History of Slovakia - Great Migration of Peoples and the beginnings of the Slavs (380 - 623)
360 – 440: Northern Carpathian group of the Przeworsk culture in northern (central and eastern) Slovakia; probably identical with the Vandals (in central Slovakia) and the Sarmatians in eastern Slovakia.
380: The Huns penetrate to the Carpathian basin. The Huns, coming from Asia, have initiated the Great Migration of Peoples in 375 by invading the territory of the Goths at the Black Sea, thus forcing the Goths and other nations to shift to other territories, too.
after 379/380 : The Romans (Theodosius) allow groups of the Goths , Alans, Huns (in 379/380, Goths also in 382) and later also the Marcomanni and Quadi (in 395) to settle in Pannonia, i.e. on Roman territory. The Limes Romanus ceases to function as Roman border and starts to come apart (see below 433, 456).
around 400: Maybe first Slavs (see also: 77 and 81, after 471, 448 + 453 below 423 - 454) .
401-406: The Huns under Uldin become an important military force in the Lower Danube region.
405/406: Many of the Quadi leave Slovakia to join the Alans and Vandals (incl. The Hasdings) who started to move west in 400. They all create own states on the Iberian peninsula in 411. The remaining Quadi live in western Slovakia probably till c. 500 (see e. g. 454).
423 - 454: The Empire of the Huns in southern Slovakia:
— 423-425: The Huns – taking advantage of the departure of the Goths, Quadi and others - create an empire in Pannonia (around the Tisza River). The empire extends also to southern Slovakia.
— 427 - 433: The Romans reconquer Pannonia temporarily.
— 433 – 435: The Empire of the Huns is recognized by both the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire.
— 434 - 453: Under Attila, the empire subdues huge parts of Europe.
— 448: The Huns devastate the ecclesiastic center Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica).
— 448: The rhetor Priscus mentions the Slavs in the Carpathian Basin for the first time in history. In a report for the Byzantine emperor he mentions that on his way to Attila he met people who offered him to drink a drink called ”medovina”, which is an old Slav drink.
— 453: The Byzantine historian Iordanes denominates one of the funeral wakes at Attilas funeral as “strava”, which is a Slav term.
— 454 – 455: The Huns (and the Ostrogoths) are defeated by Germanic tribes (Quadi, Gepidi, Heruli, Skiri [sometimes considered to be settled in Slovakia temporarily], Rugii)
455 - 567: Gepidi in the eastern Carpathian basin (graves found in southern eastern Slovakia):
— 455: They are allowed by the Eastern Roman Empire to settle in ”Dacia”, so that they move from regions east of the upper Tisza River (see after 260) to the south.
— 567: They are defeated by the Lombard and Avars, and cease to exist.
456: A great earthquake in western Pannonia and Noricum definitively destroys Roman buildings of the former Limes Romanus at the Danube.
456 – 471: Ostrogoths in Pannonia:
— 456: The Ostrogoths are allowed by the Eastern Roman Empire to settle in Pannonia.
— 467: The Ostrogoths are allowed to settle in Pannonia in virtue of an agreement with the Western Roman empire. They fight against the Germanic tribes that have defeated the Huns (see 454 - 455).
— 469/470: The Ostrogoths defeat their enemies and devastate the region (incl. Slovak lowlands).
— 471: The Ostrogoths and the defeated Skiri leave the devastated Pannonia for Italy. In the following years, many Quadi and other nations move from western Slovakia to the free territories to the south of Slovakia, thus in turn opening a free space for the Slavs.
after 471 – 526: The Heruli in western Slovakia.
— after 471: The Germanic Heruli settle in southern Moravia and western Slovakia (to the west of the Little Carpathians).
— 526: They are defeated by the Lombards and cease to exist (according to other sources, they move to other territories).
after 471: First Slavs are definitely in northern central Slovakia. They probably came from the north. According to some sources, the first Slavs settled in eastern Slovakia as early as around 400 or even earlier. One of the recent archaelogical researches even shows, that at least the region around Prešov in eastern Slovakia could be part of the center or one of the centers of the genesis of the Slavs since the 3th century A. D. (this interpretation is however disputed). See also 77 and 81, around 400.
before 500 - 547: Lombards at the March (Morava) River (e. g. in western parts of Bratislava and in Zohor). They fight against the Gepidi, the Slavs and the Heruli.
— before 500: The Lombards move from Bohemia to today’s Lower Austria and surrounding regions.
— 530 –540: The Lombards cross the Danube and settle in today’s western Hungary.
— 547: The Lombards are officially (by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I) allowed to settle in (Roman) Pannonia.
— 568 (after April 2): The Lombards under the leadership of Alboin - pushed by the Avars – move to northern Italy and establish a kingdom there. This is the symbolic end of Germanic influence in Slovakia.
1st half of the 6th century: The Slavs spread all over Slovakia (see after 471).
512: The first reference to the Slavs in Slovakia is made by Procopios in connection with the Heruli moving from Pannonia to the lower Elbe River.
after 568: Having defeated the Gepidi (567) and forced the Lombards to leave (568), the nomadic Avars from Asia settle at Middle Danube (present-day Hungary) and begin to establish the Avar Empire.
582: The Avars totally destroy Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica, see above 4th century), thus definitively making Pannonia the ecclesiastic responsibilty of Aquileia and Salzburg.
after 595: The Avars start to subdue the Slavs in southern (and northern?) Slovakia.
