Slavic colonization of the 7th century in Central and Southern Europe differed significantly from that of the 6th century. If the first was attended mainly by Slovenia or Sklavins, who inhabited vast territories, then the next one was also attended by Antes.
It took place in conditions when the Slavic tribes had already "got acquainted" with the state institutions of other countries, and in the process of military migration, the formation of supra-tribal forms of government began, first among the Slovenes, then the Ants.
Disorders in the Avar "nomadic empire" and the complete loss of control of the Byzantines over the Danube border since 602 have played an important role here (Ivanova O. V., Litavrin G. G.).
Such an active advance of the Slavs into these lands could not be carried out without a military organization. Apparently, this was a tribal military organization (which we will write in detail about in a separate article), at the head of the clans were elders or zhupans (a possible etymology from Iranian "great lord, nobleman").
Engels:
“Each tribe settled in a new place, not by whim and not due to random circumstances, but in accordance with the closeness of the tribesmen … Large groups that were closer in kind were given a certain area, within which, again, separate clans, including a certain number of families, settled together, forming separate villages. Several related villages formed a "hundred" …, several hundred formed a district …; the totality of these districts constituted the people themselves."
Settlers in new territories form pre-state or military-territorial alliances, referred to in the Balkans and the Danube as Slavinia or Sklavinia (Litavrin G. G.). Constantine VII (905-959) wrote:
"They say, these peoples did not have archons, except for the elders-Zhupans, as it is in the rules and in other Slavinias."
The day-to-day management of society among the Slavs was still not dealt with by individual supra-tribal leaders - military leaders, but by the heads of clans.
Defensive wars, as in the case of the Samo Slavs or offensive ones, as in the situation with the tribes of the Ant circle, were also a factor in stimulating the formation of the control system. But, as we see from the history of the Slavs of this time, with the fall of the need to wage defensive or offensive wars, the process of state formation slowed down or stopped (Shinakov E. A., Erokhin A. S., Fedosov A. V.).
Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula and the Peloponnese
Slavic migration to this region is divided into two stages: the first in the 6th century, the second from the beginning of the 7th century. As elsewhere, at the first stage, the Sklavins took the lead, and the Antes began to take part, obviously, at the second stage, after the Avar attack at the beginning of the 7th century. Here is what he writes about the events of the end of the 6th century. John of Ephesus, albeit somewhat exaggerated:
“In the third year after the death of Emperor Justin, during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, the accursed people of the Slavs came out and went through all of Hellas, the region of Thessalonica and all of Thrace. They captured many cities and fortresses, devastated, burned, captivated and subjugated the region and settled in it freely, without fear, as in their own. So it was for four years, while the emperor was busy with the war with the Persians and sent all his troops to the east. Therefore, they settled on this land, settled on it and spread out widely as long as God allowed them. They destroyed, burned and took in full to the outer wall and captured many thousands of royal herds of horses and all kinds of others. And to this time, until the year 595, they settled down and live peacefully in the Roman regions, without worries and fears."
After 602, the movement of the Slavs to the eastern part of the Balkans and Greece intensified. This advance was not a one-time, in this process there is a mixing of migration flows, as a result of which new tribal groupings are formed or they are formed by clans on a new "contractual" basis, although old tribes are also encountered. How the invasion took place can be clearly seen in the example of the siege by the Slavs of the city of Thessaloniki (modern Thessaloniki) between 615 and 620. The city several times was under the threat of being taken by storm during sieges, which were conducted according to the rules of the art of war. At the same time, the tribes besieging the city united and chose the main military leader.
After the failures of the Slavs during the siege of Thessalonica, they send gifts to the head of the Avars, inviting him for help, assuring that after the capture of the city, huge booty awaits everyone. The kagan, greedy for riches, arrives here with the Avars and subjects of the Bulgarians and Slavs. These events take place before the siege of Constantinople in 626.
In what relations the tribes who besieged the Greek city are with the kagan, it is not entirely clear: on the one hand, they call the Avars for help, and they come as allies, but the kagan immediately leads the siege himself. Most likely, the division of forces here was similar to the one that took place during the siege of Second Rome in 626, which we wrote about in the previous article on "VO": the Avars, subordinate nomads Bulgarians and agricultural Slavs entered the kagan's own army. Interestingly, at the other end of Europe, the Avars come to the aid of the Alpine Slavs when the Bavars attack. So, next to the Avars and their subordinates stood the allied army of the Slavs, which began the siege of Thessalonica.
The Miracles of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica, which describes the Slavic sieges, says the following:
"… having with them on land their clans along with their property, they intended to settle them in the city after [his] capture."
These are no longer just predatory raids, but the seizure of territories, although, of course, the Slavs avoided life in cities, settling in the countryside.
The names of tribes have come down to us, including those who took part in the siege of Thessalonica.
The Droguvites settled in South Macedonia to the west of Thessaloniki, the Sagudats and other Droguvites in South Macedonia, the Velegesites settled in Greece, in South Thessaly, the Vayunites in Epirus, in the area of Lake Ioannina, where the Berzites lived, is unknown.
Let us also point out the Antsk tribe of Smolyan, which settled in the Western Rhodopes, on the Mesta-Nestor river, which flows into the Aegean Sea (present-day Smolyan, Bulgaria).
The ubiquitous group of the Antic tribe of Serbs settled in Thessaly, near the Bystrica river. Judging by the distribution of the Antic fibulae, the Ant tribes, which advanced to the Balkans, following the Slovenes and Sklavins, occupied the Danube zone, the territories of Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and are slightly present in Greece itself.
In these regions, the same processes are taking place as in other places of migration of the Slavs at this time.
The participants in the campaign, just like in other regions of the advancement of the Slavs, have or choose a military leader. In Thessalloniki, the tribes were headed by Hatzon, to whom other leaders obey, however, often tribes in the tradition of waging war by the Slavs act at their own peril and risk.
The fighting activity of the Slavic tribes during their settlement in the eastern Balkans allows some researchers to talk about the beginning of the formation of an early state, which seems logical. In the territories occupied by the Slavs, there were also other populations, including the urban inhabitants of the Byzantine state (P. Lamerl).
Croats and Serbs
At the beginning of the 7th century, the tribes of Croats and Serbs entered the historical arena, both tribes, or, more correctly, the union of tribes belonged to the Ant group. It should be noted that this tribal group, most likely, never called itself the Antae, since, according to one version, the Antes is a book name for the tribes that lived in the 6th century in the interfluve of the Bug and Dnieper rivers, before the confluence of the Danube into the Black Sea, and they just called themselves: Croats, Serbs, etc. It is interesting that the Croats, as Konstantin Porphyrogenitus wrote, defined their self-name as "the owners of a large country." And it seems to us that this is not a mistake and it is not about "Greater Croatia", but about the real self-identification of the Croats. The etymology of this term from "shepherds", of course, did not have any meaning for this period, and it is also unlikely that this self-name was associated with the fact that the Croats scattered in places with the beginning of the 7th century. throughout central, southern and eastern Europe. This, of course, is about their self-perception of the period of the Ant community, and, which really corresponds to the fact, the Antes were the owners of a large country in the Black Sea region.
How did the events develop on the eve of the arrival of the Ant tribes in the western part of the Balkans?
According to Konstantin Porphyrogenitus, who relied on some legend, Byzantine horsemen from the border guards raided unarmed Slavic, and possibly Avar settlements across the Danube, where all the men went on a campaign, after which, as Basileus writes, the Avars ambushed Romans, who made another raid across the Danube, after which they cunningly captured the main city and the large fortress Salonu (Split region, Croatia) in Dalmatia, gradually occupying the entire territory, except for the coastal towns.
Archaeologists record destruction in the settlements of Rome near Rocha, Muntayana, Vrsar, Kloshtar, Rogatitsa, etc. (Marusik B., Sedov V. V.).
This gave Pope Gregory the Great an excuse in his letter from the summer of 600 to Bishop Maxim Salona to lament over the constant invasions of the Slavs, however, noting that all these troubles are "due to our sins."
The campaigns of the Avars and the Slavs subordinate to them were, as Paul Deacon writes, to these territories in 601 or 602, 611 and 612. In 601 (602), together with the Lombards.
Thomas Splitsky clarifies that Salona was besieged and taken by cavalry and foot troops of the "Goths and the Slavs."
Thomas of Splitsky, who wrote in the 13th century, could combine the two events. The first time the Slavs were at Solunia in 536, and at Dyrrachia (Drach) - in 548. In 550, the Slavs winterized in Dalmatia, who were joined in the spring by detachments from across the Danube for robberies in these parts, and how reported Procopius of Caesarea, there were unconfirmed rumors that the Slavs were bribed by the king of the Italian Goths Totila in order to divert the troops of the Romans who were planning to land in Italy. In 552, Totila plundered Kerkyra and Epirus, close to Dalmatia.
And in 601 (602) the Lombards plundered Dalmatia together with the Avars and Slavs. This gave the historian a reason to confuse the two events.
Moreover, as Thomas Splitsky reports, the Slavs did not just rob, they came here as part of a whole noble union of tribes (seven or eight) of the Slovenian group: Lingons or Ledians. According to Konstantin Porphyrogenitus, these lands were first plundered and turned into a desert, after which the Slavs and Avars began to settle here, probably with the latter's domination remaining.
There are very few archaeological finds of Avar origin in this region (Sedov V. V.).
After the events described, a new wave of immigrants hit this part of the Balkans at the beginning of the 7th century. We see that Croatian and Serb antas appear in different places of the Avar-Slovenian territory. Croats are not coming from the territory of some "White Croatia". All Croatian tribal centers in the 7th century, including "White Croatia" and Croats in the Carpathians, were formed in the process of their movement from the north of the Danube. The same can be said about the Serbs: some of them are moving to the Balkans: to Thrace, Greece and Dalmatia, and some moved to the west, to the borders of the German world.
Croats, like Serbs, came to the western part of the Balkan Peninsula at the very beginning of the reign of Emperor Heraclius, during a severe foreign policy crisis in the east of the empire.where Sassanian Iran captured the most important provinces: the entire Middle East and Egypt, fought in Asia Minor and Armenia.
These tribes were Croats, Zaglums, Tervuniots, Kanalites, Diocletians and Pagans or Neretvians. That completely coincides with the period after the defeat of the Ants from the Avars at the beginning of the 7th century. against the background of two important points.
First, the invasion of the Antic tribes into this region occurs during the period of the beginning of the weakening of the Kaganate in the first decade of the 7th century. Naturally, the tribal organization contributed to the military rallying of the Croatian clans, but there is no particular reason to assert that the tribes who arrived here had a militarily strong enough grouping, and not a poorly organized mass of immigrants "fleeing from enemy invasion", there is no particular reason (Mayorov A. V.).
Moreover, the same Avars, for example, those fleeing from the Türks, represented a formidable force for other tribes, like the Gepids, Eruls or the same Goths during the period of peoples' migration. The peoples fleeing persecution were often quite strong militarily: it is important with whom to compare.
Second, in conditions when, after the overthrow of the emperor Phocas (610), only two participants in the Phocas coup remained in the Thracian army sent to fight Persia in the army, Byzantium could rely only on diplomacy on its northern borders (Kulakovsky Yu.).
And here, perhaps, the old ties of Constantinople with the ants again came in handy. The empire, which did not have the military strength to defend the region, used the principle of "divide and rule".
It is not for nothing that the Croatian (Ant) tribes who came to begin a long war with the local Avars: they destroyed some, subjugated others, as Konstantin Porphyrogenitus writes about, mentioning the fact that they acted at the instigation of Vasileus Heraclius. We have an extremely small number of Avar archaeological finds in this region, but nevertheless, judging by the description of the Vasileus, the struggle was long, which means that the Avars here had the support of the Slavs who had settled earlier. The victory took place in the 1920s and 1930s, during a period of serious weakening of the kaganate and problems in their own "metropolis". After that, stabilization takes place in this region, Byzantine residents return to their towns, exchange and trade are established, the Slavs settle in the countryside. The local population begins to pay tribute to the Croats instead of the state taxes of Byzantium. An early management system is being formed, about which we know almost nothing.
The resettlement movement was led by some Croatian clans or tribes under the leadership of a leader, the father of a certain Porg or Porin (Ποργã), perhaps there were five of them, led by the brothers Kluka, Lovel, Cosendziy, Mukhlo, Horvat with two sisters. Most researchers trace these names to Iranian, or more precisely, to Alanian roots (Mayorov A. V.).
All the listed leaders or military leaders of individual clans or tribes are mentioned in different parts of the story of Constantine Porphyrogenitus about the history of the Croats.
Already under Porg, during the reign of Heraclius, the first baptism of the Croats took place. The distrust with which many researchers regard this fact does not take into account the fact that this process is usually long, and often a long period passes from the baptism of the nobility to the penetration of religion into everyday life.
The Serbs are moving into this region at the same time as the Croats, and their movement was caused by the same reasons: the disintegration of the Antsky unity under the blows of the Avars.
As with the Croats, among the Serbs their name is associated with the period of the formation of the Slavic, Ant community on the basis of the Chernyakhov archaeological culture in the process of interaction with the Sarmatian nomadic tribes. As M. Fasmer noted:
"* Ser-v-" to protect ", which gave in the classical Scythian * harv-, whence the glory. * xṛvati ".
However, the etymology remains controversial. But the presence of names associated with "protection" is significant, and let us not be misled by the interpretation of "cattle guards", "shepherds", such names could only be obtained by tribes constantly fighting, protecting "cattle" in the broad sense of the word: in Old Russian "Cattle" is money, like many other Indo-European peoples.
Vasilevs Constantine also points to the reason for inviting the Serbs to the Balkans as a way of settling areas devastated by the Avars (Avars and Slavs subordinate to them), which were formally under the control of the empire. And these events also take place in the 20s, a period of weakening of the Avars, which was not up to Singidunum (Belgrade), but
“The antiquities of the period of the initial development of the Balkans by the Serbian tribes are very difficult to capture by archaeological methods” (M. Lyubinskovich, V. Sedov).
The Serbs, like the Croats, having entered these territories, established their power by force, and this happened during the 20-30s of the 7th century. both in the fight against the Avars and against the Slovenes subordinate to them (Naumov E. P.).
The Serbs are baptized during the reign of Heraclius, the process, of course, took a long time, but the consolidation of the arriving tribes and clans takes place rather quickly, although the structure of their union was not strong, and in the late 70s part of the land fell into dependence on the restored Avar education, but this dependence is most likely "vassalage" or "alliance", and not "tributary", as it was before.
The arriving tribes who seized new lands needed to organize the management process, but the formation of early state institutions was still far away.
And although the military activity of migrants takes place, it is no longer as intense as during the migration process.
So, we see that at the beginning of the VII century. among the Slavs on the Balkan border of Byzantium, significant changes are taking place - they are approaching the time of the creation of the first states.
This situation was influenced by three factors:
1. Weakening of the kaganate.
2. Difficulties of the Byzantine Empire and the fall of military control over the Danube border.
3. The capture by the Slavs of lands in a milder climatic zone, areas with a higher quality of agriculture.
The subordination of new territories with a population at a higher level of development, outside the framework of the traditional and understandable tribal system for the Slavs, required new methods of management.
In the lands where the Slavs met with a population of a similar level of development (the Illyrian tribes of Byzantium), the integration process took place intensively.
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