ook possession of
Northern Dacia, and managed to obtain such a firm hold on the country,
that it was actually known to some of the older historians as 'Gepidia.'
There is, however, nothing of interest in their history. Sometimes they
were at war with their more powerful southern neighbours; anon they
formed alliances with them on advantageous terms, and aided them to keep
other tribes in check. The Roman Empire was now split into its Eastern
and Western divisions, and it was with the Byzantines that the Gepidae
made their treaties. These, however, were capable of rendering them
little effectual service at periods of grave danger, and when (about 550
A.D.) the Lombards, a warlike tribe who are believed to have
migrated southwards from the shores of the Baltic, in combination with
an Asiatic horde, the Avari, made inroads into their territory, the
Gepidae were quite incapable of making head against them. We have said
that the latter nation contracted treaties, offensive and defensive,
with the Eastern Empire, but it must not be supposed that either the
emperors or the barbarians were very constant in their attachments. At
one time we find some particular tribe in alliance with the emperors of
the East, assisting them to keep back new assailants; at another they
entered the armies of the Eastern emperors, to help them in their
attacks upon their Western rivals; then, again, it is two tribes
associated to root out and exterminate a horde in possession; and
shortly afterwards it may be that the tribes who were allied are arrayed
against each other. About the time named, the _Lombards_ and Avari, as
we have said, made inroads into the territories of the Gepidae, the
first-named being under the lead of a brave and fierce leader, Alboin,
and in a very short period (between 550 and 567 A.D.) they
managed not only to defeat the Gepidae, but so completely to break their
power, that some writers speak of them as being annihilated. Then it was
that the Emperor Justinian (527-565), fearing them as opponents, and
desiring them as allies, tempted the Lombards to enter his service; and,
bent upon conquest rather than upon becoming settlers in the land which
they had already acquired, these crossed over the Danube and left their
associates, the Avari, in undisturbed possession. The _Avari_ ruled
intermittently in Dacia from about A.D. 564 to 610-640, when,
venturing to cope with the Byzantine power, they were first encountered
and defeate