Bayan I

Bayan I was the first khagan of the Avar Khaganate, between 562 and 602. Bayan led his people in a succession of wars against the Byzantine Empire on the Empire's northern frontier.

Bayan I in Thessalonica
The citizenry of Thessalonica regarded the Avar khagan Bayan as an unholy scourge akin to a demon. Ome one occasion, Bishop Eusebius preached a sermon that God would chastise Bayan for oppressing the Greeks as he had once chastised Pharaoh for oppressing the Israelites.