The Bulgars and the Steppe Empire in the Early Middle Ages

the ‘outside’ other 41

sources provide examples eloquent enough. One of them comes from
the works of Procopius of Caesarea (the sixth century) who narrates
that,

even until present days the Huns [Kutrigurs and Utigurs living at the

Northern Black Sea region—my note, Ts. St.] have no idea of writing

and are totally illiterate, they have no one to keep a record for them

either... Th ey tell in a very barbarian way, from memory, all the things

that [Sandilkh, the ruler of the Utigurs—my note, Ts. St.] have commis-

sioned to them to do.^88

Procopius also describes the attitude of the nomads-Utigurs towards
certain signs of the sedentary otherness and civilization:

While we live in a deserted and infertile land, the Kutigurs are able to

buy wheat, to drink wine and to eat the most exquisite meals. Besides,

at some places they also use baths and these tramps even wear golden

adornments and have fi ne, colorful and gold-embroidered garments.^89

Knowing this one should not be surprised by the baths in the Pliska
palaces of pagan Bulgaria, which were considered a mark of luxury and
prestige in the societies demonstrating a certain level of hierarchy. Th e
baths are not found in any other buildings, of course, as they were the
sole ‘privilege’ of the ruler. Th e dangerous otherness coming from
the sedentary world was not supposed to be off ered to the ordinary
people and the warriors since it was seen to be bringing frailness and
decay.
Th e societies inhabiting the ‘Steppe Empire’ understood that it was
more favorable and easier for them to maintain the peace in the steppe
by directing their aggression outwards, against their sedentary neigh-
bors. Th is fact is related to the problem of freedom although the rela-
tion is not a direct one. Th e above-mentioned strategy is far more
successful compared to stealing the neighbor’s herds and allowed for
a greater variety of resources. Th ese resources provided the nomads
with the opportunity to maintain effi cient armies and an ‘imperial’
type of administration without putting heavy taxes on their popula-
tion,^90 a practice that was typical for the sedentary states. Th is fact gave
more self-confi dence to the inhabitants of steppe Eurasia and made

(^88) Procopius 1958, 144.
(^89) Procopius 1958, 145.
(^90) Barfi eld 1994, 164.