Ajtony
Ajtony was a powerful ruler who owned many horses, cattle and sheep and was baptised according to the Orthodox rite in Vidin.
The Magyars (or Hungarians), who had lived on the Pontic steppe for decades, invaded the Carpathian Basin after their defeat by a coalition of Bulgarians and Pechenegs about 895 AD.
[4] According to churchman Regino of Prüm, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and other contemporary sources, the Magyars fought the Bavarians, Bulgarians, Carinthians, Franks and Moravians in the Carpathian Basin.
[2][5] Among the Magyars' opponents the same sources noted many local rulers, including Svatopluk I of Moravia, Luitpold of Bavaria and Braslav, Duke of Lower Pannonia.
[6][7] The Gesta Hungarorum—the earliest extant Hungarian chronicle, written after 1150[8][9]—instead mentioned Glad, lord of the lands between the Danube and the Mureș (now known as the Banat in Romania and Serbia) and other local rulers absent from the earlier sources.
[10] Although Vlad Georgescu, Ioan Aurel Pop and other historians describe Glad as one of the local Romanian rulers who attempted to resist the invading Hungarians,[10][11][12] other scholars—including Pál Engel and György Györffy—call him one of the dozen "imaginary figures" invented by Anonymus (author of the Gesta) as foes in the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin.
[15][16] The emperor apparently received information about the Carpathian Basin situation from Termatzus, Bulcsú and Gylas, three Hungarian chieftains who visited Constantinople during the mid-10th century.
[23][24] Tudor Sălăgean, Florin Curta and other historians posit that Gylas's lands must have been in these territories, but their theory is not universally accepted.
[21][23][24] Unlike Gylas, who chose the Eastern Orthodox Church, Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians, opted for Western Christianity[25] and a cleric from the Holy Roman Empire (according to most scholars, Bruno from the Abbey of Saint Gall) baptised him during the 970s.
[26][27] Thietmar of Merseburg and other 11th-century authors emphasized that Géza was a cruel ruler, suggesting that the unification of the Hungarian chieftains' lands began under him.
[44][45] Ajtony was a wealthy ruler who owned horses, cattle and sheep,[45][46] and was powerful enough to establish customs offices and guards along the Mureș and tax salt carried to Stephen I of Hungary on the river.
[55] Archaeologist István Erdélyi said that the Treasure of Sânnicolau Mare, excavated near Ajtony's seat, was connected to the ruler; however, his view has not been universally accepted by scholars.
[29] In Romanian historiography, Ajtony has been considered the last member of a "native" dynasty descended from Glad, who is mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum as opposing the invading Hungarians,[60] historian Alexandru Madgearu wrote that the Latin name of Ajtony's seat (urbs Morisena) preserved a Romanian form.
[55] According to Pop, Stephen I decided to invade the Banat after a 1027 Pecheneg raid on the Byzantine Empire and Emperor Constantine VIII's death the following year.
