Teorije o poreklu Srba
in a year each of the Neuroi becomes a wolf for some days and again becomes what he was)
with the Serb/Balkan belief invukodlaks (werewolves) with the fact...
/data/assets/logo/forum_192x192.png
Forum Krstarice
in a year each of the Neuroi becomes a wolf for some days and again becomes what he was)

with the Serb/Balkan belief invukodlaks (werewolves) with the fact that the vlk, 'wolf',

completely absent from the anthroponymy of most of the Slavic languages, is

often found in the personal names of South Slavs: Vukobrat, Vukoman, Vukomil,

Vukomir, Vukosav, Vukovoj,B jelovuk,D obrovuk,M i lovuk( O .N.T rub ac ev, L inguistic sand

Ethnogenesis of the Slavs: The Ancient Slavs as Evidenced by Etymology and Onomastics, InD 13, 1985).

VUKSA, VUCIC, VUKOTA, VUKIC

In fact, of course, in the some Serb lands, in Montenegro, for example,V uk often seems to be an element of every other personal or family name. A late 15th century register of adult males in several clans settled in the heBan jan i andPi v a counties of northwestern Montenegro, for example, reveals a high percentage of names derived from the rootvuk- . In the following series, the son's name is followed by the father's name: Vuksa, Radic; Vucic, Radosal; Radic, Vukota; Vukic, Grubac; Vukca, Baldun; Radic, Vukic; Knez Vukcic, Bratum; Vukosav, Vrbic; Vukic, Vladko; Vuksa, Vitoja; Vukman, Vulin; Ratko, Vukasin; Vukosav, Milan; Vukosav, Obrad; Radosav, Vukrnan; Vukasin, Vuk; Vukac, Obrad; Vukac, Milosh; Vukota, Stanimil; Vukac, Pribislav; Vukota, Dabiziv; Radosav, Vukan; Kovac, Vukota; Vukosav, Vukic; Radivoj, Vuksa; Ivan, Vuksa; Radica, Vukic; Vukas, Bratul; Vukosav, Radac; Vucin, Stoje; Vukas, Radasin.

ABODE OF THE SLAVENI

In the next century, Procopius locates theSklav en o i on the lower Danube. Ac-

cording to Jordanes,the abode of the Sclaveni extends from the city of Noviodunum

and the lake called Mursianus to the Danster, and northward as far as the Vistula.

Never one to flatter enemies of the Goths, Jordanes claims that they have swamps and

forests for their cities.

SCLAVINI OR ANTES

Though divided into many tribes with different names( Quo rum n o m i n a li ecet

nunce per varias familias et loco, mutentur), Jordanes writes, theV eneti mainly call

themselvesSclavinior Antes: principaliter Sclavini et Antes nominator.

ONE IN BLOOD AND LANGUAGE

Differences in name and place notwithstanding, Jordanes writes:All, Veneti, Antes

and Sclavi, are one in blood and language.

DO NOT DIFFER IN APPEARANCE

Familiar with bothAn tesand Sklav i n i who served as mercenaries in Byzantine armies, Procopius, an adviser to the great Byzantine commander Belisarius, is unable to distinguish one from the other:The Sklavini and Antes do not differ in appearance.

All of them are tall and strong, their skin and hair neither very light or dark, but

all are ruddy of face. 4. SCYTHS, SARMATS

S

cythia is one of the more fluid and elusive terms in the works of ancient geogra-

phers. At different times it refers to lesser and greater regions stretching from south-

eastern Europe in the west to Central Asia in the east. In Europe the geographical term Scythia is associated with two regions, namely the Black Sea Steppe, where the principal Scythic kingdom developed, and, later,S c y thia M inor, a Roman province com- prising the lands immediately south of the mouths of the Danube.

THE SCYTHIAN LOOK

Contemporaneous Greek artisans depict the Scythians as a nation of usually bearded men, who wear their hair long, flowing, swept back from the forehead, with perhaps rather Slavic faces, characterized by heavy browbridges, deep-set eyes, and pronounced noses. Recent excavations of Scythian grave sites offers interesting physical anthropologi- cal information. It indicates that, Renate Rollet writes:in European Scythia, includ-

ing the Caucasus regions, the Scythians were Europids without any Mongol char-

acteristics( DieW e ltder Sky then,19 8 0 ).The excavations also indicate that instatu re thean cien t

Scythians resemble the highland Serbs, centered in Montenegro. Rolle writes:The

Scythians were relatively tall. The tallness is particularly noticeable in warrior burials and those of men of the upper social stratum ... They are often over 6 ft (1.80m) in height, sometimes over 6 ft 3 in (1.90m), and have occasionally been been known to exceed 6 ft 6 in. (2 m.)... This phenomenon can be observed all the way to the eastern extremity of the Scythian world.

TALLEST PEOPLE IN EUROPE

It is perhaps significant that the same is true and truer of the Montenegrin Serbs.

The dean of American physical anthropologists, Harvard' s Carleton S. Coon, writes:

The Montenegrins who are the tallest people in Europe, live on a barren lime-

stone mountain upland ... They are probably the heaviest as well as the tallest

people in Europe ... Although their legs are long, their trunks are correspond- ingly high ... The Montenegrins' mean shoulder breath is 39cm., and their chests are correspondingly large. The relative span of 101 is extremely low, indicating

that their arms are short in proportion to either leg or trunk length. The hands

and feet are, as is to be expected, usually of great size. These huge mountaineers

are not as a rule slender, leptosome people; they are often thickset, and are large

all over.

AN ALMOST PERFECT EMBODIMENT

One finds the same observations in the accounts of English and other European

observers. In one typical instance, a seasoned English traveler writes:I have never, in all

my wanderings throughout the world, met a better fellow than the Montenegrin ... The men of the Tsernagora are justly famous for their good looks and splendid physiques. They are a race of giants, and a man of average height in England

would be regarded here as something akin to a dwarf. But notwithsthanding his

formidable frame and stature the Montenegrin is graceful in all his movements

(H.DeWindt,T hrough S avage E urope,1913 ).Another English observer,ano ffi c e r of the Consular

Service, states the case in more succinct terms:The Montenegrin race presents an

almost perfect embodimentof all thatis admirablein physique(A.G. Hulme-Beaman,

Twenty Years in the Near East, 1898).

SCYTHARUM, PATRIASCLAVINORUM

The belief that the Slavs originated in Scythia finds clear expression in a number

of early medieval works, including a 7th century cosmography known as theR avennatis

Anonymil Cosmographia:Scythia(Scy t harum ) is the ancestral land (Scytharum est

patria)of the Slavs (Sclavinooum exorta estprosapia).

SCYTHSSimilarly, medieval and post-medieval annals, chronicles, and histories will some-

times refer to Slavs not as Slavs, but as Scythsor Scythians. One of the more interesting

and specific variations on the Scythian theme is found in a 17th century inquiry into the

originsofH u n g a r yw h e re in thea u t h o rcites theS c y thianB ud i n s (Origines Hungaricae Seu,

Liber,QuiV era Nationis HungaricaeO rigoet Amiquistas, 1692).Tracingtheorigin ofH u n g a ry 'sSlavs, E

Otrokosci writes that:Some are f r om Old Scythia, some are Veneds f r om the B alti c,

but most are Budins, from the Budins who originated in the Don region of Scythia.

OLD SCYTHIA

Herodotus gives the borders of Scythia and Old Scythia in the following terms:

Before you come to Scythia, on the seacoast lies Thrace. The land here makes a sweep, and then Scythia begins, the Ister falling into the sea at this point with its mouth facing the east. Starting from the Ister I shall now describe the measure- ments of the seashore of Scythia. Immediately after the Ister is crossed, Old Scythia begins, and continues as far as the city called Carcinitis.

BUDINIHerodotus locates theB ud i n i , a large and powerful nation; they all have blue

eyes and red hair, north of the Sauromatae. TheBudi n i , he writes: are the original

people of the country, and are nomads. Their country is thickly planted with trees of all manners and kinds. In the very woodiest part is a broad deep lake, surrounded by marshy ground with reeds growing on it.

PROTO-SLAVS

A number of eminent scholars have little doubt that theBudi n s are a Proto-Slav

people (e.g. Safarik, Niederle, Lehr-Splawinski, Moszynski, Golab).1 In most instances,

then a m eB udin istraced to theSlavicro o tb ud- andthelarge andpow erf ulnation is

centered in the Middle Desna and Sejm basins, which belong to the forest zone. L.

Niederle writes:I do not hesitate to locate the seats of the Herodotian Budini in

the west, in the vicinity of the Neuroi, and to put them in central Kievan Russia between the Dnieper and Don, approximately on Desna and Sejm ... and on the basis of the explicit statement by Herodotus that the Budini are a people differ- ent from the Scythians ... and on the basis of their physical type and ultimately because of the meaning and form of their ethnic name I do not hesitate to pro- nounce them to be a big Slavic tribe belonging to the eastern branch, thus a part of the later Great Russian (velkorusky) stock which obviously already in a very old period occupied the Desna basin having given the river its Slavic name, and which naturally at the Herodotian time could penetrate along the Sejm as far as

UpperD on( L .Niederle,S lovanskestaroz itnosti, I,19 0 2 ).

NEURI

They also believe that theBud i n 's neighbors, theNe u r i, are a related Proto-Slav

people. Regarding their location, Herodotus writes: As for the inland boundaries of

Scythia, if we start from the Ister, we find it enclosed by the following tribes, first

the Agathyrsi, next the Neuri.

VOLYNIA

Golab's interpretation of Herodotus places theNe u r i in historical Volynia, ex- tending east to the Middle Dnieper and west to the Upper Dniester. According to Herodotus, serpents forced theNeuri , whose customs are like the Scythians, to leave their original home and take refuge with theBudi n i . Evidence in favor of a Proto-Slavic identification is found in several areas, including the name's Slavic root (from the Proto- Slavic rootn e r - connoting live, force) and related hydronyms and toponyms (Nur, Nurec, Nuzec and ziemia Nuska on the border of Poland and the Ukraine). Indeed, Golab's examination of the textual, linguistic, and onomastic evidence allows him to make the following statement:So we would consider Neuroi (late PSL *Nervi)to be the old-

est attested endogenous Slavic ethnicon used by a large Proto-Slavic tribe con-

centrated in the 6th-7th centuries B.C. along the northwestern frontier of Scythia,

whichcorrepondsroughly to thehi stori cal EastSlavi cprovi nceofVolyni a(Z .Golab ,

The Oldest Ethnica Referring to the Slavs: Neuroi and Budini in Herodotus's Description of Scythia, OnO 19, 1974).

GREAT SERB NATION

A 10th century Byzantine source locates one part of the Serb nation, theB lac k

Serbs,inS c y t h i a :ThegreatSerbnati on,whi ch i sdi vi dedi nto t woparts, t heW hi te

Serbs or independent Serbs, and the Black Serbs or dependent Serbs.

SERBS: SCYTHARUS GENTES

Medieval German sources sometimes refer to Germania's Serbs as: Scythae or

Scytharusgentes.T heWends andT h eir M ig ra tio n f romS c y thia toGerman Lands is the

title of a chapter in a mid-16th century German chronicle compiled by E. Brotuff. The

chronicle records the settlement of the salt mines near Halle by Wends called Serbs

whomigrated toG ermaniaf romScythi a( Chronic a von den S alz - B ornenundE rb auung derS tadt

Hull an der Sala in Sachsen gelegen, 1554).

SARMATIA

As theS arm ats overwhelmed their fraternal rivals (Porro Scytharum,

Sarmatarumque gens una eteadensab origine) around the middle of the 2nd century

B.C.,S arm atia succeededS c y thia as a more popular name for the 'barbarian' lands be-

yond Roman-Byzantine Europe's eastern frontier.

WHEN ONE CROSSES THE TANAIS

Regarding the original homeland of theS arm atians, Herodotus writes,when

one crosses the Tanais, one is no longer in Scythia; the first region on crossing is

that of the Sauromatae, who, beginning at the upper end of the Palus Maeotis

[Sea of Azov], stretch northward a distance of fifteen days journey.Polybius locates

Sarmafia in thePonto-C aspiansteppe( H istona). Ptolemy'sS arm atia is animmensearea

bounded by the Vistulaand Volga rivers and the Balticand Black seas( GeographikeH y phegesis). Pomponius Mela givesS arm atia a European orientation, namely the lands east of the Elbeand northof the Danube( DeS ituO rb is).

SARMATS

Similarly,S arm at orS arm atae (also Sarabatiae, Sauromatae, Syrmatae, and

Sermende among others) succeeds Scythor Scythae more often than not as a learned

archaism for the Slavs (e.g.Sarmatae Sclavi). Pliny, Tacitus and Ptolemy refer to the Slavs on the Vendic/Baltic Sea and the Vistula River as Sarmats. Ptolemy, for example, writes:H abi t an t Sarm at i am g en t es m ax i m ae Ven ed aepro pt ert o t um Ven ed i cum si n um ;

Minores autem gentes Sarmatiam incolunt iuxta Visutalam infra Venedas Gythanes.

Mela locatesS arm atia east of Germania:G erm an i ad Sarm at as po rri g un t ur. Precisely

whereGerm ania ends andS arm atia begins, however, was a matter of some confusion. In

De Origine et Situ Germanorum (A.D. 98), a somewhat garbled description of the vari-

ous tribes west of the Rhine and north of the Danube, believed to be based largely on

out-of-date material, Tacitus is not sure whether some nations wereGerm ans orS arm ats.

Here Suebia ends. I am not sure whether the tribes of the Peucini, Veneti should

be assigned to the Teutons or to the Sarmatians ... The Venedi have adopted many

Sarmatian habits; for their plundering takes them over all the wooded and moun-

tainous highlands that lie between the Peucini and the Fenni. Nevertheless, they

are one the whole to be classed as Germans; for they have settled homes, carry

shields, and are fond of traveling—and travelling as—on foot, differing in all

these respects from the Sarmatians.

SUEBI

It is important to note that theS uebi , who occupy Germania's heartland, are also

a problem of sorts for Tacitus. TheS uebi , Tacitus writes,do not constitute a single

nation. They occupy more than half Germany, and are divided into a number of

separate tribes under different names, though all are called by the generic name

Suebi.In the early 1820s, D. Popp was one of the first German historians to identify

Tacitus'S uebi with the Slavs.

NOT ALL SARMATIANS

At the same time it was clear to ancient and modern historians thatS arm at and

Sarmatia4 referred to an immense area inhabited by numerous and different nations,

Slavs and others. In the succinct words of one scholar: All Slavs are Sarmatians, but all

Sarmatians are not Slavs.

SCLAVI SARMATI

Accordingly, medieval German sources often refer to Slavic Germania as

Sarmatarum and the native Slavs as Sa.rma.tesor Sclavi Sarmati. In the 16th century one

often findsS arm atia in the titles of Polish Kings: Invictissimum dominum

Sigismundeum, regent Polonie, magnum ducem L ituanie, Russie, Prussie, Sarmatieque Europee dominum et et heredum; Regnum Sarmatiae; Rex Sarmatiae Europee invictissimus; Sarmacie Totius Rex; Sarmatiae Poloniaeque Rex; Sarmatiae Regis; Sarmaticaresp ubl i c a, Sarmatae populus( KPotkowski,Sarm atissm us ahpolitisc heideologic der

jagelionischen Dynasties, Zeitschrift fur Ostmitteleuropae Forschung 44, 1995).

SLOVO APUD SARMATAS

ThatS arm ats wereS lavs wereS arm ats was the premise of numerous medieval and later commentaries on the history and language of the Slavs. In a mid-16th century history of Bohemia, the learned Bishop of Olomouc, John Skala of Dubravka( J ohannes

Dubravius), derives the nameSlo v en (Slav) from the Sarmat wordSlo v o which, he ex-

plains, has the same meaning asV erb u m in Latin:I d en i m S t o wo ap ud S arm at as, q uo d

verbum apudL ationospersonat. Quoniam igitur otnnes Sarmatarum nationes late jam tune, longeque per Regna et Provincia sparsae unum nomen eumdemque sermonem, atque eadem propemodum verba sonarant, se uno etiam cognomine

Slovanos appellabant. Ab ipsapraeterea gloria, quae apud ilos Slava dicitur, Slavitni

dicti( H istoriaeR egniB oiem iae,15 5 2 ).

SLAWISCHEN VOLKSTAMM

On the basis of historical documents and textual analysis, in the 19th century

most historians and Slavists of note readS arm at asS lav. Quandt, for example, writes

thatS a rm a t is another name forS la v : Der Name bezeichnet den Slawischen

Volkstamm.

OLDEST RETRIEVABLE HABITAT

In the second half of the 20th century linguistic analysis tends to generally confirm

the prehistoric 'Sarmat' roots of Slavdom. The following words, for example, follow Z.

Golab's examination of a number of Slavic words with the initial x-: First of all, the

problem of the prehistorical ethno-linguistic contacts between the Slavs (Proto- Slavs) and the Pontic Iranians (Scythians and Sarmatians) reappears as an impor- tant problem. Such a number of loanwords concerning such different semantic spheres cannot be accidental: it must be interpreted as a result of a prolonged period of very close inter-ethnic relations, especially because among the words discussed there are such for which we should a phonemic 'Iranization' rather than simple borrowing. Briefly, we should 'rehabilitate' the idea of close relations between the Proto-Slav and the Scythians or Scytho-Sarmatians ... Another con- clusion which can be drawn from the above lexical facts concerns the location of the oldest 'retrievable' habitat of the Slavs in the period of their close contacts

witht hePonticIranians( Z .Golab ,T helnitialX - inCom m onS lavic : AContrib ution toP rehistoric alS lavic -

Iranian Contacts, American Contributions to the VIIInternational Congress of Slavists, 1973).

Sarmaticaresp ubl i c a, Sarmatae populus( KPotkowski,Sarm atissm us ahpolitisc heideologic der

jagelionischen Dynasties, Zeitschrift fur Ostmitteleuropae Forschung 44, 1995).

SLOVO APUD SARMATAS

ThatS arm ats wereS lavs wereS arm ats was the premise of numerous medieval and later commentaries on the history and language of the Slavs. In a mid-16th century history of Bohemia, the learned Bishop of Olomouc, John Skala of Dubravka( J ohannes

Dubravius), derives the nameSlo v en (Slav) from the Sarmat wordSlo v o which, he ex-

plains, has the same meaning asV erb u m in Latin:I d en i m S t o wo ap ud S arm at as, q uo d

verbum apudL ationospersonat. Quoniam igitur otnnes Sarmatarum nationes late jam tune, longeque per Regna et Provincia sparsae unum nomen eumdemque sermonem, atque eadem propemodum verba sonarant, se uno etiam cognomine

Slovanos appellabant. Ab ipsapraeterea gloria, quae apud ilos Slava dicitur, Slavitni

dicti( H istoriaeR egniB oiem iae,15 5 2 ).

SLAWISCHEN VOLKSTAMM

On the basis of historical documents and textual analysis, in the 19th century

most historians and Slavists of note readS arm at asS lav. Quandt, for example, writes

thatS a rm a t is another name forS la v : Der Name bezeichnet den Slawischen

Volkstamm.

OLDEST RETRIEVABLE HABITAT

In the second half of the 20th century linguistic analysis tends to generally confirm

the prehistoric 'Sarmat' roots of Slavdom. The following words, for example, follow Z.

Golab's examination of a number of Slavic words with the initial x-: First of all, the

problem of the prehistorical ethno-linguistic contacts between the Slavs (Proto- Slavs) and the Pontic Iranians (Scythians and Sarmatians) reappears as an impor- tant problem. Such a number of loanwords concerning such different semantic spheres cannot be accidental: it must be interpreted as a result of a prolonged period of very close inter-ethnic relations, especially because among the words discussed there are such for which we should a phonemic 'Iranization' rather than simple borrowing. Briefly, we should 'rehabilitate' the idea of close relations between the Proto-Slav and the Scythians or Scytho-Sarmatians ... Another con- clusion which can be drawn from the above lexical facts concerns the location of the oldest 'retrievable' habitat of the Slavs in the period of their close contacts

witht hePonticIranians( Z .Golab ,T helnitialX - inCom m onS lavic : AContrib ution toP rehistoric alS lavic -

Iranian Contacts, American Contributions to the VIIInternational Congress of Slavists, 1973).

ENDNOTES

In Sebrany Spisy, I (1862), sub-section Slovanske narody u Herdota, Safarik discusses the linguistic, onomastic and

textual evidence in favor of a Proto-Slav interpretation of the Budini and the 'Neuri cili Nuri." M.I. Artmanov,

Venedi, Neuri i Budini v slavjanskom etnogeneze, Vestnik Leningradskogo Universiteta 2, 1946. M. Plezie,

Neurowie w swietle hisotriografii starozytnej, PdZ 8,1952. K. Tymniecki, Neurowie—Weneci, PaM 5,1957. O.N.

Trubacev, Staraja Skifija Gerodota i slavjane, AzY6, 1977. B.A. Rybakov, Gerodotova Skifija, 1979

5. SLAVS ARE SARMATS ARE SERBS?

T

he notion that theS arm at s wereS lavs was originally based in large

part on the premise that theSarm at s wereS erbs, that the names

Sarmat and Serb share a common root. Thus medieval texts sometimes identify

Sarmatiaas Sarabatije, as land of the Serbs/Sorabsi'Sarahs: Sarabatiepropiecurrentes

velsibi viventes Zirbi.

SARMATAESIRBI

Bishop Salomon's early 10th century dictionary-encyclopedia,M ater V erb orum in-

forms readers that theSarmats were once called Serbs: Sarmatae... Sirbitum dictia

serendo id estquasi sirbintiu. Vecerad, an early 12th century commentator on the Czech

edition of Mater Verborum equates theS arm at sand S erbs in the following terms:

Sarmatae populi Zirbi,110 2

ANTIQUISSIMUM NOMEN SARMATIS

An early 16th century chronicle, Chronicon Carionis, originally compiled by J. Carion (1499-1537), a noted German mathematician, astronomer, and historian, first printed in 1532, relates theS arm at i an s to theS erbs in the following ways:The name

Serb is derived from the names Sorab and Sarmat(a Sorabos et Sarmatis trahere);

Sorab is the oldest form of SarmatEx nomine exitimo factum esse nomen Sorabi,

paucis literis mutatis; Soraborum antiquissimum nomen a Sarmatis retinuerunt).

The same source asserts thatS arm at i s the original name of allS erbs, of northern and

southernS erbs: S art n at arum ap p el at i o n em , c um q uae eo d em est S o rabo rum B o real i bus,

qui supra Pontum etMaeotidem habitarunt.

SRBLI ILLYRIORUM

In his mid- 16th century study Chalcondyles notes the historical and linguistic

factors that demonstrate beyond doubt that theS erbs/S rbl i ofIlly r ia / Illy r io r u m originate

inSarm at i a: From the Danubian lands on the the edge of Europe, from Sarmatia.

SARMATARUM, SORABI, SERBLI

In the 18th and 19th centuries some scholars remained certain that the nameS erb

is derived fromS arm at , that over time the nameS arm at evolved and survived asS o rab

and Serb: Obscurantum tamepaulatim et Sartnatarum nomen invenimus ita quidem

ut soli Sorabi et Serbli id conservasse existimentur. In his discussion of the original

name of the Slavs ('Prvotnajmenu Slovanu) inS eb ra n y S p isy II (1863), P. Safarik makes

it clear that: (1)Wendend Sarmat• ax e.other and later names forS erb (Vindove aSarmati

= Srbove);(2) thatS arm at i s another name forS erb (O Sarmatech = Srbech).

SERBISCHER ABKUNFT

Other scholars, noting that early geographers and commentators routinely abused

and misused the nameS arm at , are certain that it was often used as a name for theS erbs:

Den alten und vielfach missgebrauchten Namen der Sarmaten ... für alle Zweige

serbischer Abkunft. JAZYGES

In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries some scholars were certain that the

Sarmats-are-Serbs thesis was especially strong in the case of theSarmattan Jazyges.

According to Karl Anton von Gottlob, an 18th century German historian, philologist, and author of an encyclopedic history of the Serbs, the early history of the Serbs is obscured by a generic name for the nations of European and AsianSarm at i a, the so- calledS arm atians, a fictitious name for many very different nations including the Serbs, the so-calledSarm at i an s, who, according to Herodotus, spoke a corruptScy t hi an lan- guage( E rsteL inienE ines V ersuc hesü b erderA lten SlawenU rsprung,17 8 3 - 8 9 ).Ins u p p o rt of theJ ftZ g y e thesis, Gottlob and others make the following basic points: 1. In ancient timesS erb was the original, native and common name of all the Slavs; 2. Later, theS erb s were known by two names:Serband Jaz y g e, recorded asSarmattan Jazyge (e.g. Strabon'sJaz i g es

Sarmatae); 3. In the pre-Christian period elements ofthe J az y ges left the Serb-Jazyge

homeland in the Volga basin, migrated westward, occupied parts of Russia, Podolia, Moldavia, and Dacia and challenged the Romans in Danubia-Pannonia; 4. In the 1st century A.D., perhaps earlier, perhaps under pressure from the Huns, theS erbs left

Sarmatia and began settling in Europe; 5. InGerm ania the Serbs are called Wends,in

Danubiat h eS erbs are called Jazyges; 6.B e g i n n i n g w ith the 6th c e n t u r yt he Jaz y g e Serbs

ofDanub ia are calledSlo v en s by the Greeks and others; 7. Both names,Jaz y g eand

Sloven; Jazygehom jaz y k, Slovenf r o m Slovo, are derived from Old Slavic words con-

noting letter, word, speech, language; 8. All Slavs can be traced to theSerb or Jazyge

branches of the greatS erb trunk. According to Gottlob, vital evidence in favor of the

Jazyge Serb thesis is found in the historical record, in the numerous recorded Slavic

hydronyms, toponyms, and towns (e.g. Ptolemy'sSerbi t i um inP annonia Inf erior) sug- gesting an earlyS erb presence in Danubia 'coincidental' in time and place with that of the so-calledSarm a ti an Jaz y g e.

BABA, BUKA

Mid-5th century sources identifytwo J az y ge rulers with Slavic sounding names, namelyB aba andB uka at the head of theSarmatian Jazyges on the Danube near modern Belgrade:Quorum exitio Suavorum... freti auxilio Sarmatarum, qui cum

Beuca etBabai regibussuis auxiliari ei advenissent( 46 9 ); Theodoricus ex sattelitibus etexpopulopatris elegitsibipene sex milia viroum, cum quibuspatre inscio, permenso Danubio, Sarmatarum regem incurrit, equmque interemit,familiamqueac censum depredans, adgenitorem suum cum victoria redit. Singindunum dehinc civitatem, quam idem Sarmataepossidebant, invadens, non Romanis sedsuae subdidit ditioni

(470);T heo d eri cusad o l escen san n o rum1 8 , t ran si t oDan ubi o , super Sarm at as i rrui t ,

et regem eorum Babazperim.it, et cum bellicis manubiis victor atpatrem redit( 47 0 ).

SLAVS CALLED JAZYGES

InCom m entario H istoric a de V erib us Inc ois H ungariae Cis- Danuab ianae a M orav

Amneat Tibiscum (1767), J. Severini, an early authority on the history of Hungary and

Danubia, writes thatS lavs from the Oder, first calledSarm at s, thenWends, thenS lavs, andS lavs c alled J az y ges, with whom they shared a common language and institutions, settled the lands along and between the Tisa and Danube rivers. Zupanic does not iden-

tifyt heJaz y g esasSlav s. However, Zupanic suspectsth a t insomeinstances thenam e

Jazygesincludes Slavs calledS erbs. In the case of thejazgyeswho settled in the plains

between the Danube and Tisa shortly after Christ's birth, for example, Zupanic believes

thatS erbs are included.

SERBS, BULGARS, JASYGES

It is interesting that a 16th century source recordst hejasy g es as one of the nations

that made up Hungary's peasantry: Saxons, Germans, Bohemians, Slavs, Wallachs,

Ruthenes, Serbs, Bulgars, Jasyges, Cumans

6. SERS, SCIRS, SRBUL

G

iven Toynbee's and other theories of Slav settlement in southeastern Europe, one thousand years before the birth of Christ, it is not sur- prising that diverse historical sources present evidence of possible Serb settlement

in Danubia and Pannonia in the first centuries of the Christian era.

SERETE, SERBINUM

According to Zupanic, evidence thatS erb s f rom Sarmatia orDacia settled along the Drava and Sava rivers in Panonnia in the first century of the Christian era or earlier is found in both Pliny and Ptolemy. Namely, Pliny'sS eret e, a nation located on the Drava River, and Ptolemy'sS erbi t i um , a town on the Sava River inP a n n o n ia In f e rio r.

MONIES SERRORUM

In his multi-volume Rerum gestarum libri, Ammianus Marcellanus (A.D. 330-

395), Rome's last major historian, refers to a section of the Transylvanian Alps asm an tes

Serrorumo r th eS e rr/S e rb M o u n ta in s. ' Zu p a n i c believes t h a t t h e mantes Serrorum can be

traced to early Serb settlements in Dacia:Since we have shown that Serri is the same

as Serb, the monies Serrorum mentioned by Marcellinus confirms the presence of

Serbs in the southern Carpathians, one of their stations on their move to the heart

of Europe ... Of course, It is quite possible that the Serbs were in the southern

Carpathians before Marcellinus's time. It is possible that Serb elements, together

with Jazyges, moved in as early as the first century B.C.2

EMPEROR LICINIUS

A later mid-12th century work, Joannes Zonaras'H istoric al E pitom e, believed to based on earlier sources, notably the complete text of Dio Cassius'R om aika and several lost Byzantine historians, relates themantes Serrorum to Emperor Valerius Licinianus Licinius (308-324), Roman co-ruler from 308-324, and brother-in-law—married to half- sister Constantia in 313—of Emperor Constantine the Great (307-337). After 313 Licinius was as supreme in the East as Constantine in the West. A deterioration in relations be- tween the two emperors led to open warfare in the Balkans in 614, where Licinius sought the support of pagans. Following defeat by Constantine's forces in 324, Licinius sought support in theS err M ountains. In the same year he was captured and exiled to Thessalonica, where he was executed the following year.

LIKINIJ SRBINY BITI RODOM

An intriguing and as yet unaccountable early 4th century Serb connection is found

in medieval Serb church manuscripts that, on the basis of 'authentic sources'( istinih

spisatelja)r e fe rtoL icinius'sS erb ancestry:Glagoljutistini spisatelji jako Likinij Srbiny

biti rodom ... Sija videv sin jego Bela Uros uze ot sestri carevi Konstatije;

Tsarstvujusci Likinijy... severnim i zapadnim stranama Srbin jest. Sze glagocistivij

Konstantin prisvajajet k sehe Likinija i vdaet jem sestry svojy Konstantijy v zenu;

Likinije sze Srbin be; I carstvuje v njem imase bolarina nekojego Srbina, imenom

Likinije; Sze Likinije bese dlamatinski gospodin rodom Srbin; bese si Likinije

Dal matins Id gospodin rodom Srbin. Rodi od Konstantije sina ot negoze

pokolenommimnozii zi dose, daze i doB eloga Urosa(R . Novakovic, Karpatskii Likijski Srbi,

1997).

DAGON, DAGONIA

An even more intriguing early Serb connection with early Danubia/Dacia is found

in one of them a n u sc rip ts, theK arlovac kiR odoslov( K arlwacG enealogy ).A ccording tothis

source, at the time of Emperor Licinius: All Serbs worshiped Dagon. From Dagon the Dagonians and Dacians received their names; from Ser, all the Serbs. It goes on to say that: Among many others, he [Licinius] persecuted the saints and martyrs Jermil and Stratonik, who were in Dagonia, near the Istar [Danube].

ASIA MINOR, MIDDLE EAST

Some scholars believe that the reference toDag o n , a great Semitic god, suggests an

early and substantial Balkan-Danubian connection with Asia Minor and the Middle East

(RNovakovic ,J os oporeklu S erb a— Isva S rb ska idolu sluz ase Dagonu,19 9 2 ).Thee m i n e n tG e r m a nSlavist

H. Kunstmann believes that the Dagon cult in Danubia can be traced to Roman Emperor

Trajan (98-117 A.D.), to the forced resettlement of subject peoples originating in Asia

Minor in Dacia. Later, he believes, in the Christian era,Dag o n was a generic term for

pagans, for pagan Slavs in Dacia, for pagan Serbs who later settled in Poland, where

Kunstmann finds traces of Dagon (Dagome-iudex-Regeste) in late 10th century Polish

sources, including the name and titles of the house of Piast's Mieszko I, Poland's first ruler

(H.K unstm ann,Ü berde Herkunftder Polenvon Balkan, DwS,29, 1984)*W ithregard to theSerb-Polish

Dagon Connection, Kunstmann writes:Freilich, im Laufe der Jahrhunderte hat sich

die Bedeutung Dagons ganz erheblich geändert, nämlich ins diametrale Gegenteil, was besagt, dass der Name Dagon zum nomen dei falsi, zur Bezeichnung heidnischer Kulte, der Heiden schlechthin wurde. Dass die Verwendung des Namens Dagon zur Bezeichnung von Heiden sogar nch 1503 unter Balkanslaven üblich gewesen zu sein scheint, lasst sich belegen und beweisen. Eine Urhunde aus Karlovac, in der kurz über die Geschichte der serbischen "Zaren" berichtet wird, sagt folgendes: I vsa Srbska idolu sluzase Dagonu, otsud i Dagoni i Daky imenujut se. Damit wird nun nicht nur erstmals der Landername Srpska belegt, sondern auch, was im gegebenen Zusammenhang wichtiger ist, dass es zum Namen Dagon offenbar ebenfalls den Plural Dagoni gegeben hat, und zwar im Sinne von

Heiden.

Doch werden in der betreffenden Urkunde unter diesen heidnischen Dagoni ganz konkret die Daci oder Dacier verstanden. Gegen Ende heisst es in der Urkunde ausserdem este si v Dagaoni bliz Istra, was sogar erkennen lasst, dass die ehemalige romische Provinz Dacia, das Land Dacien, im Slavischen einmal Dagon geheissen und wohl die Bedeutung von Heidenland gehabt zu haben scheint. Wenn die Urkunde von 1503 unter diesen heidnischen Dagoni "dacische" Serben versteht, dann spiegelt sich darin auch ein Stuck Siedlungsgeschichte von den Daciern zu den Slaven wider. Die nich zu verkennende lautliche Übereinstimmung der ersten Silben Dag -oni//Dac -i had die volksetymologische Synonymic fraglos gefordert. Die in den drei Hanschriften der Dagome-iudex-Regest benutzte Form Dagone, also mit -e im Auslaut, ist eindeutig ein Reflex des Slavischen, das nämlich Dagon mit Halbvokal verwendet. Parenthetically, the fish, L. M. Graham writes, is a universal savior symbol...

The Hindus represented the first Avatar of Vishnu as half fish, half man—Pisces-

Aquarius; and our Christ is called by the the Piscean Avatar. In the Talmud the

Messiah is called Dag, the fish. The Phoenician and Philistian Dagon, the

Chaldean Cannes, and the Greek Phoibos were all fish men. The Greek word for

fish ichthus is made up of the initials of the five Greek words lesous (Ch)ristos,

(Th)eou Uios Soter—Jesus Christ the son of God, Savior.

DANUBIA. PANNONIA

As mentioned earlier, in theD ia lo g u e s of P s e u d o - C a e s a r , an early 5th century compi- lation based partly on 4th century sources, the Danubian Slavs are recorded asS k la v e n o i. A better known and often cited source on mid-5th century Danubia is Priscus of Priam, a Byzantine official and historian. A member of an embassy sent to Attila's camp in Pannonia by the Eastern emperor Theodosius II, Priscus is a perceptive, reliable and rare source of information on this tumultous period. In his account, Priscus mentions several nations that appear to have Slavic sounding names. In 434, Priscus writes: They [Huns] has-

tened to Scythia ... Soon they crossed they huge [Maeotic] swamp and ... over- whelmed the Alipurzi, the Alcidzuri, the Itimari, the Tuncassi, and the Boisci who bordered on the shore of Scythia.

BOISKI SERBS?

In 432 or 433, Priscus writes:a Hunnish ruler ... intending to go to war with

die Amilzouri, Itimari, Tonosours, Boiski and other races dwelling on the Danube

and who had taken refuge in a Roman alliance.Some scholars suspect that some of

the nations so-named are Slavs, perhaps Serbs, namelytheA l- m iz uri,Milcani Serbs; the Tono-sursi, Surs-Serbs; the Iti-mari,M oravi Serbs; the Boiski,B oi ski Serbs, Emperor Constantine VII'sB oi ki Serbs.

STRAVAPriscus' account of his visit to Attila's camp in Pannonia also reveals strongs Slavic

traces in the personal names, food, drink, and customs of the Huns and their Scythian

allies: millet//>rar0; honey/medos; funeralf east/strava). Especially striking is the Slavic fu-

neral ceremony orS tra v a following Attila's death in 454: After he had been mourned

with such lamentations they celebrated a 'Strava' as they call it, over his tomb with

great revelry, coupling opposite extremes of feeling in turn among themselves.

A SLAVIC TRIBE

C.D. Gordon's authoritative translation and commentary on 5th century Greek

historians gives important information on the Sciri or Scyri, a Slavic tribe, once part

of dieHunnishempi re( T heA geof A ttila,i960).We learn that: 1) TheSciri, who had

settled in Lower Moesia on the Danube, were a power in Pannonia where they were

in more or less constant conflict with the Goths; 2) the Sciri played an important role

in the Western armies commanded by Ricimer [appointed commander of imperial

armies by emperor Avitus] and his successors; 3) the Sciri formed an important

part of Odovacar's army in his final conquest of Italy; 4) Odovacar, the first barbar-

ian king of Italy, either sprang from the race of Thuringi on his father's side and the

Sciri on his mother's side,according to one account, or he was of the nation of the

Scyri,according to another.

SARMATIAN SCIRI

In fact, Pliny suggested the ethnic character of theSciri several centuries earlie

(Pomerania isinhabited as far as theV i stulaRiver by theSarmatian Venedi,Sciri,

Hirri). While Pliny's text does not identify the Sciri as Serbs, evidence in support ofthat I

notion is found in the fact that in the general area inhabited by the SarmatianSciri, inI prehistoric Pomerania and Poland west of the Vistula, one finds overwhelming onomas- tic evidence of Serb settlement.

SCYTHIAN AND GERMAN NATIONS

With regard to this period, to the role of Slavs in Gothic armies, it is important to keep in mind that history and archaeology indicate that the Goths generally, and the Ostrogoths or East Goths, east of the Dniester River, particularly, had significant Slavic components. Referring to an early Gothic ruler, Cassidorius' Origo Gothica states that Ermanaric ruled over all Scythian and German nations. In this regard it is important to keep in mind that by the mid-4th century, the Ostrogoths, who dominated the Pontic area, were ethnically and culturally transformed by local elements. In fact, recent excava- tions indicate that Germanic elements were never preponderant, that 'Scythian' Slavs formed an important part of the Ostrogothic kingdom. The 'Scythization' of the Ostrogoths is discussed at length in a recent work by the German historian H. Wolfram

(HistoryoftheGoths,1988). Linguistic evidenceof earlyand close Slav-German associationin

military affairs is found in the Old Slav/>/«£, troops in battle formation, in Slavic deriva-

tivesp lu k , p u lk , p u k connoting regiment, people en masse, and Gothic-German equiva-

lents,nam ely f olk, f olc , f olk; in such Slavic combination personal names/titles asS vetopolk,

commander of a strong troop.

MODERN SCHOLARSHIP

In different ways and degrees authoritative modern scholarship offers support for Gottlob's general thesis in terms of earlySarn ut t i an -Slav -Serb settlement in Danubia- Pannonia.The broad, deep, exhaustive,and thorough researchof L. Niederle( S lovanske

Starozitnosti, 1902-1919), one of thep illars of modern Slavistics, suspectsth a t theSlavsw ere

already in Central Europe at the end of the second millennium, alongside the Germans in the north, alongside the Thracians in the Carpathians, with the Iranians and Caucasians in the Black Sea area, with the Baits along the Baltic Sea, where they lived together in a Baltic-Slavic union. All available evidence, Niederle writes, places the Slavs in southern Hungary, Transylvania, and the Danube in the first centuries of our era, an area settled by the SarmatianJaz g y es in the first century A.D.

SIRMIUM, SERDICA, VRBAS

Citing cities along the Danube basin, likeS irum ium (Srem) andS erdic a( Sred i st e) , apparent Latinizations for descriptive Slavonic place names, Toynbee suspects a strong Slavonic presence in the area during the Roman period. F. Dvornik, following Safarik, finds hard, conspicuous evidence of early Slavic settlement in the existence of such proto- typical Slavic place names as Vuka, Vrbas andVuci ca in Danubian Pannonia, modern Slavoniaand Banat, areasofS arm at i an settlment,f r o m the 2nd century onward( E arly

Slavic Civilization, 1956; The Making of Central and Eastern Europe, 1974). LIMIG-ANTES, ARDAGAR-ANTES

In the early 300s the Sarmatians are recorded asL im igantes andA rdagarantes. It appears obvious to the noted historian G. Vernadsky, that the/öz^-SarrnatianL im igantes areL im ig- A ntes are Antes are Slavs, that theA rdagantes areA rdagar- A ntes are Antes are Slavs (The Originsof Russia, 1959).W hen civilw ar brokeout about A.D. 332,the defeated

Acarag-Antes took refuge in Roman territory and were given land in Pannonia or present-

day Serb Voivodina. In the war with Rome that followed, theL im ig- A ntes fought well and bravely (with invincible stubborness, not a single man asked for pardon, records Ammianus). Defeated in 358, forced to retreat beyond theTisza River, theL im ig- A ntes remained a force to be reckoned with until the arrival of the Huns circa A.D. 430.

LINGUISTIC RECORD

The linguistic record also points in the direction of early Slavic settlement in Danubia. InVanished Civilizations (1963), T. Sulimirski, a noted authority on the Sarmatians (The Sarmatians, 1970), makesthe following supporting points:1) The studyof the toponomy of Romania shows that the Slavs adopted unromanized Dacian place names in the Roman province of Dacia or Latin names and transmitted them to the Romanians; 2) In the sphere of social and political life, the oldest Romanian terminology shows that Latin terms were translated or replaced by Slavic words; 3) The Slavic element came into Romanian during the common Romanian period and before the division of the language into its four main dialects; 4) The phonetic structure of Romanian words of Slavic origin often reveals their great antiquity; 5) The study of the Slavic names of the Tisa and other rivers of the Hungarian Plain also confirm the theory that the Slavs were on the southern side of the Carpathians well before the sixth century A.D.

SRBUL

Interesting contemporary evidence that the early Slavs in Danubia were called Serbs is found in that fact that centuries after the Serbs disappeared and the Bulgars appeared, the natives of Wallachia and Moldavia still refer to their southern neighbors along the Danube asS erbsor S rbul . According to Budimir, in addition to other factors, clear evidence of an ancient Serb/Slav element n Danubia and Dacia is also found in the Roma- nian system of counting from ten upward as well as other linguistic substratums.

ENDNOTES

Ammianus' work is written in extreme detail and its general accuracy has never been challenged. Originally in thirty-

one books covering the years 96-378, the extant narrative begins with the events of 353, the year he joined the army

and served on Rome's eastern frontier.

In 'Juzne kulture i narodi prema luzickoj kulturi, Praslovenima i Slovenima', a paper presented at the International Congress of Slavic Archaeolog, Warsaw, 1965 (Miedzynanrodowy kongres archeologii slowianskiej, 1968), V. Trbuhovic presents evidence in support of his thesis that in the first century B.C. the Slavs resisted the Romans in Danubia, that

some remained, others migrated north and east.

For a Polish interpretation of Dagome iudex: P. Bogdanowicz, Geneza aktu dyplomatycznego zwanego Dagime

iudex,RoH25,1959

7. ET ALIO NOMINA SORABI DICTI:

WENDS, VANDALS

A

s the following selections indicate, one often finds the statement in

early and modern scholarship that Wend in one form or another (e.g.

Gutnielasin Sarmatoru idest Guinedorum)is a German name for Slavs called

Serbs: 1) Wend (Wenden) is a German name for the Sorben; 2)The Serbs are

Wends and the Wends are Serbs; 3) The land between the Saale and Elbe were

settled by Slavs, Wends who are also called Serbs; 4) Winden sind also Serben,

und das land Winden ist Srbien; 5) The so-called Sarmatians or Wends of Ger-

many and Poland are Serbs.

VENEDIS SLAVIS, SORABI

One of the earliest German sources refers to theVenedi Slavs also calledS erb s: A

Venedis Slavisq uiet ali o nomina Sorabid i cti( Chronic le ofFredgarms, 642).A ccording to the

Chronicon Cario nis compiled by J. Carion (1499-1537): 1)Most Sarmats were Wends

(Sarmaturum gentem maximum Henetosesse) ;2)Sarmat andHenet are one and

the same name and another name for the Serbs.L i n g ua H en eta orWi n d i sche spräche

is said to be the common language of the Slavs. According toChronicon Saxoniae, a German chronicle compiled in 1625, the Slavs on Saxony's borders are Heneti Sorabi who in different times and places are also known as Heneti, Wendi, Slavi andVan d ali :

The lands east of the Elbe were settled by the Heneti, who the Germans call Wendi,

the Italians, Slavi, and even Vandali by some writers.

VENEDORUM NATIONE

As the title of a 17th century study of the Serbs of Germania and Bohemia indi-

cates the Serbs areVenedorum Nationeare Populi Venedicti are Wends are Serbs:

Disputatio Historicade Serbis, Venedorum NationeVul g oDi ctiDi e Wenden.

VANDALS, VANDALIA

As the following series indicates, medieval sources sometimes refer to Germania's

Slavs and neighboring Slavs asV andals/Wandals, their lands,Van d ali a/Wan d ali a:1)

Ab Oriente Wandalorum gens ferocissima habitat; 2) Contra Wandelicos auxiliantibus; 3) De Sclavia. Sclavia estpars Mesia, multas continens regiones. Nam Sclavi sunt Bohemi, Poloni, Metani, Vandali, Rutheni;4) In Wandalos; 5) In regionem Wandalorum; 6) Inter Saxoniam et Vandaliam estAlbus. Estautem Vandalia terra, cujus gentes Slavi dicuntur;7 ) L ingua Rutenorum et Polonorum et Boemorum et Sclavanorum eadem est cum lingua Wandalorum; 8) Sclavorum in regionem Wandalorum; 9) Wandalos, quos nunc appellant Guenedos. The notion that at one

time Germania's Slavs orWi n uli were calledVan d al s has deep roots in early German

sources. In the late 11th century Adam of Bremen writes: Sclavania igitur, amplissima

Germaniaeprovintia, a Winulis incolitur, qui olim diet sunt Wandali.One century

later, Adam's successor, Helmold, writes: Where Poland ends one comes into a most

extensive Slavic province, that of the people who of old were called Vandali, but

nowWinithi or Winuli.Regarding the identity and location of the Winuthior: Winuli,

Helmold writes: The other river, the Oder, tending toward the north, passes through

the territory of the Winuli peoples, dividing the Pomeranians from the Wilzi. At its mouth, where its watersswel l those of the Baltic Sea, there one stood Jumen

[Wolin]... Then, beyond the sluggish current of the Oder and the territory peopled

by several Pomeranian tribes, there lies toward the west the country of the Winuli,

of those namely, who are called Tholenzi and Redarii.

WANDALO PATRE POLONORUM

In medieval Polish sources one finds the notion thatWan d al s take their name fromWan d al us, the father, progenitor of the Polish nation, of the Polish or Lechtic nation: Necno autem quatuor filios genuit, cuius primogenitus Wandalus, a quo

Wandalitae, qui Poloni nunc dicuntur,orti sunt. Hie ex nomine suo fluvium, qui nunc Wysla vulgariter nuncupatur, Wandalum censuit appellari, nam et mons, de quo oritur dictusfluvius Wanda ab eiusdem nomine vocitatur; Ipsa denique Wanda a. Wandalo, WandalorumidestPolonorumsiveL echitarumprogenitoe, de quo supra diximus nomen accepit; velpotest did Wanda a Wandalo scilicetflumine Wisla eo, quodeius regni centrum extiterit. The same sources trace the origin of all Slavic nations

to the sons ofWan d al us: H abui t [Wan d al us] quo que m ul t o sfi l i o s, qui g en erat i o n i bus

suis ultra quartampartem Europaeper regiones et regna semen suum multiplicando possederunt, videlicet: totalRussiam adorientem, Poloniam maximam terrarum et matrem, Pomeraniam, Seleuciam, Cassubiam, Sarbiam quae nunc Saxonia dicitur, Bohemiam, Moraviam, Stiriam, Carinthiam et Sclavoniam: quae nunc Dalmacia dicitur; Chrowatiam, Pannoniam, quae nunc Ungaria dicitur, Bulgariam et alias quamplures, quarum multitudepropterprolixitatem subticetur.

ALBERT KRANZ

An early authority on Saxony, A. Kranz (1450-1517), author of two important

historical treatises,V andalia (1519) andS ax onia (1520), is certain thatVan d al sare Wen d s

areSlav s who are divided into many nations, Poles, Bohemians and many others. A

decade later one finds the same notion in D. Chytraei'sV andalia (1591). Kranz, Chytraei and other scholars know that the originalVan d al s were a Germanic nation, who first appear in 406 when they crossed the Rhine, invaded Gaul and Spain, established a kingom in North Africa, and sacked Rome in 455. They believe that at some early point in time Slavic peoples settled alongside the GermanicVan d al s, and that later, after the latter had departed, the Slavs occupied their lands and came to be known asVan d al s.

GERMAN-SLAVVANDALS

Carrying thelongtim e G erm an- S lav neighb ors and f riends notion several steps for- ward, some German writers believe that the Slavic Vandals or: Wends represent the union of\f o n d a lo \d n m ers left behind and Slavic newcomers in former Vandal lands. On this point, M.B. Latimi writes: Als haben sich die Witzer Wuder and andere Slaven aus

Sarmatien Wandalen so heuffig in diese Lender und Stette gemachlich

eingedrungen, und mit dem Wandalen vereinbaret und befreudent, dass darüber

die alte Teutsche Sprache corrumpiret, und die Wendische Zunge mit eingwurzeit,

vermischetundgemein'worden i s(Wiasmariensis megapolitani genealochronicon,16 10 ).

EINWENDE

In a less speculative spirit a German historian writes in 1508 that Sarmatians,

Vandals and Slavs are Wends:Sarmatha et Vandalus et Sclavus =ein W ende. Accord

ing to another historian of the same period, Slav is a popular name for Vandal: Vandali,

quos vulgus Sclavos appelant. One finds the same notion in the title of an article by a

German authority on the subject in the early 20th century:Wandalen = Wenden( L

Steinberger, Wandalen = Wenden, AnP 37, 1915).

WEND/VANDAL AUS SCYTIA

In the mid-16th century, N. Volrab, a native of Budusin, informs his readers that

theWen d s, who originated inS c y thia(di e Wen d aus Scy t i a) are also known asVan d al s

andSlavs(Chronica von denA n tiq u ite te ndes KeiserlichenStrifiesd e r Romische Burgu n dS tadt Marseburg, 1556). In

the same period one of Basel's leading scholars, S. Munster (1448-1552), says the same

thingind i ffe r e n t words:Vandalen wo manjetztW endennennt(Cosmographia Universaüs).

VANDALS, VENEDS, SARMATS, SCYTHS

Regarding the conquest and settlement of Germania, C.S. Schurzfleisch writes:

Vandalis Venedi, Venedis Sarmatae, Germanis Schythae successerunt... Invadunt

Vandalontmdi ti o n esVen ed i( O riginesPom eranic ae,16 7 3 ).

VANDALOS SORABORUM NOMEN

According to an early 17th century history of Meissen, theVan d al s who founded

Meissen wereS erbs, actuallyS o rabs, a name derived fromS erb as in Ptolemy'sSarm at i an

Serbs: Vandalos peculiare Soraborum nomen habuisse... cuius derivatio a Serbis...

quorum Ptolemaeusm em i n i tsub sarmaticis populisi nA si a( R .R einerius,DeM isenom m

origine, rebus, gestis, mutationibus, variis dominatibus, etadventuin Germanium).

NUMEROUS, POWERFUL

The Vandals are prominent in M. Orbini's 1602 account of the origin of the Slavs. TheVan d al s, Orbini writes, were one of the more numerous and powerful Slav nations, who occupied a great area from the Baltic in the north to the Mediterranean in the south. According to Orbini, the Moscovites, Russians, Poles, Bohemians, Dalma- tians, Istrians, Croats and Rasians are some of the modern nations descended from the

Vandals.

LEXICON VANDALICUM

In the 17th and 18th centuries it is not uncommon for German Serb scholars to

refer to the Serbs as Vandals in the title and text of studies, lexicons, and grammars:

Didascalia seu Orthographia Vandalica; Enchiridion Vandalicum; Lexicon

Vandalicum; L inguae Vandalicae addialectum districtus Cotbusiani; Orthographia Vandalica; Principia linguae wendicae quant aliqui wandalicum vacant; Rudimenta Grammaticae Sorabo-Vandalicae Idiomatis Budissinatis; Versio VandalicaPraestandi homagiißdelitatio. Thus the full nameotS oc ietatisJ ab lanoviaae, a Leipzig based asso-

ciation promoting scholarly research and publication of Slavic studies, originating in the

18th century, included the following ethnonymic elements: Acta Societatisjablanoviaae

deSlavis Venedis, Antis, Vilzis, Sorabis aliquid de Vandalis et Henetis. 8. QUOD TANTUM EST REGNUM

T

hroughout history, from the medieval to the modern, historians origi- nating in diverse geographical-national circumstances, in diverse intel- lectual-cultural traditions and perspectives, acting on the basis of similar and dif-

ferent sources, some known, some unknown, have reached the same or similar conclu-

sions, namely that the Serbs are an ancient people, the ancestors of all or most Slavic

peoples.

QUOD TANTUM EST REGNUM

According to an important 9th century source, the Bavarian Geographer'sD e sc rip -

tio Civitatum ad Septentrionalem( h e r e a f t e r Descriptio Civitatum), all Slavs originate in

the immense lands of a great Serb dominion:Zeriuani, quod tantum est regnum, ut

ex eo cunctae gentes Sclavorum exortae sint et originem, sicut affirmant, ducant.

(A realm so great that from it, as their tradition relates, all the nations of the Slavs are

sprung and trace their origin).

TOTIUS ORBIA ANTIQUISSIMAM EX MAXIMAM

Some six centuries later one finds the same notion in another important and

authoritative source, namely Laonicus Chalcondyles' mid-15th century magnum opus,

Historiarum Demonstrations. A cautious, solid and reliable historian, Chalcondyles is

certain that the Serbs are the one of the greatest nations in the whole world in terms of

age and number:Serblos autemgentem esse totius orbis antiquissimam et maximam,

compertum habeo.

SERBICA

Certain Serb facts on the ground in the length and breadth of Greece itself were perhaps a factor in a Byzantine Greek historian's estimation of the age and size of the Serb nation. According to Byzantine sources, a Serb principality was established in Thessaly, centered atS erbi en , not far from Mount Olympus, in the 7th century. Diverse sources

document aS erbi aor S erbi en , a settlement and stronghold of immense strategic import

near the gorge that interrupts the mountain wall of Vermion and Olympus, through which the Bistrica River fights its way to the Aegean Coast. Later medieval Greek sources describeS erbi a as a well-fortified polis divided into three sections, the akra, where the archon lived, and the uppera n d lower sections inhabited by the politia( N.Z upanic ,T heS erb

Settlement in the Macedonian Town ofSrbiste in the Vllth century and the Ethnological and Sociological Moment in the Report ofConstantinus Porphyrogenitus concerning the Advent of Serbs and Croats, Etnolog 1,1926-27; P Skok, Konstantinova. Serbia u Grckoj, Glas SkA CLX X X I, 1938; B. Ferjancic, Vizantijski isrpski Ser u X IVstolecu, 1994).

SIRBANOS

A 1454-55 Ottoman document records a number of Christian timar holders

with Serb-sounding names in Thessaly: Dobros, Miroslavis, Bogdanos, Bogranos,

Sirbanos, Rados (N.Belcideanu, Timariotes chretiens inT hessalie, SuD 42,198 3 ).A n o t h e rOt t o m a n

document of the same period reveals a royal Serb presence in the person of Mara Brankovic,

daughter of Serbian Despot Djurach Brankovic, widow of Sultan Murad II, and step-

mother of Sultan Mehmed II. This source indicates that she was granted extensive own-

ership of lands in the area of Serres, including two villages with Serb sounding names,

JezovoandMravi nci /Muravni ca,situated southof Lake Takhinos( B .F erjandc ,T esalija uX IIl

iX IVveku,19 7 4).LaterOt t o m a n documents indicate that Mara granted both villages to the

monasteries of Hilandar and St. Paul on Mount Athos in 1466. Excavationsin Jezovo,

now Daphni, have uncovered architectural remains associated with Mara, including a

Structurek n o w n as theT ow er ofM a ra( M .U rsinius.A nO ttom anCensusR egister for theA reaof S em s,S uD

45, 1986).

THRACE, EPIRUS

TheS erb ethnikon is also found near Kirk Kilise in Turkish Thrace; near Trikalla

in the Trikalla-Karditsa district of Greek Thrace, where the distinguished German histo- rian,M. Vasmer, found122 Slav placenam es(Die Slavenin Griechenland,19 4l). Also near Yanina in the district of Epirus where Vasmer found no less than 334 Slav place names. Also on the rugged Chalcidic Peninsula, on the middle prongof L ongos (derived from a Slav word forw o o d la n d ), near the isthmus ofP ro v la k o s (a slightly Graecized word for

isthmus).In fact, a 10th century document from this area, a testimonial signed by several

Slav witnesses,is considered to be the oldest datedg la g o lith ic monument( G.S oulis, O nthe

Slavic Settlement in Hierissos in the Tenth Century, Byzantion 23, 1953).

SERBISTA, ZERVOKHORIA

In W.M. Leake's late 18th century account of his travels in northern Greece, one finds a number ofS erb - Z erv place names:Z ervo kh ia , one of two rivers ofMt. Pelium; the villageso f S ervu la , near Vostitza;S erp , alsoS erb ista , near Serres;Zerv o kho ri , near Negrita. On the territory of the Khimara ('the whole of the ancient Acroceraunian ridge ... the towns of Nivitza, Lukovo, Pikernes'),S erb appears in the name and ancestry of

one one of the leading clans, theZerv at i , who take their name from Zerva, a village

of the district of Arta. There were three brothers of that village, one of whom

turned Turk; another settled at Lefka at Corfu, where there is now a family of

Zervates;the third migratedto Suli( W.M .L eake, T ravelsinNorthern Greec e,19 6 7 ).

PELOPONNESUS

TheS erb ethnikon is found in greatest numbers in the Peloponnesus. In the

district of Argolis, near the isthmus of Corinth, a neck of land connecting the Peloponnesus to the rest of Greece; in the district of Ellis on the west coast of the Peloponnesus. Near Herata, in central Arcadia, an area rich in Slav place names; near Tryphylia in the south- western district of Messenia. At several places in the rugged southeastern district of Laconia (Sparta), an area that includes the Mani and the high and rugged Taygetos range (D.J.

Georgacas, The Medieval Names Melingi and Ezeritae of Slavic Groups in the Peloponnesus, Bz T 43, 1950). In his

study of Slavic names in Messenian Mani, P. Malingoudis identifies a numbero f S erb -

sounding toponyms common to both Germaniana n d Illyrian Serb lands, including,

among others: Bolesin, Cernov, Devica, Dubrava, Godine, Golina, Gora, Gostim,

Kamenik, Laz, Les, Ljuta, Luka, Malotin, Mokrina, Nizina, Okci, Ostrovo, Plavina,

Polica,P rosek,Radesin,Raztok,Rov,Senovica,Slavota, Vrba,Zadel( P.M alingoudis,

Studien zu den slavischen Ortsnamen Griechenlands, 1981).

STRATEGIC LOCATIONS

It is interesting and perhaps significant that a number of better-known Serb settle-

ments in Graecia were established at highly strategic points: near Mt. Olympus; thChalcidic Peninsula; the isthmus of Corinth; near Mt. Taygetus in Laconia-Sparta. Ac- cording to Zupanic, this was certainly true of the Serb settlement near Mt. Olympus. Impressed with the obvious military character of Serb settlement, he writes:It seems to

me that the first Srbisce must have a warrior camp. The Serbs came south as an

organized army ... The settlement of Srbsice suggests that it served as a military

base and as an organizing point for newcomers.

ANCIENT GRAECIA

There is some evidence that Slav settlement can be traced as far back as the begin-

nings of ancient Greece. No less an authority than Toynbee notes that some geographical

names of that period have a distinctly Slavonic filter. Indeed, he suspects thatthe

ancient Paiones may actually have been a Slavonic speaking people.Regarding the

time of Slavic settlement, Toynbee writes:Slavs were probably part of the Thracian

and Illyrian Volkerwanderung into southeastern Europe from 1,700 to 1,800 years

before the massive Volkerwanderung of the Slavs in the 6th and 7th centuries of the

Christian era. In the year 581, John of Ephesis gives the following account of the

massive Slav Volkerwanderung in the late 6th century: An accursed people called

Slavonians overran the whole of Greece ... captured the cities and overran nu-

merous strongholds . . . reduced the people to slavery, made themselves the mas-

ters of the whole and settled in it by means of force and dwelt in it as though it

had been their own . . . The Slavonians live at ease in the lands and dwell in it as far

and wide as God permits them.Four years later, he writes: they [Slavonians] live in

peace in the Roman territories, free from anxiety and fear . . . And they have grown

rich in gold and silver and herds of horses and arms, and have learned to fight

better than the Romans.'

ENDNOTES

M. Vasmer, Die Slaven in Grieschenland, 1941. P. Charanis, Nicephorus I, the Saviour of Greece from the Slavs, Byzantina-Metabyzantina 1, 1946; On the Question of the Slavonic Settlements in Greece during the Middle Ages, ByS 10, 1949; The Chronicle of Monemvasia and the Question of the Slavonic Settlements in Greece, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 5, 1950; On the Slavic Settlements in the Peloponnesus, ByZ 46,1953; On the Slavic Settlement in the Peloponnesus, Studies on the Demography of the Byzantine Empire, 1972. J. Werner, Slavische Bronzefiguren aus Nordgriechenland, 1953. P. Lemerle, Invasions et migrations dans les Balkans depuis la fin de l'epoque romaine jusqu au VHIe siecle, Revue Historique 211, 1954. F. Dolger, Ein Fall slavischer Einsiedlung im Hinterland von Thessalonike im 10. Jhd., Sitzungsber Bayer. Akad. Philo-Hist, 1957. C. Hopf, Die Slaveneinfalle in Griechenland, 1962. P. Malingoudis, La penetration des Slaves dans la peninsule balkanique et la Grece continentale, Revue des Etudes Sud-East Europeenes 1, 1963; Studien zu den slavischen Ortsnamen Griechenlands I, Slavische Flurnamen aus der messenischen Mani, 1981; Toponymy and history: Observations concerning the Slavonic toponymy of the Peloponnese, CyM 7, 1983; Zur fruhslawischen Sozialgeschichte im Spiegel der Toponymie, Etudes Balkanique 21, 1985; Frühe slawischen Elemente im Namengut Griechenlands, Die Volker Sudosteuropas im 6. bis 8. Jh, 1987. J. Schropfer, Slavisches in Ortsnamen der Peloponnes, besonders der Argolis, Orbis Scriptus, 1966. M.S.F. Hood, An Aspect of the Slav Invasons of Greece in the Early Byzantine Period, Sbornik Narodniho Muzea v Praze, Rada A, Historic XX, 1966. J. Karayannopulos, Zur Frage der Slavenansiedlungen auf dem Peloponnes, RevEtSudEstEur 9, 1971. J. Köder, Zur Frage der slavischen Siedlungsgebiete im mittelalterlichen Griechenland, ByZ 71, 1978. Wi Weithmann, Die slavische Bevölkerung auf der grieschischen Halbinsel. Ein Beitrag zur historischen Ethnographie, 1978; Strukturkontinuitat und Diskontinuiat auf der Griechischen Halbinsem im Gefolge der slavischen Landnahme,

MzB 2, 1979; Anthropologisches Fundgut zur Einwanderung der Slaven im Griechenland. Eine

Materialzusammenstellung, Homo 36, 1985. P.A. Yannopoulos, La Penetration Slave en Argolide, Bulletin de

correspondance hellenique 6, 1980. A.A. Beleckij, Slavjanska toponimija Greceii, Perspektivy ravitija slavjansko

onomastiki, 1980. S. Vryonis, The Evolution of Slavic Society and the Slavic Invasions of Greece, Hesperia 50,1981.

H. Birnbaum, Noch einmal zu den slavischen Milingen auf der Peloponnes, FsT H. Brauer, 1986. Z. Golab, Jazikot

na Prvite Sloveni vo Grcija i istorijata na makedonskiot jazik, MaK XL-XLI, 1989-90

PART III

1. WHITE SERBS

I

n terms of conventional sources, there is no record of proto-Polish civilization, of Poland's social and political foundations, in the centuries prior to the formation of the medieval Polish state in the 10th century. Poland enters the historical record in

the mid-10th century with several very brief references to King Mieszko (963-992).

One toKing Misaca, under whose rule the Slavs were living, a second to Mieszko,

king of the north.

ONOMASTIC EVIDENCE

Nonetheless there is overwhelming onomastic evidence that the Serbs occupied

much of the territory of prehistoric Poland and played a seminal role in the early stages

of Corona Regnum Poloniae.

BIALI SERBOWIE

In a mid-20th century study, the distinguished Polish historian, T. Lewicki iden-

tifies numerous place names with the Serb ethnikon in core and perimeter Polish lands

(T.L ewic ki,K onstantegoP of irogenety iB iali Serbowe wpolnocnjeP olsc e,R oH 22,1956).W hatism o sts i g n i f i -

cant is the fact that the greatest concentrations of the more than thirty-six ethnonymic Serb place names cited are found in the geographic center of the proto-Polish nation.1 More precisely, place names at and near Gniezno, the center ofVi el ko po l ska or Great Poland, and Poznan, the first capitals of the Polish state and the seats of the first Polish metropolis and bishopric. An Old Slavic word,gniez no connotes nest, cradle, heart, core, nucleus. Recent evidence of Gniezno's primacy in Poland's historical-national con- sciousness is found in the words of Pope John Paul at Gniezno in 1979: Here I greet

with veneration the nest of the Piast, the origin of the history of the motherland.

ORIGIN OF THE MOTHERLAND

In this historic area, bound by the Warta river in the west, the Notec river in the north, and Lake Goplo in the east, with large fortifications at Kurswica, Gniezno, and Poznan, and smaller fortifications at Klecko, Ostros, Lednicki, Giez, Lad, and Trzemesno, in thisnest of the Piast, this origin of the history of the motherland, one finds a great number of ethnonymic Serbs. In fact, in this area Serb place names are found in greater number than anywhere at anytime in Europe.

Sarbia

Sarbin

Sarbia

Sarbina

Sarbia

Sarbino

Sarbia

Sarbice

Sarbino

Sarbicko

Sarbinovo

Sarbka

Sarbinovo

Sarbka

Sarbinovo

Sarbskie Huby

Sarbinovka

MALOPOLSKA

The Serbs also appear to be the dominant Slavic element in a secondary center of Polish nationhood. Professor Lewicki finds a concentration of politically strategic Serb place names inM alopolska or Little Poland. In the lands of the ancientV islanie, from the river Vis, Visla, Vistula, centered at Vislica, one of the oldest Polish cities, the seat of legendary Prince Vislav, one finds Szarbia, Szarbia, andSzarbkov. North of Vislica, between the ancient towns of Malogoszcz and Sandomierz, one findsSarbin

and Szarbsko.

MAZOVIA

East ofVi el ko po l ska, the Serb ethnikon is well represented in the former Duchy of Mazovia (united with Poland in 1526) where one finds the Serb ethnikon in both place names and surnames. North ofSzarb, for example,Sarbievo is the birthplace of the great poet and classicist Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595-1649).

POMERANIA

In language, culture, and geography Pomerania was an integral part of Baltic Slavic civilization west of the Oder River. In government and politics it had strong ties with the powerfulV eletian/L utic ian federation. The same factors that tied the western Pomeranians to the Baltic Slavs separated them from the Polish Slavs. Centered on maritime city-states, the seafaring Pomeranians were far more advanced in industry, trade, commerce, and culture. Some German historians are certain that Pomerania is an original and integral Serb land.2 One historian refers toPomerania as a primary

Sorbenland or Surpe-Sorbenland. Another German historian writes that the entire

Baltic coast to the Vistula, with the interior, was settled by Serb-Wends. Here too,

of course, evidence of Serb occupation and settlement is found in such place names as

Sarbia, Sarbinovo, and Sarbsko.Some measure of the importance and intensity of

seafaring trade in Pomerania is found in the fact that in the early 12th century Bishop Otto's missionary activities were sometimes thwarted by the fact that in one town after another, the natives were more at sea than at home:Thence we came to Colobrega,

which is situated, on the border of the sea. As nearly all its citizens were sailors

after the manner of traders to the outer islands to do business, those who were

found at home said that they could not adopt no new course in the absence of their

fellow-citizens, and on this ground they withstood the preaching of the gospel for

some time( C.H .R ob inson,T heL if e ofO ttoA postle ofPom erania 10 6 0 - 113 9 ,19 2 0 ).

CONVERSION

In fact, fear of their rivals in the northwest, theV eletian- Pom eranian alliance,

may have changed thecourse of Polish history( Z .Wojtiehowsk,Poczatki ChrzesäjanstwawPolsc e na

tie Stosunkov Niemiecko-Wieeckich, Zyde aM y sli3 /4,19 5 0 ).It appears that severed e fe a ts at the

hands of Veletian-Pomeranian forces in 963forced Mieszko to look for help against

the warlike pagans,convert to Christianity, and seek the assistance of Christian Bohemia

and other members ofChristiana respub lic a. Later, thec rusading im pulse that followed conversion will change the course of Polish history in another important way. Christian sources record and celebrate Duke Boleslav's III attacks on Pomerania in 1121 whenhe

ravaged the country west of the River Oder with fire and sword and announced his

intention of converting all the inhabitants to the Christian faith, or of destroying

them, in the event of their refusing to be converted.Polish knights will also take an

active role in serial crusades against pagans in Prussia and Lithuania. To their credit, however, Polish authorities were the first or among the first (e.g. the indictment of the Teutonic Order by Paul Vladimir, a Polish ambassador at the church council in 1415) to rebel against the plunder and slaughter of innocent and peaceful unbelievers who refused to bow to the Holy Roman Empire, to accept Papal servitude.

ZIEMIA KASZUBSKA

In Eastern Pomerania, theKaszubs(gens Slavonica, Caussbitae dicuntur) of

Ziemia Kaszubska, a distinct historic, linguistic, and cultural Pomeranian entity, one

findstraces of a Serb past in thePolishp resen t(H .K unstm ann,Woherdie Kaschube ihrenNam en

haben,DwS 2 9 ,19 8 4).In a region calledK aszubowSlowi nski ch, one finds a modern town

and lake with the Serb ethnonym, namelySarbske and Sarbske jezero, immediately

westof the better-known townand lakeof Lebaand Lebsko( ET etz ner, DieS low inz en und

Lebaskashcuben, 1899. L. Zablocki, O Slotvincach i Kaszubach nadlebskich, Jantar 3, 1947).

SILESIAIn early German sources one finds reference to Serbs in Silesia:Sirvi, welch in

Schlesien wohneten.Early and later German sources often identify Silesia as an im-

portant junction in the Serb settlementof Serbska Luzi ca or Lusatia. There is evidence

of Serb settlement in several place- names (e.g. Sarbino, Serby) and a Serb province or

Surbiensispro v i n ci acited in themid-1 0thc e n tu ry Silesian Annals(Annales Silesiae). It is

interesting that in this area theSilesian Annals also record a stubborn resistance to the

Latin rite and the defiant use of theS lav- H eneti language in church services:Slav i cae

sen henetae linguae usum ...in sacris eccleaisasticis... inibuitac latin lingua concipi

liturgiamprecesaquejussit.Several mountains in Silesia, Mts. Sobotka and Radunia,

were longn o to rio u s centers of pagan rituals. Referring to Mt. Sobotka, Bishop Thietmar

writes in the early 11th century:It was the object of great veneration on the part of all

the people because of its size and purpose, for iniquitous mysteries were celebrated

there. The following century finds Sileisia's Bishop of Wroclaw engaged in search-and-

destroy missions against pagan cult centers where wooden images of old gods were kept.

In the 19th century the pagan past was alive and well in such folk sayings as the one cited

by J.K ollar:Kto nanasuSobot kuneprigdze; roroka hoglavabolecbudze(H .Cehak-

Holubowicza, Olimp Slaska in Szkice z dziejow Slaska, 1955; Kamienne konstrukcje kultowe pod szczytem napolnocnym

sotku gory Slez, Swiatowit 23, 1960).

ENDNOTES

S. Kozierowski, Atlas nazw Geograficznych Slowianszczyzny Zachodnie, 1934; Badania nazw topograficznych

starej Wielkopolski, 1939. \K Taszycki, Najdawniezsze polski imiona osobowe, RoP 3, 1925.

L Quandt, Zur Urgeschichte der Pomoranen, BaL 22,1868. S. Kozierowski, Nazwy rzeczne w Lechji przybaltyckiej

i w przyleglych czesciah Slowianszcyzny polnocno-zachodniej, SIO 9, 1930. R. Kietsnowski, Plemiona Pomorz Zachodniego w swietle naj starsch zrodel pisanych, SlA 3, 1951-2. J. Dowiat, Ekspansja Pomorza zachodniego na ziemie wielecko-obodrzyckie w drugiej polowie XII wieku, PrZ 59, 1959. L. Leciejewicz, Poczatiki nadmorskich miast na Pomorzu Zachodnim, 1962. W! Losinski, Osadnictwo plemienne Pomorza (VI-X wiek), 1982.

2. WHITE SERBIA

S

ome historians believe that prehistoric Poland's history is in part the history ofWhite Serbia. It is a matter of record that the Serb ethnonym was as common east of the Oder as it was in theWhite Serb heartland west of the

Oder. East of the Oder,1 oppositeSerbska Biota (Serb Marsh) and Serbska Hola (Serb

Heath) inSerbska Luzica (Serb Lusatia), one finds the place namesZorbenov,

Sarbinovo, Serbovand Sarby.

BORDERS

In his 10th century magnum opus, al-Masvudi writes: the Bobr, Elbe and Saale rivers mark the borders ofWhite Serbia (Muruj ahd-dhahab wa ma'adin aljawahir). One of the more authoritative modern studies, J. Marquart's outlinesWhite Serbia's borders in similar terms: from the Bobr in the east, across the Elbe, to the Saale in the west( O steuropaisc heS treiß uege,19 0 3 ). At its height, most historianste n dto placeWhi t e Serbi a's eastern borders deeper into later Polish territory. Gebhardt, for example, places Silesia and western Poland up to the Vistula withinWhite Serbia's 8th century borders(L. A.

Gebhardt, Geschichte aller Wendische-SlawischenS taaten,17 9 0 ).InH erkunf tderB altisc henWenden( 18 7 2 )

Quandt extendsWhite Serbia's borders in the east to includeWhite Serb concentra- tions at Opole, Poznan, Kaliscz and Gniezno.2 Noting the location of theSurpe Serbs recorded by Alfred the Great (871-899), Quandt is certain that the Serbs of Germania,

Vielkopolska and Opole/Silesia are one people:The Surpe are one and the same as

the Opolini and the people who live in Poznan, Kaliscz and Gniezno. It is interest-

ing and should be noted that in recent time, viewing the facts of the matter from an entirely different perspective, H. Kunstmann traces Opolin and Polin to Balkan Slav roots (Wer waren die Opolini des Geographus Bavarus Bavarus, und woher kommt das

Ethnonym Polonia? ).

TO THE BUG

Safarik and other noted Slavists are certain that at one timeWhite Serbia's borders reached the Bug and beyond. Some scholars are certain that the ancientBuz han i were originally Serbs. For example, the noted historian G. Krek writes:In ancient

times on the Bug were the Buzhani, a Slavic tribe, who were once called Serbs. A

large and powerful tribe comprising some 231c ities in the mid-9th century( B usani

habentc ivitatesCCX X X I),occupyingth e borderlands separating Poland fromW h ite

Rus, Red Rus and Kiev Rus, theBuz han i ('buzhane, zane sedosha po Bugu'), later, the

Volyni or Volynians ('poslezhe zhe velynane') occupied a large stretch of the river Bug.

OnBuz hi an territory, on the west bank of the Bug, was a region known asCz erv i a. Authoritative German and Polish historians, J. Marquart and J. Otrebski among oth- ers, suspect that theCz erv s ofCz erv i a wereS erbs. The well-known cities ofCz erv i a

('ziemia Grodov Czervienskich'), centered at Czervien, included Czervien, near Czermno

on the Huczwa, and the historic cities of Chelm and Volyn. It is perhaps interesting and coincidental that one of the lesser-known cities had the highly uncommon name of Sutieska or Sutjeska as in Sutjeska on the border of Bosnia and Montenegro.

BOIKI

Evidence in favor of this general area as an ancient Serb homeland and point of departure for Serbs moving westwards is found in a primary Byzantine source, namely Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus sDe A dm inistrando Im perio. Regarding the ori- gin of the Balkan Serbs, where the Serbs originally dwelt, Constantine writes:The Serbs

are descended from the unbaptized Serbs, also calledWhi t e, who lived beyond

Turkey [Hungary] in a place called by them Boiki, where the neighbor is Francia

(N. Zupanic, Bela Srbija, Narodna starina 1, 1922).

G ALICIA

Noting that Byzantine sources are often in error in matters beyond their imme- diate scope in time and space, some of the early Slav specialists, Safarik, Surowiecki, and other outstanding scholars, including the great Czech scholar Dobrovsky and the Croat F. Racki, are certain that Constantine's statement is in error regarding the loca- tion ofBo i ki . They believe that Constantine confused thederivative Serbs of Bohe- mianBo i ki with theoriginal Serbs of GalicianBo i ki ,the Bo i ki district of eastern Galicia, a territory believed to be an ancient and direct link between the Eastern and Southern Slavs.

BOIKI HIGHLANDERS

In modern timesBo i ki refers to a distinct Slavic community, Ukrainian high- landers who differ from their Slavic neighbors (e.g. Lemkos/Rusnaks, Hutsuls) in lan- guage, dress, architecture, and customs, and who have preserved many ancient customs and rituals that disappeared in other parts of Galicia and Ukraine. TheBo i ki region includes the High Beskid, the eastern part of the Middle Beskid, the Middle Carpathians, and the Carpathian Depression. In this area one finds the small towns of Borinia, Borislav, Dolina, Drogobich, Medenica, Nizhni Vorota, Stari Sambor, Stri, and Volove.

DUKLAIt is interesting and perhaps coincidental that in the Eastern Beskids, in the

Lemko region, theBo i ki border an area with the uncommon nameo fDukl a, centered

near the towno fDukl a, just north of the strategic Dukla Pass on the Polish-Czecho-

slovak border.Dukl aor Dukl j a, of course, is also the highly uncommon name of a

Serb nation that gave its name to the first Serb state, theD ukl j an i of medievalD ukl j a

(J. Udolph, Zu Deutung und Verbreitung des Namens Dukla, BnF 23, 1988; H. Kunstmann, Der Dukla-Name und

sein Weg von Montenegro über die Karpaten nach Nordwestrussland, DwS 33, 1988).

ENDNOTES

In addition to the several Serb dialects spoken east of the Oder, there are other interesting linguistic continuities (e.g. M. Gruchmanova, Luzycko-Wielkopolska Izomorfa Norn.- Acc.-Voc. PI. Dny, Z Polskich Studiow Slawistycznych 5, 1978.

Opole refers to the early medieval Duchy of Opole in Silesia, centered at Opole on the Oder River, said to have twenty cities in the mid-9'1' century(Opolini, civitates X X ). The name Opol is is Slavic word for a territorial community. Today Opol is the name of a city and county in southwestern Poland. W. Holubowicz, Opolu w wiekach X-XII, 1956. H. Borek, Opolszyzna w swietle nazw miejscowych, 1972.

3. FROM THE UNBAPTIZED SERBS

WHO DWELL ON THE RIVER VISLA

I

mpressive evidence that some of the Balkan Serbs originated in Poland is found inDe Administrando Imperio. In his treatise, Emperor Constantine Pophyrogenitus informs us that inZahumlja, a principality in coastal Serbia:The

family of the patrician Mihailo Visevich, son of Viseta, prince of the Zahumlyans,

came from the unbaptized Serbs who dwell on the river Visla and are called Litziki.

LITZIKIMost historians tend to agree with 319th century Polish historiography that the

nameL itz iki is derived fromlug, an Old Slav word for moor, marshland, pasture, woodland, and wasteland. Thus Lugizi, Ligizi, Litziki and other variations are parallel archaic names for theP olanie, a name derived from an Old Slav word with similar connotations. According to L. Niederle, however, it is more likely thatL itz iki is a ge- neric name for Poles, derived from one of the better known and westernmost Polish tribes/nations, theL ic ic aviki as in:Sclav i qui di cun tur L i ci cav i kiand lo n g i us deg en tes

barbari...L i ci cav i ki , bordering with Serb lands westof theOd e r( J . Widajewicz, Licicaviki

Widukina, SIO 6, 1927. G. Labuda, Licicaviki, SsS 3, 1967).

VIS, VISLA, VISEVIC, VISEVO

The patronymicVisevich certainly suggests aV is/V isla/V islani origin for the house of Visevich. In several place names in medievalZahumlja one finds toponymic evidence in favor of a Vislanian origin of other Serb lineages: e.g.V isevaz upa or county;

Viseva, a local name for the upper Neretva( T . Wasilewski, Administraja bizantynska naz iem iac h

skwianskich i jej polityka wobec Slowian w XI-XII w, KwA 70, 1973; Wislanska dynastia ijej zachlumskie panstwo w

IX-Xw,PaM 15, 1965).

CIVITATES OMNES ROMANOOS

Anti-Byzantine and pro-Bulgarian in orientation, a close ally of the very learned and powerul ruler of Bulgaria and champion of Slavdom, Tsar Simeon (893-927), seated at Preslav,Mi hai lo Visevich was a force in affairs beyond the borders of Zahumlja: In

the year 925 Pope John X invites Mihailo (Michaele exellentissimo duce

Chulmorum), along with Tomislav of Croatia, to take part in the resolution of

church affairs in Croatia-Dalmatia.

An inscription found at Ston suggests thatMi hai lo considered himself the su-

preme authority in the affairs of Byzantine towns along the Dalmatian coast:

MIHAELVS FORTITER SVPER REGO PACIFICO

CIVITATES OMNES ROMANOOS.

REX SCLAVORUM CIVITATEM SIPONTUM

Mihailo was also a force to be reckoned with on the opposite shore of the Adriatic,

on the Apulian spur of the Italian boot. Crossing the Adriatic, in 926Mihailo con- quered Byzantine Siponto, opening the way for greater Serb settlement in the Gargano peninsula.Comprendit Michael rex Sclavorum civitatem Sipontum.

SERBS CONTRA SERBS

Decade's later Serb settlements in southern Italy will lead toS erbs originating

in Illyria by way of Poland(?), fighting against invadingS erbs originating in Germania's

White Serbia. In the year 981, Serb forces recruited in southeastern Italy, reinforced

by some 40,000S erb mercenaries under the commandof Vukasin(4 0 ,0 0 0 pag an i

condotti dalloro reBuUicassinus), take an active role in the defense of Calabria against

the forces of Emperor Otto of Germany, includingS erb forces from Germania'sWhi t e

Serbiaand Serb knights serving in Otto's personal bodyguard.

ZUPAN GLUBISA

It appears that in some instances the Serbs survived as an independent national-

political community as late as the mid-11th century: When Serb zupans (e.g. zupan

Andreas, zupan Glubisa) are found at the head of a number of communities in the

Gargano area (e.g. Devia, Varano) where natives with Serb personal names are re-

corded (e.g. Drago, Radovit).In this general area one finds numerous references to

Slavic settlements in family names (e.g. Scavone, Schiavone, Cito, Pribo, Pissichio,

Stano), in village names (e.g. Castellucium de Slavis, L esin, Peschici, Schiavt),a n d

toponyms (e.g.rione degli Schiavonia, Monte Schiavoni, Ponte degli Schiavoni,

Schiauni, Ponte Schiavo, Piano Schiavt).^

SRBLYI, POLES

One moment in the second half of the 14th century makes it very clear that the Bosnian Serbs believed that the Serbs and Poles were one people, who, sharing a com- mon ancestry, had an obligation to assist one another in times of trouble, in this in- stance, the Turkish threat.

KRAL SERBLEM

In 1440, Stevan Tvrtko II (1440-43), King of Bosnia and all the Serbs

(MILOSTYU BOZHNOM MI GOSPODIN KRAL SERBLEM) asserting a common

ancestry, language and interest, sought assistance from the newly elected Slavic king of

Hungary, the Pole Vladislav Varnecik (1440-1444).

ISTI PRADJEDOVI

The letter and spirit of this earlyP an- S lav moment are a matter of historical record. Contemporaneous Hungarian sources offer a clear statement of the thesis ad- vanced by Stevan Tvrkto's emissaries to Vladislav's court at Budim, namely the com- mon ancestry of the Poles and Serbs(Srbly i ). A Croat translation of the Latin original reads as followsodje i od kralja bosanskoga sjajne poslanstvo odlicnih muzeva.

Ovi su izpricavsi porietlo svoga plemena izticali, da su Bosnjakom isti pradjedovi bili, koji i Poljakom, te da im je zajednicki jezik, koji govore; i da se radi te rek bi srodnosti jezika i porietla njihov kralj zivo raduje, sto je Vladislav—kako se pronio

glas—sretan u svojih podhvatih. Mongo su nadalje izticali priliku, kako bi se radi

srodnosti i susjedstva mogli, dapace i morali ujedinjenom snagom i savjetom medju

sobom pomagati proti uzasnomu zulumu turskomu, koji im prieti. Osim toga

zatrazise, da se ugovor i prijateljstvo, koje su svi dotadanji kraljevi najvecom svetoscu

postivali i cuvali, medju Bosnom i Ugarskom ili sklopi ili obnovi. Poslanikom bi

milostivo odgovoreno: da je pravo, sto se uspjeh i i napredak Vladislavov njihovu kralju svidja, toll radi onoga srodstva jezika i porietla, koje spominju, koli radi

toga, sto je jednim i drugim malo ne jednako do toga, da se sto prije sva Ugarska umiri te krjepkimi silatni proti zajednickomu dusmaninu vojna povede. Zatitn im zahvalise, sto je njihov kralj sam obrekao, da ce u zgodan cas pomagati Ugarskoj proti Turkom i zborom i tvorom, pa ih obodrise, neka bi kralj do kraja uztrajao u

tojnamisli.Napokon bjeugovormedjukraljevi ikraljevinamiutvrdjen( VK laic ,

Povijest Bosna: Do Propoasti Kraljevstva, 1882).

MORE TURKISH THAN THE TURKS

In fact, of course, then and later, the Polish moment in Bosnia's affairs are far from fraternal. Polish knights take part in serial crusades against the good Christians of Bosnia. Centuries later, Poles serving in Ottoman and Austrian occupation armies and administrations are notorious for their hostility to the native population. An 1877 incident recorded in Pristina perhaps captures the letter and spirit of the Polish mo-

ment:The books at Prishtina were from Belgrade, but as they seemed only to have

chitankas adapted for the youngest children, we asked if they had not some histo-

ries of Serbia. The master looked furtively around, and then said that he had some,

butdared not to usethemopenly."Why not?"" B ec ause theo ffi cers of theT urki sh

regimentsf req uen t l y comean d lollabo ut in ourscho o l, and the cavalryo ffi cersare

often Hungarians,C o ssackso r Poles,an d ean readt he Slavic books.""Butthesedr y

histories contain nothing revolutionary, and surely the officers who are your fel-

low Christians would not wish to caluminate you.""The rest would not, but the

Poles are more Turkish than the Turks themselves. One day a Polish officer looked over the shoulder of one of the children, and called out: 'Holla, master! What do I see here? These books come from the principality [Serbia], and here is something about the history of Serbia. If I catch you at this again, I shall report you to the authorities'. I trembled from head to foot and knew not what I would say or do; but luckily there was also present a Cossack, a deserter from the Russian service, a good man who always befriended us; he got the Pole out of the room, and said to him in displeasure that they were not sent to Prishtina to meddle with the Serb school( G .

Muir Mackenzie, A. P. Irby, The Slavonic Provinces of Turkey in Europe, 1877).

THE BLACK POPE

In World War II, it should be noted, Moslem leaders placed the blame for the crusading war and genocide against the Serbs and the chaos in Bosnia squarely on the shoulders of the Austro-Polish 'Black Pope,' Wladimir Ledochowski, Superior General of the Jesuits, who, perhaps inspired byd eran g ed visions of adi v i n e Polish mission, appears to have supported a Roman Catholic crusade againstsc hi sm at i c s in eastern and southeastern Europe.

ENDNOTES

M. Resetar, Die serbokoratischen Kolonien Suditaliens, 1911. G. Reichenkron, Serbokroatisches aus Suditalien,

ZsP, 12, 1934. G. Rohlfs, Ignore colonie slave sulle coste del Gargano, CeR 3, 1958. M. Hraste, Nepoznate

slavenske kolonije na obalama Gargana, Kolo Matice hrvatske, 1963. G. Rohlfs, Slavische Kolonisation in Suditalien,

SuD 29,1 9 70

BOISKI SERBS?

In 432 or 433, Priscus writes: a Hunnish ruler ... intending to go to war with

die Amilzouri, Itimari, Tonosours, Boiski and other races dwelling on the Danube

and who had taken refuge in a Roman alliance. Some scholars suspect that some of

the nations so-named are Slavs, perhaps Serbs, namely theAl-mizuri, Milcani Serbs; the

Tono-sursi, Surs-Serbs; the Iti-mari, Moravi Serbs; the Boiski, Boiski Serbs, Emperor

Constantine VII's Boiki Serbs.

STRAVA

Priscus' account of his visit to Attila's camp in Pannonia also reveals strongs Slavic

traces in the personal names, food, drink, and customs of the Huns and their Scythian

allies: millet//>rar0; honey/medos; funeral feast/strava). Especially striking is the Slavic funeral

ceremony or Strava following Attila's death in 454: After he had been mourned

with such lamentations they celebrated a 'Strava' as they call it, over his tomb with

great revelry, coupling opposite extremes of feeling in turn among themselves.

A SLAVIC TRIBE

C.D. Gordon's authoritative translation and commentary on 5th century Greek

historians gives important information on the Sciri or Scyri, a Slavic tribe, once part

of die Hunnish empire (The Age ofAttila, i960). We learn that: 1) The Sciri, who had

settled in Lower Moesia on the Danube, were a power in Pannonia where they were

in more or less constant conflict with the Goths; 2) the Sciri played an important role

in the Western armies commanded by Ricimer [appointed commander of imperial

armies by emperor Avitus] and his successors; 3) the Sciri formed an important

part of Odovacar's army in his final conquest of Italy; 4) Odovacar, the first barbarian

king of Italy, either sprang from the race of Thuringi on his father's side and the

Sciri on his mother's side, according to one account, or he was of the nation of the

Scyri, according to another.

[Sea of Azov], stretch northward a distance of fifteen days journey.Polybius locates

Sarmafia in thePonto-C aspiansteppe( H istona). Ptolemy'sS arm atia is animmensearea

bounded by the Vistulaand Volga rivers and the Balticand Black seas( GeographikeH y phegesis). Pomponius Mela givesS arm atia a European orientation, namely the lands east of the Elbeand northof the Danube( DeS ituO rb is).

SARMATS

Similarly,S arm at orS arm atae (also Sarabatiae, Sauromatae, Syrmatae, and

Sermende among others) succeeds Scythor Scythae more often than not as a learned

archaism for the Slavs (e.g.Sarmatae Sclavi). Pliny, Tacitus and Ptolemy refer to the Slavs on the Vendic/Baltic Sea and the Vistula River as Sarmats. Ptolemy, for example, writes:H abi t an t Sarm at i am g en t es m ax i m ae Ven ed aepro pt ert o t um Ven ed i cum si n um ;

Minores autem gentes Sarmatiam incolunt iuxta Visutalam infra Venedas Gythanes.

Mela locatesS arm atia east of Germania:G erm an i ad Sarm at as po rri g un t ur. Precisely

whereGerm ania ends andS arm atia begins, however, was a matter of some confusion. In

De Origine et Situ Germanorum (A.D. 98), a somewhat garbled description of the vari-

ous tribes west of the Rhine and north of the Danube, believed to be based largely on

out-of-date material, Tacitus is not sure whether some nations wereGerm ans orS arm ats.

Here Suebia ends. I am not sure whether the tribes of the Peucini, Veneti should

be assigned to the Teutons or to the Sarmatians ... The Venedi have adopted many

Sarmatian habits; for their plundering takes them over all the wooded and moun-

tainous highlands that lie between the Peucini and the Fenni. Nevertheless, they

are one the whole to be classed as Germans; for they have settled homes, carry

shields, and are fond of traveling—and travelling as—on foot, differing in all

these respects from the Sarmatians.

SUEBI

It is important to note that theS uebi , who occupy Germania's heartland, are also

a problem of sorts for Tacitus. TheS uebi , Tacitus writes,do not constitute a single

nation. They occupy more than half Germany, and are divided into a number of

separate tribes under different names, though all are called by the generic name

Suebi.In the early 1820s, D. Popp was one of the first German historians to identify

Tacitus'S uebi with the Slavs.

NOT ALL SARMATIANS

At the same time it was clear to ancient and modern historians thatS arm at and

Sarmatia4 referred to an immense area inhabited by numerous and different nations,

Slavs and others. In the succinct words of one scholar: All Slavs are Sarmatians, but all

Sarmatians are not Slavs.

2. ILLYRIA, DALMATIA

I

n opposition to a northeast-southwest Slav invasion/settlement thesis, a contrary position has evolved in German historical scholarship—that the Slavs of Germany, Poland, and bordering lands originated in Serb lands between the Danube and the

Adriatic, namely the former Roman provinces of Illyria and Dalmatia.1

THE ILLYRIA / DALMATIA THESIS

In terms of the Serb-Wend settlement of Germania, the Illyria/Dalmatia thesis has deep roots in German historical scholarship, dating from C. Schottgen and G. Keysig in the early 18th century to H. Kunstmann in the late 20th century.

ORIGINATED IN SARMATIA

Schottgen and Kreysig find no fault with the notion that Germania's Serb-Wends originated in Sarmatia, in an area between the Volga, the Caucasus, and the Sea of Azov. However, they find fault with the favored notion that the Serb-Wends entered Germania from the north and east. They absolutely reject the views of such writers as T.

Segerus: What, I ask, is more obvious and certain than that the Serbs from Misin/

Meissenestabli shedtheki ngdoms ofSlavoni a andSerbi a i nIllyri a?(T .S egerus,DeS lavis

etLecho, 1725).

FROM THE SOUTH

In fact, they write, the evidence is clear that the exact opposite is true: (1) the Serb-Wends did not enter Germania from the northby way of Prussia and Pomerania; (2) the Serb-Wends entered Germania from the south, from Illyria,by way of Moravia

and Czechia^ (3) the Serb-Wends of Germania did not establish Serb kingdoms in

Illyria; (4) the Illyrian Serbs migrated to, settled in, and established the Serb-Wend

kingdomsofme di e va lG ermani a( C.S c hongen, G.K rey sig,Diplom atisc heun dC uri euse Nac hlehre der

Historicvon Ober-Sachsenund antgrentzendenlanden,17 3 0 ).ThemanyOnomasti c,li n gui st i c , a n d

cultural parallels between the original Illyrian Serb lands and the derivative Germania

Serb-Wend lands, they write, are simply too great to have it any other way.

H. KUNSTMANN

One of the foremost exponents of this thesis in modern times is the renowned German Slavist, H. Kunstmann. His broad, deep, and exhaustive research has led him to suspect that (1) the Slavs of Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Russia and neighbor- ing lands originated in the Balkans, mainly Illyria/Dalmatia; that (2) the ethnonyms, ruling dynasties, place names, hydronyms and toponyms in West Slav and East Slav lands often can be traced to Slavic and slavicized roots in Illyria and bordering lands.

Over several decades, in a series of always interesting and often provacative ar- ticles, Kunstmann has tirelessly advanced the onomastic, linguistic, textual, and other evidence in support of his thesis. While his views, in the order of suggestive and explor- ative inquiries, have not gained general acceptance, Kunstmann is not a minority of one. In fact, his views have varying degrees of general and specific support at the high- est levels of historical and linguistic scholarship. ANCIENT CENTER OF CIVILIZATION IN EUROPE

Even the most learned, authoritative, and compelling advocates of a Near East

origin of Indo-Europeans, V.V. Ivanov and T.V. Gamkrelidze, make certain concessions

to the Danubia thesis(The MigrationofT rib es Speakingthe Indo-European Dialectsf rom their Original

Homeland in the Middle Eastto their Historical Habitationsin Eurasia, InD 13, 1985).Theya d m i t(1) th a t

the Balkan area was the most ancient center of civilization in Europe; and (2) that the picture of the original Proto-Indo-European landscape derived from the linguistic re- construction of the proto-language rules out Central and Eastern Europe, excepting southeastern Europe.

ONE OF SEVERAL POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

In response to Diakonov s critique, they go so far as to write: Actually, Diakonov's

alternative, the Balkano-Carpathian hypothesis, is merely one of several possible

solutions within our hypothesis on the original homeland. We reconstruct a wider

area—from the Balkans to Iran and southern Turkmenia—as the expanse within

which the Indo-European original homeland might have been located in a definite

territory (TV. Gamkrelidze, V.V. Ivanov,T he Problem of the Original Homeland of theS peakers of Indo-European

Languages in Response to I.M. Diakonov's Article, InD 13, 1985).

ORIGINATED IN DANUBIA-PANNONIA

The following are some of the supportive points found in the works of distin- guished linguists, historians and Slavists: (1) The Slavs originated in Danubia-Pannonia; (2) Not all Slavs migrated northward from the Danube, some remained (thus the dense Slavic population and Slavic toponymy, the antiquity of Slavic waternames in pre-Hun- garian Pannonia-Danubia), others migrated south; (3) The Balkan South Slavs origi- nated in Pannonia-Danubia; (4) The Eastern Slavs originated in the south; (5) Place names and ethnonyms with apparent Balkan roots are found throughout Slavdom (e.g.

Daksa, an island in the Adriatic, Doksy, in Czechoslovakia; Dukla, a mountain pass in

the Carpathians,D u k lja , in Montenegro;L ic ic a v ik i, a Slavic tribe in western Poland,

*Liccavici in Illyria).

With regard to Germania, it should be noted that one of the greatest names in modern German Slavistics, J. Herrmann, concedes a possible connection between the great numbers of Serbs recorded in middle Danubia and along the Byzantine frontier in the 6th century and Serb settlements in Germania:Es ist... warscheinlich, dass aus

dem Stamm der Serben/Sorben, der am Ende des 6 Jh. im mitteleren Donaugebiet

an den Grenzen von Byzanz stand und der sich mit dan Awaren auseinanderzusetzen

hatte,ei nTeilausschi ed undnordwärtswanderte(J .H errm ann,DieSlawen inDeutsc hland:

Geschichte und Kultur der slawischen Stamme westlich von Oder und Niesse vom 6. bis 12. Jahrhundert, 1985).

ENDNOTES

' All attempts to traceA lban i a andA l ban i an roots to ancientI lly ri a andlUy ri an s run contary to the first and last

words of authoritative scholarship. On this subject, V. I. Georgiev, for example, perhaps the single greatest author-

ity on ancient Balkan linguistics and onomastics, writes:But many linguists and historians ... have put forward

very important considerations indicating that the Albanians cannot be autochthonic in present-day Alba- nia; that their original home was the eastern part of Mysia Superior, or approximately Dardania and Dacia Mediterranea, i.e., the northern central region of the Balkan peninsula, and part of Dacia. However, since it has become clear that Daco-Mysian and Thracian represent two different IE languages, the problem of the origin of the Albanian language and the Albanians themselves appears in a new light. The most important facts and considerations for determining the original habitat of the Albanians are the following: (a) The Illyrian toponyms known from antiquity, e.g. Skhoder from the ancient Scodra (Livius), Tomor from Tomaros (Strabo, Pliny, etc.), have not been directly inherited in Albanian: th