Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/571

 APPENDIX 549 To an unbiassed inquirer the evidence certainly renders it probable that during the 8th century when the Avar monarchy %vas weak and soon about to yield to the arms of Charles the Great, the Bulgarians extended their power over the Slavs and Vlachs of Siebenbiirgen. This was certainly what under the circumstances was likely to happen ; and the scanty evidence seems to point to the conclusion that it did happen. There is no reason to suppose that a part of the Bulgarian people settled in Siebenburgen ; only that Sie- benbiirgen was subject to the princes of Bulgaria during the ninth century until the Magyar invasion. Unfortunately, this question is mixed up with the burning Roumanian question ; and the Hungarians iirmly reject the idea of a Bulgarian period in Siebenbiirgen. The first active promulgator of the view seems to have been Engel,'* and Hunfalvy devotes several pages to the task of demolishing the " k^pzelt tiszai Bolgarsag," as he calls it, "the imaginary Bulgaria on the Theiss ".' The Roumanians welcome the notion of a northern Bulgaria, because it would explain the existence of the Bulgarian rite in the Roumanian church, and deprive the Hungarians of an argument for their doctrine, that the Roumanians are late intruders in Transylvania and carried the Bulgarian rite with them from the country soiith of the Danube. But, apart from the Transylvanian question, there can be no doubt that Bulgaria included Walachia and extended to the Dniester under the early kings. There is no reason to suppose that when Isperich passed south of the Danube he gave up his dominion in Bessarabia. That Bessarabia was Bulgarian in the 8th century seems a permissible inference from the statement in the legend of the five sons of Kuvrat (see last note). And the fact that there was no other rival power to hold these regions seems to me to be almost conclusive. I am read}' even to hazard the h-pothesis that the influence of the Bulgarian kings in the 8th century extended as far as the Dnieper. Until the Hungarians came and took possession of Atelkuzn (see next note), there was no other great power nearer than the Khazars. On the Dnieper, during the first half of the 8th century, the Bulgarians would have been in contact with their own kinsfolk. 12. THE CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS It is remarkable that Gibbon has given no account of the Apostles of the Sla% the brothers Constantine and Methodius ; whose work was far more im- portant for the conversion of the Slavonic world to the Christian faith than that of Ulfilas for the conversion of the Germans. Little enough is known of the lives of these men. and their names were soon surrounded with discrepant traditions and legends in various countries — in Moravia and Bohemia, Parmonia and Bulgaria. There seems no reason to doubt that they were born in Thessalonica, and the date of the birth of Constantine. at least, the elder of the two, probably falls between a. d. 820 and 830. In Thessalonica they were in the midst of Slavonic di.stricts and had opportunities of becoming acquainted with the Slavonic lan- guage in their youth. Perhaps they both became monks when they were still j^oung.i Constantine went to Constantinople and became a priest. His learning won him the title of Philosopher and the friendship of Photius ; - but, when Photius started the doctrine of two souls in man, Constantine opposed him. It was probably soon after the elevation of Photius to the Patriarchate (..d. 857) that Constantine, who had a gift for languages, was sent as a missionary to the Chazars (perhaps a.d. 8<)0-1), who had begged the Emperor to send them a learned instructor. While he was at Cherson, learning the C'hazaric language, he "discovered" the remains of the martyr Po|>e Clement I., which he after- ■* In his Geschichte des alten Pannomiens und der Bulgarei (1767). 5 Magyarorszag Ethnographiaja, p. 167 sqq. 1 Cp. Translatio Gauderici, c. 11. But according to the Pannonian legend, Vita Methodii, c. 2 (and the notice is accepted by Jirecek, Gesch. der Bulgaren, p. 152) Methodius was appointed to the civil administration of a Slavonic district. - Cp. the Preface of Anastasius to the Council of a.d. b6g ; Mansi, Cone. 16, 6,