The Dawn of the Dark Ages

Fülszöveg

Following the decline of the Román Empire in the mid-fifth century AD, and the subsequent rise and fali of Hunnish rule, intense darkness descended on both parts of present-day Hungary, the "lost province" of Pannónia, and the Great Plain with its decimated, scattered remnants of population. Early in the sixth century, however, dawn began to break again. East of the Danube the Gepids established a new state which soon began to flourish. But its prosperity was not to last long. A rival to the Gepids* ambition for supreme power suddenly emerged in the form of Lombards. The policy of Byzantium and of the great emperor Justinian himself was to get the two Germanic peoples against each other, thereby to guarantee peace and order in the short term and the territorial aggrandizement of the Eastern Empire in the long term. As it is wont to happen, with two quarrelling sides a third party was the real victor-the Asiatic Avars. In this book, István Bóna outlines the exciting history of the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Following the decline of the Román Empire in the mid-fifth century AD, and the subsequent rise and fali of Hunnish rule, intense darkness descended on both parts of present-day Hungary, the "lost province" of Pannónia, and the Great Plain with its decimated, scattered remnants of population. Early in the sixth century, however, dawn began to break again. East of the Danube the Gepids established a new state which soon began to flourish. But its prosperity was not to last long. A rival to the Gepids* ambition for supreme power suddenly emerged in the form of Lombards. The policy of Byzantium and of the great emperor Justinian himself was to get the two Germanic peoples against each other, thereby to guarantee peace and order in the short term and the territorial aggrandizement of the Eastern Empire in the long term. As it is wont to happen, with two quarrelling sides a third party was the real victor-the Asiatic Avars. In this book, István Bóna outlines the exciting history of the first seventy years of the sixth century, based on written sources and archaeological evidence. A special feature of the book is that the author takes much of the evidence for his assertions about the Lombards and Gepids in Central Europe from the results of his own excavations. A significant part of the finds, especially those of the Lombards, are published for the first time in this book. Vissza