A Storm from the East: the Bulgar settle in the Pannonian Basin

I've had this idea floating around in my head for literally years now. I've finally decided to try bring it to life.

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The story of the Avar Qaganate is a relatively brief, but explosive, episode in the history of Late Antiquity/Early Medieval Europe. First arriving on the scene in 567, the Avar Qaganate would, with the help of the Sassanian Empire and the Slavic tribes, be laying siege to the Constantinople in 626, only for the short lived politely to be consumed by the Bulgar Qaganate in the early 680s. The Avars are a people who made a great splash upon the scene only to vanish from history in relatively short order, leaving behind a spotty historical and archaeological record that leaves historians not even knowing the names of the Qagan that laid siege to Constantinople, or the identity of the Avar Qagan who was defeated by Isperih and his brother Kuber. This lack of documentation concerning the Avar Qaganate, unfortunately extends to the early history of the Bulgar Kingdom that supplanted them, leaving us with a less than airtight timetable on the extinction of the Avar Qaganate.

While the exact circumstances and time frame of the fall of the Avar Qaganate remain shrouded to us, it is possible to piece together several important factors in the decline and abrupt fall of the Avars. The revolt of Kuber and the Sermesianoi followed by the subsequent invasion of the Pannonian Plain by Isperih in the late 670s and early 680s saw the end of the Qaganate, the seeds to this conflict between the Avars and the Bulgars were planted with the earlier conflict between Kubrat and Magna Bulgaria and the Avar Qaganate in 631 or 632. In the area between the Sea of Azov to the river Kouphis, Kubrat unified the Onogurs, Kutrigurs, and Utigurs into what would later be known as Magna Bulgaria[1]. Qagan Kubrat’s defeat of the Avars was not on its own was not a death nail to the Qaganate, but it does show the general decline of Avar authority on the edges of their empire. Kubrat’s Magna Bulgaria would not survive him though.The fragmentation of Magna Bulgaria under Kubrat’s son’s coupled with the rise of the Cházaroi in the East would be compound the issues facing the Avar, by presenting them with an invasion that they would not recover from.

As referenced earlier, Kuber who was presumably one of the sons of Kubrat, led a group of Bulgar refugees that had come to be known as the Sermesianoi (taking the name from the city of Sirmium which they had been settled in and around by the Avars). The Sermesianoi grew increasingly discontent with Avar rule and with the land that they had been settled upon, many yearning to return to Magna Bulgaria. At some point in the late 670s, Kuber and the Sermesianoi revolted against the Avar and attempting to push south into the Balkans. The Bulgarians defeated the Avars in several, battles, but ultimately their advance was checked, and Kubrat attempted to march West towards the Lombard territories like his brother Alcek.[2]

800px-KanasJubigiAsparukh2.JPG

Isperih of Bulgaria

Kuber’s rebellion was causing significant issues for the Avar, as what had started as a relatively minor threat bloodied the Avar’s again and again and saw the Bulgar host loot their way across the Qaganate. With chaos in the West, the Eastern Pannonian Plain felt less and less of the Avar’s authority. This apparent opening of the back door prompted raids into the Pannonian Plain by Kuber’s brother, Isperih, and his Bulgar horde. Isperih’s Bulgars were stretching themselves as they committed to raiding deeper and deeper into Avar territory while remaining near the Roman frontier which had resulted in them receiving sizable bribes from the Emperor Constantine IV who had desired to maintain good relations with the Bulgars while the Romans were dealing with the Arab siege[3]. With the Arabs defeated and the Emperor marshalling a force excise the Bulgars from their foothold south of the Danube, Isperih chose to accept a hefty bribe from Constantine and commit to his invasion of the Pannonian Plain[4].

The Avar Qaganate crumbled under the Bulgar invasion and by 685, Isperih’s new Bulgarian Qaganate controlled the Pannonian Plain and was poised to begin striking westward. The Bulgar Invasions of Europe was about to begin.

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[1]: Great Old Bulgaria, but because the Bulgars have settled in the Pannonian Plain ITTL and are more Latinized, it’s commonly known by the name given to it by Western European historians in the Middle Ages.
[2]: The PoD. IOTL Kuber’s rebellion managed to escape into the Balkans where they would eventually settle near Thessaloniki before eventually being absorbed into the Bulgarian Empire. There are other competing histories of the Sermesianoi that have them expelled by the Avars rather than being leaving, but either way, the situation ITTL is that they tried making it to Italy and wreaked havoc all the way.
[3]: The presence of silver Roman coins in Vartop and Priseaca minted under Constans II and Constantine IV indicate that the Romans were bribing the Bulgars to try and avoid drawing them into the conflict with the Arabs.
[4]: No Battle of Ongal ITTL, gang. Constantine IV was generally a fairly pragmatic Emperor who wasn’t keen on fighting battles when he didn’t think he had to, like with the Monothelitism Controversy or his treaties with the Lombards. Paying the Bulgars to keep fighting the Avars sounds exactly like something Constantine IV would do.
 
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Interesting. So Bulgaria takes the role of Hungary, but earlier?
Yeah, the Bulgars will be making their presence felt by the Lombards, and Bavaria in short order, with the rest of Western Europe following suit. Things will play out fairly differently, because Europe is a very different place that it was when the Magyars invaded, but there will certainly be a few similarities.
 
Interesting: I wonder whether the later Magyar migration in that area will be butterflied away and where else they will end up settling.
 
Wait, were the Bulgarians still pagan at this point?
Khan Kubrat converted to Christianity when he was in Constantinople and the Bulgars had already had a rather long history of interacting with the Romans by this point which had led to Christianity spreading among many of the Bulgar chieftains.
Here's a brief quote from Byzantium and Bulgaria, 775-831 by Panos Sophoulis
Bulgar contact with the Byzantine world started long before Asparuch led his horde to the Dobrudja in the late seventh century. A number of Bulgar groupings and other kindred tribal unions in the Pontic steppes (Kutriğurs, Utriğurs, Onoğurs) appear in the sources as allies or enemies of the empire by the late 400s.228 In addition, we know of several chieftains who came in person to Constantinople, became Christian, and were rewarded with gifts and senior honorific titles by the imperial authorities. Most prominent among them was Kubrat, who having formed an alliance with Heraclius, revolted against the Avars and formed his own independent polity in the steppes north of the Black Sea.229 Further evidence is provided by the numerous Byzantine coins and valuables, some with obvious Christian symbolism, found in rich burial assemblages in the Crimea and Middle and Lower Dnieper regions
 
Isperih and Cunibert
When Samo's Kingdom fell in 658, the Avar’s returned to the southern portions of his kingdom and restored their authority over the Slavs of the region. With Isperih’s entrance into the Pannonian Plain, many of the Slavic vassals of the Avars rose up. There are stories of the Slavs recognizing the Imperial Authority of Isperih and seeking to be the junior partner to the Bulgars, but by the time of the Slavic revolts, the Qaganate was already falling apart at the seems. Ensuring that the Slavic tribes were in the good graces of the victors of the Bulgar-Avar war seems to have been the principal motivation with the timing of the revolt, hence the lack of a rebellion against the Avars while Kuber was rebelling.

While most of the Avar’s Slavic vassals would rise against them, the Qaganate looked to Theodo of Bavaria for aid. The new (or perhaps not so new depending upon the sources) ruler of the Duchy of Bavaria had eyes on significantly increasing the strength of his ducal seat. The prospect of aiding in the defeat of the upstart Bulgarians and having the Qagan indebted to him was a too inviting an opportunity for Duke Theodo to pass up. In 683, Theodo raised and army and intended to break the Bulgars or at the very least secure the survival of the Avar Qaganate in eastern Pannonia. Unfortunately for Theodo, Qagan Isperih denied the Bavarian the pitched battle he desired. With harvest soon arriving, Theodo’s men began to grow more restless and desired to return to their homes, forcing the duke to retreat back to Bavaria. It was in this retreat that Theodo and his army would be set upon by the Isperih and the Bulgars. Ambushed near the banks of the Danube River, Theodo’s army was almost annihilated, with sources saying that Theodo was very nearly killed in the struggle, before he hand what remained of his force were able to retreat back to Bavaria. With Theodo’s defeat, the fate of the Avar Qaganate was sealed and Pannonia was solidly in Qagan Isperih’s grasp.

From their now secured position in the Pannonian Plain, the Bulgars would begin raiding into Bavaria, Carantania, and Slavic settlements along the Morava River. Though, these raids were far smaller in scale that those that would follow them. No, the first great incursion into Western Europe by the Bulgars would come in 688, when they were invited into Italy.

The Lombard King, Berthari, was assassinated in 688 leaving his son, Cunibert in a difficult position of facing a rebellion by the Duke of Brescia, Alahis. Alahis had unsuccessfully revolted against Berthari previously, but with With Cunibert being a younger and more inexperienced ruler, Alahis anticipated victory. Cunibert anticipated a victory by Alahis as well and chose to emulate his father, who had fled to the Avar Qaganate when he had first been ousted by Grimoald in 662. In the Bulgar Qaganate, Cunibert offered Isperih tribute if he would aid the young king in retrieving the Iron Crown. Isperih enthusiastically supported the idea, tribute and recognition by the Lombard king of his rule over the Pannonian Plain would add to his legitimacy and serve to cement his control. At the Battle of Brèsa, Isperih routed the Lombard force in a feigned retreat that drew the Lombard force out to slaughter. With Alahis defeated, Cunibert was put upon the Lombard throne.

Though Isperih had completed the task at hand, he would not immediately return to the Bulgar Qaganate. Instead, the Qagan would go south the Eternal City of Rome. In another political maneuver to coat himself in religious authority, the Qagan of the Bulgars (who by many accounts was already a Christian) was baptized by the Pope and recognized as King of the Bulgars. Though Cunibert and his father before him were Catholic, the Lombard kingdom’s relationship with the Papacy was less than ideal, and with the apparent retreat of Roman authority in the south, the notion that the Bulgar Qagan could act as a counterweight to the Lombards was appealing to Pope Sergius I. Sergius stopped short of offering the Consulship of Rome to the Bulgar Qagan owing to the increasingly close relationship the Papacy had been enjoying with Emperor Constantine IV, who had recently sent his son and Co-Emperor Justinian to Syracuse, but hoped to cultivate a relationship with the Qagan that would prove beneficial to the Papacy.

The relationship between Cunibert and Isperih would not last long. Isperih’s invasion and subjugation of the Eastern Alpine Slavs of Carantania resulted in the migration of many out of the Alps and into Friuli and the Po Valley. The Slavic invaders put the city of Aquileia to siege. Though they would fail to take the city, they smashed an army sent by Cunibert to relieve the city. With the situation in Friuli growing worse and the Slavs raiding deeper into Northern Italy, Cunibert was forced to end the tribute he had been sending to the Isperih. This would lead to a second Bulgarian invasion of northern Italy which would culminate in the sacking of one of the most important cities in Lombard Italy, Verona. Cunibert would be forced to make considerable concessions to Isperih to end the conflict so that he could deal with the renewed Roman invasion of the Duchy of Benevento.
 
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This looks very interesting. Having disruptions by the Bulgars hit Western Europe in the 600s could have significant impacts on the future layout of Europe as a whole. Significantly more so than the impact of the Magyar due to the earlier period and more unstable realms of the time.
 
This looks very interesting. Having disruptions by the Bulgars hit Western Europe in the 600s could have significant impacts on the future layout of Europe as a whole. Significantly more so than the impact of the Magyar due to the earlier period and more unstable realms of the time.
yeah, things are already starting to change with the migration of the Eastern Alpine Slavs into Northern Italy, and soon Thuringia, Bavaria, and Austrasia will be facing similar Slavic migrations and Bulgar invasions.
 
The Second Fitna

The Second Fitna


The 680s were not kind to the Arab empire. Just under twenty years had passed since the end of the First Fitna (First Arab Civil War) had seen Mu‘awiya I become the ruler of the Arab empire, bringing an end to the Rashidun period and establishing a strong central authority based out of Syria. With Mu‘awiya I’s death in 680 and the ascension of his son Yazid to the position of Caliph, the matter of who would lead the Arab empire once again brought civil war to the caliphate. Though Mu‘awiya had attempted to gain recognition of his son’s position as his successor, he had failed to gain the support of a number of key figures in the Islamic world. Namely, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and Husayn ibn Ali. When Yazid took power, these two figures fled rather than be forced to recognize the new Umayyad Caliph. Yazid’s rule would be short, and during this time al-Zubayr would merely take refuge in Mecca, rather than declare himself Caliph as he would do after Yazid’s death. Husayn, the son of Ali, was enticed to make a bid for power. This move would ultimately end in tragedy. In 680, after fleeing from Yazid’s forces, Husayn chose to go to Kufa, his father’s former stronghold, which had already seen one failed revolt again Yazid take place. Hopeful that he would be able to use Kufa as a base to launch his rebellion from, Husayn left Mecca. Unfortunately, he and his followers would never make it to Kufa, instead being set upon by the Umayyad forces and massacred at the Battle of Karbala.

The death of Husayn at Karbala would not be the end of the insurrections against Yazid. Revolts in Medina and Mecca in support of al-Zubayr would soon break out, as well as Kharijite revolts in central Arabia and Basra. Yazid could not tolerate the Hijaz remaining in al-Zubayr’s hands and so in 683, the Caliph raised an army to remove al-Zubayr. The Medinese forces were defeated and the city the Prophet Mohammed once lived in sacked. The extensiveness of the damage to the city and its populous remains unclear as the record is somewhat obscured by the fact that our sources generally rely upon Zubayrid sources which paint the sacking of the city in a light that makes it sound as if the city was nearly reduced to rubble, which doesn’t appear to be the case based on the archaeological record.

With the fall of Medina, Yazid’s Syrian forces continued their march southward and would soon put the city of Mecca to siege. The Second Fitna seemed to be nearing its bloody conclusion, but when news of the death of the caliph reached the forces besieging Mecca the course of the war would take a dramatic turn. The Syrian commander, Husayn ibn Numayr began negotiating with al-Zubayr and offered him recognition as Caliph on the condition that he would return to Syria with him and leave behind the city of Mecca. The sincerity of this offer remains unknown, but al-Zubayr refused the offer all the same. Al-Zubayr opposed the concentration of authority and power in the hands the Syrian Arabs and wished to return to an era where the Caliphate was ruled from Mecca. With his rejection of the Syrian commander’s offer, the Syrians would withdraw from Hijaz and return home, extending the conflict by years and ultimately dooming the Umayyads.

A dynastic struggle began within the Umayyad ranks to determine who would be lead the Syrian faction, resulting in Yazid’s young son Mu'awiya II becoming Caliph. Yet, the young Caliph would rule for less than half a year before being struck down by disease, dying without an heir and causing Umayyad authority to rapidly implode. Though many of the Syrian Arabs were invested in maintaining Umayyad rule and the privileges it had extended to them, making another of Yazid’s young son’s Caliph was politically unpalatable. Marwān, a contemporary of the Prophet, and member of the Banu Umayya who had been expelled from the Hijaz by al-Zubayr was convinced to become the new Umayyad Caliph. This was despite the fact that he had been planning on recognizing al-Zubayr as Caliph.

With the Zubayrid capture of Egypt and Palestine, Caliph Zubayr was poised to take Damascus. At the Battle of Marj Rahit the Umayyad army was smashed by the Zubayrid force thanks in no small part to the mutiny of a force of Slavic mercenaries that we are told turned from their Umayyad employers to the Zubayrid forces because of the numerical superiority of the Zubayrid force. The Slavic forces that doomed Marwān appear to have been Slavs who had been resettled in Eastern Anatolia as part of the Emperor Constantine IV’s campaigns in the Balkans. These Slavs had revolted and fled the Roman Empire and turned to the Umayyads. Looking to bolster the ranks of his forces, especially given the unreliability of some of the Syrian Arabs who were abandoning the Umayyad cause, Marwān had employed these Slavic mercenaries to help defend Damascus. Ultimately these Slavic forces, fearful of what would happen to them in the event of an Umayyad defeat, turned against the Umayyads and shifted the battle decisively in the favor of the invaders. Marwān would be forced to flee Damascus for the safety provided by Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad in Iraq.

The Second Fitna was far from over, but with the fall of Damascus, the bulk of the Caliphate was firmly in the hands of Zubayrid forces.

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Most of this update was OTL events because I don't really see the Bulgar invasion of the Pannonian plain causing to many immediate effects upon the Umayyad Caliphate, especially because Constantine IV and the Umayyad's had been enjoying a period of peace. The major change that hit the Caliphate is the defeat of the Umayyad's at Marj Rahit which I justify by the idea that without the Roman defeat at the Battle of Ongal, Constantine IV continues campaigning against the Slavs and relocating them into Eastern Anatolia in greater numbers than OTL. Some of these resettled Slavs revolt and end up in the Umayyad Caliphate and eventually play a key roll in ending Umayyad rule in Syria.
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Source on the OTL material

Humphreys, R. (1987). The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate, A.D. 661–750, by Gerald R. Hawting. p.g. 46-46, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale 1987,
 
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The Early Reign of St. Constantine IV
The Early Reign of St. Constantine IV

On 15 September 668, Emperor Constans II was murdered with a soap dish in the city of Syrakousai. For roughly a decade, the Emperor had ruled the Roman Empire from the Island of Sicily, while his sons governed in the East. In doing so, Constans made himself disliked in both Sicily, where heightened taxation was reaching the point of necessitating selling family members into slavery, and in Constantinople, where the idea that the imperial capital would permanently be moved to Syrakousai was unpalatable. After Constans II’s murder, Southern Italy would briefly come under the rule of the Armenian General, Mizizios, whose reign appears to have been pushed upon him only to be quickly cut short. It is with the death of Emperor Constans II that his son, St. Constantine IV, who had been co-Emperor since 654, became sole Emperor.

Constantine IV and the Empire would soon face the full might of the Arab Caliphate with an aborted land invasion in 669 that saw the Arab armies reach Chalcedon before returning to Syria because of the threat of being cut off by the Anatolian winter. A year later, the new Arab fleet would sail up the Ionian coast, capturing islands and coastal cities in preparation for the event that was to be the end of the Roman Empire, the Siege of Constantinople. For five years the Arab armies laid siege to the city, during the warmer months while retreating to Cyzicus during the winter months, and for five years they failed to take the city, finally abandoning the siege in 678, only for the Arab fleet to be destroyed while it left for home. As the Caliph suffered defeat at the hands of Constantine IV, the Mardaite Christians waged a guerrilla war across Syria and Palestine. In 679, Caliph Mu'awiya I was forced to make peace with Constantine, which would see the Caliphate surrender the Ionian Islands and pay the Empire in gold, slaves, and horses as tribute.

Just as his ancestor and the founder of his dynasty, Heraclius, had defeated the Sassanians, Constantine IV defeated the Arabs and would set about trying to heal the wounds that had been inflicted upon the Empire. With the East quiet, at least temporarily, Constantine set about campaigning against the Severeis and the Seven Tribes. It is during this period that we start seeing the resettlement of the Sklaviniai, the Severeis, and the Seven Tribes into central and eastern Anatolia[1]. At some point between 681 and 683, there appears to have been a revolt by a group of Severians who after failing to take the city of Kamacha fled to the Arab Caliphate. Of perhaps greater note, this period would also see the consolidation of Constantine’s singular rule over the empire after a failed revolt by eastern troops attempted to force him to raise his brothers to the rank of co-Emperor. This failed and the Emperor had the leaders, including his two brothers, mutilated for it. Perhaps coincidentally, this consolidation of imperial authority in the hands of St. Constantine IV would be followed by the Sixth Ecumenical Council.

For some time, the Emperor had been writing to the Pope on the subject of another ecumenical council to settle the matter of the Will of Christ. Since Emperor Heraclius’ time, the doctrine of the Single Will of Christ had caused issues between the Emperor and the Church in Rome and indeed the Church in Constantinople. The forcing of Monothelitism to try and bring together the Chalcedonians and the Monophysites of the empire had driven a wedge between the Empire and the West. With the loss of Egypt and Syria had come the loss of the bulk of the Roman Empire’s Monophysite population, yet the Heraclians had held strongly to supporting the doctrine as if turning away from it meant admitting the loss of those so vital of territories. Whether or not Constantine IV truly believed in the Dyophysitism of the Chalcedonians or he was pragmatically accepting the philosophy that would help bring stability to the territories he governed will likely remain a mystery forever, but whatever his motivations were, the Council ended with the decision that the doctrine of the Single Will of Christ was incompatible with the doctrine of the Two Natural Wills and Energies of Christ and that those who supported it, including Pope Honorius who had approved of the doctrine, be anathematized (though the Emperor Heraclius was exempted from this).

With relations between the Pope and the Emperor increasing, the eastern front remaining quiet, and the reinstallation of Roman authority over the Balkans going well, Constantine IV began to look to the West. His father had fought to try and retake Italy, while Constantine had allowed the surrender of more of it while he had dealt with the Arab threat. With the Caliphate in a state of civil war and the Slavs quiet, Constantine IV hoped to be able to concentrate on securing southern Italy and Africa. Constantine had come to believe that it would be impossible to hold one without the other, believing that the fall of Africa would inevitably lead to an invasion of Sicily and southern Italy, encircling the Romans as well as leaving the rest of the Italian peninsula open to conquest by the Arabs. Similarly, he believed that the fall of Southern Italy would be too isolating upon Sicily and Africa to prevent them from falling to the Arabs. Despite the Emperor’s beliefs, the idea of leaving Constantinople for Syrakousai or Carthage seemed dangerous, recalling what had happened to his father. When Constantine IV had campaigned against the Slavs he would return to Constantinople or Thessaloniki for the winter to avoid a mutiny of his troops and keep a close eye upon those that might seek to unseat him. However, such a tactic would be impossible from Sicily or Africa. This prompted the Emperor to raise his son, Justinian II to the rank of Co-Emperor in 685 and send the sixteen year old west.

Of course, no sooner had this course of action been taken than did the situation in the East sour. With the Zubayrid capture of Syria, came two negative outcomes for the Romans. Firstly, the tribute sent by the Umayyad Caliphs had come to an end. Secondly, with the pruning of many of the authorities and privileges the Umayyads had extended to the Syrian Arabs had come a breakdown of authority in the region and a rise in disorganized raiding of the Roman frontier. This prompted Constantine IV to launch an invasion of Armenia and Syria. Near Adata, a large Zubayrid force was routed by the Emperor when the Yaman apparently disengaged from the battle, allowing the Romans to break the Arab lines and crush them. The Yaman were one of the Syrian tribes that had aligned with the Umayyads only to be defeated when the Zubayrids captured Damascus. In the brief time since the capture of Syria, the Yaman had grown increasingly dissatisfied with Caliph Al-Zubayr and their loss of standing and in a rather dramatic act of rebellion allowed their fellow Arabs to be defeated by the Romans.

With the Arab defeat and the possibility that Constantine might strike deeper into Syria, making use of both the Mardaite Christians and the disaffected Syrians, the Caliph was forced to renew the peace that his Umayyad predecessors had extended to Constantine IV following the failure to take Constantinople, offering him tribute and promising to end the raids on Roman territory. There were of course assurances made by Constantine to the Caliph as well. The main assurance being that Constantine would recognize Al-Zubayr, or Abdelas as he is referred to in Roman sources, as Caliph and offer no such recognition or promise of support to the Umayyad pretender, Marwān, in Iraq. With the conclusion of the brief Roman-Zubayrid conflict, the Caliph was free to once again turn his attention to the Umayyads in Iraq as the Romans turned their attention to the Duchy of Benevento with Justinian II’s invasion following the Bulgarian invasion of the Lombard Kingdom.

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[1]: This was attempted by Constantine’s son Justinian in 688 and 689 IOTL, but ITTL, with the Bulgars in the Pannonian Plain and not forcing the Empire to recognize their position in the Balkans, Constantine is able to start this several years earlier.
 
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Good update! Looking forward to more.

Did Constantine IV invade Syria in OTL? Perhaps tying down additional Arab resources in the middle east would prevent them from expanding into Africa and eventually Spain. Massive potential butterflies.
 
Good update! Looking forward to more.

Did Constantine IV invade Syria in OTL? Perhaps tying down additional Arab resources in the middle east would prevent them from expanding into Africa and eventually Spain. Massive potential butterflies.
No, but his son Justinian II did a few years later. By this point, IOTL Constantine had contracted dysentery at the age of only 33 and died leaving his 16 year old son Justinian II to be Emperor and well Justinian may have been an excellent commander and a brilliant reformer, but he was also an egomaniac with a pension for being cruel that lacked his father's pragmatism. Here with a different situation in the Balkans Constantine doesn't develop the dysentery that killed him so he's still ruling the Empire.
 
did some editing to hopefully remove more of the grammar and syntax errors, I've also edited the term Khan out when referring to the Bulgars and replaced it with Qagan. I'd originally used the term Khan to help make it easier to know when I was referring to the Bulgars and the Avars, but most of my sources use Qagan when referring to the Bulgars so I've chosen to go back and edit it.
 
This is an interesting premise, having the Bulgaria strike Western Europe before the states there really consolidate themselves. I would think the countries in between Bulgaria and the Franks would have alot more in common with Steppe nomads.

Not having the Bulgurs and Romans clash would benefit both alot.
 
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