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THE GEPIDS, THE HERULI, THE LOMBARDS AND SOUTH PANNONIA
Hrvoje Gračanin
Sažetak
The paper provides a systematic analysis of testimonies about the Gepid, Heruli, and Lombard presence in south Pannonia (provinces Pannonia Savia and Pannonia Secunda with their immediate contiguity) based on original documents, relevant historiographic literature and archeological findings. Special attention is paid to the characteristics of Gepid and Lombard domination in South Pannonian regions.
The first period of Gepid presence in South Pannonia began in 473 when the Gepids captured Sirmium after the departure of the Ostrogoths. The city became the seat of the Gepid king, who subjected the local Romanized residents to his authority. The Empire did not even try to dispute the new Gepid possession, which perhaps shows that the Gepids had at least a tacit, if not official, agreement of the official imperial government for their act of conquest. The center of the territory they colonized lay in eastern Srijem, even though they could have expanded their influence all the way to Mursa and Cibalae. The Ostrogoths were the first to threaten the Gepids’ firm domination in this region when they passed through it on their way to Italy in 488. Theoderic Amalac, the king of the Ostrogoths, beat the Gepids at the beginning of 489 in the marshlands surrounding the river Ulca (present-day Vuka) between Cibalae and Mursa. The Gepid kingdom in Sirmium had survived, but only for a short while, as it fell under a new Ostrogoth attack in 504. The Gepids living in Pannonia Secunda acknowledged Theodoric’s authority. The Ostrogoth king ordered most of this population to be moved to Provence in the period 523-526. Thus ended the first period of Gepid presence in South Pannonia.
While the Ostrogoths still ruled South Pannonia, the Empire settled the Heruli in the far eastern sector of this territory, centered on the town of Basiana. Some of the Heruli survived there until 551. The Gepids, on the other hand, took advantage of the war that the Eastern Romans had waged against the Ostrogoths and recaptured Sirmium in 536, in spite of the fact that the Empire had captured it from the Ostrogoths only a year earlier. The town once again became the seat of the Gepid kingdom. The second period of Gepid domination in Pannonia Secunda began. This time the Gepid colonization encompassed a broader territory (from present-day Zemun in the east to Dalj and Vinkovci in the west), imposing Gepid authority on the Heruli in the eastern sector of the province. Cibalae and Sirmium were the two largest Gepid settlements. This arbitrary act of conquest cost the Gepids their alliance with the Empire, since Justinian I decided to terminate the federate contract with them and refused to pay the subsidium (536). The war lasted until 539, when a new alliance contract was concluded. The strength of the Gepids, however, drew the imperial government to allow the Lombards to enter South Pannonia (547).
Ključne riječi
South Pannonia; Gepids; Heruli; Lombards; Sirmium; Byzantium
Hrčak ID:
26033
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.9.2007.
Posjeta: 6.121 *