ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the 'runaway' Avars, as depicted in the fragment of Menander Protector about the Avar embassy to Justin II that was received in Constantinople on 21 November 565 CE. The tenor of Justin II's speech is as follows: the Romans were extremely generous to have accepted the fugitive Avars, who subsequently showed base ingratitude in demanding gifts and refusing to serve. The origin of the statement may have been a speech of the emperor himself, as the situation was critical and Justin's treatment of the Avar embassy far from gentle. The treatment of fugitives was extensively discussed in late antique diplomacy, and their status can shed interesting political light on different forms of Roman and barbarian integration and interaction. Roman diplomacy seems to have generated a protocol to determine what gifts were to be given to what peoples under what circumstances.
