Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/570

 548 APPENDIX 10. OMORTAG'S INSCRIPTION— (P. 134) Readers of Gibbon may be interested in seeing the text of the remarkable in- scription of a Greek architect employed by prince Omortag ; it was engraved on a pillar of red marble found at Trnovo. I take it from Jirecek, Gesch. der Bul- garen (p. 148). ridifi OfJ-opray is tov iraXeov vkov avrou fievov eir-J)(Tev vTvepQvfxov uKoy fs tov Aavov0r]v, Kava. /xeffa rov Svo vko rov iravQvixov. Karafierfrqcras is tov fxiffov e-Kvrtaa Tovfxfiav. Ke otto r-qv avT-qv fiecrriv rrjs rov/x^as (os rriv avtv /xov ttiv apxeav iffiv opyri[s) fj.vpXaSes : ^ : Ktiri tov Aavov^iv i(rT)V opyXes /xvpiaSes : : to Se avTO TOV0L ecTTiv iravQvixov. /uerpicrTe 's tiv yiv. ewvis' to ypafxaTa touto o avdpOTTOs KK aXa^ov airoOviiTKi Ke aAos yevare Ke iva o ecrxarov y-qvofxevos. Tama Qeopov virofivriffKeTe tov nviaavTa avTO. to Se ovofxa tov apxovTos eaTi)v CifiopTay Kav . va (TV ^1^1) Qs avorr'i aurov . QcraeT . 7) : p. This document states that Giom Omortag built a new palace on the Danube, and also a tomb, exactly halfway between this new palace and his old palace. Ob- serve that he is called b- the Bulgarian title khan, not by the Slavonic knez. There are several difficulties iu the interpretation of the inscription. This is not the place to discuss them, but in one point I may correct the interpretation and punctuation of Jire2ek. The second clause [Kava ixecra, &c.) he translates freely " und in der Mitte beider ein (drittes) Haus, das grossartigste. Nach eiuer Vermessung errichtete ich in der Mitte ein Grabmal (jenes dritte Haus ':)." This will not do. Obviously the punctuation before KaTaixeTpi)aas should be removed, and the sentence is quite simple (equal to koi ava /xeaa ruiv Svo o'iKoo(v) Twv iravdvfxaiv KaTafieTpfjcras els t7)v fj.ecT7)v eVoiTjcra tv/x^ov), " and between those two magnificent houses, having measured the ground, I made a tomb in the middle (halfway) ". 11. THE NORTHERN LIMITS OF THE FIRST BULGARIAN KINGDOM —(P. 131) There is evidence to show that the kingdom over which Isperich and Crum ruled was not confined to the Lower Mocsia, the countr}- between the Danube and the Balkan range. There is no doubt that their sway extended over the lands which form the modern kingdom of Roumania ; and it is possible that the sway of Crum extended over Siebenbiirgen or Transylvania. The extension of Bulgaria north of the Danube in the time of Crum is proved by a passage in the Anonymous writer of the ninth century, of whose work a fragment on the reign of Leo V. is preserved (see above, vol. 5, Appendix, p. 502). There we find ' 'Bulgaria bejoud the Danube " (eKeldev Tov'lcrTpov TroTa/xov, in the Bonn ed. of Leo Grammaticus, p. 34.5) ; Crum transported a multitude of prisoners thither. This is borne out by the Bavarian geographer of the ninth century, who mentions the country of the Bulgarians as one of the coimtries north of the Danube.^ The chief e-iideuce cited for Bulgarian dominion over Transj-lvania in the ninth century is the enumeration of a number of Dacian towns as belonging to the regions occupied bj- the Bulgarians, in the Raveunate Geographer ; - and the circumstance that the Bulgarians used to sell salt to the Moravians •* (there being salt mines in Transylvania, and none in Bulgaria south of the Danube). 1 Ad septentrionalem plagam Danubii. . . . Vulgarii, regie est immensa et populus multus habens civitates V. The others mentioned are Bohemia and Moravia; and the three countries are described as regions " que terminant in finibus nostris ". See Schafarik, Slawische Altertiimer, ed. Wuttke, ii. p. 673. -Ed. Pinder and Parthey, p. 185. 3 Annals of Fulda in Pertz, Mon. i. 408. Cp. Xenopol, Histoire des Roumains, i. p. 134. He cites other passages, which suggest, though they do not seem to me to prove, that the Bulgarians were common neighbours of Moravia and Francia.