ОБСТАВИНИ УКЛАДЕННЯ ТА ПОЛОЖЕННЯ ДОГОВОРУ 568 р. ПОМІЖ ЛАНГОБАРДАМИ ТА АВАРАМИ

Abstract

As of the early 550s, the diplomatic sphere of the Eastern Roman Empire on the Danube Limes was in a state of relative consolidation. In many ways, this was facilitated by the system of checks and balances between barbarian political associations on the northern border of the Empire. The autocrator Justinian the Great (527–565), professing the goal of political neutralisation of his neighbours, had been engaging the political associations of the Hepidians, Lombards and Antes in alliance relations since the 530s. These associations were fully or partially involved in the cohort of allies and federations of Constantinople, repelling the barbarian attacks of the Empire’s opponents in the region. At the same time, the internal contradictions that were brewing among the rulers of the barbarian associations could not provide the political system of Constantinople on the eastern bank of the Danube with promising development. One of the main reasons for the instability of relations between Justinian’s federates was the involvement of the Kingdom of the Hepidians in the Empire. In the second half of the 6th cent., the latter occupied the Danube and Tisza valleys, bordering the Roman provinces of Pannonia II of the Diocese of Dacia and Moesia I of the Diocese of Thrace. In 526, the Lombards became the Hepidians’ neighbours to the west. Being in a state of protracted conflict since then, both sides could not ensure victory without the participation of third parties. At the same time, the imperator Justinian and his predecessor, Justin I (518–527), were not interested in providing military assistance to their allies. The nature of the confrontation between the Lombards and the Hepidians changed with the arrival of the Avars in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Having become federates of Constantinople in 557, the Nomads were interested in obtaining the provinces of Pannonia II and Illyric for settlement. A dispute over these territories with Emperor Justin II (565–578) led to the actual breakdown of the nomads’ treaty with the Empire. King of the Lombards Alboin (566–572) proposed to grant the Avars these territories for settlement. At the suggestion of the barbarian monarch, the nomads received the desired lands in exchange for military assistance to the Lombards during the conflict with the Hepids. As a result of the negotiations between Alboin and the Avar Khan Bayan (562–602), an agreement was concluded, the postulates of which formed the basis of relations between the proto-state of the nomads and the newly formed Kingdom of the Lombards until the beginning of the 7th cent.