The Historians' History of the World 07 [The History of the Later Roman Empire]

BAVARIAN WAR WITH TASSILO (787-788 A.D.)

[787-796 A.D.]

Next came the Bavarian War, which suddenly flamed up and swiftly died down. It was aroused at once by the arrogance and by the folly of Duke Tassilo. He had married a daughter of King Desiderius, who thought to avenge her father’s exile by her husband’s agency. Tassilo made an alliance with the Huns, whose boundary touches that of the Bavarians on the east. Not only did he try to win his independence, but also to provoke the king to war. His violence seeming too great for the high-spirited king to brook, he gathered together forces from all sides for an incursion into Bavaria, and straightway advanced to the river Lech himself with a large army. This river divides the Bavarians from the Alamanni. He pitched his camp on the banks before entering the province and determined to ascertain the temper of the duke by means of ambassadors. Tassilo, thinking it neither to his own advantage nor to that of his country to act obstinately, surrendered himself to the king’s mercy, and gave the hostages required, among them being his own son Theodo. In addition to this, he took an oath of allegiance by which he bound himself to be induced by the persuasion of nobody to revolt from the sovereignty of the king.[135] In this way a very swift end was put to a war which had given promise of becoming a great one. Tassilo being summoned soon after to the king was not, however, allowed to return; the province which he had governed was no longer entrusted to a duke but to the charge of counts.

WARS IN THE NORTH AND WITH THE AVARS (791-796 A.D.)

[791-810 A.D.]

When these commotions were thus allayed war was begun against the Slavs, whom we are accustomed to call Wilzi, but who are more properly termed in their own tongue Welatabi. In this war among other nations who were bidden to rally round the king’s ensigns, the Saxons fought as our allies, but their obedience was feigned and far from being truly devoted. The cause of the war was that the Welatabi harried the Abodriti, who had in former days been allied with the Franks; nor could the assiduity of their incursions be checked by orders. There is a certain gulf which stretches eastwards from the western ocean, of unascertained length, but of a width which nowhere exceeds a hundred miles, whereas in many places it is narrower. Many nations are gathered round its border, such as Danes and Swedes whom we call Northmen, and they occupy the northern shores and all the islands in the gulf. But the southern shores are inhabited by Slavs and Aisti, and divers other nations among whom the chief are the Welatabi against whom the king was now making war. In one expedition, which he conducted in person, he so utterly crushed and humbled them, that in future they were advised to do as they were told without the smallest show of resistance.

The war following this was, with the exception of the Saxon War, the greatest of all those waged by my hero; it was that memorable war against the Avars or Huns. The king set about it with even greater spirit and with far greater military resources than had gone to the others. Yet he himself made but one expedition into Pannonia, the province then inhabited by the Avars. The rest of the campaigns were entrusted to his son Pepin and the prefects of the provinces, and to the counts and lieutenants. They used the utmost diligence in the conduct of affairs; yet eight years had well-nigh passed before the war was ended. What a great many battles were fought, what blood was shed, the desolate Pannonia, empty of all living creatures, bears witness. Moreover, the place in which was situate the royal palace of the chagan (khan) is so abandoned that you cannot see a trace of human habitation in it. The whole nobility of the Avars perished in this war, and the entire glory of the nation was extinguished. All their money and long-accumulated treasures were seized; nor can human memory recall any war of the Franks in which they have won greater spoil or been more enriched.

Up to this time, sure enough, the Franks had appeared to be a poor nation; but now so much gold and silver was found in the royal treasury, such a heap of valuable spoil was taken in battle, that we may safely assume that the Franks seized this new wealth from the Huns, and rightly too, for had not the Huns before this seized it wrongfully from other nations? Only two among the chiefs of the Frankish nobility fell in this war,—Eric, duke of Friuli, killed in Liburnia, near Tharsatica (Fiume), a maritime state, who was entrapped in an ambush laid by the townspeople; and Gerold, prefect of the Bavarians, who was killed in Pannonia while drawing up his men in line of battle in the act of engaging with the Huns. No one knew who did the deed, for he was killed, with the two others who rode in his company, as he spoke a word of encouragement to each man along the ranks. But for this, the war was almost a bloodless one for the Franks and had a most prosperous ending, although it was prolonged far beyond what was natural from its size.