The Dawn of the Slavs

The last of the great European barbarian invaders, they appeared on the Danubian frontier of the Eastern Roman Em­pire in 518, just as Justinian (Section 2.5) was becoming Em­peror.

Today we know them as Slavs, but very little was known of them at the turn of the 6th century. Their language was also unknown and not understood by the Romanians, although it did bear a faint resemblance to Latin.² Even today our knowl­edge of these invaders is scant, and except for archaeological evidence is based almost entirely on Latin and Greek texts.³ Our ignorance is also compounded by the traditional preoccu­pation of West European and NorthAmerican historians with the Western Roman Empire and its disintegration into Ger­manic kingdoms.⁴

The first mention of Slavs is found in two Roman authors, Tacitus and Pliny the Elder, who wrote in the first century. They mention the Veneti, known as the Wenden to the Germanic tribes to designate the people living to their east along the Elbe River. The first reference is from Tacitus, who wrote that they bordered on Germanic and Finnic populations, and were a war­like people who raided and destroyed settlements in neighbor­ing mountains and forests. The geographer Ptolemy also places them in the general area to the south of “Venetie Bay” (Baltic Sea) with a main town called “Kalish.” Today many German cities and towns along and to the east of the Elbe River bear Slavic names including the capital Berlin, and even today there are communities in eastern Germanywhich still speak a Slavic language called Polabian, or Wendish in German.⁵ This is cor­roborated by Jordanes in (about) 551 who wrote

Along their left side, which turns to the north beginning from the source of the river Vistula, over a boundless area are settled the populous people of the Veneti, which although they took on dif­ferent names from their clans and territories in general are called Sclaveni and Antes.

Although the “Mursian Lake” has not been identified—perhaps Lake Balaton in Hungary—the rest of the description is geo­graphically accurate. Jordanes had served as the secretary to a military commander on the Danube and must have come in contact with the Slavs. Also according to Procopius: “Sclavenes and Antes... Speakonelanguage, Completelybarbarian... they once had a single name, they were called ‘Sporoi.’”⁷

Procopius was also eyewitness to much of what transpired, being Belisarius’ legal advisor and secretary. He mentions the first known raid across the Danube by the Antae in 518 when they were beaten back by the Romanian commander German- icus, EmperorJustinians cousin. By the 530s another Slavic group, referred to in Greek as the “Sklavenoi,” had also appeared on the Danube, joining the Antae in their raids on Romanian territory.⁸ Following the traditional invasion routes from the east across the Carpathian Mountains they had began to move south, and soon the Eastern Empire would get to know them through painful experience. As was the case with other bar­barian tribes before them some Slavs chose service with the Imperial Armies. We know that in 537 some 1600 mounted troops, most of them Slavs, were sent to Italy to help Belisarius who was blockaded in Rome by the Ostrogoths. Also, following a treaty signed between them and Justinian in 545, many Antae mercenaries were fighting the Ostrogoths in Italy. Others (prob­ably the “Sklavenoi”) were in the meantime attacking Belisarius’ forces in the Balkans thus giving Totilas Ostrogoths an oppor­tunity to regroup.

Faced with pressure from the Slavs and other barbarians, Justinian began to take steps to secure the borders.

increased with time, together with Avar cavalry as allies. Emerg­ing from the vast wilderness of Eastern Europe the Slavs didn’t have cavalry and were technologically inferior to other cultures, particular the Graeco-Roman civilization. Procopius informs us that Slav boyars, or warriors, led by their “voivodas” (war chiefs), attack in “throngs,” and “fight on foot advancing on the enemy, in their hands they carry small shields and spears, but they never wear body armor; some of them do not have either a tunic or cloak but wear only a kind of breeches pulled up to the groin.”⁹

Helmets were also not used and swords are rarely men­tioned by contemporary commentators. The Slavs used small bows with poisoned arrows, slings and axes, and made their own weapons from steel derived from iron oxides found on the edge of swamps. Their tactics were also different from those of the Imperial Romanian forces. Procopius writes that the Scla- venes “are accustomed to conceal themselves behind a rock or any bush which may happen to be near and pounce upon the enemy... they are constantly practicing this in their native haunts along the river Ister, both on Romans and on the bar­barians as well.”

Not all men were warriors and others, known as “smerdi,” were delegated to till the soil and herd animals. Onlythe most physically fit and powerful were chosen to become “boyars.” We have ample written testimony concerning the size and strength of Slavic warriors. Procopius mentions that early on they were known as the “Sporoi,” and Jordanes confirms that when the Goths crossed the Dnipro River they encountered and attacked the “Spali,” a tribe that lived in the region of the Donets River.

... they are all tall and especially strong, their skin is not very white, and their hair is neither blond nor black but all have red­dish hair. They lead a primitive and rough way of life... and are always covered in dirt. They are neither dishonorable nor spite­ful, but simple in their ways, like the Huns (i.e., the Bulgars and Avars).^u

Perhaps the covering of dirt was to keep away the mos­quitoes that inhabited the wetlands in dense swarms. Also, Theophylact Simocatta describes a Romanian raid towards the end of the 6th century against a Slav force led by their voivoda, one Ardagast (us):

... he (Priscus) delivered his attack in the middle of the night. And so Ardagast(us)... mounted an unsaddled mare and made his flight. Now the barbarian fell in with the Romanians and, dis­mounting from the mare, engaged in hand-to-hand fighting. But when he could not withstand the might of the opposition he took to flight across some rough country; so, as a result, Ardagas- tus had the advantage in moving since he had a physique that was accustomed to this. Less favorable fortune came upon him, and the barbarian fell over the stump of a huge tree; hence he would have been for his pursuers an earnestly desired prey, if a river had not been his salvation, for he swam across and escaped from dan­ger.¹²

An impressive physical performance from one awakened in the middle of the night and faced with large odds. The brave Ardagast did not survive the campaign, however, since he was killed in a subsequent skirmish with the Romanians. His men, taken as prisoners, “declared that they welcomed tortures, dis­posing of the agonies of the lash about the body as if it were an­other’s,” and would not reveal the position of their main force. The required information was provided Voluntarilyby a Chris­tian Gepid who had deserted from the Slavs.¹³ The size, as well as the fitness of the Slavwarriors amazed the Romanians.

On the following day three men, Sclavenes by race, who were not wearing any iron or military equipment, were captured by the emperor’s bodyguards. Lyres were their baggage and they were not carrying anything else at all. And so the emperor (Maurice) enquired what was their nation, where was their allotted abode, and the cause of the presence in the Romanian lands. They replied that they were Sclavenes by nation and that they lived at the boundary of the western ocean... the emperor marveled at their tribe... in amazement at the size of their bodies and the nobility of their limbs, he sent these men under escort to Hera- cleia.¹⁴

Did the Slavs have cavalry units which participated in bat­tle? Classical sources indicate that Slavic tribes possessed herds of horses, probably acquired from the nomads of the steppes as they were moving out of the northern marshes. Horses ap­parently were mainly used for mobility and transportation and the Slavs did not develop an effective cavalry until much later. The “boyars” fought on foot surrounded by their clansmen and must have been particularly vulnerable to a cavalry charge. As the Goths before them they quickly learned to form symbiotic alliances with the mounted archers and lancers of the steppes. A Turkic people known as the Bulgars (referred to as “Huns” by the Romanians) had appeared in southeastern Europe, quickly becoming a dominant force in the region. Originating in the Eurasian plain they had been raiding the Balkan provinces since the late 5th century. Theywere joined in the region by another Turkic invader, the Avars, who like the Bulgars fought on horseback with lance and composite bow. By 561 they had defeated the Bulgar Utigur and Kutrigur tribes as well as the Slavic Antae OfBessarabia in what is today northern Rumania. Several years later they expelled the Gepids from the eastern Pannonian (Hungarian) plain with Lombard help, then turning on the Lombards pushed them out into the Italian peninsula.

The Slavic tribes on the other hand were dispersed in rel­atively small settlements, and unlike the Avars or Bulgars did not possess a central authority such as a kingship, or anything resembling a state institution. As Procopius observed, “these nations, the Sclavenoi and Antae are not ruled by one man, but they have lived from old under a democracy (“democratia”), and consequently everything which involves their welfare, whether for good or for ill, is referred to the people.”¹⁵ This is confirmed by Emperor Leo VI (“The Wise”), who observed (end of the 9th century or beginning of the 10th) that

[e]ven if they had crossed over (the Danube) and been com­pelled to accept servitude, they did not wish to be happily per­suaded by an outsider, but through some method by their own people. Theywould rather be led to destruction by a leader of their tribe than to be enslaved and submit to Roman laws, nor have they received the sacrament of the baptism of the Savior until our time, in this case giving way to some extent in the prac­tice of their ancient freedom.¹⁶

Although democratic, the Slavs possessed slaves and it is not clear to what extent women were involved in the democratic process or whether this was reserved for the men or the boyars. Slavery for the Slavs (at least for prisoners) was not a life sen­tence. “They do not keep those who are in captivity among them in perpetual slavery... [but] set a definite period of time for them and then give them the choice... to return to their own homes with a small recompense, or to remain there as free men and friends.”¹⁷

Each tribal unit made its own decisions and it took effort to organize a large invasion force. Slav attacks usually involved relatively small raiding parties, at times allied with Bulgar or Avar cavalry. Most tribes were not very large and a typical war party may have consisted of only two hundred men.¹⁸ At times larger forces would be assembled, but even these were referred to as “throngs” by contemporary writers such as Procopius, clearly not suggesting the presence of an overwhelming military might. The Roman Empire was at its height following Justinian s reconquest and it was the most powerful state in all of Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined. Its extended frontier, however, was difficult to defend particularly against a not very large but mobile enemy. Also, much of the Romanian forces were diverted against their perpetual struggle with the powerful Persian Empire.

In 540 a Slav force allied with Bulgar cavalry delivered a great blow against the Empire, capturing and destroying 32 for­tified towns in Illiricum and plundering a wide area as far as the walls of Constantinople. Following the 542 bubonic plague they plundered Thrace but in 545 were eventually repulsed by Justinians eunuch general Narses. A Slav force again crossed the Danube in 548 on a raiding expedition with a 15,000 man strong Romanian army reportedly following them at a distance, but not giving battle. The size of the raiding party seems to be unknown but the following year some 3,000 Slavwarriors are known to have participated in raids. Separating into two groups of 1800 and 1200 men, a group began to attack cities in Thrace while the other moved into Illiricum. Although the small sizes of the war parties suggest guerrilla-type warfare, we know that both groups managed to rout sizeable Romanian forces sent against them. A number of fortresses were captured in spite of the fact that “they neither had any experience in attacking city walls, nor had they dared to come down to the open plain.” Cav­alry cohorts sent against them from Corlu (today s Rumania) were defeated and their commanders executed in a “savage man­ner.” The fortified town of Tapeiros on the Aegean Sea was cap­tured and destroyed apparently by luring the garrison outside of the city walls. Slav raiding parts were mobile and traveled light without taking prisoners. As Procopius remarked, perhaps with some exaggeration, “they spared no age... so that the whole land inhabited by the Illyrians and Thracians came to be everywhere filled with corpses.”¹⁹ The women and children were apparently spared, with only men executed to prevent them from taking part in any future fighting. After the capture of Topeiros, however, when the Slavs were heading home they took captives with them when being encumbered with prison­ers no longer posed a difficulty.

In the summer of 550 Justinians cousin Germanicus was gathering forces in Serdica (todays Sofia) in preparation for his advance against the Ostrogoth leader Totila in Italy, when a Slav force “such as never before was known” approached the great city ofNaissus (today s Nish, Serbia), which caused the expe­dition to be postponed. Naissus, the birthplace of Constantine the Great, was a point of intersection of roads leading north to the Danube, southeast to Constantinople, south to Macedonia and the Aegean, and westwards to the Adriatic Sea. Faced with a powerful Imperial army the Slavs retreated to the Dalmatian coast, where they spent the winter of 550. Joined by other Slav war parties, in 551 they once again split into three groups, no doubt to maintain mobility and to keep the Romanians off bal­ance. An Imperial army commanded by the eunuch Scholas- tikos was sent against them and coming across one of the groups near Adrianople he decided to give battle. The Imperial army was almost annihilated and their commanders barely escaped together with a few survivors. The Slavs continued to plunder the area but on their way back they were intercepted by a re­grouped and reinforced Romanian army and suffered defeat. They lost a Romanian standard which they had captured at Adrianople, together with many captives some of which would have been sold for a good ransom. A sizeable part of the Slav force survived, however, and returned to their settlements be­yond the Danube with great booty. Not waiting for the fol­lowing year, a Slav force again descended on Illyricum inflicting heavy damage and devastation. Germanicus^, sons were sent against them, but did not dare give battle choosing to follow the Slavs at a distance. Once again the Slavs crossed the Danube unmolested, but this time with Gepid help. Running out of boats they were ferried across with the booty, paying the Gepids

an Imperial solidus for each passenger. Other Slav tribes turned their attention westward and together with Avar allies attacked the Frankish kingdom in 562 but apparently without much suc­cess. In a second attack five years later, however, the Frankish king Siegebert was defeated and had to sue for peace.