Stojkov, Stojko (2016) The term „Sclavinia“ - Byzantine invention, western influence? In: 23rd International Congress of Byzantine studies, 24 Aug 2016, Belgrade, Serbia. (Unpublished)
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Abstract
This article attempts to shed light on the emergence of the term Sclavinia. It calls in question
the thesis that term appeared in Constantinople in the VI or VII century. In addition, it argues that
Theophilact Simokatta was not the first author who used it. The oldest manuscript of Theophylact’s
History is from X c., when the term was already well affirmed - all other Theophylact’s manuscripts
depend on this one. Theophylact used the term Sclavinia in only one place in his History, and in the
way which made it unclear for his contemporary readers. None of his contemporary writers used
it, and there is not any sign that anybody borrowed it from him. Patriarch Nicephorus, who wrote
his history as a continuation of Theophylact’s in the second half of VIII c., did not know the term
Sclavinia at all. Theophane the Confessor, who widely used the term Sclavinia at the beginning of IX
c., and who incorporated a big amount from Theophylact’s History in his Chronicle, did not use the
term in the sections based on Theophylact. Therefore, it is very possible that Sclavinia did not exist
in the original of Theophilact’s History but actually was an interpolation from X c.
If Theophylact is not the first author who used Sclavinia, then the oldest source in which we
find is not byzantine but western one: Life of Willibald, written in 778, in northern Italy. The term
was used in it for part of Peloponnese, indicating that in year 723 the Saint passed nearby by boat.
Nothing supports the suggestion that he learned it in Byzantium. It is remarkable that it is not in a
byzantine form – Sclavinia, but Slawinia.
This article proposes two possible explanations of emergence of the term. First, the alternative
hypothesis that the term appeared in the region of the Adriatic Sea where Latin, Greek and Slavonic
languages met each other, and was invented and used first by the Slavic neighbors. From Adriatic
shores, it has expanded during the conflict between Franks and Romeos for Istra and Dalmatia in
late VIII - early IX century. The second explanation is that the term Sclavinia was not invented in one
place but it appeared spontaneously in many different places and authors often without connection
between them. It was a very common way of making toponyms from ethnonyms in the middle ages,
and it was easy to create Sclavinia form Sclavi(ni), so we do not need to explain it through inventions
and borrowing.
Sclavinia failed to take a permanent place in the official terminology of Byzantine or western
imperial court. The first official use in Byzantium we find in a letter of Emperor Michael II to
Emperor Luis the Pious, and in the west - in letter of Louis II to Basil I in 871. In general, the use of
this term in Latin and Byzantine sources was very limited. In the old Slavic written tradition, it was
never used, which suggests that Sclavinia was an external name.
Its use has spread at the time of inclusion of independent Slavic communities in Central Europe
and the Balkans, in the sphere of influence and domination of the great empires form the end of
VIII c. A suitable collective term, its weakness was its too general and uncertain meaning. With
the disappearance of small Slavic tribes or their evolution in larger independent state formations
established under their own well-known names, it loses its relevance.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Humanities > History and archaeology |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Educational Science |
| Depositing User: | Stojko Stojkov |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Jun 2018 10:32 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Jun 2018 10:32 |
| URI: | https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/20098 |
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