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Chap, xlii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 379 advantageous to the empire, he persuaded them to invade the enemies of Eome ; and they were easily tempted, by gifts and promises, to gratify their ruling inclinations. These fugitives who fled before the Turkish arms passed the Tanais and Borys- thenes, and boldly advanced into the heart of Poland and Ger- many, violating the law of nations and abusing the rights of victory. Before ten years had elapsed, their camps were seated on the Danube and the Elbe, many Bulgarian and Sclavonian names were obliterated from the earth, and the remainder of their tribes are found as tributaries and vassals under the stand- ard of the Avars. The chagan, the peculiar title of their king, still affected to cultivate the friendship of the emperor ; and Justinian entertained some thoughts of fixing them in Pannonia to balance the prevailing power of the Lombards. But the virtue or treachery of an Avar betrayed the secret enmity and ambitious designs of their countrymen ; and they loudly com- plained of the timid though jealous policy of detaining their ambassadors, and denying the arms which they had been al- lowed to purchase in the capital of the empire. 39 Perhaps the apparent change in the dispositions of the em- Embassies perors may be ascribed to the embassy which was received from Turks and i • rm ■ t i-i Romans- the conquerors of the Avars. 40 The immense distance which a-d. 569-582 eluded their arms could not extinguish their resentment : the Turkish ambassadors pursued the footsteps of the vanquished to the Jaik, the Volga, mount Caucasus, the Euxine, and Constan- tinople, and at length appeared before the successor of Con- stantine, to request that he would not espouse the cause of rebels and fugitives. Even commerce had some share in this remarkable negotiation ; and the Sogdoites, who were now the tributaries of the Turks, embraced the fair occasion of opening, by the north of the Caspian, a new road for the importation 39 The embassies and first conquests of the Avars may be read in Menander (Excerpt. Legat. p. 99, 100, 101, 154, 155 [frs. 4, 5, 6, 9, 14, 28, ed. Muller, F. H. G. iv.]), Theophanes (p. 196), the Historia Miscella (1. xvi. p. 109), and Gregory of Tours (1. iv. c. 23, 29, in the Historians of France, torn. ii. p. 214, 217). [Cf. Malalas, p. 489 ; Cramer, Anecd. Par., 2, p. 114. Theophanes probably derived his narrative from the full chronicle of Malalas.] 40 Theophanes (Chron. p. 204) and the Hist. Miscella (1. xvi. p. 110), as under- stood by De Guignes (torn. i. part ii. p. 354), appear to speak of a Turkish embassy to Justinian himself ; but that of Maniach, in the fourth year of his successor Justin, is positively the first that reached Constantinople (Menander, p. 108 [fr. 18, p. 226, ed. Muller]). [The passage in Theophanes records the embassy of the Hermechiones, a Persian name for the Turks ', see Appendix 17.]