Ahtum

Ajtony, Ahtum or Achtum (, , , ) was an early-11th-century ruler in the territory now known as Banat in present Romania and Serbia. His primary source is the Long Life of Saint Gerard, a 14th-century hagiography. Ajtony was a powerful ruler who owned many horses, cattle and sheep and was baptised according to the Orthodox rite in Vidin. He taxed salt which was transferred to King Stephen I of Hungary on the Mureș River. The king sent Csanád, Ajtony's former commander-in-chief, against him at the head of a large army. Csanád defeated and killed Ajtony, occupying his realm. In the territory, at least one county and a Roman Catholic diocese were established.

Historians disagree on the year of Ajtony's defeat; it may have occurred in 1002, 1008 or between 1027 and 1030. His ethnicity is also a subject of historical debate; he may have been Hungarian, Kabar or Pecheneg.

Background

The Magyars (or Hungarians), who had lived on the Pontic steppe for decades, invaded the Carpathian Basin after their defeat by a coalition of Bulgarians and Pechenegs about 895 AD. Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus wrote that the seven Magyar tribes formed a confederation with the Kabars. Although the Kabars had originally lived in the Khazar Khaganate, they rebelled against the Khazars and joined the Magyars on the Pontic steppe.

According to churchman Regino of Prüm, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and other contemporary sources, the Magyars fought the Bavarians, Bulgarians, Carinthians, Franks and Moravians in the Carpathian Basin. Among the Magyars' opponents the same sources noted many local rulers, including Svatopluk I of Moravia, Luitpold of Bavaria and Braslav, Duke of Lower Pannonia. The Gesta Hungarorumthe earliest extant Hungarian chronicle, written after 1150instead mentioned Glad, lord of the lands between the Danube and the Mureș (now known as the Banat in Romania and Serbia) and other local rulers absent from the earlier sources. Therefore, the credibility of the Gesta reports is a subject of scholarly debate. Although Vlad Georgescu, Ioan Aurel Pop and other historians describe Glad as one of the local Romanian rulers who attempted to resist the invading Hungarians, other scholarsincluding Pál Engel and György Györffycall him one of the dozen "imaginary figures" invented by Anonymus (author of the Gesta) as foes in the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin.

Constantine Porphyrogenitus identified "the whole settlement of Turkey" (Hungary) with the basins of five rivers—the Criș, Mureș, Timiș, Tisza and the unidentified "Toutis" —around 950, indicating that the land east of the Tisza was ruled by the Hungarians at that time. The emperor apparently received information about the Carpathian Basin situation from Termatzus, Bulcsú and Gylas, three Hungarian chieftains who visited Constantinople during the mid-10th century. According to Byzantine historian John Skylitzes, Bulcsú and Gylas were baptised during their visit. Bulcsú, Skylitzes wrote, still "violated his contract with God and often invaded" the Byzantine Empire; Gylas, however, "remained faithful to Christianity" and made no further inroads against the empire. Skylitzes also mentioned a Greek monk, Hierotheos, who was ordained bishop for the Hungarians. Hierotheos accompanied Gylas back to Hungary and "converted many from the barbaric fallacy to Christianity". of King Stephen. Accused of conspiring against Ajtony, Csanád fled to Stephen; the king prepared to conquer Ajtony's realm, placing Csanád at the head of a large army. After crossing the Tisza, the royal army engaged Ajtony's troops but was forced to withdraw. In a second battle, Stephen's army routed Ajtony's troops near modern Banatsko Aranđelovo or at Tomnatic. Csanád killed Ajtony, either on the battlefield (according to the Long Life) or in his stronghold on the Mureș (according to the Gesta Hungarorum). In the Long Life Csanád cut out Ajtony's tongue after his death, enabling him to prove that he had killed Ajtony (and exposing Gyula, who had taken credit for the deed in Stephen's presence). Archaeologist István Erdélyi said that the Treasure of Sânnicolau Mare, excavated near Ajtony's seat, was connected to the ruler; however, his view has not been universally accepted by scholars.

King Stephen granted large estates to Csanád in the lands Ajtony had ruled. Ajtony's stronghold, now known as Cenad , was named for Stephen's commander. The king also appointed Csanád the head (or ispán) of the county made up of Ajtony's former realm. Stephen established a Roman Catholic diocese in Cenad, with the Venetian monk Gerard its first bishop. The Greek monks from Cenad were transferred to a new monastery built by Csanád at Banatsko Aranđelovo. Ajtony's descendants owned land in the region, indicating that King Stephen had not confiscated all of his predecessor's domain.

In modern historiography Ajtony's ethnicity is debated. Historian Paul Stephenson described him as a Magyar chieftain; according to historian László Makkai, he was of Kabar origin and his Turkic name may imply that he was a Pecheneg. According to historian Florin Curta he could be Bulgar, Khazar or Pecheneg. In Romanian historiography, Ajtony has been considered the last member of a "native" dynasty descended from Glad, who is mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum as opposing the invading Hungarians, historian Alexandru Madgearu wrote that the Latin name of Ajtony's seat (urbs Morisena) preserved a Romanian form.

The date of Ajtony's conquest is also uncertain. His close contacts with the Byzantine Empire, including his "Greek rite" baptism in Vidin, show that he ruled after the Byzantine Emperor Basil II seized Vidin from the Bulgarians in 1002. The conflict between Ajtony and King Stephen must have occurred before the king appointed Gerard the first bishop of Csanád in 1030. Alexandru Madgearu, who called Ajtony an ally of Samuel of Bulgaria rather than Emperor Basil II, wrote that Stephen I's army occupied Ajtony's realm in parallel with Basil II's 1002 conquest of Vidin. Makkai placed the conquest of Ajtony's realm in 1008. According to Pop, Stephen I decided to invade the Banat after a 1027 Pecheneg raid on the Byzantine Empire and Emperor Constantine VIII's death the following year. Pop also writes that Ajtony's former duchy was not fully incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary until the 13th century because frequent internal conflicts had enabled the Romanians to preserve their idea of a "Romanian country". Curta rejected the Long Life account of Ajtony altogether, calling it a "family legend" from a 14th-century hagiography.