In the spring of 591 some Byzantine soldiers, members of the bodyguard of the emperor Maurikios, arrested near Herakleia (west of Constantinople) three men from a Sklauenoi tribe. These Sklauenoi carried no weapons with them but only kitharai. Under interrogation they told the emperor that their dwellings were near the end of the Western Ocean, and that they had travelled for fifteen months in order to meet the chaganos (Baian) of the Avars, to whom they had to convey a message from their chieftains. When they left him, they decided to visit the Romans because they had heard about their wealth and philanthropy, and so they had arrived in Thrace. This paper aims to discuss the background of these informations, especially the geographical location of the regions “near the end of the Western Ocean”, the type of musical instruments, they carried with them, and the credibility of the narrative as a whole.
