the Byzantine historians continually reassert, for reasons easily intelligible. These peoples came into the country because they met with no resistance, and were perhaps the more readily inclined to acknowledge a vague supremacy, as they were themselves incapable of founding states.

It is not so much through their military power as through their diplomatic skill and wealth, and also through the disunion of the Slavs, that the Byzantines were able to retain, at any rate, a formal supremacy over these territories during many troublous times. Notwithstanding the great success of the Slav colonisation, the Slavs never succeeded in founding an independent state in the Balkan territories; on this point both they and the Germans were far inferior to the Turco-Tartar races (cf. p. 114). Apart from the fact that these latter, by their introduction of cavalry service with the use of the stirrup, possessed more formidable forces and obtained greater military success, they had also the further advantage of possessing the ideal of a strong state, though in roughest outline. This they had learnt from the civilized nations of Asia. In Europe their appearance exercised some influence upon the military habits and constitutional organisation of the Germanic and Slav world, especially of the Goths; evidence of the fact is the migration of peoples, which was brought about by their arrival. It is not until this that the Germans and Slavs united into larger groups, that is, into states. It was then no mere chance that these peoples were the first to found kingdoms in the districts inhabited by the Slavs. They were the Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Chazars, Magyars, Patzinaks, Polovzes, Tartars, and Csmans.

A. THE SUPREMACY OF THE AVARS

We know practically nothing of the relations of the Slavs to the state of the Huns. On the other hand we learn a good deal of the political life of the Slavs in the sixth century, when the second Turkish people, the Avars, founded a considerable empire in the district occupied by the Slavs. The supremacy of the Avars seems to have extended over the whole district of modern Hungary, Bohemia, and Moravia, the whole of Austria proper, the northern districts of the Elbe and Saale, and also southwards to the Danube over modern Dalmatia and Servia. As they were a people of giants, they were called by their neighbours simply Avars or giants. The opinion once held by Franz von Miklosich that many Slav races called every man of unusual size an Avar is not the true explanation of the history of the name, which is rather as follows: the Byzantines denoted these people simply as "Оẞρiμoi, Оμßpipo (that is, giants). Hence comes the Slav Obri (Avari) and a Polish word, Olbrzym (giant). Their rule was exceedingly oppressive. Fredegar's chronicle of the seventh century relates that the Slavs were forced to participate in every campaign of the Avars, and to fight, while the Avars drew up before the encampment. Agriculture was the sole work of the Slavs; other historians inform us that they were often used as draught-animals and beasts of burden. The Avars were the first foreign people whose permanent supremacy over the Slavs is historically established for the sixth century.

About the beginning of the seventh century the position of the Slavs improved, in consequence of a great defeat experienced by the Avars (626). The Avar Khan had undertaken a plundering raid on the Byzantine Empire, apparently as early as 623, and besieged Constantinople, when the Emperor Heraclius began war against

the Persians; the campaign must have lasted some years. At this time, about the year 623, the Slavs on the Danube, in the districts of Bohemia and Moravia, revolted and founded an independent kingdom under the leadership of a certain Samo (p. 229). When the Avar bands before Constantinople were destroyed in 626, the Avar power was considerably weakened for a whole generation. The Slav tribes who had been hitherto subdued were now able to assert themselves. They joined Samo, and appointed him their king in 627, the more easily to oppose the attacks of the Langobardi, Bavarians, and Avars. Then was founded the first important independent Slav kingdom known to history; it lay in the western part of the modern Austrian monarchy. Samo maintained his position until 662 (according to others, 658), that is to say, for thirty-five years. After his death his empire disappears from the scene. We hear later of the Karantani as waging war with the Bavarians, and finally coming under Bavarian supremacy, and, in the eighth century, of a Slovenian kingdom in Moravia and of another in Pannonia; whence we may conclude that the kingdom of Samo had undergone a process of disruption.

B. THE APPEARANCE OF THE CROATIANS AND SERBS

THE foundation of the Avar kingdom was moreover of importance to Slav history for another reason. The oppressive rule of the Avars induced the Slavs to abandon their homes in large bodies, to migrate northwards or southwards, and there to occupy new districts. It was therefore at that time that the immigration of the Slavs to the Balkan territories began upon a larger scale. In other respects also the Slavs were now able to assert themselves more strongly. The defeat of the Avars in the year 626 had been of decisive importance both for the Slavs and for the Byzantines. Whole provinces now broke away from the Avars and were occupied by the Slavs. Thus it is no mere coincidence that at this period two numerous Slav tribes appear in the northwest of the Balkan Peninsula. We hear that the Croatians, who are said, upon evidence of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos, to have come from the north, defeated the Avars about the year 626, and appeared as independent inhabitants of the country which they occupied. Their territories were bounded on the north by the Save and by a line running parallel to this river from the Unna to the sea, on the west by the Adriatic Sea, on the south by the mouth of the Cettina River and by the Lake of Imoshi, on the southeast by a line of mountains running from this lake to the sources of the Verbas, and finally on the east by the Verbas itself. Their chief centres were Biograd (the modern Zara Vecchia) and Bihač. These boundaries exist at the present day, though their value is purely ethnographical. It must also be remembered that the whole of the territory now occupied by the Croatians and named after them belonged formerly to the Slovenians and was called Slovenia. In course of time the Slovenian and Croatian tribes coalesced. Even at the present day a remembrance of these conditions is preserved by the name Slavonia, which denotes part of the Croatian kingdom, and by the name of the Slovak tribe in Hungary, and by the old Pannonian-Slovenian kingdom. The Croatians thus absorbed the northwest of Bosnia and Dalmatia as far as Spalatro.

The Serbs soon followed the Croatians across the Save, and, according to the Byzantine chroniclers, demanded and obtained from the emperor a place of settle

ment. They occupied the modern Bosnia with the exception of the Croatian portion, which is still known as Turco-Croatia. To them also belonged the greatest part of Herzegovina, Southern Dalmatia, Northern Albania, Montenegro, old Servia (NoviBazar), the northern districts of the Prizrend Pashalik, and the modern Servia. At the present day we find the Serbs in these territories. Here they formed several larger and smaller principalities, mutually independent, known as Županates. To begin with the most southern, we have the principality of Zeta (Ceta) or Duklja (from Dioklea, which is named after the birthplace of the emperor Diokletian). This was the original home of the ruling family of the Nemanjids (cf. p. 97), under whose supremacy Servia afterwards rose to the height of her power. This district was at all times a place of refuge for the champions of Servian independence. It was here that Montenegro developed, which has succeeded in maintaining her freedom until our own days: it was only during the blood-stained period of Turkish supremacy that she lost some part of her independence. From Cattaro to Ragusa extended Travunia or Konavlia, more or less corresponding with the area of the modern Trebinje in Herzegovina. From Ragusa to the Gulf of Stagno and inland as far as Narenta extended Zachlumia, thus embracing a portion of Herzegovina about the Gatzko and Nevesinje. Neretva or Pagania extended from the Gulf of Stagno to the mouth of the Cettina. The inhabitants, known as Neretshans or Pagans, as for a long time they declined to accept Christianity, were dreaded pirates, and often fought victoriously against Venice. To the east of Zeta, Travunia, and Zachlumia lay Servia proper, the most extensive province of all, nearly corresponding to the modern Servia except for the fact that it included Bosnia, which broke away from it in course of time. Among the Županates belonging to Servia special mention may be made of that of Rasha or Rassa, the modern NoviBazar, known as Rascia in the medieval sources for the history of Western Europe (see map facing page 165).

This Croatian and Servian district, the modern Istria, Bosnia, Servia, Dalmatia, Montenegro, Albania, Herzegovina (roughly a third of the Balkan Peninsula), formed the Roman province of Dalmatia, with Salona as a central administrative point; under the Byzantine Empire these respective points (p. 64) bore the same name. The Slavs extended from this point over the whole peninsula, but were there to some extent deprived of their nationality. Only in Macedonia did they maintain their position, although the Bulgarian race was here again in predominance. The Croatian and Servian tribal principalities of the northwest, the chieftains of which were known as Župans, united only in case of great danger under a high Župan. After long struggles the position of high Župan became permanent, and the foundation of a more important empire was thus laid. Accurate information concerning the Croatian and Servian races is, however, wanting until the second half of the eighth century, and especially until the final destruction of the Avar kingdom by Charles the Great.

C. THE IMMIGRATION OF THE BULGARIANS

WHEN the Avar supremacy was approaching its fall, another Finno-Ugrian people, the Bulgarians, crossed the Danube, entered upon a series of conquests among the Slavs of the peninsula, and even threatened Constantinople. Their immigration is of special importance for the history of the Balkan Slavs and of the

Byzantine Empire (pp. 65 and 329). Neither the Byzantines nor the Slavs were able to offer any resistance. The Slavs, who lacked any bond of union, repeatedly surrendered. As early as the end of the seventh century a Bulgarian state was founded in the northeast of the peninsula, and maintained its position, not only against the Greeks, but also seriously threatened the old imperial city. Until 627 the Persian danger had threatened Byzantium; this was followed by the Arab danger in 750; and now the young Bulgarian kingdom becomes prominent among the enemies of the Byzantine Empire.

The boundaries of the new state rapidly increased, and by degrees most of the Balkan Slavs were federated under its supremacy. Under Bulgarian leadership the Slav tribes gradually coalesced to form one people. The higher civilization of the Slavs, however, resulted eventually in the imposition of their nationality upon the Bulgarians, who were much inferior in numbers (amounting at most to thirty or fifty thousand, including women and children); it was only their name that these warlike conquerors gave to the state and the people. A couple of centuries later there were no longer any distinctions between Slavs and Bulgarians; all were Bulgarians speaking the Slav language. Of the original Bulgarian language, only scanty remnants have survived. Among other fragments is a register of Bulgarian princes from primeval times until 765, which, though a Slav document, contains some words belonging to the Turkish vocabulary (cf. pp. 72 and 327).

About the period of the Bulgarian immigration, which closes for the moment the migrations of peoples south of the Danube, the Balkan Peninsula displayed a most motley mixture of populations. Side by side with the Romans and the Greeks (the latter of whom proudly called themselves 'Poμaîo) were the Slavs, who formed the majority, and among them for a considerable period remnants of the old inhabitants, the Thracians, from whom or from the Illyrians the Albanians are supposed to be descended (p. 223). There are also to be found remnants of Goths and Gepids; in Croatia there were remnants of the Avars, and to these in the seventh century were added the Finno-Turkish tribe of the Bulgarians. The process of unification began. Many tribes were absorbed by others, with the result that new nationalties were formed, such as the Roumanians. By the founding of the Bulgarian state and the imposition of the Slav nationality on the Bulgarians, the Slavs became preponderant both politically and ethnographically. Formerly the individual tribes lived in somewhat loose dependence upon Byzantium, and were the more easily able to preserve their nationality; now any member of the Slav kingdom was forced sooner or later to accept the Slav civilization.

The Avar people had brought disaster upon the southern Slav tribes, whereas the immigration of the Bulgarians secured the predominance of the Slavs in the peninsula. The political life of the Balkan Slavs now centres round three main points, in the east about the Bulgarian kingdom, in the centre about the Servian, and in the west about the Croatian principalities. Of Byzantine supremacy hardly a trace remained, except that a scanty tribute was transmitted to Byzantium. Only when some more powerful ruler occupied the throne of Constantinople were the reins drawn tighter or the flame of war blazed up. At a later period the dependence upon Byzantium came to an end. Some influence upon the political affairs of the northwest portion of the Balkan Peninsula was exercised by the appearance of Charles the Great, who waged war with the Eastern empire in 788 concerning cer

-Croatian

tain Byzantine possessions in Italy. He conquered both Istria and also Dalmatia, and the Slovenians between the Drave and the Save paid him tribute until 812, when he renounced his claims to the districts extending to the Drave, under a peace with Byzantium (p. 74). At the present day monuments dating from the period of Charles' supremacy over these countries are to be found in the museum at Agram.

5. THE CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS TO CHRISTIANITY THE position of the Slav territories brought with it the consequence that Christianity was imposed upon them from three sides: on the one hand, from Aquileia by Italian priests; on the northern side, from Salzburg by Germans; and, finally, from Byzantium by Greek missionaries. There were other isolated attempts, but these may be neglected.

He

The original dissemination of Christian doctrine is here, as in other cases, wrapt in obscurity. Some missionaries came from the Frankish kingdom. Thus Kolumban, according to the narrative of his biographer, Jonas, after his expulsion from Burgundy by King Theodorich about 610, is said to have conceived the plan of preaching the gospel to the Slavs in Noricum. About 630 Bishop Amandus of Utrecht entered the kingdom of Samo, determined to win the martyr's crown. was followed about 650 by St. Emmeram with a priest, by name Vitalis, who was learned in the Slav language. More fruitful in result was the activity of Bishop Rupert of Worms, who founded a bishopric and monastery in the Noric Juvavia (Salzburg). Henceforward the diocese of Salzburg undertook the conversion of the Alpine Slavs, naturally under the protection of the Bavarian dukes. Especially good service was done by Bishop Virgilius, who occupied the see of Salzburg between 745 and 785. He sent out capable missionaries to Karantania and built churches there (Maria Saal, Lurnfeld, Undrima). The princes of Karantania themselves saw the necessity for accepting the Christian faith; Chotimir invited Bishop Virgilius to his court, though with no result. The mission was energetically supported by Duke Tassilo II (748-788) of Bavaria, the first duke to rule over Karantania. He cherished the idea of shaking off the Frankish yoke, and looked to Karantania for support, which he thought could best be gained by the dissemination of Christianity. He founded monasteries, or gave leave for such foundations under the express obligation of continuing the missions (such foundations were Innichen and Kremsmünster). After the subjugation of Tassilo by the Franks (788), the work of conversion was completed under Bishop Arno. He received the necessary full powers from the emperor and pope, and completed the organisation of the Church by appointing a local bishop, by name Theodorich. Once again it was a Windish prince (Ingo) who supported his efforts.

The patriarch of Aquileia suddenly raised an objection to these proceedings, alleging that those districts belonged to his own diocese. It is true that we know nothing of any missionary energy displayed by Aquileia in that quarter. Yet missions there must have been from Aquileia; for in 810 Charles the Great was able to secure a compromise on terms which made the Drave a frontier line for the two claimants. Thus from henceforward the Slavs were divided between two

dioceses.

The whole position was altered in the course of the ninth century, when Byzantium took the work of conversion seriously in hand. The Slav nation had for a