Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/575

 I APPENDIX 553 yuas ; to whom, however, he ascribes the function of a judge.' It seems that the title kende was adopted by the Hungarians from the Chazars ; for the title of the C'hazar viceroy was kendercho/ian. Ibn Rusta says that the Hungarians rule over the Slavs, whom they oppress with heavy burdens ; that the}- worship fire ; that they trade in the slaves whom they capture, with Greek merchants at Kertsch." The reconstruction of Hungarian history between Jugria and Lebedia has been attempted, most recentlj- and with great ingenuity, by Count Kuun. But, as there is not material sufficient to enable us to decide between various possibilities, it seems unnecessary' to discuss here these hypotheses which are entirely in the air." A word may be said about the name Magyar. It was doubtless the name of a single tribe before it became the name of the whole people ; and the third of the 8 tribes enumerated by C'onstantine (c. 40 ad mV(.) was that of Megere (toS M€7ep''?)- In another place (c. 37) Constantino mentions the Vla^apoi as dwelling in the 9th century near the river Ural, where they were neighbours of the Patzinaks ; but without any suggestion that they are identical with the Hungarians, whom he always calli Turks. Hungarian scholars find other traces of the Magyar name between the Black Sea and the Caspian : thus there are two villages called Majar in the neighbourhood of Derbend ; ^" and K. .Szabo wished to detect the word in Muager (Movayfpriv), whom Theo]jhanes mentions as the brother of Gordas, king of the Huns near the Cimmerian Bosporus. It has also been proposed to connect the name of a fortress, rh Mar^dptav (mentioned by Theophylactus Simocatta, ii. 18, 7). It was on the confines of the Roman and Persian dominions, but its exact i)Osition is unknown. Without committing oneself to these last combina- tions, there seems to lie some evidence, such as it is, associating the Magj-ar name with the regions between the Caspian and the Euxine. In that case, we might infer that the original Magyars were, like the Kabars, a Turkish tribe {akin to Patzinaks and Uzes) which coalesced with the (Finnic) Ugrians or Hungarians. This inference would be quite in accordance with the apparent probability that the Hungarians are a " Mischvolk," a blend of two elements, Finnic and Turkish. 14. ORIGIN OF RUSSIA— (P. 147 sqq.) No competent critic now doubts that the Russians, who founded states at Novgorod and Kiev, subdued the Slavonic tribes and organized them into a [K)litical power, — who, in short, made Russia — were of Scandina'ian or Norse origin. It is therefore unnecessary to treat this matter any longer as a disputed question, though there are still "anti-Normans" in Russia; it will be enough to state briefly the most important evidence. The evidence is indeed insuperable, except to insuperable prejudice. (1) The early writers, who mention the Russians, attest their identity with the Scandinavians or Normans. The first notice is in the Anuales Bertiniaiii fid ann. 839 (Pertz, Mon. i. 484), Rhos vocari dicebant. . . comperit eos gentis esse Sueonum. Liutprand (Antajxidosis, v. l.o) says that they were Normans (nos vero a positione loci nominamus Nordmannos). The chronicle of "Nestor" identifies them with the Varangians, or regards them as belonging to the Varan- gian stock ; and for the Scandinavian origin of the Varangians see above, p. 148, note 58. The Continuation of George the Monk (Symeon Magister) states more generally and less accuratel}- their German origin (=Theoph. Contin. p. 423, ed. B., e'/c 4>pdyyuv yevovs).^ 7 Constantine mentions a third dignitary, inferior to the yvAi?, and entitled karchas. Hungarians, most recently in Kuun's work cited above, vol. i. p. 165-6, translated from the recent Arabic text of M. de Goeje. Ibn Rusta used to be called Ibn Dasta. 9 In the foregoing paragraphs I have adopted Constantine's statements about Lebedia, as the only positive statement we have ; but there is much to be said still by way of criti- cism on these chapters of Constantine. 1" Kuun, op. cit. p, 93. 1 Yakiibi, writing before the end of the gth cent., calls the heathen who attacked Seville in 844 Rui.
 * The notice of Ibn Rusta will be found in some shape in al! recent works on the early