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 SLAVS

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SLAVS

Roman chroniclers. In the same way all authorities of the era of the Apostles to the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius, give the name Slav without any distinc- tion both to the southern Slavs, to which branch both missionaries belonged, and to the western Slavs, among whom they laboured. As regards the eastern Slavs or Russians, leaving out the mention of Ptolemy already referred to, Jordanis says that at the begin- ning of the era of the migrations the Goths had car- ried on war with the "nation of Slavs"; this nation must have lived in what is now Southern Russia. The earliest Russian chronicle, erroneously ascribed to the monk Nestor, always calls the Slavs as a whole "Slavs", when it begins to narrate the history of Russia it speaks indeed of the Russians to whom it never applies the designation Slav, but it also often tells of the Slavs of Northern Russia, the Slavs of Novgorod. Those tribes that were already thor- oughly incoiporated in the Russian kingdom are simply called Russian tribes, while the Slavs in Nor- thern Russia, who maintained a certain independence, were designated by the general expression Slavs. Con- sequently, the opinion advocated by Miklosic, namely, that the name Slav was originally applied only to one Slavonic tribe, is unfounded, though it has been sup- ported by other scholars like Krek, Potkdnski, Czer- mak, and Pasternek.

From at least the sixth century the expression Slav was, therefore, the general designation of all Slavonic tribes. Wherever a Slavonic tribe rose to greater poUtical importance and founded an independent kingdom of its own, the name of the tribe came to the front and pushed aside the general designation Slav. Where, however, the Slavs attained no pohtical power but fell under the sway of foreign rulers they remained known by the general name of Slavs. Among the successful tribes who brought an entire district under their sway and gave it their name were the Russians, Poles, Czechs, Croats, and the Tm-anian tribe of the Bulgars. The old general name has been retained to the present time by the Slovenes of Southern Austria on the Adriatic coast, the Slovaks of Northern Hun- gary, the province Slavonia between Croatia and Hungary and its inhabitants the Slavonians, and the Slovinci of Prussia on the North Sea. Up to recent times the name was customary among the inhabitants of the most southern point of Dalmatia, which was formerly the celebrated Republic of Dubrovnik (Ra- gu.sa). Until late in the Aliddle Ages it was retained by the Slavs of Novgorod in Northern Russia and by the Slavs in Macedonia and Albania. These peoples, however, have also retained their specific national and tribal names.

B. Wends. — A much older designation in the his- torical authorities than Slav is the name Wend. It is under this designation that the Slavs first appear in history. The first certain references to the present Slavs date from the first and second centuries. They were made by the Roman writers Phny and Tacitus and the Alexandrian already mentioned Ptolemy. Phny (d. a.d. 79) says (Nat. hist., IV, 97) that among the peoples living on the other side of the Vistula be- sides the Sarmatians and others are also the Wends (Venedi). Tacitus (G., 46) says the same. He de- scribes the Wends somewhat more in detail but can- not make up his mind whether he ought to include them among the Germans or the Sarmatians; still they seem to him to be more closely connected with the first named th.an with the latter. Ptolemy (d. about 178) in his VeuypacpiK-fi (III, ."), 7) calls the Venedi the greatest nation li^•ing on the W'ondic Gulf. How- ever, he says later (III, 5, 8) that they live on the Vistula; he also speaks of the Venedic mountains (III, 5, 6). In the centuries immediately .succeeding the Wends are mentioned \-ery rarely. The migrations that had now l)eguii had brought other peoples into the foreground until the Venedi again appear in the

sixth century under the name of Slavs. The name Wend, however, was never completely forgotten. The German chroniclers used both names constantly without distinction, the former almost oftener than the latter. Even now the Sorbs of Lusatia are called by the Germans Wends, while the Slovenes are fre- quentlv called Winds and their language is called Windish.

Those who maintain t he theory that the original home of the Slavs was in the countries along the Danube have tried to refute the opinion that these references relate to the ancestors of the present Slavs, but their arguments are inconclusive. Besides these definite notices there are several others that are neither clear nor certain. The Wends or Slavs have had con- nected with them as old tribal confederates of the present Slavs the Budinoi mentioned by Herodotus, and also the Island of Banoma mentioned by Pliny (IV, 94), further the Vencta?, the original inhabitants of the present Province of Venice, as well as the Homeric Venetoi, Csesar's Veneti in Gaul and Angha, etc. In all probability, the Adriatic Veneti were an lUyrian tribe related to the present Albanians, but nothing is known of them. With more reason can the old story that the Greeks obtained amber from the River Eridanos in the country of the Enetoi be ap- plied to the Wends or Slavs; from which it may be concluded that the Slavs were already living on the shores of the Baltic in the fourth century before Christ.

Most probablj' the name Wend was of foreign origin and the race was known by this name only among the foreign tribes, while they called themselves Slavs. It is possible that the Slavs were originally named ^\'ends by the early Gauls, because the root \\'end, or ^^'ind, is found especially in the districts once occupied by the Gauls. The word was apparently a designation that was first applied to various Gallic or Celtic tribes, and then given by the Celts to the Wendic tribes hving north of them. The exjilanation of the meaning of the word is also to be sought from this point of view. The endeavour was made at one time to derive the word from the Teutonic dialects, as Danish ivand, Old Norwegian vain, Latin unda, meaning water. Thus Wends would signify watermen, people living about the water, people living by the sea, as proposed by Jordan, Adelung, and others. A derivation from the German uvndeii (to turn) has also been suggested, thus the Wends are the people wandering about; or from the Gothic vinja, related to the German weiden, pasture, hence Wends, those who pasture, the shep- herds; finally the word has been traced to the old root veil, belonging together. Wends would, therefore, mean the allied. Pogodin traced the name from the Celtic, taking it from the early Celtic root vindos, white, by which expression the dark Celts designated the light Slavs. Naturally an explanation of the term was also sought in the Slavonic language; thus, KoUar derived it from the Old Slavonic word Un, Sassinek from Slo-van, Perwolf from the Old Slavonic root v^d, still retained in the O. Slav. comp;irative t'esttj meaning large and brought it into connexion with the Russian Anii and Vjntifi: Ililferding even derived it from the olci East Indian designation of the Aryans Vanila, and Safaflk connected the word with the East Indians, a confusion that is also to be found in the early writers.

II. Origin.'VL Home and Migrations. — There are two theories in regard to the original home of the Slavs, and these theories are in sharp opposition to eacli other. One considers the region of the Danube as the original home of the Slavs, whence they spread north-east over the Carpatliians as far as the V'olga River, Lake Ilmen. and the Caspian Sea. The other theory regards the districts between the Vistula and the Dneiper as their original home, whence they spread south-west over the Carpathians to the Bal-