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The Avaria in the view of the Carolingians

Paulus Diaconus

Pannonia

Bavaria

The Avaria of the early 9th century

Paulus Diaconus

This writer was born around 720/730 in Cividale del Friuli. He was probably educated at the royal court of King Liutprant (d. 744). After the deposition of king Ratchis, or the conquest of the Lombard realm by Charlemagne in 774, he became monk in Montecassino, where he taught grammar. In 782 he went to the Carolingian court to request the release of his brother, who was held captive since 776. He remained for at least three years at the court of Charlemagne and returned around 786/87 to Montecassino, where he died in 799.

In 790-799 he wrote the Historia Langobardorum in which he narrates many storys originationg from the Lombard duchy Friuli at the frontier to the Avarian Realm.

Paulus Diaconus has an unique view on the Avars.

Bavaria

When we turn north of the Alps, the view differs significantely. Our sources of the 8th century come also from Bavaria, taht under duke Tassilo III acted quite independently from the Francs. In 788 the duke was deposed by his cousin, Charlemagne.

Here lived the bishop Arbeo of Freising, about the same time as Paulus Diaconus. He wrote the ViIta Haimhrammi, a text, that has a different view of the Avars: they are the enemy on the east, beyond the river Enns. this river is called a "limes certus". The relations of the Avars with  Tassilo seem to have been very bad, expecially in the 760ties and 770ties as the border area was described to have been vastated. Curiously, in 788, when Charlemagne deposed duke Tassilo one of the allegiations was that the duke had turned to the Avars for help.

Pannonia

For the writers of the 8th century, the Avaria was synonymous with the late Antique roman province of Pannonia.

In 796 the Frankish army under Pippin conquered the Avarian realm.

The Avaria of the early 9th century

But its was more than a decade later, when we first hear of actuall property in the former Avarian realm - and this property was positioned very near to the border between Bavarians and Avars at the Enns and far way form the Avar centres in Pannonia. The places that are mentioned in charters ranging from 808 to 836 are all described as being in the "provintia Auarorum" or the "terra Auarorum".

But only a few decades later this spatial designation dissapears from the sources. Places are not called as being in the "Avaria" anymore. The name has lost prestige and power and was, replaced by the more generic "plaga orientalis" or, from 996 on "Ostarrichi".