Avar

/ah"vahr/, n.

a member of a people, probably originating in Asia, who settled in Dacia A.D. c555, later occupied Pannonia, and invaded other parts of central and eastern Europe before their decline in the 9th century.

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Any member of a people of undetermined origin who built an empire in eastern Europe between the Adriatic and Baltic seas and the Elbe and Dnieper rivers in the 6th–9th centuries.

Mounted nomads, possibly from Central Asia, they made the Hungarian plain the centre of their empire, from which they intervened in Germanic tribal wars, helped the Lombards overthrow allies of Byzantium, and nearly succeeded in occupying Constantinople in 626. They also fought the Merovingians and helped push the Serbs and Croats southward. Avar decline began in the late 7th century and culminated in the destruction of their capital by Charlemagne in 796. In the early 9th century the Avars were fully incorporated in the Carolingian empire.

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▪ people

      one of a people of undetermined origin and language, who, playing an important role in eastern Europe (6th–9th century), built an empire in the area between the Adriatic and the Baltic Sea and between the Elbe and Dnieper rivers (6th–8th century). Inhabiting an area in the Caucasus region in 558, they intervened in Germanic tribal wars, allied with the Lombards to overthrow the Gepidae (allies of Byzantium), and between 550 and 575 established themselves in the Hungarian plain between the Danube and Tisza rivers. This area became the centre of their empire, which reached its peak at the end of the 6th century.

      The Avars engaged in wars against Byzantium, almost occupying Constantinople in 626, and against the Merovingians; they also were partly responsible for the southward migration of the Serbs and the Croats. In the second half of the 7th century, internal discord resulted in the expulsion of about 9,000 dissidents from the Avar empire. The state, further weakened by a revolt precipitated by the creation of the Bulgarian state in the Balkans (680), survived until 805 when it submitted to Charlemagne.

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