Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/714

Rh 688 S E R V I A 1,500,000, anil for 1884-85 at about 1,840,000. The national debt at the end of 1884 was about 7,000,000. An additional debt of about 1,000,000 was contracted during the Servo- Bulgarian war of 1885-86. Army. The Servian army is divided into three classes. The first class, embracing men between 25 and 30 years of age, constitutes the standing army, which numbers 18,000 on a peace footing and about 100,000 on a war footing. The first two years are served with the colours and the remainder of the term in the reserve. The second class contains men between 30 and 37 who have served in the standing army. The third class, which is only called out in extra- ordinary emergencies, is composed of men between 37 and 50. The total military strength of Servia for cases of emergency is estimated to be about 210,000 men. The capital of Servia is Belgrade, at the junction of the Danube and the Save. It is the only town with mo.e than 15,000 inhabit- ants. Next in size is Nish, in the territory added by the treaty of Berlin, where the valley of the Nishava opens into that of the Bulgarian Morava. The other chief towns arc Kragushevatz in the centre of the Shumadia, the former capital of the country, Shabatz on the Save, Semendria on the Danube, Krushevatz, Alexinatz (the centre of the flax and hemp growing district), Ushitze, Posharevatz, Vranja, and Leskovatz. See Rev. W. Denton, Servia and the Serviatis, London, 1862 ; Kanit/, Serbien: hiftorische-etknographische Beisestudien, Leipsic, 1868; Baliue, La Prini-ijuuilc de SerbU, Paris, 1880. (O. G. C.) HISTORY. The original home of the Croats and Serbs, who are identical in race and language, was the country adjoining the Carpathian range. Their speech shows them to belong to the eastern division of the Slavonic family (see SLAVS). The generally accepted derivation of the name Chrobat, Croat, is from the original designation of the Carpathians, Chrbet, "a ridge, "an opinion supported by Schafarik and Professor Ljubid, author of a Croatian history. This view is rejected by Perwolf * and also by Penka, 2 but apparently on insuffi- rient grounds. The last-namea connects the word with the same root as that from which "Slav" is derived (slu-ti, klu, km) and makes it signify the "vassals," those who follow a chief. The derivation suggested by Schafarik for "Serb" is the root su, "to produce "; thus the name would come to mean the people, just as ilcutsch is from diot, "people." He considers it to have been the original appellation of all the Slavs. This must be accepted as the best explanation hitherto given, though not altogether satisfactory. We fina the name Z^3ot in Ptolemy and Sirbi in Pliny. Settle- The Serbs and Croats have no history till the year 638 A. D., at ment of which period they left their original settlements and migrated into Serbs in the ancient Illyricum and part of Mcesia. Whether any of this Balkan people had previously taken up their abode in the Balkan penin- pen- sula is by no means clear, and very different opinions have been insula. held on the subject. The most probable account is that small Slavonic colonies were settled here and there as early as the 2d and 3d centuries, consisting mainly of prisoners taken in war ; and we hear of two tribes, the Karpi and the Kostoboki, who are claimed by Schafarik with good reason as Slavs. Jirecek considers that for two hundred years before the Slavs are heard of in history south of the Danube they were scattered as colonists in Mcesia, Thrace, Dardania, and Macedonia. Professor Drinoff finds mention of Slav- onic colonies in Thrace in the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum and Itinerarium Antonini ; and, even if we do not give a complete adhesion to his views, there are many names of towns in Procopius (in the first half of the 6th century) which are undoubtedly Slavonic. The traces of the original inhabitants have disappeared, except in so far as the Albanians represent these peoples. It is generally believed that the word meropch or neropch, signifying a slave, found in the Zakonik of Dushan, refers to the Noropians, an old Thracian tribe. Our authority for the Servian migration in the middle of the 7th century is the emperor Constantino Porphyrogenitus. According to the story, five Croatian princes, the orothers Clucas, Lobelus, Cosentzis, Muchlo, and Chrobatus, and two sisters, Tuga and Buga (i.e., Calamity and Prosperity), came at this period from northern or Belo-Chrobatia, as it was called, the original home of the Croats in the Carpathian Mountains. The descendants of their people who remained in the territory are lost among the surrounding popula- tion. The services of these Croats were made use of by the emperor Heraclius, and they became a barrier against the Avars, whom they drove out of the country' in which they settled. The territory which they occupied was divided by them into eleven Supas or gauen. The people who inhabited the western portion kept the name of Croat, those in the eastern were called Serbs. We must now leave the Croats, as in this article we have only to do with the Serbs properly so called. The Croatian branch of the family, after being ruled by petty bans (a word said to be of Avar origin), was annexed to the kingdom of Hungary, and after the 16th century followed the fortunes of the house of Hapsburg. 1 Archiv fitr slnrische J'hiloloijit, vii. 591. 2 Origines Ariacx, p. 128, Vienna, 1883. For five centuries after their arrival in their new territories we Ear hear nothing of the Serbs save an occasional very brief mention in conl the Byzantine chroniclers. The native annalists do not begin earlier witl than the 12th century. As in Croatia so among the Serbs, the Grei smaller zupans 3 gradually became merged into two or three great ones. The head zupan of Servia, who resided in Desnica, called by Constantino Destmica, was at first the suzerain of all the otlu-r Servian zupans, with the exception of the Pagani, concerning whose Latin name the emperor Constantino makes tlie very strange remark Kal yap Hayavol Kara TTJV TUV 2*Xcfy3wi' yC)ffcra.v apdimffToi CP/J.TJ- vtvovrai. After the land was harried by the Bulgarians we find the freat Supan of Dioclea (Doclea) supreme ; he acquired the title of inr, and received his insignia from the pope. Finally, Nemanya, the descendant of a zupan family of Dioclea, founded a new dynasty in Kasa (mod. Novibazar), and united Servia and Bosnia into one strong empire. The names of the earlier princes, who are insignifi- cant and do not help us to follow the thread of Servian history, need not be mentioned. We find them sometimes tributary to the Greek emperors and sometimes independent. They appear, more- over, to have been engaged in constant wars with the Bulgarians. About 1015 Vladimir was reigning; but he was assassinated by the Bulgarian czar John, who got possession of Servia, but died two years afterwards on an expedition against the Greeks. To- gether with Bulgaria, Servia fell under the power of the emperor, and its affairs were managed by a Greek governor. Stephen Voyislalf made an insurrection in 1040, expelled the governor, Theophilus Eroticus, and defeated the Greeks in 1043. His son and successor, Michael (1050-80), at first lived in peace with the Byzantines, but afterwards entered into diplomatic relations with the West, took the title of king (rex), and received his insignia from the pope (1078). He conquered Durazzo (Drac) in 1079, and reigned thirty years. His son, Constantino Bodin, subjugated the zupans of Bosnia and Rasa. About 1122 Ourosh, surnamed Bela, zupan of Rasa, ascended the throne. From this time dates the power of Servia. His wife Anna was a German princess. Omitting three insignificant rulers, we come to the famous Stephen Nemanya (1159- 95), whose life has been written by his son Sava. He reigned thirty-six years, and was many times successful against the Greeks, but was not able to take Ragusa. He abandoned the government to his son Stephen in 1195 and became a monk under the name of Simeon, dying in 1200 in the monastery of Chilander on Mount Athos. Stephen was crowned by his youngest brother Sava, first archbishop of the country, with a crown which had been conse- crated by the pope ; hence his title Prvovyenchani, " the first- crowned," that is to say of the new dynasty, for the zupans of Dioclea were already kings. He died in 1224 and was followed by his sons Radoslaff and Vladislaff in succession. The latter made an offensive and defensive alliance with Ragusa. He employed Germans to work the Servian mines ; and we find them repeatedly mentioned in Servian documents under the name of Saxons-, especi- ally in the Zakonik of Stephen Dushan. No traces, however, can be found of them at the present day. VladislafFs court is said to have been very luxurious. He died childless about 1237 and was succeeded by his brother Stephen Urosh, whose territories were devastated in 1241 by the Mongols. He was afterwards driven from his throne by his son Dragutin and died in 1272. The latter, however, stung by conscience, abandoned the crown to his brother Milutin and contented himself with Syrmia, where he died in 1317. The reign of Milutin was chiefly occupied with struggles against the Greeks ; he was generally successful in his campaigns. But his domestic life was unhappy : he divorced three wives and caused his only son Stephen to be blinded from suspicion of his treachery. The operation, however, was imperfectly performed, and the youth recovered his sight. In 1314 Milutin fought on the side of the emperor Andronicus against the Turks, and in the same year forced the Ragusans to pay him tribute. After his brother Dragutin's death he seized his hereditary dominions, and recalling his son Stephen, whom he had banished to Constantinople, gave him Dioclea. In 1319 the Hungarians deprived him of Bosnia; two years later he died. His son Stephen was engaged in perpetual wars. In 1330 he defeated the Bulgarians at the brook Kamencha near Velbuzhd, when the Bulgarian czar Michael was slain. It was on this occasion that his son called Stephen Dushan first Step distinguished himself. In spite of the king's successes against the Dua Greeks, he was destined to close his reign in the most lamentable manner : he was imprisoned and strangled by order of his own son at Zvechan in 1336. It is from this crime that Dushan gained his surname (dushiti, "to suffocate"). Concerning this prince, we are told by the ancient chroniclers that he was gigantic in stature and terrible in appearance. He conducted thirteen campaigns against the Greeks. In 1337 he took Strumitza and subjugated all Mace- donia and Albania to Thessalonica, Kostur, and Janina, threatened Byzantium, and concluded a peace with the emperor Andronirus, 3 The following rules for the pronunciation of the Croatian letters will be found useful : c=ts; c=a sound between ts and ch, something like tie in the English word "daintier" ; c = ch as in "church" ; j = y as in "young" ; l=sh ', ?=zfc or j in the French "jour."