Empires and Barbarians (115 page)
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Authors: Peter Heather
41
The mixed group of 1,600 Huns, Antae and Sclavenes: Procopius,
Wars
5.27.1; the 3,000 Slavs: Procopius,
Wars
7.38. Hildegesius: Procopius,
Wars
7.35.16–22. The 5,000 Slavs at Thessalonica:
Miracles of St Demetrius
I.12.
42
Possibly also consistent with some kind of ‘wave of advance’ model is the fact that the same names seem to have been used by different Slavic groups who found themselves in very different places at the end of the migration process. The usual explanation adopted for this phenomenon is that originally unified groups split into fragments, which moved in different directions as Slavic migration progressed. Such a process might also explain why Prague-Korchak, Penkovka, and even some Kolochin materials have been found intermixed with one another in the Balkans (see note 40 above). The problem remains, however, that the best-documented examples of multiply appearing names refer to Serbs and Croats, who appear to have been military specialists (see pp. 424–5 above), rather than the small conservative type of social grouping that carried Korchak culture in its complete form across the European landscape.
43
Strategicon of Maurice
11.4. Given the relatively small size of the groups in which they operated, this preference presumably reflected a desire for additional protection, rather than an inherent love of difficult terrain. On the IndoEuropean wave of advance, see Renfrew (1987).
44
For references, see notes 20 and 22 above. The political context also provides good reasons why the Balkan settlements would have been undertaken by larger units. In the case of the Peloponnese, likewise, the named Slavic groups were distinct from a local Greek-speaking population, so, once again, the named units would appear to have been properly Slavic, as opposed to the result of any reorganization among native and immigrant populations.
45
Musocius: Theophylact 6.8.13–6.9.15. Ardagastes: Theophylact 1.7.5, 6.7.1–5, 6.9.1–6. Perigastes: Theophylact 7.4.8 ff. Dabritas: Menander fr.21. The quarrel over the prisoners: Theophylact 6.11.4–21. On the sociopolitical transformation of the Slavs nearest the east Roman frontier, see Curta (2001), especially
chapter 7
. To keep matters in proportion, a total group population of c.10,000 individuals could not have fielded more than one or two thousand fighting men, and was much smaller – by as much as a factor of ten – than some of the migrant groups attested among the Germani of the Hunnic era (see
Chapter 4
).
46
For references, see notes 23 and 24 above; for the 5,000 ‘elite’ Slavs at Thessalonica, see note 41 above.
47
For general references, see note 39 above. For Novotroistkoe, see Liapushkin (1958).
48
Maurice,
Strategicon
11.4.
49
For Bohemia, see Godja (1988); cf., more generally, Kolendo (1997). For pollen studies, see Brachmann (1978), 31–2; Herrmann (1983), 87–9. Discontinuity is also the theme of Henning (1991). On Germanic culture collapse, see also pp. 371ff.
50
Fredegar,
Chronicle
4.48. On agriculture and its expansion, see Barford (2001),
chapter 8
, (2005), with full references. Really good information on population expansion is limited to only a few areas, but the field-walking and surveying project in Greater Poland has established that population densities increased from less than 1 person per square kilometre in c.500
AD
to 3 per square kilometre by 900
AD
, to 7 per square kilometre by 1200
AD
: see Barford (2001),
89–91, with references. Indications from agricultural technology tell the same story in qualitative terms. For example, ploughs only came into use at all in the more northerly reaches of the Russian forest zone with the spread of Slavic dominance there in the second half of the first millennium: see Levaskova (1994).
51
For references, see note 33 above.
52
See Halsall (2007), 383ff.
53
On the
Chronicle of Monemvasia
, see Charanis (1950). For Patras and Ragusa, see
De Administrando Imperio
49–50; cf. (on the Salona evacuation) Whitby (1988), 189–90, with references.
55
Urbanczyk (1997b), (2005). There is no explicit historical evidence to support this view of an exploited Germanic peasantry, but, as a kind of parallel, highly exploited Roman peasantry certainly sometimes sought refuge in (perhaps relative) tax havens beyond the frontier. One aspect of the Emperor Constantius’ activities north of the Danube in 358, as we have seen, was to ‘liberate’ peasantry who had cleared off north of the frontier: see
Chapter 3
.
56
Fredegar,
Chronicle
4.48; cf. Urbanczyk (2002).
57
This might also explain how Slavs came to take over some Germanic river and place names, the island of Rügen and Silesia, for example, seemingly named after the Rugi and the Siling Vandals respectively.
58
See Henning (1991), correcting and exposing the political bias of the DDR era in Herrman (1984), (1985), 33ff.
59
Topirus: Procopius,
Wars
7.39. The events of 594: Theophylact, 7.2.1–10.
60
This provides an alternative explanation – and a much more convincing one – to the ideologically generated nationalist models of ‘submerged’ Slavs living under the rule of just a small Germanic-speaking elite.
61
See
Chapter 10
.
62
For an excellent overview, see Barford (2001),
chapters 3
–
8
.
63
‘When [Vinitharius] attacked . . .’: Jordanes,
Getica
48.247, with note 12 above.
64
Chronicon Paschale
(626
AD
); cf. the more general accounts of Avar–Slav relations in Whitby (1988), 80ff.; Curta (2001), 90ff.
65
Fredegar,
Chronicle
4.48.
66
The Mogilany group predates the arrival of the Avars, but they may have given added momentum to the generation of the Sukow-Dziedzice system, although, as we have seen, the internal chronology is as yet too unclear to allow too much emphasis to be given to this point: for references, see note 33 above.
67
For useful introductions to the history and archaeology of the Avar Empire, see Pohl (2003); Daim (2003).
68
See p. 203 above.
69
On Dulcinea, see Curta (2006), 56–7.
70
The Slavs’ dugouts:
Chronicon Paschale
(626
AD
);
Miracles of St Demetrius
II.1.
1
‘From Hernar in Norway one should keep sailing west to reach Hvarf in Greenland and then you are sailing north of Shetland, so that it can only be seen if visibility is very good; but south of the Faroes, so that the sea appears halfway up their mountain slopes; but so far south of Iceland that one only becomes aware of birds and whales from it’: from the fourteenth-century
Hauksbok
, quoted in Bill (1997), 198.
2
There is a strong tendency from a British perspective to distinguish two ages of major Viking invasion: one in the ninth century, and another right at the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh. The latter, however, was substantially different in character, being organized by a centralized Danish monarchy and involving little in the way of actual migration; it will therefore be considered in
Chapter 10
.
3
On the logistics of sailing these northern waters, see Crawford (1987),
chapter 1
.
4
There is an almost infinite bibliography on the Viking raids in the west, but, between them, Nelson (1997), Keynes (1997) and O Corrain (1997) provide an excellent introduction, usefully supplemented by the appropriate chapters in Forte et al. (2005) and Loyn (1995).
5
See Crawford (1987),
chapter 4
(place names); 136ff. (types of settlement); cf. Ritchie (1993). Hints of what must have been happening in the north emerge from the action unfolding in Ireland (see following note).
6
See for example the
Chronicle of Ireland
for the years 807, 811, 812 and 813; the record of attacks becomes pretty much annual from 821, suggesting that the assault on Ireland intensified just a little before that on England and the continent. The
Chronicle of Ireland
(848
AD
) calls the Viking leader Tomrair a
tanaise rig
, in Irish terms an heir apparent or second in command to a king (Charles-Edwards (2006), vol. 2, 11). He may well have been an ‘earl’ (Old Norse,
Jarl
), therefore, rather than a ‘king’: see further below. The action in England and on the continent is well covered in Nelson (1997); Keynes (1997).
7
For further detail, see Nelson (1997); Keynes (1997); Coupland (1995), 190–7.
8
See O Corrain (1997), with the very helpful commentary of Charles-Edwards (2006) in the notes to his translation of the
Chronicle of Ireland
. On the two kings, see the ground-breaking work of Smyth (1977). Something more of the actual death of Reginharius is reported in the
Translatio
of St Germanus: see Nelson (1997).
9
For useful summaries, see Coupland (1995), 197–201; Keynes (1997). The narrative of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
is itself excellent (in early medieval terms!) for these years.
10
On the nature of the Great Armies, see especially Brooks (1979); cf. Smyth (1977). The switching of manpower back and forth between England and the continent can be followed in more detail in Nelson (1997) and Keynes (1997).
11
Studies of Alfred’s reforms abound, but Brooks (1979) is an extremely helpful introduction. It can be supplemented in greater detail by e.g. Smyth (1995); Abels (1998). Many of the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated in Keynes and Lapidge (1983).
12
For further detail, see Nelson (1997); O Corrain (1997).
13
For Brittany, see J. Smith (1992), 196–200; Searle (1988), 29–33. For (somewhat) contrasting introductions to the history of Normandy, see Bates (1982); Searle (1988), especially
chapters 5
and
8
.
14
For Orkney, see Crawford (1987), 51ff., with Rafnsson (1997) on Iceland and the Atlantic diaspora.
15
For a broad summary, see O Corrain (1997); for a much more detailed, indeed slightly controversial treatment, see Smyth (1979).
16
Various materials have come down to us in excerpts made in the Middle Ages from Ibn Rusteh – see Wiet (1957) – Ibn Jaqub – see Miquel (1966) – and Ibn Fadlan – see Canard (1973); cf. Melnikova (1996), 52–4.
17
For the ‘rapids’, see
De Administrando Imperio
,
chapter 9
. For trade treaties, see
Russian Primary Chronicle
(911 and 944
AD
). For an introduction to the debate, with full sources, see Franklin and Shepard (1996), 27–50; Melnikova (1996), 47–9; Duczko (2004), 3ff.
18
Ibn Fadlan also makes the Rus sound like Nordic stereotypes: tall and fair, with reddish complexions.
19
Russian Primary Chronicle
(860–2
AD
). For the textual tradition, see the introduction to the translation of Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor (1953), with the further thoughts of Franklin and Shepard (1996), 27ff.; Melnikova (1996),
chapters 7
–
8
.
20
Noonan (1997) provides an excellent introduction; the comprehensive treatment is now Duczko (2004).
21
Ibn Jaqub,
Relation
(see note 16).
22
Life of St Anskar
30. On Ottar, see Lund (1984); cf. Melnikova (1996), 49–52.
23
As we shall see in
Chapter 10
, there is good reason to suppose that many of the slaves were also being acquired from indigenous intermediaries.
24
Ibn Jaqub,
Relation
(see note 16). For the winter circuit of the Rus in the first half of the tenth century, see
De Administrando Imperio
9.
25
Russian Primary Chronicle
(911 and 944
AD
); for detailed comment, see Franklin and Shepard (1996), 106ff. and 118ff.: comparison shows, amongst other things, an increase in the numbers of Rus trading with Constantinople.
26
De Administrando Imperio
9.
27
For an excellent introduction, see Noonan (1997).
28
On the archaeological evidence for this earliest phase of Scandinavian activity in northern Russia, see Duczko (2004),
chapter 2
. For the comparison between Constantinople and the Caliphates as potential markets, see
Chapter 7
.
29
Swedish Vikings:
Annals of St Bertin
AD
a 839. (It must be questioned whether this was the first time that the Dnieper route was actually tried.) The death of Sviatoslav:
Russian Primary Chronicle
(972
AD
).
30
The relevant boats will presumably have been Slavic ‘monoxyla’, hollowed from single tree trunks, however, rather than the longships so prominently deployed in the west.
31
On the Abaskos attack and its aftermath, see Franklin and Shepard (1996), 50ff.; Duczko (2004),
chapter 1
.
32
On the anarchy at Samarra, see Kennedy (2004).
33
On these coin flows, see Noonan (1997).
34
On the archaeological evidence for Scandinavian settlers from this era, see Franklin and Shepard (1996), 91ff.; Duczko (2004),
chapters. 3
–
5
.
35
See Franklin and Shepard (1996),
chapter 3
; Melnikova (1996), 54–60; Duczko (2004),
chapter 6
.
