Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/367

 AUZAGIA. on a]] sidefl ; bat its subsequent state, as a flourish- ing colony, is attested by extant inscriptions, one of which records the defeat and death of a rebel Moorish chieftain, Farazes, who had led his cavalry into the city's territory, by the praefect Q. Gargilius. This inscription concludes with the date Tin. kal. feb. PR. ccxxi., which Orelli explains as the 22l8t year from the establishment of the province of Numidia by Julius Caesar, in b.0. 46; this would bring the date of the inscription to a.d. 176, in the reign of M. Antoninus. The place is mentioned again in the war of Theodosius against Firmus, a. d. 373, under the various names, in the corrupted text of Ammianus Maroellinas (xxix. 5), of munidpiiim or casUUvm AtUaue^ Audiensej and Duodiensef and D*Av^zac refers the inscription just mentioned to the period of this war, identifying the Faraxes of the inscription with the Fericius of Ammianus. {Afrique Andame^ pp. 233, 234.) The site of Auaa is marked by the ruins called by the Arabs SowT'eH-Redan (Sour Gudany Shaw), & of the modem Hamsa^ which has been constructed almost entirely of the ruins of the ancient city. Among these ruins are the inscriptions copied by Shaw, and referred to above. Bonarking on the accuracy of the brief description given by Tacitus, Shaw says, "Auzia hath been built upon a small an unpleasant mixture of naked rocks, and barren foceats, that I don't remember to have met with a more melancholy situation." (Shaw, TmoeU^ vol. i. pp. 80, foil., pp. 37 — 40, 2d ed.; Orelli, Imcr. No. 529 ; Pellissier, EaipioraUon Scieni{fique de VAU gMe, vol vi. p. 352.) [P. S,] AUZAGIA, &C. [AuxAcn Montes.] AVANTICI, an Inalpine people, whom the em- peror Galfaa included within the limits of Gallia NarboDensis (Plin. iii. 4). Pliny mentions Dinia (DigtuB) as the capital bf the Avantid and Bodion- tid, and thus enables us to determine the position of the Avantid in a general way. Dignt is in the de- partment of Basses Alpes, on the Bkonney a branch of the Dunmce, A pUoe named Atfangon seems to represent the name A7entid ; but D'Anville thinks that its position does not correspond to the probable pontion of the Avantid. [G. L.] AVARES (Avari, 'Atf^pciv, 'ASipoi). It is far easier to give the ethnol(^cal relations and the conquests of this important population than to fix its exact original locality; though this by a certain amount of not illegitimate speculation, may be approximated. It is the Byzantine writers who chiefly mention the Avars, wad that in a manner to show not only that they were members of the great Turanian stock, but also to suggest the doc- trine that tiie still more fiunous Huns were in the same category. Different chiefs of the Avars are frequent^ mentioned, and the usual title is x^^ y^ufoSf Caeamu, GagoMU^ Chaganut or Cagamu* This is the title KM»y as in Zengis-jfiTA^ in its tmoontracted form, and its application is a sure sign tlut the population which used it was dther Turk or MongoL Thdr connection with the Huns is as dear. Theqihyhct writes (vii. 8) that '* when Justinian held the Empire, there settled in Europe a portion of the andent tribes of the Var (Ov^), and Ckvn (Xovrrl), who named themsdves Avars, and gloried in calling their chief Khagan (XoTctvos)." Again, Paulus Diaconus states, that ^ Avares primum //ww, postea de regis proprii nomine Atfaret ap> peUati sunt'* (L 27). The importance of this AVAEES. 349 passage will be considered in the sequel. It is the Avars who, flying before the Turks, seek the alliance of Justinian, and whom the Turks, in demanding thdr surrender, call Var-choniiea (pimffx^^^foiyf a form which has reasonably passed for a compound of Var and Hun. Even if we object to this cri- ticism, by supposing the original designation to have been Var-chun (or some similar form) and the con- nection with the Hum to have been a mere inference from the similarity of name, on the part of the writers, who spoke of the Var and CAtm, the affinity between the two populaticms must have been con- dderable; otherwise, the identification would have been absurd. The name Paeudavari Q¥9}Aid6apoi) in Theophylact (vii. 8) creates a difficulty ; since we are not told in what manner they differed iirom the true. Yet even these false Avars are espedally stated to have been Var and Chun, Jomandes, too {De Rebu^ Getie, 52) speaks of a tract on the Danube called Hvn-i-var; the same combination, with its elements transposed. Still there are some difficulties of detail arising from the fact of Theophylact him- self separating the Hune from Ckun; and also a nation called Samrs {"Xa^tipoi) from the Avars (^A€dpoi); and these are difficulties which no one but a good Turkish phildogist is likely to entirely set aside. The notice of the Avara by Prisons, is to the effect that between the years 461 and 465 they were distressed by heavy fogs arising from the OceaUj and by vast flocks of vultures which raven- ously fed upon them (i.e. the Avan), that they forced them upcm the Savirij who were thus forced upon the Saniguri, Urogi, and Onoguri (all popu- lations known to be Turk), who, in their turn, were compelled to seek the alhance of the Byzantine Romans. This b but an instance of the tendency, so common with historians, to account for all national movements, by the assumption of some pressure from without, which they then strive to trace to its remotest origin. The name Avar is the only undoubted historical part about it. It is in A. D. 558, that they came m contact with the Alans, requested them to make them known to the Romans, and flying before the Turks. Aa the Alan country was in the present Government of Caucasus, this is the first, unexceptionable Avar locality; and even here they are strangers. More or less supported by the Romans, and retained against the Slavonians of the Danube, the Avan spread over Thrace and Bulgaria, and effected a permanent settlement in Hungary, and an empire as well. From Hungary, Dalmatia and Croatia are overrun; as are Thuringia, Franconia, and even parts of GauL After a series of political relations with the Gepidae and Lombards, the power grows and de- clines, is materially broken by the Carlovingian kings, and finally destroyed by the Slavonians of Moravia. The valley of the Eriav, however, and feeder of the Danube, was called terra Avarorum, as late, at least, as the 10th centuiy. The Avare throw light upon populations other than the Huns. They add to the list of facts which favour the notion of the Herodotean Scythae (Scoloti) having belonged to the Turk stock. Tlie Scoloti deduced their origin from Targitaus (Herod, iv. 5); and Targitiut was t^ r&y *A€apvp ^^ ivV »€f>/tfA6»T0T (Theophan. i. 6). In tnith, he was TWib, or the Eponymus to the Turk stoclt in general, and the whole Herodotean legend about
 * dat of levd ground, every way surrounded with such