A timeline of the Barbars

A time-line of the Barbars

World News | Politics | History | Editor

(Copyright © 1999 Piero Scaruffi)

● Huns

● Mounted archers
● 200BC: Mao-tun unites the Huns (Xiongnu, Hsiung-nu) in Central Asia around Lake Bajkal and
southeastern Mongolia, with capital in Longcheng (near Ulan Bator)
● 176BC: the Hsiung-nu attack eastern China (the Tocharians)
● 140BC: Han emperor Wu-ti conducts campaigns against the Hsiung-nu
● 121BC: China defeats the Hsiung-nu
● 51 BC: the Hsiung-nu split into two hordes, with the eastern (southern) horde subject to China
● 50 BC: the western Huns expand to the Volga
● 48 AD: the Hsiung-nu empire is defeated by the Han and dissolves
● 337AD: Constantine dies and the Roman empire is divided in eastern (Costantinople) and
western (Rome) empire
● 350AD: Hunnic invasion of South-eastern Europe
● 376AD: Huns, led by Uldin, reach the Black Sea and the Danube, conquering the eastern Goths
● 395AD: the Huns raid Armenia
● 408AD: Uldin crosses the Danube but is defeated by Rome
● 408AD: the Roman patrician Aetius is taken prisoner by the Huns
● 412AD: the new Hun leader Donatus is murdered by the Romans and is succeeded by Charato
(Karaton), who unifies all Western Huns
● 425AD: Huns are hired by a western Roman general (Aetius) to fight in Italy during a political
crisis
● 430AD: the new Hun leader Rugida (Rua) signs a peace treaty with the eastern Roman empire
(annual salary in return for peace)
● 433AD: Rugida (Rua) signs a treaty with the western Roman empire that surrenders Pannonia to
the Huns in exchange for military help
● 433AD: Aetius becomes the de-facto ruler of the western Roman empire
● 434AD: Rugida (Rua) dies and is succeeded by Attila (a friend of Aetius) and his brother Bleda
● 435AD: Aetius employs Huns to fight Vandals and Franks
● 436AD: Aetius and the Huns destroy the Burgundians
● 439AD: Attila helps Aetius
● 441AD: the Huns raid eastern Roman outposts along the Danube
● 441AD: the Huns sign a peace treaty with the eastern Roman empire
● 445AD: by murdering his brother, Attila becomes sole leader of the Huns, who are centered in
Hungary (Pannonia)
● 447AD: the Huns and Valamer's Goths attack the eastern Roman empire in the Balkans and
Attila reaches the walls of Constantinople
● 449AD: Attila signs a new treaty with the eastern Roman empire
● 450AD: the new emperor Marcian reneges on the Hun-Roman treaty

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A timeline of the Barbars

● 451AD: Huns travel from Pannonia and attack Gaul but are defeated by Aetius and the Visigoths
● 452AD: Huns cross the Alps but renounce attacking Italy for fear of the plague and Attila
concludes peace with Pope Leo
● 453AD: Attila dies
● 454AD: Goths expel Huns from Pannonia
● 454AD: Aetius is murdered by his emperor
● 461AD: the Huns besiege Paris
● 469AD: the Hun king Dengizik dies and the Huns disappear

● Scythians:

● 750 BC: the Scythians (or Sakas), a pastoral nomadic Indo-European group, settle between the
Don and the Carpathians
● 674 BC: the Scythian king Partatua marries an Assyrian princess
653 BC: the Scythians invade the Median empire
● 626 BC: the Medes defeat the Scythians
● 514 BC: the Persian kind Darius invades Scythia
● 360 BC: king Atheas unites all Scythian tribes and expands their territory to the border with
Macedonia
● 339 BC: Atheas of Scythia is killed in the war against Philip of Macedonia
● 225 BC: the Celts in the west and the Sarmatians in the east destroy the Scythian kingdom

● Vandals

● 70BC: Julius Caesar establishes the north-western border at the Rhein

● 100AD: Vandals inhabit the land between Elbe and Vistula (northern Germany)
● 160AD: Vandals inhabit Slesia
● 270AD: Vandals cross the Rhein
● 330AD: Constantine grants the Vandals land in Pannonia (Hungary)
● 360AD: the Vandals convert to christianity
● 406AD: Vandals cross the Rhein and occupy Spain
● 407AD: Roman general Stilicho (of Vandal descent) stops the Vandals on their way to Italy
● 419AD: Gunderic unifies the Vandals of northern (Alans) Spain and southern (Vandals) Spain
● 421AD: Vandals defeat the Roman army
● 427AD: Gunderic dies and is succeeded by his brother Gaiseric/Gensenric
● 427: Gaiseric's Vandals cross the strait of Gibraltar and land in Africa
● 429AD: Vandals, led by Gaiseric, invade northern Africa and are recognized as an independent
kingdom
● 439AD: Gaiseric conquers Carthage
● 455AD: Gaiseric's Vandals sack Rome
● 468AD: A Roman expedition against Gaiseric's Vandals is defeated and Rome recognizes Vandal
rule over the Italian islands
● 477AD: Gaiseric dies
● 534AD: the Roman general Belisarius recaptures Africa from the vandals

● Goths

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A timeline of the Barbars

● Scandinavia?
● Non-literate
● 0BC: Poland
● 50: Danube (Marcomannic war)
● 150AD: Roman expansion in Europe halted
● 200AD: Visigoths (Balthi family, forests of Central Europe, originally known as Tervingian
Goths) and Ostrogoths (Amals family, from the Don to the Dnestr, originally known as
Greuthungian Goths)
● 238AD: First Gothic incursion into the Roman empire
● 250AD: Goths settle in Scythia (Black Sea)
● 268AD: Goths raid Athens
● 340AD: Christianization and literalization of the Goths (Ulfila and the "Gothic bible")
● 370AD: Ermanarich rules all the Greuthungian Goths from the Baltic to the Black Sea
● 375AD: Ermanarich is defeated by the Huns and commits suicide, while his Goths become
subjects of the Huns
● 376AD: the Tervingian king Athanaric is defeated by the Huns and his Goths are pushed into the
Carpathians by the advancing Huns
● 376AD: Athanaric's rival Fritigern converts to (Arian) christianity in order to benefit from
Roman help, crosses the Danube and demands admission to the empire
● 378AD: the Romans are defeated at Hadrianapolis by Fritigern's Goths and the emperor is killed
● 395AD: Stilicho (a German of Vandal descent) is appointed supreme commader of the western
Roman army
● 390AD: the Gothic general Alaric is hired as a Roman commander
● 395AD: Alaric unifies the Goths of the Balkans (Visigoths)
● 397AD: Stilicho attacks his old friend Alaric, but lets him repeatedly escape
● 401AD: Alaric invades Italy but is defeated by Stilicho (who lets him escape again)
● 402AD: the western Roman empire moves its capital from Rome to Ravenna
● 408AD: Stilicho is assassinated in a coup
● 410AD: Alaric sacks Rome
● 411AD: Alaric dies on hs way to Africa and is succeeded by his brother-in-law Ataulf, who
marches back north to Gaul
● 412AD: the Romans expel the Visigoths and force them to settle in south-western Gaul and help
fight the Vandals
● 414: Ataulf marries Galla Placida, the emperor's sister
● 415: Ataulf marches into Spain where he is assassinated and is succeeded by his brother Wallia
● 418: the emperor grants Wallia's Visigoths to settle in Aquitaine (Atlantic coast of France)
● 447AD: Valamer unifies Goths in Pannonia and helps Huns fight the Romans
● 451AD: Visigoths help Rome fight Huns (and their subjects Valamer's Pannonian Goths)
● 454AD: Valamer's Goths expel the Huns from Pannonia and his Goths regain their independence
● 456AD: the Visigoths enter Spain
● 462AD: Visigoths gain Narbonne
● 466AD: Euric becomes leader of the Visigoths
● 469: Euric conquers Gaul as far as the Loire
● 471AD: following a revolt against Rome, Strabo is appointed general and leader of the Thracian
Goths, who are "foederati"
● 473AD: Euric invades Catalonia

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A timeline of the Barbars

● 476AD: Theodoric becomes king of the Pannonian Goths

● 475AD: Euric declares his independence from Rome and founds the Visigothic kingdom in Spain
● 476AD: Euric invades southwestern France
● 476AD: Pannonian Goths revolt and Theodoric is appointed general by a contender to the title of
emperor
● 476AD: Strabo dies
● 476AD: Odoacer, a mercenary in the service of Rome, leader of the Germanic soldiers in the
Roman army, deposes the western Roman emperor and thereby terminates the western Roman
empire
● 480AD: Euric invades Spain
● 484AD: Euric dies
● 484AD: Theodoric becomes consul
● 488AD: Theodoric unifies Pannonian and Thracian Goths (Ostrogoths)
● 488AD: following orders from the eastern Roman emperor Zeno, Theodoric's Ostrogoths (still
settled in Pannonia) invade Odoacer's Italian kingdom
● 493AD: Theodoric's Ostrogoths kill Odoacer and Theodoric becomes the new king of Italy, with
capital in Ravenna
● 496AD: Franks attack the Visigoths in France
● 507AD: Visigoths are defeated by the Franks and move to Spain
● 508AD: Theodoric de facto annexes the Visigoths (southern Gaul and Spain)
● 526AD: Theodoric dies and his kingdom disintegrates
● 534AD: the Visigoths move their capital to Toledo
● 536AD: the Roman general Belisarius lauches a campaign to recover Italy
● 539AD: the Ostrogoths conquer Milan
● 546AD: the Ostrogoths led by Totila sack Rome
● 546AD: the Lombards under Audoin invade the Danube valley
● 550AD: Codex Argenteus
● 550AD: Getica
● 553AD: the Ostrogoths are expelled from Italy by the eastern Roman armies
● 554AD: the new king of the Visigoths, Athanagild, accepts the emperor's sovereignity over Spain
● 561AD: the Ostrogoths are destroyed by the eastern Roman empire
● 568AD: Alboin's Lombards, expelled by the Avars from Pannonia, invade northern Italy
● 569AD: Leovigild becomes king of the Visigoths
● 580AD: Arian synod in Toledo
● 586AD: Leovigild dies after unifying most of Iberia
● 587AD: the new Visigothic king Recared converts to catholicism and the Gothic language is
abandoned
● 603AD: the Lombards convert to Christianity and move their capital to Pavia
● 612AD: the Visigothic king Sisebut forces the Jews of Spain to release all slaves and convert to
Christianity
● 614AD: the Visigoths reconquer all of Spain from the Roman empire
● 620AD: the Visigoths conquer the last Roman possession in Spain
● 711AD: the Moors invade Spain and destroy the Visigothic kingdom
● 718AD: Pelayo unites with the Visigothic leaders who have been defeated by Tariq, and creates
the kingdom of Asturias in northwestern Spain, thus creating the kingdom of Leon
● 751AD: the Lombards, under king Aistulf, conquer Ravenna from the Byzantines
● 774AD: the Franks of Charlemagne annex the Lombards

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A timeline of the Barbars

● Franks

● See a timetable of the Holy Roman Empire

● Donatism-Arianism

● 260AD: Paul of Samosata preaches that Jesus was not God

● 264AD: A council excommunicates Paul of Samosata
● 268AD: Lucianus of Antioch (born in Samosata) preaches that Jesus was only a man
● 311AD: Donatus and others rebel against the appointment of the bishop of Carthage, claiming
independence of church and state
● 313AD: Constantine recognizes the Christian church
● 314AD: Donatism is condemned as a heresy
● 316AD: Donatism splits from Catholicism and spreads throughout Africa
● 318AD: Arius (b 256), a student of Lucian, preaches in Alexandria
● 320AD: Arius is expelled by the patriarch Alexander and during his travels through the eastern
Roman empire converts more bishops
● 325AD: at the council of Nicaea the Arians are defeated
● 340AD: Ulfila converts the Goths to Arianism
● 353AD: the new emperor favors Arianism
● 379AD: the Roman empire bans Arianism
● 411AD: thanks to St Augustine, Donatism begins to decline
● 496AD: Clovis converts the Franks to catholicism
● 534AD: the Roman empire destroys the Arian kingdom of the Vandals
● 555AD: the Franks conquer the Arian people of France
● 587AD: the Visigoths convert to catholicism
● 639AD: Islam invades Africa and Donatism disappears
● 650AD: Arianism disappears after the Lombards convert to catholicism

● Avars

● 375 AD: nomadic Mongolian tribes of central Asia (possibly remnants of the Hsiung-nu,
Xiongnu, Huns) organize themselves into a confederation, the Juan-juan (Avars)
● 394 AD: Kutelburi becomes khan of the Juan-juan empire, that stretches from Manchuria in the
east to Lake Balkhash in the west
● 450 AD: the Juan-juan fight the Northern Wei dynasty
● 500 AD: the Juan-juan convert to Buddhism
● 552 AD: the Juan-juan are defeated and expelled by their Turkic-speaking vassals
● 558 AD: the Avars (remnants of the Juan-juan) invade the Russian steppes and push the Slavs to
the west
● 560 AD: the eastern Roman emperor Justinian hires the Avars to fight the Huns and Slavs
● 568 AD: the Avars invade Pannonia and Dalmatia, expelling the Lombards who move towards
Italy
● 571 AD: the eastern Roman empire signs a peace treaty with the Avars
● 590 AD: the empire of the Avars extends from the Volga to the Danube to the Baltic Sea

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A timeline of the Barbars

● 599 AD: the Avars capture and execute 12,000 Byzantine prisoners
● 626 AD: the Avars lay siege to Costantinople
● 796 AD: the Franks defeat the Avars
● 810 AD: Bulgars, under king Krum, destroy the Avars

● Khazars:

● 630: the nomadic Turkic-speaking Khazars emerge from the break-up of the western (Kok)
Turkish empire and settle in southern Russia with capital at Balanjar (Verkhneye Chir-Yurt)
● 640: dual kingship (kagan and bek)
● 650: the Khazars' expansion drives Bulgars westward
● 683: Khazars raid Armenia and Georgia
● 725: the Khazars transfer their capital to Samandar in the northern Caucasus
● 730: Khazars raid Azerbaijan
● 737: the Khazars are defeated by the Arabs and forced to convert to Islam
● 750: the Kazars transfer their capital to Itil (Atil) on the Volga River
● 762: the Kazars invade the Transcaucasus
● 860: Cyril visits Khazaria
● 861: the Khazars under king Bulan convert to Judaism
● 896: the kingdom of Hungary is formed by seven Magyar and three Khazar tribes
● 939: the Khazars defeat the Rus led by Oleg
● 965: Khazars are defeated at Sarkel by Svyatoslav of Kiev
● 1016: Byzantine emperor Basil II and the Rus defeat the last Khazar kagan Georgius Tzul

● Celts:

● 1600 BC: Stonehenge

● 1200 BC: Celts inhabit northern France and western Germany
● 500 BC: Celts settle in the British islands
● 400 BC: Celts use iron
● 400 BC: Celts invade Northern Italy
● 300 BC: Celts settle in Ireland
● 279 BC: Celts raid Delphi in Greece
● 58 BC: Julius Caesar conquers the French Celts (or Gauls)
● 47 AD: Rome conquers the English Celts (or Britanni)
● 410 AD: the Romans withdraw from Britain
● 432 AD: the Roman missionary Patrick is taken prisoner to Ireland
● 750 AD: several monasteries founded in Ireland, from which Irish monks evangelize the rest of
Europe
● 795 AD: Vikings raid Ireland
● 831 AD: Vikings invade Ireland and found Dublin
● 850 AD: Vikings trade slaves along the Dniepr and Volga
● 968 AD: Brian Boru defeats the Vikings
● 1002 AD: Brian Boru unifies all of Ireland

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A timeline of the Barbars

World News | Politics | History | Editor

(Copyright © 1999 Piero Scaruffi)

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