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Rh of the Serb emperor Dushan, was finally conquered by the Turks in 1393. Many of their old privileges were accorded to the inhabitants, and their taxes were limited to an annual tribute. Since this period the Megalovlachites have been largely Hellenized, but they are still represented by the flourishing Tzintzar settlements of Pindus and its neighbourhood (see ).

3. Little Walachia was a name applied by Byzantine writers to the Ruman settlements of Aetolia and Acarnania, and with it may be included “Upper Walachia,” or. Its inhabitants are still represented by the Tzintzars of the Aspropotamo and the Karaguni (Black Capes) of Acarnania.

4. The Morlachs (Mavrovlachi) of the West.—These are already mentioned as Nigri Latini by the presbyter of Dioclea (c. 1150) in the old Dalmatian littoral and the mountains of what is now Montenegro, Herzegovina and North Albania. Other colonies extended through a great part of the old Servian interior, where is a region still called Stara Vlaška or “Old Walachia.” The great commercial staple of the east Adriatic shores, the republic of Ragusa, seems in its origin to have been a Ruman settlement, and many Vlach traces survived in its later dialect. Philippus de Diversis, who described the city as it existed in 1440, says that “the various officers of the republic do not make use either of Slav or Italian, with which they converse with strangers, but a certain other dialect only partially intelligible to us Latins,” and cites words with strong Ruman affinities. In the mountains above Ragusa a number of Vlach tribes are mentioned in the archives of that city, and the original relationship of the Ragusans and the nomadic Alpine representatives of the Roman provincials, who preserved a traditional knowledge of the old lines of communication throughout the peninsula, explains the extraordinary development of the Ragusan commerce. In the 14th century the Mavrovlachi or Morlachs extended themselves towards the Croatian borders, and a large part of maritime Croatia and northern Dalmatia began to be known as Morlacchia. A Major Vlachia was formed about the triple frontier of Bosnia, Croatia and Dalmatia, and a “Little Walachia” as far north as Požega. The Morlachs have now become Slavonized (see ).

5. Cici of Istria.—The extreme Ruman offshoot to the north-west is still represented by the Cici of the Val d'Arsa and adjoining Istrian districts. They represent a 15th-century Morlach colony from the Isles of Veglia, and had formerly a wider extension to Trieste and the counties of Gradisca and Gorz. The Cici have almost entirely abandoned their native tongue, which is the last remaining representative of the old Morlach, and forms a connecting link between the Daco-Roman (or Rumanian) and the Illyro- or Macedo-Roman dialects.

6. Rumans of Transylvania and Hungary.—As already stated, a large part of the Hungarian plains were, at the coming of the Magyars in the 9th century, known as Pascua Romanorum. At a later period privileged Ruman communities existed at Fogaras, where was a Silva Vlachorum, at Marmaros, Deva, Hatzeg, Hunyad and Lugos, and in the Banat were seven, Ruman districts. Two of the greatest figures in Hungarian history, the 15th-century rulers John Corvinus of Hunyad and his son King Matthias, were due to this element. For its later history see.

See, in addition to the books already mentioned, J. L. Pič, Über die Abstammung der Rumänen (Leipzig, 1880); A. D. Xenopol, Les Roumains au moyen âge (Jassy, 1886); B. P. Hasdeu, “Stratǔ ši Substratǔ: Genealogia poporelorǔ balcanice,” in Annalele Academieǐ, ser. 11, vol. 14 (Bucharest, 1893); D. Onciul, “Romaniǐ in Dacia Traiana,” &c., in Enciclopedia Româna, vol. iii. (Bucharest, 1902).

 VLADIKAVKAZ, a town and fortress of Russia in northern Caucasia, the capital of the province of Terek. Pop. (1900) 49,924. It stands on a plateau, at an altitude of 2345 ft., on both banks of the Terek, where that river issues from the Darial gorge. It is 434 m. by rail S.E. from Rostov-on-the-Don, and has regular communication with Tiflis (133 m.) by coach through the Darial Pass (Georgian military road) of the Caucasus. Moreover, a line of railway, running eastwards to the Caspian ports of Petrovsk and Baku, connects Vladikavkaz, or rather the station Beslan, 14 m. N. of it, with the Transcaucasian railway, i.e. with Tifiis, Poti and Batum. Russians, Armenians and Jews constitute the bulk of the population, which also contains Ossetes, Chechens, Ingushes and others. There are distilleries and a number of smaller factories. The fort, around which the town has grown up, was built in 1784. The town is an episcopal see of the Orthodox Greek Church.

 VLADIMIR, ST (c. 956-1015), grand duke of Kiev and of all Russia, was the youngest son of Svyatoslav I. and his mistress Malushka. In 970 he received Great Novgorod as his apanage. On the death of Svyatoslav in 972, a long civil war took place between his sons Yaropolk and Oleg, in which Vladimir was involved. From 977 to 984 he was in Scandinavia, collecting as many of the viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return marched against Yaropolk. On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Ragvald, prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Ragnilda. The haughty princess refused to affiance herself to “the son of a bonds woman,” but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Ragvald, and took Ragnilda by force. Subsequently (980) he captured Kiev also, slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed prince of all Russia. In 981 he conquered the Chervensk cities, the modern Galicia; in 983 he subdued the heathen Yatvyags, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985 he led a fleet along the central rivers of Russia to conquer the Bulgarians of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way. At this time Vladimir was a thoroughgoing pagan. He increased the number of the trebishcha, or heathen temples; offered up Christians (Theodore and Ivan, the protomartyrs of the Russian Church) on his altars; had eight hundred concubines, besides numerous wives; and spent his whole leisure in feasting and hunting. He also formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities. In the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighbouring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Mussulman Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported “there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench; their religion is not a good one.” In the temples of the Germans they saw “no beauty”; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Orthodox Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal. “We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth, nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it.” If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so by the offer of the emperor Basil II. to give him his sister Anna in marriage. In 988 he was baptized at Kherson in the Crimea, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his marriage with the Roman princess. Returning to Kiev in triumph, he converted his people to the new faith with no apparent difficulty. Crypto-Christians had been numerous in Kiev for some time before the public recognition of the Orthodox faith. The remainder of the reign of Vladimir was devoted to good works. He founded numerous churches, including the splendid Desyatinnuy Sobor or “Cathedral of the Tithes” (989), established schools, protected the poor and introduced ecclesiastical courts. With his neighbours he lived at peace, the incursions of the savage Petchenegs alone disturbing his tranquillity. His nephew Svyatpolk, son of his brother and victim Yaropolk, he married to the daughter of Boleslaus of Poland. He died at Berestova, near Kiev, while on his way to chastise the insolence of his son, Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod. The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics. The university of Kiev has rightly been named after the man who both civilized and Christianized ancient Russia. His memory was also kept alive by innumerable folk ballads and legends. With him the Varangian period of Russian history ceases and the Christian period begins.

 VLADIMIR, a government of middle Russia, bounded W. by the governments of Moscow and Tver, N. by Yaroslav and Kostroma, E. by Nizhniy-Novgorod, S. by Tambov and Ryazan, with an area of 18,815 sq. m. It belongs to the eastern part of the central plateau of middle Russia, which has an average elevation of 800 to 950 ft., and is grooved by river valleys to a depth of