Sclaveni

The Sclaveni was used to describe the southwestern branch of Slavic peoples that the Byzantine Empire came into contact with, and especially the South Slavs in the Balkans. It was widely used during the early Middle Ages, until separate tribal affiliations emerged in the 8th and 9th century.

South Slavic tribes (orange) on the Balkans in the 7th century; the frontier of the nominal Byzantine dominion is marked in purple, the area populated by Roman or Greek provincial population is green.

Terminology

The Byzantines broadly grouped the numerous Slav tribes living in proximity with the Eastern Roman Empire into two groups: the Sklavenoi and the Antes.[1] The Late Roman historians, Jordanes and Procopius both locate the Sklavenoi in the lower Danube (modern Wallachia and Moldavia), although Sklavi subsequently in Latin sources in connection to events in Lombard Italy. Whilst there were many Sklaveni, the Antes were a specific ethnicon who had a foedus with the Byzantine Empire, and were probably located in Scythia Minor.[2][3][4]

The derived Greek term Sklavinia(i) (Ancient Greek: Σκλαβινίαι, Latin: Sclaviniae) was used for the Slav settlements (area, territory) which were initially out of Byzantine control and independent.[5] The term may be interpreted as "Slav lands" in Byzantium.[6]

However, by 800, the term also referred specifically to Slavic mobile military colonists who settled as allies within the territories of the Byzantine Empire. Slavic military settlements appeared in the Peloponnese, Asia Minor, and Italy. The Byzantines also referred to the Avar military elite as Sclaveni. These elites re-established their power-base under either Frankish or Byzantine rule in Pannonia and Moravia.[7]

History

6th century

The Sklavenoi plundered Thrace in 545.[8]

Daurentius (fl. 577–579) is the first Slavic chieftain to be recorded by name, by the Byzantine historian Menander Protector, who reported that the Avar khagan Bayan I sent an embassy, asking Daurentius and his Slavs to accept Avar suzerainty and pay tribute, because the Avars knew that the Slavs had amassed great wealth after repeatedly plundering the Byzantine Balkan provinces. Daurentius reportedly retorted that "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs [...] so it shall always be for us", and had the envoys slain.[9] Bayan then campaigned (in 578) against Daurentius' people, with aid from the Byzantines, and set fire to many of their settlements, although this did not stop the Slavic raids deep into the Byzantine Empire.[10]

In 577 some 100,000 Slavs poured into Thrace and Illyricum, pillaging cities and settling down.[11] By the 580s, as the Slav communities on the Danube became larger and more organised, and as the Avars exerted their influence, raids became larger and resulted in permanent settlement. In 586 AD, as many as 100,000 Slav warriors raided Thessaloniki. By 581, many Slavic tribes (including Vajunites) had settled the land around Thessaloniki, though never taking the city itself, creating a Macedonian Sclavinia.[12] As John of Ephesus tells us in 581: "the accursed people of the Slavs set out and plundered all of Greece, the regions surrounding Thessalonica, and Thrace, taking many towns and castles, laying waste, burning, pillaging, and seizing the whole country." However, John exaggerated the intensity of the Slavic incursions since he was influenced by his confinement in Constantinople from 571 up until 579.[13] Moreover, he perceived the Slavs as God's instrument for punishing the persecutors of the Monophysites.[13] By 586, they managed to raid the western Peloponnese, Attica, Epirus, leaving only the east part of Peloponnese, which was mountainous and inaccessible. The final attempt to restore the northern border was from 591 to 605, when the end of conflicts with Persia allowed Emperor Maurice to transfer units to the north. However he was deposed after a military revolt in 602, and the Danubian frontier collapsed one and a half decades later (see Maurice's Balkan campaigns).

One of the first Slavic tribal unions was known as the Macedonian sclavinia.[14] The Miracles of Saint Demetrius noted that the Slavs attacked Thessaloniki in 584, and plundered Macedonia in 586.

7th century

In 615, during the reign of Heraclius, the whole of the Balkans was regarded a Sklavinia – inhabited or controlled by Slavs.[15] Chatzon led the Slavic attack on Thessaloniki that year.[16] The Slavs asked the Avars for aid, resulting in the unsuccessful siege (617).[16] In 618 Thessaloniki became encircled with Slavic settlements. In 630 Slavs attempted to take the city again. In 658 Byzantium attempted to subjugate the Macedonian Sklavinia; Emperor Constans II undertook a campaign against them. In 677 Byzantium prevented establishing a Slavic state headed by Rynchine king (rex) Perbundos. In 677-680 Byzantium declared war on the Strymonites. 688-689 Byzante Emperor Justinian II attacked the Slavs around Thessaloniki and transferred large number of Slavs to Asia minor. Justinian subjugated the Slavic tribes around Salonika.[17]

Constans II conquered Sklavinia in 657–58, "capturing many and subduing".[18] Constantine III settled captured Slavs into Asia Minor, and in 664–65, 5,000 of these joined Abdulreman ibn Khalid.[19]

8th century

In 758–59 Constantine V attacked and plundered the Macedonian sclavinia. In 773, Constantine prevented Bulgar khan Telerig from attacking the Berziti in Macedonia. Strabonos Epithomatus noted "And now in that way, almost all of Epirus, Hellada, Peloponnese and Macedonia have been settled by these Slavs"

Byzantine forces under eunuch Staurakios (fl. 781–800) attacked the Slavs in Greece.[20] In 799, Akamir of the Belegezites participated in the conspiracy against Empress Irene of Athens.

9th century

Anastasius the Librarian (800–880) mentioned the "Sclavenias penes Macedoniam".[21]

Tribes

Gallery

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Annotations

References

  1. ↑ Hupchick 2004, p.
  2. ↑ Procopius VII. 14 22-30. And in consequence of this very fact they hold a great amount of land; for they alone inhabit the greatest part of the northern bank of the Ister (the Greeks called the lower Danube Ister, whilst the middle Danube was usually called Danuvius
  3. ↑ Jordanes Getica 35 "The abode of the Sclaveni extends from th city of Noviodunum .. to the Danaster
  4. ↑ Encyclopedia of European Peoples. Waldman, Mason, Library of Congress, 2006. Sklaveni, p 700
  5. ↑ One can judge the status of Slavonic territories, after they were reconquered by Byzantium from the report of Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenit in De administrando imperio ed. by Gy. Moravcsik and R. J. H. Jenkins, Budapest (1949 ), 50, 1-180, p .232. The Morean Sclavinians were described as 'independent' and 'autonomous and self-ruling'
  6. ↑ Ив. Дуйчев, ‘Славяни и първобългари’, Известия на Института за българска история, Vols 1, 2 (1951), pp. 197 et seq
  7. ↑ "Slavs." Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Volume 3, pp. 1916-1919.
  8. ↑ http://www.rastko.rs/arheologija/delo/13047. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ Curta (2001), pp. 47, 91
  10. ↑ Curta 2001, pp. 91–92, 315
  11. ↑ J. B. Bury (1 January 2008), History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, Cosimo, Inc., ISBN 978-1-60520-405-5
  12. ↑ David Luscombe; Jonathan Riley-Smith (2004), The New Cambridge Medieval History, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-41411-1
  13. 1 2 Curta 2001, p. 48 "Beginning in 571, John spent eight years in prison. Most of Book VI, if not the entire third part of the History, was written during this period of confinement...John was no doubt influenced by the pessimistic atmosphere at Constantinople in the 580s to overstate the intensity of Slavic ravaging. [...] On the other hand, God was on their side, for in John's eyes, they were God's instrument for punishing the persecutors of the Monophysites. This may also explain why John insists that, beginning with 581 (just ten years after Justin II started persecuting the Monophysites), the Slavs began occupying Roman territory"
  14. ↑ Rosamond McKitterick; Paul Fouracre (1995). The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 1, C.500-c.700. Cambridge University Press. pp. 538–. ISBN 978-0-521-36291-7.
  15. ↑ Jenkins 1987, p. 45.
  16. 1 2 Fine 1991, p. 41–44.
  17. ↑ |url=https://archive.org/details/ByzantineSourcesForHistoryOfThePeoplesOfYugoslavia
  18. ↑ Stratos (1975), p. 165
  19. ↑ Stratos (1975), p. 234
  20. ↑ John Van Antwerp Fine (1991), The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century, University of Michigan Press, pp. 79–, ISBN 0-472-08149-7
  21. ↑ Macedonian Review, Skopje: Kulturen život, 1986

Sources

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