Wading through blood they seized province after province of the empire, destroying and massacring often in mere wantonness.

The emperor Justinian was frequently compelled to purchase peace with them and to bribe them to alliance.
And now came another wave of invasion, bloody and overwhelming.

The Avars, from the north of China, swept over Asia, seized all the provinces on the Black Sea, overran Greece, and took possession of most of the country between the Volga and the Elbe.

The Sclavonians of the Danube, however, successfully resisted them, and maintained their independence.

Generations came and went as these hordes, wild, degraded and wretched, swept these northern wilds, in debasement and cruelty rivaling the wolves which howled in their forests.