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268 hostilities in Europe between the Lombards and the Gepids. In the war which ensued the Lombards gained the advantage, and the Gepids then sought to win the alliance of Justin by the splendour of their gifts. Baduarius, commanding in Scythia and Moesia, received orders to aid Kunimund, and the Roman forces won a victory over Alboin. The latter, looking around for allies in his turn, appealed to Baian, the Khagan of the Avars, who had just concluded a peace with Sigebert. The Lombards, Alboin urged, were fighting not so much against the Gepids as against their ally Justin, who but recently had refused the tribute which Justinian had conceded. Avars and Lombards united would be irresistible: when Scythia and Thrace were won, the way would be open for an attack upon Constantinople. Baian at first declined to listen to the Lombard envoys, but he finally agreed to give his assistance on condition that he should at once receive one-tenth of all the animals belonging to the Lombards, that half the spoil taken should be his, and that to him should fall the whole territory of the conquered Gepids. The latter were accused before Justin by a Lombard embassy of not having kept the promises which had been the price of the Roman alliance; this intervention secured the neutrality of the Emperor.

We know nothing of the struggle save its issue; the Gepids were defeated on the Danube and driven from their territory, while Kunimund was slain. But his grandson, Reptilanis carried the royal treasure in safety to Constantinople, while it would seem that the Roman troops occupied Sirmium before the Avars could seize the city. Justin dispatched Vitalian, the interpreter, and Komitas as ambassadors to Baian. They were kept in chains while the Avar leader attacked Bonus in Sirmium: this city, Baian claimed, was his by right; it had been in the hands of the Gepids, and should now devolve upon him as spoils of the victory. At the same time he offered conditions of peace which were remarkable for their extreme moderation — he only demanded a silver plate, some gold, and a Scythian toga; he would be disgraced before his allies if he went empty-handed away. These terms Bonus and the bishop of Sirmium felt that they had no authority to accept without the Emperor's approval. For answer Baian ordered 10,000 Kotrigur Huns to cross the Save and ravage Dalmatia, while he himself occupied the territory which had formerly belonged to the Gepids. But he was not anxious for war, and there followed a succession of attempts at negotiation; the Roman generals on the frontier were ready to grant the Avar's conditions, but the autocrat in the capital held fast to his doctrinaire conceptions of that which Rome's honour would not allow her to concede. Targitius and Vitalian were sent to Constantinople to demand the surrender of Sirmium, the payment to Baian of sums formerly received from Justinian by the Kotrigur and Utigur Huns who were now tributary to the Avars, and the delivery of the person of Usdibad, a Gepid fugitive. The Emperor met the proposals with high-sounding