The siege of Sirmium in 580–582 was a decisive event in the history of the Balkans. The fall of the city to the Avars deprived the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

of its major stronghold on the northwestern

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

, opening the path for devastating incursions by the Avars and their Slavic allies into the Balkans.

Sirmium Sirmium was a city in the Roman province of Pannonia, located on the Sava river, on the site of modern Sremska Mitrovica in the Vojvodina autonomous provice of Serbia. First mentioned in the 4th century BC and originally inhabited by Illyrians a ...

, which for much of the 6th century had been controlled by the

Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...

and then the

Gepids The Gepids, ( la, Gepidae, Gipedae, grc, Γήπαιδες) were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religio ...

, had come under Byzantine control in 567 after the

Lombard–Gepid War (567) In 566, Lombard king Alboin concluded a treaty with the Pannonian Avars, to whom he promised the Gepids' land if they defeated them. The Gepids were destroyed by the Avars and the Lombards in 567. Gepid King Cunimund was killed by Alboin himself. T ...

. The Avars appeared along the Danube at about the same time. They launched a first attack on Sirmium in 568, but were seen off by the local governor,

Bonus Bonus commonly means: * Bonus, a Commonwealth term for a distribution of profits to a with-profits insurance policy * Bonus payment, an extra payment received as a reward for doing one's job well or as an incentive Bonus may also refer to: Place ...

. The Byzantines secured peace with the Avars through the payment of an annual tribute, which by 578 had risen to some 80,000 ''

solidi The ''solidus'' (Latin 'solid'; ''solidi'') or nomisma ( grc-gre, νόμισμα, ''nómisma'', 'coin') was a highly pure gold coin issued in the Late Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. Constantine introduced the coin, and its wei ...

''. In 580, however, the Avar ''

khagan Khagan or Qaghan (Mongolian:; or ''Khagan''; otk, 𐰴𐰍𐰣 ), or , tr, Kağan or ; ug, قاغان, Qaghan, Mongolian Script: ; or ; fa, خاقان ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan ...

'',

Bayan I Bayan I reigned as the first khagan of the Avar Khaganate between 562 and 602. As the Göktürk Empire expanded westwards on the Eurasian Steppe during the 6th century, peoples such as the Avars (also known as the ''Pseudo-Avars'', ''Obri'', ' ...

, marched with his men to the right bank of the

Sava The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally ...

river across from Sirmium, and began construction of a bridge to cross it. The city at the time was largely undefended and unprepared to withstand a siege, as most of the Byzantine forces were engaged in the east against

Sassanid Persia The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

. The

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

Tiberius II Tiberius II Constantine ( grc-gre, Τιβέριος Κωνσταντῖνος, Tiberios Konstantinos; died 14 August 582) was Eastern Roman emperor from 574 to 582. Tiberius rose to power in 574 when Justin II, prior to a mental breakdown, procl ...

tried to forestall the Avar attack by diplomatic means, but when the ''khagan''′s ambassador demanded the surrender of the city, he replied that he would sooner give one of his two daughters as a bride to the ''khagan'', rather than surrender Sirmium. Tiberius managed to send in a few officers from

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, str ...

to oversee the city's defence, while the envoy Theognis tried unsuccessfully to treat with Bayan. Despite the weakness of the garrison, the city resisted for almost three years, and it was not until late 581 or early 582, shortly before his death, that Tiberius agreed to surrender the city in exchange for the lives of its citizens. The Avars indeed spared the population, but took their possessions and 240,000 ''solidi'' from the Emperor, as arrears of the tribute owed over three years.

Sources

* * {{cite book , title = Die Awaren. Ein Steppenvolk in Mitteleuropa 567–822 n. Chr. , last = Pohl , first = Walter , location = Munich , publisher = Verlag C.H. Beck , year = 1988 , isbn = 3-406-33330-3 , language= German , pages=70–76

6th century in the Byzantine Empire Avar–Byzantine wars 580s in the Byzantine Empire 580s conflicts History of Syrmia Medieval history of Vojvodina 6th century in Serbia 580 581 582