CHAPTER XLII: State Of The Barbaric World .-- Part II.
In the rapid career of conquest, the Turks attacked and subdued the nation of the Ogors or Varchonites [3011] on the banks of the River Til, which derived the epithet of Black from its dark water or gloomy forests.

[31] The khan of the Ogors was slain with three hundred thousand of his subjects, and their bodies were scattered over the space of four days' journey: their surviving countrymen acknowledged the strength and mercy of the Turks; and a small portion, about twenty thousand warriors, preferred exile to servitude.

They followed the well-known road of the Volga, cherished the error of the nations who confounded them with the Avars, and spread the terror of that false though famous appellation, which had not, however, saved its lawful proprietors from the yoke of the Turks.

[32] After a long and victorious march, the new Avars arrived at the foot of Mount Caucasus, in the country of the Alani [33] and Circassians, where they first heard of the splendor and weakness of the Roman empire.

They humbly requested their confederate, the prince of the Alani, to lead them to this source of riches; and their ambassador, with the permission of the governor of Lazica, was transported by the Euxine Sea to Constantinople.