The Arrival of The Slavs

The Arrival of the Slavs
Most of the Balkans had been part of the Roman Empire since the first
century AD. When, in the fourth century, the decision was taken to
divide the empire between Rome and Constantinople, the area was
home to a mix of peoples such as Greeks, Thracians, Illyrians,
Dardanians, Romans, Dacians and many others. There were no Slavs
though. The Slavonic-speaking peoples began tomigrate to the Balkans
only in the early sixth century. At first they came as raiders, but by the
seventh century they began to settle.
Some contend that the Slavs came fromthe land between the Danube
and the Carpathianmountains. Others believe that they came fromthe
Caucasus and that they were ruled by an Iranian-derived elite. What
can be said with certainty is that, unlike the earlier raiding Goths and
Huns who left no lasting traces in the Balkans, the Slavs came to stay.
By the 580s they were a powerful force, although they appear often to
have fought as subordinates to the more powerful Avars, who lived
roughly in the area of modern Hungary.
The constant warfare of this period led to the depopulation of large
areas into which the Slavs were to move. These first Slavs cannot be
identified as Serbs, Croats or Bulgarians – they were ‘undifferentiated’
Slavs. These three named tribes were now to arrive by diverse routes.
The Croats migrated from the kingdom they had established during
their migrations in southern Poland. The Serbs moved to the Balkans
Death Does Not Exist
7
* The most common nickname of President Slobodan Milosˇevic´.
after briefly settling in areas that now fall within the Czech lands. It is
also possible that there is a connection with those areas of northeastern
Germany, around Bautzen, where the Sorbs, a Slavonicspeaking
community, still live.
Before these migrations, in the second century AD, Greek geographers
wrote of an Iranian tribe called the Serbi or Serboi living on
the River Don. Professor John Fine, one of the foremost historians of the
region, writes that if the first Serbs and Croats, like the Turkic Bulgars,
were not Slavs but Iranian, this is ‘not important in the long run since
the Iranians were a small minority in a population of Slavs. They
quickly became assimilated by the Slavs and the resulting society was
clearly Slavic (despite the non-Slavic origin of its ruling class).’ 6
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the Byzantine emperor and historian,
writing in themid-tenth century notes that some of the Serbs or
Servloi were originally given land around Salonika at Serblia by the
Emperor Heraclius (610–41) but that they had not stayed there, had
migrated north of the Danube and had then turned southwards again.7
While the origins of the Serbs and Croats are still shrouded inmystery
it is clear that fromthe very beginning these two distinct but close tribes
moved one beside the other. Their histories have always been entwined.
Howclose the tribeswere is attested by the fact that they spoke, and still
speak, virtually the same language. The Slav spread through the
Balkans carried on until about 800 when it not only stopped but, in
certain areas such as Greece and Albania, appears to have been
reversed.
The arrival of the Slavs overwhelmingly changed the ethnic and
linguistic composition of the peoples of the southern Balkans. But it
seems that at least one pre-Slav group, who came to be known most
commonly as Vlachs, survived the onslaught. With the arrival of the
Slavs, they took to the uplands or migrated. Their most important
distinguishing feature was their language, which was derived from
Latin and, as is evident from the small groups that still survive today, is
closely related toRomanian. It seems that, living inmany areas cheek by
jowl with the Serbs, a good part of the Vlachs were to assimilate with
them, so contributing to the later creation of Orthodox and thus
eventually Serb populations in parts of Bosnia,Hercegovina and Croatia.
Another people who survived the arrival of the Slavs were the
ancestors of themodernAlbanians.Historians dispute the origins of the
Albanians and indeed exactly where they lived. Albanian historians
claim that their ancestors were the related Illyrian and Dardanian
tribes and that, apart frommuch of the landwhich is nowAlbania, they
also inhabited the region we now call Kosovo, which they argue was
little affected by the Slav invasions. In fact, especially when it comes to
Kosovo, concrete evidence of exactly who lived there is weak. However
The Serbs
8
it would seem likely that Vlachs, Slavs and the people who would
subsequently be identified as Albanians all lived in this region. 8

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