The Danube Limes, re-organisation and disintegration Part I
" ... to make the Ister River the strongest possible line of first defence "- Prokopius of Caesarea Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς
A Brief Historical Narrative :
In the aftermath of the battle of Nedao 454, Hun hegemony north of the Danube collapsed, and new groups migrated across the Danube. One such group was settled by the emperor Marcian in Pannonian (450-7) led firstly by Valamer, then after his murder, by Theodemer. At the same time another group, composed in part by what had previously been referred to as Greuthingi, led by Theoderic Strabo ( who was a relative of the wife of Magister Militum Aspar), crossed into the eastern Balkans. There were of course Goths in positions of power in the empire, Arnegisclus and his son Anagstes held position of Magister Militum per Thrace in 447 and 469-70 respectively- both of these had a personnel military retinue like that of Theodoric Strabo and Theodemir..(Collins.R 2010)
In 470 Anagastes, with the encouragement of Arabur revolted, and lost power. Later Arabur was murdered for his part in the revolt.
This left Theodermer and his son, Theodoric (known to history as the Amal), and Theodoric and his son, Recitach, to struggle for supremacy. By 476 Theodoric Strabo and his son were dead, and Theodoric( Amal) was Magister Militum.(again in 477-478) after periods of fighting for and against the emperor Zeno the emperor and Goth came to an agreement, so in 488 CE the Emperor Zeno and Theodoric signed a treaty which made Theodoric a Patrician and allowed Theodoric to seize Italy and rule on behalf of the emperor. We don't know what Zeno thought, he died shortly after.
This was by no means the end of the problems faced by the empire in the Balkans. The departure of the Goths had freed the Balkans south of the Danube and Sava rivers, but although there was no substantial barbarian presence- it did not seem to facilitate reclamation of the former Danube frontier in total. .(Collins.R 2010)
They -the Romans -did not manage to reassert themselves in Moesia Prima , or Pannonia Secunda, and Sirmium- the largest strategically important fortress in the province- had been seized by the Gepids when the Goths left in the 470's. In Moesia Secunda and Dacia Ripensis the Romans has managed to reassert control, but large parts of Illyricum west of the Moravia river remained beyond imperial control
During the 490's Theodoric felt secure enough in Italae to expand his dominion into western Illyricum, and Theoderic became de facto ruler of coastal Dalmatia - this was never part of the deal with the emperor Zeno, as this had been under eastern juristiction since 437- it was not until 510 that the emperor Anastasius acknowledges the takeover and Theodoric became de jure ruler. But Anastasius was clearly not happy with an Ostrogoth presence in Dalmatia, but was unable to take action due to other concerns elsewhere(Bulgar raids and renewal of Persian war)..(Collins.R 2010)
With this in mind Theodoric launched an attack on his former allies -the Gepids- to seize Sirmium thereby securing Italae from an attack from the east Romans, possible in the form of a federate army as the Ostrogoth's had been. The most the empire had been able to do in this period in response to this Ostrogothic aggression, was to send a naval expedition against Italy in 508, but as mentioned earlier the empire had other concerns at this point.
Events outside the Balkans, still further changed the balance of power in the Danube region. The recapture of Sirmium by the Romans- during the 'war of reconquest'- allowed it to be handed back to the Gepids. Other groups too, were to be utilised by the emperor Justinian I to guard the Danubian frontier. The Lombards were persuaded to move south into Norricum and western Pannnonia , and the Heruls were located around the city of Singidunum, all these groups remained semi-autonmous, but provided contingents for the Roman army, especially for the war in Italy.(Collins.R 2010) In the tradition of divide and rule Justinian often supported the Lombards against the more powerful Gepids, a policy that was to change after the emperors death, with disastrous consequences, under the reign of Justin II.
Ever since the war in Italy, the Gepids had become the second biggest problem on the Limes- the Huns and Bulgars being the first, which I will come to in a moment- petty kings and a burgeoning aristocracy with large warrior retinues had ruled the Gepid tribes, sometimes an over king had reigned from Sirmium, the last of which Cunimund (560-567) minted coins -Roman/Ostrogoth copies- bearing the name of Sirmium. (Kurta, 2006) Justinian realising the potential menace of having another rising Germanic power in the Balkans, stopped paying the annual subsidies, and as mentioned earlier chose to pay the Lombards as federates. In 547 a joint Roman-Lombard expedition defeated the Gepids, repeated again in 551 by the Lombards alone.(Kurta, 2006)
Further trouble on the Danube Limes came in the form of an attack in 545 by a large group of Sclavenes, they crossed the Danube raided the countryside taking large numbers of Roman slaves, theses raids were to grow in frequency and ferocity as the century progressed
In 482 the emperor Zeno had sought military aid from the Bulgars, against the Ostrogoths, but during the reign of the emperor Anastasius I (491-518) raids by Bulgar Utrigurs and Kutrigurs had grown more frequent and dangerous, even raiding far into Thrace, Moesia, and Illyricum. These horseman would be allies one day, enemies next and became a ever presence in the Balkans. Raids by Hunnic groups- generic term used by such writers as Prokopius, Jordannes, and Count Marcellinus to describe nomadic horseman- and the Bulgars and Sclavenes led to the massive fortifications of Justinian carried out along the Danube Limes, see Prokopius below.
The Slavic groups grew in power in the century to come, expanding into large parts of the Balkans (Pohl, 2005) the balance of power remained just that, finely balanced among tribes of nomads- Utrigurs, Kutrigers, Bulgars and others- beyond the frontier, the fortifications were a great success initially- but larger groups formed to carry out deeper, more damaging- from a Roman perspective- raids. In 559 the Kutrigers led by Zabergan, raided deep into Thrace, as far as the long walls of Konstantinoupolis, and in the early 580's Sclavenes scaled the walls of Thesalonica, and a large raid in 558 led by Ardagastus which like that of the Kutrigers reached the outskirts of the capitol.
Then in the twilight of Justinian's reign everything changed, the finely tuned balance of power was shattered by the arrival of the Avars. In 558 having arrived in the Caucasus they sent an emissary to Justinian, in they asked for subsidies and promised to destroy all his enemies. The fate of many was decided in that moment, the Avars had arrived
(Procopius, Buildings, 1-3 Illyricum)Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
(Procopius, Buildings, Epirus, Macedonia, Dardania, Thessaly, and inner Illyricum, 4-6)Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Quaestura Exercitus
Viktorinos, designed the fortifications of the Danube and the Balkans for the emperor Iustinian, but that was not the end of the changes to the defence of this region. In 536 Iustinian created the office of the Quaestura Exercitus (John Malalas 18.17) this post combined the territories of Moesia inferior, Scythia minor, Karia, Cyprus and the Aegean islands all of which was run from Odessos. Combining the areas of the biggest naval presence and some of the wealthiest regions, with the areas of greatest military need would make operations easier against the barbarians, by supplying it with amongst other things the annona (food supplies). Perhaps this reorganisation was the forerunner of the Karabisianoi ?(Kurta. F, 2006)
The Danube Limes, re-organisation and disintegration Part II...
" ... to make the Ister River the strongest possible line of first defence "- Prokopius of Caesarea Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς
The transformation of the classical Polis/Municipium in the sixth century
In the previous section I quoted extracts from Prokopius of Caesarea's buildings, in which he describes the building program of the emperor Justinian, along the Danube provinces.
Using the written sources alone does not tell the whole picture of the evolution of urbanisation in the Roman empire, as a whole, or that of the Danubian regions in particular. Classical rhetoric remained strong in the descriptions of sixth century cities, and perhaps exaggerated to form a greater connection with the classical past (Saradi. H, 1995) In Justinian's Novel 103 the emperor commends Caesarea -home town of Prokopius- and comments on the beauty of its bath houses, hippodrome, theatres, temples and fora, all the things one would expect to find in a classical Greco-Roman polis or municipium
The same can be said of the frontier towns, Prokopius say's of Justiniana Prima, 'a most noble city', commenting on the architecture he says,'the magnitude of its colonnades, the beauty of its Forum' but the archaeology tells a different story, only one modest bath house, but seven basilical churches, the main colonnaded road leads a central plaza-only twenty- two meters diameter, only a small population could of been supported- far smaller than a classical polis . The city acted as an administrative center and a refuge in time of war (Holum, G, K, 2005).
Along the frontier, Key cities had formed from Roman forts along the Danube limes, as they had at other frontiers, some of the most important along the Danube Sirmium, Singidunum, Durostorum, further inland and 'guarding routes through Haemus mountains was Nicopolis ad Istrum and south of mountains, the strategic city of Marcianopolis, all had grown to have large civilian populations by the fourth century and displayed all the indicators of classical settlements, grid plans, theaters, Fora, etc (Liebeshuetz, 2007) From the early fourth century(Tetrarchic period) the Danube cities had been refortified and this had reduced the size of the urban space to a fraction of what it had been during the 'high empire'. By AD 500 most of the cities around the Danube had contracted behind high strong walls, sometimes on an elevated acropolis dominated by a church (Kurta. F, 2006) the churches were very often constructed with no regard to earlier classical grid plans using spoila from classical public buildings, former city walls, and even houses, in Phillipolis a large church was constructed right in the middle of a residential area -blocking several street access points!(Kurta. F, 2006)
Map of empire before Iustinians reconquest
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Ivstiniana Prima- an example of how cities had shrunk around a fortified center, dominated by church buildings.
Image by Goran Ivanovic http://caricin-grad.tripod.com/index.html
Bibliography:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Procopius/Buildings/home.html
Ellis H. Minns (1941). Review of M. Spinka 'Chronicle of John Malalas, Books VIII–XVIII' The Classical Review, 55 , pp 102-102 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00310381
Maas, M (ed)(2005)' The Cambridge Companion To the Age of Justinian', Cambridge University Press.
Kurta, F(2006) 'Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages 500- 1250', Cambridge Medieval Textbooks, Cambridge University Press.
Collins, R(2010)' Early Medieval Europe 300-1000' Palgrave History of Europe, Basingkstoke, Palgrave McMillan.
Translation by Cyril Mango, ( 1997), 'The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor'. Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284-813, pp. 497-499,Oxford
Scott, Roger D (1985), ' Malalas, The Secret History, and Justinian's Propaganda' , Dumbarton Oaks Papers , Vol. 39, pp. 99-109, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard UniversityArticle Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/1291517
Kurta, F(1996) 'Invasion or Inflation? Sixth- to seventh century Byzantine coin hoards in Eastern and Southeastern Europe' Annali dell'Istituto Italiano di Numismatica 43 (1996), pp. 65-224
And a Special thanks to Prof Florin Curta (University of Miami) Pseudo-Methodius (EoR) and Pompeius Magnus, for their assistance and insights in matters of the sixth century
Part II coming soon....The arrival of the Avares and disintegration of the Danube frontier after the death of Justinian.....(09/09/2012) I am afraid I am very busy with RL issues so completing this article might take considerably longer than anticipated. So I have added what I have completed thus far.
Thank you for your patience and following AoDII your comrade Constantius.