journey north from the Thracian plain to the lower Danube
frontier zone. Godilas managed to escape, but Constantiolus and Askum were cap-
tured, Askum being lassoed in characteristic Hunnic fashion. Constantiolus was
ransomed by the imperial authorities for 10,000 gold pieces, but Askum was taken
to the Black Sea region by the Huns.

Sklaveni attacks (550–551)4

The late 540s and early 550s witnessed a series of wide-ranging raids on the
Balkans by Sklaveni tribes. These incursions were carried out by groups of often
no more than 3,000 men and targeted specific regions of the southern Balkans. The
failure of contemporary historical works to mention either Sklaveni leaders or

3
Source: Malalas 18.21. Modern discussions: Stein (1949) 306–307; Sarantis (2016) 21–33.
4
Source: Proc. Wars 7.40.1–8, 31–45. Modern discussions: Stein (1949) 522–525; Sarantis (2016) 278–292.
 The Early Sixth-Century Balkan Wars 5

S 550

S 551

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MAP 89.3 Sklaveni raids on the Balkans in the 550s.

diplomatic negotiations between the Roman empire and the Sklaveni confirms an
impression given by other sixth-century sources that the Sklaveni were politically
decentralized and only came together in significant numbers for military
expeditions.
In 550 a group of Sklaveni invaded northern Illyricum. The general Germanus,
who was at Serdica in Dacia Mediterranea mustering an army to invade Gothic
Italy, found out about the raid from a scouting party, which informed him that
6 The Eastern Roman Empire

the Sklaveni were intending to raid as far south as Thessalonica, the capital of Ill-
yricum. Justinian ordered Germanus to cease his recruitment drive immediately
and guard the routes southward into the interior of Illyricum. The Sklaveni were
deterred by Germanus’ fearsome reputation within the Slavic world, which derived
from his annihilation of an Antae raiding party in Thrace in the early 520s. Rather
than confront the Roman general, the Sklaveni departed from northern Illyricum,
crossing the Dinaric mountain chain and reaching Dalmatia, where they spent the
winter of 550–551.
In spring 551 the same group of Sklaveni recrossed the Dinaric mountain chain
back into Illyricum, where they joined forces with another Sklaveni force that had
only recently crossed the Danube. The Sklaveni then split into three groups and
plundered rural areas in southern Illyricum and Thrace. A large Roman army
was assembled to confront the raiders under the command of Aratius the Hun, Con-
stantianus, John the Glutton, Justin (the son of Germanus), Nazares, and the eunuch
Scholasticus. This army finally apprehended the Sklaveni in the vicinity of Adriano-
ple on the Thracian plain. The Sklaveni arrayed themselves on a hilltop above the
Roman forces, which were drawn up on the plain below, and waited for the Romans
to launch an attack. The Roman generals were initially patient in their siege of the
Sklaveni position but were eventually persuaded to launch an attack by the restless-
ness of their troops, who, suffering from shortages of pay and provisions, were
threatening a mutiny. The assault on the Sklaveni was a disaster, the Sklaveni defeat-
ing the Roman troops and capturing the standard of Constantianus.
Not long afterward, however, the Romans gained their revenge. Having
regrouped, they engaged the Sklaveni forces in the Astice region, northwest of
the Long Wall of Thrace. This time the Romans were victorious, routing the Skla-
veni, slaughtering a large number of them, and recapturing the prisoners and booty
that the Sklaveni had plundered from the Balkan provinces. The battle was strate-
gically decisive, prompting the departure from the Balkans of the Sklaveni. After
two brief raids on Illyricum in 551 and 552, there are no more recorded incursions
by the Sklaveni prior to 559.

Kutrigur Hun–Sklaveni attack (559)5

In winter 558–559 a joint Kutrigur Hun–Sklaveni force crossed the lower Danube
after it had frozen. The raiders were led by a Kutrigur named Zabergan, who
had presumably coopted his Sklaveni allies en route as he traveled through the Slavic
territories north of the lower Danube. The Kutrigurs had been motivated to invade
the empire by jealousy of their neighbors, the Utigurs, who received tributary
payments from the Roman empire (according to Proc. Wars 8.5.15–23, the Kutrigurs
5
Sources: Malalas 18.129; Menander 2; Agathias Hist. 5.11–25. Modern discussions: Stein (1949)
535–540; Sarantis (2016) 336–349. Construction of the Long Wall: Whitby (1985); Croke (1982b).
 The Early Sixth-Century Balkan Wars 7

Sirmium
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MAP 89.4 The Kutrigur Hun–Sklaveni raid of 559.

and the Utigurs lived either side of the River Don, the Utigurs to the east and the
Kutrigurs to the west).
The invading army passed through the lower Danube provinces and crossed the
Haemus mountains to reach the Thracian plain by March 559. From there it split into
three groups, one moving west and south to penetrate as far south as the wall at Ther-
mopylae and the other two attacking the Thracian Chersonese fortification and the
Long Wall region, both in southern Thrace. The force that attacked the Long Wall
8 The Eastern Roman Empire

region was commanded by Zabergan and comprised 7,000 cavalry. The lack of
Roman resistance to this attack in its initial stages stemmed from Justinian’s decision
to reassign Balkan field troops and commanders such as Justin (the son of Germanus),
John (the nephew of Vitalian), and Buzes to the Lazican and Italian arenas of war
during the 550s. This can be explained by the relative paucity of barbarian attacks
on the Balkans after 552.
Roman resistance eventually manifested itself at the Long, Thermopylae, and
Thracian Chersonese cross-walls. The Kutrigurs became the first barbarian group
to breach the Long Wall of Thrace and enter the “Long Wall” region between this
barrier and the main walls of Constantinople since the reconstruction of this forti-
fication during the reign of Anastasius (491–518). The Kutrigurs were able to breach
the Long Wall in part because they found it in a decrepit state, after being devastated
by an earthquake in 557. In an act of desperation, Justinian summoned from retire-
ment the aged Belisarius, famous for his earlier conquests of Gothic Italy and Vandal
Africa, and ordered him to lead an army against the invaders. Belisarius headed out
to the village of Chettus with an ad hoc force of 300 of his veterans, civilians, and
peasants, many of whom were unarmed, along with horses commandeered from
the hippodrome.
By this stage, the Kutrigurs had made camp at Melantias, only 140 stades (about
25 km) from Constantinople. Belisarius first spent time putting into practice a series
of elaborate ruses to exaggerate the size of his force to the Kutrigurs: lighting a
large number of beacons, ordering the peasants to make a great din by shouting,
and getting his troops to fell trees and drag them along behind horses, throwing up
a large amount of dust. Having lured the Kutrigurs out of their camp, he then
defeated them by ambushing their troops in a narrow wooded glen, his archers
inflicting serious losses by firing on the Kutrigurs from either side. This success,
however, did not force the Kutrigurs to retire from the Long Wall region. Instead,
they regrouped and traveled to Saint Stratonikos at Dekaton, a village on the road
leading along the Propontid coast to Constantinople.
They were only discouraged from making an attempt on the Theodosian walls
of Constantinople by the news that these fortifications had been manned by a
hastily improvised force of the various palace guards (scholarii, protectores, and
numeri troops) and even members of the Senate. Now beating a retreat, the Kutri-
gurs under Zabergan crossed back into the province of Europa, to the cities of
Arkadiopolis, Tzurullum, and Zoupara. They were joined there by the two other
Kutrigur divisions, which had, by this point, been repelled from the fortifications at
the pinch points of Thermopylae and the access to the Thracian Chersonese
peninsula.
There is no evidence for a battle at Thermopylae, but it may be assumed that
some manifestation of the 2,000-strong garrison, which had been established there
by the logothete Alexander “Scissors” in 540, was responsible for preventing the
Kutrigurs from proceeding further south into the province of Achaea.
 The Early Sixth-Century Balkan Wars 9

Two Roman victories, one at sea and one on land, contributed to the repulse of
the Kutrigur force from the Thracian Chersonese fortification. The Kutrigurs, pre-
sumably aided by the Sklaveni, who were well known for their adeptness on water,
initially attempted to circumvent the Chersonese cross-wall by sea. They launched
this audacious assault in 150 small, four-man boats, setting sail from the northern
Aegean coastline of Rhodope, a short distance east of the port of Aenus. The mis-
sion was to prove catastrophic, however, since the barbarian flotilla was ambushed
by 20 heavily armed Roman dromons; these had been lying in wait behind the bul-
wark of the Chersonese wall, which jutted out into the sea. In the ensuing naval
battle, all 600 Kutrigur and Sklaveni sailors lost their lives. Kutrigur resistance was
finally broken when a Roman sortie from the wall led by Germanus, a native of
Justiniana Prima in Dacia Mediterranea, inflicted serious losses on another Kutrigur
force that was encamped to the west of the wall. This prompted the departure of
the surviving Kutrigurs to the Thracian plain, where they were reunited with the
other two invasion forces.
By this stage the Kutrigurs were keen to leave the Balkans, having learned that
Justinian had reinforced the lower Danube with a fleet of double-prowed dromons.
They asked the emperor for safe passage out of the Balkans. He sent the curopalates
(custodian of the palace) and future emperor, Justin, to escort them to the lower
Danube frontier, from where they were ferried north of the river into modern Wal-
lachia. In addition to the Roman victories and Justinian’s dispatch of naval forces to
the lower Danube, the Kutrigur departure was prompted by the emperor’s use of
carrot-and-stick diplomacy. On one hand, he promised to pay the Kutrigurs the
same subsidies that he already paid their Utigur rivals. On the other, he incited
the Utigurs to attack Kutrigur territories in the absence of Zabergan and his raiding
party. Although the Utigurs were reluctant to inflict an outright defeat on their
neighbors with the threat of the Avars looming, they did consent to raiding Kutri-
gur territory and stealing their horses.
With the exception of a Hun raid in 562, the Kutrigur attack of 559 was the last of
a series of barbarian raids on the Balkans in the Justinianic era. In common with the
majority of these attacks, the incursion was eventually repelled by Roman forces.
Justinian’s reinforcement of the lower Danube’s defenses with additional military
vessels was accompanied by the reassignment of the general Justin (son of Germa-
nus) from Lazica to the lower Danube frontier. These measures would prove crit-
ical in deflecting from the lower Danube frontier the next major barbarian group to
threaten it, the Avars, who arrived on the north bank of the river in 562.
The Avar khaganate that was subsequently established in Pannonia went on to
present the greatest threat to the Balkan provinces since Attila’s Hun confederation
in the mid-fifth century. The emergence of a monolithic barbarian empire north of
the Danube signaled the end of an era in which the Roman empire had generally
coped, albeit with some difficulty, with periodic raids by fragmented barbarian
tribes.
10 The Eastern Roman Empire

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