What’s a refugee? Lessons from Byzantium

Byzantine Emperors who didn’t have enough troops at the border gave lots of money to the Goths and other migratories to stop raids and stay in their misery north of the Danube, far away from the core imperial provinces of Macedonia and (today) Anatolia.

Like Leo I, who was paying 2000 pounds of gold per year so that the people led by Theodoric stay in Pannonia.

Now it is the other way around: the European Goths pay so that migrants remain in their misery in Anatolia and do not move north towards Pannonia or the prosperous Gottland.

One thing in common, though: in both cases the money transfer is managed by a Greek.

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