Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/167

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 147 new colonies of Scythian or Sclavonian origin ; ^- many thousands of robust and industrious captives had been imported from all the countries of Europe ; ^'^ and, after the marriage of Geisa with a Bavarian princess, he bestowed honours and estates on the nobles of Germany.^* The son of Geisa was invested Avith the regal title, and the house of Ai-])ad reigned three hundred years in the kingdom of Hungar}-. But the freeborn barbarians were not dazzled by the lustre of the diadem, and the people asserted their indefeasible right of choosing, deposing, and punishing the . hereditary servant of the state. III. The name of Russians ^^ was first divulged, in the ninth origin of the century, by an embassy from Theophilus, emperor of the East, archy to the emperor of the West, Lewis, the son of Charlemagne. The Greeks were accompanied by the envoys of the great duke, or chagan, or czar, of the Russians. In their journey to Con- ^- Among these colonies we may distinguish, i. The Chazars, or Cabari, who joined the Hungarians on their march (Constant, de Admin. Imp. c. 39, 40, p. 108, 109). [The name of the Kabars, a Khazar people, survives in the name of the two Kabar-dahs (Kabar-hills).] 2. The Tazyges, Moravians, and Siculi, whom they foimd in the land ; the last were [according to Simon de K^za, c. 4] perhaps a remnant of the Huns of .ttila, and were entrusted with the guard of the borders. [Siculus (Zaculus in .Simon de K^za) is the equivalent, in chroniclers' Latin, of Sz^kely (plural, Sz^kelyek), which is generally derived from szdk, seat, abode. Hunfalvy (Magyarorszag Ethnographiaja, p. 302) explains the word as "beyond the habitations," a name which might be applied to people of a march district. The word would thus be formed like Erddy (= Erdo-elv, beyond the forest), the Hungarian name of Transylvania. Their German neighbours call the Sz^kelyek Szeklers.] 3. The Russians, who, like the Swiss in France, imparted a general name to the royal porters. 4. The Bulgarians, whose chiefs {.K.V>. 956) were in- vited, cum magna multitudine Hismahelitarum. Had any of these .Sclavonians embraced the Mahometan religion? 5. The Bisseni and Cumans, a mixed multi- tude of Patzinacites, Uzi, Chazars, &c. who had spread to the lower Danube. [Bisseni = Patzinaks ; Cumans=Uzi.] The last colony of 40,000 Cumans, a.d. 1239, was received and converted by the kings of Hungary, who derived from that tribe a new regal appellation (Pray, Dissert, vi. vii. p. 109-173 ; Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 95-99, 252-264, 476, 479-483. &c.). •'^^ Christiani autem, quorum pars major populi est, qui ex omni parte mundi illuc tracti sunt captivi, &c. Such was the language of Piligrinus, the first mis- sionary who entered Hungary, A.D. 973. Pars major is strong. Hist. Ducum, p. 517- ■^ The fideles Teutonici of Geisa are authenticated in old charters ; and Katona, with his usual industry, has made a fair estimate of these colonies, which had been so loosely magnified by the Italian Ranzanus (Hist. Critic. Duciun. p. 667- 681). undeclinable word, of which many fanciful etymologies have been suggested. [Cp. Appendix 14.] I have perused, with pleasure and profit, a dissertation de Origme Russorum (Comment. Academ. Petropolitanas, tom. viii. p. 388-436) by The- ophilus Sigefrid Bayer, a learned German, who spent his life and labours in the service of Russia. . geographical tract of d'.Anville, de I'Empire de Russie, son Origine, et ses Accroissemens (Paris, 1772, in i2mo), has likewise been of use.
 * ^. Among the Greeks, this national appellation has a singular form 'Pis, as an