Europe 449: Kingdom of the Suebi

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Notes

Akatziri and the “Scythian Kingdom” (Kuban Huns)

Little is known about the region north and east of the Black Sea in the first half of the fifth century, except that in c. 400 a “Scythian King” (almost always assumed to be a Hun) lived in the Kuban region and by the 440s a Hunnic people known as the Akatziri lived east of the Dniester. Although fragmented, the Akatziri were powerful enough that, when the Eastern Romans aligned with all but one of their kingdoms in 447, it took over a year for Attila’s armies to crush them and install his son as their king. After this, Attila contemplated invading Persia, implying that suppressing the Akatziri had bought the periphery of his empire close to the Caucasus. All this suggests that the Akatziri may have extended into the North Caucasus and that the “Scythian King” may have been part of the Akatziri, although this is of course conjecture.

Main Events

448 Eudoxius’ Bagaudae revolt ▲

In 448 a bagaudic revolt against the Western Roman authorities broke out in Armorica, in western Gaul. The bagaudae were suppressed by Aetius later that same year, prompting Eudoxius—a physician accused of instigating the uprising—to flee to the lands of the Huns. Following this, Aetius seems to have granted the people of Armorica—by now likely including a growing number of emigrants from Britain—increased independence in return for military support. in wikipedia

448?–450 Isaurian revolt ▲

By 448 the Taurus Mountains region of Isauria had broken into unrest and Isaurian bandits were once again causing considerable troubles to the Eastern Roman Empire. The revolt was crushed in early 450 when Emperor Theodosius II dispatched the general Maximinus to overpower the lands around Isauropolis, apparently as part of a plan to stop Zeno—a powerful general of Isaurian origin—from mounting a coup. in wikipedia

Aug–?? 448 Accession of Rechiar ▲

In August 448 the Suebian king Rechila died a pagan in Augusta Emerita and was soon succeeded by his son Rechiar, a Catholic Christian. Rechiar began his reign by immediately invading farther Gallaecia in search of plunder, the first of a series of wars he would initiate to extend Suebian rule in Hispaniae. However, having been born in Gallaecia and received a Roman education, he was more classically cultured than his father and became the first Germanic king to issue his own coins. in wikipedia

448?–451 Roman–Saracen War ▲

In around 448 “Saracens”—probably in this case referring to the Salihids—invaded the eastern parts of the Eastern Roman Empire and overran the region around Damascus. As the Romans were preoccupied with the threat of Attila’s Huns, they made no significant response until c. 450, when Ardabur, son of the magister militum Aspar, was sent to deal with the situation. Ardabur soon restored order and in 451 he negotiated a peace treaty with the raiders. in wikipedia

448? Restoration of Western Illyricum ▲

From 437 to at least 448 the Diocese of Illyricum was under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire. By 449, however, Noricum, a province of the diocese, was under a Western Roman governor, and at some point before 454 so was the important coastal province of Dalmatia. This suggests that the entire diocese—with the possible exception of Pannonia—may have been restored to the Western Empire in late 448 or early 449, possibly in response to the Eastern Empire’s abandonment of large parts of the Danubian frontier following the Hunnic invasion of 447. in wikipedia

Feb–?? 449 Rechiar’s Visigothic alliance ▲

In early 449 Rechiar, King of the Suebi, arranged to marry the daughter of King Theodoric of the Visigoths, securing an alliance between the two Germanic tribes. En route to Tolosa (Tolouse) to meet with Theodoric, Rechiar plundered the lands of the Vascones, then on his return journey he joined forces with the Spanish Bagaudae to pillage the territory around Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza). After this, the Suebi and the Bagaudae captured Ilerda (Lleida) by trickery, taking many of the citizens as captives, before Rechiar returned home. in wikipedia

449 Priscus’ embassy to Attila ▲

In early 449 Edeko and Orestes, two ambassadors from Attila the Hun, arrived in Constantinople and demanded that the Eastern Romans surrender Hunnic fugitives, stop cultivating conquered lands near the Danube, and conduct trade at Naissus rather than on the Danube. In response, Emperor Theodosius II dispatched an embassy which included the magister Maximinus, the translator Bigilas, and the rhetorician Priscus (whose detailed account of the embassy is an invaluable source of information on Attila and his world). The embassy spent several weeks in the land of the Huns and, despite a scandal in which Bigilas was caught trying to bribe Edeko to assassinate Attila, returned to Constantinople with the hope of improved Eastern Roman–Hunnic relations. in wikipedia

449? Sasanian–Hunnic War ▲

In the late 440s, possibly in response to news of Attila’s desire to invade Sasanian Persia, Shah Yazdegerd II attacked the Huns in the Caucasus and recaptured the Derbent Pass. To help secure the region, the Persians carried out major fortification projects in both the Derbent Pass and Torpakh-Kala to its south. in wikipedia

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Europe 449: Kingdom of the Suebi

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Kingdom of the Suebi