ABSTRACT
In the summer of 599, the last Roman army ever to cross the middle Danube marched into the Tisza plain east of Pannonia. Its actions are described in detail in the seventh-century chronicle of Theophylact Simocatta. On the day after a victorious battle against the Avars, the Byzantine commander Priscus “marshaled four thousand men and ordered these to traverse the Tissus and investigate the enemy’s movements. So the men dispatched by the general crossed the nearby river. Accordingly, they encountered three Gepid settlements. The barbarians knew nothing of the previous day’s events [the battle], had arranged a drinking session, and were celebrating a local feast. Then they had entrusted their cares to drink and were passing the night in festivity. But in the twilight, as it is called, when remnants of night still remained, the Romans attacked the drunken barbarians and wrought extensive slaughter. For thirty thousand barbarians were killed.”1
